Road to Arcadia: the Path East

Chapter Two: A New Mundane

It was hot.

Arcadia's trajectory was as far north as they could get, but even with the offset of northern climate paired with the moving city's unique environment, it was still the dead of summer. That was how Kai justified the amount of sweat shedding off his body. It didn't help that they were required to wear the R&R's uniforms this far into training.

The white coveralls were as thin as they needed to be, but they were still all-encompassing by design. Kai was no stranger to layering up in the face of an uncovered sun, but the sweat stains showed clearer on the pigmentless fabric.

He ended the exercise with his back on the grass, chest heaving in and out. He was able to cross the finish line without stopping this time, but he wasn't sure if he would have anything left to give after. He watched the other trainees disperse to lunch out of his peripherals. He could afford to take an extra five minutes.

The sun-chiseled face of his instructor stood over him, casting a shadow in the spot overhanging trees couldn't. "Did you learn your lesson, Gilling?" her stern voice wasn't condescending. There was something good-natured in it.

"Yup, lesson learned. Never breathing again."

Any hint of levity fizzled out of her expression. She offered out a helping hand.

Kai wasn't too proud to take it. The middle-aged drill sergeant was leagues stronger than he was. He hoisted himself up, shaking out the tremors in his legs.

She pat his back once both feet were solidly planted. "Now go get your lunch. You either eat as a team or not at all."

Kai sighed, but didn't respond. He trudged out of the watchful peripherals of Rawda Bakker toward the direction of the other R&R trainees.

There were about thirty other people in Kai's training class. Most were like him, young individuals in their twenties in good shape. The youngest had just hit eighteen, the oldest had 32 on the horizon. One could have mistaken the gathering for a singles' retreat if you conveniently left out the exhaustive physical exercises and ignored the daily dumps of educational information.

Despite the intensity of R&R training, the white suit gang was treated well by the citizens of Arcadia. They were provided with their own housing and three square meals a day, which was more than what Kai could say for himself in the eight months preceding his arrival.

The added weight from a consistent diet didn't help with the backpack carrying exercises, but apparently his sustained routine of old military rations spread over multiple meals was the reason he was, according to more than one doctor, "severely malnourished" and he "should never do that again."

Not that Arcadia's cuisine was fattening. On the contrary, they didn't seem to feed Arcadians anything that couldn't be grown from their own soil. The change of pallet was as welcomed as it was a major adjustment.

He grabbed a boxed lunch from a nearby tent--the R&R training academy's temporary base of operations--and made his way toward the gathering of students.

There was no formal set up to lunch time, nature was their mess hall. The trainees sat scattered amongst the trees and grass in clusters, but still close enough to hear one another. Kai didn't quite belong to a cluster yet. For most meals, he hovered just outside the heaviest concentrations, picking up as many conversations as he could. He'd only jump in when there was something worth adding.

His attention locked on to one trainees, a girl with long, straight hair the color of the beaches back home, expression weighed heavy with a deep sadness as she looked at the meal in front of her. It was the same as everyone else's, some kind of wrap stuffed with vegetables Kai could only guess the name of.