We were back in our resting places, the cages, in the training facility where we had resided the majority of our lives.

  For some reason, we were allowed to rest for a week, doing only the least demanding physical activities.

  I asked some of the girls what happened when they were taken somewhere by the aristocrats.

  Their answers were similar. They went to a room, were told to undress and a type of torture or training started. They felt pain between their legs and they bled from there. In the end, they had some sticky liquid on them or were forced to gulp it.

  I had no idea what happened to them then.

  I also didn’t know from what Mary saved me back then.

  Another question I wondered was how they felt.

  They said that after they got used to the pain, they felt strange.

  I asked C11 to explain it to me in detail. How ignorant I was back then to ask her to remember such a traumatic event and even had her describe it vividly.

  She described all the dirty things they did to her to the extent that I could imagine what had been done to her.

  While the rest had one man raping them, C11 had two! The younger one was new to this and was less forceful, but the older one had no restraints and brought her great pain!

  The worst part was that the wife came after the two males had been exhausted! She left no spot untouched!

  “Unlike the males, she used her long, thick fingers, but both felt unpleasant… At least with her, nothing was shoved deep into my mouth and I wasn’t forced to take on the thick white substance. The older male almost choked me…”

  The contraceptive that the one with red crosses gave her extended her life. A pregnant ‘Lily’ doesn’t survive the training.

  The supervisors didn’t care whether the ‘Lily’ had another life in her or not. She only needed to endure and accomplish the task.

  Our short respite ended in a flash. I suppose it was the time we needed for our bodies to recover after all the aristocrats had done to us.

  Our new training regime was brutal. More so than it was already.

  We were first introduced to our “head trainer”, the pig that tried to take me during our “exhibition”.

  “Greetings, ‘Lilies’. I’m Viscount Balor. I’ll personally be in charge of training you all until you “graduate”. Look forward to it,” he declared while inspecting us from afar.

  When he saw me, he stopped his gaze for a moment and continued onwards.

  As for our studies, we were introduced to the ‘Undead’ for the first time and had to learn about them – their appearance, weaknesses and so on.

  We already knew about a disaster happening to the world and humans started to eat other humans, but we had only been told the gist of it.

  In one study session before the Viscount came, there was something about a virus that destroyed the majority of humanity. Its origin is unknown; some believe it was man-made, but how could a disaster of that scale be human-made?

  There were theories about the origin of the virus. Which one we believed in was left up to our own accord.

  The more likely version was a mutation into a living organism, most likely a small bacterium, which increased aggression in the infected individuals. I support this possibility.

  Even the ones who taught us didn’t know the correct answers. It was restricted information. Even today, the truth of what happened 50 years ago remains a mystery to me.

  Just what really had happened back then?

  In our first lectures after the Viscount came, we were given a brief story of the first years.

  The symptoms of infection began in individuals all over the world. They were hospitalised and some tried to understand what was happening to them; some infected were killed in their attempt to resist, but not before infecting other people.

  No one even thought that an undead apocalypse was approaching.

  Before the world realised it, the individual cases became hundreds, then thousands and cities began to be overrun in no time.

  The nations with concentrated populations in strategic regions were quickly eradicated and the cities with dense populations were the first to fall.

  Even the superior military prowess and equipment from the past couldn’t fight them off.

  Our nation was hit hard. Very hard. I even find it miraculous that it survived.

  We mostly focused on our country, as information for others was scarce after the long-distance communication system was damaged. Even today, such a system, covering the entire planet, doesn’t exist.

  We even had live subjects to observe after the history lectures were over.

  We all had to watch the five cages with live subjects and listen to the supervisor explaining while the undead looked at us with hostility and groaned.

  They had the eyes of beasts and the stench of rot. All were glued to the bars and their hands were stretched outwards to the nearest humans. Even the supervisor covered his nose for the entire lecture.

  As a test, we were instructed to write down what type of undead each of the five restrained infected subjects presented one after the other before us. We also had to prove our observation was correct.

  After we observed the chained subject, it was released and fought with a person in black. They fought in a melee, with the person being armed with a combat knife. The battle lasted less than a minute, with the undead falling lifeless to the ground, but it was obvious that the undead had superior strength.

  Each undead had a different person in black to fight with.

  We all passed that test. With only two types of undead, it wasn’t hard.

  C11 counted the subject in the first lecture with live subjects. They were equal in number to the ‘Lilies’.

  I became curious and counted them in the second lecture. C11 was right.

  After that light test, we didn’t see more undead for a while.

  Our sparring sessions also got an upgrade. We had one spar with toy knives. It happened only once.

  In the next couple of sparring sessions, we used wooden weapons and were told to act as if they were real. We were stopped right before “killing” one another.

  Usually, breaking a bone or dislocating was as far as we could be harmed in there, but bruises were always happening.

  The fake weapons were soon replaced with real knives. For a ‘Lily’ to have many small cuts on her body became the norm.

  Our sorority was starting to decline and within less than half a year, it was hard to be seen in the hand-to-hand combat.

  The penalties were too brutal to lose on purpose or go easy on.

  The torture was the same as before, but was gradually getting harsher and longer.

  The exercises become a bit harder – from running each morning and night to also having weights, occasionally even lifting heavy weights.

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  For food, we started having some blocks.

  They were the notorious Mercenary food – the first variant.

  It was difficult to chew, lacked flavour and was so dry that we had to drink water after every bite.

  Every day, we were injected with a small dosage of poison. It took me a while to get used to it.

  Our blankets were also taken and the heating was turned off when we went to sleep in our cages, while the number of ‘Lilies’ per one increased up to 15.

  Most of us were missing the blankets and heating the most during the winter. We had to sleep next to one another, huddled together like little chicks to fight off the cold.

  It was a year after he came and his training began that we had our first “end of the year exam”.

  In the morning, we were woken up and told to gather. We skipped breakfast and nothing was given to us until our exam was over.

  We had to fight the undead we saw in cages.

  In short, we had to kill an undead to pass.

  We were given a short blunt weapon or a knife and had to use it to pass the test.

  There were two types of undead we had in cages – Runners and Walkers.

  When they introduced them to us in the study lessons, most were Runners, but after starving for so long, most degraded to Walkers.

  Everyone who got a Walker passed. They were nothing compared to when ‘Lilies’ had to spar one another. Only their brute strength was worrisome, but the starvation weakened them to a manageable extent.

  Still, having to face a creature that desired to end our lives was a different experience from when we had to fight to survive, with neither side intending to kill the other.

  The test was dangerous for those who had to kill a Runner. There were a few casualties.

  Even with all the hard work we put into strengthening our bodies, we often felt exhausted and experienced pain throughout our muscles. The poisons injected into us also prevented us from showing all the prowess we possessed.

  The few deaths that occurred could have been avoided if we had been given a week of rest from the poisoning…

  We also knew that those skinny and starved fierce creatures had superior strength to most humans and a head-on physical confrontation was too risky. We were allowed the use of melee weapons for a reason.

  Upon the failure of a ‘Lily’, the rest of us were left watching as the victor, the undead, was eating the loser. It was…

  When the ‘Lily’ was hit by the undead and fell to the ground, the undead jumped at her, aiming to end her life with a ferocious bite.

  The girl blocked the attack by sacrificing her arm. Her screaming and tears showed that she experienced quite a lot of pain.

  The strong bite snapped her arm in two in no time and soon, the creature ended the ‘Lily’ with a bite to the neck.

  It drank from the gushing blood and started eating the girl from the meatier parts, her thigh and buttocks. After it was done, it bit open the torso and continued eating the guts, its face covered in fresh blood.

  Seeing how a girl who had grown up with me, despite our constant competitiveness, was being eaten before my eyes by one of those monsters filled me with unimaginable dissatisfaction and dread.

  The deceased ‘Lily’ had a horrendous expression, sealing her last moments before dying. Her blood littered the stage we had to use for fighting.

  When a ‘Lily’ won her battle and passed, the people in black would take away the corpse and only a negligible amount of blood would be left on the stage after her test.

  After the Runner was done eating, one of the armed people in black shot it down. It was soon after removed with what remained from the ‘Lily’ and the next ‘Lily’ was ready to commence her test, without the bloodbath being cleaned.

  Some of the people in white with red crosses were on standby and were ready to treat those who managed to pass. They despised the moments when one of us lost our lives.

  Some of those who had passed were bitten by the undead and had to have their wounded arm sewn up.

  One ‘Lily’ was barely alive after her exam and had to be taken in a stretcher and escorted to a room where she was given treatment. She was out for a week afterwards.

  We took the exam in a closed, circular space with a radius of approximately 16 feet and a height of 16 feet.

  When my turn came, the cage was filled with fresh blood, both from humans and from undead. It was very slippery.

  The blood of most undead becomes slippery upon falling outside the infected host until it dries. We weren’t given a detailed explanation about how or why it was like that.

  I was armed with a knife. My opponent was a Runner.

  I entered and my opponent was pushed into the caged area. I waited for the signal to begin.

  When it was freed, the first thing it did was get up and charge me while moaning.

  “Begin!” was ordered when the undead started running.

  I dodged it by reflex. Dodging and parrying were becoming natural for me. The years of brutal training had one benefit – we knew how to fight for our lives and didn’t shy from taking the enemy’s life if we were forced to.

  I was testing my opponent. Even if an undead was of the same type as another one, their strength differed to an extent.

  I was weary. In my entire life, the only opponent who wanted to take my life was C32. I feared both her and this creature.

  How foolish of me back then.

  It was just the weakest of the weak. How hard could it have been to slice its neck with a knife? By then, I had most of my height. The undead was half a head taller than I was.

  My counterattack was weak, leaving only a bruise on its back.

  I backed off, nearly falling on the ground from all the slippery blood.

  My opponent was already onto me by the time I needed to get my foothold on all this blood.

  I parried the attack on my side, but while I evaded its following bite, I was hit by its other arm and I fell to the ground, my dress getting painted with the fresh, thick red.

  It hit was stronger than what I imagined. I didn’t have the time to recover nor to brace for the impact and my position was becoming dire with every passing second.

  It was on top of me in seconds, its teeth going for my neck.

  If I didn’t see what happened with the last ‘Lily’ that tried to parry with her arm, I’d have done the same.

  I grabbed its neck with my left arm in an attempt to halt it. I was able to hold it as such.

  We had a bit of a struggle and it started to beat me with its arms, its nails piercing and slashing me at times. Some of its saliva was falling on me.

  I was losing.

  I tried defending myself with my other arm, armed with a knife. I retaliated and started to slash its arms, but it didn’t budge at all.

  I was slowly going to lose that fight if I was only defending, so I stabbed the knife into its neck with the arm I used to protect myself.

  The fatal hit made its neck bleed and its mouth filled with blood, but the wound wasn’t deep enough. It continued its relentless assault, but its attacks were slower and weaker.

  I pulled the knife away and it died soon after, its blood from the wound and mouth falling on me.

  When it died, its unmoving body fell onto me, pinning me to the ground and bathing me in the endless blood.

  I rested my head on the bloody floor and turned to look at the rest of the ‘Lilies’. I wanted to look at C11. She gave me a slight smile. I smiled back.

  “C23, your test is over. You are victorious. You may leave the examination grounds.”

  I pushed the corpses away, got up and left the cage. I was examined and treated. My wounds were thoroughly cleaned and determined to be minor, but I was ordered to go tomorrow morning for an additional inspection.

  After the check-up, I was given a change of clothing, a block of the food and a bottle of water.

  I resumed watching the other ‘Lilies’.

  C11 had to fight a Walker. She passed without getting a scratch.

  She kicked the undead’s ankle, breaking it and forcing it to fall on the ground. The moment it was on the ground, C11 rushed and stabbed the rear of its head, killing it on the spot. She became the fastest one to pass.

  After taking her “breakfast” at around noon, she sat next to me.

  We didn’t need words. Being close to one another, feeling the other’s warmth, was more than enough for us. Not being alone was all we needed to keep our sanity after this bloodbath.

  There were a total of five casualties. All of them mutilated and half-eaten.

  In the evening, after all the ‘Lilies’ had undertaken the test, the pig gave us another speech. He rarely interacted with us, mostly looking from afar and checking data.

  “Not bad, not bad at all. Only five died. The project is continuously improving. Keep up the good work and 10 or so of you may pass.”

  Those few words foreshadowed every next ordeal we had.

  The training became intense. What was a three-mile run with weights became a 12-mile run.

  The intensity of other exercises also increased.

  If a ‘Lily’ didn’t manage to do them in time, a punishment was waiting for her failure.

  The punishment system changed. Those who failed in something were punished on the spot or at the end of the day, depending on the intensity of the penalty.

  The hand-to-hand combat training became unscrupulous. No one was stopping us from killing once again. The only saving grace was the thin line of sisterhood we, the ‘Lilies’, barely continued to share.

  The easier part of the training was the theoretical and practical firearms lessons. Sadly, they were a rare occurrence.

  At night, some girls were called to go somewhere.

  That was different from the penalties or torture. Then, I had no idea what they were doing.

  I wish I had never acquired the knowledge of what they were doing with them.

  The taken ‘Liles’ come back later with dead looks, some with marks of violence on them.

  I was never taken, but my friend, C11, wasn’t as lucky. Especially in the last few months, when she was one of the few better-looking girls alive.

  Sometimes the supervisors discussed something while deciding which ‘Lily’ to pick. Which girl to be their toy.

  “C38 is supported. We can’t use her.”

  “Such a shame! Look at that voluptuous body! No wonder she was picked. Definitely for breeding.”

  “Aristocrats really are made different. They have such keen eyes to see the qualities of unripe bedwetters in one night.”

  “You know what will happen if you are found to have toyed with picked ‘Lily’, don’t you? Just get one of those that no one cares about. But not the same one every night – that’ll kill them,” the Viscount advised his subordinates once.

  “We get it, Lord Balor. C20 and C83. Come out!”

  “Don’t get used to having two at once. There might not be that many left by the end.”

  “Yes, Lord. C83, stay where you are.”

  Not all the supervisors were like this. In fact, the number of them who had taken a ‘Lily’ was countable with both hands.

  The torture training was getting intense. Every time we had one, we had to scream because of the pain.

  The ones torturing us could see tears in our eyes, yet didn’t bat an eye nor did they reduce it in any way. If a ‘Lily’ became unconscious, they woke her up with even bigger pain.

  I knew that from experience. There were often deaths.

  Not all supervisors had the heart to see us suffer. The people who tortured us were faces we got accustomed to. They were the ones taking some of us at night.

  Our poison-resistant training also worsened. The ones with red crosses often had to give us the antidote after the session. It was frequent for ‘Lilies’ to be on the verge of dying.

  Overall, only a minority of the supervisors enjoyed torturing and punishing us, but the rest looked away without defending us in any way. The former especially adored taking girls at night. Their unusual cheerfulness was also creeping us out.

  Disgusting pigs.