6:05am, Friday

A shrill beeping noise woke me up. Every blast of the alarm felt like it was splitting my head wide open.

I threw a pillow in the direction of the noise, but it still continued.

I looked up bleary eyed and grabbed for my alarm clock. I pound it into silence before falling back onto my pillow with a contented sigh.

The shrill beeping noise jolted me awake again. Disoriented, I looked at the wobbling numbers.

6:10am.

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.

I grabbed the clock and threw it against the wall.

But then, for the third time, the head splitting shrill beeping filled the room. I groaned and buried my head under my pillow.

…Fact: I hate my life.

But the shrill noise wouldn’t stop. With a groan, I rolled out of bed with a flop and squirmed around until I found my alarm under my desk and shut it off once and for all.

Glorious silence fell, and then I felt it: my head aching with every pulse of my heart. I stumbled over to my bathroom and pulled out my secret pill stash from behind the toilet. One of the bottles read: TESTER. I pull it out and pop two small blue pills into my mouth. I had pilfered these pills from the Health Ward yesterday during my shift. They were BioCare’s new detox pills. The bottle had said they would rid a hang-over in less than an hour….Let’s see if they work. I stumble back to my bed and fall onto it, trying to get back to sleep.

But I was awake.

I threw off my covers with a sigh. Might as well go to the Top Six Building now, even if I will be an hour and a half early.

I walked slowly to the door, my head pounding with every step. Uhg, this might take me an hour and a half just to get to front of the Akademy.

I opened the door and stepped into the deserted hallway. The only sound came from the slight buzz of the lights. It was strange to see the hall so empty. My footsteps reverberated off the walls with small pops. That seemed to take over my mind entirely. Nothing else was able to penetrate the pulsing noise. It was strangely soothing. Almost like a lullaby.

I turned the corner and collide into a blur of brown and black. I wobble sideways at the impact. “Sorry, I didn’t—” the words died on my lips as I found myself looking straight at Arina. She, surprisingly, looked down and stuffed her hands in her pockets before taking a step to the right, giving me enough room to pass.

I warily edged around her.

“I…I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” She blurted out as I passed.

Uncomfortable?

Question: Why would she care about my comfort? I paused.

“…This is a fact.” She nodded once at her own statement then turned to leave

“H-hey,” I called out without thinking.

She turned.

“…Um…” My heart started to pound as if I were running. “Want…want to go to the Top Six building together?”

For the briefest of moments I thought I saw a smile flicker across her face, but it could’ve just been the lights as they began to dim.

She shook her head. “I need a shower first. I go to the new building afterwards.” Then she turned on her heel and walked silently down the hall. No noise reverberated off the walls. No footsteps echoed. She was silent, as if she didn’t even exist. I watched her until she entered her room. Only then did my breath come out in a whoosh. I hadn’t realized I had been holding it in over the pounding of my head.

I just need to calm down. She doesn’t know what the nightmares are about…I look at my HOL. 6:32am. I still have time to go exercise. I need to distraction, even if my head is killing me.

I finally made it to the elevator and push Annex 1, where the West Cafeteria was located. The gym was in the top floor. When I got there, Dryden was already there.

“Hey.” I nodded.

He looked up surprised. “Hey…I didn’t think you would come today. You were completely out of it last night. Kira and I had to drag you back here and put you to bed.”

I just grunt.

“…Why are you here?”

“I need the distraction.”

“From what?” Dryden snorted and gave me a look I couldn’t read.

“…Personal stuff.”

Dryden looked at me for a moment then just shrugged. “Yeh—”

The door opened and, surprisingly, Kirosh walked in.

“Hey, you’re late.” Dryden called out.

“Yeh, yeh.” Kirosh shrugged. “Shouldn’t you still be in bed, Rosh?”

“My alarm woke me up and I couldn’t fall back asleep…Where’s Nathan?”

“…Not coming. He hurt his knee the other day, apparently, so he’s going to sleep in today.”

“Alright. You two hurry up and get warmed up. We only have an hour before the transport leaves for the Top Six building.” Dryden turned on the music.

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Kirosh and I spent ten minutes warming up before we made our way to where Dryden was lifting weights on the bench. I picked up the hand weights as Kirosh headed for the pullup bar. I watched Dryden as he benched 90kg. Exercise was like second nature to him.

We rotated after ten minutes. My head was lightly pounding, but I ignored it as I hung from the pullup bar. Just push through the pain. Dryden had told me once when he was first teaching me how to exercise properly. We were running and I felt like my head was about to explode. Similar to now, but this time was different because my pain was due to dehydration, not lack of endurance.

I watched as Dryden started pumping the hand weights two at a time. His muscles rippled under his shirt. I looked at my own arms. They weren’t skinny like they had been before, but they weren’t as big as Dryden’s.

We rotate again after another ten minutes have passed.

Fact: the new line of anti-intoxication pills from BioCare is a major improvement from the last generation of pills. But I still feel like I’ve been stepped on and served for lunch. “I think I’m going to pass on—”

“No passing.” Dryden cut me off. “You’re here; you do the routine. No excuses.”

“…Fine.” I sighed as Kirosh helped me take off his 75kg and fit my measly 50kg onto the bench bar.

Another ten minutes passed.

“Alright, now 2 mile a run.” Dryden called out as he punched in the command for the workout alley to appear. The wall mirror sank into the floor exposing a long corridor. The walls lit up into a nature scene, illuminating the twisting tunnel before us. Annex 1 was special in that the walls of the gym could move to expose hidden pathways. They were mostly used for running exercises in the winter when it got too cold to go outside.

We slowly started off into the tunnel.

“Wow, Rosh, you’re actually running at our pace today.” Kirosh jokingly elbowed me.

“I thought I would take it easy on you guys today…you know since I’m…I feel like a potato today?”

Kirosh snorted out a chuckle. “…We’ll have to work on your comebacks.”

“I don’t have good comebacks.”

“That’s all in your head man. Everyone has a good comeback in them, just have to find it.”

“Well...you know what is in my head?”

“What?”

“The medulla and the pons—two brain structures that control your breathing rate.”

“Rosh, not now.” Dryden cut it. “We don’t need a biology lesion while running two bloody miles. Running is boring enough.”

“Don’t you run for a living?” I narrowed my eyes at Dryden.

“No, I play sports. I’m not a freak like you.”

“Whoa.” Kirosh sped up a little to tap Dryden’s arm. “C’mon, Roshcar’s fine. What’s gotten into you these past two days?”

“Nothing.” Dryden snapped. “I just want to run without having to listen to a stupid biology lesson. Is that so hard to ask for?”

“Fine…” I sped up and passed both of them. I ignored the pounding of my head and just fell into the rhythm of running. The corridor ahead of us shifted to expose an inclined hill.

Structural classifications of the respiratory system:

One—the upper respiratory system, which consists of the nose, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, oral cavity, and pharynx. The upper respiratory system warms, moistens, and filters the air before it reaches the lungs.

Two—the lower respiratory system, which consists of the larynx, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and lungs.

Three, the respiratory pump, which consists of the respiratory muscles, rib cage, pleural membranes, and tissues of lungs.

“Roshcar, slow down. This isn’t a race.” Kirosh broke through my thoughts.

“Let him go.” Dryden grunted. “He’s here to work out, but he won’t be getting a working out if he runs at our pace.”

Breathing.

Definition: pulmonary ventilation, or the movement of air in and out of the lungs.

Includes inspiration and expiration.

Inspiration.

Definition: breathing in air—air flows into lungs; achieved by a pressure gradient; alveolar pressure must be lower than atmospheric pressure; volume of lungs must increase

Expiration.

Definition: Breathing out—air flows out of lungs; exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and body tissues; achieved by a pressure gradient; alveolar pressure must be greater than atmospheric pressure; a passive process—muscular contractions not required because of the elastic recoil of the lungs and chest muscles.

Path of air through respiratory system…

I skid to a stop. The wall that was supposed to have shifted to reveal the next portion of the course hasn’t moved. There wasn’t any more room to move forward.

The others came up behind me.

“What the…” Dryden frowned as he looked at the wall.

“Are you sure you put in two miles as the end distance?” I asked.

Dryden shot me a look. “Of course I did, and even if I hadn’t, the course would’ve looped around to end back in the weight room. The course wouldn’t stop midway through like this.” He put his hands on the wall and pushed. It didn’t move. He tried a different section of wall. It still didn’t move. “C’mon.” He muttered as he chose a third section and pushed. “Ouch!” He jumped backwards shaking his hand.

“What happened?” Kirosh and I asked at the same time.

“I got a little shock, that’s all.” Dryden was shaking his hand out, but I could see a small droplet of blood pool on his forefinger. “…The wall must have short circuited. Let’s just go back and do something else.”

“How about some free running.” Kirosh offered as we jogged the short way back to the weight room.

“Alright…I’ll set the course.” Dryden headed over to the command box on the wall next to the door and punched in free running set. The mirrored wall rose up to hide the hidden tunnel, and the wall opposite of it sank down into the floor to reveal a separate room filled with sequential boxes, walls, ropes, and bars. I’ve put the timer to shift the course every two minutes with my specs running first, then Kira’s, then Roshcar’s. Don’t start until the course has shifted. If you don’t finish in the allotted time, just get off the course. While you wait, do wall sits.”

The holographic timer appeared in the center of the course and counted down from five. When it hit zero, Dryden sprinted for the first bar, swinging onto the boxes, and continuing down the course like a monkey.

Hypothesis: If I use my arm as a lever and jump over the bar, I could use my angular momentum to—

“Hey, Rosh…” Kirosh interrupted my thoughts. “Is anything important happening in nine months?”

“…Not that I know of, why?”

“No reason. Just curious.”

We lapsed into silence again. I looked at Kirosh out of the corner of my eyes. The burning sensation in my legs seemed to emphasize the unusual silence between us.

Fact: usually by now he would be talking about classes.

Fact: classes are over now.

Hypothesis: perhaps he doesn’t know what to talk about now that there isn’t any more school.

“Hey…!” Dryden’s shout made my head snap up. The course was changing while Dryden was in mid swing. He fell. Hard. “Who did that?” Dryden came storming over.

“We didn’t touch the controls.” Kirosh slowly stood up from the wall. I followed, grateful to break the tension in my legs.

The course continued to change until all the equipment lined both sides of the room, leaving the center open like an arena.

“…Is it a cleaning day?” I asked.

Suddenly, the room went dark. Pitch black dark.

“What the…” My hand shot out and groped for the wall. My heart beat rising. The wall was cold and steady. I felt someone move beside me, the body heat warming my other side.

The lights flickered back on. Dryden was not more than three feet away from me, his face contorted into a snarl. “Whoa…”

Dryden’s head snapped back and a look of surprise washed over his face, completely replacing the snarl. “…What was that?” He looked down at his hands, turning them over as if expected to find something on them.

“Let’s call it for today. Maybe the drinks for last night are still in our system, or something.” Kirosh stepped in between us.

“Y-yeh.” Dryden muttered. “See you at breakfast.”