Zoe looked up, relieved to see Ivy dropping back towards the middle of the group to find her. She didn't want to seem like a burden by going to Ivy first.
"It's going to be tough to win this thing," said Ivy once she found Zoe in the crowd.
"I'm not worried about winning; I just want to finish in time," Zoe said through controlled breaths.
"Well, we gotta get to the front first."
"I don't think we need to push it right away. Most of these guys push too hard during these long races and will tire themselves fairly quickly."
Ivy looked like she wanted to protest, but nodded and kept pace with Zoe.
The first part of the course was not very difficult; ropes dangled from atop a wooden wall; they needed to shimmy up them, reach the top, and use another rope to descend back down to the ground on the other side. They had to army crawl in a sandpit, then jump from rocky platform to rocky platform.
Zoe's plan was already coming to fruition as some kids had already exhausted themselves and were lagging far behind the duo, as they kept up a casual running pace.
Reiza didn't pace herself as she usually would for an exercise of this length; instead, she moved as if she were doing a short sprint. Her friend, Mason, was a bit ahead of her as he usually was. He was tall, several inches taller than Ivy, with tan skin and a toned build, wavy dark brown hair, and three lines shaved into his right eyebrow. Being the same age as Reiza.
Soon, they both reached a part of the course that few had ever attempted. They had to crawl under low and sharp razor nets. After that, they had to dive deep underwater beneath a massive divide in the middle of a pool, all while swimming against a current. Beyond the pool, a tall scalable wall, then a long drop into a pit, where the runner would need to land on horizontal rods spanning the width of said pit, balancing and jumping from rod to rod, reaching the other side.
"Well, after you," Reiza said with a mischievous grin, gesturing at the weaved razor wire.
Mason returned the grin and dove under the net, sliding a few feet and doing his best not to get cut by the impossibly low wire. He gritted his teeth and smiled through the pain; he chanted his mantra in his head, 'Legacy! Legacy! Legacy!' He glanced back, a few other colonists a few minutes behind them; Reiza was hissing with pain as she crawled under the net; unlike him, she wasn't as careful, and the back of her white t-shirt was torn. The white slowly blushed the faster she scrambled through.
He ran back towards the net, taking his shirt off and wrapping it around his hand. He lifted up part of the heavy net using his bound hand so Reiza could crawl to the end with less difficulty.
Putting her hand on her back, she brought back a red glove, cursing under her breath as she'd have to go to the nurse after this was over. "Thanks," she said as they sprinted side by side. She looked back, scoffing to herself; no other colonists had entered the razor net yet. 'We can definitely win this!'
Mason noticed the confident smile on her face, asking, "what's so funny?"
"Look at those losers back there. They've got no chance against us."
"Losers, huh?" His smile changed to a frown, and he looked forward. "You don't have to be like that."
"Chill," she let the word expand with ironic deliberation, "I'm just joking."
"Okay."
They reached the pool, and Mason jumped in without missing a beat. Reiza skidded to a stop and caught her breath, looking back to see Ivy and Zoe, who had just come into view, though still several sections behind. Zoe looked slightly winded, while Ivy barely broke a sweat. Reiza gritted her teeth and flipped into the water.
The first thing she felt was her back felt like it was on fire, the chlorine in the water making it feel like she had hot coals placed on her back. Once the bubbles cleared, she saw Mason pushing against the current about fifteen feet beneath her. Mason had always been a more competent swimmer than she was, and if he was struggling, this wouldn't be as easy as she thought.
She went to the surface, took three deep breaths to expand her lungs, and exploded downwards towards the underwater concrete divider. There was about a seven-foot gap between the bottom of the pool and the partition; the wall descended fifteen feet below the water's surface.
Making the least amount of movements possible, she glided towards the bottom. She opened her eyes, the chlorine in the water burned as she did so, but she noticed Mason's movements growing slower. The further she got, she saw him start to thrash around, and the look of panic on his face was clear, 'He's run out of oxygen.' She continued to glide towards the bottom; she glanced to the side, noticing his desperate movements to push himself under the divider.
'The only reason I'm doing this is so that I won't owe you for helping me back there. You'll owe me a lot for saving your life, though.' The thought brought a smile to her face as she grabbed ahold of his arm, and together they swam to the divider and used it as leverage to push themselves through the current and to the other side of the pool. Thump, thump. The sound of two people breaking the water's surface behind them. Reiza instantly let go of Mason and pushed herself to swim to the top.
Mason started sputtering and coughing as he broke the surface of the water. He looked around and noticed Reiza was already climbing out of the pool; she started running again without looking back.
The sound of those two splashes in the pool made her blood boil, 'we don't have much time left, and I'm not failing because of her!'
She fell from the wall, landing perfectly on the small horizontal rods that lay across an open pit. She wheeled her arms for a few seconds trying to catch her balance.
Mason gritted his teeth as he sprinted towards the wall. If he didn't know any better, it would seem as if the course builder expected them to walk up the wall. There was no way any average or even an athletic person could scale the smooth wall.
Submerged deep under the water, Ivy and Zoe had just gone under the wall and were heading for the surface. Ivy had a tight grip on Zoe's wrist, and the two launched themselves out of the water like two torpedoes.
"We should be a little over halfway," Zoe said once they reached land. The psychosomatic feeling; it was as if her skin were on fire. She'd always hated water.
Mason had caught up to Reiza, who had stopped with her hands on her knees, catching her breath. Ahead of them, an open circle with six-foot walls, two entrances opposite each other. Inside the circle, several spinning gray circular platforms bouncing randomly off each other and the walls. The sound of metal grinding together whenever the objects collided was almost excruciating. He rushed past her and jumped on one of the moving platforms. She followed closely behind him, noting the patterns of the platform's obtuse movements.
Jumping off the moving platforms, they hit the ground running. They dodged swinging pendulums, jumping from spinning blades, holding on to a rope for dear life as they swung over a bottomless tiger pit.
Reiza's lungs were burning as she was doing the most dangerous and difficult acrobatics of her life. If either Mason or Reiza was doing this alone, they both would've died several times over; instead, it seemed like one had to save the other from certain death every ten seconds.
After climbing up a steep rock face, Reiza's arms and legs seemed to give out underneath her as she crashed face-first into the ground. Mason turned around at the noise, his face red and sweaty. He bent down and tried to pick her up to her feet. His legs wobbled under her weight, and he too fell.
After what seemed like hours of them lying on the ground, breathing heavily and staring up at the skylight, Reiza attempted to move, though her legs felt as if all the blood had been drained from them and filled with cement. The only thing audible for her was the pumping of blood in her ears and her deep and dry breaths.
Mason had seen her move, and he attempted to get up himself, rolling over on his stomach and getting in a pushup position. 'Legacy!'
'Screw it!' She thought, closing her eyes and concentrating. She steadied her breathing, feeling a light tingly sensation spread throughout her body. A warm breeze flowed around her. Effortlessly, she jumped to a standing position.
Mason's eyes widened with shock. "Reiza! Don't!" He pushed himself to his feet, hobbling over to her, and put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't...do...it," between ragged breaths.
"I have to!" She gasped, her eyes filled with desperation as a low vibrational hum emanated from her body.
"REIZA!" A voice boomed so loudly that it echoed from every wall. Everyone on the course clamped their hands over their ears at the harsh noise.
Silas stood on the ground, his eyes ablaze with anger. Even though he was far away, she still felt his eyes bore into hers. It was as if all movement had stopped for that brief second.
"Keep going," said Reiza as she lurched past Mason.
Mason took a few steps and fell back down on his hands and knees. His arms shook from exertion as he started to crawl toward Reiza. 'If I can't walk, I'll crawl! Don't give up! It's just mind over matter.'
Reiza took it one step at a time; all her adrenaline had left her at this point as she walked down the slope of the rock wall to the next obstacle.
Entering a square hallway with a slow strobing red light, she used the black walls as support, slowly picking up her speed with every step, hearing the labored breathing of Mason behind her. He had managed to get to his feet and did the same thing she was. The whole tunnel slowly sloped down further and further the deeper they got. After a sharp right turn at the end of the tunnel, the ending was in sight.
At this time, the sun was directly overhead, its rays shining through the skylight of the warehouse. She let her eyes adjust and saw that beyond the remaining traps and obstacles was…
"The finish line," said Mason, a large smile on his face as he walked forwards. With victory so close, his body seemed to move on its own. His hobble turned into a walk, which turned into a jog, then a dead sprint. It wasn't anywhere close to his starting speed, but he knew he would make it.
Reiza wavered at the end of the tunnel. A light smile slowly crossed her face. She turned, hearing an odd sound. Muffled mumbling was echoing through the tunnel.
Just as Reiza turned to face the tunnel, two blurs blitzed by her on either side. Ivy and Zoe sprung from the tunnel's exit. The bright grin on Zoe's face mirrored Ivy's when she saw the finish line in the distance.
"Two minutes!" Silas yelled.
'NO!' Reiza screamed in her head as she pushed off the ground with as much force as she could muster. In front of her were the two girls, and beyond them was Mason. The sound of several footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind them. Reiza had gone from first place to second and then to fourth place in a matter of seconds.
Mason was a quarter of the way up the steep hill on which the finish line was. It was so steep that it forced him to bear-crawl up the side. They made the entire hill from light sand, which caused Mason to almost slip many times. The hot sand stuck to his tan skin as he scrambled up the mound.
To Zoe, the finish line resembled a massive anthill with a flag on top. She was a few yards behind Ivy, who had poured on the speed, using everything she had to get to the top.
Ivy was moving so fast that she ran a ways up the dune without needing to bear crawl.
Mason heard the pounding of sand behind him as he strained harder and harder to get there. Every muscle in his body burned and ached. 'Just ten some odd yards! Don't. Give. Up.'
Reiza had caught up to Zoe, who had exhausted herself a while back and could barely keep up with Ivy, despite having paced herself through the whole course. Hands digging deep into the sand, they climbed.
Mason was three yards away from the finish line; Ivy was a few feet behind him. He heard her impacts in the sand slowly speed up as she pushed forward.
"Thirty seconds!"
A few other colonists had just made it to the base of the hill and frantically climbed, while most of the others hadn't made it to the tunnel.
Mason noticed Ivy gaining on him out of the corner of his eye. Lunging forward, reaching the top of the slope, he collapsed behind the finish line, lying face first on the ground. Ivy finished a second later, catching her breath and leaning against the flagpole, her vision dancing in front of her.
Reiza finished third with Zoe getting there a few seconds later. With an exhausted gait, Zoe walked over to Ivy and collapsed near her feet.
Reiza scowled at Ivy and walked back toward the edge of the hill to look down at the people climbing. There were about ten people; most kids still hadn't made it to the tunnel.
"Good job!" Mason smiled, and walked over to Ivy with an outstretched hand.
"Yea, you too!" Ivy said between breaths, shaking his hand.
"I didn't expect you to finish with us. You're a lot better than I thought," moving over to Zoe, whose already red face turned even redder as she shook his hand but averted her eyes.
"Uh, thanks," she mumbled, noticing Ivy staring at her with an odd look.
The colonists on the hill collapsed on the spot when they finally made it up.
"Say, it's been way longer than thirty seconds, right?" Ivy said, looking around for the instructor.
"Yea, you're right. Where'd Silas go?" Mason said, his eyes exploring the large warehouse.
A heavy thump was heard as an object careened into the ground behind them, causing sand to fly everywhere. When it settled, Silas stood there, a proud smile on his face. Was it Zoe's imagination, or were there tears in his eyes?
"You all surprised me today. I never thought I'd ever say this to any of you kids—especially after this morning…but good job. You worked hard today." He looked down at Ivy, who still had her hands on her knees, catching her breath, 'This girl is a monster. It'll be interesting to see her growth and where she'll end up.'
After it was concluded, the instructor told Ivy that she needed to go find Neph after their breakfast, as all the other colonists had breakfast a few hours ago at the regular time.
After taking a shower, Ivy and Zoe met up and had breakfast. Ivy stacked as many pancakes as she could on the tray, leaving Zoe mystified. Her stomach growled the whole time as she waited to eat.
Afterward, she found Neph in his cabin, joined by the head nurse of the colony. He had her take an education level test, an IQ test, and a fitness test. The nurse found that Ivy was healthy and fit for her age. She remarked how Ivy was possibly in the top percentile of athletic ability and could be a good look for the colony. She stated, "excellent math skills, higher than average reading, science, and history are low, and she knows no other language. Ivy's surpassed our 125 IQ minimum, with a high bodily-kinesthetic intellect to boot! She looks like us, and since she's so young, it wouldn't take long for her to assimilate—no corruption to our culture. If it were up to me, I'd say she's a keeper."
Ivy left the cabin and walked toward her dorm. While she was walking, Reiza spotted her from a ways away.
"What do you think about her?" She asked a friend while nodding in Ivy's direction. They both stood, leaning over the railing outside one of the student colonist houses—having dull pink walls, and logos of designer brands plastered all along its outside.
"She alright, I guess," the guy shrugged, "Never talked to her, but she seems chill, though."
"I kinda hate her," Reiza grimaced while picking at the chipped paint on her nails.
Her friend gave her a strange look. "Really?" He said, half laughing.
"You saw her this morning. She's such a try-hard for no reason," Reiza spat.
He shrugged, "Maybe? I'm not really tripping about it."
When Ivy returned to Zoe's room, she showed her the test results. "I think I did good," she said, handing the paper to Zoe, who nervously scanned the files.
"Wow." was all Zoe could say. 'I knew that Ivy isn't dumb; maybe a bit silly and pretty naive, but I'm impressed.' She thought while staring at the intellect section of her papers. "Since you scored so high, you could end up in one of my or Colson's classes. I'm sure that we're in the same age group. Probably one of our core classes at least..." Thinking, 'I hope she does; it would be nice to have a friend in at least one class.'
"We're the same age, aren't we?"
Zoe thought for a moment, "For you, my age would be eleven. But in Crater, I'm twelve."
"Really? Why?"
"Yes. From what I've read anyway, outside of Crater and its offspring, they start counting your age when you're born."
The trio, Zoe, Ivy, and Colson hung out for the rest of the day until dinner. The two show Ivy around the town of Crater, the street markets, the southeastern houses that all seemed to string together to create a maze, the library, and the farming houses on the very edge of Crater.
Colson had never seen Zoe as talkative with someone she had only just met.