Chapter Text
**Nadia POV**
Me and the rest of the girls were walking down the stairs while the sound of our footsteps echoed through the hallway.
A few of the lightbulbs were broken or flickering, and spiders had made homes in different spots on the ceiling. I kept looking up at them as I walked. They all seemed to be doing pretty well food-wise, with flies and other insects wrapped tightly in their webs.
The biggest spider had the biggest web and the most food.
He was like the king of the spiders in their little hallway kingdom.
Before long, we reached another metal door. This one was grey metal and strangely clean compared to the rest of the place.
There were three keys needed to open it, plus a fingerprint scan and a password. By the time the men at the front finally unlocked everything, I was already staring at the door so hard that my eyes hurt.
When it slowly opened, it felt like we were stepping into a whole other world.
At least for me.
But I hadn’t really been to many places before.
The girl who tried to run flashed through my mind again, though the thought disappeared almost as quickly as it came.
I wondered why she decided to run.
Maybe she also had sisters. Or maybe a brother. Maybe a cat or a dog waiting for her at home.
I’d been begging Momma and Daddy for a dog for years, but they always said maybe when I was older.
Maybe that girl had been scared she would never see her family again and thought that if she ran, she could still make it home.
But she didn’t.
And now she would never see them again.
Forever.
I knew I should have felt sad for her, but instead I just felt empty. It was a strange feeling, one I had never felt before, and I didn’t like it at all.
As we walked into another hallway, I started looking around more carefully. The wall on the left was made of dark bricks while the others were painted black.
When I looked to my right, I noticed more metal doors farther down the hallway. These ones only had fingerprint scanners instead of all the locks from before.
As we got closer, I saw that every door had a small window in it.
All the girls looked inside one by one, but because I was near the back, I couldn’t see their expressions, which only made me more curious.
When it was finally my turn, I pressed closer to the window.
Inside were around twenty girls, maybe between fifteen and twenty-five years old. They were doing some sort of trained dance while holding guns.
Every movement was perfectly timed.
They turned together.
Dropped down together.
Moved together.
It almost didn’t even look real.
Then we kept walking.
The next door was farther away and the last one in the hallway. Beyond it, I could already see another door waiting at the very end.
Again, the girls looked through the window one by one.
Then it was my turn.
This room was much brighter, with lights above that almost looked like sunlight even though it was nighttime outside.
Seven girls stood in a straight line wearing ballerina clothes and those hard pointy shoes.
I remembered a girl from my class who did ballet. She wasn’t allowed to wear those shoes yet because they were difficult or dangerous or something.
I always thought she was really good already, so I never understood why she couldn’t wear them.
The girls in this room looked older though.
Maybe around twenty-five or thirty.
I wasn’t very good at guessing ages because I didn’t really know anyone that old.
As I walked away from the window, confusion started building in my chest again.
Why were we here?
I kept thinking about that during the rest of the walk toward the final door at the end of the hallway.
This one also only needed a fingerprint scan.
Inside was what I guessed was the cafeteria. There were long tables with chairs and not much else besides a few doors spread across the walls.
I thought we would continue through one of those doors next, like some sort of tour through the building.
Or bunker.
Or whatever this place was supposed to be.
But instead, the man ordered us to sit down.
I was the first girl to sit.
The others hesitated, nervously looking around at each other.
That was when my eyes met the blue-eyed girl’s again.
I honestly didn’t understand why everyone was still standing there.
Didn’t they see what happened to the girl who didn’t listen?
I tapped the chair beside me while still looking at her because I really didn’t want her to get shot.
After a second, she carefully sat down next to me and once again reached for my hand.
The man was clearly losing patience now. He screamed for everyone to sit down while waving the gun around wildly, and the rest of the girls quickly rushed into chairs.
For a while, nobody spoke.
The plastic chair felt cold against my thighs, especially because I was still wearing my shorts and dirty hemd from earlier.
As I looked around the room again, I noticed two men standing in the corner talking quietly.
One of them wore a suit and was pretty fat.
Not like my daddy though.
Daddy was also fat, but in a different way. Mostly just his stomach.
I kept staring at them until I realized the man in the suit was looking back at me while he talked.
Then suddenly I recognized him.
He was the same man who had walked past us earlier while we were standing in line.
The one who had said:
“Don’t cry, красивая девушка. You’re going to do great things.”
The moment I realized that, four more men walked out of the door closest to us and lined up silently in front of the tables.
After a few seconds, the man in the suit stepped forward.
“Good evening, girls.”
His voice echoed through the room.
“You’re probably wondering what you’re doing here. What this place even is.”
He smiled slightly, but it didn’t make me feel better.
“This place will help you become the strongest version of yourselves. The best version.”
“The men and women here will train you and help you accomplish this.”
He slowly walked back and forth while speaking.
“There are a few simple rules you must follow.”
“First rule. You do what you’re told by the people in charge.”
“Second rule. No talking during lessons or after lights out.”
“Third rule. No crying, screaming, fighting, or emotional outbursts.”
“Fourth rule. Respect your instructors and your group members at all times.”
“Fifth rule. Failure is unacceptable.”
The room became completely silent after that.
“If any of you girls break one of these rules, there will be consequences.”
Then he looked around at all of us.
“You’ll be split into groups of ten, so that will be…”
He counted us quickly.
“Three groups.”
“First group.”
* Anastasia
* Svetlana
* Katya
* Irina
* Elena
* Viktoria
* Zara
* Alina
* Sofia
* Mila
“Follow Mister Volkov.”
“Second group.”
* Nadia
* Eva
* Daria
* Lina
* Camille
* Yuna
* Katerina
* Anya
* Isabel
* Freya
“You’ll follow Mister Sokolov.”
“Third group.”
* Tatiana
* Lucia
* Emilia
* Vera
* Klara
* Noemi
* Valentina
* Nina
* Esme
* Polina
“You will follow Mister Orlov.”
“Goodnight, girls.”
That was the last thing he said before turning around and walking back through the door.
I looked at the man I was supposed to follow.
Mister Sokolov.
The moment he turned around and started walking, I stood up first again and motioned for the others to follow.
I was honestly getting tired of these girls acting so scared all the time.
The first rule was pretty clear.
I always liked rules.
Yelena used to think that was weird, but Natasha understood it better.
Rules made things safe because as long as you followed them, nothing bad would happen to you.
I walked after Mister Sokolov, and after a few seconds I reached the door where he had stopped to wait for us.
When I looked back, all nine girls had followed me while the others disappeared down different hallways behind the other men.
We passed several more empty rooms before finally stopping after about five minutes.
Above the door was a sign:
**ROOM 28A — LEVEL 1**
Mister Sokolov opened the door.
Inside were two bunk beds and one small closet.
He pulled a folded note from his pocket and read out four names.
“Daria. Camille. Nadia. Freya. This is your room.”
“We expect you to keep it clean.”
“You sleep when the hallway lights go out.”
“When the bell rings in the morning, you are expected to be out of bed, dressed in uniform, and standing in the hallway within five minutes.”
“Uniforms, underwear, and pajamas are folded on your beds.”
“You may place your clothes in the closet.”
Then he walked away again with the girls whose names hadn’t been called.
I watched them leave, wondering where they would sleep, but I didn’t have to wonder long because he stopped at the next room and repeated the same thing.
Then again.
And again.
Until only our room remained.
When I finally walked inside, the other girls had already claimed their beds.
Mine was the top bunk on the left side directly across from the door.
I didn’t mind.
I climbed up and immediately noticed the black uniform with dark red details folded neatly on the bed.
Everything was exactly my size.
Even the underwear and the white pajamas.
I changed out of my dirty clothes and into the clean pajamas while the others were still getting dressed.
That was when I realized the girl sleeping in the bunk across from mine was the blue-eyed girl.
I wondered what her name was.
When our eyes met, I finally asked quietly,
“What’s your name?” mine is Nadia.
She stared at me for a second before the girl below me answered first.
“I’m Camille.”
Then the girl beneath the blue-eyed girl spoke next.
“Daria.”
Which meant the blue-eyed girl could only be—
“Freya,” she said softly.
Right after she said it, the hallway lights shut off, leaving us in complete darkness except for the glowing digital clock on the nightstand.
22:30.
I lay down and stared at the tiny window in the darkness.
Before my mind could even fully process everything that had happened today, exhaustion pulled me under.
Maybe it was all just a bad dream.