The World Which Is

“Leave the door open?” Josie says with a chuckle as she sits on my bed. “What does your dad think we’ll get up to if it’s closed?”

A flash of an image, and shove that way in the back of my mind before it resolves itself completely. Her dark skin against mine and—

Nope. Definitely not the time, so I shrug.

“How are you handling your… imprisonment?”

I shrug again. “Been using the time to work on my build.”

“Must be discouraging; all those abilities that have nothing to do with protecting the town.”

I almost tell her there’s enough there, but the house’s small and dad might hear. This is definitely not how I want him to find out.

So, I shrug again. “I have skills.”

“Are you going to have time to train them? Farming is a lot of work, from what I hear. Harry’s always complaining about not having time to have fun. My cousin,” she adds at my frown. “I don’t think you met him. His mother sent to him to Willowburry’s farm.”

“Didn’t he know what he was getting into when he picked his class?”

“He wasn’t planning on that. Like both of us, he wanted to be a guard, but Mister Willowburry did a favor to his mom a while back, and that’s how he collected. Hey, maybe you’ll be at a farm close to his and you two can share in your misery.”

She sounds too happy about that. How angry will dad be if I ask base to close my door? Angrier than I want to deal with, that’s for sure. “Dad only sent out letters to a few of them today. Don’t remember which ones.”

She nods. “It’s going to suck not having you around.” Does she sound sad?

“I am going to be around.”

“You know what I mean.” She looks at me, then away. “We won’t get to hang out and train. We’ll be lucky if you’re in town once a month.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can talk some sense…” yeah, finishing that isn’t going to get him on my side. “I’m sure my dad will be reasonable. After all, he’s among those who keep telling me that my class doesn’t define me.”

“I hope so.”

The silence stretches.

“When’s your choosing day?” I ask to fill it and her disbelieving look makes my face burn. I know it’s in three days, I just… “Sorry.”

“You think your dad will let you come?”

“Of course. He knows how important it is.” How much I want to be there with you.

Where did that come from?

“You ever wonder what the future’s going to be like?” I ask, because I want something safer to talk about.

“Protecting the town, holding back the monster waves. A family.” She has a dreamy expression.

“Any thought on who you’ll build that with?” wasn’t this supposed to be a safe subject?

“A guard, of course,” she replies without hesitation. “We’re going to have strong kids who’ll be guards just like us.”

Oh. Does she mean he’s going to have to have a guard class? Or… come on, Dennis… you’re the one who brought this up. “I… hope it’s not Kyle.”

Way to go.

She snorts, at least. “Him? No way. For one thing, I doubt he’d able to tell no to any girl who bats her eyes at him. My guy will be able to resist the advances of anyone who isn’t me.”

Unlike me, who said yes to an asshole just because he breathed in my ear and I thought he’d promised me…

I didn’t have anyone then; I was allowed to…

I still don’t have anyone.

“You think…”

She looks at me and… man are her eyes nice. Such a vibrant green. Unlike Rich’s deep and mysterious—nope. You aren’t bothering me here. I’m with Josie, she’s who I’m looking at and thinking about and—

“System to Dennis, System to Dennis, you in there?” she asks with a chuckle.

“Sorry, my mind wandered where I didn’t want it to.”

“Oh, really?” her smile is all mischievous and stuff

“Not there, I wouldn’t think of you like that.” Liar.

Shut up.

“Just that Rich popped in my head and—”

“How was he?” she asks in an eager whisper, leaning in.

“I—” his smile, full of promises, his touch sending shivers up my back. “He’s an asshole,” I say forcefully.

“But did he?” she whispers, “you know.”

“No,” I say, my tone offended, while feeling hurt that she’d think I’d let someone like him… that he never did that with…

Why is this so complicated?

“You mean he didn’t take you there to… you know?”

“He implied it was, then he left me to die,” I stated. “I don’t know how those stories about him being all cool and stuff spread, but he’s nothing like that. I mean, he’s really good at fighting. He took on a Ramthom by himself and barely exerted himself, but that doesn’t make him a good guy.”

“You saw him fight?” she asks, eyes wide.

“Yeah… I…” I sigh. “Remember when I told you someone rescued me from a Ramthom?”

She nods, then her eyes grow wider. “It was him? Why didn’t you say that? You have any idea how it would have impressed Kyle?”

“I don’t need to impress Kyle. He’d have probably bragged about how Rich taught him moves just to ‘still be the best’. And Rich asked me not to tell. Something about him not supposed to be here or something.”

“Wow, Rich saved you, and then you went out with him.”

“I didn’t go out with him. He talked me into letting him try to kill me.” I lock eyes with her. “There’s a big difference.”

“And you’re sure you and him didn’t… I’ll get it if you don’t want to say, considering what he did after, but—”

“No,” I reply in exasperation. “Nothing happened. He’s just empty promises to get you to do what he wants.”

“Isabel got to—”

“No, she didn’t,” I cut her off. Harsher than I should have?

“She told me she did,” she replies, offended.

“Base says that Rich isn’t interested in girls.”

“And you know that how, Base?” She asks the ceiling.

“I know enough about him to know that much,” Base replies. “And that’s all I’ll say on the subject. I won’t be responsible for you kids starting rumors about him.” There’s the click of him ‘leaving’. If he isn’t in a mood to tell us he’s gone, that’s his signal. Not that he’s actually gone; we are inside his walls. But short of an emergency, he’s not going to respond to us calling his name.

The silence falls again, and this time I’m not sure I want to fill it. I definitely don’t want her to ask about Rich again.

“I should probably head home,” Josie says, then stands.

I accompany her to the door. “Thanks for visiting.”

She nods. “I hope to see you when I make my choice.”

“I’ll be there.”

And she leaves.

I turn, and dad’s looking at me with a severe expression. He’s probably not happy I made a promise without checking if he’d let me out of the house by then.

“I’ll be able to go, right?” I ask, kind of on the meek side.

“When it is?”

“Three days. She’s going to make her choice at the command center, so I won’t have to step outside Base’s walls.”

He nods, which basically just means he’s heard me.

“I’m glad you feel how you do about Richard,” he states, then heads for his room.

Great. He’s going to leave me hanging.

* * * * *

When I get to the kitchen, there’s a message on the fridge in dad’s typed font.

Dennis, I thought it over.

You are allowed out of the house, but I have left strict orders with Base not to let you exit his walls. Do not test me on this, Dennis.

I wipe an eager hand over the text, and it vanishes. Then I access the cupboard and get myself pancakes with butter and maple syrup and a cold glass of orange juice.

I have so many plans for today.

“Base,” I call as I put my jacket on. “I need a place out of sight of anyone with a wall I can climb.”

“You’re going to train?”

“I need a full handle on how my Momentum works. I hurt myself pretty bad getting out of where Rich threw me in because I didn’t understand it properly.”

“I thought you got your class after you got yourself out of the hole.”

Right. I didn’t tell him the whole story.

So I do as he guides me to a ‘back area’ of his.

* * * * *

Base’s walls are twenty meters tall, twice the height of the city walls. Looking up at it, I can’t help feel like I’m looking up from the bottom of the power station again. A shiver runs down my back at the memory of that fall. At least this doesn’t have any pegs and poles as obstacles, although he can add that, when I decide running around obstacles is what I need to train.

I’m in the more industrial part of Base. The way things work for him, he needs to have the machines that let him do everything he does. And they can’t be internal, they have to take space within his walls to work. He also can’t house them inside a building where he makes more space for them. It all has to be in the open.

There’s no reason for it, Base told me, other than the system dictates it.

And even though the sound they make is minimal, and the smells basically non-existent—the leather shop stinks a whole lot more—hardly anyone comes here, it seems.

“Okay, to start with the simple stuff.”

I stand away from the wall, then run at it. My foot and hand are on it, then my other, and I’m running straight up. Unlike when I ran up at an angle, instead of a hand staying against the wall as I moved, I’m basically running on all fours up it.

My grin only falters as I see the end of the wall approach, memories of my fall and how much that hurt. At least here, I have Base to catch me if I fall.

I put a hand on the top, kick up and I’m over the inside parapet. I land on the battlement and smile again.

“Dennis,” Base warns as I step to the other side and look out over my city.

From here, its shapes of buildings divided by roads. People are not quite dots closer to the wall, but as soon as I look away, they get lost in the visual noise. I lean against the parapet and admire Court.

“Err,” someone says, and I look over at the watchman—the mayor insists they walk Base’s wall the same way they walk the city walls—who stepped out of the stairwell Base provides for them. “How did you get up here?”

“I ran,” I reply and go back to looking over the city. I feel his eyes on me as he walks past, but he doesn’t comment.

I am going to do my part to keep Court safe.

That means mastering my abilities, getting the right set of skills, and telling my dad.

Right, well, like that song in Base’s library says; ‘Two out of three ain’t bad.’