The man who accompanied me gestured for me to stay there with the crowd and then went to the front of the tent, standing in line. There were five men and two women lined up with their heads straight, shoulders high, and a soldier-like stance. They did not speak or move a muscle; they looked like statues, and soon the man who had accompanied me looked the same.
"What is this?" a voice from the crowd shouted. But no one gave him an answer, and the silence was getting suffocating as the minutes passed. More whispers started to pop up here and there, and I could hear the people beside me talking.
"Do you know why we are here?" a boyish voice said in a low pitch.
"I have no idea. I was going to my basketball practice when someone bumped into me, and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by a group of men who said they wanted to talk to me. As I was asking them what they wanted, one of them mentioned my throat being rather weird, which was true, because I had a sore throat , and he offered me water. I took it, and suddenly my body felt heavy and I couldn't speak. They pushed me into a car, and I remember falling asleep as one of them checked my uniform pocket," said the other with a rather loud voice, which anyone in the crowd could have heard, but no one moved their head to look at him or respond.
The story was different from mine, but the outcome was the same. They had used some sort of medicine to make us fall asleep and used that time to give us our uniforms and, presumably, take us to our rooms. One of the scariest parts was the information they had on us. They knew my schedule and attacked me at that one specific time when I was alone, with no one nearby—and seemingly they had done the same to him. They had been studying us and memorizing our schedules, but when? I hadn't noticed any other men except the two the other day. They even went as far as knowing he had a sore throat, since they had a bottle of water with them—but that isn't really something to be sure of.
I can't believe that nearly 24 hours have passed, considering the time is around the same as when I got abducted. This whole situation makes me think we aren't even in Estonia right now, which is crazy. I might have been transferred to a completely different country. How would my parents even find me if I was miles away? Panic started to rise, passing through my nerves and almost making me tremble.
"Yes, me too," said a voice I couldn't quite identify, since the guys on my right were blocking my view. "Something like that happened to me as well, and when I woke up, I saw this man asking me questions about myself and asking me about any allergies."
I assumed that the boys had a different doctor; one who was male, and that he did his job quite differently, since the doctor I was assigned didn't seem to care about any allergies or need any information about me. It seemed like she already knew everything. Either that, or the boy was lying—which would be absurd, since he had no reason to.
Later, the voices grew louder and people started chatting more freely. Around twelve minutes had passed, with no sign of anyone coming, and the eight guards would not move from their positions, like statues.
The girl to my left had been looking at me for a long time, trying to catch my eye so she could start a conversation. I could feel her eyes burning into my side, but I didn't want to look at her. I had no desire whatsoever to spark a conversation. Still, she felt differently and suddenly spoke loudly, "Whoever is supposed to come is sure taking his time."
Now, to say I didn't hear her would be a lie, but I hoped she was talking to someone else. I didn't lift my head or move my gaze from the ground, hoping someone else would answer her. But as the seconds passed, I looked in her direction uncontrollably. She was looking at me with cautious eyes, and when I returned her gaze, a light smile covered her lips.
"Maybe he wants us to wait," I added, as if I had any idea what that meant. But she didn't either, so it was a good way to get someone thinking, and during that moment, the supervisor might arrive.
"What do you mean? You think they're doing this on purpose?" she said, lifting her dark arched eyebrows and looking at me with an amused expression.
I thought she would just consider it quietly and ask no further questions, but apparently she was one of the curious ones.
"He wants us to wait for him in silence, to make his introduction more dramatic. That also puts him in control, I suppose. We are forty people here, all afraid of someone whose face we can't even identify , but we are afraid of what he can do, so he is showing us he has the upper hand, maybe?" I said, pretending to think while speaking.
"It was just a stupid thought anyway, so don't think too much of it," I added, feeling obligated to fill the silence.
"It's ra—" she began, but was interrupted as everyone's faces turned in one direction, murmuring things I couldn't catch. She turned as well.
I looked to see what had captured everyone's attention in the upper right of the tent. Despite the tall guy in front of me blocking the view, I could still catch a glimpse of the figure walking toward the tent.
It was a man with raven-black hair slicked back, revealing a small scar on his brow and a chiseled jaw with a freshly shaved beard. He walked with perfect posture, each step light as a feather. Seeing him made me unconsciously straighten my back and pull my neck in, as if I were ashamed of my posture.
He took his time, walking slowly and looking at no one in the crowd. His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, like a machine with a task that needed to be performed. I could swear I saw one of the men in uniform flinch as he passed, but he didn't spare him a glance.
Once he reached the exact middle of the front row, he stopped and gave a small cough to silence the whispers. When that didn't work, he pulled something from his pocket and made a quick movement with his other hand.
He had pulled out a gun.
He quickly raised it and fired upward, leaving a small hole in the tent's roof. My ears rang from the noise, but he didn't look at the ceiling, he looked straight into my eyes for a split second before moving on to someone else. His gaze was terrifying, and it took everything in me not to tremble. It had an intensity that could make even a grown man flinch. His dark eyes revealed nothing as he scanned the crowd, instilling fear with every passing second. The worst part was the faint hint of amusement behind them.
"I am Supervisor Areg, and I will be responsible for your day-to-day training," he said, pausing briefly before continuing.
"I will be responsible for your lives and will decide whether you are worthy of eating, sleeping, or even living. My word will be absolute, and if anyone has any objections, they may step forward now, or die later."
He spoke without any emotion, and it made me want to vomit.
"You will undergo intense training, and you might die trying. If you fall behind, you will die. If you refuse to cooperate, you will die. And if I hear any complaints whatsoever, you already know what will happen."
He paused again, letting the tension build.
"You are no one here. Absolutely nothing. Like stray dogs with no owner. We are in a jungle right now, and all of you should know the number one law of a jungle."
He waited two seconds before answering it himself.
"The strongest survive."