A Land of Despair

Sheltered In All Ways.

The rest of the week was met with meticulous training for the sports festival, all sports teams had to train at the same time, each of their own coaches much like our own pushing them harder. Our school always came in top 3 in all competitions , and our coaches were not about to let things change.

Everyone was eager to participate.
I was not so enthusiastic, all we were doing was training in order to entertain our captors, and I felt alone for thinking this way... though it was true, no one else saw it that way.

That's why they laughed constantly.

That's why they could afford to have smiles on their faces and think happy thoughts.

All my thoughts were intrusive and angry, my thoughts wanted vegence and freedom and were coming up with ways to get it.

Ten years.

It had only been ten years. Those numbers made me feel like I had hope. Humanity still stood a chance of taking back our world. If only we could all band together , we could make it happen.

The seats on the hover bus were as comfortable as always, made with a material that felt soft to the touch.
I got comfortable, as did the others. Looking at the scenery as it passed us by. The ride to the festival would take 4 hours, enough time to squeeze in a nap if you felt like.

My eyes, as if on their own accord, landed on her, she sat on her own, though she would throw conversation at anyone who spoke to her from time to time.

She looked at the landscape with excitement. I wondered what the world looked like from her eyes.
It must have been a beautiful place. A place where pain was never felt. A place where a girl like her was sheltered in all ways.

"Okay team, same rules as always. Behave yourselves and don't wonder without permission. Also, we've practiced hard, so let's win." Coach gave his usual speech once we arrived. He was not much of a talker so it wasn't any different this time.

The festival center was the same as always. Like any other large facility, it was a large dome that housed all the participants and playing fields. Everything we needed was in this place.

I could go off on why I didn't like having the controllers in our world, but the infrastructure they brought with them was something to be marveled. 

Most of the buildings I could vaguely recall from childhood made of concrete or wood were scarce, most of them in ruins from war.
Now we had domes.
The domes where large shelters where large groups of people gathered for a specific reason, like schools, shopping centers and hospitals..
Stadiums where also structured this way.

Inside, was everything needed for the needs of the people who were at the specific location for whatever reason or time they wanted to spend there.

From the bottom half way to the top, the dome was covered in metallic solar panels, so you could not see through, the top half was the most clear type of glass so we were all privileged enough to see the constant changes in the clouds or the stars at night.

Houses where still built to the liking of the owner though the materials used had changed. Now it was what seemed to be some sort of metallic material that held up structures and made the doors, all colored differently.
Just like the buildings inside the domes.

We were shown to our rooms, after which we headed to the main arena for the opening ceremony. The place was filled to the brim with people and controllers, all finding their way to their seats.
I sat on the seat right above Hope on the stands, she was as enthusiastic as ever, clapping and cheering whenever it was possible, she was not the only one, a lot of people did, coupled with the music so the place was quite loud.

" Can we start already," Tina groaned from beside me as the speeches were being read.

"Relax. You'll be on the track fighting for breath and wishing you stayed at school soon enough." I teased.

She huffed. She was going to try her best to prove a point now.

The events began.
We had the 100 meters male race first. I was representing and came out first.

The 100 meter's female was next. Tina was representing and came out third, it wasn't so bad but she was disappointed.

We moved on to long distance running, 800 meters male. I came out first again.

For the females, Hope came out first. She had the best form. I was impressed by her ability to perform so well.

We were given a break before the relay races started. One of the four girls on the team fell sick and had to sit it out.

"Hope, I know you do better with long distance, but I need you to be on the relay team, can you do that?" Coach asked.

She didn't respond, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"You can, can't you?" He persisted.

"Okay, I'll do it." Was her response.
The coach nodded and went to change the details with the organizers.

"Don't mess this up." Tina spat, making sure to be close enough to get her point across.

"I could pull out if you don't think I can do it." Hope said, folding her arms.

"Hey hey, break it up!" The coach waved his writing pad between the girls and they stopped their stand off.

Hope approached me from their, whispering, "Hey Adam, are you feeling alright?"

My mind did not register what she meant, and my face must have shown my confusion, which caused her to elaborate.

"Are you feeling any pain?" She then tapped the side of her head "your head aches."

"How did you know about that?" Everyone was preoccupied, but I looked around just to make sure that no one was listening in on us.

"I had to read your file after you got sick last week. I just want to make sure you are okay."

"That's none of your business." As I was whispering, it sounded more like a rumble, it got the message across.
I started to walk away, she saw this and moved to give me a chance to pass.

It wasn't that she was being malicious that I got angry, I just did not want to be seen as weak and sickly, especially not by someone like her, a fragile fairy type princess.

The races continued, it was time for the relay. I wasn't part of it and took the chance to go the the other arena's to see how things were going. Most the other games had ended so I settled with the gymnastics team's performance.
As always, it was great, they were entertaining to watch, I could never be able to do that. The team came in first as a whole.

After congratulating the team, I went back to my own, to find that they were also done. The guys coming out second and the girls first.

"We won." Tina chimed, the bounce in her step extremely evident.

My hand was already in the air waiting for her to tap it in a hi-5. "Congratulations." I offered, glad that we could be done with the day.

As the athletics team, we were done, we came in second in all performances. Now we needed to wait until tomorrow for the basketball and football teams to finish their tournaments as well.

Since there was nothing for us to do, we were given the next day off to wonder about the town.