CHAPTER 22: CH 22: TRAINING.

"Haa."

Levi took a deep breath before following Zack to the debrief room.

They walked for about a minute before they stopped in front of a door.

The door retracted to the side with a soft hiss and Zack gestured for Levi to enter.

He stopped at the door frame, "Zack, you’re not coming in?"

He adjusted his glasses, "Unfortunately not, above my access so I won’t bother myself about it. Good luck tho."

And just like that he was off, strutting away as the silhouette of his lab coat flared in the air.

A voice called out from inside the room, Jace’s, "Levi, hurry up."

Levi turned and walked in.

The room was relatively silent, just a simple metal table in front of two chairs while in front was a giant television screen.

Jace was already sitting on one of the chairs as Levi approached him, "Uhmm... How does this work?"

Jace’s gaze remained dead ahead, his fingers were intertwined on the table, "That screen will light up displaying the five heads of the unit and then they’ll ask us about the mission while we answer."

Levi leaned in close, whispering, "Do we tell them everything? Like the whole truth?"

Jace shot up front his seat, making the chair scratch across the floor, "Absolutely not. Look just let me answer first and then you follow my lead. If these people know what you know then we’re dead."

Levi said nothing else but nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, the screen flashed with color.

Divided into five rows, each showing a different head of the unit.

All dressed in a pristine suit that screamed authority.

They hurriedly took their seats again.

The man at the centre started, "Kheum... Welcome everyone the debriefing on the mission regarding the stormfront island.

We’re joined by the only surviving members of the mission, Jace Korran and Levi Kane."

A lady at the far left spoke next, neat long flowing black hair and looked in her forties, "How did you lose all your teammates Korran? I thought you were competent."

Levi turned to Jace, visibly seeing the vein bulge slightly on his temple, ’He’s gonna crack.’

He didn’t, intertwining his fingers and placing them back on the table, "I tried my best to keep my teammates alive ma’am but—"

She cut him off, "But you failed, is that right?"

Jace didn’t let her get to him, his face remained expressionless, "The first tried to run and was killed by the Bulgarian Variant.

The second was killed by vampires before I could do anything about it and the last was... Well turned."

The person next to her interrupted, "Wait, so you’re saying you killed your own teammate?"

A bead of sweat started to form at Jace’s brows, "Well not exactly Sir—"

The woman in the far left interrupted again, tone like she wanted his head on a spike, "Korran, we don’t have time for your useless antics, tell us what happened!"

’Shit he’s gonna say it’s me, isn’t he. I’m screwed.’

Levi thought.

Jace calmed himself, "Actually ma’am, he turned and jumped me but Levi was thankfully there to stop him."

And just like that all eyes darted to Levi who sat next to him nervously drumming his fingers against the table.

The man at the centre spoke up, "So you’re the Levi Kane who went after a hive alone. Broke the record. And now you’re saving one of our soldiers’lives."

Although the question wasn’t really a question it was clear the man wanted a response.

He answered, "Uhmm... Yeah?"

Their faces went back to stoicism, "So what was found on the island?"

Jace answered, "Although we did not find any high class vampires and most humans were just workers, we did however discover the variant in its incubation vessel and brought back the extract specimen."

The man nodded, "Is that all?"

"Excuse me sir? What else is there?"

Jace asked, feigning ignorance.

He waved them off, "Nothing else. Just curiosity. Since that is all then this debrief is concluded."

And just like that the room went silent.

Levi turned to Jace, "Is that what a debrief is? A chance for people who weren’t there to pick us apart?"

Jace’s face remained down, "Unfortunately yes. They’re the unit’s heads— basically they own us so we kinda need their approval if we’re gonna function."

Jace stood up, heading for the door before Levi grabbed him by the wrist.

"Yes? Kane."

He asked exhaustedly.

"You haven’t given me the files of the families yet, come to think of it you haven’t given me anything yet—"

Jace cut in, "Stop. Okay, just stop. I get that you’re frustrated and everything but these things take time—"

"I don’t have any time."

Levi snapped.

Jace retorted, "Well I don’t care, control yourself and keep the anger in check, go on mission and I’ll get you the files but I need you to give me a breather."

Just then the doors hissed open before them, Selene walked in, arching a brow, "Am I interrupting something?"

"No," Jace shot down, "I was just leaving."

He marched out of the room, sidestepping her.

Levi turned his attention to her, "What?"

She placed her hands on her waist, "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

She turned back to him, "You’ll see."

They both marched out the room, headed for the elevator.

They moved to a different floor, a silent floor as each step echoed throughout the corridor.

She turned to a door, placing her thumb on the biometric tab on the panel by the side.

The door slid open.

Just an empty room, average in area compared to the other rooms in this base.

The only significant thing being the rack of weapons by the side on the door.

He hesitantly stepped in first, still not fully understanding the point of all of this.

~BZZZRT.~

He fell to a knee as something snapped onto his back.

Shocking him enough to make his blood boil, grit his teeth and scream in pain.

Then another.

Another.

Each with a sting that made it hard to think before a shock that could bring the dead back to life.

His face boiled red, he crawled along the floor on all fours before finally turning around.

It was Selene, loading up another round to fire at him.