12:07am, Saturday

I’m not sure what woke me first, the blood curling scream, or the view of Arina straddling Roshcar’s chest, punching his face repeatedly.

Everything was a blur. I leapt forward, trying to disentangle myself from my cocoon of blankets while lunging for Arina. I tripped and fell. By the time I scrambled up, Dryden and Garett were pulling Arina off of Roshcar. Surprisingly, she didn’t struggle. Jack and Tash were crouched over Rosh, inspecting his face.

“He’s fine, just knocked out.” Jack announced as he rustled in his pack for something. He took out a silver tube that looked like Tash’s lipstick, and he waved it under Roshcar’s nose until he groaned.

“What happened?” Jack commanded more than asked. He was looking down at Roshcar, who looked up wide eyed.

“He was having a nightmare and it was getting on my nerves.” Arina said. “So I hit him to shut him up, but he was thrashing around so much that I missed and had to hit him a few more times.”

I snorted. I couldn’t help it, I really couldn’t.

Jack’s eyes centered on me. “Is there something you would like to share?”

“No.” I said quickly, but Jack’s eyes didn’t leave me. “It’s just…well it’s just that I doubt that’s what happened, that’s all.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just…well, at the Akademy, she has a history of beating people up for no reason.”

“I’m aware of her history.” Jack said coolly.

“This is a violent offense.” Dryden spoke up. “This needs to be reported.”

Jack turned his sharp gaze on Dryden. His face was unreadable in the soft light—scary almost as the shadows danced across his sharp features.

“No…” Roshcar blurted out. “I-It’s fine. I was having a nightmare and she woke me up.”

“She attacked you Rosh.” Dryden stated as if talking to a child. “You need to report her. Maybe she’ll finally get kicked ou—”

“And what have you done?” Roshcar suddenly flared. “All you’ve been doing is making fun of me all day. So right now, I don’t really care what you think I should do.”

“Whoa, whoa.” I said, stepping between Roshcar and Dryden. “That’s enough. We’re all concerned for you Rosh, that’s all Dryden is saying. We don’t want Arina to think she can pick on you.”

“Pick on me?” Roshcar turned on me. His was voice rising. “Right now she’s the only one who hasn’t picked on me in this group.”

“When did I ever pick on you?” I asked confused and slightly annoyed.

“I don’t know.” Roshcar threw up his hands. “But—”

“That’s enough.” Jack cut in. “Everyone back to bed.” He bent and picked up his HOL before looking at the group again. None of us had moved. “I said back to sleep.” He growled. That got everyone moving. “Good.” He said once we were all back in our sleeping bags. “Now I have to make my daily report to the Top Six Office—”

“I don’t want to report Arina.” Roshcar interrupted.

Jack’s eyes centered on Roshcar. “That’s not for you to decide. Now when I return, all of you had better be in your bags sleeping. Understood? If I return and even one of you has wandered off, I will make sure that you never enter the Top Six Program ever again.” With that, Jack turned and walked swiftly into the foliage.

“…Should’ve reported her.” I heard Dryden mumble beside me. “Then could’ve used that as leverage…”

Leverage? For what? I rolled over to look at Dryden, but he already had his eyes closed and soon drifted off to sleep. He was always the first to get to sleep no matter where he was. There was this one time when the Akademy took all the second years to the coast see camel fish migration. The BubbleME was so close to the edge of the cliff that I was certain we were going to fall off. Dryden, however, was asleep for the entire trip.

What would he need leverage for? I rolled back onto my side and my eyes fell on Arina’s form. She was curled up into a small ball. “I don’t want to report her…” Roshcar’s statement reverberated through my head drudging up the past like dragging a white sheet through mud. “It-it wasn’t her fault.” A voice from the past spoke up from the far reaches of my memory. “She isn’t bad. She just got scared, that’s all. She didn’t mean to hurt—” I clenched my fists. I remember every feeling, every emotion, every second of the day she attacked me four years ago. I remember looking into her eyes and knowing that she had done it on purpose. I remember.

I even remember the exact action that made her snap—one simple, innocent…we were twelve alright? Did Roshcar try something similar? No, he couldn’t have. He screamed because he was having a nightmare. But Arina was the one that said that. She could be lying. But he even said that he had a nightmare…

My thoughts raced as the others drifted off to sleep once again. I closed my eyes to try to stop my brain from thinking any more, but images of Arina standing over Roshcar while laughing and hitting his face kept appearing just inside my eyelids. I turned to try to get more comfortable, but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I gave up. I reached for my HOL and the clock’s numbers only seemed to mock me: 12:54. How can the others sleep so easily? I rolled my eyes and pushed on a game to play to pass the time. Round after round I played with my head tucked under my blanket. Suddenly, I heard a noise and I quickly shut off my HOL. I held my breath as I strained my ears to listen. The noises were getting closer. It was a soft padding of feet. Was it an animal?

“You should be sleeping.” Jack’s voice gave me a start.

He must’ve seen the light from my HOL. I guiltily reached up to pull the covers down from over my head.

“I can’t sleep.” Arina’s voice came softly.

I froze, surprised. He wasn’t talking to me? I carefully peeked out from under a corner of my blanket. Sure enough, Jack was crouched beside Arina’s sleeping bag. His back was to me.

“Still get the nightmares, eh?” Jack asked with a half sigh, half snort.

Nightmares? She claimed that Roshcar had the nightmares, but really it was her? Did she attack him in her sleep?

“Still asking dumb questions, eh?” Arina shot back.

“Did you have one tonight?”

“…Yes…”

Jack sighed and let his butt fall to the ground. It landed with a small thud. “What did you dream about this time?” He asked.

“None of your business.” Arina retorted sullenly.

“C’mon H.” Jack said as he lightly tapped his knuckle on her forehead. “We made a promise, remember.”

They know each other? And what does H stand for?

Arina sighed and sat up. “In…In the dream, I had two tickets to an amusement park. One for was me and one was for a friend, but he canceled at the last second. So I had to find someone else to go to the amusement park with, but while I’m looking for someone to go with me, I get lost.” Arina scrunched her eyebrows together as she continued. “The scene changes and I suddenly find myself also trying to search for a Tech store because I needed to buy something, but I get lost again in a maze of hallways and instead find all these different stores. I walk into one of the other stores and I make friends with one lady. I tell her that I’m looking for the Tech store, and she decides to help me look for it. However, as we look, we end up finding the exit. She says that we should follow the exit because then we can go around to the front and find the store that I want. So I follow her outside, but as soon as we step outside the exit, all these people run by us as if they’re trying to escape something. It’s raining too, and there are huge puddles that cars are going through in a hurry, and the splash makes the people running all wet.”

Arina shook her hands as if they were wet themselves and continued. “When I exit with the lady and see the people running, I realize that this is all at the amusement park—that I’m already inside it. Seeing all the people running with terrified faces makes me and the lady start to run. We run for her car and start driving away. As we go, we drive through a big puddle and splash some people. I turn to look at who we splashed, and I see that the one of the people we just splashed was the friend I was originally supposed to go to the amusement park with. As I watch, the friend turns to the now soaking group and starts talking with them and making sure that everyone is alright. And in that moment, I realize that the friend had said no to my invitation so that he could go with his other friends. Then I hear the lady beside me say: “See? He just didn’t want to go with you. You’re boring and not fun anymore. He wanted to go with new people.” I’m still looking back and the whole group is wet, but they’re still running. I don’t understand what everyone is running from.”

Arina paused as a shiver ran through her.

“Was that it?” Jack asked calmly.

Arina shook her head. “Then the scene changes again and I’m in this room. It’s large and has a lot of people. I don’t know where I am, like I’ve never seen the room before, but I know that if I stay in the room, everything is alright; that I’m safe. But then I realize that I forgot something important outside the room and I need to go get it. I head for the door, but the leader stops me just before I can open it. I tell him that I left something out there and I need to get it. He sighs and says “fine, if you’re quiet it should be ok because they should be asleep, but take this anyway.” He hands me something between a crossbow and a gun…it was like a crossbow that shoots bullets—

Crossbow? Bullets? The words didn’t make any sense to me. Was a crossbow some sort of tie or gift? And bullets? Was that some sort of animal? Why would someone hand you a tie and an animal? Dreams are weird. I rolled my eyes.

“—I take out a flashlight and then I go out the door. It’s all dark in the hallway and I can’t see anything.”

“The scene changes again. It seems like I made noise while looking for the thing I lost and now something is after me. I turn a corner and run into someone. He is a normal person, and I recognize him as my partner. He is angry that I left the room, and shakes my shoulders telling me how stupid I am. But then there is a noise from behind me in the darkness and we freeze. Then we start running, trying to get back to safety. Somehow we split up, and something is chasing me. I am scared because I’m lost and now I can’t find my partner either. I try to shoot the thing chasing me, but the bullets keep getting stuck. The thing is laughing at me, but then my partner shows up and drives the thing away.”

Arina began to speak faster and faster, the words spilling out of her mouth unchecked. “The scene changes and now I’m at this lake, but the lake is more like a small pool inside this room in the facility that we are trying to get out of. My partner dives into the lake and a man jumps up from the lake surprised. I follow my partner into the water, concerned that I no longer see him and that there is this new person in front of me. When I get within about 5 or 6 feet, he says “why did you wake me up?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. I was reloading my crossbow thingy and I finally got it to work. The guy in the lake ignores me and says, “Now I have to figure out what to do.” For some odd reason, I shoot him with the crossbow and an arrow comes out of it and sinks into his cheek like it was putty. He looks at me and says “Now why did you do that.” Then he takes arrow and pushes it all the way into his face while roaring at me. I turn and I run as the guy starts to change into this monster thing, then it starts to chase me. I drop my crossbow because I’m so scared, a-and because I need to run with all that I have and can’t afford the extra weight.”

Arina’s eyes were wide as they looked at nothing in particular. Her hands were tracing her movements as she recounted her dream. “I-I follow the hallway into a big room and then do through the only open door. I sprint through that following hallway, down some stairs, and straight to a dead end. The dead end is filled with closed elevator doors that are impossible to open.”

Arina gulped in a ragged breath as if she were still there trying to escape. “The monster is laughing at me as he climbs down the stairs slowly. He’s toying with me. Then I see an open door just next to the stairs and I bolt for it. I manage to get into it and slam the door shut just as the monster lunges for me. It hits the door instead. I sink to the floor trying to keep the door shut with my body when I hear more monsters start coming down the hall of door I had just entered. I think to myself “They’re coming and there’s no escape…” Arina trailed off.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Then she took another ragged breath. “I close my eyes, and when I open them all the monsters are dead around me. My partner is there shaking me and telling me to wake up and that he’s found the way back to the room. I look up at him and then back at the dead things around me, and I’m afraid that I’m the one that killed them, that I’m now a monster too.”

“Why would you be the monster?” Jack asked, cutting in.

Arina looked at him wide eyed. “B-Because the monster part hides inside of you when it comes out, you black out. So, I grab onto my partner and tell that he has to kill me; that I can’t go back to the safe room and endanger everyone there because now I am one of the monsters. As I say that, I remember what happened to me when I heard the other monsters come down the hall while trying to keep the other monster from breaking in—they came around the bend and attacked me, the door flew open and the other one came in. I start screaming while they just laugh over me…” Arina trailed off again. Then she gave one quick shake of her head and continued. “As I’m remembering, I’m also telling my partner who is trying to drag me down the hall back to the safe room: “You have to kill me. I can’t go back anymore. I’m no longer safe. I’m one of them now. I will hurt everyone in the safe zone.” I see all these images of what would happen if I was taken back to the safe room. How I would kill the others and how much fun it would be, and how I would be laughing while ripping someone’s head off and hearing the screams around me. “I will kill them…so please kill me.” My partner stops, and he opens his mouth to say something, but then I wake up for real.”

“That—”

“That’s not all.” Arina cut jack off. “When I try to go back to sleep, the nightmare continues but this time I am in my old house. There are four or five us now, and we are trying to be real quiet because we know the monsters are inside the house. We sneak through the kitchen and go into the dining room. The two male members of the group go first and peak around the short wall into the living room. While they do that, I realize that in the kitchen there are knives, so I go back and pick one up. The other two ladies behind me also picked up knives—like long butcher knifes. Then I go to stand behind the two guys who are still peering around the corner into the living room. They are whispering to themselves about how they don’t see anything and how it’s probably safe; that maybe there aren’t any monsters here today. Then they turn to tell us that it is safe, but their faces are already monsters. I turn to run, but there’s another monster behind me and the two ladies. I raised my knife in defense, but…but then I woke up to Roshcar screaming…and you know what happened after that.”

“Arina…” Jack let out a big sigh. “You are safe. This is Qui. Nothing will happen to you.”

“You of all people, Jack, should know better than to say that to me.” Arina said sharply. “You of all people should know……”

“I do. It’s my job. And that’s why I can say that you are safe. As long as I’m around, you don’t have to worry. Now get some sleep.” Jack said sternly as he pushed to lay back down. Then he stood up slowly with a small groan and I quickly let the corner flap down.

“…What did the he say?” I could barely hear Arina’s voice through my blanket, so I peeked through the flap again.

“Who?” Jack was looking down at Arina, but his back was no longer turned to me. I lowered the flap slightly so that I could only see his feet, diminishing the chance of him seeing my eyes and realizing that I was still awake. And listening.

“My dog.” Arina looked at Jack sarcastically. “Who do you think?”

Jack snorted. “Well…Doc wanted to pull you out, but All Supreme over ruled it. Said you needed more time to adjust.”

All Supreme? Who in Qui is that?

“Adjust?” Arina returned the snort. “What four years of school wasn’t enough time for him to let me adjust?”

“He—”

“He wants me to be like everyone else. Passive. Like a sheep.” Arina shot out. “That is never going to happen Jack. I can’t just forget everything that I’ve seen…and done…” Something in Arina’s voice made me open the flap a little wider to see more clearly. It almost sounded like she was lost—a little girl, weak and lost.

“Would you rather be sent back to the Islands?” Jack asked.

Sent back to the Islands? As in revoke her adoption?

“…No. I never want to go back.” She said so softly I almost didn’t hear her.

“Then you have to learn how to adjust. That’s all any of us can do.” Jack replied.

“And what if—”

“From what I gather.” Jack spoke over Arina’s protests. “It wasn’t him who wanted you to adjust, but the Lady.”

“Thera?” Arina spoke as if the name carried some hope in it. She propped herself up on her elbows and a shy smile crossed her face. “Thera is nice, even if she is married to the All Supreme. You should be nicer to her to Jack. You weren’t nice to her this morning.” Arina wagged a finger at Jack. It would have been comical if she hadn’t made that last statement. There was only one person in all of Qui with the name Thera. And that was Thera Kushman…the President’s wife. The All Supreme must be President Kushman…what in the world is going on?

“I’ll do what I want.” Jack grunted. “Now go to sleep.”

“Jack…” Arina’s face lost the ghost smile and she grabbed onto his pant leg. Clutching it like a child would her mother’s leg. “What will happen if I don’t adjust?”

“…That won’t happen. I won’t let that happen…Why do you think I’m here. Sola and Hyde too. We’ll—”

“What do you mean?” Arina looked at him in surprise. “You, Sola, and Hyde?...Jack, what’s going on?” Arina’s voice was more than tinged with alarm.

“Arina…” Jack sighed and crouched down. I lowered the flap even further so that I wouldn’t be detected. I could hear Jack draw in a breath to speak, but nothing came. I strained my ears again, but still nothing. No sound except the crackle of the fire. Then something dense hit the soft dirt just beside my head and a dark object filled my vision from my flap slit. “I know you’re awake.” Jack’s voice sent a chill through me. “So I’ll only say this once. Eavesdropping isn’t nice. It’s cowardly and childlike. Don’t do it again. Now go to sleep… That goes for you too Garett.”

Garett? I wanted to turn in my sleeping bag to look at the other boy, but I was still too petrified from Jack’s warning. Was he listening too? Why would he be listening? …Well, why would I be listening? My mind was whirling once again.

I could hear Jack snort softly. “Actually, it’s been seven hours…that should be good enough.”

Seven hours? I was too confused to hear the faint click. What is with all the numb—

“WAKE UP.” Jack’s amplified voice made me sit bolt upright and scramble to get out of my blankets for the second time in less than an hour. “WE MOVE OUT IN TEN MINUTES. IF YOU ARE NOT ON YOUR HORSE BY THAT TIME, YOU WILL BE LEFT BEHIND.”

“W-what time is it?” Dryden’s sleepy head also snapped up to view the surroundings without understanding.

“IT’S WAKE UP TIME.” Jack bent to put a few small branches on the fire to light the clearing a little better.

“It’s barely one in the morning.” Tash grumbled. Her was hair in such a disarray that only came from peaceful sleep.

“Be thankful I let you sleep in.” Jack said.

“Slept in?” I asked incredulously.

“You all had seven hours of sleep. That’s plenty, no more than plenty if you were a Jackal. Usually a Jackal only gets four, maybe five hours of sleep. But we will have to work on that. Now let’s go. Everyone up.” Jack went around pulling off the blankets of those who tried to ignore him. Much grumbling of course ensued.

It took us almost two hours to get packed, clean the campsite, and saddle the horses. But finally, just as the HOL clock ticked down to three in the morning, we finally started off once again towards Edenyon. I hope. It was impossible to tell where we were going, or even how the horses knew where to go. The only thing any of us could do was trust the horses…not a pleasant idea.

By 6am, we entered a large plateau with a stream running down the mountainside. I looked breathlessly at the landscape unfolded before me. The dark sky was tinged with sun’s first few rays of hope; the mountain trees seemed to be spreading out their pleading hands begging the sun to come faster and expel the darkness that pressed down on all things both great and small. The mountains around us towered over us like ancient of ancient kings. No words were needed to convey their message: “This is all mine. Nothing you can do will ever tame me.”

“Kirosh.” A hand landed on my shoulder, breaking the spell. “Hurry and fill up your water bottle.” Jack said sternly. “We have to keep moving.”

I gave one last look at the mountains as the sky grew more and more pink with each passing moment. I sank the bottle under the water without looking. I breathed in the deep scent of the leaves and dirt. For someone from the arid nation of Zuashi, it never ceased to amaze me just how sweet the earth could smell—it was the perfume of the earth. Finally, when I couldn’t take the cold water any longer, did I take my bottle out of the stream and cap it. Then we mounted our horses once again and journeyed on.

For another hour we went with seemingly no end. Then, suddenly, the twinkle of a house light off in the distance flickered momentarily though the trees catching me off guard. “Jack…a house!” I pulled Sunfelt to a stop and pointed to where I had seen the light.

“What? Where?” Roshcar turned in his saddle to try to see where I was pointing.

Jack just chuckled. “Yeh, they should be popping up right about now. We are getting closer to town.”

Edenyon. I thought giddily as we continued on. Our first assignment. All thoughts of what had happened just hours ago were completely swept aside at the thought of finally getting to see Edenyon. According to QuiFy News, the town of Edenyon was ranked the sixth most beautiful place to live in all of Qui. The houses started out few and far between—sometimes close enough to see, sometimes far up the mountain—but then they grew closer together, popping up right beside us as we rounded one of the large tree trunks.

“We’re here. Finally.” Jack called out as we rounded a bend. Before us, a cleanly swept road was laid out. Along the strait, it was lined with buildings of different sizes. Then it snaked and curled up the mountain and down the mountain. It was impossible to tell where those side roads lead to in the dim light and dense foliage, so my attention snapped to the buildings we were passing. The glow from the lanterns illuminated their signs: Hair salon, chiropractor, pet grooming… Sunfelt followed after Jack without me prompting as my head swiveled back and forth taking everything in. The seemingly random placement of the shops lining the road spoke of the normalcy of the town’s way of life. It was both similar to what I had known in the city, and yet, so different than what I was used to that I couldn’t even imagine how their day went. It was amazing just how much diversity there was just within Yamara.

“Edenyon is smaller than what I had imagined…” I said. Based on the number of shops lining the road, and even the number of houses peeking through the trees, the town seemed to be no bigger than to hold 100 people maximum. How can this even be called a town?

“This isn’t Edenyon.” Jack chuckled. “This is one of the sister towns. From here, we will take the InterTrain to Edenyon.”

“Inner train?”

“Inter.” Jack reinforced. “InterTrain. Since it’s hard to get outside materials into the mountains, the President had a train system made that connected all the towns within the Edenyon Mountains. It’s called the InterTrain system. You can get on the train at any town and be, at most, an hour away from Edenyon town. It’s much better than having to travel another day to get to there from here…The next train is in an hour, so we need to hurry and put the horse away. Follow me.”

“What about food?” Dryden asked as his stomach gave a powerful growl.

“If we have time, we will get some. Otherwise, you will have to wait until we get to Edenyon.”

“But—”

“The faster we move, the more likely we will get food before the train leaves.” Jack interrupted.

Train? My curiosity was peaked again. Everything today was going to be exciting. If only it would come faster! We rounded a bend in the road, and a flat plateau clearing stretched out in front of us. The wide open space was lined with trees on all sides. The sun beginning to peak between the mountains made the field look like liquid emerald delicately interlaced with ruby and amethyst clusters. It was as breathtaking as any metalwork masterpiece from the Zuashi Elite Masters.

“We’ll let the horses off here.” Jack announced. “Get your stuff together. And rub your horses down like I’ve shown you. I’ll go tell the horse master here that we’re leaving these seven in his field.” Dryden opened his mouth, but Jack beat him. “If you are all finished by the time I return, then we’ll have enough time to go get food…Arina, you take care of my horse too.”