After the Dark

by Spencer Labbe

  As a fresh wave of smoke rose to meet him, his eyes began to blur beyond control. If the track didn’t end soon, he would lose his sight completely. But he could feel the heat, feel it through his whole body. His feet were numb now. Pil took another deep breath of murky air and closed his eyes. He felt the relief immediately. But he also felt his pace slow, his feet cooked painfully beneath him. Pil didn't know where the other boys were, but they couldn't be far behind. Worry overtook him, and he sped up blindly. He was concentrating fiercely on feeling the wave of heat that stretched out before him and blocked out all other thought.

  Pil and the others had never trained for this. They had practiced balance, and running blindly, but had not prepared for the pain. Elfin have thick soles by nature, and good balance to match, but no Elfin he had ever met could run for long in these conditions, and the track seemed to never end. Pil had only a tiny amount of strength reserved and then he would have to jump off. The pain was unbearable. He had to cling desperately to consciousness. But there was nothing to be done now. He was only half sure he was even still running on the track. The heat began to cook his thoughts as well until all he could do was keep moving. Summoning the last of his strength, he sped up. Everything got harder — finding his way, fighting the pain, breathing. Pil fought it all and sped up again even faster. It was a hot blur. Pil’s legs were not his own, his head was beginning to split with the pain. He could not do this any longer. He had to reach the end.

  And then, finally, blissfully, clean air and a cold floor fell beneath him. He collapsed immediately on his side, taking deep and shaky breaths. Felicity’s estimate of 277 paces was probably near true but running on hot coals made it feel like double the length.

  Pil dry-heaved and coughed black smoke from his lungs. As the cold air began to restore him his head cleared. Slowly he opened his eyes. They still stung, but it was nothing compared to the pain that had returned to his feet. Pil looked back. It was a haze of smoke and fire, but through it all, he thought he could see the shadow of Sandy. There was no sign of the other boys. Had they already made it? He looked up. Someone was standing next to a black door.

  It was the man with the round glasses and empty expression. “Come this way, please,” said the man, calmly gesturing to the door.

  Pil’s mind went blank. Walk? Now? He was about to ask how, when he realized he was still being tested. He set his face, took a deep breath, and got shakily to his feet. His legs were shaking so bad it was hard to stand properly, and his feet stuck grossly to the floor, but he walked resolutely forward. Slowly and with much halting, he made his way to the door and passed through it. A bright room opened before him. Pil felt the cold air of the room before he collapsed to his knees. He was avidly struggling now to stay conscious. Pil's vision was blurred and his mind slow; the thought of failure was the only thing keeping him from the bliss of unconsciousness.

  What if he failed because he passed out? He could not let that happen; he would not. Exidite needed to be stronger than pain. Darkness was creeping slowly inwards, blocking out his vision, and his mind was concentrated only on staying awake. And then, suddenly, everything went black. His mind reeled and shouted at him with pain. Without warning, Pil gave way to the darkness.

  4

  Teamwork

  When Pil came to, he felt a warm sensation in his feet. Not an unpleasant warm, but a soothing one. It spread upwards, giving him feeling back in his dead legs. He opened his eyes and sighed in relief — it was bright orange in this room.

  Slowly Pil sat up. Everything still felt stiff, but his legs were regaining feeling as the warmth spread. There was an Elfin woman in all white huddled over him, applying some sort of salve to his feet. Pil took in his surroundings; he was in a large sitting room with several chairs lining the wall and two identical black doors on either side of the room. Except for him, and the Elfin woman seeing to his feet, the room was empty.

  “Excuse me,” said Pil weakly. “Where are the others? What is this room, is it another test?”

  “No, hun. This is the sitting room; you are the first through,” said the lady, looking up from his feet.

  Pil looked at the door, then back to the woman. “I thought we were supposed to go on to the next test.”

  The woman giggled. “They aren’t going to make you take the next test with your feet in this state, are they?” she asked, smiling. She gestured to his feet. “I applied a salve made from Merry Berry. They should be all healed up in a mo’.”

  Pil nodded. He felt very tired but recuperated. He had not felt the effects of Merry Berry before; it was high priced and used only in emergencies. Obtaining Merry Berry was one of the many jobs of the Exidite. Slowly his feet relaxed until the pain was a dim throbbing. It occurred to Pil that if he had to wait until the other contestants were in, he might have a slight advantage for the next test. Just then the door behind him creaked open. Compared to the bright room Pil was in, it looked like a dark hole in the wall. He could see only an outline of a figure in the doorway.

  And then, without warning, Sandy fell into the room, landing on his knees. He looked haggard like he had just run a marathon through hell, his face was blackened with soot, and his eyes were bright red. Sandy stared unseeing at Pil.

  “W-well that wasn’t much fun,” said Sandy in a croaky, dry voice.

  “No, not really,” said Pil as the short plump woman in white hurried over to Sandy and laid him on his back. “Did you see what happened to the other two?”

  Sandy glanced at Pil as the woman fussed about his feet, which were burnt raw, and blackened. “Y-yeah,” he croaked. “Jumped off ’bout halfway through. Neither of them made it. Good thing, too; I was going at a slow pace.”

  Pil nodded. The next group must have already started, and in it would likely be a familiar face. Would Dirk be able to make it? Surely he could stand the pain, but if the other three beat him here... Pil didn’t want to explore a world without his two best friends.

  Pil and Sandy sat in silence. As the minutes flew by, Pil’s feet began to regain feeling, although they did look quite blackened still.

  The nurse finished applying the salve to Sandy’s feet and stood up, wiping her brow. “Whew, quite a difficult task right off the bat, eh? Don’t much like the idea of it, to be honest, but nothing doing. It’s Harlem who comes up with them, so there’s not a lot I can do except put you poor boys back together.”

  “Do you work here, then?” asked Pil, sitting up as his body rejuvenated from the Merry Berry salve.

  “Yes, hun, worked here ’bout thirty years on now,” said the nurse, giving him an appraising look. “Name’s Aria. Might I ask what yours is?”

  “Pil, Pil Persins.”

  The woman nodded. “Any relation to Persilla Persins, dear?”

  “Yeah…” said Pil, looking down. “She was my mum.”

  Aria gave him a sympathetic smile. “I thought so. You look mighty like her. I was sorry to hear about her passing. I quite liked Persilla. Not many women have the guts to go into Exidite. And fewer still who pass the tests.”

  “I think any Elfin girl could pass the test if she were determined,” said Pil, thinking of Felicity. “My mom wasn’t the only one.”

  “That she wasn’t, dear,” said Aria smiling. “But she was one of the best. Never seen a woman quite like her before. Like I said, I was sorry to hear about it; I did like her. You’re not so bad yourself, though. I think that might be the fastest anyone has passed this particular test.”

  Pil smiled weakly. He thought of the pain and hoped that the other three tests were less taxing. At that moment, the door banged open. For a minute, again, all Pil could see was a dark silhouette and then the smoke cleared and Pil saw Brixton Bells. He was leaning heavily on the doorframe. The dark boy looked fatigued but conscious and sharp. He glanced at Pil, then Sandy, and then walked slowly into the room and sat down in one of the chairs against the wall. He left bloody footprints behind him.

  “Woman,” snapped Brixt
on at Aria, who was staring open-mouthed at him. “I’m in need of assistance.” Aria snapped to with a shake of her head and waddled over to Brixton, a frown etched on her kindly face.

  Pil stared at Brixton, and Brixton stared at the ceiling, ignoring the rest of the room. The boy was haggard but quite calm. Where is all his confidence coming from?

  Two more boys fell into the room after him, wheezing heavily, and shriveled in pain. Pil silently worried about Felicity and Dirk. Felicity could look after herself, and she was even faster than Pil. But Dirk… Surely, he would be okay.

  The minutes passed in silence with the nurse Aria fretting over the health of those who had passed the first test. Pil didn’t know the two other boys’ names, but they were tall and looked like siblings. They hung around Brixton like flies. Brixton for that matter had not looked down from the ceiling even as the two newcomers sat next to him. Sandy had finally sat upright and was glancing at the door leading out of this room, as often as he had glanced at the first door.

  Suddenly the door burst open again, and Sandy was forced to turn as the smoke cleared and two people pushed their way into the room. The first was Felicity, but she was quickly pushed out of the way as the second person fell past her and stumbled into the room. The boy looked around wildly in panic. After reassuring himself that there was no second test, he fell flat on his face.

  Felicity looked quite affronted, even given her dead expression and burnt feet. She stumbled weakly into the room and sat down on the floor next to the unconscious boy. Pil got to her even before the nurse. She took in his face and gave him a weak smile. Her expression said I’m fine, but her shaking legs and feet, burnt black, said otherwise. He knelt next to her.

  “We did it,” he whispered to Felicity as the nurse busied herself with her feet. “We passed the first test.”

  She nodded and took a deep shaky breath. “Dirk is up next. I heard Harlem yell his name.” She looked meaningfully up at Pil.

  “He’ll be fine,” said Pil, trying to keep the worry out of his voice.

  Pil and Felicity spent the next few minutes in a strained silence as nurse Aria healed her feet with the Merry Berry salve. They kept glancing back, even as Sandy kept glancing forward. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened for the fourth time. A pale boy fell through, sweating heavily and shaking uncontrollably.

  “He — he won’t get up!” yelled the boy in a hoarse voice. “A boy, I dunno who, he got here first but he — he — collapsed and won’t get up!” The boy pointed frantically back towards the hole of smoke.

  “Char!” cursed Aria as she hurried out of the room. Everyone was silent as the Elfin boy panted on the floor, staring silently downward. Pil wanted to run, he wanted to shout, he looked down at Felicity and knew she was thinking the same thing — Dirk.

  Finally, Aria bustled back in. Behind her was the Exidite with the round glasses, carrying a body.

  “Put him over here!” yelled the nurse, pointing to a spot on the floor in front of Brixton. “Char! I just knew this would happen! What were they thinking, honestly?”

  The man put the boy down on the floor, but even before he stood up Pil could tell it wasn’t Dirk. He let out a deep breath and relaxed back onto the floor, his mind reeling. Aria hovered over the boy so that Pil couldn’t see him clearly, but he looked to be in bad shape. Had the boy died? The first Elfin of their mound to die since his mother ten years ago.

  Aria sat back on the floor, wheezing, and Pil could see the outline of the boy’s chest moving up and down with breath. “He needs proper attention,” panted the nurse to the room at large.

  Pil breathed in heavily and looked up. What was this game? He thought he had been prepared, but they had not been prepared enough, it seemed. He looked back wearily to the open door. Where was Dirk? Had he given up? Of all of them, he had the best reason to want to join the Exidite, to provide for his family. And secretly, Pil guessed, to get away from his father.

  “Call Harlem!” the nurse ordered the Exidite man. The man looked calm but left in a rush.

  Pil and Felicity waited in silence as Aria tended to the boy. Sandy seemed unable to pull his gaze from the lifeless body. His face was stricken and pale.

  Finally, Harlem appeared in the doorway, looking grim. Without a word, he strode over and picked the boy up. The boy's face was lost in soot. His feet were burnt raw. Harlem whisked him out of the room and back through the pitch-black doorway. The room went completely still as the door closed behind them.

  Felicity closed her eyes, whether in pain or fear Pil did not know. Sandy's face had lost all color; he was still staring at the spot the boy had left on the floor. Blood and soot stained the white wood.

  Brixton alone seemed unmoved by the dramatic events. He had remained still, staring listlessly at the ceiling and looking supremely unconcerned. Pil could not stand it. He got to his feet and began pacing about the room.

  Where was Dirk? Two of Dirk's opponents were accounted for. That just left Dirk himself, and someone else. What if the other person beat him here? Harlem had said only the top three would pass…

  The seconds ticked by in strained silence. Pil could not stop pacing around the room. Had the boy died? Perhaps Elfin boys died in the Exidite test all the time, and it was simply covered up. Would Dirk really be able to stand the heat? What if… But, no, Pil must not think like that. Dirk would not die, he could not.

  Finally, they heard a huffing through the opening of the door and saw a large shadow in the doorway. A boy stumbled into the room and looked up at them all, gasping. It was not Dirk.

  The boy wheezed in the cool air and fell to his knees. Pil was on him in seconds. “What about the other boy, the last one — Where is Dirk?”

  “I dunno,” the boy croaked. “I couldn’t see anything — it’s what took me so long, had to close my eyes…”

  Pil stalked away, thinking fast. Sandy was staring blankly at the spot of ash and blood on the floor where the injured boy had been. Felicity sat unmoving as Pil paced around and then, without warning, the door banged open once again.

  The large outline of Dirk bent over, filled the doorway. He was coughing fiercely. "The boy —" Dirk gasped in between breaths. "I saw Harlem carrying him — what happened?"

  Pil could have laughed; his mind flooded with relief. Felicity smiled up at Dirk. “Worry about yourself, Dirk. You look horrible,” she said, taking him in. He was red in the face and sweating profusely.

  Dirk smiled up at them, gasping for breath. “Knew you’d make it,” he said to Pil and Felicity. “The last boy in my group jumped off. There’s only one group left.”

  Everybody except Brixton looked at Dirk. This was it. They had to start preparing for the next test, whatever it might be. Pil got to his feet and stretched his legs. They felt sore but in good condition. The Merry Berry had done its job. Everybody followed suit, standing up and stretching, or just pacing around the room like Sandy. Brixton was the exception. He remained seated, looking up at the ceiling.

  Time passed in silence. There was a grim air in the room. No one knew what they might have to face next; one boy had already been hospitalized. The man with the circle glasses had gone around them to the back door and stood in front of it, waiting.

  Eventually, a boy crawled in. He was small, almost as small as Pil. “I’m the only one who stayed on,” gasped the boy to the room at large.

  Aria rushed to him and began her work. The door swung open and Harlem returned, stepping around the nurse and small Elfin. His face was set in stone.

  “He will not be continuing,” Harlem answered the unasked question lingering in the air. “The boy will be taken care of — the rest of you still have to pass two more tests to become Entri.”

  Pil looked at Felicity. Her eyebrows were raised in worry. Harlem hadn’t said if the boy would live or not.

  “I will not be overseeing your next test — my father has a messenger waiting for me. Good luck.”

  Harlem swept out as quickl
y as he had come, and the room fell silent. The stern-looking man near the back door cleared his throat.

  “Congratulations… you have passed the first task. The next task will test your teamwork and leadership skills. I will count you off one to three, and you will get in a group with the Elfins of the same number.”

  He picked them at random. Pil got a three and looked around; his gaze caught the eye of Brixton, who had finally looked down from the ceiling. Brixton held Pil’s gaze for a second and looked up in time for the man to name him a three.

  “You are uneven,” said the man in the glasses at last. “Those in group three only have three members, and unfortunately you are at a disadvantage. But as you all arrived here the fastest, no advantage will be awarded to you. You must rely on your teamwork.”

  Pil looked at the Exidite and nodded his understanding.

  “Behind me,” the man continued, “you will find three separate rooms. Please enter the one that has your number on it. Afterward, you will be given separate tasks that involve working together. Please advance."

  The three groups walked through the black door and into a dimly lit, dead-end hallway. It had three more doors alongside the wall facing them, each with a number written on it in shining red paint. Pil glanced at Felicity, who held his gaze for a moment before she walked into the door labeled one. Dirk sidled past Pil, shooting him a nervous glance before entering the door for group number two. Pil took a deep breath and walked through his door, pushing roughly past Brixton, who had already reached out his hand to open it.

  Pil walked in to see a large bright room with a tall wooden pole in the center of it. He looked around the room. It was empty except for the pole, which reached high up to the domed ceiling. Pil noticed a note stuck to the pole, removed it, and read:

  Welcome to the second task. Your task today is to get the flag off the top of this pole by working together as a team. You will each come up with a plan in which to get the flag. Your elected team leader will decide which plan to use. If you fail, only your team leader fails this test. If you collect your flag, you all pass. But beware, you need to pass two more tests to become an Exidite. You have ten minutes to complete this task. Good luck.