2: Despair [2]

Hydra.

It was a name he had heard before, he knew it as a dragon with eight heads from the good night story his father used to tell to make him fall asleep.

So It was weird for Vlad to hear it from the German man, which caused a lot of questions to pop up in his childish mind and unconsciously without realizing he voiced out one.

"Hydra? Like the dragon?"

The whole place went quiet for a moment as every eye on the premises landed on him. He blinked in confusion, wondering why they are silent before gulping in fear as he realized that he had said his inner thoughts out loud.

'Idiot!' He cursed him in his mind for that, it was a bad habit of his and back at the slums, he had earned quite the beating for it, that's when he decided to always be silent and observing rather than trying to stick out.

The man that pulled him until now stepped forward and stood before Vlad, he raised his fist high in the air and brought it down to the kid.

Vlad shrieked in disarray, he pulled his arms up in the air in an attempt to block the incoming blow, he shut his eyes tight and yelped waiting for the slap but it never came.

A moment later he slowly opened his eyes to the sight of the short man holding his assailant's arm inches away from his face.

"No need to discipline this child." The short man wearing glasses said, his assailant slowly withdrew his arm and nodded before stepping back to his former position.

"You know about Hydra?" The short man asked as he ruffled Vlad's hair softly.

Vlad's eyes darted towards his assailant for a moment which didn't go unnoticed by the short guy, he gulped in fear once again but the short man patted his head and reassured.

"You can speak child"

"M-My father used to tell me stories about the dragon with eight heads." Vlad replied hesitantly, the man stopped ruffling his hair and chuckled.

"Hydra is not a dragon, children." He moved back and said to the group of the kids behind him.

"Hydra is your new home!" He announced with his arms wide and his head tilted towards the sky. "The place you are going to live from now on, we will feed you, we will give you new clothes, we will nurture you to your best self, we will give you power and strength to take revenge on the people that you hate the most, you all will be turned into the perfect beings of existence, the most superior men to live."

He went silent as his eyes wandered through the group of kids to see their reactions, some of them were looking at him with hope while some older ones were giving him skeptical looks and Vlad was one of them.

"But not all of you would be eligible for that." He started. "In a farming field there would always be weeds next to the crops, trying to take away the potential of the goods staples, how do we separate them?"

"You cut them down." Jona answered which made the man raise his brows.

"Precisely." He sneered. "We don't have any use for the weeds because we only need the best of the best, so prove your worth if you want to stay."

"Now, we have a feast prepared for only you, enjoy it." The man clapped his hands and the children were dragged into the building one after another.

The man in black suit tugged the youths deep into the facility until they reached a fairly large area with tables and chairs in the middle and on the right corner of the place was a long table filled with steaming foods.

All the children's mouths watered at the scent of the delicious meal in front of them and Vlad was no exception, one by one their hand cuffs were removed and they were given plates.

Vlad was the first one to get to the food followed by Jona, he stuffed his plates with as much as food he could fill and ran back to a table to take a seat and Jona did the same.

They devoured the meal without hesitation and remorse, gobbling every piece of food they had, they didn't converse about the place or their kidnappers for a single moment as their concentration was on their respective plates.

Vlad leaned back on the chair and burped while patting his stomach, it had been a long time since he had eaten to his gut full, some of the dishes were not to his taste but he didn't care, his hunger had made his taste buds dull.

He watched his friend finish his plate and lean against the armrest of his chair, he chuckled while pointing at the big bump in Jona's stomach causing Jona to pout.

They silently gazed around the area, it was filled with the noise of chewing, biting and kids yelling, it was not exactly a peaceful atmosphere but it was better than the abandoned home they stayed in for the past month.

They tried to leave the area but couldn't, they were obliged to wait until every kid had completed their meal, so they patiently waited.

—----

A door opened on the secluded part of the structure leading to a room filled with small monitors.

There were people inside working on a big block of computers and among them a tall man stood in the middle, his eyes locked with the monitor projecting a group of children moving towards their specific quarters.

"Major Schmidt." The short man stepped in and greeted the head of Hydra with a German salute.

"Zola." The tall man nodded back, Zola traced Schmidt's gaze to the monitor and moved forward with the smile.

"Ah the fifth specimen." Zola said.

"How many we have in this batch?" Johann asked without looking at the scientist.

"128."

"When is their first test?" Schmidt questioned, the short man grinned as he answered.

"Now."

—----

Vlad was led to a room in the right wing, he stood at the entrance gazing at his new chamber, it had a small bed and nothing more,

"Move." He sidestepped unconsciously because of the voice he heard from behind.

A small girl with long black hair walked into the room, she was shorter than him by an inch and leaner than any kid he had ever seen.

"Why is there only one bed?" She asked pointing at the cot.

"I don't know." Vlad shrugged.

"You sleep on the floor." The girl said as she walked towards the bed but Vlad moved faster and stopped in front of her.

"Why should I?"

"Because you are a boy!" She screamed trying to push him out of the way but Vlad didn't move.

"So what if I'm a boy, I still feel cold." He yelled back.

"Move!" She shouted, Vlad was about to reply but before he could, a voice boomed into the room.

["Ah.. is this thing working"]

Vlad and the girl looked around in shock, trying to locate the source of the sound and noticed a small black box on top of the room.

["Hello children, my name is Armin Zola."]

Vlad's eyes bulged out as he remembered the voice.

["Hydra is about superiority, we need talents not trash, humans have innate talents that show up during extreme pressure, that is how we have evolved from single cell to what we are now and one of the best traits of humans is Survival"]

Vlad yelped in surprise as a metal door closed the entrance of their room, he stepped back and looked down to see the girl crying in fear.

["This is your first test of many to prove your worth, the duration this test is thirty minutes, your objective is-."]

Vlad tried to open the door but it was strongly enclosed.

["To kill your roommate."]

Vlad stopped his attempts as he heard the words, his mind slowly assessed its meaning making him stumble back.

["There are two simple rules, 1. Use any means necessary to kill your opponent, 2. If the objective is not achieved by the end of the given duration both the test subjects will be failed and subdued."]

Vlad held his head and sat on the bed.

["Good luck"]