Armoury

Or at least that's what he thought would happen. Rafael barely felt like he had slept when the sound of sirens and alerts started blaring throughout the base. Distant explosions and tremors made balance much more difficult, threatening to throw him out of his bunk. A cacophony of desperate cries and inquiries took over the dormitory as Rafael jumped straight to the ground.

"Pierre, put on your uniform, we have to get out of here as fast as possible!" he said firmly but quickly. Pierre just made a sound of agreement and began to get ready. The firm voice caught the attention of those nearby and they quickly did as they were told, not wanting to be left behind. After what seemed like an eternity, but had taken less than a minute, all the other seven had finished changing.

"EVERYBODY OUT!" he shouted as loudly as he could for those further away to hear, and led the way to the exit. What greeted him and the rest of the platoon was a scene straight out of a war movie, or rather, it was a war. Hangars on fire, tracers against the night sky and screams, screams of despair. 'Something is wrong.'

"What are you all standing there for? Go to the armory NOW, GO, GO, GO!!" some of the sergeants from this morning and one of the lieutenants that Rafael recognized as his platoon leader were coming in his direction, one of them pointing in a direction that Rafael assumed was the armoury. When he started running, a small whistle that he initially thought was his mind playing tricks on him began to increase, and then he barely recognized the sound of an explosion when the shockwave hit him and knocked him down. He quickly checked himself and saw that he was okay, Pierre was also on the ground next to him. Looking back, a ball of fire and pieces of structure still falling, what was his lodging seemed to have disappeared along with almost a third of his platoon that was still inside or very close to it. Pieces of burnt flesh were scattered everywhere, he looked at something that looked like a partially charred thigh that was near him and almost vomited, holding on by a thread. His colleagues who were still alive couldn't handle it and started vomiting. He saw one of the sergeants being shot and the others lying on the ground. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. 'Damn it, think, think.'

"Keep running, don't stop! No matter what!" the lieutenant shouted.

With that, he was the first to move. The screams of pain seemed endless, but he couldn't afford to stop and look, Rafael knew that if he looked, his determination would break. When he got to the armoury, he opened the door and saw the rifles and heavier guns ordered and the place empty except for him and some of those who followed him. finally something clicked in his mind and the pieces fell into place.

'It's empty, with all this going on and the armoury is empty?'

"Rafael, what are you doing?" Pierre asked as he pulled him inside and the others followed.

"There's no smell either," Rafael muttered to himself, but Pierre heard him.

"Huh?"

"There's no smell, Pierre. You, me, and everyone else are covered in blood and body parts, and there's no smell," he continued as the others began to connect the dots. "Besides, there's no one guarding the MatBel, and the sergeants wouldn't send us to get weapons we haven't even trained with yet." A look of understanding settled on some of their faces.

"So wha-"

Before he could finish speaking, darkness hit them all at once and when they realized it, they were lying in their beds in the dormitory. Most of their colleagues were getting up screaming, desperate, touching their entire bodies looking for injuries. A few got up with a look of confusion, and those who had arrived at the armoury with Rafael looked at him with a smile on their faces. At that moment the lights came on and the sergeants and lieutenant, including the "shot" sergeant, entered the dormitory.

"Congratulations, you are the worst class that has ever passed through here," the 2nd Lieutenant began, his name engraved on his badge as Moura. "Only 9 of you would have survived if this were a real attack and not a simulation made by the dormitory structure. 15 didn't even leave the dormitory, they are automatically expelled." A chorus of dissenting voices began, but it was almost immediately cut off by the lieutenant.

"It's better that you go outside yourselves, because if I have to force you, you will be arrested immediately." When the last of them left, Lieutenant Moura spoke again. "And with that, my platoon is now minus one GC and a half. You better prepare yourselves for the rest of the night, because from tomorrow on it will be much worse."

He turned to leave with the sergeants, but then turned back.

"Oh... Andrada, Dantas, Davies, Kobayashi, Martins, Menye, Vasiliev, Schmitz and Souza, you did the minimum, but you did more than most, now you'll have to keep doing it." With that they turned and left, the lights automatically turning off, leaving the recruits inside perplexed at how everything had happened so quickly.

.....

"This is the first class where more than one or the other made it to the MatBel, but unfortunately we had to stop halfway through the simulation. We have to pay close attention to them," 2nd Sergeant Henrique, the platoon sergeant, said as they walked back. The other four sergeants agreed.

"Also, Andrada was pushing them constantly." "You forgot the most important thing, that Andrada. He was able to reason that it was a simulation even in that chaotic situation. Let's see how he does for the rest of the course," the lieutenant concluded.