“You keep forgetting the first rule, Boris. That’s why you keep landing on your ass,” she said over me as I lay on my back. Again. God, this was humiliating.

She held out her hand and said, “Repeat it back to me, then get into the stance I showed you.” She stepped away, gesturing for me to comply.

“The first rule is balance, you little shit,” I said with a grin, quoting her from earlier. I got into the stance she showed me: feet shoulder-width apart, taking one step back with my right, dominant leg, then bending my knees slightly.

“Better?” I asked sarcastically, feeling like I’d done this ten times already and somehow still ended up on my ass.

“For the first time, yes. Well done.” Quick as a whistle, she put her hand on my chest and swept one leg behind mine. I actually managed to keep my feet under me. I felt so pleased with myself, it was almost embarrassing.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, I’m glad you enjoy learning at least. Why doesn’t your ability activate when you’re doing this, by the way? I’m still very confused as to why your ability doesn’t work on command.”

“Well, that came out of nowhere. What, am I supposed to know? I’ve been a fink for five days; why don’t you tell me?” I said, mock offense in my voice as I raised my arms in exasperation.

“Fair enough,” she said before suddenly squatting in front of me, diving for my legs, wrapping her arms under my ass, and lifting me over her shoulder. She slammed me onto the ground and rolled gracefully back onto her feet faster than I could react. Standing over me again, she said, “The first rule is balance, you little shit.”

She smiled, clearly pleased with herself, and practically skipped back to the center of the room.

“That feels like cheating,” I said, rubbing my back as I got up off the floor and followed her.

“Get back into your stance. When you want to stop someone from coming for your legs, you need to sprawl, like so,” she said, shooting her legs back into what looked like a strange push-up position before quickly jumping back up.

“Right. I’ve shown you. Your turn,” she said, waving in my direction like she expected me to nail it perfectly.

I tried to do as she said, but I didn’t account for my legs being so quick. I just threw myself face-first straight into the floor. The hysterical laughter didn’t make me feel any better as I looked up to see the Lieutenant holding her stomach, doubled over, wheezing like a seal.

“Oh, is this funny to you, you asshole?” I asked, annoyed.

She found this even funnier, dropping to her knees and pointing at me, wiping tears away. Then she looked back at me and started laughing even harder. I just shook my head and stood up, my face burning with sheer embarrassment. I considered running away and trying to swim to America, but I didn’t think that would help.

“Can we move on, please?” I asked with a huff.

She panted and said, “Oh my god, oh my god, my face hurts,” wiping another tear away. After what felt like five minutes, she finally stood up, giving me a wide grin, before saying “Alright. Try again.”

And so, I tried again. And again. And again. By the fourth time, I managed to shoot down, get into a push-up position, and stand back up slowly.

I got into stance to go again, but she said, “Those last two were pretty good. For now, I want you to do one thousand of those every time you come in here, along with practicing the one-two and stance I showed you. We’ll hope the sparring with Lieutenant Galina will at least hold you over in hand-to-hand combat. Tomorrow, we’ll start with weapons training.”

She started walking toward the door, saying over her shoulder, “Remember, this is taught in preschool through high school, so the other kids will have a massive advantage over you in this area. You must make up for it with your ability and weapons training, so focus on that.”

As she reached the door, she started closing it but poked her head back in, grinning ear to ear. “Oh, and Boris? I think you forgot this area is recorded. I’m going to enjoy showing Colonel Walker that fall.”

And with that, she was gone. My ears burned as I went back to the bag, feeling like a fool, and started pounding away. I had come to enjoy the monotony of it, being alone with my thoughts as I devised ways to escape.

It was another few hours before Zach came in. “Hey, man, it’s been a while. Haven’t seen you around. Come on, let’s go to dinner,” he said, waving me toward him as he slipped back out the door.

I was drenched in sweat, my limbs trembling from exhaustion, and I’d only managed about five hundred sprawls. Around me, the others weren’t faring much better—shoulders slumped, footsteps heavy, every breath labored as we trudged toward the mess hall in silence. The weight of the day pressed down on all of us, thick and unspoken. Then, as Colonel Walker strode past, his sharp gaze swept over our bowed heads. No one met his eyes, each of us pretending we were invisible, praying we wouldn’t be singled out for more punishment.

But instead of barking an order, he simply nodded and said, “Don’t worry. It gets easier.”

A collective breath of relief passed through the group, shoulders loosening just slightly.

Then, just as hope took root, his voice came again—sharp, cold, and amused. “Oh, and you’re not in formation. Crawl the rest of the way, or I’ll make you run until you vomit blood.”

The weight we thought had lifted came crashing back down. Groans rippled through the group, but no one hesitated. We hit the ground like marionettes with their strings cut, hands and knees scraping against the dirt as we dragged ourselves forward.

The colonel didn’t even break stride as he walked past us.

We got to dinner, our knees and elbows feeling scuffed, and after sitting down we started talking a bit of shit, laughter echoing off the walls. After a while, I got up and walked over to Tom, giving him a big grin while holding up my plate.

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“What’s up, Tommy? Any chance I could get that second dinner?” I said with a grin.

“You only want me for my ability,” he said, looking away from me with his chin in the air.

“No! I also want you to use that ability!” I said, pushing the tray toward him.

That kept the laughter going a bit as he sighed, defeated, before giving me my second helping. I walked back to my seat, but on the way, I noticed Anna leaning her head in her hand, her fork idly playing with the mushed peas in front of her.

I sat down a few seats away, inhaled my second dinner, and then said, “Hey, Anna, you okay?”

“Don’t speak to me, Boris,” she said flatly, though her heart wasn’t in it. She didn’t even sound disgusted this time, which I took as a plus.

“I shall do so with enthusiasm, I promise, but you seem a bit down in the dumps. What’s up?” I said as I leaned back in my chair and chugged my orange juice.

“I shouldn’t have healed you. Then I would be in the Ascension Tournament. Then I could have had my black cloak,” she said, shaking her head.

“Anna, you seem cool, but even if you were in the Ascension Tournament, you’d never get past me,” Richard said. He didn’t say it playfully—it sounded like a foregone conclusion, like he had already won. It irritated me.

Nothing in life was certain except me making sure my kids were safe. Everything else was fair game. If I had to bet, it’d probably be Kate. She seemed to be the most motivated out of all of us. Even if she was smaller, I’d seen the way she did pull-ups. The blessing probably helped, but ignore that.

“You’ve got to get past Kate first,” I said dismissively, turning back to Anna. “You know, that might be true, Anna. And I am sorry the opportunity was robbed from you. But you healed me. And you can heal others. You can protect others. That’s worth far more than some cloak,” I said, picking my words carefully. Even if I didn’t like her and she found my existence disgusting, she had healed me… on orders from the Lieutenant, but still. Who said I couldn’t be magnanimous?

“That cloak is worth far more than that, Boris. I could change my entire bloodline’s lives if I got that cloak. I thought you’d have learned that by now,” she said, shaking her head like everything I said was the ramblings of a fool.

Even Kate flinched, evidently in agreement, but she kept her mouth shut. I just sighed.

Kate interjected, looking at me softly. “She is right, Boris,” she said, nodding her head toward me in apology. Then she turned back to Anna with soft eyes and added, “But while you can’t join the Ascension Tournament, I still think his words hold merit, Anna. You will help a lot of people with your power. Take solace in that.”

Anna started to respond angrily, her face contorting with annoyance. “Well, I thin—”

Richard cut her off. “Anna, you’re moaning and complaining, but if healing Boris only once fucked you up this much, you don't deserve to get in. And if you had, even someone like Marnus would have beaten you. You never stood a chance. Get over it.”

And with that, I think Anna’s whole week was ruined. She burst into tears, got up, and ran away. Kate shot Richard a hard look before running after her, as did a few of the other girls.

I looked at him and said sarcastically, “You’re a real nice guy, you know?”

“Someone had to say it,” one of his cronies said, earning a few nods from the people sitting around him.

Richard just went back to eating. I left it alone since he didn’t pipe up again.

After we got through our nightly routine of showering and inspection, I folded my clothes neatly and got into bed. Then I started counting to a thousand. I might have sped up a bit when I heard snoring, but I waited until everyone was asleep before slipping out of bed, putting on my clothes, and tiptoeing toward the door.

“Where are you going?” I heard Marnus whisper groggily.

Hoping he didn’t realize I was in uniform, I replied, “To the bathroom. Go back to sleep.”

He didn’t need to be told twice, rolling over and drifting off again, thank the lord.

I slipped out of the room, closing the door gently behind me. As I turned, I froze.

Two girls stood in the hallway—they were in the Ascension Tournament with me. They stopped for only a second when they saw me, their expressions unreadable in the dim light. One of them raised a finger to her lips in a silent warning before they turned and headed toward the mess hall, moving with the same careful, deliberate steps as I was.

I exhaled slowly. They were out here too, which meant they wouldn’t snitch, I thought to myself, desperately trying to find a reason not to kill them. Still, the thought gnawed at me. What were they looking for at this hour?

I shook it off. It didn’t matter. I just needed to move.

I raced out of the building and went to the bin. Thankfully, the food was still in a plastic bag. I looked inside to see mushed peas, leftovers, and all manner of food that shouldn’t be together, stuck in an amalgamation of goo.

I reached in, took a handful of the slop, sniffed it, then tasted it. It was cold—not as nice as it was earlier—but it would have to do. I picked up the whole bag and was immediately disappointed. There was far less in it than last time. Fuck it. It's something.

I slung it over my shoulder, and instead of risking the gate, I ran straight for the wall with barbed wire—the other side of where I’d seen Colonel Walker punishing the Lieutenants.

As I got there, I reached up to the wall and lifted myself up, my face right in front of the barbed wire. I leaned my chest over the wall and touched the barbed wire gently, testing it. It wasn’t that sharp.

I jumped back down, dropped the bag of food—like I should have done before climbing—and threw it over. It landed on the other side of the wall with a thud. Success, I thought to myself.

Now for the hard part. I climbed back up, placing my foot carefully as I tried to fling myself over the barbed wire. I cleared it as it just barely scraped my chest, but the bottom of my pants caught. The barbed wire sagged, catching my weight, and slammed me face-first into the wall.

The steel bit into my calf, its twisted barbs sinking deep, grinding against muscle like dull hooks. I jerked instinctively, and a fresh wave of agony tore through me as the wire wrenched my flesh open, raw and burning. Blood spilled freely, warm and sticky, running in thick rivulets down my leg.

I let out a strangled cry, then clamped both hands over my mouth, eyes squeezed shut as I hung there, waiting—praying—I hadn’t been heard. The pain roared through my nerves, relentless and deep, every second stretching into eternity.

Finally, through gritted teeth, I braced my other foot against the wall and shoved off with everything I had. The wire dragged through my skin like a serrated blade, ripping downward, splitting flesh open in a slow, grinding tear until it hit my boot and finally let go.

I hit the ground hard, my arms barely breaking the fall. My breath came in ragged, shallow bursts, and my calf throbbed with white-hot agony, blood soaking into the dirt beneath me. I swallowed down the nausea and forced myself upright.

I rolled my ruined pant leg up to my knee. From halfway down my calf to just above my ankle was a long gash, bleeding profusely.

Gritting my teeth, I got to my feet, staring toward the city in the far distance. It's not so bad, I lied to myself, even as blood pooled in my boot, just another scratch for the collection.

I looked up at the sky and muttered, “Never going to be easy, is it? But still. Just one more night. Help me feed them for one more night.”

I forced myself into a run, each step on my left leg a fresh stab of agony, but I didn’t stop. I wouldn't stop. Not for anything. Not for everything. They needed me—so I'd be there.