Obliques

Badok is a monotonous township. All the buildings are white and black and built the same. The road is filled with scramblers and motorbikes. Here the sky is blue and the sun is hot. The town is carved into different boroughs. The bazaar is nearest to the seashore, while the training center is near the mountains. Everyone here is considered equal. There are different generations living together, old and young. The mixtures in physical traits are interesting to see. Everyone is unique with their skin tones and their eyes and their hairs. Everyone does his or her part, big or small.

Tilt explains to me how things work here.

“All the children have to be schooled in every intellectual skill, such as memory, knowledge, application, inquest, valuation, and creation. We’re taught linguistics, nature, and logic.”

Tilt brings me to the training center. It holds different types of fields and magnetic holograms. I watch as the youth jump through challenges and obstacles and shooting things in a range.

“Here,” Tilt points, “Is where you master kinaesthetic skills. Training is serious. You have to be able to survive the trials and be able to fight.”

“Seems tough,” I say.

“It is. It’s more than just running fast and throwing punches. You have to know at what speed you’re running and how hard you’re punching. You have to know what effect you have on your adversary. You have to distribute your energy at the right time.”

“I’m not a fighter,” I tell him.

He grins, “Don’t worry too much.”

I can feel the sweat running down my back from the summer’s heat.

We go inside the training facility building. The air conditioning blesses my skin with cool relaxing air. We pass the gym to one of the simulation scope. There are several people in lab coats watching various screens with different trainees doing different things.

“Want to try it?” Tilt nudges me, “See what you’re made of?”

“I-I don’t know…” I hesitate.

“Come on, it’s fun.”

With that, he pushes me in an empty room of glass. Blue lasers begin to crawl everywhere. A space begins to load. Suddenly I find myself in a sea of scorpions. I curse under my breath as I feel them crawling by my ankles. Then there’s a door banging over and over, about to burst open. I hear roars loud and resonating, like some kind of monster is on the other side, trying to get in. I turn around and there’s a silver firearm. I leap towards it and grab it. Trying to get away from the scorpions, I climb the slanted wall, positioning my gun over my shoulder towards the breaking door. Two massive robotic automatons appear with red eyes through the door.

“What the hell?!” I yell.

The two bots roar, prepping their laser guns my way. Suddenly the walls are closing in. I groan and my finger finds the trigger. After fumbling, I pull the trigger and bullets shoots one bot in its leg. It drops, but the other one is shooting firing lasers at me. At this rate, I’m going to get squashed. I mount further up the slanted wall. I shoot at the ceiling, where the fire sprinklers are and run into a slide. My body glides down the wall and into the scorpions right through the door the bots came from. The water falls and scorches the bots. I scream at the scorpions hanging on my body, slapping them off. Then they disappear, and slowly everything turns blue and digitally dissolves. I’m back to the empty space and everything is back to normal. I pant, feeling a headache coming on. I go outside and Tilt greets me with a big smile.

“Not bad,” he says, “But if any of it were real, you would be dead.”

“What was that for?” I yell.

“You might be faced with similar circumstances, if we go to war.”

“I’m not going into war. I didn’t come here for that. I came here to escape,” I argue.

“Well aren’t you an argue-fest,” Tilt jokes, making his almond eyes to narrow.

“You will have to fight,” a new deep voice joins us.

It’s the young leader from earlier. I grimace as he walks closer to us.

“So get off your high horse and get with reality.”

“We can all assume that the war is coming soon, especially after the bombings in the Hitherlands,” Tilt adds.

My eyes shift to Tilt, surprised.

“You know about that?” I ask.

He nods, “We’ve heard reports trough our radio system. We can infiltrate Polaris’ radio waves without being detected. That’s how we keep tabs with the enemies moves.”

“W-what else do you know?” I ask nervously.

“First there’s a wave of executions, now there’s bombings. They want to annihilate Outliers for good,” the young leader says.

“But we have to think of why now. We have to keep in mind what triggered a sudden discordance.”

I know. Eamon.

“Training has been doubled as of today. So let’s quit playing around and wasting time,” the young leader says.

I shake my head, “But I don’t want to go. I don’t want to fight!”

“You don’t have a choice!” he yells back at me. “No one has a choice. We’re fighting for our future. So it’s not just about you.”

“It is about me! I want my freedom!” I clench my fists.

“Your freedom has a cost!” he shouts right up in my face.

My mouth sews shut. I glare at him as he glares at me. My body feels like it dipped in lava. The air thickens. It gets harder to breath under his eyes.

Tilt raises his hands in surrender and speaks slowly, “Hey, you two. Calm down. There’s no rush. We’ve got plenty of time. Who’s hungry?”

By what they call the Circle, a bunch of females were practicing hand-to-hand combat.

“We have a new girl,” Tilt advertises, pointing at me.

The other girls look like agile swans. Their bodies are toned and fit. Tilt pushes me their way, against my will. He encourages that it will be fun. A girl with strawberry blond hair smiles neatly with a mock on each side.

“She looks pathetic,” the girls calls out.

The other girls snicker in the background. I decide to walk away, but Tilt brings me into their Circle.

“Don’t worry, Hera punches like a girl,” Tilt jokes.

I frown, as he never makes sense.

“The rules are simple. I always win,” Hera smirks.

I bite the inside of my cheek, “I don’t want to fight.”

“Too late, dearie. You’re on my territory now.”

She approaches me and I back away. She pulls my shoulders and slams me in the sand. I quickly get back to my feet, feeling angry at the pressure of violence. Then she kicks my knee, making me fall again. Everyone laughs in hype.

“Oh, come on. You’re not even trying.”

She pulls my legs, climbing on top of me. I try to push her, but she pulls my hair. She throws me down again. I spit sand out of my mouth.

“Get up, dearie,” she call sarcastically, “You’re making me fall asleep.”

I learn to adapt. I know she won’t stop until I react. I stand up to my feet and take in a deep breath. I shake my arms and take a step closer to her. Her smug face irritates me. Then, I spit in her face. The crowd around us gasps. She pauses, in disgust, and grimaces.

“Are you awake yet?” I ask.

She growls, whipping off my spit. She clenches her fists and throws them my way. I tackle her, sending her into the sand. I crash my knuckles in her eye and she kicks me in the stomach. The pain surges through my body, getting my eyes teary. She flips me on my back and presses her arm over my neck, choking me. I try to fight her off of me, but air can’t get inside my lungs. I punch her nose repeatedly, until I feel my arm numb. I’m on the edge of passing out.

“Enough!” I hear the young leader’s voice.

Suddenly, someone pulls her off of me. My vision is hazy, but I try my best to stay conscious.

“What are you? Stupid?” I hear him say at me.

I melt in the sand and everything turns black.