The rest of the day went the way the morning had.
Alex read. Jerry read. Kelly read. The building around them grew quieter as the afternoon wore on. Alex finished the section on drop grades, then a short Chapter on Maximizer maintenance, then another on the history of the early pilots. Nothing else happened. Nobody spoke.
At some point he closed the book and stared at the cover.
’I want to try something.’
It was only a hunch, and a small one. He had noticed something about the way he read, and he wanted to test it. He turned in his chair.
"Kelly."
She looked up from her desk. "Yes?"
"Can you give me a different book?"
Her brow creased. "What?"
"A different textbook. Another one."
"But you’re not done with that one yet."
"I know." He held up the Volume . "I’m not even done with this one. But I have a theory I want to confirm."
She studied him for a moment. He half expected her to argue, or to ask what the theory was, or to say something dry about how he should finish what he had started. Instead she said nothing at all. She leaned down, pulled open her bag, and dug through it for a few seconds. Then she straightened and held something out to him.
It was a slimmer volume with a dull silver cover. The title on the front read Awakening and Synchronization: A Pilot’s Introduction.
Alex took it.
"Thanks."
She did not answer. She closed her bag and stood. The watch on her wrist caught the light, the little lion jaws gleaming.
"We’ll see tomorrow, then," she said, and walked out of the classroom.
Alex bowed his head slightly as she went. It was not much, just a small dip of respect, but it was the first time he had done it. He was not sure why.
Jerry closed his own book with a soft clap.
"Come on, dude," he said. "Let’s go already."
Alex tucked the new book under his arm, and they followed Kelly’s footsteps out of the room and up the stairs to their floor.
The dorm was quiet when they got back. Jerry dropped onto the top bunk, opened the book he had been carrying, and went back to reading. Alex sat on the lower bunk and opened his own. He got through a few pages of Awakening and Synchronization. It was an easier read than the first volume, and he could tell right away that his hunch was right. The book was written with more life in it. But his eyes kept drifting off the page.
’I’m having a much easier time,’ he thought. ’But that doesn’t mean I want to spend every hour reading.’
He put the book down and looked up at the bunk above him.
"Jerry."
"Hm?"
"Do you know any games? Anything we could play. Cards, word games, something."
"I don’t have anything with me."
"I meant from memory. Something we could do with our hands, maybe even with a pen and paper."
There was a pause.
"Don’t disturb me," Jerry said. "I still want to read."
Alex opened his mouth, then closed it again.
The boy was hunched over the edge of the top bunk with his book propped on his knees. His finger was moving along the lines. He had the face of someone who had found the one thing that made this place bearable, and he did not want to be interrupted.
’Fair enough.’
"Ok," Alex said. "Sorry."
He left him alone.
But he was still bored, and it was not the kind that went away by itself. He lay on the bunk for a few minutes, then sat up and looked at the door. The keycard was on the desk. The hall outside was quiet.
’Why not?’
He picked up the card, slipped it into his pocket, and stepped out.
The corridor was lit by a row of yellow lights along the ceiling. He walked down it past the doors, counting them as he went. He stopped at the one beside his own and knocked twice.
For a moment there was nothing. Then the lock clicked, and the door opened a hand’s width.
A woman stood there. She looked about thirty, with a hard face and dark, tired eyes. Her hair was cropped short. She stared at him from the top of his head to the bottom of his boots.
"What do you want?" she said.
Her voice was flat and sharp, with an edge on it like a blade.
"Well, I..." Alex stammered. The tone had caught him off guard. He had been expecting a nod, a hello, some ordinary greeting. "I just thought, since we’re neighbors, maybe..."
The door slammed in his face.
The sound echoed down the hall. Alex stood there with his mouth still open, his hand halfway raised.
’Ok,’ he thought slowly. ’That went well.’
He lowered his hand and took a step back.
’Maybe socializing with these people isn’t a good idea. I mean, they’re all convicts.’
He winced almost at once.
’Correction. We’re all convicts.’
The thought was not comfortable, but it was accurate. He was the same as the woman on the other side of the door. The same as the man on the bus, the same as Jerry. It did not matter what he told himself about how he had gotten here. Anyone who looked at him would see the same orange jacket.
He stood in the corridor for a while, unsure what to do with himself.
’Go back to the room? Or walk around, take in the scenery?’
Neither felt right. He did not want to sit in the dorm and listen to pages turning. But he did not want to knock on any more doors either.
In the end he took the stairs down.
He went past the second floor, past the classroom corridor, and down to the ground floor. The lobby was lit and quiet. Beyond it a hallway led to the glass doors of the muscle suit lab on one side and, on the other, a wide double door with a small sign above it.
Gym.
Alex stopped in front of it.
’I haven’t seen a single textbook mention physical training yet,’ he thought. ’Not one. But it’s obvious it matters. The suit buffs everything, but it can’t replace a body that’s already weak.’
He looked down at his arms. They were strong, stronger than his old ones, but they had gone soft during his weeks in the cell. His breathing was still shallow after a long flight of stairs.
’If I’m going to do this, I should at least be in shape.’
He pushed at the door.
"Excuse me."
A woman looked up from a desk beside the entrance. She wore a gray uniform and a badge, and she did not smile.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
"Just to the gym. I wanted to exercise a little."
"Not allowed."
Alex blinked. "Why not?"
"Guests aren’t allowed in without express permission from their supervisors."
He stared at her.
’So she’s saying I can’t go in unless Kelly’s around.’
He almost argued. Then he noticed something small.
’She said guests.’
Not inmates. Not prisoners. Not criminals. Guests.
’At least she called us guests,’ he thought. ’And not, well...’
He let the thought trail off and nodded politely.
"Understood. Thanks."
The woman went back to her paperwork.
Alex stepped away from the door and stood in the hall for a moment. Then he turned and climbed back up the stairs, slowly this time. He would ask Kelly for permission tomorrow. It was not much of a plan, but it was better than nothing.
When he reached the dorm, Jerry was still reading. He did not look up. Alex sat on his bunk and picked up the book again.
They stayed like that until the evening bell, and then they walked together to the cafeteria for dinner. The food was warm, and the hall was half empty, and they ate without saying much.
Afterward they climbed back up to the room, brushed their teeth, and turned in early.