Half an hour later, Stacey was wearing a uniform and standing in line with the girls who had been separated from the boys. They stood in two rows. Stacey was at the back where the doctor was taking her blood pressure and strapping a pulse monitor onto her wrist.
"What's this?" the doctor tapped the watch on Stacey's left wrist.
"A wristwatch," Stacey said.
"Really?" the doctor raised his eyebrows. "I've never seen a watch face like this before."
"I seem to be able to read this but not any of the usual clocks," Stacey told him.
"Interesting," the doctor stroked his chin. "Very interesting."
Stacey twitched her nose at the black plastic wristband he had put on her right wrist. It looked remarkably like a digital watch or fitness band.
"I'll be here on standby, just in case," he told her. "Do what you can but no need to push yourself to the limit. Wave at me if you need me. Oh. Mel and Telea are here to start the session. Pay attention."
Stacey faced front while Melesse addressed the trainees in Tadpole. She frowned, not comprehending anything.
"We're going to work on our cardiorespiratory fitness today," Telea interpreted. Her voice beside Stacey made her jump. She hadn't noticed when Telea had come to stand beside her. Telea smiled and patted her shoulder to calm her down. "We'll be singing while we do our exercises today to work on our lung capacity and control. First up is eight laps around the premises. Later, we'll move on to the set exercises in the training ground and swap places with the boys there while they do their running." Telea winked at Stacey. "You might not know any of these songs but it's a good opportunity for you to learn them."
Stacey wrinkled her nose. It wasn't just going to be physical exercise for her. It would be mental exercise as well.
At first, she listened to the song while she learned the tune and the rough sound of the Tadpole words. Zanity, Chastity and Vera stayed by her, correcting her lyrics and pronunciation while they jogged and sang. They kept pace with her and slowly became separated from the rest of the girls running ahead of them. With them were a few other girls who were also still recuperating from battle injuries.
"You girls at the back. Keep up," Melesse shouted at them.
"You girls go ahead and join the others," Telea told the trio who were by Stacey's side. "You still need to train properly. I'll stay with Stacey and the others here."
Stacey gasped while she continued to stumble along. Her fitness was really bad compared to the other girls. Even the other injured girls were gradually leaving her behind. How were they all still so fit?
"You don't have to sing anymore," Telea told the slow group she was leisurely strolling beside. "You just need to try and make it through all eight laps."
When Stacey fell behind even this group of girls, Telea stayed with her. After her fourth lap, the doctor waved her over to take a rest and he checked her blood pressure. He checked every few minutes until he was satisfied. Stacey was given a few sips of a drink and then sent back out onto the running track.
Telea had rejoined the other injured girls to encourage them on. This time, Imiliana had been sent to run beside her.
"You're so slow," Imiliana complained while she jogged beside Stacey. "How are you supposed to get anywhere with such awful physical fitness? You can't even understand any Tadpole. I'm kind of regretting coming now. If I'd known you were such a dunce, I would have insisted Papa get me into the program as another trainee or something. Why did he get me such a stupid job? I can't believe he called me to say that I'm supposed to wait on you like a servant. Not the other way around. Are you worthy? Just look at your figure and the way you run. You even walk like a cripple."
Imiliana kept up a running commentary full of disparaging remarks and ridicule without losing breath while Stacey struggled to keep her leaden legs moving and ignore her. Stacey didn't have the breath to retort.
When the doctor waved at Stacey to take another break two laps later, Stacey waited until she got her breath back. Then she spoke to Imiliana.
"If you can't do the job you were employed for," Stacey told her, "you can go back home."
"You can't fire me," Imiliana scoffed. "You don't have the right or the authority. I'm here until the program finishes. What you say doesn't count."
"Fine. Do what you want. Let me run on my own," Stacey pointed. "I don't need your company while I run."
"Finally. That's more like it," Imiliana lifted her nose. "It's not like I want to keep a dunce like you company anyway. I'm going to go join the other girls from a distance. You can just take your time blowing like a pregnant sow."
Imiliana ran off, while Stacey returned to the running track. The girls had swapped with the boys already, and the boys overtook Stacey on their run. For some reason, Stacey anticipated some boys to slow down and keep her company. She remembered she had some friends among them. But then she remembered they weren't here. The ones who had been her friends were gone.
From what she remembered, she had only been close with three of them. One was dead, one had lost a leg and one had gone home to recuperate. Somehow she felt bad. Guilty. As if their injuries had been her fault. Had it been her fault? Thinking about them gave her a headache.
The more she thought about them, the worse the headache got. Her neck muscles grew tight and her breathing became even more disordered. Her skin prickled with discomfort and sweat suddenly poured out to soak her already slightly damp clothes. She stumbled and rubbed her blurry eyes, wondering why she couldn't see properly.
Worried people quickly ushered her off the running track to sit on the grass. Then they lay her down, because she kept swaying. Stacey shut her eyes while the doctor quickly took her vital measurements again. She was fed a few pills and told to close her eyes and rest. Stacey lay beneath a shade that they erected over her and tried to focus on her breathing. She forgot what she had been thinking about and with the forgetting, came the easing of the headache.
When she woke up again, Stacey found herself lying on a picnic rug and covered with a blanket. In the distance, she could hear the sounds of all the trainees singing a counting song while they performed exercises in the training yard. Sitting up, she stretched and yawned.
"You're awake," grinned a boy with sharp canines and dark hair who was sitting to her right. His green eyes gleamed. He held out a packet of crispy fried fish snacks. "Want some?"
"Huh?"
The boy took her hand and opened it. A few of the little fish were placed in Stacey's palm.
"I'm Felix," grinned Felix. "Try them. They're good. They'll help you replenish your salt."
Stacey put a few in her mouth and raised her eyebrows. They really weren't bad. They were crispy and salty and not as fishy as they smelled. They even seemed a bit sweet. They were far lighter and not as dense as Stacey had expected from a dried fish snack.
"They're good, right?" Felix nodded in satisfaction at Stacey's expression.
"Here, try this too!" A boy on Stacey's other side stuffed a piece of dried meat into Stacey's hand. "Beef jerky! Original flavour! Much better than Felix's fish."
"He's Canis," Felix reclined back, lying down to prop himself up on an elbow and jerked a thumb at the golden haired boy with big brown eyes.
Both these teenagers were quite cute. Cute in a way Stacey couldn't quite put her finger on. She also didn't recall seeing them amongst the male trainees earlier or in any videos. Who were they? Just two random locals who had snuck in? Were they a part of the staff? But if they were, surely they'd look a bit more familiar.
"We're locals," Felix yawned and stretched, smiling at Stacey's puzzled expression. "Just came to visit. We're your fans. They left you alone, so we came to make sure you were alright."
"Don't tell anyone we were here," Canis held a finger to his lips while checking to make sure there was no one else around. "We just wanted to meet you! You're kind of famous!"
"Ah," Stacey nodded. "Yes."
"Try the beef jerky," Canis urged.
Stacey tried it. It wasn't bad either.
The boys fed her their snacks in turns, passing her the drink bottle that had been left by her side every now and then.
Felix glanced up at the sun and the shadows on the ground after a few minutes. Then he peered over his shoulder from where he was lounging on the gras, wriggling his nose as if smelling something.
"We gotta go now," he stood up, brushing grass off his clothes.
Canis jumped up and sniffed. He scowled and then turned to Stacey with a happy expression. For some reason, he reminded her of a dog. An excitable dog who like to talk with exclamations.
"It was nice meeting you! We'll see you another time!"
"Thanks for the snacks and company," Stacey smiled and waved
The two boys ran off.
"Anytime," Felix called over his shoulder.
Stacey folded the blanket that had been covering her and stood up. A wave of tiredness and dizziness overwhelmed her. Her head throbbed. Maybe she'd overdone the exercise earlier? It hadn't been that much, had it?
She felt a bit better now. Perhaps she should go and join the others in the training yard.
Stacey picked up the drink bottle and then paused, closing her eyes. The dizziness had started again after she'd bent over.