Zone 5 (1)

Stepping through the door almost felt as if he had walked into a different world altogether. Ashton was in a completely different place. He had experienced it before in training tower, but this place was on a whole another level.

While the room the Mistress had only converted projected the atmosphere of an outside world, Ashton could clearly say that it was all fake. However, what he was feeling now did not appear to be fake at all. He could even feel the warmth of the sun over him.

He was in awe of the size and majesty of the trees. Their knotted branches rose ever upwards, as far as his head could lift, and yet there was no end to the length of the trees. The more he looked at them, the more it felt as of he was in front of a wooden castle.

The orchestra of various animalistic sounds could be heard clearly. A pair of crows were screeching high up in the canopy of the trees. Seeing them made Ashton realise the reality of the situation. Crows much like every other species of the world had either mutated or died from the virus.

Thus the only way one could see these creatures was through projections like the ones he was witnessing. However, his perception skill was telling a different tale altogether. These crows did not fit with their surroundings...

It might sound weird but Ashton could feel something was different about them. Ashton picked up a sharp wood piece off the ground and without a second thought hurled it towards the bunch of crows.

Most of them were successful in flying away, But an unlucky one got hit by the stick which was thrown towards it like a javelin. Ashton jumped at the bird only to realise that his doubts were right on point. They were not birds, but robots with cameras in place of eyes.

'I was wondering how were they planning on keeping an eye on us. Having robots like these to do surveillance is a genius plan.'

With that out of the way, he gave a last look around himself to see if he could gather some hidden equipment or something. The forest which he entered looked oak-brown and primitive. Ashton could see the footprints of the examinees who entered before him on the grass. It didn't look like they were much interested in fighting with one another.

'Maybe they came up with an agreement to find weapons first and fight later.' Ashton thought while analysing his surroundings, 'However, they do not have one thing that I do.'

In such a wide place, Ashton's perception skin was nothing less than a lifesaver. On top of that, since it was a vampire skill, the other participants would not have such a skill, and this gave Ashton an 'unfair' advantage over the others.

***

'This kid is interesting...' The director thought while sipping her tea.

For someone who was apparently one of the first werewolves to come into being, the director was fairly beautiful. If she did not hold the position of director of the academy, one would have never been able to guess that she was almost a century old lady.

Standing 5' 7" tall, this fair-skinned woman had an attentive feel about her. Her eyes hold the wisdom of almost a century in them and it was difficult for even the minutest details escape from her vision.

But the most notable part of her was not her eyes, but the burn scar that extended from her left earlobe to the chin. Not many knew how she got the scar, but they know one enough to not talk about it. As she might seem like a friendly and warm person from the outside, but those close to her knew better than to be fooled by her external demeanour.

There were various screens in front of her, thirty-two, to be precise. The director was not alone in the chamber. Most of the teachers in charge of the first year's were there with her. They wanted to check whether there were any extraordinary examinees among the crowd or not.

The Director, on the other hand, was constantly looking at the new examinees and some of them had already caught her eye, including Ashton.

He was the first one to discover the anomaly of the crows there and immediately acted on it. Even though he did not have any weapons on him. This seemed to have some effect on her.

'His decision was foolish. The crows could have turned out to be hostile and then the kid would have been in trouble.' The director shook his head, 'He headed into the unknown without any hesitation. As much as I admire bravery, I hate fools more. However... he might be the first to locate 'that' weapon.'

The examinees had not been made aware of this, but at the entrance of each gate, there was a specific piece of equipment hidden away. However, none of them had been discovered till now.

All of them had been in such a rush to separate themselves from the crowd that they did not even check their surrounding properly. But the way Ashton was looking around, he might become the first one to find the weapon.