Tod kept staring at the stage even after the man in the white suit had stopped talking. He was too stunned.

  He knew the kind of predicament he was in, but when it was presented to him like this, he felt the last light of hope he had of escaping being extinguished… forever.

  And as if to drive this point home, the man threw his arms up dramatically.

  “For all of you gathered here, you have been chosen—not by your parents, not by your country, but by the only god in existence! You have been chosen for a greater purpose,” his voice had risen to a high tone now.

  “Know this: for all of you gathered here, from now on, you are being reborn. Forget about what you used to be because today you are being given a chance to become something greater—something more than the filthy pigs you are—”

  Then, in an even shriller voice than before, he screamed, “La ilaha illa Allah!”

  Right on cue, the guards around them screamed, “La ilaha illa Allah!”

  With that, the guards moved forward. From the corner of his eye, Tod could see some other guards entering the room. This made his body tense.

  The guards moved down through the rows of chairs. A quick look around and Tod could see that it wasn’t only him who was tense.

  Each guard stopped at one of the rows. Then, with the same shrill voice as before: “STAND UP!”

  Almost instinctively, Tod stood up directly. The kids around him did the same. Then, before Tod could regain his composure—

  *SLAP!*

  The unmistakable sound of leather against skin echoed through the hall, followed by a shrill cry from a child.

  Looking from the corner of his eye, Tod could see a guard holding up a leather whip. He hit the screaming child repeatedly until the kid stopped—slumping down either from exhaustion or possibly death.

  After the kid finally stopped screaming, the silence that followed was so loud that Tod could hear it buzzing in his ears.

  “Move out,” the man in white said.

  Tod was first confused by this order but then saw that the guard standing at his row was heading out of the room. That’s when he understood what they were saying.

  Moving fast, he followed behind him, making sure he wouldn’t bump into his back. Seeing this, the others quickly followed suit and soon enough all 2,000+ kids were arranged in long queues, each headed by a guard.

  Moving out of the room, they were paraded through the building—moving from one room to another. As they moved through different areas, Tod tried to remember all the paths they had taken.

  After some time moving through the building, they finally reached outside. As the first rays of sunlight hit them, Tod felt something bubbling inside him—this was the first time he had seen the sun in an entire week.

  Looking up, he smiled—the first genuine smile since all this had started.

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  But he was quickly pulled out of his dream as the guard in front of him suddenly stopped. Tod almost bumped into him but managed to stop himself at the last moment.

  Looking around, he could see that they had come to a field—it was at least four football fields in size.

  Right in the middle of the field were people—some dressed in medical attire while others wore normal guard uniforms in green.

  This strange sight made him start wondering about what was going to be done to them—but he didn’t have to wait long.

  “Strip!” A voice echoed throughout the whole field with unmistakable authority.

  Tod, who had already started getting used to following orders without question, began removing his pants. When he saw that it was taking too long, he tore them off—which wasn’t a hard task since they were already torn in so many places. After removing them, he quickly moved on to his shirt.

  Within less than a minute, he stood stark naked. This made him feel embarrassed—but before he could feel sorrier for himself…

  *SLAP!*

  The same unmistakable sound of a whip echoed across the field—its sound carrying far and wide—and with it went all of Tod’s shame.

  He threw a quick glance at the poor soul who had been hit and noticed it was a girl.

  After the commotion subsided, another guard screamed again: “Forward!”

  Tod took this as his cue to advance. Moving forward, he first reached one of the guards. At first glance, Tod noticed that this guard was wearing disposable gloves. Slowly approaching him, Tod saw that the guard motioned for him to move faster.

  The guard instructed him to take a “T” pose and then promptly began searching him—moving his hands along Tod’s visible ribs and slowly going down to touch every part of his body. It was uncomfortable—especially when he cupped Tod’s private parts.

  During this process, Tod noticed how long and bony his fingers were—which made everything even more uncomfortable.

  When satisfied with his search, the guard motioned for Tod to bend over. When Tod complied, one of those long fingers entered him briefly and turned around multiple times inside him. This made Tod clench his fists tightly as he resisted every urge to pull away.

  When finally finished with him, Tod was ushered forward toward one of the waiting doctors.

  ---

  The moment he arrived at one doctor’s station, questions began firing at him:

  “Do you have any chronic diseases?”

  “No,” Tod replied quietly.

  Making notes on a clipboard or computer screen nearby, the doctor followed up with more questions:

  “Do you take drugs? Any tattoos? Ever wet the bed?”

  Multiple times during this interrogation Tod felt like screaming:

  When it finally ended, Tod was handed a slip of paper with only one thing written on it:

  “That’s your new name,” said the doctor after noticing how confused Tod looked.

  “Oh! And one piece of advice before you go…” The doctor leaned forward slightly and whispered: “If you want to survive… don’t use your old name.”

  Tod nodded silently in agreement.

  ---

  After finishing with medical checks and receiving soap from another soldier nearby, Tod was led into a communal shower area next to the field—which turned out to be heavily guarded as well.

  Tod thought bitterly as cold water ran down his body while he washed himself clean.

  Once finished showering, he was brought into another room where he received clothes: green trousers and a T-shirt with boots—all military-style gear—with “666” sewn onto its right pocket.

  ---

  Finally moving again with escorts guiding them forward once more, Tod reached what appeared to be their final destination—a massive two-story house with Arabic script on its sign above its entrance. Since Tod couldn’t read Arabic anyway… he gave up trying to decipher it quickly enough.

  Inside revealed rows upon rows of rooms stretching endlessly across its interior layout like some kind of labyrinthine dormitory system designed for mass housing purposes alone.

  The guards escorting him stopped at one particular door labeled .

  Opening it revealed two bunk beds inside neatly arranged within minimalistic furniture settings altogether too plain otherwise for comfort's sake

  Tod was then ushered in, before he could even turn around the door closed behind

  walking around he tried to get the general view of the room before slowly coming to sit down on one of the beds.

  2 bank beds meant the room was meant to accommodate four people counting him out they were three left.

  Smiling to himself he let himself fall on the bed.

  “guess this is my new home from now on”