NOT EDITED!

Sungmi was woken up by a blaring noise the next morning, disturbing all of their slumbers. It sounded like the warning bell used when there was an attack, and it had the entire cabin up in seconds, all looking around themselves in panic.

Sehun was the first to react, shouting at them all to get outside quickly as he pulled on his own boots.

Looking to Kyungsoo, Sungmi quickly followed his lead, yanking her own shoes on with shaking hands. She watched as he looked up, their eyes meeting before he gave her a shaky nod, leading the way out for the pair of them.

Outside, it was not what they expected at all. Instead of the panic and fear that was supposed to be seen when that warning bell sounded, they saw different groups of people lining up with one of the superiors recording them. In front of Sungmi’s cabin stood Captain Minseok, smiling at the group as they all hurried down the steps.

“No bad, folks,” he greeted them, recording their times as they came to stand in front of him. “Not bad at all.”

“Was this just a drill?” Chanyeol asked, breathing heavily because of the panic.

Minseok tilted his head from side to side, thinking. “Not a drill, just another test.” Sungmi huffed a sigh of relief, earning a chuckle from Minseok. “It’s not going to be your only one for today,” he warned, “we’re going to the field after this for the final tests.”

Kyungsoo asked, “What is it?”

“Weapons,” Minseok told them simply.

The sun was just beginning to rise as all the trainees made their way towards the training field. Sungmi had to jog a little to keep up with the others, but Kyungsoo was always careful not to let her fall too far behind.

When she let a little yawn escape her lips, Kyungsoo chuckled lightly. “Are you sleepy?”

Sungmi nodded, yawning once again. “I feel like I haven’t slept in days,” she mumbled back sleepily.

“Don’t worry,” Kyungsoo said quietly, his hand reaching out to brush against hers ever so slightly. “It’ll be over soon.”

And Sungmi almost agreed, but then she realised that it wasn’t even close to being over for Kyungsoo or her brother. The thought made her feel guilty suddenly.

“Do you think I did the right thing?” she asked him quietly.

Kyungsoo didn’t say anything for a moment, then nodded slightly. “Yeah… in the end.”

Sungmi smiled a little at that, nudging Kyungsoo playfully. “See? Told you it would all work out.”

“Just keep your guard up,” Kyungsoo reminded her, but still smiled a little. “It’s only for a few more hours.”

When they reached the field, there were racks and racks of weapons sitting out for them all. They had many different blades and throwing devices, but none of them looked very advanced and there was nothing more modern at all.

The first set of trainees stepped up to collect their weapons, all being given the same one at once. Sungmi and the others were included in the first group, and the first thing that found its way into Sungmi’s hand was a long knife-like object, somewhat similar to a sword but with a much longer handle that was almost too thick to fit into Sungmi’s hand.

She twirled it around lightly in her hands, trying to get a feel for it.

“Do you know how to use it?” Kyungsoo asked her as he walked over with his own one.

Sungmi eyed the weapon in her hands, then shook her head slowly. “I thought it was just like a knife but since you’re asking me I’m guessing it’s not.”

Kyungsoo shot her a little grimace, before quickly demonstrating how to hold it. “When we’re out there, this kind of weapon will be pretty rare. It’ll mostly be little daggers and bows – or so I’ve heard. Hardly any firepower or anything similar.”

Unsure what exactly would be asked of them, Sungmi slunk into line with the others so she could watch all of them using the strange item first. Sehun was just ahead of her, and just as she had, he was lightly tossing the weapon in his hands, clearly trying to get a feel for it.

“Do you know how to use it?” Sehun asked her, seemingly noticing her staring but not looking up from the strange blade.

“No,” Sungmi admitted honestly, watching as Chanyeol stepped up and tried to use the weapon on a large dummy, and from his attempts, it was pretty hard to use both the dummy and the weapon.

Sehun’s interest seemed to wander to Chanyeol then too. “Me neither,” he confessed, moving aside to let someone else go up before him.

“We’ve never used these before,” Kyungsoo said then, looking rather disheartened at the prospect.

Sehun’s turn came next, but he didn’t look like he had a clue what to do when he had to step up. When the dummy began moving, he swung around wildly for the permitted time, landing a few strong strikes.

Sungmi’s and Kyungsoo’s rounds weren’t anything impressive, but both were able to hit the dummy well a few times. Sungmi’s round actually involved the dummy clubbing her over the head once, sending her flying.

“You ok?” Sehun asked when she returned to collect her next weapon.

Rubbing at her cheek, irritated, Sungmi let out a huff. “I didn’t see it coming.”

Sehun let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah, no kidding.”

Sungmi also managed to cut her hand open on the bow she had to use. Although she had used a bow before - and was actually quite good at doing so - it had been made of much better material, not the rough and lightly spiked material that this one was made of. After her initial shock at the pain it caused her, she was able to score pretty well on it with both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol scoring very well too. Sehun, by contrast, did not score well, and it soo