The Wilted Rose

My heart dropped into my stomach. Why is my willpower being tested to this extent, I ran across the hall and tried to hide behind a corner, I managed to find a protrusion on the walls which fulfilled such a purpose, with my back against the wall I peeped through the edge only to see her serious, determined and the same feminine features she always had, there was another guy next to her. I couldn't make out what they were saying.

"They say this is years selection is the toughest!" the guy said.

"HaHa, nothing you can't get through," she responds.

"I could say the same about you."

They seem to be close. At one point in my life, I would set fire to anything that got between me and her, but why does my heart feel empty. It's pathetic that the only thing I feel now is the fear of her seeing my inadequacy. I hear a crackling noise from the speakers on the ceiling.

[ALL APPLICANTS, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE MAIN DOOR IN FRONT OF YOU!] says the voice from the speakers.

"Let's man up!" I think to myself, I puff my chest, broaden my shoulders, and walk with confident strides towards the main door. My pace being faster than hers, and her friends, I managed to reach them, I meet her eyes, I expected her to at least look at me with disgust, but she walks away as if we never knew each other.

"OI! Rave!" Her friend was calling me.

She walks away, not wanting to be included in our conversation, and proceeds to get screened by the guards near the main doors.

"It's me, Kaal," He said condescendingly, or at least I thought it was condescending.

"It's weird seeing you here. You always said that you would never be a dog of the empire, but you ended up applying anyway. " He chuckled, I hated that he was taller than me, I hated looking up. I am not so stupid that I would hit him for no reason, but I clenched my fist anyway.

"I am not in this for the empire, I am going climb the ranks and put the actual dogs in their place." I said while deepening my tone.

"Haha, the same as usual, so anyways, did you prepare for the exam, Ravana, or are you gonna use your connections this time too, if you are, mention my name too, although I might not need it." He said while he walked away, waving his hand.

I was not even angry, I couldn't care less about theses insects, He is of commoner race, but it is commendable he got this far with skills alone, he is tall, his hair is military styled but still looked good on him, he was not the most handsome but he made up for it in other areas.

***PLAY SONG: Creep-Instrumental by Judson Hurd and Lance Allen***

I walked towards the main door. I want to get this over with. This time, I might not be able to get in with my father's help alone, I have to show a little bit of on field skills. My father can take care of the written part.

As I walked through the door I saw her again, she was so bright, so special, treasured by everyone, adored by everyone, she was surrounded by men and women alike, she was more powerful than me but she never had to use her connections. She got this far using only the head on her shoulders. The only gift she was given by her parents was her perfect body...

"What am I doing?" I think to myself, I haven't fallen so low that I have started to envy a woman.

I look at her with my shameless eyes, eyes which have achieved nothing, eyes which looked up but never had the chance to look down, I wonder how her eyes must be...

Oh! how they must be? Why not me?

***END SONG: 1min 30sec***

[ATTENTION APPLICANTS, WE WELCOME YOU TO 200TH ANNUAL LOCAL CADET RECRUITMENT, I AM THE REGIONAL LIEUTENANT OF ASMAKA DISTRICT, I WILL BE OVERSEEING ALL EXAMINATIONS HENCEFORTH, SO BE PREPARED, YOU WILL BE HAVING THREE TESTS WHICH SPAN ACROSS THREE DAYS, YOU WILL HAVE A WRITTEN TEST, THEN A PRACTICAL EXAM AND FINALY YOU WILL TESTED FOR GENETIC COMPATABILITY, GOOD LUCK, HAIL THE EMPIRE]

"YOU HEARD THE ANNOUNCEMENT! GET IN LINE!" Shouted one of the invigilators.

we immediately were handed out wrist watches, I wore them immediately. A number appeared on the watches, obviously it was to signify the position of us in the line. "I am number 3123," I think to myself. 

"EVERYONE GET IN LINE ACCORDING TO THE NUMBERS, THOSE NUMBERS AREN'T JUST YOUR POSITION BUT ALSO YOUR GENERAL RANK, AFTER EACH EXAM YOU WILL RECEIVE A RISE IN THE NUMBER OR A FALL DEPENDING ON HOW WELL YOU DO!!" Exclaimed one of the invigilators.

"Everyone sit down" said one of the invigilators. 

We all sat on the floor and immediately the watches pricked our skin and we fell into a trance. I open my eyes into a completely white void, I always thought that they would at least give us a comfortable place to sit respectably. Anyways, this is how our exams are conducted, the watch collects nerve impulses as answers and sends nerve impulses as questions. In essemce it prevents all sorts of copying... You are alone and you have to get through this alone. I see black text hovering in front of me.

[QUESTION 1: A medium having dielectric constant K >1 fills the space between the plates of a parallel plate

capacitor. The plates have large area, and the distance between them is d. The capacitor is

connected to a battery of voltage V, as shown in Figure (a). Now, both the plates are moved by a

distance of �

� from their original positions, as shown in Figure (b) By what factor is capacitance decreased?]

"It should be 1/K+1" This is easy so far. One by one I was giving answers to every question, with the confidence that even if I do bad on the test, my father can do something about it.

[TIME UP TIME UP TIME UP TIME UP TIME UP]

I woke up, I think I woke up early enough... As always she wakes up the fastest, but it looks like Kaal also finished early.

Suddenly another announcement, [GRAHASANHARAKAH RAVANA 36/50], Sh*t, "Why are they announcing the score?!" I exclaim.

 [SOME OF YOU MAYBE STUNNED AS TO WHY SCORES ARE BEING ANNOUNCED, ITS OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE WE ARE TAKING MEASURES TO PREVENT "EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE", UNDER MY WATCH, AS THE LIEUTENANT, THIS YEARS APPLICATION PROCESS WILL BE 100 PERCENT FAIR]

This idiot! He messed with my chances, with this, even if I qualify in becoming a cadet, I will end up being a low ranking field officer, I would have to start doing groundwork rather than sitting on a chair in the control room. I am dead. Even my father can't do anything about this now.

By the end of my thoughts everyone had already woken up, the numbers on our watch changed, I was promoted to number 2012. Even this is not good enough, how many people are there? 

[PROCEED TO YOUR DORMS, THERE WILL BE NO GENDER ASSIGNED QUARTERS SO AS TO SIMULATE ON FIELD SITUATIONS, ANYONE WITH PROBLEMS MAY QUIT THE APPLICATION PROCESS]

The applicants were in shock, the males, as usual had no problem with this, but the remaining applicants were obviously not happy, some even left the examination hall on the spot, as suggested by the lieutenant. 

*Thump**Thump**Thump**Thump**Thump**Thump**Thump*

My hearts beating, what if I end up in the same dorm as her? That is the las thing I want...

No! I don't care where she ends up! "Applicants 2012, 1024, 512, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 2 please follow me, I will take you to your dorms," said an invigilator without any expression in her face. I follow the invigilator, but a thought lingered in the back of my mind... what's her number? 

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to introduce my self, I am Grutbill, I will be your dorm overseer for the next two days, although there is no gender separation, any form of assault will not be tolerated and a verdict on your punishment will be given immediately, anywho, here is your dorm, Enjoy!" The invigilator said without a hint of emotion.

I look Inside the dorm and it was EMPTY?! *SCREECH*[THESE ARE YOUR ALLOTED DORMS, THEY ARE DESIGNED IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU WILL SEE HELL FOR THE NEXT TWO NIGHTS, THERE IS NO BED YOU WILL HAVE TO LIE ON THE FLOOR, ALL AUGMENTED INDIVIDUALS WILL HAVE THEIR AUGMENTATIONS DISABLED BY THE WATCH, HENCE DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE REMOVE THE WATCHES!! GOOD LUCK APPLICANTS] 

Not much of a problem, I have seen worse, but who are my room mates? Is she here?... STOP THINKING ABOUT HER. Just then I see her walk into a room at the far end of the corridor, she was making acquaintances with her room mates already. Smart, I should do that too.

I step in side and I sit on the floor.

I waited for everyone to take a seat.

"I am Ravana of the Bharatha clan, what about you guys?"

All of them look at me in disgust, just then I realised, my number is 2012, I rank the lowest in this room, in other words I am at the bottom of the hierarchy. Crap, that was such a rookie mistake.

"I am Heka, from the Ra clan, although it is more of a community than a clan." She broke the silence and then smiled at me, I was royally saved.

I smiled back at her, with a sigh of relief, I push my self towards the wall so that I could rest my back. 

"Denarius, I am a spartan." One guy said with his head held low, his hair long, so much so that it did a good job of covering both his face and arms. He suddenly flicked his head up so that his hair fell back, he then grabbed and pulled it back behind his ears, "Don't get cocky jus' cos' I am not the first number, all of you will be workin' for me whether you like it or not." He said with his stylised voice, what he said would usually sound childish, but maybe because of his sharp looks and large physique it seemed plausible?

"Izumaki, I am from the fujiwara clan." Says a guy sitting in the corner of the room. Fujiwara huh. looks like this years competition is high.

"Garuda, I am a commoner." Says another guy with a deep voice, he gets up and walks to the middle of the room and sits down, almost as if to show himself off to everyone. To be fair it worked, all of us looked at him as if he was rare specimen, he definitely was special.

"I am Zorya, I am a commoner too." Says a girl with a timid voice, it was probably Garuda that gave her the confidence to speak up. "My number is higher than Garuda's though, it is 20." She said in the same timid voice.

It was unexpected, some people in the room chuckled, Garuda gave her a menacing glare which she tried to avert, some were indifferent, I was just trying to figure out the ranking in the room.

"I am Nairobi from the San Tribe, it is nice to meet everyone here, I hope we get through this together." Said a dark skinned and pretty girl sitting exactly across me. She seemed jovial, definitely not suited for this place, she is ranked exactly above me.

"I am Ka 'Er, you guys don't need to know my clan, until you prove to me how much you are worth in rea life." said a girl next to Nairobi while eying her, was she jealous? Any way she is too arrogant so she ranks right above Nairobi.

Only one person was left in the room, she had her head down, with her forehead resting on her arms and her arms in turn resting on her knees. we had a good minute of silence, expecting her to break it.

"Oi, All of us introduced ourselves, get up and introduce yourself too you stuck up brat." Said Denarius. That was unnecessary I thought, just then the girl gets up and she does the unthinkable.

She kicks Denarius' head into the wall, then starts to repeatedly kick him in the stomach while he was knocked out. All of us were stunned by what just happened, I tried to say stop, but what was it that stopped me? My cowardice, No... I am not a coward.

She looks around, "I am Droid-76777, I am here to assist your team, and more importantly to balance the difficulty in this test center, I hope we get along." She suddenly looks at me, "Feel free to ask me any questions." She said in such a sweet voice, these robots are supposed to mimic human speech very well, but something about her speech was just not quite there.

All of us could not speak up, we knew what it meant when a droid starts kicking humans in the head, they are combat droids, they are absolutely ruthless. She keeps starting at me, "I SAID FEEL FREE TO ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS." She screeches at me, I was in terror, I opened my mouth but nothing came out, "Uh-a-a, are you the only droid in the facility." I said trying to act as brave as possible.

She walks towards me, I got ready to give her a good smack incase she came close. She stopped at about 3 feet away from me. "No, there is a droid assigned to every team so as to balance the difficulty, you guys are lucky, you got a high-ranking droid, but I was too high ranking hence, I had to give this team a handicap, unfortunately our little Denarius was the scapegoat because of his big mouth." She said in the sweetest voice I have ever heard, it was too sweat that it became a little eerie.

[HOPEFULLY YOU HAVE BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR DROIDS CADETS, DON'T WORRY THEY WILL NEVER MORTALLY WOUND YOU, THEIR FIRST PRIORITY IS KEEPING YOU GUYS SAFE, ANYWAYS THE NEXT TEST WILL BEGIN, AND THAT IS...SLEEEEPPPPPP]

Said an announcement, what did they mean by that?

Oh wait, Oh no! It means that we have to survive the night with the droid.

F***, can this day get any better, this is nothing like last years recruitment.

"Ravana Right?" Says Nairobi as she scoots over to my side. Her bright smile bought me to my senses, it brought all of us to our senses, "I guess we need to make a plan to survive the night, I know what to do, lets-

Nairobi was in my field of vision for only a second as soon as I blinked she disappeared. I was just processing what happened, I look towards my left, she was lying on the floor with her head bleeding.

I looked at the droid, its leg was covered with blood, it kicked Nairobi in the head. She looks me dead in the eye.

"YoU ArE SupPosSeD To SLLEeePPPePP." The droid said while screeching again, it sent shivers through my spine, everyone was struck with terror.

We needed to get through this. Is there any hope though.

This is dangerous. 

The Test has just begun....