by Ann Christy
In bed, Lillian found herself unable to sleep once again. She looked at the clock, a luxury she had never had in her own space before, and sighed at the late hour. She didn't have enough time for a full night's sleep but she might still get enough to function well if she could only drop off. No such luck was climbing her way, it seemed. The combination of a different bed, the race and being away from home was enough to drive sweet sleep away.
"For First People's sake," she muttered into the darkness and got out of bed. Her bed creaked against the wall when she stood and she heard a distinct tapping coming from the other side of the wall a moment later.
She smiled, grabbed her hairbrush and clambered back up on the bed to tap on the wall with it in reply. She put her mouth to the smooth surface and said, "Can you hear me?"
She heard a low hum, very brief and so faint it almost wasn’t there, and sighed. There was no way to talk through the concrete blocks, only tap with something. She got back off the bed, wrapped the rabbit fur blanket around her shoulders and padded on bare feet out of her room. At Leo's door she stopped and knocked as quietly as she could. Neither of them had seen Toby but there was a placard with his name on the door just next to Leo's and she didn't want to disturb him if he was in.
Leo answered, his coveralls half pulled on, the arms tied around his waist and his hair tousled. He whispered, "I can't sleep no matter what I try. You?"
She shook her head and burrowed further into her blanket. The floor was cold on the soles of her feet so she curled her toes. "It's just too weird," she said.
He peeked out of his door and looked both ways down the hall, seeming to consider something. Then he asked, "Do you remember where the kitchen is? Maybe if we ate something that would make us tired."
"What kind of food makes you tired?" She thought for a minute and added, "I don't think any food makes me tired."
He joined her in the hallway, hissing at the cold floor when his feet left the comfort of the woven grass rug in his room. "My mom always made me a glass of warm milk. Maybe they have some goat milk?"
She had never had her mother give her that to help her sleep before. Mostly she just gave her a piece of flatbread or told her a story when she was little. Then again, Lillian had almost never had trouble sleeping until the night before her trial run for this race. This was all new territory for her, so to speak.
"Can't hurt to see," she finally replied. He fell into step beside her and it took not a single wrong turn to put them at the common area for the training section of the level. This included the kitchen and hall they would take their meals in. Luckily there was sufficient light from the red dim-time lights to keep them from banging into the tables scattered about. Leo flinched when he opened the refrigerator and the bright light inside came on. Once the muttering over sudden blindness was over, they found plenty to choose from inside.
Leo pulled out a pitcher of cold goat's milk and sniffed it cautiously. He proclaimed, "Yum, fresh!"
He took the pitcher and then proceeded to make far too much noise finding a small pot and getting some of the milk onto the stove to warm. Lillian decided to investigate the rest of the refrigerator’s contents and found a veritable market of variety inside.
It was clear they meant to feed the racers well. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to take any of the food or if it was already designated for some specific meal until she moved a large bunch of beets aside and found a steel bin sloppily engraved with the words, 'Snacks, Eat Me'.
She gave a giggle and pulled out the large square container. Leo laughed when she pointed out the words and she poked around inside it. She selected a smaller container containing little honey coated biscuits liberally sprinkled with sesame seeds, a rare treat for her.
She held out the bin for Leo and he stopped stirring the milk long enough to find another container of the same biscuits for himself. By the time they sat, mugs of warm milk in hand and liberal dollops of honey added, they were both halfway done with their treats. Lillian loved these little round pieces of salt and sweet so she tried to nibble the remaining ones very slowly and extend the pleasure. Leo smiled at her, familiar with her nibbling ways, and told her to just go get another container.
She considered it for a moment, a long moment, before regretfully shaking her head at last and saying, "No. I don't want to be a goat and take them all. I'd like to, but I won't."
Leo grinned at her sigh when she finished the last one and he held out his own final biscuit for her to have. He laughed at her expression, so she must have looked like a greedy kid, but she took the offered biscuit anyway. They drained their cups, took a moment to clean up and leave the space tidy, before shuffling back the way they came.
As they turned down the hall to their rooms, Leo commented that he felt like he could sleep. Lillian also felt far more relaxed and she tucked that bit of helpful information about the warm milk away for future reference. She gave his arm a squeeze as she passed his door and reached for her own. He mumbled a tired goodnight as he went inside.
Lillian crawled back into bed and finally got her heavy fur blanket laid out fairly evenly after much flinging of edges and tugging into place. She nestled into the pillow and finally slept, the fingers of one hand on the cool wall she shared with her cousin.
Six
Lillian wasn't sure if she was being woken up or if she was involved in a terrible nightmare when the blaring noises jerked her from sleep. After bolting upright and banging her head on the shelf bolted to her wall, her feet got tangled in the blankets and she fell, without even the barest shred of grace, to the floor.
She looked around as the loud noise came again and covered her ears. It was coming from outside her door. She stumbled to her feet and flung the door open, fully prepared for the need to run for her life, but all that was in the hallway was Zara. She was cranking the handle on some kind of device and the terrible wail seemed to be emanating from that.
Next door, Leo's door also opened with a whoosh of air and he stomped out in his underclothes and his boots, apparently also believing he needed to evacuate for an emergency. He reached out, snatched the device from Zara's hands and cradled it against his body as soon as he realized where the noise was coming from. The noise trailed off with a final fading whine.
Lillian guffawed and Zara looked shocked at Leo’s brazen move. At that moment, the door next to Leo's opened and Toby appeared. Or, at least what might have been Toby in another life appeared. He looked like he'd been dancing with an Other. His skin carried a greenish caste that was somehow also extra pale and a trail of something that looked suspiciously like vomit ran down the front of his undershirt.
Leo backed up a step and brought a hand up to cover his nose. "Others descend, did you puke on yourself?"
"Language," came the stern reprimand from Zara. She stepped forward and yanked the contraption, whatever it was, from Leo's grasp.
She was almost a head taller than him, her long legs giving her an edge during her own race, but she was built so slightly that she seemed all limbs and head. Leo, on the other hand, was only average in height but rippled with muscle when he moved and carried not an ounce of fat. Nevertheless, she yanked her noisemaker from his tight clasp with no more effort than it might take had she snatched it from a sleeping baby. It was impressive.
The smell of Toby started to waft toward Lillian and she put her own hand up to her nose. It was a horrific combination of the sour smells of vomit, both fresh and stale, and the sharp tang of alcohol leeching out of skin. He had clearly had a good dim-time that included a generous helping of corn hooch.
Her gag reflex started tickling and Lillian feared she might add some of her own vomit if she didn't stop smelling Toby. She ducked back into her room, grabbed her hand towel from the desk and squirted it with some of her lavender water. Holding the towel tightly to her face, she returned to the hallway only to find Zara standing like a statue in front of Toby. A very angry statue.
"Are you a contender or are you som
e mis-recorded hobbyist, Mister?" Zara demanded of Toby. Calling him mis-recorded was a pretty fine insult since it implied many things all at once. It might mean you're born of close relations, a very bad thing, or even that you're an offspring whose father was deliberately recorded wrong. That was an even worse thing.
Leo gave her a look, eyebrows raised, and Lillian stifled a giggle behind her towel. She knew he was thinking of the name game. He confirmed it by subtly tapping two fingers to his leg, indicating a score.
"You're piss flowing drunk! If you puked on the landing —on any landing— I will have you there and licking up your puke! Did you? Did you?"
Toby, to his credit, didn't puke again but he was getting greener by the second and he flinched in pain at every loud word as if the sounds were splitting his head. He started to shake his head in the negative, but then grimaced and croaked, "No. I didn't until I got here."
That was apparently an even worse answer because Zara shouldered him aside and slammed open his door. She hadn't indicated she smelled Toby at all up to this point, but even she reared back when she got a whiff of that room and immediately stepped back out.
It only took a few seconds before Leo doubled over, making sounds of disgust, and backed up into his room. Lillian pressed the lavender scented towel more firmly to her face and hoped for the best. Leo came back with his pillow over the bottom of his face and his eyes watering. Lillian thought that Toby was in for a whole level full of trouble.
Zara stalked off without another word and the three stood there a moment, not knowing what to do. Toby didn't last. He groaned and slid down the wall to sit, put his head in his hands and groaned some more. Leo and Lillian kept standing.
They heard her before they saw her, the stomping of more than one pair of boots sounding an arrival beyond the corner. When she turned into the hallway she wasn't carrying her horrible noisemaker anymore but she did have a mop and a bucket. With her was a medic in the turquoise coveralls of his profession carrying a small black bag and an amused expression.
She let the bucket and the mop drop to the floor in front of Toby, the loud clatter making him flinch and groan again. She said, "You will see the doc here, and then you will clean up that mess so that I can't tell it ever happened. You can get new linens from admin, but you’ll wash that mess yourself. Once you're done with that, you will report to the training room. Do I make myself clear?"
Toby looked up and Lillian saw his bloodshot eyes. She felt a little sorry for him. He nodded and half whispered, half croaked, "I do. I will."
Zara seemed to remember the other two then and she shot a glare their direction. Lillian tried to stand as professionally as possible while holding a towel over her face. It didn't work. Zara pursed her lips in disdain and somehow managed to look amused and disgusted at the same time.
She took two quick steps and sniffed each one of them before nodding. She said, "At least you two don't smell like a still. Don't bother showering. Just take your asses to the training room."
Leo took a step toward the end of the hall, rather than back to his room, as if he were going right away. Zara made a disgusted sound. "You want to get dressed first or are you an idiot?"
He reddened and Lillian felt sorry for him. She had thought the same thing and had only delayed while she wondered if she should take her towel or risk the smell. Before she drew some new ire from Zara she quickly ducked back into her room and shut the door.
She threw on her coveralls, tugged on her socks and slammed her feet into her boots. She grabbed her hair tie and quickly put up her ponytail. Her mouth tasted horrible so she ran some powdered mint leaves around in her mouth and sloshed back a little water from her walking canteen to rinse the green speckles out. She took a deep breath, fully intending to hold it until she was beyond smelling distance of Toby, and quickly opened her door.
She got down the hallway when she realized she had an urgent need to pee but there was no way she could hold her breath that long. She increased her stride and made her way toward the second bathroom, letting her breath out in a whoosh when she thought she was in the clear.
The male sign was on the bathroom door and she bounced on her toes for an agonizing minute before it opened and Rusty came out. He grinned at her condition and held the door for her. She snatched the sign from the door pocket, switched it with the female one and slammed the door in his face.
Leo was already in the training room, looking a bit lost and concerned, when Lillian hurried in. The older man that Zara had indicated the day before was standing opposite of Leo and staring at him. It was a totally deadpan stare, like Leo wasn't even a living thing, and it obviously made him uncomfortable. She scooted up next to him and the man shifted his gaze to her and kept right on staring. She wondered if he had no need to blink.
Long minutes later Zara came in with that same firm, almost-but-not-quite-a-stomp stride that she seemed to have decided to use for them. She didn't look happy, but she didn't look particularly angry either. She came up to stand next to the little old man and added the weight of her stare to his. It was making her need to pee again. Leo's stomach growled and that seemed to be the opening move for Zara, whose gaze whipped back over to Leo.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, her voice deceptively regular in tone, which made Lillian suspicious at that point.
Leo must have sensed a trap too, because he only said, "I could eat."
"Well, it's nice to know that you're not too stupid to do that much," Zara replied sarcastically.
Lillian had no idea where that nice woman from the day before had gone to, but she would have never believed she could become the Zara that was standing before her now. This Zara wasn't just mean, she was down deep scary. She wondered how this could possibly be a necessary part of training. Her thoughts were interrupted by yet more of this new Zara.
"We are not your caregivers. We are not your parents. We are not your dear little old grandmother who is going to feed you cookies. We are your trainers. You will eat before you come to training or you will not eat!" She ended on a loud note that made it clear there would be no breakfast. Lillian was glad they had those snacks the night before.
"Lunches will be eaten when you're directed to and you get your evening meal after training so you don't have to arrange that, but breakfast is easy enough that even you two imbeciles should be able to figure it out." She was almost at a yell, but not quite, and when she finished she looked at each of them, an expectant look on her face.
When whatever she was looking for wasn't forthcoming, she put her hands behind her back and said very softly, "Do you not know when a response is expected of you? Exactly what level of dim did we get for this year’s runners, I'd like to know."
Lillian was very confused and from what she could see of Leo's expression out of the corner of her eye, he felt the same. She decided to go ahead and take a risk, "I don't know what response you're looking for."
Zara paused and then laughed, but it wasn't a nice laugh at all. "So, we have dumb," she indicated Leo and then turned toward Lillian and said, "and brave. Well, that works out nicely. You can slick the treads and she can make the apologies. Wonderful."
Again, she paused, then resumed her glare and instructed, "You say the same thing to pretty much anything that sounds like instruction and that would be, 'Yes, Trainer.' Other than that, you can say 'No, Trainer', but you better be sure it is something you can say no to. Got it?"
Lillian nodded but immediately caught her mistake and said, "Yes, Trainer." Leo followed her lead and Zara seemed a little less ready to fling them over a landing.
She turned to the little old man and touched his shoulder. He was very short and quite old, though Lillian had no idea how old that might be. He wasn't a typical old person. He looked almost stringy with muscle. Little cords stood out on his legs and arms in stark relief to the loose skin that covered them. He was almost completely bald, with just a very short fringe of gray hair low on his scalp. His face, while lined, looked queerly you
ng. His eyes were bright green, a very rare color, and he must have been very handsome despite his short stature when he was young. She couldn't match this face to any of the portraits though, so he must have changed a lot since he was a winner, if he was one.
"This is Danny Piper, Trainer Piper to you, and he won this race before your parents were even born so he knows more about it than you and you should listen to him. He's going to be working you in the tank and you're going to hate him for it." She stepped aside then, hands firmly clasped behind her back so that Trainer Piper could take over.
"I know who you are and how good you are and how good you think you are," he began in a completely normal voice though somewhat roughened with age. "You're wrong about how good you are. The element you're missing is the one I'm going to help you get and that is the ability to perform under pressure when you want to quit."
He began to walk slowly back and forth in front of the two runners as he spoke. "Up to now, you've run because it's fun, because it's a thrill and because it lets you break a few of the rules. You quit when you're tired. Even though you probably think you're going beyond that, you aren't. You run through air, with your favorite old boots on and your coveralls tied low so you stay cool and enjoy the breezes you make."
He stopped then and pointed at Leo, "Is that what it is going to be like out there?"
Leo cleared his throat and said, "No, Trainer."
Trainer Piper nodded and pointed at Lillian. She felt her throat try to close up and a cough coming on when that finger swung her way. He asked, "Are you going to be able to quit because you're tired when you're outside?"
Her voice broke a little in her dry throat when she answered. "No, Trainer."