Bec didn’t really have a hard time finding the building that hosted the opening ceremony. She had donned her gray ensemble and wandered around asking people for directions. It was on the fourth level, Metro, where the meeting was to take place, and the roads there were thankfully much more systematic than places like Avalon and Villa. Bec gawked upwards as she saw skyscrapers that made her think of old cities like New York or Shanghai. She had no idea why it took her this long to visit this absolute testament to human architecture, but she couldn’t help spinning, arms out and laughing as the buildings truly loomed over her. She had the sense that they were leaning in to whisper the secrets of this floor to her and her alone. People took extra care to walk a few extra steps around the spinning lunatic in completely gray clothes.

Bec entered the building labeled on her greeting card to find a lobby with many people talking. As she approached one group, she heard muttering about how they honestly expected them to do that. A person was sniffling in the corner. Whatever that was, Bec was curious, but she didn’t want to be late. She looked at her card and saw it was on the 20th floor. She clicked the button on the elevator before noticing that there was a sign saying:

“Elevator out of order.

Please use stairs.”

Was that the issue? Stairs? Where these people actual Hass competitors if stairs were bothering them? Bec looked for the sign pointing to the stairs but first found a floor map.

Floor 1: Lobby

Floor 1.1: Mail Room.

Floor 1.2: Fruity Displays LLC.

Floor 1.3: Levigi Enterprises

…

Bec ran her finger down the little chart and saw there were ten sublevels to each floor. Her heart sank. She quickly found the stairs and bolted up the first flight, hooked around and saw, on the next level that there was a door with “Floor 1.1” in red paint on the wall next to it. She ran up the door turned to go up the next flight and whirled to see “Floor 1.2.”

“Oh shit.” Bec looked at the time. She was hoping to find some people to meet and make friends with, so she managed to get here with a little more than twenty minutes to spare. That’s… Bec did some mental math… twenty floors times ten subfloors… twenty minutes…

Al answered with panic in his voice. “You have to climb each flight in under 6 seconds!”

“Oh fuck.” Bec started to run.

~~~

Bec never ran harder in her life. The multi-marathons with Scarlet, the wolves, not even they could coax out this kind of pace. The constant turning was wreaking havoc on her tempo and the random exhausted people in the stairwell did nothing to help her climb.

She sees numbers like 3.5, 5.1, 7.9, all pass her by in a blur. She found herself passing by the halfway point without any particular sense of exhaustion. Really, Bec was at the point where she wasn’t sure she could exhaust herself going all out for only twenty minutes. It was the novel ‘terrain’ that was inhibiting her pace, however.

“You’re slightly under pace, Bec!” Al warned her. He didn’t give specific times because he knew they couldn’t afford to be bogged down with specifics. Bec focused on the specific that she wasn’t moving fast enough.

Bec was struggling to keep a tempo as she darted up the stairs up until she revamped her philosophy on movement. Really, she wasn’t reworking her philosophy as much as conceptualizing her basics for the very first time. Bec would call these tenets Bec’s Principles of Movement.

“Thou shalt not stop moving. To stop for any reason is to waste time and energy.”

She chanted this to herself between hot intakes of breath. It was obvious, but that’s how one knows it was good. She found herself wasting energy.

Often, she was moving too fast, leading her to devise a technique to kick up against the walls of each landing to springboard herself into the other direction. Her empowered kick offs probably could only be done on the alternating landings without a door since Bec was more than familiar with the fact that her energized kicks could punch straight through things if she wasn’t careful.

This meant Bec needed to devise a new strat for the door levels. She decided on grabbing the railings at the top to swing herself around and up the new floors. This was a gamble since the stray competitor. splayed exhausted, tended to gravitate to the corners of the landing, or, terrible for Bec, they’d be catching their breath on the steps.

The kick offs were relatively safe as she found no qualms trampling over people with the extra speed given from the movement. She found the act of swinging off the bars lead her to stumble slowly over the people, especially when they rested on the inside of the steps.

This didn’t matter as now she was now practically flying over the steps now. Floor 19.3 flashed by.

She was close to the finish line!

Her new moves were wasting no energy now. She turned the corner and fully vaulted the final flight of stairs, feet out towards the door in a final test of her kickoff theory.

“WILL THE DOOR HOLD?!” Bec screamed as her mind flooded with adrenaline.

With a smash, she kicked the door down off its hinges and slid into the 20th floor atop it. A loud scraping sound of metal filled the room, and everyone in the room leaped and turned in a fighting stance towards the sound.

Bec took in a deep breath as fire coursed through her veins. She took in a breath. “What time is it?” Whether she was on time was really all she cared about.

“11:57,” A guy dressed in digital camo said looking at his watch.

“Oh, three minutes early…” Bec was still huffing from adrenaline and scratched the back of her head through her mask. “Guess that makes this entrance look pretty stupid, huh?”

She laughed uncomfortably. She realized that at least a handful of these people were lowering weapons originally pointed straight at her. She stepped off of the door and walked to the crafts table to help herself to a drink as people returned to the general conversations with the people next to them.

“So! That was hilarious.” A girl popped up behind Bec, startling her. “You climbed all those steps, eh?” Bec looked her up and down. This girl had a broad white smile that popped like salt dried against the black bow of a ship. Her hair was a curled chestnut mop slightly lighter than her skin and occluded her eyes with singular wild strands.

Bec saw hoop earrings peeking out from behind those messy curls. This girl was wearing a blue and white striped shirt with red flowers embossed around the edges of her sleeves and a ton of colored bracelets all up her arm to her elbow. The shirt itself reminded Bec of some kind of short-sleeved kimono or something similarly floral, and the bracelets reminded Bec of middle school. The only other really noticeable part of her was that she was wearing… yoga pants?

“Those look comfy,” Bec pointed at her dark blue leggings with her hand holding her drink. She was about to lift her glass to her face when she realized that… well, she was still wearing her mask.

“Oh?” She looked down. “Yeah, I didn’t really have a lot of time to dress nicely, you know with the whole opening day thing.”

Bec nodded absentmindedly as she looked for a straw on the table to no avail. Placing her cup down, she sighed and jammed a handful of fruit under her mask to nosh on. Bec felt guilty picking the best fruit out of the untouched display, but what was it there for other than to be eaten.

“Woah, you’re gutsy. Aren’t afraid that’s poison?”

Bec froze half chew. “Why would I be afraid of that?”

“Cuz the one you got this morning was? Or, was that just me?” She turned to the group next to her and shouted causing Bec to jump for the second time in as many minutes. “Oy, was the fruit basket you got poisoned?”

The group turned to her and one boy with turquoise eyes popped his head up over the others to say, “Yeah, real nasty stuff. I was blinded until I had to stumble my way to the hospital. I nearly didn’t make it here in time, wasted too much time wandering the streets lost.”

The girl nodded like that was her experience. “Yeah, I woke up this morning to a basket of fruit same as him. I feel like a total idiot running around in my pajamas begging people to help me find a doctor, feeling around in the dark was scary!”

“Hmm.” Bec tried to think of an excuse on the fly. She couldn’t just say that she didn’t eat the fruit, since she was eating it now. If this blinding agent was actually in this fruit, it wouldn’t matter since she was… well… already blind.

“Err, I guess I’m immune. I didn’t even notice.”

“Wow. So. Cool.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Anillo, but you can call me Ani.”

Bec accepted the hand after wiping excess fruit juice on her gray pant leg.

“I’m Gray.”

The girl’s mouth made a perfect O shape as she shook vigorously. “Dusty damn! You’re that girl people are pissed about. Makes sense, you’re clearly going to ruffle some feathers. I can tell that.”

The second the handshake was about to end, the girl grabbed Bec’s hand tight and pulled in close to whisper directly into Bec’s ears.

“Maybe we should work together, eh? If the challenges allow it, maybe let’s be friends, okay?”

“Okaaaaay.” Bec had a chill run down her spine and she could barely muster a whisper. The girl’s grip was insanely tight, and, yet, the whisper sounded so friendly. Like the girl genuinely wanted to be friends with Bec but was far more used to threatening people. Bec hoped that was just a random guess, but she couldn’t tell.

As they pulled away from each other, the girl, Ani, just gave her a smile so broad and friendly that Bec smiled back instinctively before remembering her mask hid those expressions. Bec just gave a lame thumbs up. Ani closed her eyes, smiled, and returned the gesture. Bec chose to interpret this as networking. Networking definitely made it seem not nefarious at all. That was good enough to quell the sense of unease she felt.

The lights dimmed, and Bec quickly had to reign in her general incandescence. She felt proud that she managed to adjust her brightness so fast as she wasn’t really used to sudden changes in lighting. Maybe she should train that more. A stage in the far back of the room lit up and a stout man in formal attire stepped out from behind the curtains. People around the room started to murmur and Bec’s sensitive hearing made her fairly sure that there were at least a few people who recognized the man.

He pulled on his cuffs and spoke with a huge grin, “Hello everyone, glad to see you all.” He paused. There was a cough. A kid yawned.

“Oh dear, I thought that joke would have really done well…” He looked nervous for a mere moment. “Buuuuut, unlike that joke, you all have done amazingly well to make it here today! As a council member of the first 5 floors, I, Zappa Archest, was absolutely thrilled when AmiGo came to me for the first leg of this spectacular Hass! You all found yourself struggling mightily against several devious challenges, I’m sure.

“It was not easy, according to our numbers we’ve seen 20% drop out before the opening ceremony! We wanted to set forth an edict. One where you needed to rely on the good citizens of this glorious city to make it through! Our editors have been working hard all day to present to you a highlight reel that showcased the most thrilling, heartwarming, heartbreaking moments of this opening day as a reward for the less than five hundred people that made it this far!” He waved his hand back like a showman, and the curtain revealed a massive screen.

An anthemic tune played triumphantly as squares of footage floated around. “First off, we wanted to show the struggles the hardworking people of the city went through to execute their plan.” A stream of night-vision footage of people sneaking fruit baskets next to sleeping forms played out. The contestants all had their faces censored which was a relief to Bec because the next set of footage… was not flattering.

She watched as a dynamic shot of her judo flipping that poor delivery guy played from multiple angles. The host ooh’d with a fun chuckle at the end, “Ouch, that guy got a massive tip for dealing with her, I’ll tell you that much.” A few people in the crowd chuckled at that.

Zappa continued with aplomb, “You all went through a lot. I can assure you this was not an easy challenge, just ask this fine man!”

A scene played out in what looked to Bec like Villa. There was a boy in jeans and a t-shirt with a bear on it walking dumbly around. A small flicker of recognition went through Bec’s head, but she couldn’t place it.

“Waaaah, where am I?” He cried out. “I can’t see! Help! Someone please! He—WAAAH,” He tumbled into a pool and started flailing. Zappa smiled with the crowd as some real laughs came through the general noise. “We’ve all felt a little wet behind the ears sometimes.”

The footage changed to a person who Bec knew she knew. The distinct flower pattern on her shirt gave it away immediately. That was Anillo. She was being guided by the hand to a hospital by a kind looking lady. “Here you go, deary.”

The voice of the lady seemed fairly wizen despite the fact that she didn’t look all that old to Bec’s admittable uninformed eyes. Bec looked back to Anillo standing behind her and she gave an embarrassed shrug.

Zappa made another zinger. “Maybe we all should aspire to help old ladies cross the street, not the other way around.” He actually got a boo for that one.

A few more minutes passed as bloopers from the blindness played out. A person walking straight off what looked like a cliff with multiple shots of the person bouncing off a few outcrops as they tumbled. This was horrifying to Bec, but people seemed to laugh. Maybe she needed to re-evaluate what slapstick looked like in a world where people were significantly more durable than she.

The footage flickered to a new area. The lobby of the building they were standing in. “People got here as soon as they could. You all know the saying, ‘No one gets punished for being early to the Hass,’ well that is just as true this time as every other time.” People in the audience bobbed their heads in agreement or recognition.

“We wanted this next challenge to be really different from previous years, so we decided to invite people to explore one of the floors we’re most proud of here in the city. Here we hoped to find people find the way up using help from the kind staff of the legendary Metro skyscraper, the Terrace Building. Let’s watch.”

The footage showed what looked like a commercial kitchen with three people standing and bowing to what looked like a line cook.

“Thank you for the wonderful fruit display. Your artistry was beyond compare.” One of the boys said with his fist pressed against his chest and a head lowered in deference.

The cook kept halving big mangos and smiled, “That’s awfully kind of you, kid. You really wanted to thank us after those fruits?” The man paused his work. “Hey, you still got to go to the opening ceremony, huh? Lemme show you to our business elevator.”

The footage froze on the face of the cook with a smile so wide he had to close his eyes. “This. This right here, fellow students. This is what our Hass will be all about. Compassion. Kindness. Helping out others in need.” Zappa was really hamming it up, but people seem to respond positively to his words.

“The kind ones? They saw a chance to thank the workers who delivered their invites… even if the fruit was poisoned. We want to go on record to say that Fruity Displays does not make a habit of blinding its patrons. We asked to do it, and they said no, and it took an impassioned speech by yours truly to convince them of the value of the challenge to get them to help. Now the clever and curious!”

He waved and the footage changed to people talking to a guy in a manila uniform surrounded by packages. “Those that were inquisitive stopped by the mailroom. You all quickly learned that the mail gets around this massive building somehow. You lent a hand and found out about the mail delivery system. You may have even been mailed up here yourself!”

Footage of a girl rocketing up a vacuum tube screaming, “WOOOOOHOOOO!” played, and a group of people far upfront cheered and gave each high fives.

“The smartest of you noticed our puppet business on floor 1.3. Levigi Enterprise was our little hint for those with the knowledge to spare!” Bec watched as several more floors held secret ways to get to the 20th floor. She was pretty disappointed in herself for missing at least a few of the more obvious hints they threw out there.

“Who could forget the strong! We hadn’t anticipated many people would actually succeed to climb the nearly 400 flights of stairs it took to get up here, but let this be a lesson, never underestimate humanity.”

A few people cheered as a montage of nimble climbers and even a guy that could fly barreled up the stairs. Bec winced as she saw herself in the montage. Not because she didn’t like that she climbed the stairs when there were smarter ways up, but because she saw something really embarrassing. She watched herself vault over someone, using their face as a springboard. Had she actually done that?

The guilt almost dared to climb up her throat as she recognizes the guy that she did it to as the one from the beginning of the montage. The guy crying out for help. The guy with the bear shirt. She was rattled out of her self-pity by Zappa’s closing words.

“I hope this opening ceremony has inspired you to be the best you in the first year of challenges, but I assure you that there will be so many opportunities to grow into truly special people. Ones that will change this city for the best!” People cheered and clapped. “And now, for the reveal of our challenge! AmiGOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The cheering rose at least two levels of excitement as a giant neon green capybara showed up on the screen. “Hello! Hello everyone who made it through my first challenge. I would like to thank Councilman Zappa for arranging this open act to a Hass that no one has seen before. Previous years included deathmatches, scientific studies, mazes that span continents, well this one? I was thinking a bit smaller.”

A few people murmured in confusion.

“Smaller, but no less important. Maybe you might even find it the most potentially enriching Hassilude ever done.” People seemed placated by that remark.

“We will be handing out classes to you right now along with a rule book and code of conduct guide, please have your requested classes submitted by Kvinday. You will also be given a tutor based on your skillset before that due date so expect some advice before final decision time.” Bec knew that meant the fifth day of the week. No hating Mondays on Dust since there wasn’t one anymore.

“As you know well, the Hass demands excellence in both the practical and the theoretical. Previous years had people fighting for their life and turning in their homework. Balancing both work and personal edification is the key to success. Enough of that boring administrative stuff, now! To the actual challenge! I give you all the first look at…” Drums started rolling to a crescendo, “The Help Desk!”

AmiGo let out a little cheer of excitement as what looked like a message board scrolled. “What we have here is the first centralized means of helping citizens of this city! Think of it as a mission board subsidized by me! People have been asking me for help on matters for years, but I’ve neither had the means nor motive to help the vast majority of them. Now, I see the error of my ways. I ask all of you 497 brave, hardworking people of the Hass, to help these people out!”

People looked generally surprised. It was the kind of tepid surprise that came with expecting a surprise.

“I assure you that just on the merits of the good deeds you will do, you will be legends! The Hass rewards will be great but remember why we’re doing this. You people will be the beta testers for a new form of job in the city, I call you all the Errands!”