Slavers of the Savage Catacombs (14 page)

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-FOUR

As the day dragged on, Ran started feeling the effects of little sleep. The pickax grew heavier with each swing. The cart became more and more unstable each time he had to push its contents to the conveyor belt. Even the air grew ever more humid and stifling. It was as if Ran were moving in slow motion, and there was little he could do to make himself feel better.

Sleep deprivation had been one of the things that the elders back at the Nine Daggers clan in Gakur had stressed could easily happen on assignments. Various environments and conditions would no doubt affect how a shadow warrior worked. As such, operatives had to be trained to deal with it.

Ran remembered the day he had walked into one of the classrooms high in a tower. He and four other students had been called there earlier than normal. When he arrived, Ran found the other students already there and one of the instructors, Eijiro, waiting for Ran.

“We’ve discussed before how you can never quite plan for every contingency that may arise in the course of a mission. Sometimes, things will happen and you may well wonder why they did. The universe, after all, plays a role in our lives and missions—whether we wish it did or not. As we are not yet able to bend the universe to our will, we must endeavor to be ready for anything that comes our way. That is the purpose behind today’s lesson. You five are going to go through something that very few other people outside of the clan would ever think about willfully doing. But since we are not ordinary people, we hold ourselves to different standards. We do the things that others do not.”

One of Ran’s classmates raised his hand. “What is the lesson, Master Eijiro?”

Eijiro grinned as he walked around the students. “Did everyone have a good sleep last night?”

The students murmured and agreed they all had. Eijiro seemed pleased by this. “Excellent. Then you are starting this assignment off much better than you may find you will in the real world.” He turned back to the student who had asked the question. “To answer you: today’s lesson is learning how you function on a lack of sleep.”

Ran frowned. “But it’s morning. We just woke up a few hours ago. How will we know what a lack of sleep is like when we’re already wide awake?”

Eijiro continued to smile and said nothing. Ran felt his stomach ache just a bit. He shook his head. “This exercise isn’t just for today, is it?”

“Exactly,” said Eijiro. “It starts today. It ends when you have all experienced the joy of being without sleep for a certain amount of time.”

“How much time?” asked another student.

“It will vary depending on the student,” said Eijiro. “Some of you will shows signs of sleep deprivation sooner than others. I will be watching all of you closely. Once I determine that prolonging the exercise will harm you, I will remove you from this room and put you to bed.”

“So we just sit here?” asked Ran. “Do nothing?”

Eijiro shrugged. “You may do whatever you wish. The time is yours to move about. You cannot—must not—leave this room, however. To do so would place you in danger the longer the exercise runs. There are books in the back you can read. Food will be served four times each day. You should endeavor to exercise and keep your mind active during this time. You are not permitted to sleep. If you fail this exercise, you will be required to retest before you can successfully graduate. Is that understood?”

The students nodded. Ran felt a tightness in his stomach. Most times, the instructors told them about forthcoming tests. This was one of the few times they had sprung one on him. The tension in the room felt almost palpable as the students with Ran started realizing the gravity of the exercise and what it meant for their future careers. No one wanted to fail and have to go through this exercise again—especially now that they knew what it entailed.

“Boredom will be your constant enemy,” said Eijiro. “The temptation for you to simply lay down will become overpowering at times. You must learn to resist it. We will not force you to do anything other than avoid sleep. If you can successfully battle boredom here, then in the real world, it will be somewhat easier to continue to fight even without rest.”

“Somewhat easier,” said another student. “But not entirely.”

“Nothing ever is,” said Eijiro. “But we endeavor to provide you with the most realistic exercises we can replicate within the safety of this school. This is one such exercise. Learn from it. Learn what happens to your body as it thirsts for more rest and you are unable to provide it.”

Ran raised his hand. “Master Eijiro, what happens if we simply pass out?”

“If enough time has not passed, then you will be required to re-test at a later date.” Eijiro grinned. “We know what the human body is capable of. We know how long we can go without food and water. We also know how long we can go without sleep. You students do not know that yet. In this exercise, you will learn.” He looked at the timepiece on the wall and nodded. “It begins now.”

Ran glanced at his classmates. There was a bit of nervous tension broken when they all realized there was nothing much to do but let time pass. Ran got to his feet and started doing some of the
taiso
body-stretching exercises that formed the foundation for the martial arts they studied here. He sank down and flexed his thighs and calves, twisting this way and that, enjoying the feeling of loosening up his muscles and ligaments. Two other students wandered to the shelves and chose a book to read. Another sat by the class window and stared outside as the day progressed. The last student immediately walked to Eijiro and told him he didn’t feel ready for the test. Eijiro let him leave.

Four left.

The day dragged on. Ran worked his way through every unarmed technique he could recall. He performed them slowly, so as not to overly tax himself. But by the time the sun started heading toward the horizon, Ran felt the first twinges of exhaustion coming over him. Meals helped, but only for a short time. The spike from eating lasted perhaps an hour or two and then faded even faster. That first night saw Eijiro replaced by another instructor who watched over them with the eyes of a hawk. When one of the students dozed off, the instructor screamed at him. That helped wake Ran back up.

Eijiro returned the next morning. He looked refreshed and rested. Ran felt horrible. Each minute seemed to take days to pass. He sweated and at other times grew cold as his body struggled to figure out what was happening to him. Ran lost interest in the meals but ate anyway, knowing he had to keep his strength up despite the massive lethargy that had crept into his bones. On the second day, he did no physical exercises, judging he was too exhausted to try them. He tried reading a book instead and found the script kept melting all over the page as his eyes lost focus.

It would be one thing, Ran thought, if they kept us running all over the place. Then we wouldn’t have time to think. But this is just monotonous.

“Feeling all right, Ran?”

He turned at the sound of Eijiro’s voice. “Fine.”

Eijiro grinned. “Good. Keep up the good work.”

Ran frowned as the instructor turned away. Easy for him to say. He doesn’t have to go through this.

At dinner on the second day, Eijiro left again and was replaced by yet another instructor. Ran knew of his reputation even though he had not yet had him for any course. The other students called him Weasel because of his thin, wiry appearance. Ran could have sworn the Weasel had whiskers growing out of his face, too. But he wasn’t sure he was seeing anything accurately.

The Weasel seemed to love this exercise, though. When dinner was finished, he strode to the front of the class and clapped his hands. “So, two days in, are we?” He nodded at the four students. “Not bad, not bad at all. Not as good as when I went through this, mind you, but you lot don’t look all that impressive.”

As he said this, one of the students slipped from his bench and collapsed on the floor. The Weasel sighed and dragged the student out of the room, only to return moments later. “Three left now.”

Ran eyed his classmates. There was no way, he decided, he was going to quit.

On the third morning, only Ran and one other student were left. At some point during the night, the third student had been removed. Ran couldn’t quite remember what had happened, his mind was truly one big foggy nightmare. Images swam in front of his eyes. He felt like he was drooling constantly. Each time he tried to walk around the room and do something physical to keep his mind from playing tricks on him, he would stumble.

The other student struggled to reach Ran. “I’ve seen you before. Are you in my class?”

Ran frowned. “I think so. I’m Ran.”

“Akira,” said the other student. “What happened to the others?”

Ran shook his head. “Gone. Just the two of us left.”

Akira was an inch taller than Ran. He stood. “We’ve got to beat this thing. We can’t let it get us. I don’t want to ever go through this again.”

“Agreed,” said Ran. “But how? I can barely do anything right now as it is.”

“We’ll figure it out. We watch each other. Don’t let either of us sleep.” Akira grinned. “Did that make any sense?”

“I don’t know,” said Ran. “But it sounds good.”

“I wish I could meditate with my eyes open,” said Akira. “But I don’t dare try it.”

Ran smirked. “I think I could fall asleep with my eyes open at this point. Maybe we should nail our eyelids open or something.”

Akira chuckled. Then Ran started laughing. Then they were rolling on the floor in hysterics. After several minutes of laughing, they sat up and Ran took a deep breath.

“That felt pretty good, actually.”

“Yeah,” said Akira. “You think it helped?”

“Don’t know, but it didn’t hurt.”

They passed the next day by sparring in the room at slow speed. Ran found Akira very much his equal in most areas. Akira surpassed Ran in kicking, while Ran bested Akira with his throws. At the subsequent meals, they spent the time talking about favorite techniques and stuffing their faces. Ran felt a measure of invigoration. Maybe this exercise wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.

The instructors came and went. Eijiro showed up a few times, only to be replaced by the Weasel and other faceless instructors. Time passed. Sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. But it passed, and that was all Ran and Akira cared about. If they could just hold on until the end, then they’d be all set.

On the evening of the fifth day, Akira went hysterical. He’d been fine, and then all of sudden he started screaming uncontrollably. He lashed out at Ran, and three instructors immediately rushed in and subdued him. Ran crowded them.

“What happened?”

“He’s done,” said Eijiro. “We’re taking him out of here.” The instructors carried Akira out and left Ran behind, alone in the room.

Despair fell upon him like a heavy yoke. Ran sat down and started crying. He was alone. Tired. Exhausted. Hungry. Cold. Hot. His body ached. His head throbbed. His friend had just been taken from him. When did this exercise end? Who had thought up this stupid thing? What did it prove? What was the point? Ran eyed the window. Maybe he should just jump out of it and save himself from this agony. Why was he even doing this?

He must have fallen backwards then and slammed his head into the stone floor. The room swam, melting into another picture of a face.

A face.

“Ran.”

Eijiro hovered over him. Ran could barely process what was being said.

“You’re finished.”

“Wha—?”

“Done. Can you stand?”

Ran tried to move his legs. They didn’t seem to work anymore. “I don’t think so.”

Eijiro smiled at him, his voice was warm and reassuring. “I’ll get help. You can close your eyes now. You’ve passed the test.”

“—Akira?”

“He passed, too. You did very well.”

Everything fell away from him then. Blackness rushed in and enveloped him in a warm blanket of sweet slumber.

Ran slept for nearly two days. When he awoke, he was in his bed. Akira was perched on a bench nearby.

“How are you feeling?”

Ran had smiled. “Great.”

“We passed,” said Akira. “But only us. Out of the five. Congratulations.”

Something exploded by the side of his head. Pain. A rock?

Ran blinked, and the images of Gakur vanished. He was back in the catacombs. Holding the pickax in his hands and swinging it hard. The last strike had sent a piece of rock zinging into his head. Ran put the pickax down for a moment and wiped the side of his head. His dirty hand came away slick with blood. Not too much, thought Ran. The injury wouldn’t be bad. But he’d have to be careful. The lack of sleep last night was taking its toll on him. Still, he decided, it would never be as bad as what he had gone through with Akira.

He heard the rumbling of the cart as Kuva pushed it back toward their work area. Ran turned to look at his friend and then saw concern etched across his face.

“What’s the matter?”

Kuva stopped pushing, clearly out of breath. He leaned on the cart and took a few breaths. “Tried to get back here as fast as possible.” He heaved another breath. “I don’t know what happened. I was down by the conveyor belt putting in the rocks.”

“Yes?”

“It’s Mithrus,” said Kuva. “He came in and started talking to one of the other slaves. The slave pointed out Cassandra. Mithrus just grabbed her and took her away.”

“Where? Where did he bring her?”

Kuva shook his head. “No idea. He just took her out of the catacombs.”

Ran saw movement behind his friend.

Bagyo.

The beast looked at Ran. “You.”

Ran hefted the pickax and thought about trying to battle Bagyo right then. But that wouldn’t help Cassandra.

“What?” he said finally.

“You come. Mithrus want you.”

Ran eyed Kuva. “If I don’t come back, don’t wait for me.” He put the pickax down and followed Bagyo out.