Second Generation 

Word definitely got out that we and Airo had formed an alliance. Because after that Woodsy didn't bother us much. That was when we began to ask the same question we had asked each other when we had first been kidnapped and abducted.  

"What the hell are we even doing here?" Neo asks me.  

We've just finished another round of hellish spear training, using rough wooden poles that dug into your skin. All of our hands were covered in blisters and blood, and the rest was an extremely long ten minutes. No one wanted to talk to each other, not because we were on bad terms, but simply because there was absolutely nothing to talk about. We had formed a cross-team with 001, but that meant absolutely nothing because we were currently being worked not to the bone but to the freaking bone marrow. We were constantly covered in grime and sweat and blood, with no time for a shower, before we had three breaks in each interval of the blue light, now we had and that was barely enough time to wobble back down to Pod 50. The time the blue light shown had also increased significantly, and the training itself also became worse. Much worse. Occasionally we would see the Administrator, but most of the time it was just the instructors with their black masks bellowing us around. Sometimes we had to run and dodge and weave through hails of bullets flying from behind our backs, and if we got hit we had to keep going, biting on through the pain like machines. But people were dying less than before. Because all four hundred or so people in the cave were all exceptional in their own right. But of course, then there we the monsters. 

"Number 001 - 'Airo'." 

"Yes." 

"Number 002 - 'Elemental'." 

"Yes." 

"Number 003 - 'Luc'." 

"Yes." 

The list continues. 

"Number 004 - 'Artee'." 

"Number 005 - 'Sword'." 
"Number 006 - 'Kake'." 

"Number 007 - 'Chris'." 

"Number 008 - 'Avoma'." 

"Number 009 - 'Ronin'." 

"Number 010 - 'Neo'." 

Yeah, I ranked up to 005. The ranking have been changing a lot, but the gap between 003 and 004 is massive. Airo, Elemental and Luc are monsters. Yesterday Luc came back with fifteen gun wounds on his arms and legs, and then went back to training. Elemental's strength and endurance score was almost on par with Airo. The only thing I was at the top of was the hand-to-hand combat score, though, where I scored one point above Elemental. Before we knew it, another month had passed. Then two. And then, after a whole year of being stuck in the cave, training day in and day out, without anything happening, the course of our already miserable lives changed forever. 

It had been apparent that we were expecting new arrivals for quite some time. Elemental had caught sight of the Administrator's cronies building another row of living pods on the other side of the cave, where there was a large empty space, and as far as we knew only our Pod knew of it.  

"It can’t be just a few people," Luc said. "We have half the Pods here empty." 

"And half of that is destroyed, turned into a burnt out ruin," Ronin replied, bandaging a deep gash on his shin. "I wonder if there's another thousand people stuck in pits out in the darkness somewhere." 

When he mentioned that, we all instantly thought back to the terrifying, rumbling cave-in which had buried four hundred people on our first day in the Facility, which was what he had come to call this place, after what the Administrator had called it on that very same day.  

And then three days later, as we were on break, it happened. I was gulping down water and bandaging a giant scrape on Neo's arm, with help from Artee, when all 252 remaining survivors in the Facility felt a familiar sharp pang of pain in their heads, and Pharo (The Voice) told us to convene at the stage, which was where the Administrator made announcements. We dreaded these because it was always to introduce another more insane and bloody and brutal training method or to announce a change in the top 20 rankings. Most of the people in Pod 50 were in the top 25, with the exception of Swono who was 027. We gathered in three groups of 84, like legions of soldiers standing before their King. 

"Welcome," The Administrator said, in his calm, droning voice. "I will now inform you of two things." 

Nobody said anything. Obviously. 

"The first, I will tell you why you are here." 

I could feel everybody in the room instantly perk up.  

"There are two years until you can leave the Facility," he continues. "And when you leave this place, the lowest rank will be 075. Whether you like it or not." 

The skin on the back of my neck prickles. We will have to leave behind more than 150 people who are currently standing here. 

"Once you leave, you will live as my hounds. You are to become my hands and feet, my sword and shield, following my order silently, killing my enemies brutally, without hesitation, without fear, without questioning. You will become my personal force, and you will be the strongest warriors, assassins, knights, spies – take your pick – in all of Erisen. Failure to complete tasks means death. Refusal of orders means death. Fear means death. Questioning means death. Betrayal means death. Ingrain this into your bones, your brains, your body. Your lives belong to me, and me alone." 

The fact that he can all say that at the same pitch and tone is ridiculous. There's still silence. But this time, it's a stunned, disbelieving, shocked, silence. But also, an expressionless silence, made up of faces with dead emotions. So this was what this was all about. Nobody asked for our opinions, nobody needed our opinions. And what was most infuriating was that we couldn’t even say no. Because the instant we did we would be dead. I'd thrown away my identity willingly because I was sure I'd earn my freedom, one way or the other. But what about my younger sister, who I haven't contacted for a year and a half? She left for the Western Continent to chase her dreams half a year before I was dragged here, and the promise was to return after a year. Now, I'm the one who's far past that deadline. I don’t know what to do anymore. I'll have to live the rest of my life as Sword.  

"Now that that is clear," The Administrator moves on, "I'll tell you the second announcement. Soon, the current number of people in the Facility will become a number with four digits. The Second Generation is on its way. You have a week before 1500 new people join you here." 

He pauses to let this new information set in. 

"However, there isn’t enough space to accommodate all 1,500 people. And no one can live outside a Pod. There are exactly 1000 spaces in total. Meaning there are 748 spaces available." 
I already know where this is going, and I'm about to be sick. We'd already steeled ourselves for what was going to happen. I'd made it a year without dirtying my hands. But it seemed like the insane man before me was determined to send me to hell when I left this world. 

"You already know what I will ask of you," he says. "All of you standing here. Every single one of you, will kill three people. Failure to do so will result in death. You may kill more than the designated amount to eliminate others. This is your second mission at the Facility, 'Purge'."