Path to the Apocalypse

“We're here to register Bethany Klien, Christopher Vincent, and Derek Veach.” Beth informed the receptionist as they arrived at the Scout base.

The attendant nodded, pulling up their information on their computer and printing out three packets for them. “You're all checked in. The top page is your schedule for the day, the next is a map of the base, and the last is the regulations you'll need to follow to maintain your barracks and equipment. Welcome to the Scouts.”

Beth smiled and thanked them, taking the packets and handing Chris and Derek theirs. “Alright, it looks like we have to get our uniforms first. Follow me.” Beth waved for them to follow as she made her way through the base. They quickly picked up their uniforms before making their way to their barracks, putting the uniforms on before heading back out to get the rest of their equipment. Most of the day was spent teaching them how to properly maintain the equipment they received, none of which was difficult, but given the amount of equipment they were dealing with, it quickly became an overwhelming amount of information. A little bit after lunch they reported to the medical center for a series of shots to immunize them against the most common infections they might encounter in the Maze.

“I was wondering when you three would show up.” Sabrina commented. “Chris, let's do you first.” She waved for him to follow her into the back as Beth's expression twisted. “Take your shirt off.” She ordered as they arrived in a private room. Chris didn't question it, since the regular shirt for the Scout uniform was a black turtleneck. It would have been hard for her to give him his shots if he left it on. He quickly removed the shirt and neatly folded it, placing it on a nearby chair as Sabrina prepared the shots. “Have a seat, this will take a bit.” Sabrina added, gesturing to the medical bed. “So…” Sabrina began after a few moments of silence. “How long have you and Beth been going out?”

“About a month now.” Chris replied.

“So the relationship is still pretty fresh? Not too serious?” Sabrina asked.

Chris cocked his head. “Fresh, yes, but serious? I may be getting ahead of myself, but at the moment I can honestly say I think I'm going to marry her.” He frowned at the door as he swore he heard a muffled yelp after he said that.

Sabrina didn't seem to notice as she gave Chris a stunned blink. “Is that so?” She hesitated for a moment, suppressing a defeated sigh. “She's a lucky woman.”

Chris shook his head. “I think I'm the lucky one. Being in love with Beth just makes sense. It's her being in love with me that I don't get. Not that I'm sure she is in love with me… at least we haven't said it yet. That's something I should probably do, huh?”

“If you're considering marrying someone, telling them you love them does seem like a decent first step.” Sabrina replied with a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Fair.” Chris agreed. “I'll have to find a good time to do that then.”

“You don't seem all that nervous over it. Aren't you scared she won't say it back?” Sabrina asked.

“No?” Chris gave her a weird look. “Why would I need her to say it back?”

Sabrina frowned. “Because you love her?”

Chris just stared at her for a moment. “And? That's why I'm telling her I love her. If she's not ready to say it back, then I'm not going to push her for it. I'm satisfied with our current relationship and I have no problem waiting until she's ready to move forward.”

Sabrina narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you fucking with me?”

Chris blinked. “No?”

“Were you dropped on your head as a child?” Sabrina continued.

“Would it matter? I can heal brain damage.” Chris pointed out.

“Then how the fuck can you be in love with someone and not care if they love you back?!?” Sabrina asked incredulously.

Chris scratched his head. “I wouldn't say I don't care… it just isn't something I can do anything about, so why worry about it? Plus, given our current relationship, it's more a matter of does she love me yet. Both of us are still eager to pursue this relationship, as far as I can tell, so her feelings are still developing. What does it matter if I'm a little ahead of her? What I would be worried about would be her deciding she doesn't want to pursue the relationship anymore. That would suck.”

Sabrina frowned at him for a moment, before shaking her head. “You are a very strange man. Let's get these shots done so I can get to your friends.” She quickly administered the shots, before waving him out, telling him to send Beth in next as she focused on preparing the next round of shots. She'd wasted a bit of time talking to Chris and she was certain the same would happen with Beth, so she needed to save time where she could.

“You're up next.” Chris informed a slightly flushed Beth as he returned to the waiting area. “Fourth door on the left.” Beth nodded, hesitating as she stood, looking like she wanted to say something, before flushing even further as she moved past him, heading back to get her shots. Chris frowned after her before turning to Derek. “Know what that was about?”

Derek shook his head. “Sorry, my silence has already been bought.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “So you'll text me?”

“Obviously.” Derek smirked, pulling out his phone.

“Actually, don't.” Chris raised a hand to stop him. “I trust Beth to talk to me about it herself, when she's ready. Plus, I'm pretty sure I already know.”

Derek shrugged as he put his phone away. “Suit yourself.”

“Shirt off.” Sabrina ordered as Beth arrived in the private room.

Beth did as she said, draping the shirt over the chair before hopping onto the medical bed. “I don't appreciate the way you've been probing Chris.” She announced, giving Sabrina a cold look.

Sabrina paused for a moment, before shaking her head. “If your relationship can't withstand a little probing, then you have bigger issues to worry about. But in any case, you won't have to worry about me, or anyone else for that matter. That man is all yours.”

Beth had to suppress a warm smile as she struggled to maintain her cold look. “That doesn't excuse you trying to steal him!”

Sabrina snorted. “If a man can be stolen, then he wasn't yours to hold on to in the first place. Listen, I get where you're coming from, but look at it this way. Wouldn't you rather know he's faithful now, rather than in ten years when it's your family on the line? I think a little probing is healthy for a relationship. It lets you know your trust is well placed.”

Beth scowled at her. “That just sounds like an excuse so you can cause problems for other people guilt free.”

Sabrina shrugged. “Take it as you will, but at least admit you're more confident in your relationship with him now. I know you were listening in on us.”

Beth flushed. “Why would you think-”

“My ability lets me sense vibrations.” Sabrina interjected, rolling her eyes. “I could feel you there the entire time.”

Beth grimaced. “Fine. I was listening.”

“And?” Sabrina prodded.

“And- and I'm not worried about Chris leaving me at all.” Beth muttered with a warm smile, before shooting Sabrina a glare. “That still doesn't mean I appreciate your testing. I appreciate Chris for being loyal. You are just the skank who's been trying to lure away my boyfriend. You don't thank the robber for trying to break into your home just because it proves your security system works!”

“That example may hold up if you were married, but you're just dating. If you were even engaged, I wouldn't have done anything.” Sabrina countered. “You don't actually own the house, you're simply a prospective buyer and I'm another interested party checking with the owner to see if I might be able to make a better offer. I understand that you don't want me to make a better offer, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm free to do so. Until you make an actual commitment, you can't complain when others express an interest.”

Beth scowled. “I've at least already made an initial commitment.”

“Which is why all I've done is express my interest. I haven't actually made an offer, and I wouldn't until your relationship was over.” Sabrina pointed out.

Beth frowned for a moment, before crossing her arms petulantly. “Still seems rude to me.” She grumbled.

Sabrina raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn't anything someone did that you didn't like seem rude?”

Beth paused. “That was a rude point.”

Sabrina snorted, rolling her eyes. “Just give me your arm. The shots are ready.” Once Sabrina finished with Beth's shots, she sent her to get Derek as she prepared the next round. “Shirt off.” Sabrina ordered yet again as he arrived.

Derek tossed his shirt on the chair, before sliding onto the medical bed. “So doc, have you given any more thought to the benefits of having an electric ability user around?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Sabrina gave him a flat look. “It isn't very wise to antagonize the person about to stick several needles into your arm.”

Derek feigned a gasp of shock. “You would inflict pain on a patient just because they annoyed you? Doc, I've misjudged you.” Sabrina shook her head, ignoring him as she focused on preparing the shots. She'd already wasted too much time with Chris and Beth. Derek just shrugged and laid back on the table to wait. It never hurt to try, but he wasn't about to pester a woman who obviously wasn't interested.

Once Derek got his shots, the three had a few more pieces of equipment to pick up, before finally making their way back to their barracks at four to meet the rest of their recruit squad, as well as their Drill Sergeant. As they walked in, they found two women facing each other down as another woman and a man stood off to the side looking uncomfortable. “I refuse to share a room with a man!” The younger woman snarled, clearly one of the other recruits in their squad.

“You were given the option to be assigned to a single gender squad.” The older woman replied, presumably their Drill Sergeant.

“I don't mind working with a man, I mind being forced to share a room with one!” The recruit snapped.

The Drill Sergeant shook her head. “What do you think it's going to be like in the Maze? Do you think you'll have the luxury to complain when you're bivouacked ass to ass in some crevice to avoid detection by a tribe of kobolds? There's no privacy in the Maze, and there's no privacy here. If you have a problem with that, you can wait until next term so you can be assigned to an all female squad. Do you have a problem with that?”

The recruit gritted her teeth. “No.” She hissed after a moment.

“Then get on the floor and give me twenty!” The Drill Sergeant roared at her, causing her to flinch. “Now, or I'll make it forty!” The recruit dropped to the floor and started doing push-ups as the Drill Sergeant turned to Beth, Chris, and Derek. “You must be Recruits Klien, Vincent, and Veach. Welcome to D Squad. I'm your Drill Sergeant, Sergeant Callista. These are Recruits Andrews, Garcia, and Invicta.” She pointed at the man, the woman next to him, and then the woman doing push-ups as she introduced them. “You have five minutes to get your gear in order.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Beth saluted, Chris and Derek copying her a second later before they all moved to stow their equipment. Once they were done, Beth led them to line up in front of Sergeant Callista, the other recruits following suit after a moment.

Sergeant Callista waited until exactly five minutes had passed before moving to inspect their bunks, checking to make sure all their equipment was organized appropriately. “Recruit Veach, your dagger is supposed to be on the left and your pistol on the right! Fix it and give me ten!” She snapped as she got to Derek's bunk.

“Yes, ma'am!” Derek saluted before doing as she said.

Sergeant Callista watched his performance carefully before nodding and moving to the next bunk. She found some minor flaws in everyone's bunk except for Chris, even Beth. She'd ended up examining Chris's bunk for a full five minutes before finally grunting in a mix of annoyance and approval. “Well done, Recruit Vincent.”

“Thank you, ma'am.” Chris replied.

“Drop and give me ten anyway.” Sergeant Callista added with a smirk.

“Yes, ma'am.” Chris saluted, before doing as she said.

Sergeant Callista frowned slightly at his simple obedience, before shaking her head and moving on. “Every night your bunk will be inspected until you can maintain it as perfectly as Recruit Vincent here! Tonight I stopped after a single flaw, but tomorrow I'll look for two! The day after, I'll look for three, and so on until I'll start finding every flaw at the end of the week! For this first week, each flaw will only earn you ten push-ups! By next week, it'll be twenty! By the end of training, a single flaw will have you repeating the morning workout in its entirety! I expect these bunks will be pristine by then!” She paused to check her watch. “Report to the cafeteria for dinner at eighteen hundred. Until then, you're dismissed.” She announced before walking out.

Beth turned to the three new people with a smile as the door closed. “Hey, I'm Beth and I'm the melee attacker of the squad! It's nice to meet you all!”

“Zack, ranged attacker.” Andrews introduced himself with a smile.

“Carmen, defender.” Garcia nodded.

“Derek, melee support.” Derek introduced himself after he noticed Invicta wasn't going, frowning to herself.

Invicta's frown deepened as she looked up. “Is our squad completely unbalanced?!? We can't have two attackers and two supports! We still need a scout, healer, and utility!” The classic squad composition was an attacker and support pair, one melee, one ranged, along with a defender, a scout, a healer, and a utility.

“That'd be me.” Chris interjected. “Chris, scout, healer, utility.”

Zack whistled. “They let you fill three roles? You must have a damn impressive ability.”

Chris shrugged. “It's alright.”

Beth sighed. “Chris, you don't downplay your ability when people are depending on it for their survival.”

Chris paused. “It's slightly better than alright?”

Beth rubbed her temple. “It's amazing, Chris. Amazing.”

Chris frowned. “That seems a bit much.”

“What is your ability?” Invicta asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I can open portals to a space that can heal almost anything as far as I can tell. It also lets me form a connection with Maze creatures, putting them under my control and letting me open portals to them. And it's a pretty decent sized space.” Chris explained.

The three new people all stared at him for a moment. “I gotta agree with her.” Zack commented, pointing his thumb at Beth. “That ability sounds amazing. All I do is shoot wind blades at things. I don't even have wind control, just wind blades.”

“That's a strength in and of itself.” Beth commented. “Focused abilities trade power for flexibility. If you had wind control, you probably wouldn't even be able to form a wind blade and you'd be stuck just pushing things.”

Zack sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just wish I could fly, you know? My brother can, and it always looked like so much fun.”

Beth nodded in understanding. “Yeah, flying does look fun.” She then turned to Invicta. “So, what about you? You're the only one who hasn't introduced themselves.”

Invicta sniffed. “Nadia. Ranged support.”

“Cool! So I guess you're going to be my partner, Derek will pair up with Zack, and Carmen will be with Chris.” Beth muttered as she put together all their roles.

“Why is Carmen with me?” Chris asked. “Shouldn't she be providing cover for the melees?”

“That's the defender’s secondary focus, but generally the defender's primary focus is keeping the auxiliaries safe while they harass the enemy.” Beth explained, before pausing thoughtfully. “Though I guess that might switch in our squad? I don't know, we aren't exactly a normal squad, so I'm not sure what the exact dynamics will be.”

“Yeah, I'm not sure how much harassment I can pull off by myself.” Chris muttered.

Beth gave him a look. “Chris. Minions.”

Chris blinked. “Oh yeah.”

“So… what actually are your abilities?” Zack asked. “Chris has… too much, and I have my wind blades, but what about the rest of you?”

“I can stretch and compress my body to generate large amounts of force.” Beth explained.

Derek went next. “I can generate electricity to stimulate my muscles or stun my enemies.”

“I can create resistance fields to stop or at least slow down anything that passes through them.” Carmen provided.

They all turned to Nadia, who let out a small huff. “I'm a telekinetic.”

“Oh, that's great! You can hold them down while I pound them!” Beth exclaimed.

Zack raised an eyebrow. “Kinky?”

“That was poorly phrased.” Carmen agreed.

Beth groaned, turning to Chris. “What did I say this time?”

“You essentially implied that Nadia would restrain someone while you… forcefully had sex with them.” Chris explained.

Beth's expression twisted. “Damn it!” She sighed, turning to the others. “I'm sorry, I don't really get innuendo, so sometimes things just slip out.”

“I tried giving her a list. It didn't help.” Chris added.

“So I take it you two know each other from before?” Carmen commented.

“We're dating, actually.” Beth smiled, grabbing Chris's arm.

“Derek is also my best friend.” Chris added.

“Wait, you guys managed to monopolize half the squad?” Zack asked incredulously. “How?!?”

“Her dad is the Scout General.” Chris answered, pointing his thumb at Beth.

“Chris!” Beth hissed, flushing as the other three turned to look at her wide-eyed.

“What?” Chris asked, frowning at her. “Was it supposed to be a secret?”

Beth sighed. “No. You just could have been a bit less blunt about it.”

Chris cocked his head. “I really don't think I could have.”

“Fine, you could have let me be a bit less blunt about it.” Beth grumbled. “I would have just said my dad is an officer in the Scouts.”

Chris nodded. “That I could have done.”

Zack held up a hand. “I'm sorry, hold on. Your dad is the guy in charge of the entire Scouts?!?”

Beth hesitated. “Kinda? I mean, he is, but it isn't that big a deal! Chris is a bigger part of why we all ended up in the same squad than I am! Without his ability, it never would have happened! My dad would never abuse his position like that!”

Nadia narrowed her eyes at her for a moment, before grunting. “Whatever. This is the squad we have. Might as well get used to it.”

“So you're over the whole ‘sharing a room with guys’ thing?” Zack asked.

Nadia scowled at him. “I still think it's ridiculous to force men and women to share the same quarters just because they're in the same squad, but I'm not going to waste my time arguing about it. If it weren't for the fact that single gender squads are less successful…” She trailed off bitterly.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Single gender squads are less successful?”

“Squads are built so that the soldiers' abilities can synergize with each other, like Derek stunning creatures so Zack can hit them, or Nadia holding them down so I can pou- er, punch them.” Beth flushed as she narrowly avoided her previous faux pas. “If you limit the people you can pull in to create synergies, then generally the synergies turn out weaker.”

“There are also some studies that suggest people who insist on single gender squads are more difficult to work with.” Carmen added, pointedly not looking at Nadia.

“Well, good thing none of us are insisting on a single gender squad then, huh?” Derek interjected. “Now what I want to know is how the hell Chris managed to get his bunk perfect. I barely remembered half of all the crap they told us!”

“Honestly, I forgot most of it too, so I just put everything where it made sense.” Chris shrugged. “Guess I just have a good sense for it.”

Derek blinked. “Okay, that pisses me off.”

“Honestly Chris, you're the worst.” Beth agreed, the others nodding along.

Chris scratched his head. “Okay… but why?”

Derek placed a hand on his shoulder. “We can forgive hard work, but getting lucky? That's unforgivable.”