Goal of the day: 1342 words. Written: 1343.
- Oh really? - I pretended that I suddenly did not understand his sarcasm and immediately rushed to him, as if I was going to put him under the waterfall with me.
- Hey, hey! - he shouted, - what, you're starting to not understand sarcasm? What do you want me to carve in big letters when I'm being sarcastic?
I laughed at those words and imagining those letters on Naoki.
- And could you? - I cleaned up.
- If you really annoyed me, maybe so. But only the words "go away".
I snorted.
"Well, well, good time on the ledge then," I waved my fingers playfully at Naoki and walked towards the waterfall.
- Yeah, don't drown. I wouldn't have anyone to talk to after that - everyone in this place is some kind of sectarian.
I laughed again. The water of the waterfall was warm and pleasant. It seems to be just adapting to my favorite. Or somehow very precisely measured.
There was something very refreshing and nice about taking a shower after not having one for days. Sweat, old wounds, dust and other dirt and that smell of medicine or glue washed off me. And for the first time I felt that everything in this world is not so bad after all, after I got out from under the Arena and escaped from it during some terrorist act or as I was told.
The water ran through my body, which was at least somewhat thinner than before, and I felt alive. And that deceptive moving picture of nature was quite beautiful. Only maybe it would have been more beautiful without the white hole punched in the middle of it, somewhere in the sky above the moving stream.
* * *
"It's time to get up, Šiška," I heard Naoki's voice.
I opened my eyes and turned in bed away from him. Antonio stood in the doorway of the cell, dressed in a new suit, now blue, and a small briefcase in his hand.
"I repeat, get up," he waved his hand.
"Oh shit!"
Sleeping in a bed is much more comfortable than sleeping passed out somewhere in the middle of the city on some obscure street. So perhaps it's no surprise that I fell asleep at Antonio's first word.
I hurriedly leaned back and pulled the blanket up with me so I wouldn't expose myself in front of Antonio.
"How did you end up here?" How did you even open the door? Looks like I closed them? - frowning, I poured all this on Anton's face. The answers were really interesting.
- I unlocked them, - answered Anrontio as if it was the most natural thing, - you didn't answer the knock. And it's time for us to travel. Get up, collect, you have about five minutes. I'll wait outside the door. Go ahead!
He waved his hand to her forehead and turned around and slammed the door.
"You slept more soundly than any… Well, neither me nor a rock," Naoki commented sarcastically.
"So you don't sleep at all, it seems," I answered, glancing at him.
"Alright, I'll fix it, fieldstone," Naoki corrected himself. His correction was not better than this, but hey, whatever you're going to do, this one will do.
I looked around the room. Nothing has changed since yesterday. So after throwing away the caldron… I shuddered immediately and went back to get it.
"Brr," I said, shaking myself.
"Four minutes," Naoki sang.
"He probably doesn't see any difference. Lurbi."
I gathered my strength and jumped out of bed.
"Shit. And where are my clothes? …In the washing machine!”
"Blemba," I cursed as I tiptoed towards the bathroom. For some reason, the floor was even completely cold. Don't know why.
I opened the bathroom door and was again overwhelmed by sounds, smells and a few splashes of water. How to turn off that waterfall, if it is possible to turn it off, I did not find yesterday either. So yesterday I left it running just like I found it…
"Perhaps when the door is closed and you are not inside the room, he stops running by himself. Somehow. I don't know…”
As I trudged across the stone floor to the washing machine, I prayed for a moment that the clothes inside were not yet completely wet or full of water. And after pressing the button and unlocking the door, I pulled it.
Thank all possible gods, there was no washing machine water inside. And after reaching my hand in it... I pulled out completely dry clothes!
"Power!"
"Three minutes," came Naoki's voice from the other room.
- Minutes don't go by fast, don't waste time! I snapped at him.
However, I picked up the pace and threw my clothes on the floor and rushed to put on pants and a sweater. Somehow, something was missing between the skin and the pants, because the wedge of these sometimes pressed into my... The wedge... But it was not a tragedy.
"Just a lot of lightness and extra ventilation."
After getting dressed, I jumped through the door to the room. I glanced at the mirror hanging on the wall. Those dark circles around the eyes don't really wash off or disappear after sleeping.
"Kutvëla as always," Naoki commented from his corner of the bed.
- This! - I shot back while fixing my hair.
"Ah, that's it. Sues."
Turning around, I returned to the bed and rushed to find Naoki among the sheets.
- I'm here! You can't see! I heard Naoki talking somewhere on the other end of the bed.
And only capt! A familiar feeling - the already familiar rope suddenly wrapped around my wrist and I felt the pull as Naoki flew towards me.
"Oh, oh!"
"It's urgent," Antonio said to me as he opened the door. He was smoking a cigarette and standing leaning against the wall by my door.
"Did he smoke here?"
- Is that bad? - I asked while still standing in the doorway and stepping outside through the threshold.
- No, - he shook his head, - but it just shows that you don't know how to calculate time and show up exactly when you need to.
"Well, you said you ONLY gave me five minutes," I closed the door and it clanked. Antonio pushed himself off the wall with a cigarette in his fingers and immediately began to walk to the elevator.
"Let's go," he said, "just because I gave you five minutes doesn't mean you have to show up faster." What if in five minutes you need a place to show up today? Will you also show up early and maybe ruin the whole plan?
"Is he serious or joking?" I don't understand his voice..."
"Well, of course not," I shook my head.
"Well," she nodded and fell silent.
“It’s… Um. Okay… I didn't quite understand.”
We walked to the elevator in silence. We got in and started walking in the same silence.
- I wonder what the room manager, if there are any here, or the King of Babkies, will think when he sees the hole in the wall, - Naoki commented wittily from behind his wrist.
I snorted.
"Ha, seriously!"
"Something funny?" Antonio asked as he extinguished his crystal cigarette in the elevator.
"No," I shook my head.
"He has somehow changed today. More serious and serious or something."
After the elevator doors opened, we headed for the subway line. I didn't see other people like yesterday.
- Why didn't I see any other people here? Why is it so quiet here? It looks like a bigger building than it is for just a few of us, I asked him a concerned question as he pressed the button for the subway car at that moment.
- So you're here secretly, didn't we mention that yesterday? You are a special guest here, secret and important. It's not a shame for the city to know you're here, he explained without turning around.
“Um. Because how... So all the people... They are hiding? Did someone hide them from me and put them somewhere? How interesting…”
- These are all people... They are somewhere... Where are they? - I did not understand you well.
- Simply, YYY's automatic system plans the agendas of all employees and residents in such a way that they don't run into you and that's it. A few minutes after we leave this station, it will be full of people. - Antonio waved his hand around and I tried to imagine how people would be flying from everywhere as soon as they left and waiting for their subway cars with joy, - But for now, their schedule is such that there is always something they could do. Or use one of these elevators, systems and travel methods. Does the system, for example, make them a health day with a walk.
Antonio laughed, his laughter echoing off the stone vaults of the station.
"How strange..."
- People here live according to a very strict schedule?
"Why do you think I reacted like that when you left your room a few minutes ago?" - the short-haired man smiled as he turned around. Somehow it was very strange to watch his face when I see him in profile or from the back for most of our interactions.
I nodded my head silently.
- When you live in the City, you quickly get used to this agenda. - he continued after a short silence, - But here in YYY, everyone lives under the guidance of the City System. Productivity, efficiency, quality and the like - all these are the ideas of Babkiu Karalias.
"And he didn't seem very productive and efficient - he spent so much time talking to us yesterday."
I didn't answer when he fell silent and we continued to stand watching the rails and the empty wall of the hall ahead. Somehow, the subway car did not arrive for a long time.
- When the system is planned like this, the trains somehow don't run for long, - commented Naoki.
"The subway car. But it's true, it's true..."
- Is it today again at the King of Babkii now? - I tried to break the silence.
And at the same moment, when the light came on, a wagon came whistling through one of the holes and screeched to a halt in front of us. My hair was even ruffled by the wind that came with all that movement.
The door of the carriage opened, and Ruta was already inside.
- No, - Antonio answered after a pause, climbing inside, - straight to the rocket carrier to the City. We are already a little late.
I followed Antonio into the carriage and sat on the bench next to Ruth, who was sitting in front of him. She was wearing the same as yesterday.
- I will tell you the plan now. And hang on, we'll get it done quickly, - said Rūta.
And along with her words, at the same moment, the wagon shook and jumped forward so much that I almost fainted and rolled down it to the end. Only at the last moment did I manage to grab the back of the chair and lean back by pulling myself back.