Running Dry (2 page)

Quickly, I dip my towel into the water basin and wipe myself down using as little of the liquid gold as I can, stripping my clothes off as I go.  As I change, I catch a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror.  I avoid looking at my face and focus on my calves.   I smile at my toned legs, my best attribute.

On my way to school, I stop off at Buddy's, the little store on the corner, and use one of my water tickets on some Hydro Orange drink and buy a pack of Snarfs.  Once they are in my hand, I realize I'm starved from my run and I scarf down the dry wafers while kicking some trash down the sidewalk as I go.  I take a small sip from my drink and put it in my bag to save the rest for later. 

Reflecting on my morning, I just keep telling myself it will all work out.  I have to hold out hope that Zane will be one of the soldiers who gets assigned to the tunnels.  That's the only way I'll get to see him again.  It feels strange there's a chance he wouldn't be in my life.  He's always been there and I can't imagine that not being the case, so I just need to stay positive.  I know Zane certainly won’t.  He is a realist, for sure, but sometimes he can be a major pessimist.     

It's crazy that I'm more of an optimist, knowing how much I've lost, but you can't change who you are and I'm a runner.  It's in my blood.  My mom was a runner.  She died being a runner.  It's something I'm willing to die for too.  The thought of it makes everything better, no matter how hard my day might be.  It's so close now, I can hardly believe it. 

At school, I throw my bag in my locker.  Evy is doing the same, one locker over from me.  She's a spunky, short girl with a streak of orange in her already untamed curly, dark hair.  Her striped minidress hugs her small frame a little too tightly.  I see several boys eyeing her as we head down the hall to class.

"How was your visit with Zane this morning?" she asks.

"Okay.  He's doing well."

"Really?  He hasn't gotten the piss kicked out of him yet?"

"He didn't look like it."

"That's odd."

"Have you seen him?  I wouldn't mess with a guy who looks like that."

"I would, but it wouldn't be in a fight." Evy gives me an evil smirk.

"Gross, Ev."

"Oh, come on, Beks!  You know you would like to love wrestle with Zane, too."

"Love wrestle?  You are such a freak!"

"They don't call me Freaky Evy for nothing.  Hey...you didn't say no!"

"I would NOT love wrestle my best friend.  It would be like making out with your brother."

"Eww...why did you have to bring Alex into my love wrestling match?"

"You're gonna miss him, you know?"

"Yeah.  Whatever."

Alex is Evy's twin brother, which means when he turns eighteen, he will go where Zane is.  Evy and Alex don't get along that well, but they are both friends of mine and deep down, I know they really love each other.  In a lot of ways, they are similar to Zane and me.

We sit down on metal chairs with wooden tables that are carved up with more initials than people who likely make up the whole population of North Sacto.  Mr. Daniels is standing at the front of the class ready to go with his lecture. 

The rest of the students file into the room and the noise picks up before it gets quiet again. The class is full of kids in the same age bracket, known as a pod, because we will all take the exam during the same period, our eighteenth birthdays which are quickly approaching.  A few huffers fill in the back row, kicking the back of our chairs with their leather boots.  It sometimes surprises me they even bother coming to school, but if they don't they will end up on the streets which means no monthly water rations.  

"Alright, guys. Quiet down," Mr. Daniels says.  "Before we get started, I have a few announcements.  You will take your final exam next Monday, first thing in the morning.  Results will be posted the following Monday in the City Center.  So, we only have a few more days to work.  Let's get down to it."

My mind tunes Mr. Daniels out as I think about the final exam.  Everyone in the program takes the exam at the end of their schooling, when they turn eighteen.  It's a culmination of everything we've learned and it determines what our job assignment will be for the rest of our lives.  Those who ace it will work in Water, and the boys not chosen in that area will go through military training before being assigned. 

Our scores on the exam determine a lot about our placement, but there are other factors as well, such as our preferences and our parents' history in the program.  Everyone knows I will be a runner.  They all know about my parents' story.  After they were killed, the laws changed.  Runners were no longer allowed to marry or have children.  My dad was a tunnel guard and my parents fell in love and had me, and they say it distracted them from the thing they were supposed to be focusing on.  Water. 

Still, the exam is weighing heavy on me.  There are a lot of things to know and my whole life has led up to this.  There's so much at stake.  I've dreamed about running my whole life.  I want to know what it was like for my parents.  I was so young when they were killed that I can barely remember them anymore.  I want to experience what they did, feel the exhilaration my mom must have felt when she was running. 

Everything I've thought of, waited for my entire life, will be determined within the next few weeks.  I'll turn eighteen and become and adult, move to the runner's dorm and start my life.  And if Zane makes tunnel guard, I'll still get to have him with me.  It's everything I've wanted and it's finally here.  I'm so excited I can barely sit still in class.  

Zane

With my tray in hand, I look around the mess hall for a seat.  There's no reason to search out faces.  None of these guys are my friends.  They make certain to remind me of it while they are jabbing their fists into my ribcage during sparring practice. 

There's a half-empty table, so I sit down at the far end, alone, and focus on the food on my tray, a couple of protein bars and a glass of vitamin-enhanced water, which is something only given to military personnel, like it's a big perk.  They give you essential vitamins, you give your life.  Fair trade.  After I’ve been seated for a few minutes, my CO enters the mess, followed by some of the other guys from my squad who fill in the gaps around me at the table. 

"Brenner," I hear someone say near the middle of the long cafeteria table.

I don’t look up.

"Hey!  I’m talking to you."  I recognize the voice.  It's my CO.  His name is Devin Fulton, or Officer Fulton to me.  Can't very well dismiss him, so I slowly turn my eyes toward where he's sitting.

"Sir?" I ask.

"Who do you think would win in a fight between you and Private Harmond here?"

I glance at the guy seated next to him.  James Harmond, the biggest guy in my squad. 

"I don’t fight, sir," I say stiffly.

I hear laughs and snorts.

Officer Fulton says, "Yeah, well.  If you weren't such a pansy, who do you think would win?"

"Probably me," I say.

More laughter, this time it's mostly coming from Officer Fulton.

"You're pretty sure of yourself, huh?" he sneers.

"No, sir."  I look over at Harmond sitting next to Fulton.  He's trying to disappear into his protein bar. 

"What is it then, Brenner," Fulton stands up and comes directly behind me, "that makes you think you can take on a guy as big as Harmond over there?"

The rest of the squad has stood and moved in around me and my CO, waiting for my response, except Harmond.  He's still cowering, staring down his tray.  I don't want to tell them it's because I don't think Harmond has it in him.  He's a big ox of a guy, though more fat than muscle.  He's quiet and while most quiet guys seem like they might be a little off, mentally, I don't think that's the case with Harmond.  I think he's just a miserable sadsack, which I can relate to in a lot of ways.  In fact, if I had to pick someone I might actually want to be friends with in this squad, it would probably be Harmond.

"Nothing, sir.  Just a guess," I say instead.  There’s no way I'll get out of this cafeteria without something happening that will entertain the idiot masses, so I wait as calmly as I can until they get their jollies and I can go back to my bunk and try to block out the ugliness of humanity. 

"We want to see it, don’t we fellas?" Fulton taunts the crowd.  They are yelling and fist pumping now.

"I’m not going to fight him, sir," I say, twisting to look directly at my CO.

"Is that so?  Last time I checked, you don't get to make the decisions here, Brenner," he says.

The rest of the minions surrounding Fulton jeer and poke at me.  I can feel my face get hot, but I try to keep holding it together.  Not doing so will only make it worse for me, and for Harmond.  My eyes stay focused on Officer Fulton.  He is tall and lean, with elongated muscles stretched tight.  His face is covered in acne scars.  I remember him from school.  He was in Zander's pod.  He even came to our apartment on occasion to hang out with my brother.  What a bastard, this guy. 

We just stare down one another until everyone grows silent around us.  Finally he says, "Tomorrow night, after lights out.  You and Harmond will fight out in the yard."

"Fine," I say, and get up.  I exit the mess hall.  I've lost my appetite.

Chapter 3

Bekka

After school I tag along with Evy and a few others to Chuggers, the popular hang out for school aged kids.  It used to be a bar but now it's just a rundown snack joint with some tables.  There isn't much else to do in this city when you are in the program.  Your only options are to go to school or your job and stay out of trouble so you don't lose your monthly water allowance.   

The balding man who runs the place is behind the counter, talking with a couple of pluggers.  We have all sorts of goofy names for the various cliques in school.  Pluggers are the kids who are obsessed with electronics and computers.  They usually sit at the counter here because it’s the only place they can plug in their gadgets.  Apparently, you used to be able to get information from the sky, but that broke a long time ago when the water dried up, for some reason.  Now if you want to do whatever it is they do on the computer, you have to plug it in.  The junk on it is the same stuff we've all seen before: directories, rules for the residents of North Sacto, government approved games, and the like.   

Pluggers spend hours staring at screens, which isn't something I can understand.  It's very uninteresting to me.  I’d rather run and imagine real things that exist in real places, like over the ridge.  One of the pluggers looks up from his screen and catches my eye.  His name is Brandson.  I know him from school.  He smiles at me but has headphones on, so I smile back and mouth a hello to him as I walk past him.

Evy waves at the other thunks sitting at a tall table in the back corner as we make our way over to them. I don't really belong to a group, but since I’m with Evy I will be accepted to join in with the thunks.  They are punkers who are smart and consider themselves intellectual thinkers or think punks.  Thunks.  Again, not something I'm super interested in, and I certainly don’t look the part, but they're nice enough, even if they look crazy and intimidating. 

I never really worried about where I fit in before, because Zane and I always just made up our own group.  He technically could have fit in fairly well with the thunks, with his tattoos and dark clothes, but while he's a thinker, he's not much for sharing his thoughts, so he wasn't ever interested in being part of a larger social scene. 

I've never cared much for analyzing and don't really think too hard about my style either.  I go for comfort mostly, which is usually my running pants or shorts and a t-shirt.  I pull my dishwater blond, stick-straight hair back into a ponytail everyday. 

Alex comes in just as we sit down.  He's dark complected like his twin sister and is just as wild.  He has a curly mohawk and a nose piercing.  He's not bad looking and is extremely funny, which makes it confusing to me why I don't like him the way he likes me.

"Hey, Runner," he says to me. "What’s a nice girl like you doing hanging with a bunch of thunkers?"

"Hey, Alex," I say, smiling at him.

"I heard you saw Zane this morning."

I nod.

"How’s he?"

"Okay, I think.  Same Zane as the last time I saw him."

"That’s too bad."  Alex chuckles and puts his arm around me in a joking manner. "I mean, I was at least hoping the military would make him slightly less brooding."

"I don’t think so."  Alex and Zane have never particularly liked each other.  I change the subject.  "You know, they're going to make you shave that hair off."

"It’s a shame, too.  It's my best feature, next to my gorgeous eyes."  He does have nice, deep brown eyes with long dark lashes.   

"And that modesty is a pretty great trait, too," Evy interjects dryly, rolling her eyes at her twin.

A couple of huffers come in.  The volume increases because huffers are known for their aggressive attitudes.  They tend to be nasty, violent kids who like to fight and snort junk.  Most of them don't belong to the program and choose to live in the shadier areas of town.  They ride electric motorcycles and make money outside of the program, usually by black market sales, which often include homemade drugs.  Since they aren't in the program, they have to buy their water.