When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XXIII

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T w e n t y - T h r e e

Time passed slowly. The routine was the same each day: wake up, eat a drab meal of soggy oats and metallic-tasting water (which slid in through the slot in the door in paper bowls and cups), wait out the long, boring hours until evening, eat another drab meal of soggy oats and water, then go to sleep.

After the first few hours of boredom, it was clear that we needed something to keep our minds present. Maya suggested a game, like ninja, but swinging our hands at each other and trying to avoid being hit soon became uninteresting. Sofie had the idea to try to find out more about one another, but Erin didn't want to talk, and the rest of us knew pretty much everything about each other. Finally, we decided on exercising. It was pretty pointless unless we got out, but it gave us something to do and we couldn't think of anything else.

So every day after the first meal, we would each do twenty pushups, twenty jumping jacks, five minutes of running in place, balances, leg stretches, arm stretches, core stretches, and any other stretches or exercises we could think of. Then we would all rest for a little bit and do it all again. We tried to do it in a different order each time, just to have a little variation, but it didn't help much.

The nights were possibly more boring than the days. I almost never dreamed, and when I did, it was one of those strange, vision-like ones. They seemed to all be connected, but I still couldn't manage to put them in order in my mind.

Every night, before we slept, I saw Maya and Erin talking quietly in a corner. I just hoped they were coming up with a plan. It was what we all needed.

But we still only had one option. Tarron was obviously waiting for something. We were waiting for something. None of us (except maybe Tarron) had any clue what we were waiting for. So all we could do was keep waiting.