"I am Unnamed. My title is dead."
In the World, the Planet, and the Base, it's either be number one or die.
The alternative to dying, however, is to become an Unnamed. Turning eighteen means that you will compete for your name. Come out on top, you...
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For the next three days, the Runner watches as the newly Named try to hide their strengths from each other. The Runner has concluded over the years that the Simulated Races play with all of your weaknesses if the players can identify what they are. They also knock out the strengths. So the newly Named Runners try to conceal them, although most times they slip through and are noticed. The fact that they're also playing against those they grew up with hinders them completely if people remember them.
That's the reason why the Runner doesn't have actual friends. Just acquaintances that know his face. The only problem is that they know he's fast.
That's the real game once getting into that room for three days. Hiding what you're good at. Especially when you have to train, stretch, and warm up in that room with everyone watching.
The Runner lists off all that he is good at. Breath control. Long distance. Focus.
Next all the things he isn't so good at. He's clumsy. His mind, although he's good at focusing during a run, is prone to wander off to dangerous thoughts.
But who's going to list that as a weakness?
Stark, he notices, isn't as careful as he should be with hiding his strengths. From what the Runner has gathered, he doesn't have very many flaws in his running. The only thing he can pick out is that Stark the Runner has trouble focusing on what he's doing. He keeps looking around at the other Runners, and it's not to pick them apart and try to figure out their strengths and their weaknesses either. He's just plain distracted.
The Runner shakes his head at this.
I'm not going to do that, he tells himself.
The people he grew up with sit around the screen, talking about the competing Runners and weighing their flaws and perfections. A few of them run on the treadmills, trying to stay in shape while they have these days off.
The Runner returns his focus to the screen, reminding himself that this is a time of rest, and that he already ran eight miles this morning on the machines. No matter how much he hates it, he's making himself rest. Even the most hard-working people need relax sometimes, and this is his time.
The next day rolls around, and the Competitors enter in each other's strengths and weaknesses into a small device much like the Elite Solver's tablet. Then they are sent out to wait in a hall together. Some of them rest on the floor while others stretch and jog in place or down the hall. A few of them pray and others sit with their eyes closed, trying to calm their nerves. For some of them, the chance to be in the top five is their life's works. For others, the Number One spot is what they aim for. Always.
In Tenth, a girl rises as her name is called. Rachel. She enters into a room and the cameras switch on, showing how big the empty space is. The vision is limited and the pictures come out green-tinted, letting the viewers know all the power is off in the room for now. They're generating a track.
