Her vision blurred out of focus as her head slammed into the ground.


    In an instant, there was a great weight atop her and her hands were pinned behind her back. One hand held her face to the ground, ensuring she couldn’t move. She grunted, attempted with her free hand to scratch at her attacker’s face but it was futile.


    “Do you submit?”


    Chloe grunted again, swiping with her free hand. After several futile attempts, she let out a defeated groan then clapped her hand against the padded floor in submission. The hold on her was relinquished immediately, and she immediately flipped onto her back, drawing a deep breath.


    Over her stood a tall, muscular woman with buzz-cut brown hair, sharp eyebrows and darkly serious gray eyes. The woman’s neck was covered entirely in tattoos, as were her arms which were visible in the earth green tank top she had on.


    Ari offered a hand to Chloe. Chloe accepted it, let the woman pull her to her feet.


    “Do you see where you went wrong?” Ari queried, as soon as Chloe was back on her feet.


    “Wasn’t fast enough,” Chloe mumbled, wiping beads of sweat off her forehead. From all around her came heaves and grunts and groans, and the sound of rapidly exchanged fists and kicks.


    The Barracks was a large place, split into two compounds. Both compounds were in use by the National Army, except one was in use by the regular soldiers and had stuff like firing ranges, and entire small buildings filled to the brim with all sorts of artillery. The second compound, which they were in, was intended for Pandoran training.


    At the moment, they were inside a large building with a glass ceiling that let the sunlight in. The building was a single, very wide, very long room. At one end of the room were standard training equipment—reinforced punching bags and weights normal people wouldn’t have been able to lift even an inch off the ground, along with modified treadmills and whatnot. There were also rows of fridges filled with nothing but blood bags. Refreshments.


    But the equipment wasn’t in use today. Today, they were sparring, and the entire thing was being supervised by Ari Greene who was a third-gen Pandoran, and one of the Commanders of the National Army Pandoran Division. Around the room, they’d broken off in twos, and they were all clad the same. Earth green tank tops and dark gray compression pants.


    There were other Pandorans in there whose names Chloe either didn’t know or could barely recall. Lucas had been paired off with a hulking, slightly ugly red-haired boy whose entire body rippled as he moved and despite his size, he moved pretty quickly. Jon had been paired against Riley, a short, scrawny, brown, curly-haired boy whose appearance had been rather greatly deceiving since he’d sent Jon flying about thrice since they’d started sparring. Aiden was up against Andre, and it’d become obvious to Chloe why Andre had been so smug earlier—he was strong. Incredibly strong, and he fought with an air of nonchalance, his movements seeming languid yet precise, his attacks predictable yet unavoidable. Aiden had barely been able to get a solid blow in and that was frightening, since Chloe was pretty sure Andre was holding back.


    Jin, on the other hand, was up against three Pandorans. She’d started out in a one on one like the rest of them, but she’d asked for an increased challenge after only a few minutes. And despite the numerical disadvantage she had to deal with, she still seemed pretty in charge of her fight, weaving between blows with almost mocking ease, and countering with precise blows of her own.


    Ari cleared her throat then, drawing Chloe’s attention back to her. “I asked, do you see where you went wrong?”


    Chloe’s gaze snapped back to the Commander. She shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t fast enough?”


    “You’re plenty fast,” Ari said. “Issue’s not your speed or your strength. In that regard, there’s not much separating you from anyone else here. Issue’s up here.” Ari tapped a finger against her head. “You’re thinking too much about what to do and how best to do it, second-guessing yourself, spending too long looking for openings and making it clear exactly where you’re going to strike.”


    Chloe frowned. “What exactly is the point of this? We’re out there fighting monsters stupider and slower than us. Is the training really necessary?”


    “Believe me,” Ari said, her tone dark, “There’s some monsters you haven’t fought yet. And you’ll want to know what I know if you want to stand a chance at surviving against them when the time comes.”


    Chloe sighed, then wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her palm. “Alright, alright,” she said, nodding, moving a few feet away from Ari and taking up a battle stance again, dropping one shoulder slightly. “So I’m thinking too much. What do you want me to do?”


    “Concentrate,” Ari answered. “Not on me. On everything else. Use your senses, let your instincts guide your movements. Give yourself in to that part of your brain that’s wired exactly for things like this.”


    “You mean the part that wants me to kill and devour everything in sight?”


    “Yes!” Ari yelled, and then pounced.


    She blurred forward, and Chloe had to shift onto her rear to avoid Ari’s first swing. The Commander, however, was unrelenting. Six consecutive jabs followed.


    Chloe moved quickly from left to right, avoiding the strikes, feeling for the shifts in the air every time Ari moved, predicting exactly where each strike was going. Not wanting to get pinned into being on the defensive, she shifted back onto the front foot, going at Ari, throwing powerful, precise jabs. She didn’t attempt to throw too many punches quickly, or to overwhelm Ari. She simply focused on putting as much force into each blow as she could.


    Ari dodged a few of them, and then attempted to deflect the last. As soon as the blow made contact, Ari’s eyes widened and she staggered backward a little. Chloe surged forward without hesitation, charging right into an attempt to sweep Ari off her feet and knock her to the ground.


    Ari recovered in time. She avoided Chloe’s sweeping leg and in a blur of movement, she’d stunned Chloe with two blows. Chloe, staggered, shook her head in order to regain her focus and went again.


    She swung a few more times. Now, however, Ari knew to be careful. She avoided the blows by remaining quick on her feet, didn’t even attempt to deflect any. And then she spun around one of Chloe’s blows. The miss sent Chloe staggering off balance and the next instant, she felt a hand around her neck lift her clean up off her feet before slamming her to the ground.


    Almost instantly, she had a hand pinned behind her back, her face once again held to the ground.


    “Some improvement,” Ari said. “But not nearly enough.”


    Ari released her, then helped her to her feet again.


    Chloe dusted herself off. “I almost had you.”


    “You did,” Ari agreed with a nod. “And then you let it slip. You became too eager. Control your emotions, or—,”


    She was interrupted then by a loud howl followed by a thud. Everyone else stopped sparring then, and looked in the direction the howl had come from.


    Lucas was standing over his red-haired sparring partner, fists firmly clenched at his side. The red-haired boy was on the ground now, bent over on his knees, one hand over his nose. The boy looked at Lucas and glared, then pulled his hand from his nose to reveal dark blood spilling out of it.


    “Bring up Spike again,” Lucas said softly, “And it won’t be your nose that breaks.”


    The boy looked at the blood in his hands, and at the blood that was dripping to the floor. His expression, initially one of shock, soon shifted into embarrassment and then, very quickly, into fury.


    Roaring loudly, the boy charged right at Lucas, slamming into him headfirst and tackling him to the ground.


    “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” the boy bellowed. He raised a fist, and brought it down on Lucas.


    Lucas deflected the blow, and with one gesture, sent the boy rolling off of him, hastily returning to his feet. Chloe took a step toward the fight but Ari stretched a hand out in front of her, blocking her off.


    The red-haired boy returned to his feet too, spun in Lucas’s direction and snarled furiously, baring fangs at Lucas.


    He charged again, and swung a powerful fist at Lucas. Lucas ducked beneath the blow, and sent a fist slamming into the boy’s chest, staggering him back a few feet. The boy swung again, Lucas weaved out of reach, then threw another punch.


    The boy caught it this time, yanking at Lucas, pulling him close before slamming his head right into Lucas’s face. There was a loud crack as Lucas’s nose broke, and then a blow to the stomach sent him back a few steps and dropping to one knee.


    The boy advanced on Lucas, who remained on one knee, dazed from the blow. The boy seized Lucas by his hair, tilting his face upward. He raised a fist, ready to strike. And then, in a blur of movement, the boy went flying through the air, crashing right into a wall before dropping to the ground.


    Standing where the boy had been just moments earlier was Andre. Andre looked at Lucas, and his expression seemed a little annoyed but also somewhat sympathetic. “You’re a soldier,” Andre said softly. “Start acting like one.”


    The red-haired boy, dazed from his collision with the wall, staggered to his feet. Andre blurred toward the boy and had him pinned to the wall in a moment.


    “What the hell you think you’re doing, Conrad?” Andre demanded. “Strike another soldier while he’s down?”


    “He started it!” the boy, Conrad, bellowed.


    “No.” Andre shook his head. “You did. Step out of line again, you’ll regret it.”


    Conrad snarled. “What, you think I’m scared of you, superstar?”


    Andre scoffed, the corners of his lips curling into an oddly cold smile. “I don’t know, Connie,” he said. “You tell me.”


    A tense silence followed, with the two of them locking eyes, Andre’s expressionless stare meeting Conrad’s furious glare. Finally, Conrad simply snorted.


    “Yeah, sure, whatever,” he muttered, shrugging Andre’s hand off before sulking away.


    “Conrad,” Ari called, halting the boy in his tracks. All eyes in the room fell on her, expressions both anticipating and a little wary. She walked toward him, her strides long and quick yet eerily quiet. She walked straight past him and in the direction of a door that led into out of the building. “Follow,” she said and then, to Andre, “Train with Chloe.”


    Andre grunted in response, and watched like the others did as Ari left the building, Conrad just behind her. As soon as the door had been shut behind them, whispers broke out.


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    “He might be screwed this time,” one boy whispered. “Third disciplinary issue in a month. Unlikely that the Commander lets it slide again.”


    “Stupid of him to do that while she’s watching.”


    “Can’t believe one of the newbies got Connie screwed.”


    “You think—,”


    “That’s enough.” Andre’s voice silenced the whispers that had broke out, and all eyes focused toward him. Chloe noticed how the others stirred slightly, stances becoming a little more uptight as they watched Andre. “Get back to work,” he instructed, before turning in Chloe’s direction and marching toward her, strides almost robotic.


    When he reached her, he held both fists up. “Ready?”


    Chloe studied him curiously for a moment and only just. Before, when they’d first met, there’d been an air of cockiness and smugness around him and now it was entirely gone. It was almost as though he was an entirely different person now. And Conrad had seemed scared of him. Even the others. The way they’d looked at him, there’d been some sort of…wariness. But also a degree of respect.


    She took a step toward him and threw up both fists. She gave him a nod. “Ready.”


    They saw nothing of Hardy over the next week. The Capital was a lot larger than District 7 had been and there were a lot more faces around, so it wasn’t at all difficult to lose track of someone in there. There wasn’t a communal Mess Hall or anything of the sort either, so if you wanted to find someone in the Capital, you had to know exactly where they were.


    “Tenth floor, Donner Rise,” Andre answered when Chloe asked of Hardy’s whereabouts. They’d just finished another of the sparring sessions with Ari, and were walking through the Capital, returning to Whitlow Park, a small cluster of apartment buildings where most of the National Army soldiers and Pandorans stayed.


    As Andre answered, he pointed out the skyrise he was referring to. It was a crooked thing, and degraded looking, paint peeled off everywhere. Sections of it were incomplete, construction there long ago abandoned and yet there were lights from inside the building that indicated it was in use. “You’ll find him there.”


    “That’s his apartment?” Chloe asked.


    “No, Dana’s,” Andre said. When Chloe looked confused, he sighed. “It’s a bar. But yeah, I suppose you could call it his apartment, he’s pretty much been living there. Been there every day this week.”


    “And you didn’t think to mention?”


    “You didn’t ask me before now.” Andre shrugged. “Besides, I’ve tried to get him out of there. He’s not at all interested in the help, and if I weren’t capable of regenerating in seconds, I’d have a broken nose to show for it.”


    “Why’d you try to help him?”


    “Because he was a Chancellor. A soldier. Shouldn’t have to see him like that.” Whitlow Park came into view then. “If you want to help him though then go for it, but I don’t see much coming out of it.”


    Chloe told Jon of Hardy’s whereabouts a little while later when he arrived at Whitlow, and he seemed not at all surprised when she did.


    “I know,” he said, letting out a great sigh. “Heard word of some grumpy drunk who’d been stirring up fights over there. Didn’t take long to figure out it was him. Went to see him, wasn’t any good.”


    “So that’s it?” Chloe asked. “We’re supposed to just leave him like that?”


    “He’ll snap out of it,” Jon replied. “Eventually. He just needs time to cool off, process things, reorient himself. Can’t be easy to have the blame all dumped on him like that.”


    “We shouldn’t have let the Council—,”


    “Hey, he knew it was better this way,” Jon said. “We don’t want to stir up a widespread panic. You go around screaming alien invasion to everyone and things will get pretty blood, pretty fast. It’s better like this, easier to think about what we’re going to do to try and stop whatever the hell’s going on.”


    “Right.” Chloe nodded. “Yeah, you’re right…it just sucks.”


    “I know,” Jon agreed. “Always does.”


    Another week went by in the Capital, where they did nothing but train and go on the usual patrols. There were more Pandorans in the Capital, and so a lot more shifts for the patrols which meant a great deal of their time was actually spent completely unoccupied, seeing as they hadn’t been assigned any special tasks either.


    During the second week, they also started to see less of Andre. He turned up to only one sparring session the entire week and Ari too went AWOL, the training sessions being supervised instead by one Regan Vaughn, a brooding Proterran who reminded Chloe an awful lot of Erwin, and not in a good way at all.


    Vaughn was a lot more unforgiving in his training than Ari was, and the sparring become more akin to actual bloodlust-driven bouts of combat than training sessions, ending often in people limping off with bleeding noses and swollen eyes.


    “You’ll heal,” Vaughn would growl. “Walk it off.”


    After the final sparring session at the end of the week, one supervised by Vaughn and a returned Ari, Chloe and the others were asked to remain behind while the others flocked out.


    Chloe, Jon and Jin exchanged dark looks at once, and Chloe could see Jin visibly tense, already preparing herself for trouble.


    “Come with us,” Vaughn growled, once it was just them.


    They all hesitated to move, but Ari gave them a gentle, slightly reassuring nod. Then Jon took the lead, stepping forward. Vaughn grunted in response then turned and made for the exit, Ari at his side. The rest of them followed.


    He led them to a different section of the Barracks, some sort of operation or command center. Indoors, it was dark, gloomy, most of the light stemming from the many dozen computer screens at desks in the room. A particularly large screen which hung from the ceiling showed data about the other Districts.


    On the screen, a map of each District, along with the name of their Chancellors and their status. The map of District 7 was highlighted in crimson, and was simply labeled: TERMINATED.


    The other District maps were highlighted in green, the only other exception being District 5, highlighted in an amber shade, its status described as: THREATENED.


    Vaughn led them to a raised glass enclosure within the room, where they found Andre already waiting. He was in a white T-shirt and ripped jeans. His hair was rough, and one of his eyes looked slightly bruised.


    “What’s going on?” Jon asked, once they were in the glass enclosure.


    Vaughn and Ari faced them then, the strictest expressions on their faces. “You’ve been given your deployment orders,” Vaughn answered. “From the Council.”


    Chloe’s heart jumped slightly, and she tensed even more.


    Jon crossed his arms. “Where are we going?”


    Vaughn glanced at Ari and nodded. Ari nodded back, picked a remote control from the desk in the room then turned, aimed it at the large screen. She pressed a button, and brought up a zoomed-up version of District 5’s map. The map occupied a great deal of the screen, and right next to it was an image, beneath which a bunch of information was displayed. The image was of a man, and the information seemed to be data they had on him.


    The man had dark hair in the picture, short and straight, graying already. He had bushy eyebrows, deep set brown eyes, a thick gray-streaked beard on his wrinkling face. There was a sharp edge to his appearance, making him look stern, greatly intimidating.


    His name, Chancellor Stephen Bridge. Aged 56. Chancellor of District 5 for three years. No biological offspring. He’d taught Chemistry and Biology in the past and had also served a brief stint in the army, as a military doctor. His clearance level was at level 3.


    Chloe knew there were seven clearance levels, so clearly he wasn’t a particularly high-ranked or highly-trusted officer.


    Vaughn cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. “Deployment’s to Five,” he said. “Your task is to investigate a series of recent troubling…activity within the district.”


    Jin shifted. “What kind of troubling activity?” she asked, raising an eyebrow over the other. “Has it anything to do with The Others? My father?”


    Vaughn shook his head. “We don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “That’s what makes it troubling. Over a few weeks now, perhaps even months, children in the District have been steadily vanishing and without a trace. There one night, gone by morning. The Pandoran division there had been tasked with investigation.”


    Ari pushed a button again and Chancellor Bridge’s profile vanished, as did the map. On the screen now, six images, six different people.


    Liam Heller. Daniel Heller. Lucy Jameson. Estelle Park. Mason West. Yuri Voss.


    At the sight of the image on Mason West, Chloe’s eyes went wide. He was averagely built, neither skinny nor broad. His face was thin and he had dark curly hair that was trimmed at the sides, just the way she remembered it looking. His eyes were a light brown, and a little mischievous. And even with his face looking stern in the image, he still somehow managed to look unserious.


    She’d met him before. Back in District 7. He’d arrived there in a car being pursued by Servants. He was an Outsider, someone who wasn’t in any of Aurora’s Districts and protocol with them was almost always to send them back wherever they’d come from, or send them off for the Pandoran experiment. Mason had been sent off to Pandora, to be made a soldier.


    They’d heard nothing about him since and had believed the procedure must have failed on him, and that he’d died.


    But there he was now, his image on the screen along with five others. His image was highlighted in Red and his Status simply read: ???.


    The same was true of Liam Heller, Daniel Heller, Lucy Jameson and Estelle Park, none of whom Chloe had ever met. All highlighted in red, all with unknown statuses. The fifth image, Yuri Voss, was highlighted in green.


    She was captain of the unit.


    “What the hell happened?” Jon murmured, taking a step forward, his gaze focused on the screen.


    “Their unit got wiped out, we think,” Andre answered, wincing slightly as he did, raising one hand to his head. He rose to his feet and stepped forward, limping slightly. Chloe wondered what had happened to him. “Children vanished, they investigated,” he continued to speak. “The only one still accounted for, Captain Yuri…she’s not got much idea what happened. It all happened too quickly, she said. They were attacked by things that were strong, fast, violent…hungry.”


    Chloe shuddered.


    “She was the only one who made it out,” Andre said. “When she went back in later, the others were gone. Missing. Left behind was a trail of blood that led to nothing. As of now, every other member of her unit is presumed dead.”


    “How do you know this?” Chloe asked, raising one eyebrow over the other.


    “Well, for starters, she called it in,” Andre replied. “And I also just spent the week in District 5, investigating on behalf of the Council, looking for clues and answers of my own.”


    “You went alone?” Jon asked.


    “Went with her.” Andre gestured toward Ari. “Council wanted a small op, it was just slight recon to find out exactly what had happened there, see if we could dig up anything major.”


    “Did you?” Chloe frowned.


    Andre shook his head. “Got attacked too while I was doing my digging. And Captain Yuri? When she said the things that attacked them were strong and fast? She wasn’t lying. I barely stood a chance, whatever that thing was, it could have killed me. It should have killed me. If Commander Ari didn’t get to me in time—,”


    Andre trailed, his eyes going a little dead. Chloe thought she saw his lips quiver.


    “So we’re dealing with killers capable of taking down an entire Pandoran unit,” Jon murmured. “It’s gotta be other Pandorans, right?”


    “Or something else my father’s made.” Jin sounded frightened.


    “And you want us to go in there,” Chloe said, addressing Vaughn and Ari now. “You want us finding the answers you couldn’t.”


    “I have other commitments,” Ari said. “So does Vaughn. If I didn’t, I’d get to the bottom of this myself, tear apart whatever was responsible. But I need to be elsewhere, and much as your track record leaves a lot to be desired, truth is your unit has a valuable amount of battle experience, particularly given your recent ordeals. The resilience you displayed, your survival…the Council thinks—,”


    “Cut the crap.” Jon rolled his eyes. “We’re Pandorans. We know how it works. We’re the expendable soldiers. If things go south and we die, Council’s probably glad to have us out of the way.”


    Ari said nothing, nor did Vaughn.


    “Children are vanishing,” Andre said. “Whatever reason the Council has for sending us doesn’t matter. We can’t say no to this.”


    “Wait, us?” Chloe repeated, frowning at Andre in confusion. “You’re coming with?”


    “We need someone there for observation,” Ari answered. “Andre will tag along with your unit. Jonathan’s still your captain, he calls the shots and Andre’s under orders to comply. But he’s got a direct line to us and is expected to report on everything that happens, ensures maximum transparency.”


    “So it’s a monster hunt then,” Lucas said. “Works for me.”


    “More than just that.” Vaughn shook his head. “Bridge, the Chancellor…he won’t like that Capital’s intervening like this there, so you’ll need to get on his good side first, get his approval for what we’re about to do. Don’t want him feeling emasculated.”


    “Right.” Jon nodded. “And then the missing children. Where do we start our investigation on that?”


    “There’s a man there,” Andre said. “Pastor Miguel. I met him. Sees a good enough chap, runs an orphanage and he’s willing to let us stay there while we’re in the District. We can conduct some of our investigations there, see if we find out anything about the missing kids, or if we can pick up a trail that’ll lead us to them.”


    “And you’re not being chosen for this because you’re expendable,” Ari said. “We’re all on the same side here. If what you learn’s far too worrying, if you find yourselves in over your heads or in some sort of danger you can’t handle, send communication back to us. We’ll try to send more help.”


    “When do we leave?” Jon asked.


    “Immediately.” Both Ari and Vaughn answered in unison. “We’ve got two choppers ready to get you there. You’ll land outside the District and make your way in through the regular entrance, go through all of the regular procedures. We want to avoid stepping on any toes here.”


    “Okay.” Jon nodded. “Is there anything else at all we need to know? Anything you might have left out of this briefing, conveniently or inconveniently?”


    Ari exchanged looks with Vaughn. “Yes,” she said, nodding. “Just one more thing.”


    “What is it?” Chloe asked.


    “Be careful.”