The first day of training at Battlecast would have put a military boot camp to shame. Codi stood in a line with the nine other members of group Cyan, facing the iron haired, granite-faced instructor, Thradd Winters. The man gave off waves of hostility, a kind of controlled savagery that harkened back to early days of Gauntlet competition. When he spoke it sounded like someone had replaced his vocal chords with a piece of heavy machinery.
"Endurance is your greatest weapon," he stated bluntly. "You can be as fast, as talented, as pretty as you like, but if you can't go the distance your chances in the Gauntlet are nil." He walked down the line, eyeing the recruits dangerously. Some averted their eyes, their exuberance now quashed by Thradd's ferocious manner.
Codi held her head high and met his gaze. She'd never backed down before and by black holes and supernovas, she wasn't going to start now. She looked into Thradd's eyes, slate grey and unflinching. His jaw seemed to slide from side to side as he looked at her. A grunt that might have been approving or dismissive slipped out and he carried on.
"Get used to it, lucker," Gareth muttered from her right. "This isn't going to be a stroll in the park."
Codi ground her teeth together until they hurt but didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. She would wait until the instructors unleashed them to spar. Then she would show the entitled rivet-head what happened to people who underestimated her.
Suddenly Thradd shot out an arm, pointing. "All of you, onto the burners and get running till I tell you to stop. They're keyed with an auto setting. If anyone lowers it I'll personally throw you out the God-damn door!"
She joined the rest as they scrambled to obey, and it looked like Thradd's mantra of endurance was an accepted doctrine as the other groups followed suit. The "burners" were essentially high tech versions of the treadmills that Codi had used in her old academy. These models could simulate terrain surfaces, create inclines, reduce or increase friction; even thin the atmosphere in a localised sphere to simulate altitude.
Codi braced herself and stepped through the outer film that surrounded the box-like machine. Immediately she could feel the thinner air and her limbs seemed to have gained weight. Moving on the glittering, transparent running surface felt awkward and clumsy. She took a moment to move around and let her body adjust to the unpalatable environment. Then, preparing for what she fully expected to be a brutal opening session, she thumbed the machine's activation switch.
The surface slowly began accelerating beneath her feet, forcing her into a walk, a stride, a jog and finally a flat run. And it didn't slow down. Codi gritted her teeth and matched the pace, fully aware that she more than anyone couldn't afford to screw up, not this early. Adrenaline flooded through her and, driven by born determination, she ran on.
Minutes crawled agonizingly by, and she began to full understand why Thradd referred to the treadmills as 'burners.' Already her leg muscles were screaming at her as she forced the heavy limbs to keep moving. Her lungs ached from the oxygen starved atmosphere bubble and she struggled to keep her breathing regular. How long had it been? Looking around she couldn't see any kind of clock or timer.
Lowering her head, Codi tried to clear her mind. Don't think about it, she told herself, just get on with it. She soldiered on through the pain, every second that passed piling on more and more pressure. In the back of her mind she suspected Thradd had no intention of telling anyone in the group to stop. He'd drive them to see who could go the longest...or to see who wanted it the most.
Her prediction was proved abruptly correct when she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her left eye. Glancing in that direction she saw that the boy alongside had simply given out and been flung off the treadmill. The machine's auto safeties caught him and deposited him gently on the other side of the field, whereupon he crumpled to his knees, sobbing for breath.
"Who's next, eh?" Thradd roared at them. "You better be ready to prove to me you belong here!"
Codi redoubled her efforts. No longer in full control of her breathing she struggled to fill her lungs. It felt like someone had tied bricks to her legs but she forced her body through the ordeal. Another flash from her right signalled that the other recruit had just been beaten by the machine.
"If you don't have the guts to run till you drop then you sure as hell don't have the guts to win the Gauntlet!"
She blinked sweat from her eyes, trying to focus. She needed to be up there with the best, to be one of the last to be thrown from the treadmill in order to make the point that she belonged at Battlecast. But as more seconds crawled by she doubted she could last much longer. She was stumbling now; every other step threatened to throw her from the surface. Her breath came in ragged gasps and her lungs burned.
Just a few steps more, she kept repeating in her mind. She stopped keeping track of those that were falling off around her, concentrating on nothing more than driving one leaden foot in front of the other. The brutal pace of the machine didn't slacken and Codi knew it would only be a matter of seconds before her legs gave out and she was hurled ignominiously to the floor.
Before that could happen, however, something miraculous happened: the treadmill started to slow.
It took her a couple of seconds to register it happening, and at first she thought the machine had broken down. The deceleration remained smooth and controlled, however, and before long she staggered to a halt, gripping the side supports to keep herself upright. Her legs shook violently and she desperately tried to bring her breathing back under control. Dimly, she wondered what the hell was going on. Then a voice cut through the waves of pain and exhaustion.
"I think that'll do, Miss James." Codi looked up to see Thradd standing in front of her machine, a faint smile gracing his cragged features. "As much as I'd like to stand around and watch you run for the rest of the day, we've got a schedule to keep."
She held his stare as she brought her breathing back to a manageable rate. Had she heard correctly? Looking left and right she saw that every other treadmill was empty. She was the last runner. Despite the aches that throbbed through her body she felt a shudder of euphoria. She'd done it!
Eventually she gained control of her shock and nodded, stepping unsteadily through the outer film of the treadmill and back into the air of the training arena. Immediately oxygen flooded through her as she sucked in the rich, clean air of Earth. She bent over, resting her hands on her knees, savouring it.
Looking around she saw the other Battlecast hopefuls in group Cyan gathered around. Some were staring an amazement, some were glaring; others looked too exhausted to care. She noted with savage amusement that Gareth was giving her a look of utter loathing. He seemed to have fared better than the others, but she'd still beaten him.
"Listen up!" Thradd barked suddenly. The heads of the group snapped towards him. Satisfied he had their attention, he pointed at Codi. "See this? You know what this is?" Blank faces greeted the question, and Codi's was one of them. She looked on in puzzlement as he continued. "No? Then take a good long look, people. Around here this is what we call drive. It's something I want to see a lot more of, from all of you. Prove to me that you want this."
The others exchanged uncertain looks and Codi could see the other groups had also been paying attention to Thradd's declaration. She saw Chris O'Leary give her a small nod of encouragement from across the room.
After letting the message sink in for a few tense seconds Thradd barked out more commands. "Alright, you've had your breather. Everyone get back in line. We've got a lot to get through today."
Codi wiped the film of sweat from her brow and tottered into position, her legs still delicate from their ordeal on the treadmill. Straightening up she tried to remain steady. Her little display of 'drive' wouldn't count for much if she collapsed now.
After leading the group through a series of basic stretch exercises to loosen them up again, Thradd sent them through a punishing work out regimen and he wasn't the only one with that idea in mind. The massive domed training arena rang with the yells of instructors and cries of exertion from their pupils. For the moment, however, the Battlecast tutors seemed happy to avoid the use of the high tech equipment, instead preferring a more natural approach to the training. Sit-ups, press ups, planks, leg rises, crunches, and everything in between made up punishing routine. Then again, Codi figured this was what the Battlecast teams considered a warm up.
During it all she noticed that Bronagh Llewellyn stalked through the mayhem as a silent observer. The head instructor moved from group to group, appraising everything with a critical eye. Her expression remained impassive, however, as she punched notes into her wrist apparatus for later examination. Codi kept her nose to the grindstone and tried to ignore the woman when she passed through group Cyan.
By lunchtime Codi felt like she'd been awake for a week. Her whole body was numb with exertion and it took what little energy she had left to slump into a seat in the immense Battlecast dining hall. The eating area spanned a hundred square yards, packed from wall to wall with rows of tables, with one corner dominated by the formidable kitchen. A team of half a dozen chefs and nutrition specialists were on hand to ensure that the prospective recruits received the very best nutrients.
Codi wasn't overly keen on the dietary options, however. Today's arsenal seemed to be little more than high protein infused meats with accompanying unrecognisable vegetables. Fortunately she was hungry enough she would probably have eaten anything.
She shovelled in her first mouthful of meat and looked around the canteen, trying to take stock of the dynamic within the groups. Most mingled freely; she saw Chris and Ripple at a table with several other fighters who evidently knew the pair. She wondered if she ought to go and join them. She'd always been a bit of a lone wolf, but had the self awareness to understand that she needed friends if she was going to make it at Battlecast.
Pondering as she was, Codi almost didn't notice when another girl sat down beside her. She looked sharply to the right in surprise and discovered the newcomer was Leela, the youngster who'd tried to break up her earlier confrontation. Up close this girl reminded Codi of a younger version of herself, physically at least. In manner, however, Leela differed considerably.
"I...hi, is anyone sitting...?"
"Nope, just me." Codi gave her a nod.
"We haven't met – not properly anyway. I'm Leela, Leela Crockett."
"Codi-,"
"I know who you are." Leela looked at the table and Codi could have sworn the other girl was blushing. "Sorry, it's just, I'm a big fan."
"Of me?"
"I know it probably sounds a bit stupid, but I watched the Gauntlet for the first time last year. Seeing you, your whole story, it was amazing."
Codi blinked in surprise. "Err...thanks, I guess."
"What I'm saying is, you're basically the reason I'm here." Leela smiled awkwardly.
"Don't take this the wrong way," she answered. "But I wouldn't consider myself a role model. Last year was...unique."
"But you were incredible!" Leela's eye widened as she continued. "Don't pay attention to people like Gareth. Sure, some people are jealous, but to a lot of us you're an inspiration."
Codi looked at this young excitable whippet of a girl and felt an uncomfortable sensation in the base of her stomach. She knew full well that the media had run rampant with the story of her meteoric rise from obscurity to the Gauntlet's poster child, but at heart she was still just an unstable teenager with a violent temper. For reasons she couldn't put her finger on, she didn't like the idea of being someone else's inspiration.
"The Gauntlet's not a game, Leela," she said, trying not to sound too patronising. "Just because you like the idea of it doesn't mean you're going to enjoy the real thing."
The girl's expression of awe cracked in such a heart-wrenching way that Codi forced herself to backtrack.
"All I mean is...you need to understand this is going to be a long, hard slog to make it into the team, okay?"
"I know," Leela said, her voice now slightly more subdued. When she spoke again she sounded utterly serious. "I don't know if I'll even make the team this year. I just wanted to try, to see if I can make something from nothing." She looked Codi in the eye. "Like you did."