I looked around what appeared to be a normal classroom. Maybe 25 of us boys in the room with a silent stoic man standing at the front, reading a book. He was waiting. My mom drove two and a half hours to the airport this morning - crying the entire way. They had me "surrender" into police custody there and board a plane. I have no idea how far I am from home. Even though Dad's lawyers warned me it would happen, those two minutes I had the cuffs on scared the crap out of me. The door to the classroom swung open and two unformed guards escorted in a tall kid with ashy blonde hair. Like the rest of us, he was wearing yellow cargo pants and a v-neck white t-shirt. The men sat the new kid down and walked out. I could see at least two men outside guarding the door. Escape must be impossible.
The man at the front of the class cleared his throat. He was of medium age and build, indistinct in appearance. He wore the same grey and and black unformed spotted by every other troop except his had a few special insignias. He turned and wrote, "SIR" on the board behind him. He used no markers or ink, the instructor's hand wrote the words on the board with touch alone.
"What's the S.I.R. for?" A voice shouted out in the back. A few laughed.
"Sir." The instructor said correcting him without punishment. "It's an honorific given to men like me who've proven themselves worthy of society. For some reason or other... you lot have failed society. That's landed you here." He turned to address the entire class. "You are all at least 18 years of age and have graduated at Track 1 education. Yet you've all still committed crimes or acted subversively..."
The Sir picked up a notecard from the desk. "Before we get started I'm required by law to read you this card:
"In our society, punishment is more severe and attempts to avoid jail reach new heights. As many of you know, since you have been incarcerated or were about to be, prisons are open air bastions of anarchy. In exchange for mined materials, these prisons are allowed to do whatever they want. Many of you would not survive long in such settings. Cambiar Academy has permission to remove any felon from the prison system and, after a three-year program, release them back to the public. The facility is only open to members of the LGBT community. If you lie about your orientation to skirt justice, you may suffer mental or physical anguish, paralysis, or death. Now is your last opportunity to return to your prison sentence without suffering additional penalty. If you fail out of your academy after this moment, you will suffer death." He looked up. No one moved.
"Any questions? Okay. Once a class of students is assembled the exam will begin. Which is now."
"What's the exam for?" Asked a kid who wore a baggy grey tank-top instead of the white shirts everyone else had on. He clearly came in off the street like me- no way he would've worn that in prison. The kid was was about 5'6", very thin with tan skin. I was checking out his ass, round and shapely. Honestly in this shorts he looked fucking great... he knew it too.
"The exam will help decide the way you'll be spending your time here at the academy." The instructor said
"What does that mean?" He asked again. It's always the waisian kids asking all the questions in the front of the class. I wonder what he's in for.
I looked around to see if there was anyone else worth looking for. A slutty looking Twink, maybe 5'7-8 with a bushy top of curly brown hair. The way he crossed his legs told me his Grindr account had more than a few DMs. There were a few other big fellas like me in the class also. One had a bunch of face scars. I'll stay away from him.
"The exam will divide you into one of three equal groups. That's all I can say for now. Please follow me as we enter the door to your right." He walked and unlocked the door, holding it open gesturing for us to go though. Inside was pitch black darkness. The big lad with the face scars pushed everyone aside and strode into the dark. After a few second of waiting, everyone cautiously followed.
Once we were all inside, the door closed. We were clearly in some auditorium or other large indoor room that had been blacked out.
"LIGHTS!" The instructor said and a smattering of other staff all put on sunglasses. The whole room was filled with rows and rows of treadmills. As I thought, all the windows were covered in thick black fabric. The room had no other decor it looked like an empty multipurpose space. There was the door we came in on at the side and a large wood door at the front with a clock above.
"This program only accepts those in good physical shape. Please run." The treadmills started spinning. "Feel free to take a break but every second you're not on the treadmill, it'll speed up. Go until we tell you to stop." A small horn blasted as everyone jumped onto their treadmill and began running. They weren't going too quickly, nothing more than jog.
After about 30 minutes of running, some were showing signs of struggling. After 90 minutes, people began falling off. A tall ginger kid on the treadmill next to me leaned: "Why didn't they tell us you had to be fit on the application? It's nervewraking to not know if you're in the program. I thought this was like a sure thing with my plea deal."
"They have to weed people out who might lie on their application." Shouted a kid from the row behind us. One of the larger guys on a treadmill in the back collapsed. Staff came with a stretcher and removed him.
"I wonder if there will be other exams." Asked a very short latino kid to my left. "I hope to make it out in one piece no matter what it takes. I cannot go to prison"
"And what was with that LGBT stuff?" Face-scars asked, he was in front of me and the ginger. "They're not gonna make us do any of that shit right? My dad told me he did a one year for a hit and run when he was in college and they just had the men do poetry and stuff."
"Not sure." I said. "You're not gay?"
"Nope." Face-scars responded. "You?"âĻ"Bi." I said.
"I'm also hoping for no gay shit, no offense." Said the guy on the treadmills behind us. Then another guy collapsed. Again the staff came and remove him. Another was too exhausted and left his treadmill for too long - when he tried to get on, it threw him off immediately.
After what had been 3 hours, the treadmills finally wound down. The crowd of recruits started cheering. There were 15 boys left.
"Thank you all for your participation. Please follow me to the lounge." The instructor led us through the wooden door at the front of the space and into a large courtyard. Couldn't see much in the dark but it looked like a college campus. Trees, grass, buildings surrounding us.
It was cold and in the middle of the night. We turned right at a fountain and into a large brick hall. "You'll get a tour of the grounds tomorrow after the exam is complete." The instructor said. He tapped an ID card against a keypad at the edge of the door and it opened. A few more doors followed until we moved into a decadent, ornate lounge.
Red curtains covered stained-glass windows beside an enormous fireplace. A male and female doctor (or people in lab coats rather) stood at the front of the room next to a table piled high with foods from around the globe. As we all filed in, the man began to speak. "Now, we will conduct one on one interviews with each of you. Please feel free to eat or relax while you wait for you name to be called. We'll be starting with Liam. Thank you!"
"Me?" I asked, like an idiot.
"That's right! Come on down!" The woman said.
I followed the instructor and the docs to a door at the far end of the lounge. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the others lunge at the food. Damn I'm hungry too. The instructor tapped his card against the lock on the door and led me into a long hallway of what appeared to be a modern scientific lab, totally alien to that place I had just left. He turned hard into a small exam room. Looks like the doctors - wax-paper covered seats and all. The man and woman sat down and made themselves comfortable, the instructor excused himself, closed the door and returned to the rest of the group.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Please remove your clothes and sit on the exam table," he said. "I am Dr. Hurtz this is my colleague, Dr. Virginia we're going to be conducting your assessment today."
"Assessing what I'll be up to this year? I figured that would be a written exam - like what job I wanted.
"What job you wanted?" Dr. Virginia repeated.
"You know dish washer, librarian etc. I'd prefer banker but I doubt that'd an option here." Both laughed.
"You're funny!" She said. "But we actually don't assign tasks, academy students take care of themselves by working with each other and other years here at the academy. Did you know the feast you saw earlier was prepared by students?"
