After Earth

Chapter 3: The Other Ones

          I simulated myself into the crowd with everyone else, trying to follow the physical training the best I could Most people were... doing something different, like lifting weights and using high-tech treadmills. I stood in front of it all like an observer, trying to find my place, and I was hopefully going to mingle with them. My arm that got shot was throbbing, so I knew that I didn't want to lift anything, and treadmills were just... uncomfortable. Before I had time to decide, a hand was suddenly on one of my shoulders. I turned my head to find the man that Nashi was talking to earlier, and he smiled. He seemed to hold himself well, and he pulled me along with Nashi and the other woman she had been talking to. They weren't doing what everyone else was. They were just... talking.
           Nashi introduced the man as Orgeti Nettles and the woman as Basha Atts. Orgeti was familiar to me from the news, but Basha was just another face. I wanted to trust Nashi, so I let myself loosen around them. According to Nashi this was our free period, and they weren't going to exercise or do drills if they didn't have to.
           "Oh, Orgeti is mute, by the way," Nashi said casually. "By choice, too, so he only talks when it's absolutely necessary."
             I knew that. From the news. We all just sat down in the corner and talked about what was to come. About the words of Agitit Nolam. Right now, I had no trust in him, but I couldn't exactly say that to my peers when I seemed to know everything. Well, not everything. I shook away my thoughts and talked about anything at all with them. Orgeti just listened and smiled at jokes that got passed around, and Basha made sure we were incredibly loud. I wasn't too sure Basha had a volume button.
            A few hours passed, and some of the supervisors came to tell us to shower and head home to our families. Families... Before I had even a fraction of a second to mope at the word, there was the sound of angry, concise steps headed towards us. Nashi gripped my arm as if to tell me that it was nothing, but I soon found Olman in my wake. His eyes were full of fury, and his body was full of sweat.
           "All of you are disgraceful!" he shouted It was much louder than Basha's voice. "We're here to set out upon the stars for the betterment of mankind, and all you're doing is fucking around like the world is as normal as it was fifty years ago! None of you should be allowed to be on this mission!"
            Basha laughed. "Are you just dragging us in because we're talking to el asesino? No offense, Olman, but we don't need to exercise to deal with stress. Idiota."
           Olman opened his mouth and closed it again before storming off into the showers. Basha laughed out in glee like a child, and Nashi praised her for it. Something was off with that guy, though I wasn't sure exactly what. It wasn't like I was going to get to talk to him for real, anyway, but I had to keep him on a list. I needed to make a list. I Orgeti tugged on me to go in the showers, and he made sure that no one like Olman was going to come and attack me.
            After our needed showers, they piled us on an old school bust that magically smelled of old erasers. It reminded me of childhood. Everyone got dropped off one-by-one, and Nashi and I got off before Basha or Orgeti did. We waved, and we soon walked our separate ways in the house. Immediately, I began searching for paper and pencil. There was an office next to Nashi's room that had a stack of it with a jar of pens. And a laptop that had been... opened. And the screen was on? My face dropped into a frown as I suspected one of our superiors must've been snooping through things. But that was a different subject. I pulled away a piece of paper and began writing names. All of the names of everyone that I knew, even Nolam.

 Agitit Nolam: Mad scientist? Kind of crazy and not my cup of tea. DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING.
Nashi Mati: A warm soul with a distant past. I'd like to know more about her.
Olman Bada: Angry old man. Hates me for some reason.
Orgeti Nettles: I like him :)
Basha Atts: So loud.

         Below all of those names, I wrote my own name. For a moment, I paused. Then I wrote something that I wasn't sure would come true.

Tayas Votipae: I'll see you again soon.

          Whether that was true or not, I sat back and realized that maybe Olman was right in some way. We were going beyond the stars. We were becoming heroes that were going to save mankind whether we wanted to or not. Alaxier Ornerve may not have known that when he started his journey either, but he was out there. On Attas. I pulled my paper away and shoved it under my mattress carefully. The words were going to mean something. I was going to make sure of that.
            I walked back downstairs feeling the urge to escape. Nashi was cooped up in her room with some music coming from somewhere, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to bother her. And then I saw the pool. The window was behind the couch in the living room, and there was nothing moving within it but a jet. How long had it been since I had seen a pool filled that spectacularly with water so clear? Was I eighteen? Oh god, I was getting old.
             I walked out onto the porch where I found the pool's plaza. There were lounge chairs, a fire pit, a grill, and even a changing room. I dipped my right foot in the glowing water. It was... comfortable. The pool was heated, and the cold was setting in my bones. Suddenly, I decided. I took my shirt off and jumped in.
             I had forgotten what this felt like. I was eighteen when they started shutting down public pools, and it was just a few months after Acki was born that they stopped people from wasting water altogether. Water came in rations, and our water usage was tracked and tested. I was never sure how Rentie felt about that. She kept to herself most of the time when it came to our rations. Slowly, I began swimming around the perimeter with no real destination. With no thought.
               This wasn't fair. Acki had to live with my mother in Arizona where the world was falling apart and he had nothing. I had everything. Food, a pool, a bedroom to my fucking self. Acki deserved it. Not me. He deserved to go to Attas, and I knew he always dreamed about it. He wanted to be a "star man". Not me.
              Never me.
              I gasped for air and ducked my head under the water. I swam all the way to the bottom and sat down like a sunken rock. I could only be down here for a minute. But I needed to cool off in this heated water. How did people not get mad at themselves when they had this much time to think over the consequences? I shouldn't have the time. I should've been dead.
             I sighed and let go of my breath. All of it. I immediately began swimming upwards to catch air, but something lurched. My stomach began to hurt like I had just been punched in the guy, and I paused. There was no breath left in me. I had to reach the surface. However, instead of holding what breath I had, I breathed in the water. Salt... water? It burned going in, but it came out... just fine. I was breathing water. I was...
             I surfaced and coughed and found a stranger at the edge of the pool. I immediately swam away from the edge to fend for myself, but then I noticed. Orgeti...? He held a hand out towards me, the silver reflecting off of his eyes. I grabbed on and lurched out into the freezing air.
             "What did you want?" I asked through chattering teeth.
               I didn't expect and answer, but he cleared his throat. "You might want to be somewhere warmer. You'll freeze out here."
              "I thought-"
               He put a finger to his lips. "Do not talk so loud. I'll go quiet real quick if you grab your housemate's attention."
              He looked back and forth for a second before turning back to look at me. He scanned me up and down before placing a hand on my chest. So warm. All of a sudden, his hand began to glow a bright yellow. It came from within my chest, and he held it in his hands like it was something that could be broken. I started to lose feeling in my hands as if the cold was getting to them. I picked up my shirt, and I put it on to see if I could last a little bit longer out here.
              "Kaiglanr," Orgeti yelled out. There was no one else out here. There was something metal in his ear.
              "He's normal. Just like everyone else. No one here has what you say," Orgeti growled.
                I heard the voice coming from the other end. "Well, you're still a valuable asset. Ruin them."
               Orgeti turned to me and slammed my chest with the yellow ball. I tripped over my own foot and fell into the pool. Under the water. The water went into my lungs so easily, but I did not cough it up. It came and went, and Orgeti's distorted figure disappeared into the darkness.
               There was something more sinister to his silence.