Sorry, again!
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Chapter 3.2
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The day ends after a meal in what they call the mess hall. The food isn't much, just a lot of vegetables and grains. Though it doesn't matter to me, I don't eat much of it anyway.
Paradox finally frees us from her watchful eye when all the lights are all switched off at curfew. And as she leaves the room I can't describe how relieved I feel. My legs swing from the bed to the floor and as stealthily as possible, I run across the floor to Jewel's bed.
"I don't want to sleep alone," I say. She lifts up her sheets so I can slip under. The darkness and unfamiliarity remind me too much of a painful experience.
The room lapses back into it's eerie silence, though even as I shut my lids to sleep I sense someone's eyes on me. Carefully lifting my head, I turn to my bed. Kite sits up in hers, her shining brown eyes watching me.
We make awkward eye contact for a few moments before I quickly lay down, pretending to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~
In the morning Paradox comes earlier than I expected.
"What is this?" She bellows, stopping in front of Jewel's bed. "Graduates sleep in their own beds!" My cheeks burn as all the eyes in the room focus on the two of us. I've never liked being the center of attention.
"It won't happen again," I say.
What I really mean is 'you won't catch me again'. Paradox dismisses my words with a flick of her hand.
"You seemed like you were a miscreant," Paradox's eyes narrow. "But I thought you'd see sense and cooperate. Next time you step out of line you'll regret it."
I hide it with outward bravado, but inside Paradox's words strike a cord of fear. As soon as her boots march away I scurry to my bed, making it up, and join Jewel in heading to the mess hall for breakfast. On the way, Kite sidles next to me and gently taps my arm. Startled, I yelp.
"Sorry about last night," she says. "I don't mean to be a creep."
"Why are you watching me?" I ask bluntly. "Last night? Choosing the bed next to me?"
"Because you know..." her voice lowers.
"Know what?" As the question leaves my mouth Kite stops walking, immediately becoming quiet.
"Never mind." The crowd of girls walking behind us swallows her and she disappears in their midst.
"Someone touched her and she disappeared."
I gasp, halting too. Jewel pauses, tossing me a confused frown.
"What's going on?"
"I grabbed her arm when the ground rumbled," I say in horror.
"Huh?"Jewel asks. I pause, realizing how crazy I must sound.
"It's nothing. I think I'm just hungry."
Jewel nods and we continue walking, though I look over my shoulder periodically for Kite. But she's vanished.
~~~~~~~
Training is after the morning meal. I expect us to go to the enormous room I saw but Paradox leads us in a different direction. We end up in a miniature version of the large training room.
Soon as we all enter, Paradox sends us to our age groups based on the information in her tablet. My heart squeezes as the eleven and twelve year old's move into their group. They seem so young and scared, many of them looking like they could pass for Adonis's age.
I have to force myself to glance away.
The group I'm sent to is for age eighteen to twenty. Unsure of what to do, I hang back. Jewel follows my lead. Paradox helps the younger ages first, coming to us second, and then moving to the older ages last. Like a machine she explains emergency medicine, what you would do if you were wounded in the middle of nowhere.
The whole time she speaks I have to hold back my dubious expression. Why is she teaching us this? How will this help us with the unification we must face with our long lost families?
But then Xaro seems like a dangerous place. Perhaps people do get hurt randomly and emergency medicine is probably a necessary skill.
Before she moves on, Paradox sets us to practicing bandage wrapping, making tourniquets, and reading a medical pamphlet she gives to each of us.
That's all we do for the duration of the day. Not one of us touches any of the numerous training machines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When we get back to the barracks I'm shocked to see Kite sitting on her bed. Her eyes flicker to me as I approach and a soft smile lights up her depressed expression. I smile back, letting my teeth show.
"How was training?" She asks as I perch on the edge of my bed.
"All we did was learn about first aid. I don't understand how that will help with unification, but hey, I'm no expert on Xaro."
Kite quiets and fiddles with her small hands. I remember Paradox's advice on reading people. After examining her nervous behavior for a bit longer, I take a wild guess.
"You know something important," I say. Her head jerks up and her small eyes blink as if a fan were blowing directly in her eyes. "What is it?"
"I shouldn't tell you," Kite says. "They already know I know and I have no clue what they are going to do." It doesn't take a genius to guess who they might be.
"It's that big?"
Kite nods. "And I don't want to bring anybody down with me."
"Well," I say hesitantly. "I'm willing to take a risk." After scrutinizing my face for seconds, Kite begins to speak, though caution makes her quieter than a mouse.
"There is a unification," Kite's says so softly, I have to strain to hear her. "But that's after what comes before."
"What comes before?"
"I didn't have the same dream as everyone else," she answers. "Instead I saw this place where the sky was lit up with fire. People like us were dropping like flies, falling on dead grass. Some were running and there was blood everywhere. These fire balls fell from the sky too, exploding when they hit the ground. I almost went deaf from all the noise and the screaming, and yet there was this voice that whispered something..."
I freeze, waiting for her to continue.
"They said...ninety days."
"My team refers to it as the ninety days."
"I've heard that before," my voice drops. "They said it was this challenge that we had to complete to prove that we could survive in Xaro. But I didn't really think much of it."
"Well that's what they are training us for," Kite continues. "That's the challenge."
"But.." I lean forward. "The place you described sounds like hell."
Author's Note:
dun, dun, dun, dunnnnn....