Unbecoming Humans

Chapter 11

"No, not you." Rotar Nyan placed his brick of a hand on Nima's shoulder to stop her from following the Vybran into the armory.

Nima frowned at him, but he smiled at her warmly. "Trust me. You look tough, but you're not up for this fight yet. You'll get your chance."

He disappeared through the door behind the battalion of Vybran. Nima watched them pull weapons and gear from racks that lined the walls until the door slid shut and cut off her view.

"Come on, kid. We can watch from the observation room."

Nima turned to the person standing behind her and found it ironic that someone who looked to be about the same age as her was calling her 'kid.' She ignored it in favor of a noncommittal shoulder shrug.

"I'm Corrin, by the way, she/her. We met in the village last week."

"I remember," Nima nodded absently.

"And you are Nima?"

"Yeah. Uh, also she/her."

"It's nice to officially meet you. Don't worry about missing out on the war games. Maybe you can size up the others a bit before you are thrown into the fire."

Nima followed Corrin into a small room. A floor-to-ceiling window stood opposite them, looking out over the Eden forest. The walls on either side were filled with monitors that provided an encompassing view of the woods on one side, and what appeared to be body camera footage from the participating Vybran on the other side. Several of the dark screens flashed on as people turned on their cameras and the monitors became visual cacophony of people checking their practice weapons and pulling on vests that tracked not only video feeds, but their whereabouts on a map of the forest displayed on one screen, their game score, and their vitals. It overwhelmed Nima's senses. She stepped to the window and stared out vacantly.

"Would you like to know the game?" Corrin asked softly, stepping next to Nima.

"Sure."

"The objective changes from bout to bout, but the gist is to reach the objective before the other team takes you out. Today's objective is to take that zone there," Corrin pointed to a clearing on one of the monitors, "and hold it for five minutes."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do they do this, these games?"

"Oh. For exercise and entertainment, I suppose."

Nima looked at Corrin for a long moment, and then turned back to the window. They both stood in silence as a horn sounded from somewhere below and a dozen body camera monitors showed the Vybran pouring out of the armory and into the woods. Nima recognized a few of them she had seen in Eden's halls, but the only people she had met were Justine and Aria, who appeared to be on opposing teams as indicated by their different colored tracking dots on the monitor. The dots broke off into two groups and flocked towards the objective zone marked in yellow on the map.

"Blue team are going to let the red team get to the objective first and lure them in."

Nima watched the blue dots - including Aria - loiter out of reach of the red dots that were making a beeline for the objective. Nima turned her attention back to the forest window.

"Oh, wait." Corrin stepped over to look at the body can monitors. "It looks like red team have figured out something isn't right."

Nima didn't respond.

"This really isn't holding your interest , is it?"

"I don't relish the idea of kids killing kids, even if they're only playing at war." Most of them appeared to be younger than herself, with a few of them near her age or a little older. "There's already so much death in the world. This place is supposed to be safe. Why are they bringing the violence in here?"

Corrin looked at Nima for a long, silent moment while the monitors flashed idly around them. Nima felt like Corrin was searching for something in her, like an animal that might leap out and attack.

"Walk with me?"

"Oh, sure." Nima wasn't sure if they were allowed to leave the observation room during the war games, but Corrin was a Rotar. She was supposed to be there for the wellbeing of the Vybran, which would soon include Nima. She didn't see any harm in walking and she was eager to get away from the simulated violence.

They walked together back out of the busy room and Nima followed Corrin through a series of corridors she didn't recognize.

"You came from Sitka, right?"

Nima nodded.

"I'm really sorry. I saw what happened. I'm sure that's not easy."

Nima kept her gaze on the floor as they walked and didn't respond.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

Nima shrugged. "What would I talk about?"

"Would you like to tell me how you got here?"

"I took a boat from Sitka. I heard about this place along the way, more of a folktale than anything else, but I figured I had nothing better to do."

That was before the tsunami, I'm assuming?"

Nima nodded.

"You seem to go with the flow, Nima. It might look calm from the outside, but I'd bet you are drowning inside, aren't you?"

Nima stopped walking and glared at Corrin. "I appreciate whatever you are trying to do, but please don't pretend to know me."

"You're right I'm sorry." Corrin put her hands up in surrender. They looked at each other for a long moment. When Nima's expression softened, Corrin checked the area around them and then pulled Nima through the nearest door. The room was dark and Corrin didn't move to turn on the light. Nima started to panic until Corrin started to whisper low and fast.

"Look, Nima. I know you have been through a lot. You deserve time and space to deal with whatever horrors life has put you through out there, but this place is not safe either. I know what they promised you when you came here, but it comes at a price. Whatever you are going through, know that you can't do it alone. You don't have to trust anyone, not even me, but none of us survives without help. That's not how humans work, if you can call us that."

"I can't rely on anyone I can't trust," Nima replied darkly.

"Then don't rely on anyone, just take care of yourself. You survived outside these walls. I'm sure you are resourceful enough to figure it out."

"Okay. Thank you." Nima's gaze fell somewhere beyond Corrin as she worked to process Corrin's words and what to do with them. "Is it okay that we left the observation room? I feel like we should go back."

Corrin smiled reassuringly. "I promise I'm not out to get you, but we can go back if you would like."

Nima nodded. The pair plodded back to the war games observation room in silence, both lost in thought. Corrin cast sidelong glances at Nima that set Nima's nerves on edge. She was grateful to be back at the observation monitors that drew Corrin's attention from herself.

Nima didn't understand the chaos on the screens. Vybran wove through the trees or dodged and hid behind them. Each screen bounced and shook with every step and motion and it made Nima nauseous.

"It looks like red team figured out blue team's plan and countered," Corrin said more to herself than to Nima. "Oh. Oh no. Shit!"

Corrin's tone rose abruptly and her eyes widened as she stared at the screens. She stormed out of the room without an explanation and left Nima standing alone, bewildered.