The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 72

Chapter 72: Military Day 1: Reid’s Nightmare

Reid stepped forward with the others, entering the tower. The air inside was cool compared to the brutal heat outside. He barely paid attention to the elegant interior, heading straight for the stairs with Lisa and Damien at his sides.

Dean opted to take the elevator, which was available only for recruits on the last two floors since he could barely walk at this point.

The place was a five-floor one so they had to climb for a while before they got to the top floor.

As they climbed the stairs, Lisa let out an exaggerated sigh. “I know we just ran a damn marathon, but do we really have to climb this many stairs?”

Damien chuckled. “You’re getting lazy Little sis.”

Lisa shot him a glare. “I hate you.”

Reid, on the other hand, barely reacted, he quietly climbed step after step. Compared to the earlier run, this was nothing.

When they finally reached the top floor, the hallway stretched before them, lined with white metal doors.

A digital panel beside each one indicated room numbers and a place for fingerprint scanning.

Damien was the first to speak. “I’m taking room one.”

“Room 3” Reid chose as he walked towards the door.

“I’ll take room 2” Lisa also said.

As they approached their doors and placed their hands on the panel, a voice echoed through the hallway’s speakers.

“Recruits, your biometric data has been recorded. Your assigned room will only be open to you. Attempting to switch or enter another’s room without authorization will result in disciplinary action.”

The doors open to reveal an impressive white room big enough to fit 20 people at a time.

“See you later Reid” Lisa said as she walked into her room and closed the door without even waiting for a reply.

Damien could only shake his head before he also entered his room.

Reid also walked into his room, closed the door and released his forged beasts from his inventory.

“Welcome to our new home guys,” He said as he looked around curiously.

On Reid’s right-hand side was another door which Reid assumed led to the bathroom and he walked towards it, leaving Rusty, Nyx, Beel and Axie to familiarize themselves with the room.

Reid took a quick shower before returning to the room and putting on his second set of combat uniforms and also weighted gear.

They were not ordered by Commander Ajax to take them off permanently, so he was unwilling to take a chance.

He lay down on the bed as his eyes focused on the ceiling. There were a few more hours before sundown so he decided to take a nap, asking Evo to wake him up an hour before sundown.

_______

Reid woke up again in the dream world. He knew he was dreaming because he was currently facing his younger self.

It was late in the night and young Reid was currently in his room but unlike other kids his age, Reid was wide awake.

He huddled in a dark corner of the room with his blanket covering him. His gaze fixed on the opposite end of the room as he trembled.

Present day Reid looked at where young him’s eyes were fixed and there was nothing there.

But he knew otherwise. He remembered this day as if it happened just yesterday. This was the day after the great families meet, the night after he killed another human.

And right now, he was experiencing a breakdown. Even though there wasn’t anyone there, young Reid could see someone.

Someone stood there pointing an accusatory finger at him. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Not in this room, not in this world. Yet there he stood,

Line.

Young Reid gripped the blanket tighter as he looked at the boy who was supposed to be dead.

Line stood there with the dagger still jammed in his head, and blood dripped out of his nose, eyes, mouth and ears.

His vacant eyes were fixed on Reid as he pointed a finger at him.

“This is your fault” Line’s voice came out distorted. Both Reids felt their hairs stand and Young Reid tried to open his mouth to scream but no sound came out.

“This is all your fault” He spoke again, this time his voice was even louder.

Young Reid’s breathing became even heavier when Line slowly started walking towards him.

He dragged his feet as he walked up to Reid, leaving a trail of blood on the floor behind him.

Young Reid backed up until his back touched the wall, to his horror, there was nowhere to run.

Line was soon upon him, his vacant eyes terrifying young Reid as he had gotten so close. He stared directly into Reid’s blue eyes as his mouth opened to speak again.

“This is all your fault” he kept repeating.

Line raised his hands and placed them on Reid’s throat just as he had done before he was stabbed in the head and started choking the scared Reid.

Present Reid felt a pull as he was forced into the body of his younger self, allowing him to feel the suffocating pain of being choked even though he knew that none of this was real.

“This is all your fault” Line repeated like a mantra.

Reid struggled, his body was not following his commands as they froze up, refusing to move, until…

[…d] Reid heard a call but he didn’t know where it was coming from.

[Reid] The voice came again, this time a little louder but he still couldn’t locate its origin.

[Reid wake up!]

He jolted awake as he felt his breath returning. His face was filled with sweat and his panicked eyes were slowly turning into red before they returned to blue when he realized he was back.

His forged-beasts looked at him in worry but he just patted their little heads in assurance.

[Are you okay Reid]

He noticed that the watch, issued to them when they first joined was beeping like crazy.

He raised it to eye level and read “abnormal heart rate” on it.

He slowly breathed out as his heart rate returned to normal before he replied.

“I’m fine Evo,” he said, “just had a bad dream”.

[Do you want to talk about it?] She quietly asked.

“I’m fine,” Reid muttered again, but the words felt hollow. He glanced at the ceiling for a moment. He thought he would’ve forgotten about all that by now but he hadn’t. He had an idea why the dreams had returned but he wasn’t too sure.

Reid looked at the time on the watch and noticed that he woke up an hour earlier than he planned so he just stood up and went to shower again.

He highly doubted he could go back to sleep after the dream he just had.

He put everything back on as he finished showering for the second time today, his forged beasts taking their place on his head and shoulders as he walked out of the room.

The hallway was quiet as all the recruits were currently in their rooms so Reid decided to take the elevator down.

He exited the tower and stopped at the flat part of the hill where they had lined up earlier. The height of the hill allowed him a full view of the entire military base.

He could see military cars moving in and out of the base, some had the corpses of massive primals tied to the top which Reid thought was weird since there were lots of inventory tech these days.

A gust of violent wind suddenly came from above him, causing him to look up and spot Elizabeth’s purple dragon descending towards him.

Elizabeth jumped before the dragon completely touched the ground, landing close to Reid.

The dragon shrunk down and perched on her shoulders, keeping its eyes on Reid.

“shouldn’t you be in your dorms until sundown?” she noted.

Reid shrugged. “Didn’t feel like staying in my room.”

Elizabeth didn’t press further. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the base below, watching the constant movement of soldiers and vehicles.

“How’s your first day in the military so far?” she asked.

Reid considered the question for a moment before answering. “Not bad.”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

He glanced at her. “You want a longer answer?”

She smirked. “I expected more than two words.”

Reid exhaled, shifting his weight slightly. “Well, the first test was.. normal. We just had to run to this tower while wearing weights. But I expected worse, so it’s fine.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Give it time. They’re still easing you in. By next week, you’ll be wishing for death.”

Reid nodded his head faintly. “Good to know.”

If any of the other recruits had heard the conversation between them, they would have tried to strangle Reid or even drop out of the military but it would’ve been too late for them.

“So, you wanna tell me how you were able to use an ability even though your forged-beast wasn’t by your side?” She reminded that he promised to explain to her how he used one of the skills of his forged-beasts after they got out of that mess.

He thought she might’ve forgotten about that after all that happened but apparently not. With a sigh, he decided to bite the bullet and tell her… Well some of it.

“I have an ability that allows me to copy the ability of my partners” Reid said, even telling her this much required a whole lot of trust but he just felt like she was someone he could trust.

Or maybe it’s just his vulnerable side, after having a nightmare about his past, talking.

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped, never had she ever heard of a tamer who could do what Reid just stated.

“Who are you really?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“Just a kid who got extremely lucky while searching for scraps” she didn’t quite understand what he meant but she knew he wasn’t going to elaborate further.

But him telling her this much was enough. It showed that he had somehow come to trust her, even if only partially.

They stood in silence, keeping their eyes on the horizon. At this point, the sun was close to setting which meant they’ll be called for training very soon.

Elizabeth suddenly turned her gaze toward his shoulder, where a small, pink axolotl-like creature sat, blinking up at her with large, curious eyes.

Her expression shifted slightly, her curiosity piqued. “That one’s new.”

Reid glanced at Axie, who tilted its head at Elizabeth, its gills swaying slightly. “Yeah. Axie.”

Elizabeth crouched slightly to get a better look. “What’s its ability?”

Reid hesitated for a moment before answering. “It can regenerate fast.”

Elizabeth nodded. “That could be useful in the right fight. Though it doesn’t exactly scream ‘intimidating.'”

Axie let out a soft, bubbling noise, almost as if protesting the statement. Elizabeth chuckled. “No offense.”

“I just thought I’d drop by and check on you four since I’ll be leaving for an assignment soon.” She informed as the dragon took its bigger form.

“Commander Ajax’s training might be hard, maybe the worst you’ve ever experienced” she took a pause “but be sure not to die.”

With that, her dragon flew away and Reid kept his eyes on them until they flew over the wall that surrounded the base.

“I have no intention to” he whispered to himself as he started descending down the hill.