by Ann Christy
Again, he nodded and took a few steps toward the tank. He pointed at it and looked back at them. "That will let you know a little bit of what it feels like outside. We'll strap on those weights so you know what it's like to walk in a suit with the air moving so fast it tries to knock you down. I'll run you in that tank until the skin of your feet starts to peel off and you know what?"
Lillian wasn't sure how to answer that one. It wasn't a yes or no question but he was looking at them and expecting an answer so she improvised, "What will happen, Trainer?"
He quirked an eyebrow at her, though she couldn't decide if that was a good quirk or a bad one. He answered them though. "It won't do an Other’ed thing to make you really ready for what is out there. It will help, don't get me wrong, but when you're out there and can't see the length of a landing in any direction and the air is hitting you so hard that it sounds like someone is dumping a bucket of seed over your head and your suit feels like it is making you double in size, well, there's nothing but what is inside you that can help you with that."
He walked away from them when he finished speaking and Lillian was, for the first time, a little afraid of what winning might mean. She shivered at the thought of it and decided that this was no game. This training needed to be paid attention to and followed. If she couldn't be devoted to it then she shouldn't be here.
Zara came forward again and told them, her voice once again clipped and more than a little impatient, "Okay, you rail clingers, go get your clothes issue and change into your tank gear and get back in here. You have until I get done in the bathroom to get back."
Lillian wondered what exactly she needed to do in the bathroom for a quick second but then decided it didn't matter. She took off running for the door. Leo kept pace with her and they slid to a stop at Bedie's office. Leo grabbed the doorway to keep from sliding past, but only succeeding in dumping himself to the floor in the process.
The pair didn't have to say a word. Bedie pointed toward their rooms and said, "In your rooms. Hurry! The short coveralls are your tank suits!"
This time Leo was in the lead as they raced back to their rooms. Inside, Lillian slammed the door and hit the light switch with one hand while she started pulling open the buttons of her coverall with the other. She tried to make sense of the array of clothing on her bed at the same time. At least she hadn't tied her boots properly because she was able to pull them off with just a few sharp tugs. She flung them from her feet to the corner of her room where they made loud thunks as they hit the wall and dropped.
She dropped her coveralls and pulled up the first of the folded clothing items that looked like a coverall, but it wasn't short so she flung it back down. The second was the same. The third one turned out to be the short version and she slipped that on in no time flat. It was still a bit stiff and smelled new, but it wasn't bad at all. The fit was much better than the standard sizes and the short sleeves and short pant legs were a novelty. She rather liked it, she decided, though she would miss all the pockets that normally resided on the legs and arms of a set of coveralls.
This set had no decoration of any kind. There was no patch, which felt strange, since only children were patchless. But if it was to be worn in the tank then anything extra wouldn't be needed and it made sense not to waste a bunch of resources on it. There was a second towel folded on the bed that had been underneath this suit. She figured that meant it was for the tank work so she grabbed that, too. A pair of sandals woven from some sort of weedy stuff, much like the rugs in the rooms, lay on the bed. They had been placed in front of the suit so she peeled off her socks and put those on as well.
As she went down the hall she felt like wrapping the towel around her legs. To Lillian it felt like she was walking around in her undershorts, something she only did in the presence of her mother and sister. Well, that was true normally, except for this morning's unfortunate wake up. She chastised herself for being silly and reminded herself that all the people in this part of the level were here for training and had seen all of this before. Most of them had probably done all of this before. It was nothing and she should treat it like nothing.
That seemed to be working right up until the point where she saw someone on a ladder working with the grill off an air vent. The workman was inside the vent past the shoulders and couldn’t see her, but that man's shadow was just below the ladder holding a tool bag. The shadow's eyes gave a quick up and down glance that made her come very close to using the towel, but then his caster's hand had come out of the vent and tapped him on the top of his head in just the same way a parent might do to a rudely staring child. The shadow had the good grace to look abashed and avert his eyes. She hurried past.
Leo came jogging up behind her and caught up with her as they entered the main training room again. He didn't say anything but he had wrapped his towel around his middle to hide some of his legs and Lillian patted him on the arm to let him know she cared. He looked embarrassed to have his lower legs showing beyond the suit and his red cheeks were a stark contrast to his pale legs.
Trainer Piper was standing by the tank, which looked more ominous to Lillian all of the sudden. He directed them to a shower in the corner, once used as an emergency station for those exposed to chemicals, he claimed. He told them to wash down and be sure there was nothing on their skin before getting in. The water was warm and even though it was weird to take a shower in front of people, it was even weirder to do it in clothes. They both hurried and then slogged back toward the trainer, wet feet slapping on the rough floor as they went.
The trainer wasted no time and instructed Lillian to get in first. She tried to act like it wasn't a big issue but she let out a squeak when the cold water got to her knees as she climbed the interior foot rails. Trainer Piper laughed and said he still did that when the cold water touched him. When her feet touched the cold slats on the bottom, the water reached almost to her collarbones and she was surprised to find that her body almost wanted to rise in the water. She kicked her feet up experimentally, felt the delicious sensation of floating and grinned at Trainer Piper. He laughed and told her to get back to business. It was with regret that she put her feet back to the slats on the bottom.
He showed her the right way to get the treads moving and grabbed her arm when she almost immediately went under as they started to move. He started her slow, just walking, and alerted her when she inevitably started going faster again and again. By the time he let her out, her fingers had developed wrinkles like she got when she spent too much time scrubbing the apartment and her skin felt odd and pebbly. She looked at her feet and they had turned a strange color and had also wrinkled.
Leo did well in the tank, seeming to catch on to the methods of maintaining a speed and keeping his balance far more quickly than she had. He was a natural and the trainer said as much. When Leo got out, he was shivering even after he wrapped himself in his towel. Lillian had already passed the shivering stage and was sitting on the bench with her legs drawn up and her towel like a blanket around her while she waited.
The trainer spent a few minutes telling them what he thought they did well at and what they needed to work on. After he was done, he gave them each their schedules for the day. It was just a slate with the events chalked into the various time blocks. It was very full. "Every night before you go to bed, be sure to leave this hanging outside your door. You'll see the hook. When you get up in the morning, you'll have a new one hanging there. Keep in mind that means you won't know what you're doing until the day you're doing it, so be ready for anything."
Lillian didn't like that at all, especially given the devious little grin that lit up the trainer's face when he said it. She scowled a little and he just grinned bigger, his face crinkling with sudden wrinkles. No, she definitely didn't like this at all.
He released them for lunch, said he'd see them soon and next time they would use weights. Lillian tried hard to keep from scowling again but he must have seen it in her eyes because he laughed. It was a big laugh for
such a small, old man and it sent faint echoes of sound back to them from edges of the cavernous room.
His laughter stopped as suddenly as it started and he looked them up and down, appraisal in his eyes. “Well, that’s impressive. Usually, at least one of you flinches.” He winked at them and pointed toward the far end of the room. “Go on and get your lunch. Your drunken friend should be here afterwards. After any break, including lunch, you come back here and wait for your trainer if one isn’t here. And don’t mess with the equipment!”
“Yes, Trainer,” Leo said, popping out the phrase quickly so that Lillian’s response trailed his.
They stood there a moment. Lillian was unsure if anything more was required. Was this like school where you had to ask to be excused? Or were they already excused? Trainer Piper settled the issue for them by waving his fingers to shoo them without another word.
Lillian turned on her heel and jogged across the training room toward the exit that led to the dining hall and their quarters beyond. She wasn’t dripping anymore but her sandals felt wet and slippery on her feet, the little woven straps around the toes biting the flesh as she ran. She kicked off the sandals with the next two steps, flinging them ahead of her and swooping a hand down to grab each as she went past. Behind her, she heard the sliding sound of Leo catching his balance after slipping in his sandals.
She turned to jog backwards and mimed a dramatic loss of balance with a grin on her face.
“Yeah, laugh now,” he said, catching up with her once his own shoes were off.
They burst into the kitchen, elbowing each other aside at the door amidst the sound of slapping feet and laughter.
The cook turned at the sound and waved a spoon at them. “No you don’t! Don’t bring your bare feet and wet hides in here! Go and shower off before you come in here.” He turned back to the stove where a big pot steamed but whipped the spoon back around and added, “And be dressed when you do!”
He made a clucking noise that sent Lillian into giggles so she leaned behind Leo and stifled them with her hand. They turned and ran down the hallway, racing in earnest now that they knew it would be the first one to the bathroom that got the bigger showers. The other would be left with the smaller one in the second bathroom near the dining hall.
Leo made it first, his dash to the door mere steps ahead of Lillian. She settled for the smaller shower, which really wasn’t bad at all and had great water pressure. She got to the hall first and was already sitting with a full bowl of stew and a plate of salad by the time he came in.
Lillian felt a little more subdued now that they were in front of others and she could see that Leo did too by the way he was looking around from under his brows. Two of the tables were filled with various people they hadn’t met yet. All of them wore the badges of race support, but she had no idea what duties they might have.
“Hey,” Lillian whispered, leaning close to Leo, “what do you think all these people do here? I mean, it’s just us three racers, right?”
Leo took another surreptitious look at the others in the room and shrugged. “What they said before. I guess they work on the suits, the design of our training, medical. This is important, right?”
“But three months away from their regular jobs isn’t a little vacation. I just have a hard time imagining what this many people might do that calls for that much time off.” Lillian shoveled another spoonful of stew into her mouth and caught the drips with a finger swipe to the chin. She felt like she had to hurry and get there before the trainers. That brought another thought to mind. “Hey, do you know who your trainer is?”
Leo shook his head, greenery from his own salad poking out of his mouth. “No clue. Zara checked me in.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and poked the last spinach leaf into his mouth.
“You’re disgusting, you know.”
Lillian gave a quick look around the room. No one seemed to be watching them so she tipped up her bowl and slurped down the last of it. After she set down the bowl she waved for Leo to hurry and get done, too. He possessed an almost limitless appetite and had since he started his serious growing. He was afraid to get much taller or bigger because it would slow him down. That was part of the reason they had tried out this year rather than next, as originally planned.
Once he slurped his own stew down, they rinsed their dishes and stacked them, both of them feeling a little odd at just leaving dishes for someone else to clean. Lillian flicked a little water at Leo and they elbowed each other the entire way back to the training room.
No one was there. Leo went directly over to the shelves of gear and examined it, hands clasped behind his back to avoid touching them, which he clearly wanted to do. Lillian saw a mirror where the glass in a door should be. It was the door that the trainers and support staff used. That section was off limits to trainees unless invited.
She had been through there during check in, but when she had left by that door, there was a covering over the inside and she hadn’t noticed the mirror. She went over to it now and checked her teeth for food bits and then examined her face. It was a true mirror and those were a rarity. There were some with reflective paint on the glass, though those were all speckled with black spots and not much better than the polished metal most commonly found. This was so clear it was strange.
Lillian tilted her head back and forth, tried to see herself a bit from the side and then peered closely at her birthmark. It was a splotchy bit of brown on her right cheek that she forgot about until something like this mirror brought it to the fore again.
“Hey, Lil!” Leo called from the other end of the room.
“What?”
“You falling in love over there?” he asked in a voice so loud it made her wince.
“Asshole,” she muttered in response. It did the trick though, and she turned away from the mirror and strolled toward Leo. It was a long way and the novelty had in no way worn off yet. The room was almost as big as 25 Drums, she realized. And that place was turned into a club for kids all over the silo every two weeks. As many as a couple of hundred teenagers danced and mingled in there. Lillian had a thought.
“Lillian! What are you doing?” Leo asked as she began to jump and twirl across the room.
She laughed and stopped before she got dizzy. Her ponytail hadn’t survived the twirling and she pushed the strands away from her face. It was intoxicating to have this much space with no person in her way and only Leo to share it with. “I’m dancing!”
He looked around like he was expecting a bunch of trainers to come in and announce they had made a mistake and send them home. “Don’t do that. Someone might come in and see that weird dancing you do. That’s fine for the club or in our hallway but not in front of people that matter.”
Lillian did another one of her jumping leaps, pointing her toes and landing in the way that felt just right to her. She spun as she stepped and stopped just inches from Leo. It was perfect and that was almost as satisfying as actually dancing. She grinned at him and said, “It’s not weird. It’s just different. Play the drums for me.”
Leo rolled his eyes but looked at all the gear for something that would do. The bins lined up along one wall that held various gear were just about the only thing in the room that might work. He grabbed one and dumped the weighted balls inside it onto the floor. They both laughed as they rolled the balls toward the wall, then Leo sat himself in the middle of the room and tested out his makeshift drum.
It was the worst drum imaginable. Clanging and discordant, he tested it around the surface until he found a spot that was a little less offensive then the rest and beat out a tentative tune. Leo wasn’t one of the regular players at 25 Drums, but he had been up on the stage a time or two playing simple background rhythms for the more skilled hands. He started up a familiar beat, one that anyone who had been in the club in the last few decades would know.
Lillian clapped and said, “My favorite!”
He nodded and grinned, missing a beat in the process. He grimaced at the
sound and focused on the task at hand.
When Lillian sang it sounded like someone in dire need of medical assistance so she didn’t even bother trying, but she could hear the whole song in her head using the beat as her timer. It was safe to hum a little and sing the song in her head since no actual eardrums would be negatively impacted. The beat rang out, buh—buh-buh, buh—buh-buh.
Baby, I love you
Whether we go up or down
I don’t need to know
We just have to go
Baby, please love me
Bring me up, bring me down
Anywhere you want to go
I’ll go anywhere, you know
She tapped out a beat with her feet until she had it and then she flew in a series of twirling leaps in a big circle around Leo. Then she circled him again mixing up that pattern with something different between each leap. Aside from running, she felt most free when she danced like this. It had always been that way for her.
The door with the mirror in it pushed open but neither she nor Leo heard it. The noise of the makeshift drum was loud as he became more comfortable with where to beat his hands on it. As Lillian made another of her leaping twirls she caught a flash of two people between the gaps of her hair.
The man seemed familiar, even from just that quick glance, and with him was Zara. A folder had fallen from his hand and the loose papers fluttered around him as he strode forward. Leo must have noticed at the same time because the drumming came to a sudden halt. She took one more leap that put her on the near side of the approaching trainers.
Lillian pushed her hair back as they approached while Leo scrambled to get the bin back into its spot. She saw the man’s lips move a little and Zara, who was walking next to him with a concerned look, turned to look sharply at Lillian and then back at the man. Zara touched his arm to stop him and they exchanged a few words.
The intensity of their exchange made her suddenly nervous. She was sure in that way one had that the subject of their discussion was her. It ended quickly as he nodded and started forward again. The strange look from before was wiped away and a more neutral expression had replaced it, but the intensity was there, hidden beneath the surface.