In the upcoming days, I multiply my effort. Ryan seems to worry about me, constantly telling me to not overdo myself. But I don't feel like overdoing something. I feel great. Better than ever. And seeing my progress, my body transforming to look like a real human instead of a malnourished wreck, that's the best motivation.
I also eat a lot. I need tissue to build muscles from. Ryan is sometimes horrified about the amount of food I consume, but I don't care. After fifteen years of starving, I feel like I deserve this. I found the biggest pleasure in fish and chicken. And fries. I'd be able to eat a mountain of these salty potato sticks.
I also switched to a more advanced exercise programs. Every day, I lift two-liter bottles of water to strenghten my thin, fragile arms. I do sit-ups, squats and even push-ups, even though only on my knees so far. And I try to add more every day.
Maybe Ryan is right, sometimes I really overdo myself. Every now and then, I exhaust myself so much I can just sit somewhere out of sight and cry in silence. At these moments, I feel what Ryan has been talking about - an urge to give up. I feel like no matter what I do, I'll always be that tiny, useless Zoya I've always been.
I'll never be as powerful as the Champions I sometimes see on TV. I was born weak and defective, and it seems I'll carry that stigma forever. Another explosions of frustration come when I look at my body. Even though I slowly gain weight, I'm still much thinner than I'm supposed to be. Maybe the years in the Dead Zone made a deficency I'll never be able to fill.
Even if I ate like a pig and exercised until I drop, I'd never be able to compete with the best.
Fortunately, I can always remember why am I here in the first place.
Ryan needs me. He bought me because he was desperate and hoped I'll finally bring him something so he can finish his research and introduce his discovery to the world. He didn't tell me what is it yet. I probably wouldn't understand it. But he deserves to reach this goal.
And about me? I think the most important thing that pushes me forward is my ambition. After my Tribe abandoned me when the Hunters took my mother and killed my father, I have to live with a lingering stigma of uselessness. They didn't find me important enough to rescue me. They left me for dead.
Even if just once, I want to know what it's like to be respected. Admired. Enjoy the looks of people who don't see you only as a burden, some kind of garbage that should be thrown off. I want the world to know my name. See my face on banners and holograms just like I saw Nightingale, the current Champion of Champions, in the shopping mall.
That's probably why am I so persistent even though the progression is slow. Why I learn to run, jump, later even safety rolls, the basics of parkour and flips. It is painful. I have to try the trick countless times before I can get it right every time. Because of that, my body is full of bruises and scratches.
But the euphoria when I, after several weeks of training, finally jumped over Ryan's fence using a front flip and then landed on the other side into a perfect safety roll was so worth it.
"I'm... speechless," Ryan voices after seeing me perform this trick. "How the fuck did you do it?"
I come back through the main entrance with a bright smile. "I worked really hard on it," I say. "To think that three months ago, I had trouble even with walking... I amaze myself. Now it's all so natural. The harmony of my body and the technology. Balance. Speed. Coordination. Concentration."
"Now you have only one thing to do," Ryan nods. "Learn to control the Ace in your legs."
After the first experience with the jumping capabilities of my proths, I've been fearing this sentence. But I also realize the possibilities of the technology. It can be deadly combined with the parkour moves I've been learning in the past weeks. I start to realize my full potential.
And I want to unleash it.
"Let's do it," I say. "A few bruises more or less, I don't mind it anymore."
Ryan rolls his eyes. "I really don't understand you. I usually give up on stuff as soon as it does the hurty hurty. I do stuff for some kind of profit, not to cause myself pain!"
"You have to learn a saying that was really important in the Dead Zone," I smirk at him. "No pain, no gain."
...
Ryan looks at the manual downloaded into his pentop. "According to this scripture," he mumbles, "the more you crouch during the initial phase, the higher it launches you. Maybe you went a little too low when you tried it for the first time. Try to crouch just a little."
I nod, then bend my knee just enough to activate the hidden mechanism inside the legs. The voiceless buzzing is weaker than the previous time.
After I brace myself, I jump and let the mechanisms hurl me into the air, this time only two or three meters high. I manage to keep my stability, but I have to flap my hands like an idiot. I even manage to land on my feet, but then stumble a few steps forward and fall on my face regardless.
"It was... better," Ryan states.
"I wish these things had some kind of stabilizer," I utter as I get up.
"According to this manual, it actually has a stabilizer," he tells me with eyes set on his pentop.
"Consideration," I grumble as I approach him. "Is this word even familiar to you? There was no need to tell me there's a goddamn stabilizer and I'm just lame as hell."
Ryan shrugs. "Sorry, but I'm used to telling facts, unbiased by feelings." He uses the last word like it was some kind of curse. He could definitely use some more courtesy. Then, his voice softens a little. "Try to bend your knees as you land, like you were doing a squat. It should absorb the energy made by the fall and let you land safely, without falling or stumbling."
"Thanks," I say and try to activate the Ace again. I get launched into the air again, doing an unintentional front flip. I try to follow Ryan's advice and crouch as I land, but instead of a squat, I accidentally end up in a position which activated the system again. And I crouched pretty damn low.
I scream as I get tossed high in the air, flying above the meadow and ending in a crown of a nearby tree. A while later, Ryan comes to the tree, breathless with laughter. "I'm sorry," he wheezes. I'm really sorry, Zoya. I feel horrible laughing at this. But it's just..." Another burst of laughter.
I roll my eyes. "I admit it had to look funny when you weren't the one flying."
"Can you get down?"
"Yeah, I guess." My hair and clothes are full of twigs and leaves, but I'm uninjured. Fortunately. I lower myself to the ground and start to brush the dust off myself.
"Maybe it'd be a best idea if I turned that feature off permanently," I utter.
"No! You almost had it!" Ryan objects. "Are you trying to tell me that Zoya, the master of grinding, is going to give up after three botched up tries? That's strange."
"You're right," I say. "I'm gonna give it a few more tries."
For training reasons, it's the most convenient when I jump straight up. Keeping myself upright while doing that is easier than trying to balance the flight into a distance. Doing a squat after landing really turns out to be a good solution, even though landing into a safety roll also works well.
At the end of the day, I'm able to land more or less safely in roughly sixty percent of cases. I'm so tired I'm barely able to move and the unsuccessful landings also took their toll on me. I have to say that a Healthy would end up much worse since the Castaways, even me, are much more resilient. But still, we're not immune to bruises, scratches and soil in our faces.
"I think it went pretty well, didn't it?" Ryan says on our way home.
"I guess. But it would be still useless in a real fight. I still..."
"...have to practice," he finishes instead of me. "Practice makes perfect, I know, I know."
When we arrive home, I eat monstrous amount of food once again. I deserve it, okay? And besides that, Ryan's chinese noodles with chicken and vegetables are a masterpiece.
I ask where China is and, for the first time, Ryan shows me the world map. I'm shocked how relatively small the Dead Zone is. For me, it was the whole world. I thought that the areas outside are much smaller. Now I see vast areas where the Healthy live. Asia. America. Even though it's fasicnating, it reminds me how hopeless minority we are. The world is controlled by the Healthy. And we have to deal with it.
...
I have to admit, learning to control the Counter-gravity leaps is probably the hardest thing I tried to master. There are too many things to keep my eye on - the angle during taking off, keeping balance during the actual flight while preparing for the landing, and then landing itself, preferably without triggering another jump.
After a week, I managed to learn to jump while keeping two of these things, which could result in:
1. Landing and flying fluently, but in a completely random direction, sometimes ending up in a tree or bushes, depending where you are.
2. Taking off and landing well, but looking like an idiot mid-air while trying to balance yourself.
3. Taking off and flying like a boss, but landing on your face.
Ryan can't decide which one is funnier. I know he doesn't want to come out mean, but his nasal snickering is irritating nevertheless. That's why I mostly train during that gray time between the first sunrays and actual daybreak (training the jumps in a complete darkness can end up pretty bad).
It is really hard even though there is that stabilizer inside the legs (you really didn't have to tell me that, Ryan). But as the time passes, I'm more and more skilled even in this challenging discipline. I realize that straight up jumps are better ended in a squat landing which allows me to rush forward immediately after, while I can handle leaps to the distance better when I end them with a safety roll.
The more I control the secret mechanism, the more I enjoy flying. Well, it's not flying, just really high/long jumps, but it's somehow similar. For a brief moment, I can observe my surroundings from the bird's eye view. It's the feeling of ultimate freedom. Soon, no obstacle can stop me. The whole world is my playground and no place is too high for me to reach.
The spring is slowly backing off and making room for summer. And I finally think I'm ready.
I made my own obstacle course which I complete every day. First, I jump over Ryan's fence while trying to spice it up a bit - sometimes I do a front flip, sometimes I jump backwards (which is one of the trickiest stunts I'm able to do with my legs). Then, I jump over a young pine growing nearby without touching its top.
My next stop is the tallest and oldest tree in the surroundings, a massive oak. I stop under it and jump up, grabbing one of the most sturdy branches and do several pull-ups. I continue towards a large creek (but still too small to be called a river) and jump from one shore to another. Close to it, there is a small field with stones of varying sizes just laying around. I skip on them without losing balance or touching the ground. Later on, I try it using only one leg.
I follow the creek's stream until I get to a place where there's a hollow tree fallen over the stream. I run over it to get to the other side again. It may sound easy, but the tree trunk is narrow, bulging and old, so crossing it requires some focus and balance. About three hundred meters long run later, there is a stump of a tree struck by a lightning. I jump on the top, more or less flat, about as big as a dessert plate. I try to keep my balance as long as possible. At the beginning, I could only make it for a few seconds, but as I progress, I can stand on it almost indefinitely in a state of strange, calm tranquility.
The last stop is a small plantation consisting of several fruit trees. I slalom between them, increasing my agility even further. Sometimes, I jump up and grab an apple.
Ryan's house is nearby. I finish my course by jumping over the fence again and taking a short rest in my garden. Some flowers are already starting to bloom and that makes me overjoyed. After the years in the Dead Zone, it doesn't take much to make me happy.
The whole course is something about one kilometer long. A few months ago, it was unthinkable for me to run such a distance. But now, I can do it, even though I'm exhausted at the end. But it's nothing a good breakfast couldn't fix.
It all usually happens when Ryan is still asleep. He's an early bird, but not as early as me. The timing is usually perfect - I come back just as Ryan wakes up and starts making breakfast. I come home, take a quick shower, dress in domestic clothes and finally get some food.
However, this is not where my training ends. I still exercise two times a day, sometimes replacing the workout with a longer run, balance training or practicing the Counter-gravity jumps.
I see sincere respect in Ryan's eyes. That's a good start. I've learned he's hard to impress and succeeding in this probably means something. But will it be enough to impress everyone else?
...
Ryan keenly observes what I learned. I jump like a bullet, both high and far. I can see a trace of disappointment in his face - mastering the technique means no more fun for him. Also my balance improved a lot. Earlier, I've been struggling to walk without tripping. Well, it's still not perfect and I'd say it's my weakest attribute. But I'm working hard to change it.
"I can't believe my eyes," Ryan says. "When I saw you for the first time... that tiny weakling... I'd never guess you'll run around like a lightning in just a few months. I bow to your persistence and willpower. Your eyes didn't lie. And now, I think you're ready."
I tilt my head. "Ready for what?"
"I guess you've hit the limit of things you can learn by yourself. Your agility is already at brilliant level, but to be a Champion, you have to learn how to fight. And honestly, the closest I've been to fighting was that night in the year 124 where a bunch of drunk blighters beat me on the street."
"So you mean... I have to train with other Castaways."
Ryan nods. "You need to meet some professional Champions who already went through a fight or two. And ask them if they are willing to share some tricks with you."
I feel a surge of excitement, but also anxiety. I'm not sure if I'm ready to encounter battle-hardened Champions who will probably see me as an useless newbie, something they shouldn't be even paying attention to. I have a feeling they'll send me back home with a laugh.
My only hope is they'll remember the times they were beginners themselves. And besides that, there's a thing that connects all of us. We survived the Dead Zone. That proves none of us are weak. Including me. Even though I survived only because of Isaiah, he probably wouldn't bother with me if I was completely useless.
"Do you know where to look?" I ask Ryan.
"I've been scavenging on the internet and asked a few people. I found out there is a training centre in Newcastle." The tone he said the words training centre definitely brings up some questions. "Such places come alive mostly during late afternoon hours, so we have some time left. However, I can't force you into anything. Maybe I rush too much. Do you feel like it?"
I don't know if it's a standard that the owners care about the Castaway's opinion and feelings, but I appreciate for sure. I nod. "We should give it a shot."
I spend the rest of the day by resting. Who knows what awaits me in Newcastle. I can't help it, there seems to be something sinister about Ryan's words. I have a feeling it won't be a mere training centre. Real training centres are expensive... and open all day.
Ryan, I swear to God. If you're gonna drag me into some dangerous venture...
However, I have no choice. At four, Ryan gets me into his car and we drive towards Newcastle. I kinda want to revisit the shopping mall we've been in earlier, but Ryan has different plans for today.
My nervosity increases as we drive away from the shiny, white city centre with hologram ads and turn towards gray, more mundane buildings in the city outskirts. There are some things I'm not familiar with - graffiti on the walls, crumbled buildings, trash on the ground. It looks like something between the Dead Zone and the new world I became a part of.
"Ryan? Are you sure about this?" I ask.
He just shrugs. That doesn't improve my mood anyhow.
My only cold comfort is the fact I'd be able to run away from enemies if I had to. I'd be even able to move on the roofs and jump over high fences. But Ryan can't. So what? If he drags me into some dangerous stuff, he deserves to face consequences.
Finally, we stop by a large building which looks like an abandoned warehouse. There are a few cars already parked there. From the inside, I can hear some muffled noises. I gulp. This really doesn't look good.
We approach the heavy iron door and I notice three barely visible symbols above it. A cogwheel, a raised fist and a DNA helix. They are simple, probably drawn with a charcoal. Ryan notices them too and nods. Then he pushes the door which open with a creak.