Leo returned to his room to find Anthony already asleep. His brow raised as he saw Anthony’s body shivering.

  Worried something was happening, he moved next to Anthony to get a better look.

  Upon approaching, Leo heard a faint murmur coming from Anthony.

  “Stop…More…”

  The words were weak and desperate, as if he were begging to somebody.

  Leo frowned. It had only been a day since the tragic loss of his wife, Sophia, and yet he had no time to mourn.

  Lying there, sweaty and pale, he looked like a starving dog shivering in the rain, nothing more than a hollow shell, clinging to the warmth.

  Leo wanted to say something. Anything. But he couldn’t find the right words to comfort his friend. So he turned to his side of the room and did what he could do.

  Train.

  He trained until his muscles begged for mercy and his vision faded. But he didn’t stop, not until the weight of his responsibility dulled the pain of everything else.

  Eventually, he collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. Only then did he finally fall into a deep, restless sleep.

  The next morning, they were awoken by the guards.

  “Wake up, people! Today’s your next trial! Line up with your teammate and prepare to move out!”

  Groaning, everyone in the dorm begrudgingly got up from their slumber, and slowly lined up into two columns, teammates side by side.

  “Alright, we’ll bring you to the waiting area, and from there, you will await further instructions. Please follow me.”

  The guard led the group to the waiting area.

  Entering the room, Leo couldn’t see the other groups that were here, he assumed they were in separate waiting rooms for this trial. And the room was significantly smaller with no grand stage like before with chairs facing the small podium at the front.

  The guard turned around as the group came to a halt. “Alright, for now, please take a seat. The overseer for this level will come to you shortly.” With a small bow, the guard excused himself from the room, leaving the group alone sitting in the room.

  The group slowly stirred as everyone began to murmur to one another. Some of the people even began to tear up as they spoke.

  “What do you think the test will be this time?”

  “God, please no more fighting.”

  “You just know it’s fighting…”

  “Tyler would’ve been great here…”

  Leo looked to his side to see Anthony in a daze, looking down at his hands as he mumbled something under his breath. It was as if he was having an argument with something. Concerned, he reached out to Anthony, but before he could, their overseer entered the room.

  He was in a navy-blue shirt and black pants with a silver tie around his neck, wearing glasses, a white beret, and a shiny silver watch on his left hand. On his chest was a golden badge that read “Detective”.

  He wore a more serious expression than the others and was much older, with his hair graying and balding. He looked to be a veteran of some sorts.

  He climbed the steps of the podium, and planted himself behind it like he was preparing a speech.

  In a rough, somewhat raspy voice, he spoke.

  “You may address me as Sergeant Hoffman. I’ll be working as your group’s overseer today. I won’t waste any of your time and get straight to it. Your task for this trial is based around not the body, but the mind. In the Internal Security Division, investigation is the majority of our work. We don’t just need powerful idiots, but cunning as well.”

  He pointed behind him. “Behind me, this wall will open up a room where each team will be assigned. Your task is to escape that room successfully. The method of escape will be different for every room, designed to be very easily escapable. If you can’t even meet this minimum, don’t even think about joining us. Any questions so far?”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He scanned the room, seeing no hands raised. He nodded in satisfaction.

  “Great, I like this speed. Now, the catch to this is that this time, you’ll be in a team of four. This means you’ll have to choose another team to work with. Of course, we’ll allow you to choose your teams just this once. But please, don’t take too much time or we’ll just randomly assign you with the leftovers.”

  He raised his left hand to look at his watch. “I’ll give you lot ten minutes to assemble a team of four. Any team after that will be given their team. Your time starts…now!”

  Getting up, Leo quickly scanned the crowd, looking to another group. But the only other group he could think of was Patrick and Connie’s as they were the only ones he actually knew.

  ‘But Patrick…’

  Pushing his bias aside, he turned to Anthony. “I think I know a group we can team up with.”

  Anthony nodded. “If you think they’re useful, I’m game.”

  With that confirmation, Leo looked at the crowd. Scanning the crowd, he quickly found the two as Patrick was a hulk compared to the people around him. “C’mon Anthony.”

  With Anthony in tow, they quickly approached Patrick.

  Tapping his shoulder, Leo asked, “You guys grouped yet?”

  Turning, his face grew into a bright smile. “Of course not, in fact, I was looking for you!” He quickly smacked Leo's shoulder, causing a sore spot.

  Leo looked around. “Where’s Connie?”

  A voice came from behind. “Right here.”

  “Ah!” Anthony and Leo jumped, turning to see Connie right behind them. “Why’re you behind us?” Anthony asked.

  “I was hiding from him,” she said, pointing at her poor teammate.

  Anthony and Leo thought in unison.

  ‘How are they even a team…’

  Leo, locked in conversation with the two, didn’t notice Anthony’s eyes drift to him, a dazed look painting his face.

  Patrick’s easy-going attitude, Connie’s cold indifference, Leo anchoring the group together.

  It was like it was natural for them.

  ‘And me?’

  Anthony looked down, only to see his trembling hands.

  Weak.

  Everybody saw Leo as a leader. Even now they clung to his words like a gospel.

  Even he did. The idea of it stung him more than he wanted to admit.

  ‘They follow him…rely on him…’

  He didn’t even notice his eyes had turned cold as he looked at Leo as if he were a parasite.

  ‘Why do I lose everything, yet he carries on like nothing’s happened…?’

  He gritted his teeth to the point his jaw ached.

  The same cold, tempting voice plucked at his mind. ‘He’s nothing, you could be so much more, Anthony…’

  ‘I could be better…’

  ‘No!’ Anthony grabbed his head with one hand. ‘He’s a friend, Anthony, what are you thinking!?’

  He had the strength, he knew he did. He just needed to find it.

  ***

  The ten minutes had passed, as the sergeant moved the remaining groups into teams, most having some weird conflict between one another. Leo could pretty much see who was doomed to fail this trial.

  ‘Thank god Connie and Patrick can work together…despite their…differences?’

  From what he could see, Connie and Patrick had a weird chemistry when it came to teamwork, needing no communication when dealing with their enemy in the first trial. Regardless of how they treated each other, they had good synergy. This was exactly why Leo could rely on them, especially with the new discovery of Patrick’s family.

  He felt with it, Patrick could be a good connection to keep.

  The Sergeant stepped up again. “Alright, with these new groups, you may choose what room to enter. Of course, each room’s environment is basically the same except for the clues left in each room. Those who cannot escape fail and will be sent to reprocessing or to another sector depending on how they did in the first trial. Now, please choose a room, one team per room or you both will fail. Go on now!” He waved his hand towards the newly opened rooms behind him.

  Patrick looked at the rest of them, “Well, no reason to overthink it, might as well just go in and wing it.”

  For once, Leo could agree with him, seeing as the overseer had said each room was of equal difficulty.

  They chose the room second to the very right of the row. The room was a basic living room, holding a TV, a lamp on the right of it, with a table and couch in front of it.

  A ceiling fan lay running above the table with a light at the center.

  Past the setup, there was a bathroom containing a shower, sink, mirror, and toilet. Across the bathroom seemed to be a bedroom with a queen-sized bed at the center, two lamps stationed at each side of the bed, each flickering after the other and a closet across the foot of the bed. The bedroom ceiling was covered in stickers shaped like planets and stars.

  And the thing that stood out most, a metal door directly opposite of the group. A keypad lay above the handle with a paper slip tucked between the cracks.

  The guard motioned for them. “Enter whenever you’re ready. Read the paper slip to start the test.”

  Nodding, the four took their step in.

  Once they were situated in front of the television, the opening behind them filled itself like cement, completely blocking off the entrance they came in.

  The easiest trial had finally begun.