Chapter 7 - Breakfast in the Mess
"Man," Simon said, sucking down a little bit of the glop, "My brother wasn’t kidding about how lousy the food is here."
"How can they get away with this?" Steinway asked, "This is disgusting."
"Captive audience," Copeland shrugged, "We don’t have anywhere else to go."
"Makes you wonder how many people leave the country just from the food," Salmand said, looking disdainfully at the tasteless porridge, "If I didn’t like it in this empire…"
"Cheer up," Peter Lomax said, sucking his food down cheerfully, "It’s better than some of the poorer people get."
"Nice," Simon said, "Is it this bad the whole way through?"
"I’m eating the same thing you are," Peter reminded him, "Sorry, guys."
"Eat hearty," Suvorov said, sucking it down with gusto, "You only live once and you need food to do it!"
"Figures he’d like it," Simon said sourly, "So what is up for us today?"
"Your first civics class," Peter said, "I get to come along and play teacher’s aide."
"How many of us?" Copeland asked, still not liking the idea of many people in one place at a time.
"Usually under twenty," Peter shrugged, "I don’t know how they’re going to do it this time."
"What is different about this time?" Hale Steinway said, "I thought the beauty of this was that it never changed?"
"Mullinix-Elder Taliaferro is supposedly sick, remember," Simon said, "One of my brothers is a guard up at the palace and he told me that Taliaferro collapsed a couple days ago."
"That’s right," Peter nodded, "A lot of people are expecting a new Mullinix to be chosen soon."
"So how does that make things different?" Copeland asked, not being overly familiar with the selection process, "Don’t they have a successor chosen?"
"The successor isn’t chosen until needed," Peter told him, "That way the new Mullinix can’t be pumped for favors. They always choose the new apprentice from the first semester service center candidates."
"Wait?" Copeland said, "One of us?"
"You got it," Peter nodded, "It could be any one of you. That’s the beauty of the system. You never know until it is too late."
"I’d love it," Suvorov said, chuckling, "Give me a chance and I’ll kick some asses…"
"Never happen, Suvorov," Simon said, "If you want to do it then they’ll never choose you."
"Simon is right," Peter agreed, "So now we know who it won’t be. Granted there are several hundred people here in your position. It could be any of you. We’ll find out when or if it happens."
"Great," Copeland sighed, "Bad food and the possibility of becoming a Mullinix. Ever get the feeling you should have stayed home?"
"Eh," Simon shrugged as he finished off his slop, "It could be worse. At least if one of us gets chosen Mullinix they can do something about this slop."
"Others have tried," Peter said as he put his emptied bowl in the rack, "Let’s get to class."
"Right," Copeland said, feeling more than a little foreboding.
The Mullinix Book 1: Ascension Page 8