The True Face Of Spencer's School (2)

The next morning, Tumunomi Escaver was up and doing his routine exercises before the door opened. During his workouts Jacob joined him, but he had a feeling of being watched by the other kid, before he had even gotten up.

The lights came on full swing at some point and the 5 others grumbled as they had to get up. Tumunomi Escaver was wondering how to greet his visitors when Jacob rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Let us see how things turn out, first."

Tumunomi Escaver in his bad mood saw the hand reaching his shoulder, the hand resting there and how he could twist it before elbowing the boy's jaw. And although he knew he had the strength too, his instincts told him that he might win but also have his own injuries. So, he only slapped the hand off and turned his face back towards the new people.

That is, the people new to he space.

"Morning, young ones."

Mrs. Rose Marilyn's smile never decided such a punch it took Jacob's presence to remind him that he might be curious to also see where this could lead.

"How was your night, sorry for the lack of beds and whatnot. You guys would have to earn those."

"Can we use our contribution points?"

Mrs Rose Marilyn chuckled and john who had asked he question had been smacked to the ground, blood and spittle beside him.

"Signify your curiosity before speaking."

Jacob frowned at her and Tumunomi Escaver suddenly found her more disgusting.

"Let me introduce you to some friends."

The group walked outside of the room to see more of their peers as Ivan supported Kohn back up to his feet. Also among them he also noticed a good number of their teachers.

And there were different machines.

Maybe that was why his last class's tutor had been smiling. Maybe this was where he would get revenge.

Immediately after, she threw a polythene bag that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It slammed to the ground and it had within it what looked like jumpers. Like uniforms for warehouse associates.

"Wear that for identification," was what she said before leaving.

On the chests were their names written in what seems to be paint or or ink. By the time Tumunomi Escaver was wearing his, he saw Jacob patting John and encouraging him to stay strong.

None of them spoke after Mrs. Rose Marilyn's actions and quickly got dressed up. Unconsciously, walking out the door, the six of them stuck together and moved in group. They saw the similar looks of confusion on their faces.

"Here, there will be a rearrangement."

After a row of people in lab coats, were the teachers who arranges themselves in rows, and after them were the machines, and after those was a great deal of space that were lastly after the students.

"Assignments will be given out and those who pass will be given good scores."

John, surprisingly, raised his hands to speak again even though his stomach hurt like hell.

Mrs Rose Marilyn did not expect him to have recovered so soon. So she nodded to him and then he spoke.

"Our contribution points, can they be used here?"

"If you can get through this, then let us see what will happen."

He had not been answered to his satisfaction through her reply but he said nothing. He glanced and saw that there were a few of his peers with stains of bright red on their body. So, he could tell that the more he avoided the instructors, the more he would avoid danger.

"We have been brought here after we all signed and agreed to what will happen."

None of them denied it, they could only look in horror and realize that they had actually signed up for this.

"Now, lets begin."

Mrs Rose Marilyn clapped her hands and one of the other teachers stepped forward.

"My name is Finim Barboach and I will guide you through your tests." The man was their teacher in languages and he had a fierce beard. The teacher was well built to and wore clothing that did not hide his rippling muscular form form. "These Potent Artefacts are set here to test our potential. So, we will have the various batches go through each of them."

He then pointed to the ones who were at the extreme end.

The first machine looked like a large cuboid. On it were different levels and they all ranged in scale.

Starting from 5kg they went up in multiples of 5, up to 500kg.

"You will start at the physical tests neor going on. Step up to DumbbellLever."

The first kid had a name tag of Joseph on his jumper. He approached the DumbbellLever and he started from 25kg but he could barely lift it. So he went for 10 kg instead. Despite his struggles, the wimpy kid managed to push it up and he then looked at the instructor who now had a stop watch on his hand. Instructors behind Finim Barboach began taking record on what looked to be note books.

"Proceed to the MindSeawer," the hairy man gestured with an open palm to the next machine.

This one was was looked like a sewing machine, complete with a treader and a table that had the part with the needle and thread. Except that there was no need and thread but instead a screen. And its upper part was 8 feet tall.

Joseph gingerly climbed unto the chair and placed his feet on the treader. Then, he looked to Finim Barboach who nodded. When he began he did not notice anything. But as time when on, he started to see… Was that smoke? Was that mist? Did he hear voices. He then suddenly saw a sword stabbing out to him and he instantly jumped off the chair.

"5 seconds." Finim Barbosch gestured again.

And Joseph walked forward until he banged his face unto something invisible. Picking himself up, he finally noticed the glass after a full minute of confusion. In fact, most of them – about 90% - had not seen it.

"This is the ReflectionLawn." There was a shadow of a smile on his face.

He then noticed there was a gap in it for him to enter but after he did, it closed as if the glass was also somehow mercury.

He looked up to see pipes hanging into the glass box from different directions and suddenly, he heard a sound like –

-POP-

- And he saw a tennis ball that shot into the glass ball from one of the pipes. Whenever it struck the glass, the cube quivered although it held. Thus, he was not too expectant of it touching him. And so he ducked for the first minute.

The 2nd ball popped In after the second minute and so and so forth.

By the fifth minute, Joseph was panting like he could take no more as one of the balls smacked him to the ground. At that instant, they all froze mid air before being sucked back into their pipes.

The glass box dematerialized as if it were never there, leaving the pipes behind and the other instructors began taking notes again as Finim Barboach once more motioned for him to move forward.

"The PressureMill, next."

The next machine lay before Joseph almost cursed as he was feeling quite tired already.

Breathing hard, he walked to what looked like a Treadmill except that there was a box above the part he had to run on and there were bars that supported that steel box to the ground. So that the Treadmill was surrounded by cages.

Taking his steps forward he stood on the machine and until he negan running, Finim Barboach did not start his stopwatch.

Joseph was only able to hold out for 5 minutes and that was because he felt a formless pressure climb up his back for every 30 seconds. At first it felt like a soft breeze but now it fell like a full backpack and he could hold out no longer.

He collapsed and the pressure disappeared.

Many of the kids looked horrified, and their bodies fear in different ways such rattling like the snares of a drum. But Uji spoke out, she was not ready for this.

"Can I give up? I don't want to do this anymore please. I would rather just live a comfortable life."

One of the teachers, one that none of them seemed to recall, slipped out from where he was standing. His height was impressive but otherwise he was lanky. So lanky, that it almost seemed to be a disorder.

This man quietly walked over to the girl like a wild predatory cat before suddenly grabbing her soldiers and tossing her into the air. The slap he threw sent her to the ground and she bounced back up.

"The unit of Money, Destiny, Faith, Hope and Even fear is time." He slapped the kid once more. "You will not waste anybody's time. Next time you are asked if you wished to join the programme or not, I need tour subconscious to be sure of the decisions that your conscious mind wants to make."

When he was done with her, she looked like a rag doll. Without her breathing it was hard to tell if she was alive or not. She was then carried to the last machine that had not yet been used.

It looked like chairs melted into each other which were arranged in a circle and wires extending from their focal point that all reached into the ceiling.

He watched her, now unconscious, being placed into a chair. She was strapped there and the head rest on one of the chairs was removed. Still connected to the chair by a wire, it was put over her head and after a while of wheat seemed to be electrocution, the head rest eas removed from her head and returned to the chair.

After everything, she was carried away.

"Joseph!" The call of his name brought him back from his attention of horror at the girl, "you fail. Next!"