"You're probably feeling like running might be a good idea. It's not." Laurie fixed him with a stare, one hand on her taser. Taylor's eyes darted about like crazy and he took a deep, steadying breath. His cheek was red where she'd hit him.
"I'm okay. It's under control." He grinned sheepishly. "Feels like I could run forever though."
"Yeah it's kind of a rush. Makes some people do stupid things." Laurie narrowed her eyes at him but a faint blush coloured her cheeks. There was a knot in my stomach as I watched the two of them regarding each other.
The silence became uncomfortable and Taylor dropped his gaze. The doors opened with a hiss.
"C'mon." Laurie led us out through the doors of the train and onto the platform.
The other Wardens escorted the rest of the convicts out around us and we huddled together on the concrete platform. It was cold outside; the wind blew around us mercilessly and I was glad for the thick material of my uniform though it didn't protect my face.
The training unit loomed in front of us. It was a square block of a building with bars covering the few windows. It was very small compared to my experience of buildings, only three storeys high. The Wardens who had been waiting on the platform for our arrival made an outer ring around us and ushered us through the doors into the block.
Our names were called out and we were sorted into groups: messengers, time servers and lifers.
Grey was joined by a wicked looking woman with one side of her head shaved clean and the other covered with long, thick, blood-red hair. She had a huge, half healed scar running from the corner of her eye and up through the bald part of her scalp. Her name was Dolly Vanderhousen.
Most of the other convicts joined the time servers group and a short, red haired man named Evander Payfield joined me and Taylor as messengers, which made three of us. I wondered briefly what he had done to get here.
We were led down a short corridor to the dorms. Taylor and I hung back, letting the real criminals take the lead. I didn't like the way they looked at us. Like we were easy targets.
Each group was housed separately and we stooped off outside the lifer and time server dorms while the groups were shown in. Finally, we reached the one assigned to messengers.
"Nice huh?" Laurie smiled as we walked into the chamber.
The dorm was a narrow room containing just six beds. The whole area was unadorned and very practical. Each sleeping area contained a small table with space for clothes but nothing else. A ring along the floor encircled each one.
There were two doors at the far end of the room which led to male and female washrooms.
"Get comfortable and have some sleep. The training starts tomorrow," Laurie said as we surveyed the room. She looked like she wanted to say something else but thought better of it. She turned and walked out of the dorm with a wave.
"Twelve days of training and then we hit the fighting," Taylor said as he read a schedule that was hung from a board on the far wall.
Evander sighed and sat on the bed nearest to the exit. I picked one at the opposite end of the dorm and lay down. A voice sounded in my ear.
"Would you like some privacy?" It was the same smooth voice that was familiar from the city, though I couldn't see any speakers.
"Sure," I replied.
A thin wall made of some kind of reinforced, white plastic rose up from the floor around my bed and reached all the way to the ceiling, closing me in. I was alone with enough room to stand if I wanted to and a dim light on the table made it possible to see.
"This is a safe zone, it cannot be opened from the outside except by a Warden. Please rest peacefully with full knowledge of your complete safety whilst inside," the voice said.
"Thanks, but can I get out again for a minute?" I asked, unsure how to control it.
The wall slid back down. An uneven, slightly raised line along the floor marked where it was hiding.
Taylor was standing just on the other side of the line, looking at me.
"I couldn't get in to you," he said, looking confused.
"It's a safety measure, so no one murders us in the night." I shrugged, trying to make light of the fact that they obviously thought there was enough chance someone might try to kill us that we needed such elaborate protection.
"I'm gunna take a shower," I sighed.
"I'll join you," Taylor said. I stopped to raise an eyebrow at him. "I mean I'll have one too, in the men's showers. Not with you, obviously." I let him turn a good shade of beetroot before laughing and heading for the promise of hot water.
My hair was dripping wet and I was dressed in a soft tank top and sweat pants that had been left for me to wear at night. It was the sort of thing I would have worn back home and it made me feel a little more settled in the strange surroundings. Evander's bed was closed around him so the room was effectively empty.