The Realm

THE PLACE that they visited was full of stuff. Guns, pistols, and rifles varied in their kind, magazine, and bullets. Target statues, swords, and the like. It was hell-ish. The sound of the metallic sharp objects echoed inside, and the yelp of those people can also be heard. It was a deadly challenge - at least for the recruit. Perhaps, it wouldn't be the military if their training would not involve any firing weapons.

            Training. It was two weeks since the recruit arrived and since that day, the General ordered them to conduct training, and when they say training, it is not about doing some exercise that will not make your body ache, it is the other way around. The training they undergo made those trainees yelp out loud - almost curse themselves as to why they are still living their lives like this. Punching hard things such as hollow blocks, carrying a sock full of sand, moving fast like a ninja, diving and staying for thirty minutes underwater, making traps and ammo, and the like. They do it almost thrice a day, they even stayed awake at night.

            Today, the weather was cold and breezy still. The General mentioned that they were going out to have the training; both Blanche and Aerith are in-charge of the said activity. They will conduct a firing session in the forest near the campus location. The said campus was located at the top center of the forest. And the place where they will conduct the said adrenaline and coordination training was located southwest of the establishment.

            “General must be insane!” one of the agents said. Who would not be? Just like those other days, the weather was cold enough to freeze someone. Besides, Blanche was sure that a snowstorm is coming and yet, the General commanded them to proceed with an intensive training outside their camp. And to make the scenario worst, the weather is quite unpredictable and seems to be quite treacherous.

            “Must be insane but hey, it’s kind ‘a cool!” Blanche blurted. “Snowstorm is coming and I’m hell ‘a sure that this will going to be exciting,” she added, making the trainees shiver. On the other hand, Blanche keeps her composure, despite worrying about their trainees, she remains professional. There's no way in hell that she'll show any compassion during these kinds of exercises.

            “There, there. Stop threatening these recruits, eh! You should be sociable at them,” Aerith murmured as she elbowed Blanche.

            “Threatening?" Blanche scoffed, "Are you guys threatened?" She then glances at the recruits, raising a brow as if she's belittling them. The recruits hastily shrugged as their response. Blanche chuckled and glimpsed back at Aerith.

           "Did they not know that these are just their training ground? This isn’t even a real mission! For Pete’s sake, they join this kind of organization then prove to me that they are deserving of this freaking position; that they deserve to be an agent, if not, then they’re free to leave this place.” Blanche said blankly as she packed her things up.

            “You’re going to torment us, aren’t you? You want us to die?!” angst was written all over this trainee named Autumn. Her fist is closed, ready to give the latter a hard punch. Blanche shrugged and looked at the recruit, giving her a scrutinizing look.

            “If I do want to torture you, I won’t let you go in that place. Instead, I will place you in the center of my shooting gallery and there, I will fire a bullet in your entire fucking face,” Blanche said, nonchalantly as she stepped forward on the said being. “Don’t act as if you stayed here for too long, kiddo. You’ve just been here for two weeks, you knew nothing. Almost nothing.” The captain responded while gritting her teeth out of annoyance.

            “Captain Blue, that’s enough,” Aerith said, holding Blanche's left arm as the tension seems to be firing up between the two beings.

            “If you want to survive in this place, then do your best. Once you got killed by the enemy outside, there’s no such thing that we can revive you,” said Blanche before leaving them.

            “Didn’t know that you were full of yourself,” a familiar voice said behind her. Blanche did not pay any attention to the latter. “It’s been five years since the last time we saw each other and I didn’t expect to see you here. Goodness gracious, it's just amazing to see that you are still here, alive and kicking!”

            “You did not astonish me when you entered the Conference Room that day, Aracelli. What stunned me was the fact that you passed the military training knowing how uncompromising you are five years ago. That terrifies me, how much did you pay? Millions? Billions? What?” mockingly, Blanche leans on Aracelli's side while asking those queries she has.

            “I did not pay them, it’s called hard work.” Aracelli reprimanded, trying to be cool.

            “That didn’t work for me. I know what kind of person you are, Aracelli. Money works about almost anything for you. So it'll be no stupefaction to know that you'd paid them for your own interest. At least, not for me.” The captain chuckle and shrug as she stood up straight, crossing her arms on her chest and smirking like a lunatic.

            “Argh, Fine! I paid them almost a hundred billion dollars just to let me in, to let me pass. Does that make you happy?” Aracelli gave up while the latter shrugged and took her step away from their location.

TIME flies too fast and before they knew it, it was time to leave their headquarters and walk along towards their destination. Dark, cold, and full of trees are the only sceneries that you can see. The surrounding was full of snow, making it cover the passage that they will walkthrough.

            Walking along the wintry path wasn’t easy, the blustering wind that was striking their face hard, and yet, the location was nevertheless too far. Each of them are having a travel backpack on their back. They were all wrapped in a thick coat, thick gloves face mask and a bonnet. Flags were positioned in every place they stepped; used as a sign.

            “Blue, I think we must rest for a while. Walking all along with this kind of weather is too dangerous, and besides, it's getting darker than a while ago,” Aerith suggested. Blanche stopped as she looked at the others, they were panting hard. Blanche chortled as she put her backpack down on the snow-covered pathway

            “Who brought a shovel?” she asked while raising her hand. No one answered. She harshly breathe and started digging up. “What now?! Keep on rubbernecking, maybe you can survive the cold by just doing such a thing, you idiots!” she bluntly said, still drilling up the snow. After commanding, the other started to dig up, assisting their captain.

            “In able to outlast in this kind of blitz, when you were in the mission, dig up the snow and form an igloo. Stay inside it until the snowstorm has stopped.” She later explains.

            After doing those things, they were all placed inside it, shivering. Blanche on the other hand did not even care how cold it was outside the place. The snowstorm was still there. Holding two sticks, Aerith rubs them, trying to make a fire.

            “Isn’t it dangerous in here? I mean, what if, just what if wolves came and inundate us?” one of the recruits asked. Blanche stares at her and sighs, “To make the scenario worst, I’ll let you hunt those creatures and bring them here, what can you say? It’s fun.” A tone of sarcasm can be traced in her voice - it's as if she's rolling her eyes heavenward while stating those words.

            Aerith just shrugged and continue what she was doing, “Nah, there’s no such thing in here. Besides, if ever wolves came to attack us, remember what we taught you, you brought your guns and knives so you can kill ‘em.”

            “Unless you’re all coward and can’t even kill the said creature,” Blanche added, satirizing the recruits.

            Aerith threw her a death glare but the other just smirk, “What?” Blanche asked innocently as she shrugged.

            “Stop making fun of them, Blanche. They were just novices, just like a bird, they were just starting to flip their wings and learn how to fly.”

            Rolling her eyes heavenwards, Blanche laughs. “But they don’t have wings. They were all flightless birds.”

            Silence. The silence exists after Blanche said those words. Suffice to say but she’s right. They were all flightless birds.

            “You mean, we are all flightless birds, no exemption.”

           The group remained muted after that not-so heated conversation. They all look exhausted, some of them lean their back on the icy floor, trying to get a breather. Some of them lean on each other's shoulders. While witnessing those scenes, Blanche just heave a deep sigh and positioned her both hands which are clad with thick gloves in front of the fire which Aerith built.

           Their zone was now wrapped in complete silence, no one dare to even utter a single word. Perhaps, they are really fatigued and frigid due to the snowstorm that's currently going on outside their shelter. Blanche glances at her military watch, it's already zero-three hundred, which she means it is now 3 in the morning and yet, howling wind can still be heard - a sign that the snowstorm is still present and seems like it would not stop any time from now. The captain embraced her both legs and suppressed her face in the middle as if giving up on the moment as there is nothing she can do about this kind of weather.

           "At this point, do you think they can still survive staying inside that igloo?" a shadow not-so-far from Blanche's location asked the other companion while having a peek at the binoculars they are holding.

           The other companion chuckles, "You still have the guts to worry about them, and yet, here we are outside this freaking snowstorm trying to eavesdrop on the enemy."

           The latter shrug and look behind them, "Unlike them, we have this improvised headquarter, which I find useful, no one will think that we are not their comrades though."

           They walked back to their so-called headquarter, and as they entered, other officers were tied up. One of them tried to mumble something but one of their companions hit the officer on the nape, causing the tied officer to lose consciousness.

           "Really? Right in this time you hastily commanded us to spy over these enemies? Aren't you out of your mind? In the middle of a snowstorm?" A being holding a rifle hissed at their leader. The being's emotion shows incredulity while the leader is staying still - no plans to respond to what the team member had stated.

           "Now, now, can we just chill out? This isn't the right time to argue," one of them said, trying to calm both of the superiors. They know that their lives are at stake as well as those enemies outside, right in this kind of weather. "We're still lucky to penetrate this headquarters and spy on them safely, however, aren't you guys worried about those beings? They're our previous comrades and yet there they are ---"

           "Shut it off! They aren't my previous comrades!" The being holding the rifle angst and took a step outside their headquarters. Positioning the rifle on the location of Blanche's place, the being is ready to take aim with precision.

           Alerted to the comrade's action, the leader hastily pull out a pistol and pull the trigger three times, the other being was too surprised to speak as the leader's face darkened. "Now's not the time to attack and kill them, release that rifle, or else the next bullet that this pistol will be firing will hit your fucking head." The leader said while looking intently at the comrade who wanted to kill the other team.

           Speechless to say anything, the other just took a glance at the snowy floor which now has three holes in it.

           On the other hand, Blanche nervously looked at her companions. Silently counting them, checking if they're all complete. A gunshot? In the middle of this time? She thought. She's not quite sure if what she heard is indeed a gunshot but she still became alerted. 

           Checking her pocket gun on her pants, she slowly moves near the entrance of their shelter. She crawled toward the entrance and let herself out of the shelter. She stood up upon exiting their quarters and shake-off the snow that has gotten on her clothes. She looked around, the snowstorm has weaken now. Checking her wristwatch, it is now zero four-thirty. She sigh and was about to enter back on the igloo, she captured some shadow on her peripherals. She took a glance and squinted her eyes to focus on the location where she thought she saw this shadow. "A headquarter?" She mumble and took a step forward, about to walk towards that location.

           "Where are you going, Blanche?" Blanche fidgeted upon hearing Aerith's voice. She look back and there stood Aerith rubbing her eyes.

           "A-ah, I'm just finding some spot on where I can take my pee off," She responded rubbing her forehead. Aerith's brow raised and chuckled. "Well then, if that's the case, I'll be going back inside, take your pee off fast, it's dangerous."

           "Yeah... right," she faked a laugh and snap her attention back on the figure that she saw. She squinted and step back, "W-wife?"