To Love A River

They entered a cavernous hall of white linoleum tiles and thick metal doors, behind which the guards stood aside and allowed Love to enter alone, the doors sliding closed with a loud metallic clang.

The sound of the doors sliding closed echoed through the open space and Love observed the new surroundings. 

On either side of her, closest to the entrance there stood around a dozen pedestals, upon which a VR headset lay. At a glance she could tell that these were of far superior quality to the second hand set that she herself had bought with almost half of her savings, left to her by her benefactor. 

The large open space in the centre of the room must be related to the simulations you could select from the headsets, she noted. 

That was not to say the central area was completely empty, above it there hung a large metal balcony with thick transparent glass surrounding it. The balcony could only be interpreted as being a viewing platform, for not only did it provide a view of the training area below, but was also situated opposite a large screen that encompassed half of the height of the cavernous wall.

For a moment Love was confused as to why a screen and viewing platform were necessary for a training centre but quickly deduced that this likely a part of training. For how invaluable must it be to not only learn from your own mistakes but also to witness and learn from the mistakes of others. Not to mention that learning the way in which your teammates fought was a necessary part of developing a close-knit and well formed team of fighters. 

But it seemed the headsets were only a small part of the training facilities within the hall, for at the far back of the hall near to a second pair of heavy doors, there were several large pods stationed against the wall. These were clearly VR pods, a pinnacle of human technology formulated to simulate any number of environments and opponents for the player. Love had never seen a VR pod in reality, they were highly coveted assets for military training, and as such were priced astronomically high. For there to be not just one but half a dozen in this single training hall, left her slightly stunned. 

She moved towards them, pulled forward by her sheer curiosity, the sound of each step echoing through the expanse of the hall. Just as she reached the large pods of steel and glass with the specialised holographic displays the second set of doors opened and a familiar figure stepped through. 

Captain Hunter walked towards Love, his golden blonde hair seemed luminescent under the bright lights of the training hall. Wearing a sleeveless black training shirt underneath a padded black military vest, his arms were clasped behind his back causing Love's heart to stutter slightly as his biceps flexed underneath his bronze skin. 

"Good morning Private Aikawa, I hope you're feeling fully recovered?" He asked with a husky voice and a friendly smile. 

"Yes, thank you Captain." Love replied.

"I'm glad." He smiled a little brighter and Love couldn't help but stare a little at the way his eyes crinkled and the single dimple that appeared on the left side of his face. She also quietly noted the lack of creepy fangs, and felt some relief at the fact that her connection to Ezra was currently inactive. 

"As I understand it, the Major General has filled you in somewhat on the objectives of our Unit and you expressed interest in joining us?" 

Love nodded affirmatively and the Captain smiled that same friendly smile again. 

"Excellent, well General Del has informed me that you've already passed the interview stage." He stated, winking at Love. She was a little taken aback by this and raised an eyebrow slightly, she was not aware of having said anything significant that would cause this.

Captain Hunter smiled knowingly and moved on to explain the next stage of testing, which involved some general health and fitness examinations that would be conducted after today's main assessment. "Which brings me to the assessment itself." He gestured towards the VR pods and Love raised her eyebrow again. 

"The assessment is going to use these?" She asked with a slight frown. Although she had trained with the use of a VR headset many times, Love had never even seen a pod before today, let alone fought inside of one to exhibit her combat abilities. 

"Don't worry, most of the current recruits had never used a Simulation Pod before their assessments either. The pod will map all of your dimensions and physical data when you first enter, and then you will be transported into a field that I've pre-registered for today. There will be just one opponent for you to fight." He explained reassuringly. 

Love felt that this sounded reasonable and nodded once in affirmation, her face calm and expressionless behind the black filtration mask. 

"Now as for your opponent", the Captain continued, "what do you know about the Crazed vampires?"

As he asked this question he tapped a few times on his communicator and an image was projected above it. 

The projection showed a clear image of a hideous face, contorted in pain and anger. Blood was dripping from the corner of its thin mouth, which was pulled back over a row of sharp demonic teeth. Its face was thin and hollow as if its skin had been stretched too far across the bones of its face, with pointed ears resembling that of a large bat.

Love suppressed a shudder as she stared into the glowing red eyes, filled with nothing but crazed bloodlust. 

**