Flight to Seoul

August 31, 2044- Wednesday- September 2, 2044

The late evening summer sun is low on the horizon as the orange and pink colors light up the sky with bright hues. The colors blend in a harmonious painting above them. The runners are done with practice, it was a late one. Nix and Lily invite Rise to take a selfie with the sky as a backdrop. Snap. They take the photo.

“It looks awesome,” says Rise, leaning over to look at the photo.

“Yep, too bad we can’t post anything,” says Nix.

“Save it for later,” says Lily.

“Yeah, I will,” says Nix.

Jackson comes towards them jogging at a slow pace.

“Hey, I heard from the other runners there is a meeting at the dinner hall tonight,” declares Jackson in labored breaths.

“Oh really, I wonder what about,” says Rise, raising his eyebrows.

“Dunno,” says Jackson.

They find Han by the track’s edge and walk together onto the grass. Across the grounds with the other runners, they talk in excited voices thinking of the possibilities of today's late evening meeting.

There is no time to change into different clothes as Coach Palmer ushers them into the dinner hall once they enter the building. The air inside the room feels heavier and enclosed. There is the stinky, sticky smell from the runners who need to shower all sitting near one another. Inside the small room, poor ventilation causes the runner’s smell to linger in the air. One of the lights overhead has gone out leaving the middle of the room a slight dimness.

“That light is broken,” notes Coach Palmer aloud as he walks to the head of the table nearest to the kitchen door.

“Listen up this is a message to the whole team. The runners selected to run at the Deathathon XIV are Han, Nix, Lily, Rise, and Jackson. They will be leaving the day after tomorrow,” states Coach Palmer.

Rise looks at his running team, what awaits them all he doesn’t fathom, but he wouldn’t go through it with anyone else.

Jackson and Rise talk to each other in their bed at the dormitory. There is a mixture of excitement and worry of energy between their words.

“I can’t believe we’ll be competing,” says Rise.

“Yeah it’s crazy, I wonder where it will take place?” wonders Jackson.

Rise closes his eyes but sleep takes longer than usual to come to him. In his mind, he is thinking of his family far away. I’ll give them a call tomorrow he mentally notes before falling asleep.

On the next day, there is a short practice for his teammates and Rise. The coach lets them run a few laps and then suggests they go pack. As they head out of the track Coach Palmer says, “You assisting coach Yuki will meet you tomorrow morning at the gates at 5:00 am,” and he turns back his attention to the other runners.

Rise and Jackson find a duffle bag on the bed when they arrive in their dormitory. They pack what they can in the large bag. Rise places his running shoes in the bag near the end. They place the travel kits also found on the bed which contains dome essentials: a toothbrush and travel toothpaste. It includes an eye mask for sleep and hand wipes.

Rise laughs at Jackson who puts on the eye mask because there is closed eyes drawn on them. They finish packing and the rest of the afternoon is for them.

In the common room, Han, Nix, and Lily are already sitting at a group of couches. Lily and Nix wave for them to join them.

“I’ll meet you guys in a second,” says Rise, pointing at his phone.

“Okay,” says Jackson, walking toward his teammates.

Rise moves to the other side of the room for privacy. He selects a seat in a solitary chair. His fingers find his mother’s name on the contacts of his phone; he takes a deep breath before hitting call. The ringing through the line is only a few seconds but seems to last minutes, at least someone picks up the phone.

“Hello,” says his Ma.

“Ma,” says Rise.

“Rise! How are you? You are the running program treating you, we missed you dearly” says Ma.

“I am doing good ma…I don’t know if I am supposed to tell you…” says Rise, not finding the right words.

“What is it Rise?” says Ma.

“Our team will be traveling to…uh compete,” says Rise at last.

There is a pause on the other line.

“Oh are you Rise, try you’re best. You know we’ll be waiting at home for you,” says Ma.

“Goodbye Ma,” says Rise.

“Love you Rise,” says Ma.

Rise hangs up. He thinks she understood he would be in the Deathathon, even if he didn’t say it outright. He joins his team on the other side of the room. They talk about the locations they could be going to giving their guesses.

“I do hope we go somewhere with a beach,” says Lily.

“This isn’t a vacation,” says Han.

“That’s obvious, but maybe we can do both,” says Nix.

“Yeah, okay,” says Jackson, throwing his hands up.

“Where would you like to go?” asks Lily to Rise.

“Home,” says Rise.

They all agree. Soon it's time for dinner. After which they all go to sleep. Rise sure finds it hard to sleep. Jackson and Rise whisper to each other in the middle of the night.

“Go to sleep!” one of the other runners in their room yells. So Rise thinks in his mind and quiets talking to Jackson. The alarm Rise set for himself wakes Rise and Jackson and they change and gather their bags.

The sun has not risen yet as the five runners walk the long length to the gate. Out of all of them, Nix seemed the most sleepy, she kept on yawning all along their walk. At five minutes past five the gates opened and Yuki stood by a van. Yuki was decked out in her usual black clothes plus a bag of her own.

“It’s good to see you all,” says Yuki, motioning them to enter the car.

“Yuki, where are we headed?” asks Jackson.

“You’ll find out in the airport,” says Yuki.

“Airport! Oh no I don’t like flights,” says Lily, turning pale.

“It’s okay, we’re all going together,” says Han.

“Yeah, we’re a team, Lily,” says Rise.

They enter the van and the car drives out of the training facility. Rise looks out of the window. The city moves through the window at a slow pace. They move out of the center of the city and into the outskirts.

Upon arrival to waiting at the gate for their flight, they are hurried by Yuki. Rise knows that the flight is to Seoul, South Korea. They were excited to talk about the location. Finally, they are seated on the plane. Yuki has arranged to have them sit near each other. Yuki sits on one side of Rise. She takes out a stack of beauty magazines to read. Nix and Lily ask to borrow one.

“You want to read a magazine,” offers Nix to Han.

“No, I brought this book,” says Han.

Rise and Jackson agree it's a good idea to sleep at the beginning of the trip. They are airborne and an hour later. Rise has his eye mask on sleeping and trying not to worry about the future.