I struggled to perceive what exactly I was supposed to learn throughout the rest of the day until the Nikto overseer called us to a stop after we had finished our crates.
It was then that I suddenly realized we were almost at the end of the day's real events.
I was supposed to exit the dream state in a few minutes, but still I hadn't managed to study a thing, let alone without looking.
"This is bullshit."
I mumbled under my breath. I would rather not have the Nikto think I was referring to him.
Then we proceeded to receive our day's rations. I took a sachet with an energy bar and a bottle of water and felt them in my hand.
So if the events of this dream state did not affect others, but affected me in real life,
if I ate this energy bar now, would it in reality give me more strength than I had during the previous night? Or suppose I slipped it into my pocket, would I wake up with it?
Not that I was about to slip it into my pocket. I was famished.
Perhaps it was because both my mind and my body had been too strained in the dream state. So I found myself gobbling the entire energy bar, and even the water's rusty taste stopped bothering me.
Still, I would have to get used to this.
After that, we were guided toward a cell where I now knew the dream state would overlap. We were about to merge with reality.
This was the point I was supposed to exit the dream state. Realistically, I could wait until we were inside. The only problem would be three incidents overlapping. These slaves would meet their originals in there, and I hated to think of the chaos that would ensue.
I had to leave.
How do I leave the system now?
Exit, exit, I tried to think. But nothing was happening. Nothing showed up.
I kind of expected it to be like those mangas and animes I had read in the real world.
True enough, when I thought about the system, the blue panel materialized.
Alert: Confirm your exit request.
I quickly accepted just as the heavy door clicked open.
I felt like I was being pulled back by a reverse whirlwind, swallowed into myself.
I let out a groan, or rather I tried, but I couldn't.
Something, or rather someone, was clamping my mouth so tight that I thought they were trying to suffocate me.
I tried to push at them.
As awareness slowly returned to my mind, I opened my eyes.
My head was clearly resting on someone's lap, and the Zeltron's face swam above me.
What the fuck.
I tried to yell, but no words came.
What was I doing on a man's lap? I pushed his hands away, though it took a lot of strength.
The guy was too strong apparently, at least stronger than I was with these injuries.
The effort sent another rip of blinding pain through my body.
That's when I realized it was true.
The beating I had suffered inside the dream state had reflected on my actual body.
I could feel it in my ribs, in my head. It pulsed with excruciating pain where the enforcers had drummed their boots across my jaw and skull.
When I finally managed to push the Zeltron's hand from my mouth, I could see that his palms were covered in blood.
Fuck.
For a moment I looked at him disbelievingly before touching my lip. It was swollen.
Luckily though, my teeth seemed to be intact.
But now there was another problem. The guy was looking at me as if he was seeing a ghost.
"You... are you all right?" he stuttered. "You were screaming. I think you had a nightmare. What happened?"
It occurred to me that the boy had seen more than he could believe, because he now knew it couldn't be just a nightmare. My lips were swollen. I was bleeding. I looked like somebody who had been attacked physically.
But he had been holding me the whole time, and he was now struggling to understand how I had sustained those injuries.
"Nothing," I said curtly.
I really was too tired to find the energy to explain anything.
Slowly I began to see the fear fade from his face, and instead something else took its place. Something worse. He looked excited. He looked happy.
Why the fuck would he look happy? As far as I could see, there was nothing to be happy about.
I groaned again as I used my bruised arms to push myself into a sitting position.
"Stop looking at me like that," I said, struggling to suppress the pain in my body.
The guy didn't stop.
"But how... how did you get that?" he said, pointing to my swollen lips.
"I don't know. I think I hit myself on the wall." I played dumb, but I knew he didn't believe it.
He didn't press. But the excitement stayed in his eyes. I didn't press either.
I really felt like in my entire life I had never known rest.
"I should try to sleep." I realized I had a few hours to get some rest because we had arrived the previous day near the end of it, which meant the dream state events had only taken about half a day.
So I had only spent half a night inside the dream state.
I still had a few hours left, that is if they chose to wake us in the morning, which was not a guarantee. The overseer had said we would be woken whenever work presented itself. And knowing how smugglers operated, another cargo might arrive two hours after you had been released to rest.
For my sake, I hoped that would not be the case.
For a few minutes I just lay there against the hard concrete, trying to force my eyes shut, trying to force my mind to ignore the pain and find some peace in sleep.
Beside me I could feel that the Zeltron was restless. Those guys were easy to read emotionally, and it was just as easy to feel when they were restless. That pheromone thing messed with everything around them, sparking adrenaline all over.
Eventually my strain and exhaustion won, and I drifted into sleep. It did not last long.
If I had to estimate, I would say it had been around three hours when all of us woke up screaming.
For me it was because the debt collar on my neck had sent an electric jolt through my body.
It was short, but it was enough to tear me from sleep into full awareness within seconds.
I could see the same had happened to the rest.
A short while later we heard those boots that marked the coming of our superiors.
True enough, the door was unlocked and one of the enforcers stood there.
"It's up with you. Get your ass up. Don't let me say it again."
We did not need prompting.
Already we were forming a line, streaming out of the room toward the square.
I almost screamed when I saw the sight before us. Mountains and mountains of crates had piled up where we had cleared everything the previous day.
I was a dead man.
With the state my body was in, I didn't think I would make it through today's shift.
I felt hope draining from me just by looking at the work ahead.
We were forced into another line and then made to squat.
"1 slash 96," the overseer shouted, reading from a datapad.
No one answered.
"1 slash 96," he repeated, fuming.
Nothing.
A moment later I felt another zap hit my head and found myself writhing on the floor. The man was on me in less than a second, driving his boot into my already injured ribs.
"The next time I call your name twice I won't be so kind. I will assume you escaped and detonate that fucking head from your neck."
Fucking cunt.
I forced myself to squat. I had forgotten I was 1 slash 96. I was not yet used to being referred to as a number.
In my head I was still Jax, and I expected to hear that name before answering. That would have to change.
"2 slash 96."
The Zeltron boy jumped up.
"Here. Here."
The overseer looked at him for a few seconds before moving on.
After roll call each of us was given another energy bar and a bottle of water. I had no interest in it.
I realized that by eating in the dream state, I actually felt energized in real life.
That meant for me everything transferred. Not just pain, but also strength, knowledge, and endurance.
That gave me a bit of hope.
But since I could not store food or carry it with me, I waited until the Zeltron finished his before handing him my rations.
He looked at me as if I had gone mad.
"Eat," he said quietly. "Can't you see that load of crates? You will be dead before we are fed again."
"I'm fine," I grumbled, pressing the sachet and bottle into his hands. "Take it or leave it."
He saw the determination in my eyes and quickly grabbed the food.
"Thank you," he whispered, still looking at me suspiciously.
"It's nothing."
After the meal, we were taken to the crates, and it turned out to be even worse than I thought.
"Now listen very clearly," the Nikto shouted louder than necessary. "You have three hours for everything to disappear From this space. I don't want to see a single crate. We are getting another load in three hours. So no lag. Pick your crates and Move two at a time. Two at a time."
Two?
Then again, the crates were not that heavy. The only problem was my injuries.
It wasn't until I picked up the first crate that I realized just how fucked I was.