Conflict

Story of a group of trainees set in the future

Conflict

Light falls across the dusty concrete floor in long lines. The fading light comes through the long rectangular windows at the top of the cell. Five of us sit at the far corner of this room, weighing our options.

“Do you really think you could scale that?” Thorn asks without looking at me.

I gulp hard and look at the other 3 trainees sitting with straight backs against the wall. We have 30 minutes to make it out of this trap (or whatever they were calling the pit this week). Last week we had 45 minutes but Shrimp had not made it out without wetting his pants. The tests had become more grueling as our training had intensified. No one spoke anymore about passing levels with top recognition. We are just trying to get through one level at a time.

As if on cue, Shrimp protests “I promise I went to the latrine a few minutes ago.”

Thorn glances at him and guffaws.

The rest of us shift uncomfortably and grab our gear bags.

“Well I say we just go for it. Everytime we sit to plan how to scale that wall we sit on our butts until Shrimp pees his pants. We get no points if one of us fails” declares Xan.

Thorn stands up quickly, pointing a finger at Xan, “If I didn’t have to train you lipshits I would be on Star 23 living the good life.”

“Oh, so this is about you and your promotion?” Shrimp pipes up lunging forward.

I reach my arm out and grab Shrimp’s arm. “Steady, let’s just get going.”

Celine, stares steadily at what looks to be a narrow opening above. She has not spoken since we had the orders to go to the 7 floor and enter this cell.

Shrimp grins at me and stands up, swinging his pack over his back, his knife and canteen clanging loudly inside it. Thorn looks straight ahead just slightly above my head, then looks towards our goal as if he heard neither of us. Xan and I grab our packs and cross the length of this narrow pit to the opposite wall. The door behind us has closed seamlessly sealing us in. Xan has his eyes on me, I’m tracing the path with my feet on the floor. Can Celine hear me? Celine, unnoticed to the others, remains seated.

The obstacle this time, as before, is to get out near the top by finding some sort of hidden door. The wall next to the one we are facing has the long windows, providing the only light in this dark place. The wall looked to be at least 15 meters high but seems shorter today. We had ropes and suction pods last time but because we failed we only have the suction pods. We assumed the ropes were to attach to the suction pods but we only swung aimlessly in our individual ascents. Xan walks boldly to the wall and grabbing a suction pod out of his pack without even a glace, places it at waist height against the vertical surface and twists to lock it in place.

“Guess I’m first this time. I can hold my piss for 10 minutes,” he said staring up.

Shrimp looks at me and I just shake my head. He grins again, swings his pack around to the side and unzips it. Shrimp, blond and tousle headed he stands about a meter behind Xan. Thorn, like some kind of robot stands with his arms at his side, to the left of Xan, as if deep in thought. His telltale burp gives him away as just trying to hide the anxiety all of us are feeling. Another month of training alone with Thorn is not a prospect any of us relish. And he knows it.

Getting more desperate, I look at Celine again. She is not going for it. She knows if she doesn’t speak to me long enough I say ridiculous things like “I will never look at another girl for as long as I live.”

Xan turns to me and points as if commanding me to place a suction pod on the wall next to his.

“You and I can scale this Rigel. Shrimp you climb up on our pods after us.”

Thorn clears his throat to protest, then farts loudly.

“Seriously, you can’t keep it together?” Xan asks.

Thorn points a menacing finger at Xan and blurts out several sharp, crass phrases before throwing his pack to the ground and ripping the zipper apart. He scatters his pack’s contents on the floor searching for his 10 suction pods which are, as before, covered in gooey syrup. He stuffs half a muffin or waffle in his pack every morning without fail as if lunch is unimaginable.

Finally I turn to look at Celine and she is smiling. I’m caught off guard pause, staring back.  I walk back to her and she whispers, “Look at the wall. What is the pattern you see there.”

It takes me a few seconds to realize she has reestablished our connection. I turn and look at the wall in front of me and suddenly my vision expands. Like a diagonal grid, faint lines appear in a pattern.

“Suction pods all the way up, Celine, all the way up. Then we help each other climb,” I whisper back.

Celine rises almost silently and strides across the space quietly. Thorn, still untangling a suction pod from a headset doesn’t even look at the rest of us. Celine and I walk forward, flank Shrimp and I rest my left hand on his shoulder and points to a place on the wall just below Xan’s pod. Xan, starring at her uncomprehendingly looks to me for explanation. I look down and kick a foot forward trying to suppress a grin. Celine always forgets she can’t talk to me privately like that with everyone else around.

“Celine, nice to see you’ve joined us, what are you pointing at?”

Celine, scratching the side of her forehead says, “Oh, I was just thinking we could put a pod there. And climb up together?”

Xan angry, slams his suction pod against the wall, twists to lock into place and says under his breath, “Ok, and what do we do in between that?” Xan asks.

Pausing, I say firmly, “What if we were to combine suction pods. It would be much easier to scale the wall,” I rush to say.

“I could loan you mine,” Celine says with a shrug.

Xan, turns fully to Celine, Shrimp and I and blurts out, “Wait, we have to combine our pods and haul all you up this wall.”

Celine, not understanding his rush to anger glares at him.

Shrimp, looking in his pack again says eagerly, “I have ten pods!”

Celine, turns to him and says flatly, “I know, we all have ten pods!”

“Ok, well, Xan,”  I say a bit soothingly. “I was just thinking Shrimp is pretty fast and Celine is not so heavy that she can’t scale that wall.”

Celine, a lithe climber, snorts without a comment.

Thorn, interrupting stands up and walks over to us. “Share pods? What do you mean share pods?”

Xan, still looking at me says “Ok, so what if I go up first and place all my pods, then you guys throw me up yours one at a time and I stick them up.”

Shrimp grins eagerly, then sadly says, “What if I can’t throw mine up very high.”

“Ok, look Mr Brain,” says Celine to Xan staring him straight in the eyes, “If you can’t remember . . .”

I place my hand gently on Celine’s shoulder and interrupt, “Each of our pods have to be self activated. Xan is just trying to help,”

“I completely knew that, says Xan, looking up at the wall again and unclenching his fists. “I’m just suggesting I go first because I am . . .”

Thorn, still standing on the outside of our little circle asks, “What are we talking about?”

I place my hand on my chin, look for the pattern I had seen before. Celine takes a deep breath, knowing when she is calm, I am able to focus more fully. The room around me fades and the lines become distinct.

“Shrimp first” Celine says quietly to me.

“Then who?” I answer, thinking about the pattern of pods as they should be placed.

“Thorn,” she answers, “he’s not going to last much longer anyway.

“Xan, you volunteer to go last.” I say aloud, tilting my chin in his direction.

Xan turns to see my motion and tilts his chin in the same way.

“I’ll detach the pods” he says confidently. Anyone can detach them, and the room must be clear to pass this test. Xan has to be reminded of his temporary illusions that the scores for each task are individual. Group scores are calculated into your bio and stay for life.

“Shrimp,” I say cheerfully clamping down on his shoulder. “What if you go first after Xan lowers his pod, and you scale up with me holding onto you as high as you can place pods.” Shrimp nods looking straight at me.

Turning to Thorn I say, “How about you follow, since you are the leader, and as you get higher, steady Shrimp with your body as you place your pods. Celine and I will go next and steady each other, then Xan will bring up the rear.”

“Yeah, hopefully not your rear,” says Xan with a jab at my side.

Celine moves to stand behind Shrimp and placing both hands on his hips, gets ready to hoist him up. Xan deftly puts a series of pods up as I point out a carefully spaced pattern. The pods are set so that each of us can easily move side to side using them as hand holds and foot holds. Shrimp, knowing the drill, puts his pods in the clips on his vest and moves to the wall. Celine lifts him up slightly and he starts to scale the wall.

Thorn puff out his chest and moves forward, one foot turned to climb. “I’m glad we are able to work together boys and girls. This is more like it. You let them know this was my idea, right?”

Xan smiling, says loudly, “Completely all your idea, you know it!”

Celine, stretching slightly for the climb says under her breathe, “This guy is our leader?”

Within a few minutes Shrimp had reached the top and said there was some kind of narrow opening but it was dark inside it. The rest of us dangled from the wall at various heights, fairly comfortable with the climb. Climbing had become so routine in our training that Celine and I joked we could almost sleep vertical against a wall.

Author's Note

How is the story flow and logic?