Fractured | The Portal Series book 1

Chapter 34 - Jessica

5:02 a.m. SWT – 9/14/341 U.M.

8:02 p.m. BTS – 9/13/341 U.M.

On day one of being here, I found that at five a.m., I am not the only person up. In fact, I think everyone gets up that early, with the exception of Tess.

So, when I get up almost two weeks after the aerial strikes, I go down to a fairly full cafeteria.

I get some breakfast and am about to sit down at a table by myself, but I hear a voice calling, "Hey Jessica, over here!" I turn around, and recognize Rima from the gym.

Hesitantly, I join her.

"Hi," she says in a chipper tone, extending her hand. I'd guess that she is nineteen, maybe twenty. "My name is Rima. I heard that you're from the Floating Isle. Always wanted to see that place."

"Hi," I reply, shaking her hand, "And yeah, I am."

"Neat."

"How long have you been at the Cube?"

"Oh, about two years," she says, cutting into her sausage.

"Where did you first train?" I ask curiously.

"Up the mountain from the Floating Isle, actually. Back when we held our own Competition. It's called Fort Sylva. Stupid, I know."

"Oh, really? That's where Jack comes from. What do you eat with there?"

"Sorry?"

"Jack said that they don't eat with forks up there," I clarify, "I was just wondering what they did use."

"Jack must be pulling your leg," Rima says, chuckling and shaking her head, "We all use forks."

I recall how awkwardly Jack held his fork his first day at the Floating Isle.

"Did you have an accent?" I press.

"Um, a Sylvan one," she replies with a laugh.

"Huh," I say, feeling very suspicious. I change the subject, and Rima tells me about her first mission.

"I was so nervous," she says, "I was afraid that we would fail."

"That's how I felt too," I admit, glancing around distractedly. I pause. "Where are all the other people?" I ask. The cafeteria can obviously hold a bigger load than what it has had the past week.

"All out on missions," Rima replies, "That's why you weren't able to train with more people."

That's why Tess and I are here in the first place.

"What about you?" I inquire.

"I hurt my knee a couple of months ago in a mission, and I am still healing. Sure, I can train, but not too hard."

"Oh."

"So," she now takes a bite of egg, "What do you think of that Earthling?"

"Seems nice enough." I think of my suspicions, and then suddenly find myself blurting them out. To heck with trust concerning this. It could be serious.

"Nah," Rima says, after I have finished, "The Cube's truth–detection systems are state-of-the-art. No silly polygraphs for us. If he was hiding something, we would have caught it."