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Sam stood with his arms loosely crossed in front of his stomach. Beside him, Dee was standing next to him. The two were on line, waiting for a chance to get to play on one of the boardgames. Dee turned and made eye contact with Sam. “It usually doesn’t take this long,” she said and shrugged. “I’ve noticed it’s been more crowded lately; maybe sometime special happened.”
“Yeah,” a man standing in line in front of Sam and Dee said, turning back to look at the two. “I heard a half-reptilian mind reader was helping with the assessments, so a lot of reptilians sent their humans here.” The man held out his hand. “I’m one of them. The name’s Jake.”
“Hi, Jake,” Dee said. “I’m Dee, and this is Sam.” She raised an eyebrow upon seeing Sam’s expression. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Sam said and shook his head. Mind readers weren’t common, half-reptilian ones even less so. Wendy was probably somewhere in this building. If he could find her, maybe he’d get some answers. After all, he wouldn’t have to voice anything to ask the blonde woman questions. Sam looked around. “Can we move to different rooms?”
“You can,” Dee said and pointed at the table, “but you have to win a round.”
Sam furrowed his brows. By the time his turn came around to play with the boardgame, the day would practically be over.
“You can always cut the line,” Jake said upon seeing Sam’s displeasure. Jake scanned Sam from head to eye, eyeing the muscles that had formed during the two months Sam had been in Et Serpentium eating an unlimited supply of food. “Find someone who looks like they’d be afraid of confrontation and muscle your way into their personal space.”
Dee nodded when Sam looked at her to confirm Jake’s words. “You can do that,” she said, “but it depends on what your owner taught you. If they don’t mind you bullying others with the threat of violence, then feel free to try Jake’s suggestion.”
Sam stared down at the ground. What had Ellie told him? Be on his best behavior, play lots, have fun. If he was on his best behavior, he wouldn’t cut ahead of a line, but that’d interfere with playing lots and having fun; after all, no one thought waiting on line to have fun was fun in itself. Then again, being on hie best behavior was the first order Ellie had given, so it was more important than the others.
“I’ll wait,” Sam said. He didn’t have to see Wendy immediately; after all, he still wasn’t sure how he was supposed to explain his decision to defeat James instead of losing to him during the competition between Ellie and Tamara. “I’m supposed to be on my best behavior.”
There was no way to keep track of time, so Sam wasn’t sure how long the wait took, but it was definitely longer than necessary. The reptilians could’ve added more tables with games or allowed fewer people into the room, but perhaps a space where everyone had access to everything wasn’t one they wanted to create; there’d be less conflict if nothing was scarce.
“Buzz off.”
Sam turned his head to the side. An imposing man with bulging muscles and multiple scars walked up to James and pushed the smaller man out of the way, cutting in line in front of Sam and Dee. The big man met Sam’s eyes. “What?” the man asked. “Who you looking at? Want to fight?” He took a step into Sam’s personal space and extended his scarred arms out to the side while pushing his face towards Sam’s.
“Yeah,” Dee said before Sam could respond. “We’re looking for a fight. We’ve been waiting here for hours, and you think you can cut ahead of me and my competitor friend?”
The large man froze and took a step back, fixing his posture. “Competitor?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Sam. “How many fights?”
“Dozens. Why?” Dee asked, taking a step forward. “Scared? Should’ve thought about that before cutting the queue.”
Sam had not participated in dozens of fights, but he didn’t bother correcting Dee. In fact, he didn’t mind the larger man cutting ahead. The longer he spent here, the less of a chance he’d encounter Wendy. Without warning, the scarred man threw a punch at Sam’s face. However, compared to Ellie’s jabs, the man moved in slow motion in Sam’s eyes. He leaned his head over just enough to avoid the strike. Then, his muscle memory kicked in as he followed Ellie’s training. Sam’s root chakra emitted a chilling pulsation that caused him to feel dizzy, and he punched the scarred man in the stomach, not caring about the precise location of impact.
The scarred man grunted and swung his other hand at Sam. Sam took a step back, and the scarred man couldn’t catch himself before hitting the ground, his balance evidently robbed by Sam’s Sick Attack. Although channeling the vibrations of the surdock made Sam nauseous as well, he was used to the feeling and could maneuver under it; though, it did take a lot of focus to ignore the vomit building up in his throat. Sam recalled Ellie’s advice against fighting other humans as he lifted his foot: finish opponents off quickly before they have a chance to surprise him with their talent.
There was a cracking sound as Sam kicked the back of the man’s head. With reptilian technology, even if a human sustained a life-threatening injury, they could easily be jiggled back to the peak of health. Sam disabled the chilling pulsation of the surdock and stared down at the scarred man, who was still blurry in Sam’s vision thanks to the self-inflicted nausea. After regaining his senses, Sam exhaled and squatted by the fallen man’s side. He grabbed the large man’s shoulders and waddled backwards, pulling the unconscious person out of way before returning to Dee’s side.
“Wow,” Dee said, looking at Sam with large eyes and a smile. “That was impressive.”
Sam grunted, taking note of the sudden increase in his personal space; no one wanted to stand too close to him as if he’d beat them if they breathed in his general direction. The people in front of Sam smiled at him and gestured for him to go towards the table first, allowing him to cut ahead.
“Since they’re offering…,” Dee said, walking ahead while shooting a look back at Sam.
Although it felt a little wrong, Sam followed Dee up to the board where the two players, who were already seated, immediately evacuated mid-game. He took a seat, and Dee sat across from him. “How do we play?” Sam asked, staring down at the board.
“It’s simple,” Dee said. “We take turns placing down a piece on these intersecting lines, and the first person to connect five pieces in a row wins.”
“I see,” Sam said. “Who starts?”
“You can go first,” Dee said, gesturing towards Sam with her chin. “You’ll need the handicap when playing against me, HKC’s first-room gatekeeper.”
Sam grunted, unfazed by Dee’s boast as he placed down the first piece. Seven turns later, Sam raised his head and looked up at Dee, and she flashed him a sheepish grin. “What?” she asked, wiping the board clean by sweeping her arm over it, knocking the pieces onto the floor. “You need to win to move on to the next room, so why are you looking so disappointed?”
“No reason,” Sam said. Dee had thrown the game, giving him the win he needed to move on to a different room within the headquarters, but he had already made up his mind to avoid meeting Wendy. “Let’s play another round; don’t go easy on me this time.”
“If you say so,” Dee said, raising an eyebrow. She picked up a piece and made the first move.
Seven turns later, Sam stared at the board with a blank expression. He raised his head and met Dee’s smiling expression. “Alright,” Sam said, picking up the pieces he had placed down and putting them away into the bowl on the table. “Let’s move on to the next room now that we’ve both won once.”
“Hey,” Dee said, following Sam as he stood up. “Don’t pretend like you lost on purpose to me just now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sam said and looked around. He pointed at the wall, the one he had entered from. The entranceway had disappeared at some point. “Is that where we’re supposed to go?”
“Yeah,” Dee said. “Are you really going to do that? Ignore me?”
Sam headed towards the wall, answering Dee’s question without saying a word. He frowned and looked at it, staring with his arms crossed. When Dee caught up, Sam turned to look at her. “By any chance, do you know how reptilians open walls and such?”
Dee laughed. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “They put their hands on them, and then the wall opens.”
“Right,” Sam said, looking at Dee while pointing at the wall. “Can you demonstrate?”
“Nope,” Dee said. “Even if you know the technique, they’re still locked. If reptilians wanted humans to walk around wherever, they’d leave the doors open for us.”
“I see,” Sam said. Dee’s words made sense. Doors were created to keep things out; if the things that were meant to be kept out could open the doors, then the doors were useless. “So, how do we move to another room?”
“Like this,” Dee said. She walked up to the wall and knocked on it. “Hello! We’d like to move on.” She stared at the ground, and a few seconds later, the wall slid open. Dee smiled and looked at Sam, gesturing for him to step through. “After you.”
Sam entered the dark room, and Dee came in after him. She held his arm, her hands clenching when the door shut, covering the two in darkness. The ground shifted, and Sam took one step to the side to stabilize himself, frowning but not complaining when Dee leaned against his body as if it were a pillar. The sudden movement came to a halt, and the two stumbled the other way before the wall opened from behind them, light pouring into the room.
Sam turned around, and he blinked as the scent of barbeque filled his nostrils. He exited the room, stepping out into an even more crowded area than the previous one. There were dozens of tables, and dozens of people were seated at each table. The tables were arranged in a large circle around a circular counter. The counter was empty, but it had many dividers separating it into equal sections.
“This is the barbeque royale,” Dee said, making her way over to a table with two empty slots. “Every so often—”
The counter in the center of the room made a whirring sound as it lit up, and a heavenly aroma appeared, causing Sam’s stomach to growl and his mouth to drool. The counter opened up, and plates of seasoned meat appeared, the dishware clinking loudly with each appearance; however, the sound was drowned out by the scraping of chairs as people from every table stood up and rushed to the center; only those who already had a plate of meat in front of them—which wasn’t many—didn’t bother getting up, protecting what they already had.
“I think I understand,” Sam said, watching as people crowded around the counter. He couldn’t see them fighting, but he was sure some people were getting injured; he could hear pained shouts and cries coming from within the pile of humans.
“You have to eat until you’re full,” Dee said, swallowing down her saliva as the delicious scent permeated the room.
Sam turned his head to the side, observing the people who were returning to their seats with their hands clenched around pieces of meat. They were tiny pieces, and unless they were densely packed with calories, which Sam suspected they weren’t, then someone would have to eat at least half the meat presented by the counter to fill their bellies. “The reptilians really like limiting resources to see what we’d do, huh?”
“Yeah,” Dee said. “Even when you eat, you have to guard your food. People will steal it from you, and they won’t even feel guilty about it since the food’s free anyway.”
Sam nodded. “In that case,” he said and opened his bag. He pulled out his emergency rations—the ones he had packed in case he overused Toughen—and unwrapped them. “I’ll just eat these.”
“Really?” Dee asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’d rather eat granola bars than the specially modified meat the reptilians made to entice humans?” She leaned over the grill that was in front of her and Sam and brought her hand over it before wafting the aroma towards Sam’s face. “Doesn’t that smell good? And it’s only the leftover fragrance of meat that’s already been cooked.”
Sam’s nose twitched, and he swallowed the piece of granola bar he was chewing on. He turned his head towards the crowd of people who were still fighting over the uncooked meat. “Is the meat addictive?”
“Everything’s addictive if your willpower is low enough,” Dee said and grinned at Sam. “Rather than addictive, it’s better to describe them as treats so tender and juicy that anything you’ve eaten in the past—or will have eaten in the future—will taste like dirt compared to them. By eating them, you’ll have achieved the peak of the human culinary experience, and the only place left to go is down.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “How can that be the peak?” he asked. “There isn’t even any ketchup available.”
Dee blinked twice, smiling as she asked, “Excuse me? You think ketchup would enhance this experience instead of the provided sauce?” She pointed at the table in front of Sam where there was an orange-colored tile … which he realized was not actually a tile but an indent filled with oil and salt. Still, ketchup couldn’t hurt. It was a staple sauce from a prominent country in the past before the Earth had ascended, and it was a miracle the reptilians could produce or source it.
“Yes,” Sam said. “If the meat is good with the sauce, it’ll be even better if some ketchup is added to it. Have you ever tried it?”
“Yes,” Dee said, her head bobbing up and down. “I’ve been here a lot longer than you. Maybe that’s why I’m more experienced and Et Serpetiumly than you. My opinions are right, and yours are wrong; ketchup does not belong here.”
Sam scoffed. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said and stood up. He went over to the crowd of people and frowned at the ongoing scuffle. He tapped someone on the shoulder. “Excuse me. Do you want to trade meat for energy bars?”
The man turned and stared at Sam as if he had said the walls were made of bubbles and sunshine. “No,” the man said, turning back towards the crowd. It looked like he was planning on waiting for someone with meat to come out before attacking them.
Sam frowned before shaking his head. The people were here to eat the meat, not to fill themselves to move on to the next room, but for pleasure. Sam went back to Dee and took a seat. “Have you eaten your fill in this room before?”
“I have, yes,” Dee said. “My owner drops me off here a lot because they’re a busy individual. Some days are more crowded than others, and certain rooms are easier to do. Also, it’s not like rooms go in order.” Dee gestured towards the ceiling as if she were referencing God. “They decide where we go, which room needs more or less numbers.”
“Alright,” Sam said. A high-pitched ring echoed out of the counter, and the crowd around it jolted at the same time as if they were a singular organism. They dashed out of the center of the room, returning to their tables whether or not they had gotten a piece of meat. Sam blinked, turning to Dee. “What’s that about?”
“Try to touch the counter and you’ll see,” Dee said. “It’s easier for you to experience it yourself than for me to explain.” She gestured for Sam to go with her chin. “It won’t kill you, promise.”
Sam hesitated before standing up, heading towards the counter. The people at the tables, the ones who hadn’t obtained any food, turned to look at Sam. A few snickered and pointed, trying to distract the ones who were cooking and eating. Sam ignored the looks and took another step towards the counter, then another. When he was on the brink of letting his guard down, thinking nothing was going to happen, a high-pitched whine assaulted Sam’s ears, causing him to bend his torso down while raising his hands up to cover his ears.
A vibration akin to a tiny drill wormed its way down from the top of Sam’s head to the very tips of his toes as he stood in place, gritting his teeth. Uncomfortable vibrations were something he found he could absorb with his mastery over his root chakra. He thought of it as a mastery, but really, he didn’t know the mechanisms behind the things he could do.
“Hey, Sam!” Dee said. “You don’t have to go all the way to the counter. I was just joking; come back.”
Sam ignored Dee and sat down, crossing his legs. He lowered his arms and took in a deep breath, allowing the shrill ringing to enter his ears unimpeded. As expected, after enduring the sound for a while, his root chakra responded, pulsing with a chilling energy that enveloped the incoming vibrations, merging them into itself. The high-pitched whine was replaced by the gentle pulse of his root chakra, surging through his body repeatedly like waves striking the shore of a beach.
“Sam?” Dee asked from her seat. She stood up and walked over, but she flinched and took a step back before she could get close to Sam’s seated body.
Sam stood up and exhaled, his body feeling comfortable all over. “I got this,” he said to Dee before walking over to the counter, waiting where the plates of uncooked meat would be dispensed. The sounds of chairs sliding and people standing rang throughout the room. People rushed to the counter but encountered the same difficulties as Dee, falling to their knees or staggering backwards as they approached.
People exchanged glances with one another before turning their attention away from Sam. If the alarm was still going, and Sam was standing there despite the sound, then he was one tough cookie, and it was better to let tough cookies do what they want lest some teeth get broken. Although it looked like everyone was practicing the technique of minding their own business, it was hard to say what would happen once the alarm turned off and the meat was distributed.