Chapter - 14 Day One

The discussion with Kane went better than expected. Jack followed behind Nathan toward his new lodging. He'd reluctantly agreed to show Jack around so he could learn where everything was. Kane was suspiciously good at convincing people to do things. He wondered what he did before everyone's lives were turned to shit.

"That's the dining hall, over there is combat training, over there is the well. It should be done within a few days."

Jack watched as three men dug abnormally quickly without a single pause using shovels made of wood. A large pile of dirt laid right outside the hole. Wow, these guys definitely invested in gene packs. There's no way a normal person could work like that…

"Stop gawking and follow me. I have one more place to show you before I can get you out of my hair."

Jack followed along, ready to see where he'd be staying in the foreseeable future.

He was disappointed. It as a medium sized tent that was already occupied by luggage that he assumed belonged to at least a few villagers. Looks like I have roommates! Oh boy! … God, I hated college…

"So, I uh… have to share?"

"Clearly, dumbass. If you hadn't lost your kit, you wouldn't have this problem. Now that I've shown you everywhere NECESSARY, I'll be going. Don't get into trouble, I don't wanna see you more than I have to."

Following his words, Nathan turned to walk out of the tent, leaving Jack confused and clueless.

Turning back Nathan looked Jack in the eyes as a feral grin grew on his lips. "Oh yeah, get up early tomorrow. The training is mandatory. I think this might be the only situation where I won't mind seeing you again."

Jack rolled his eyes. Yet another think I hate. Gym class…

Suddenly tired, Jack decided to get some sleep, he'd had a long day. First a monster cave and now dealing with people. He didn't know which one was more exhausting. Walking over to a cleared spot in the tent, he laid down with the blanket Nathan had given him to sleep. Within seconds he was out.

A sharp pain in his ribs woke Jack from his sleep. *Guh* Jolting up, he looked around to see a group of three men all staring at him with grins. "Man, you slept like a rock. It took us five whole minutes to wake you up. And before you ask, yes, we did try the polite way first."

Jack didn't know what to say. Hadn't he just fallen asleep a few minutes ago? Blinking the sleep from his eyes he asked the most important question of these men's lives. "Is it morning already?"

Laughter roared in the tent from all three men. The guy to the left of the first speaker confirmed his fears. "Yeah, its morning. Man, you slept 11 hours! You must've had a hell of a day." Pausing, the speaker's expression turned pensive. "We heard… You survived out there by yourself this whole time. What was it like? Actually, how did you survive at all?"

Jack was tired of being asked the same questions over and over again. "I was just lucky alright? I got lucky and killed a monster by some fluke. I ate it and got a bit stronger. That's it. I was lucky."

Seeing the annoyed expression on Jack's face, the three men decided to back off, assuming it was an uncomfortable subject for him.

The first speaker and the man that had kicked him stuck out his hand for Jack to grab. "I'm John, the curious one is Drew and the quiet one is Mason." Mason and Drew waved in greeting. Jack gripped the hand and was pulled to his feet by the man.

John continued. "We don't have much time. Get up and let's go, we have combat training this morning."

Jack was starting to regret his decision of joining the village. He didn't join so he could wake up to gym class every morning. He was NOT a morning person.

Groaning in annoyance, Jack followed the three.

"Aren't we going to eat breakfast first?"

Drew grimaced.

"No, we learned that lesson two days ago when we first started training. Well, at least I did. The other two are a bit better at fighting than I am." He said with a nervous smile.

Jack blinked. "Did you guys just join two days ago or did training just start two days ago?"

"Training didn't start till two days ago. Kane ended up talking to some ex-military dudes who thought it was a good idea to get everyone into shape." John explained.

Jack contemplated for a moment. "Why does everyone know him? Kane, I mean."

"He managed to get everyone together in this chaos. He took the lead, and nobody complained. He introduced himself during his short speech too. Honestly the dude has more charisma than a superstar. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be surprised if most of us had died on the first day."

"Huh… interesting."

Sighing John delivered the bad news. "We're here."

The training ground was just an open clearing. Nothing but a small tent where one could see weapons laid on tables in the interior.

There was a crowd already there standing around two men. Jack recognized one as Nathan, and the other he couldn't recognize at all. He was a short burly man, exactly how one would imagine a dwarf to look minus the beard.

Jack and his three roommates stood there with the crowd waiting for the last of the stragglers to arrive. Soon after, the burly man spoke.

"Some of you have already had a day or two with us here but I'll reiterate for the newbies, our goal is to give each and every one of you some modicum of combat experience and skill. We will judge based on the training standards we had while in our respective branches of the military. Them being the marines and the army. Now before we start, I must ask. Have any of you had any previous combat experience?"

The gathered crowd let out a few indistinct murmurs before the first one raised their hand. The hand belonged to a short haired light skinned woman. Jack would rate her as a solid 6. Not exactly bad looking, but she was too… masculine.

The burly man addressed her "Come up here with us." The woman was unhesitant as she walked out of the group toward the front of the tent of weapons, right next to the two military men. "Is there really nobody else?"

Two men slowly made their way toward the military men and just as the burly man was about to start the lesson, he noticed something that nearly made him laugh. Someone had raised their hand with a question. What was he doing? This isn't a middle school classroom.

"What? Bathroom break?" the man asked as he let out a light chuckle.

"No, I was wondering what you meant by combat experience. Do you mean martial arts or does fighting monsters count too?"

The hand belonged to Jack. He really was curious. He'd killed his fair share of demon bats. He thought maybe that could be considered combat experience.

"Oh? You fought monsters, did you? Well, why don't you share with the class."

The burly man clearly didn't have great expectations for the man who claimed to have already fought the natives of this hell-like world.

"It's nothing much. I just killed some huge bats. They were really annoying but not too difficult to deal with."

Jack honestly thought this was the truth, but in his situation, gene pack or not, not a single person here could have fought off the bats in the same way. After all, without their eyes most people become useless in a fight.

*Sigh* "Fine, you get up here too."

Seeing this, Nathan was surprised, and a frown creased his face. He wasn't told anything about these bats when he questioned Jack before. Looks like he would have to be a little harder on him today than he originally intended.