Since the day had just begun (fucked up sleep schedule or not, I wasn't about to argue with these people) we were called back after settling in to get...assigned, I guess you could say. Max told me that before he was separated from them, he'd been a scout tasked with "location and recovery" which is just a nicer way of saying he basically kidnapped people. I was tempted to laugh, but then realized that being a bodyguard or patrol member wouldn't have put him to much better use.

When we reached whatever room we'd been called to, the girl, Anniversary, was...kind of all over me. Not in a gross way, she just couldn't be controlled as she sized up every little piece of me for a job. She didn't seem the least bit bothered by my scars, which was relieving but also sort of unsettling. If I wasn't the strangest case she'd seen in a while, then what was?

"Fascinating. Just...fascinating!" She tapped her chin with what looked to be a small, red computer chip. "Masquerade, you sure picked a good one, didn't you?"

"Uh, I'm not sure if 'pick' would be the right—"

"Of course, of course. I might have to put off temporarily assigning him just yet, I hope you understand. But..." her face sobered, and without hesitation she began tracing portions of my carved smile like she was painting it on.

"You poor thing. What you must have gone through out there...I can't even imagine it!" She said out there as if the outside world could be nothing but violent and cruel. Not exactly the mindset I'd expected from someone with her demeanor. And on top of that, she was addressing me with such pity that I didn't even know how to react. I looked to Max, who was slowly shaking his head in warning. What exactly he was trying to warn me about, I had no idea. I just wanted this to be over with.

"Um. Sure. Remind me what this place does, again? Like, you guys must have some sort of business to stay alive."

"Good question," the woman said while placing a thermometer underneath Max's tongue. He was standing so perfectly still that he could've blended into the wall after a couple minutes. I was still waiting on a real answer when Anniversary walked back over to me, fastened something to my wrist and pat me on the back, like, you're free to go.

"Now, if you two stand here any longer you might miss training. Fortunately, we had just enough 'undetermined' markers for you not to get any weird looks. So you'd better get going."

I looked down at the band she'd given me. It was like one of those plastic-papery bracelets they give you at amusement parks that are impossible to get off, only I spied a metal clip on one side of it. It was black all around, with a small letter U painted next to the clip in white. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't think to comment on anything.

"Thank you, Anniversary," Max said, seemingly by habit, putting his hands on his hips with a black band of his own. He turned to me, a tiny smile about to break through the stoniness. "Let's go, Hodek. I've got a lot to show you."

We first headed for one of the several training halls, where we were greeted by some girl who was dressed almost identically to Max wielding a clipboard and a large cardboard box.

"You're late for the 9:15 period, if that's what you're here for. It should only be a couple..."

She trailed off when we came into full view, and quickly shook her head. "Oh. Of course. She told me there'd be two more coming. Well." She held out the box and shook it, contents rattling loudly inside.

"Go on. Or do you need to be assigned those, as well?"

"Nice to see you too, Candy. I'm actually not sure if mine's still recorded. It's probably not, after all this time," Max said, looking at the box with a trace of doubt. "Do I just pick one?"

I shifted forward to see what they were even talking about. The box was chock-full of various metal weapons, rusty and blunt from years of use. Peeking out from under one layer was what appeared to be...

A bow tie?

"I'll have to check lists anywhere from 2010 to 2015, but for now you can settle with any of these. You men got a lucky batch, Garde didn't try sneaking a second wrench off me this time." The girl said this with a shameless smirk, her gaze piercing the space between my eyes as if she thought I might do the same. My hand hovered over the weapons, unsure.

"...oh. Wait, I don't need any of those. I have—"

I started checking my hoodie pocket, struck by a realization, only to find that it was empty. I remembered just as quickly where my knife actually was.

"...nevermind. Left the thing in my room. I guess I'll take whatever you got," I said with a sigh. The girl cocked her head, looking just a tiny bit annoyed.

"You know, you're going to have to submit any weapons you brought here to this division. I—"

Suddenly, her body stiffened, and I could've sworn that a tiny electrical spark was visible somewhere on her neck. I noticed she was wearing the very same kind of tie I'd seen in the box she was holding. She grimaced, then rubbed her head as if she'd just woken up.

"Right. Of course. Your new policy. My apologies, ma'am." Although the strange emphasis on apologies was enough to convince me she wasn't sorry at all. She pursed her lips, dug around in the cardboard box for a good second and then pressed something into my hand.

A small, practically useless switchblade.

I glanced back and forth between her and the knife, hoping my internal loop of Are you serious? was able to reach her. She gave me an exasperated look.

"You were taking too long to pick, anyway. Now go, both of you." She stepped aside and held open the door for us, making sure to give Max a super gracious "welcome back" smile before shooting me a dirty look. One that probably said, I couldn't give two shits if he trusts you; you're an outsider.

"Have fun."

"Will do," I muttered, already getting a feel for my knife. Dull as it was, I could work with it. I noticed Max had picked up something oddly reminiscent of his old pliers. Something told me it wasn't even a real tool that had been patented and sold to people; based on the awkward way the strips of metal were welded together, I would've said this was something of the cult's, maybe even his own invention.

"Man, what is that girl's deal with me?" I resisted the urge to look back and give her the finger, while Max simply held onto a small patch of my sleeve as if he expected me to do exactly that.

"Trust me—whatever happens, you just don't get on the weapon handler's bad side."

"Why not? It's not like she—"

"Controls it all? Yeah, she kind of does. So when somebody pisses her off, that happens," he said, pointing to the switchblade in my hand. I flicked it open and closed.

"And so what? I could always just steal a better one. You heard what she said about that...uh, god, I'm blanking. Somebody named Garde?"

"You mean me?"

I positively jumped at a tiny voice right beside us, seeming to come from around the height of my knees. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. The little girl that had just popped up from out of nowhere was only able to reach my waist, even with the sheer height of her hair. She was clearly hiding a mischievous grin behind a look of innocent curiosity.

"You're that new guy Masquerade brought here for us!"

"For you?" I repeated incredulously. Max sighed, though with a sense of fondness.

"Try not to bother him too much, Garde, I know you stole something from Candy to use anyway."

"That's not true."

"Wait, wait, I thought you two didn't even know each other before today. Can someone please tell me what's going on...?" I grappled for any and all knowledge I'd gathered from these people in the last couple of hours, though not much of it would've been useful. Max shrugged.

"Just because I don't 'know' someone doesn't mean I can't know them. I mean, look at her, she's basically an Event 2.0."

"Do I look like I have any idea who that is."

Garde skipped ahead, turning around so she could face us while she walked. "That's what Jade says, too. You really were a part of us, weren't you?"

Max's smile faded only slightly. "What do you mean, were?"

Garde laughed and ran along towards what looked to be an old target range. Except there were no fences, bows, quivers, not even a line on the ground to show people where to stand. After a couple more seconds of looking around, I understood; this place was the entire training area. Those targets on the walls were for all weapons, all forms of combat, and they had all been demolished a long time ago. I looked down at the knife in my hand, then to Max. He seemed to have recovered from Garde's little comment and was now straightening up his shirt. Seeing him now, compared to all these other people, was making my head spin.

This place is definitely carving its members into human war machines, that I know. So why did they pick...

"That kid should not be here," I said, mostly to myself. Max's eyes scanned the room as he considered that.

"Well, there are always going to be troublemakers. We just have to deal with it."

Not what I meant.

With that out of the way, we both started training.

—

It was definitely jarring to hear him work with and talk to these people like they were age-old friends, which they probably were, if I'm being honest. Who knew he'd be popular anywhere, let alone a crumbling and delusional "family" like this? I tried ignoring all the blaring alarms in my head at practically anything that happened, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

"Max," I said when we finally arrived back to my room, "this is going to come as a huge shock for you, I'm sure, but I have a really weird feeling about this place."

"And I told you, you just have to give it a chance. It really didn't use to be like this. Well, it sort of did, but you know what I mean, right?"

"You could've at least warned me that all this 'training' stuff took up more than half of the day. It's like we're in the military."

"Hodek, is this too much for you?" He said it like he could hardly believe his ears. I scoffed.

"Oh, I can handle it. I'm thinking more like, the way this schedule works is shifty as fuck? And you get...what, mealtimes and maybe five extra minutes as a break?"

"Plus sleeping," he protested.

Way worse that you had to mention that, but okay. "That's definitely not right. I mean...you realize some of these people are kids. You have to know that, at least."

"Toughen up, would you?" He was almost laughing. "That's just how it is here. It's what it was like for me, and I didn't think to complain. Most of what we do has to circle back to the family, and what's best for it. Didn't your parents teach you anything like that?"

"They didn't teach Liu and I to feed into some weird, underground hive mind 24/7, no."

"Ha, ha. You know, if anybody else heard that there would've been some problems."

"I'm sure."

He must've noticed something about the way I was looking around the room, because the conversation took a very quick turn.

"Are you surprised?"

I thought about that for a second. "Surprised isn't really the word I'd use, but I guess."

"You didn't think we'd ever find them, did you."

That caught me off guard. I arched an eyebrow and tried to decipher Max's expression. Again, the poker face. Again, I hated that. I groaned. "You're trapping me, aren't you?"

"I just want an honest answer."

There was an oddly long pause. After something akin to a staring contest, I gave in and sighed. "Yeah. I didn't. Could you blame me, though? We were following your gut, maybe a trail or two, I didn't think it would actually land us anywhere. It kind of just amounted to...'quality time' or whatever they call it. At least, it did to me."

Max leaned his head against the doorframe like he didn't know what to make of me right now. "As flattering as that is, Hodek, it was a little stupid of you to think you could just keep me all to yourself."

"That wasn't—I never said that." I was getting annoyed with all this I'm going to tell you exactly how you're feeling bullshit, though what he'd just suggested was enough to make my face grow uncomfortably warm. I scratched at the side of my neck, a little too aware of what was happening here. In hindsight, probably still not aware enough.

"...could we not talk about this? Please?" I was genuinely asking this time. For all I knew, everybody in this underground cult could have my head in three seconds flat if they wanted. Max seemed to notice the nervousness in my voice, because his face softened up a little bit.

"Okay. I was just teasing, you know."

"Yeah, I do, it's just that...ugh." I couldn't find the words to explain why it felt so weird just now. He nodded thoughtfully.

"I get it. I'll call you when they have dinner ready."