Chapter 9: First Day Of Summer Camp Pt. 3
8:30 PM
“So Jordan, like I was saying, they made me do a bunch of these weird tests that were apparently supposed to 'measure my intellect' or something, and they were honestly pretty fun. My favorite one was like this cube with different colors, and they were all mismatched on each side. The goal of the puzzle was to make each side have a uniform color, and it was really unique to solve it. So what I did was assign a number to each square, and then I…”
Jordan was fading in and out of consciousness as Sofia spoke. He raised a trembling spoon to his mouth. The murmur of the mess hall all blended together and the cacophony of sounds became a distant lullaby as Jordan blinked lazily.
The sleepy boy shoved the mystery stew into his mouth and tried to focus on the taste. It was warm and thick, but despite having no meat in it, it tasted like chicken.
“…Jordan. Hey, Jordan?”
“Hm? Yeah?”
“I just watched you suck on that spoon for like 30 seconds. And your eyes are like, half open. Are you okay, dude?”
“Me? Mhm, yeah, I’m fine. What were you talking about again? Something about cubes?”
“Oh yeah, so they let me take the puzzle apart, and the way it's built is really cool. It can slide around all over itself, and interchange pieces which weren’t anywhere close to each other. I can only imagine how many combinations there are…”
Jordan finished his stew and moved on to the mashed potatoes. He dipped his slice of bread in the potatoes and took a bite. It was like a square of blandness, with a topping of bland. The double bland square. Bland squared. He finished it anyway.
Jordan was tired. Working for nearly twelve hours straight and fighting for his life was really exhausting. It had been the most work he'd ever done since he’d been enslaved. In addition, he’d been starved for weeks, and just recently been able to eat some actual food. He asked Marcel about why they did that, when food was so readily available here, and he said it was to prevent slaves from escaping on the way.
Jordan did recall there being a few escapees on the way to La Entrada. For some reason, the thought of escaping never occurred to him.
The boy stared at his tray. Just the assorted vegetables left. It was a fight to stay awake as he finished his food. He was tuning in and out of what Sofia was saying, nodding occasionally and looking at her as he chewed.
“…new robotic arm!”
“Wait, what?” Jordan asked, finally showing Sofia some extra attention.
“Yup!” she said, smiling proudly.
“No, I mean what did you say? Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
Sofia pouted.
“I said, the guards were really impressed by my results, so they had me apprentice under Taye. He showed me how to do some robotics. I might be able to make you a new robotic arm, one day.”
She rested her head on her palm and stirred her stew. Still frowning too. Jordan knew he had to do something.
“I’m sorry, really.” He couldn’t help but smile. She looked adorable. “Here, I’ll show you a neat trick.”
The boy shielded his hand from the ceiling light, and snapped his fingers. His thumb burst into flames. He smirked when he saw Sofia’s amazed eyes.
“Woah…” Sofia shook her head. “I mean- Do you think I’m some kind of kid that you can distract by jangling keys?”
She crossed her arms, as Jordan sighed. The other slaves they were eating with burst into laughter, and both Sofia and Jordan reddened a bit.
“Oh my god, Ryan. They’re killing me.”
Ryan was too busy laughing to respond.
“Fine, what do you want?” Jordan asked, trying to ignore them.
Sofia turned back to him, and said, “I’ll forgive you if you show me how to do that, and…”
She scooted a bit closer to whisper in his ear. “…tell me about your day.”
“Hehe.” Jordan’s energy returned a bit as he thought about his day. “Okay, so in the morning, I met this guy named Trevor…”
9:00 PM
The slaves just hung out in the cafeteria while orderlies tidied up the place. A few minutes before the end of the hour, all of them, including the orderlies, were herded out of the cafeteria and into the slave quarters. There was the count-off, and then the search.
That left the slaves with about an hour of free time for cleaning themselves, talking, or an early sleep.
Since the mining team washed themselves along with their equipment just before dinner, they spent most of the time stretching, again. Jordan could kind of understand why they stretched so much, seeing as how it refreshed his muscles and prevented injuries, but taking every second of free time to stretch felt like overkill.
Still, his time in the mess hall with Sofia had rejuvenated him, so decided to go over there and participate with them. But before that, Sofia tapped his shoulder.
“Hey, Jordan? Can you come with me to the shower?”
“What? Why?” Jordan asked, a little bit flustered.
“It’s for… protection.”
‘Oh.’ Jordan thought. He recalled what the guard told him when he first arrived. ‘If someone wanted to jump you, that’s where they would do it.’
“Then, of course I’ll go with you. I can teach you how to do the fire thing with your finger while we wait in line too.”
“Thanks, Jordan.”
“Aye, Jordan, Sofia. Are you guys heading to the showers?” a voice called out next to them.
Jordan turned and saw Cotis and Devon taking out a spare change of clothes.
“Yeah. You wanna come?” Sofia asked.
“Yep. Let’s go. Gaston, you wanna come?”
“Agh,” came the reply, as he sat on his bed. “No, I showered already. You guys go ahead. I’m going to sleep.” Apparently the building team also had showers on site. Gaston seemed to be as tired as Jordan was, so he felt some sympathy for the man.
“Okay then. Good night,” Cotis said, before joining the two children.
The group headed towards the showers. There was a decent sized line, mostly full of crafters and orderlies, with a few builders and miners there, probably to guard their friends.
There was a single guard there, and Jordan didn’t really know what he was supposed to do. If all of the slaves ganged up on him, there’s nothing he could really do. Likewise, he didn’t think the camp was nice enough to put a guard there to stop slaves from stabbing each other.
The four got in line, and Jordan started to teach them about his fire trick. None of them paid attention to the group of girls that got in line behind them.
A small mistake.
Jordan snapped his fingers again and lit his thumb alight.
“Woah. Does it hurt?” Devon asked.
“It’s kind of weird actually. It doesn’t hurt my thumb, but if I touch it with my other hand-” Jordan paused as he realized his other hand was a mechanical claw. “I mean if I poke myself in the face, I’ll probably get burned.”
“Huh, weird.”
Jordan extinguished his finger by waving his hand. “So. This trick is different from everything I taught you so far because it’s a form of transmutation. You change mana into something else, and in this case, fire.”
The boy smiled sheepishly. “To be honest, I’m not that good at this. I only learned this maybe a few months ago. My teacher said that it’s because it’s dangerous for children to play with fire, so they only teach this when we’re older.”
“Ha. We’re not children, Jordan, so get on with it.”
Jordan glanced at Sofia, who made a face, and the boy continued.
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“Okay, okay. So what you do with your mana to transform it, is to mimic the true meaning of what you want. Or atleast, its meaning according to you.”
The three slaves looked at the boy as if he was crazy.
“Uh. What?”
Jordan scratched his head as he tried to put into words what the feeling felt like.
“You just twist the essence of your mana into what you want.”
“…”
They continued to stare at him.
“Um… For example…” Jordan tried to think about why he snaps his fingers to light the flame. He flashed back to a certain scene, ten years ago, when he was just five years old.
It was the mid-afternoon, but the world was somber. The skies were dark gray and the rain formed undulating waves on the roads as they flowed into gutters. The streets of La Entrada were mostly empty, on account of the heavy rainfall.
Jordan and his dad were taking shelter under some random shop’s overhang. The rain was loud and overbearing, as it blocked out all of the familiar sounds that Jordan was used to. It scared him. The little boy reached up and slipped his hand into his father’s.
After a few moments, the man began to speak.
“… Sorry, Jordan. That you had to see me lose today.”
Jordan looked up at his dad, and at his emotionless face. He was just watching the rain, in deep thought.
“I don’t care about that. You looked cool. And plus, you won all those other fights.”
The man looked down at his son’s face and smiled. His introspective expression softened at his child’s unwavering admiration. He stared back at the rain, this time with a light smirk.
He rummaged through his pockets before taking out a white cardboard box. Opening it, he pulled a cigarette out with his mouth.
The man put away the box and took out a silver lighter.
Tchk. Tchk. Tchk.
Jordan stared at the sparks lighting up the darkness surrounding his father’s face. In that melancholic world, there was a flash of bright light. Another click, and the fire lit. That moment seared itself into the boy’s mind.
The cigarette glowed red, and out of his father's mouth came a puff of smoke. The breeze pushed it towards Jordan, but before he could get a good sniff, his dad switched him over to his other side.
"Don't breathe that in, Jordan. You'll get sick."
"Aw, what? Then how come you can breathe it, daddy?"
The man could only smile, as Jordan's memory faded.
Jordan returned from his flashback. He wondered for a brief moment why his dad didn't just use his mana, before remembering that he was supposed to be teaching people. “For example, when I make my fire, I think of the snap as the sparks from a lighter. My mana takes the form of a spark, and my finger is the fuel.”
“Oh. So you just kind of imagine what you want, and it becomes that?” Sofia asked.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s not that easy though, because your mana has to resonate with what you’re imagining. In other words, your soul needs to have a connection with what you’re imagining. Fire is pretty easy though since it’s so unique, but also pretty common in everyday life.”
“Huh. I’ll try it out, I guess,” said Cotis.
The slaves’ firestarting attempts drew a couple looks, especially since they just kept on snapping. Soon, it was their turn to use the showers.
Sofia and Devon went in first, with Jordan and Cotis guarding their rooms.
“I’ll knock twice if someone’s coming, okay?” said Jordan.
“Okay, thanks,” Sofia replied, entering the stall.
After two minutes, four women entered the shower chambers. Instead of splitting up however, they beelined straight for Sofia’s stall.
'Bruh.' Jordan knocked twice and stepped forward.
“Who’re you? What do you want?” he said, glaring at the group of girls.
They stopped in front of him. They were all relatively weak-looking, with not much muscle, and just a little taller than he was. One of them spoke up.
“Get out of the way, kid, and this’ll be a lot easier. You won’t have to get hurt.”
Jordan grit his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows. ‘There’s no way I’m leaving.’
The girl who spoke stepped closer to Jordan.
"Alright. I guess we're doing this," the boy said, as he stepped backwards, putting his hands up in a fighting stance.
The group then unanimously turned to the right and screamed.
Jordan got startled, and looked where they were looking, only for one of the girls to rush behind him with a shank, catch him in a neckhold and threaten to cut his throat out.
Jordan was way too tired to react in time, especially with the distraction.
They held Jordan back as one of them kicked in the door, but Sofia wasn’t there.
Both parties were confused, and a girl stepped inside to get a closer look.
At that moment, from behind the door, a nude Sofia leapt out, backflipping onto one of the slaves’ heads. She let out a strange warcry as she grabbed their face, and stabbed them in the eye. 'Where did she even get that? It's only the first day!' Jordan thought, watching the slave scream in pain.
The room exploded into action, and chaos ensued.
Jordan grabbed the knife-holding hand and the shirt of the slave who was holding him, and judo flipped her into the floor. It knocked the wind out of her, and she lay there, groaning. He had to strengthen himself with mana, because for some reason this crafter was stronger than she looked.
Sofia was clutching the slaves head, and one hand was driving the knife deeper into the slave’s eye. The other slaves tried to get crazy child off their friend’s head, but she was flailing too much for them to get a good grasp.
She jumped off the slave’s head, but landed awkwardly and had to scamper on all fours to get away from them.
One of the women used that chance to grab her, but in the nick of time, Cotis came running in and drop kicked the woman. She was blasted into the stall, rattling the thin walls of the bathroom cubicle.
Right as Cotis hit the floor, the guard arrived and yelled out, “STOP!”
All of the slaves froze, except for the one screaming with a knife in her eye.
“What’s happening here!?” he screamed.
The slaves separated into their respective sides, Jordan, Cotis, and Sofia on one side and the four girls on the other. They held the wounded one, hugging her and trying to comfort her.
“They tried to kill Ruthey!” one of the girls said.
Jordan turned to her in downright confusion. ‘There’s no way she’s trying to blame this on us.’
“That bitch stabbed her in the eye!” she yelled.
‘There’s no way!’ Jordan thought.
“Uh, huh,” the guard replied. He spoke into a radio on his chest. “I’ve got a situation in the showers, seven slaves involved, one wounded. Knives present.”
And thus, reinforcements were called in, and everyone, including Cotis was detained.
The six slaves, not including Ruthey who was stabbed in the eye, kneeled in a line in front of Lamar.
The Vice-Warden paced back and forth, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“One day… You motherfuckers couldn’t last one goddamn day… Why is it that you shitbags couldn’t be civil for ONE,” Lamar held up his finger, and shoved his hand into one of the girl’s faces. “COUNT IT. ONE! DAY!”
The Vice-Warden facepalmed, walking off. The slaves kept silent. They all knew better than to speak or plead during this makeshift trial.
“It’s always some kind of bullshit with you people! Every single day, day-in and day-out, one of you shitty ass slaves is always fucking things up! I feel like just killing all of you right now, and saving myself the trouble! In fact, that’s probably what I’d do if there wasn’t one person saving you.”
The Vice-Warden stared at Jordan.
“You. Slave. What’s your name?”
“Yes, Sir. My name is Jordan Valencia, Sir.”
Lamar grinned devilishly. “Jordan. Please describe to me what you did leading up to this point, starting from when you entered the showers.”
“Yes, Sir. To start, I was acting as a lookout for Sofia, who was in the shower cleaning herself. I told her that I would knock twice on her door in the event of people coming. Within five minutes, four women approached us. I was momentarily apprehended, and the door to Sofia’s stall was breached. Sofia however, managed to surprise them, and somehow gouged out the eye of one of the women. Cotis joined the fray shortly after she was dismounted, and finally, a slavemaster interfered in the conflict. After that-”
“Thank you, Jordan,” Lamar interrupted. “That will be enough.”
Lamar, still smiling, turned to the rest of them. All of the slaves were pale, except for Sofia, who seemed pretty triumphant. “Did you all hear that?”
The slaves stayed silent, staring at the ground.
“I’m sorry, I asked you all a question. Ahem. I said, “DID YOU ALL HEAR THAT?!”
“Yes, Sir!”
Lamar nodded, and started to walk away again. “There’s just one problem. A little birdie told me that it was actually the little girl over there who was plotting to kill that other guy.”
The Vice-Warden turned with an eerie smile on his face. “So. Who said that?”
The slaves kept silent. If they weren’t already sweating, they were now.
“Please, everyone. Don’t make me repeat myself. Maybe if I…pull this out, you’ll talk.”
He pulled a pistol out from behind his waist.
“… No? Still nothing?” he said, as he grew closer. “What if I-”
“It was me!” a slave said.
Jordan looked over, and saw, in fact, that it was not the original person who tried to blame Sofia.
The three girls had very different expressions. One looked on in abject fear, another in stunned silence and confusion, and the final one with bravery. Vice-Warden Lamar saw this, and as a very smart, yet cruel warden, he decided to shoot two of them in the chest. The brave one, and the confused one.
A beam of light shot out from the barrel of the gun, piercing through each woman and leaving a scorch mark on the ground behind them. Lamar blew the smoke, and spun his pistol on his finger before holstering it. The slaves fell to the ground, before being picked up by a guard.
“Welp. Now that that’s settled, time for your punishments on carrying contraband. Five lashings for the both of you, then go to sleep” pointing at Sofia and the remaining woman. He walked off after that, letting the guards carry out their duty.
Jordan and Sofia both paled, as the guards separated them. Jordan and Cotis were forced back to the slave chambers, as Sofia and the other woman were stripped.
Unfortunately, Jordan didn’t make it into the room before he heard the first crack of a whip and the proceeding cry of pain.
As Jordan joined the other miners in stretching, and as they questioned him about what happened, and as he crawled into bed, he could still hear it. Even as Sofia cried under her covers, he could still hear it. The tearing of skin, and his best friend’s anguish. It echoed through his mind as he tried to fall asleep.
He tried to distract himself by thinking about his first day. He had gone to work, fought for his life against a giant spider, made a friend, worked a whole lot more, and defended his friend against four women who wanted to kill her. Oh, and he may have indirectly killed two of them.
What a day.