The Unnamed | The Unnamed Duology Book 1

22: Day Two

22: Day Two

Daniel wakes up, his legs burning as if they were on fire. He looks down. Both of them. Charred. From his knee to his toe.

Had someone tried to set him on fire?

Daniel looks around the room furiously as he stands up. Each step sends pain coursing through his body. He makes his way to the bathroom, the burns on the bottom of his feet feeling like he's stepping on razor-blade edges.

He turns on the bath water, cold, and submerges his legs. He can't help but cry out as the cool water runs over them.

There's some shuffling in the room, and Rose peeks her head in. "Is everything-holy..."

She pushes herself the rest of the way in the room and kneels by the Runner sitting on the bathtub. "What happened?" She exclaims.

"I-don't know," Daniel gasps, the cold water running over his legs.

"How do you not-when did this happen?"

"I guess last night," Daniel says, touching his calf and then regretting it as a new wave of pain goes through him.

"And you didn't wake up?" She says dumbfoundedly and shakes her head quickly, standing up. "I'll go get help. Don't move."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Daniel mutters, looking down at his legs. Who would have done this? No one in here, surely. It could possibly have cost them the Competitions and they would be executed. The only person that the Runner can think of is...

Blaise.

Daniel groans in frustration as he looks over his charred and blistered legs. His feet aren't a natural color, and neither is anything above it up to his knee. He lets the hate for what Blaise has done fester inside of him while he waits.

A few minutes later, Rose is back with a doctor. How she got him to come in here without leaving the locked room, he doesn't know. Doesn't care. As long as he can race in three days, he'll be fine.

The doctor cleans up the wounds and tells him to stay off his feet for a good amount of time and to keep his socks and shoes off so it can get ample amounts of air. The Runner is upset at this at first, but still decides to run on his feet anyway.

After the doctor leaves, he's up on a treadmill, painfully, sluggishly moving along, and after just one minute, he has to sit down. It crushes him. He can't train while he waits for the next competition.

So instead he watches. He needs to find everyone's weakness and then he needs to find their strengths. He will know what they are, and he will get into the top five in the next race. He knows he will. And he'll do it without cheating. Just observing. Memorizing. Repeating information to himself.

Bitterness starts to creep into his heart, but he ignores it. He needs to focus. Now more than ever. Now he has an even slimmer chance of becoming an Elite. It's make it or break it in two days, and he wants to make it. If he doesn't he'll have to kill Blaise. And if he doesn't kill Blaise, the Unnamed will kill him without a second thought. He'll be unnecessary for them to carry out their plans.

They want the Elites to fall. But Daniel has other plans for the Unnamed.

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So far, he has learned half of the people in the rooms weaknesses and strengths and their names. Now he just has to make sure that he remembers which face goes with which name.

Natilda is terrible at distance, and she has breathing problems. It's amazing how she made it past the first day. Strange things sure do happen out on that track. But she's really good at staying focused, helping her get to where she needs to go.

In contrast to her, Jeremiah is really good at long-distance. He's just really bad at finding a pace to stay at.

He could go on and on, but everyone is going to sleep. Another day gone by, and he's only touched a treadmill.

Daniel rests his head in his hands, his back against the wall and his feet out in front of him, the blisters seeming to mock him.

"Hey," Jim says as he plops down next to Daniel. "Me and Rose are gonna watch out for you tonight, just in case."

"You need your strength," the Runner says acidly. "I can't beat Blaise now."

Jim shakes his head and laughs a bit. "I think you could beat that guy even if he chopped your legs clean off like he had threatened to do that day."

Daniel shakes his head. "I have no chance."

"Yeah you do," Jim says. "That ointment or whatever the doctor gave you should heal it by then. At least that's what Rose says."

"Yeah, well Rose is also the one that held me at gunpoint, so," Daniel says, resting his head against the wall behind him. "Her words don't hold much water to me."

Jim sighs and looks at Rose, who is starting to lay down on her own bed across the room. "Well, she means well. The Unnamed is everything to her," he says quietly so no one else can hear. They sit there for a moment in silence as everyone else talks around them, either to themselves or to each other.

"Well, I have first shift," Jim says, heaving himself off of the Runner's bed. "Don't roll onto the floor. I don't feel like picking you back up."

The Runner smiles slightly, but stops himself, remembering that Jim and Rose are the enemy, even if they don't know it yet.

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