Blood and Knifes

2

After nearly a half hour of solid reading, a sudden silence made Megan look up from their book. A man sporting a sophisticated navy blue suit was standing in the front of the room, waiting for them all to quiet down.

"My name is Vice President Madison. You have all been gathered here for a reason. You are the remaining members of the nine realms. Earth, Midgard, for our non native members, is the only realm that survived this apocalypse. Other than you 2,563 all gathered here, we have approximately 6,000 men who have agreed to serve in our military, and 3,000 men and women in our medical facilities. We have decided to move you all to a secure facility we built in rural Michigan."

Megan gaped at the man, overwhelmed. One girl stumbled over to a trash can and threw up. Someone screamed, and triggered a ruckus of screaming and frantic, nearly unintelligible discussions.

"Please stay calm, you have no reason to be afraid!" The man shouted over the noise.

A group of about 50 soldiers dressed in black metal armor, matching black helmets that masked their faces, and sporting large and threatening guns marched into the room and started grabbing people at random, which did absolutely nothing to help the situation. Snapping out of their stupor, Thor, Sif, Heimdall, and Loki leaped to their feet, and Megan snatched their pocketknife out of their lanyard before hurriedly joining them. The soldiers reached their table, and Megan adjusted their weight in preparation for the imminent fight. The poke of a gun barrel at their back made them flinch. More soldiers had snuck around behind them.

"Put the knife away, miss." The soldier behind them ordered in a grinding electronic voice.

Megan glanced at Loki, and mouthed, 'I can get the gun.'

He shook his head slightly, and Megan sighed.

"Okay Darth Vader," they responded to the soldier. "I'm going to set the knife down on the table."

They slowly slid the knife onto the table, and as soon as they had set it down, two of the soldiers grabbed them by the arms and dragged them away. The rest of the soldiers grabbed Sif, Thor, Heimdall, and Loki as well.

Megan and Sif were dragged off one direction, while Thor, Heimdall, and Loki were dragged in the opposite direction. Megan struggled to keep Loki in their view, until they were pulled through a doorway and into another room.

This room would have been the gymnasium, assuming Megan's guess that the building they were in used to be a school was correct. There were men and women sitting behind tables covered in various medical instruments. This did not seem promising.

Megan was dragged over to one table with a man behind it. The soldier pointed his gun in the crook of their back, and they frowned as the doctor picked up a curved stick of metal.

"That's a button thing, right? You're going to flip my eyelid up to examine my eye to see if I have some eye disease or something." Megan said, recognizing the instrument. "You better not poke my eye."

The doctor was certainly surprised, but it didn't stop him from examining their eyes, then picking up many more basic instruments to examine their ears, nose, fingernails, heartbeat, and blood pressure.

"Have you been vaccinated?" He asked shortly.

"Yes."

"Any mental illnesses?"

"Um..." Before they answered, the table beside them erupted in screams.

"No! Please!" The woman standing there cried desperately. "It's just anxiety! Please!"

The rest of the room fell silent as they all watched the soldier guarding her grab her roughly and pull her into an adjacent room encased in fogged glass. Megan strained their eyes to see what was happening in the room, then blanched and nearly threw up when a splatter of blood stained the glass. A few women screamed.

Megan turned back to the doctor who was waiting for their answer. "No," they lied. "I don't have any mental illnesses."