Simplicity

Walking along the hallways was making me dizzy again. I pressed my arm to my head and tried to focus. I couldn't focus, I had had almost no sleep the night before. All thanks to Rachel. She wanted to see me again tonight. Same place, I couldn't focus on what I was doing. I hurried them all into their rooms, I hated this place. It sickened me. The walls got smaller and smaller it seemed, and I felt the claustrophobia eating away at me.

"Get in!" I commanded the last two students into their rooms. I pushed them in and closed the door. Ugh! Why couldn't they just listen? I hated that old bat as much as anyone, but what are you going to do? Just follow the rules. Was it really that hard? Man, especially that girl earlier today in the fighting rooms. She really annoyed me. B-26, I remember. And that boy in the P group, what were you thinking buddy? Give it some time.

Rachel was probably waiting for me by now, but she would have to wait a bit longer. I was being called to the doctor's room. Again. First for that boy's fail at following instructions, and now for that stupid girl. I walked along the path, I had memorized it well. We had to. Every hallway, it was like a maze to a newcomer for sure. But me, I was hardened for 3 months in knowing this stuff. A left, a right, two more lefts, and there was the auditorium. Horrid place really. The auditorium had mold growing on the edges as the concrete floor cracked to allow a few plants to make it in from the outside. It was the only place the students would see sunlight.

Imagine being them, I wondered. 2 days, so far, in a maze, risking your life in a place with no windows. You are being taught how a leader is, all the while you cannot see the world which you might one day rule. Here I was, though, no chance to rule anything, except for some bratty kids while I could. But it paid though. The doctor had money, and it made sense, she was comissioned by the state. Just a few months, I would tell myself, then I could escape this rust bucket and get me a house in the south quadrants, as close to the equator as Calimet could get me. Rachel couldn't wait either, so she joined me in the program to earn twice the money.

"That's twice the size of the house we'll get," she laughed when she applied.

I came up to the doctor's door. Oh, how much I hated this door. So much anxiety sitting outside of it. The doctor really wanted to be pretentious, so she was obligied to have you wait at her door for at least a few moments, just to seem like she had some power. I straightened my clothes and brushed my hair up, as it had started growing in again. I faced the door, stood stright up and knocked three times.

From the other side of the door, I could hear someone taking their time to get to the door. Hurry up! I had to make it to Rachel on time. She might've already known that I would be late though, she had seen me jittery at the auditorium.

"State your business!" someone yelled.

I cleared my thoat, took a deep breath, and responded, "It's ZZ-9, I was told to see Dr. Berryman."

"Wait one moment."

I stood there impatiently. So much time was always dedicated for being professional or whatever, I hated that. Just get the job done, you know? I remebered back when I had first met the doctor, she walked onto the stage of our military briefing and stood there looking at us for a good 30 seconds. We didn't have that kind of time, and I don't know how she did. She acted like all the time in the world was there, waiting for her to move. By the wrinkles and the saggy skin that she cleared with makeup, I don't think it was any help to slow down and take her time. She was at least in her early 60's, but she acted like someone in their 40's. What a waste of time I thought.

The door slowly opened and I walked in as it was opening. I walked forward, cautious to walk in a steady pace, so as to not show any anxiety, as I had been taught. I went to the doctor's chair and stood there, waiting for her to turn around and face me.

"What's your name, soldier?" she asked slickly.

I was quick to respond, "ZZ-9 ma'am."

She turned around to face me.

"Calm down and breathe soldier. Do you have a problem?" she looked at me confused.

"I'm sorry," I responded. "I ran here to make sure I was here in a timely manner for you," I lied.

She picked up her eyebrows and turned her head to the side for a second, giving an expression of acceptance and surprise. She started looking at the results we sent her for the day, the stack of papers on her desk that she read through every night. She was very dedicated to her work, a very passionate old hag.

"Good, good." She replied. "But obviously, that's not what I'm here to discuss with you ZZ-9," she said motioning over to my report that was on the top of the stack.

"I was very interested to see your report ZZ-9, do you know why?" she asked.

"No ma'am, I ran the test exactly as you instructed me," I replied.

"Yes," she said looking down, "according to what is written down, that seems to be the case. However," she said standing up, "I heard of an interesting story from your B group, ZZ-9. Do you have anything to say about what it might be?"

She took her time and paced around her table and around me. She held her head up high and didn't look at me. Her hands were held behind her back and her broad shoulders came very near to touching me. I knew what she wanted to talk about. I knew that someone would rat me out. That stupid girl had to knock out another student and I stopped her. I knew that's what she wanted to talk about, and It was going to happen anyway. I might as well explain my point of view, or at least bend the point of view.

"Yes ma'am," I finally replied a few moments later. "I believe I know what it is about."

She reached her chair again and smiled, "Beautiful." She sat back down in her chair, crossed her legs, brushed off her black skirt and folded her hands. "Let's hear it then," she said.

"Well," I began, "I assume it had something to do with the B-26 report I had. That was her second fight in my B group."

I looked over at her for any affirmation or any sign that I was on track, but she said nothing but smiled and continued looking at me.

"And uhh," I continued, "She, at one point, landed on B-44, knocking B-44 out. I was later told that another soldier told her to continue. I had no idea ma'am. I was across the room, and could not hear the command. I saw her win her fight and told her to stop."

Dr. Berryman shook her head in dissapointment, "Isn't this the same girl that almost lost her first challenge?"

I nodded, "Yes ma'am, she was caught, like I told you then, by B-24, and dragged up the side of the pit."

"Yes," she replied thoughtfully, "B-24, that poor boy. He is an interesting one. He doesn't show the fear of the others. He hides it well. By the report I recieved, It would seem he isn't the strongest or fastest is he?"

"No ma'am," I replied, "But he did earn those five points from the airplane challenge, which has seen him with a chance forward."

"True," she said smiling, " and our conversation was quite interesting, he may still be in the running."

I nodded.

"I think they may know each other," She said, "what do you think?"

"I'm not sure," I confessed, "It is possible to be sure, but I think that it may have been just as possible that she was just too close, and out of his own compassion or something, he saved her."

She nodded her head. She was a very deliberate woman. She took her time to make her judgments and she usually, to he credit, was right.

"They interest me very much, ZZ-9," she said looking at my report. "I'll tell you what," she said looking at me with a calm complection, "If you can report on their actions more carefully and more watchfully, I'll forgive your mishap this time."

"Thank you ma'am," I responded, "I will make sure to study them."

"But," she looked at me carefully, "We cannot keep having this happen. Do I need to tell you again why we do this? Do I need to tell you why we risk so much and cause all this chaos?"

Her eyes spoke for a moment. They didn't need to, but they did. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Of course I didn't know all of it, but she had told us enough during her speech at the military briefing, that first day.

There was a war coming. A war we hadn't seen until now. The Freedom wars were nothing compared to this. A simple civil war with simple people and simple guns. The country split up, and voila, two countries. But this was different, The Mongolian empire was growing too fast and Calimet couldn't keep up. I knew enough, I knew that our next leader was either going to be the first of a long set of rulers, or the last, ever. The African Nations, all united and strong finally as they had never been before in history. I remember as a child learning how they overcame the centuries of choas that the "white men" brought to their lands. They turned to agriculture as the world turned to machines. No matter how many machines you use, nothing was able to rid the need of land for food, for cattle. They had it all built into their society, and now, everyone was teaming up, and the world itself was teeming and begging and itching and oozing and ready for something big. No one knew when the first missile would be launched, or who would be the first to do it. But it was coming, and fast.

The doctor knew this, and she knew it better than anyone else. How much it meant to her, even I couldn't express. The story that she was writing, she had told that B-24 boy, was one in which her program saved Calimet. One where she would be in the history books, as the woman who single-handidly saved Calimet.

"I understand," I responded, "It won't happen again."

"Good," she said walking to her fireplace. She picked up a cup of water that had been seated on the mantle. She looked at me as she took a long drink from her water. She closed her eyes and endulged in a fresh, cool cup of water. "I'm glad we sorted this out," she said finally placing the cup of water down back on the same place on the mantle, "now go."

I didn't need to be told twice. I nodded at her, faced the door, and began walking forward, taking slow even paces. All the other soldiers eyed me. They didn't like me. I didn't really care. Dr. Berryman was more forgiving of me because I was one of the newest trained guards. She even gave me control of B group, quite prestigeous, and again, it paid well.

I'm not sure how long I had been in there, but Rachel would definitely be getting worried. I walked into the auditorium, and procceeded to walk over to the two big entrances the students had used getting off their airplanes. It was locked, as usual. The lock had a passcode on it, but I had discovered the password early in training in the doctor's room. She had it hidden on the back page of her calendar. When she wasn't looking I caught the numbers.

I looked around me, There was no one in the auditorium, except for a cleaning crew that was too busy focused on the blood on the floor from the kid in the P group that had attempted to kill the doctor. What a move. He really went for it. He could've won both of his fights with the knife, but he didn't. He had patiently waited and attacked the guard with his fists. He knew that Dr. Berryman would want to make an example out of him. He just didn't know how much she had expected something of this sort. As for the guard that was attacked, Poor W, as people began to call him, probably would never stand that close to another student again. He was made fun of that day on the way out of the auditorium, as the boy had given him a black eye.

He underperformed, as Dr. Berryman would say it. She was again, very careful with her words. Sometimes too careful I thought, enough that it would cause her to lose focus over words. She was a strange old bat, that one. When we first met her, she introduced herself as an anthropoligist. Anthropology, as I came to learn, was the study of people. I didn't know there was so much to learn about people. Maybe, I thought, the more you learn about people, the less you remembered about acting normal. You become too observent.

Nonetheless, I dialed in the digits, and the screen turned green. I don't think the cleaning crew would care too much anyways, I outranked them substantially, enough to where they would not question my actions.

I cracked open one of the big metal doors and slid through, I then procceeded to close it back behind me, lest anyone catch me outside. We weren't excplicity told to not go outside, but it was kind of implied in the doctor's speech about following direct orders as they were given. Oh, how she loved to have control over any given situation.

I quickly hurried around the building to the ladder on the left side. It went up for about 30 feet to the top of the auditorium. As I climbed, my heart began to beat faster. Heights weren't exactly my favorite, but this, this was worth it.

I reached the top of the ladder, and as I threw myself over the edge, the moonlight slapped me in the face. It was blinding here. There was no city around this dry landscape, and the lack of light pollution enhanced the view of the sky.

As I landed, I made careful and slow movements across the roof so as to not alert anyone inside the auditorium. I crossed the large roof in a timely manner and reached another ladder, this one going up for another twenty or so feet, before reaching the peak. This part of the building was used for the rock-climbing portion and was very tall.

I finally reached the top of the building, and threw myself on the roof.

"Sorry I'm late," I said to the figure sitting on the edge of the roof, "the doctor called me in again, about that girl that I stopped from killing the other one."

Rachel was beautiful. Her hair danced and flowed with the wind, brown and silky. The moonlight hit her face at the right angle, every time without fail. It perfectly highlighted every curviture on her face, and her deep brown eyes shone brilliantly.

She sighed heavily, "when is it going to be over?" She looked at me with her eyes saddened.

I walked over to her, calming down my breathing as best as I could, and plopped myself next to her on the edge of the roof.

"Soon," I said looking at the stars, "We almost have enough."

"You said that last time," she said, still not looking at me. "I hate it here, I hate to see them fight, I hate what I saw. I can't stand it," she continued. She looked over to me finally, eyeing me carefully. Her frown expressed her saddness and anger perfectly.

"You know we can't do anything," I sadly reminded her, "you saw what she did to that guy in training." I looked into her eyes, she remembered for sure.

Rachel threw her head into my lap, and began picking at her hair, examining her split ends and pressing them together, attempting to reverse them to no avail. I rested my hand on her head.

"Only a few more weeks," I quietly said.

She turned her head up to look to me.

"A few?" she asked. "Define a few."

She wanted to get out of this place, and it made sense. I wanted to leave more than anything. I knew which tests were to come in the second week and the third week, I was not ready for that.

"Two weeks then," I said smiling to her. "Give me two weeks, then we'll run, okay?"

She looked at me with a questioned look. "Promise me two weeks," she said.

"You know that I don't know," I said.

"Promise me, David," she said seriously. "Promise me."

She held out her pinky finger. Small and petite, same as they day I met her. I looked over at her, and imagined what we would do. What this promise meant. I kept my promises and she knew that. Rachel was serious. We would steal two bikes and escape down south, get a home, and live on the run. But we wouldn't dare leave Calimet. No, Calimet or nothing at all. If we crossed the border, we'd be killed for sure. Brazil didn't like us, not by a long shot. A simple life I would promise her. Maybe a white picket fence, she once laughed. Maybe.

I reached over and garbbed her small finger with mine. I held her pinky tight and drew it too my chest.

"I promise," I said.

She gave a sigh of relief and happiness.

"What did Dr. Berryman say?" she asked, changing the subject as she had gotten what she wanted. she was good at getting what she wanted.

"Well," I said, "she pretty much forgave me, as long as I spy on the B-24 kid I told you about and the one he saved."

"That's weird," she said looking at the stars from my lap, "Why?"

"I don't know," I confessed, "but something tells me that if she wants to know more about them, then there's something special there."

"Something special?" she asked smiling. "You mean like me?"

"Nothing can really be as special as you," I smiled.

We procceeded to talk about everything and nothing. From the disgusting food we had eaten that day, the same as the students, to how her roommate talked too much. I loved these conversations with her. It was simple. I was taught early how complicated life was. There was always so much going on, so many rules, so many things that we could not control. I wanted it simple. Rachel wanted it simple, and so we made it so. We liked to force the world into our hands in the eye of simplicity. There was one ruler, and one king, and one person that had power. Simple. There was one plan we had, one dream, and one goal, simple. There was one world, chaotic and one on the verge of war, simple. There was one us. We would make it simple.

I didn't know how I would do it, but I had promised it. It would happen, or we would die trying.