Earthseed

He looked away quickly. “Remember,” Ship said, “no talking to other teams about your journey until Competition is over. You will only give them an advantage if you impart your experience. The Black team is already in the Hollow; the Yellow team will leave tomorrow, and the Green and Violet teams are scheduled to follow. I trust that you have all learned something.”
    Few seemed to be listening; most were already wandering toward the tubeways that would take them to their rooms.

5
    Zoheret, with her room to herself, had slept restlessly. She had assumed that she would fall asleep right away after washing up, but the silence of the room and the ache in her muscles had kept her awake and given her too much time to think.
    She remembered walking with Manuel across the plain. He had smiled at her then, delicate lips curving over white teeth. He had never shared the awkwardness of other boys, had never seemed insecure. He had turned away from her in the corridor as his shoulders seemed to shrug her away.
    She ate breakfast in her room and then went to the infirmary. Kagami was sitting up when Zoheret entered the room, her back supported by the raised bed. A long white curtain separated her part of the room from the beds near her. Federico, his head bandaged, was sleeping.
    “How are you?” Zoheret asked as she came to Kagami’s side.
    “All right. It still hurts a little when I breathe too deeply. Ship gave me more injections this morning—the bones will regenerate and heal quickly now. Karl’s lucky—he got to go back to his room because he only has a sprain. So did Jen.”
    “Where’s Brendan?”
    “In the treatment room. He’ll be all right.” Kagami lowered her voice. “Federico has a skull fracture. He’ll heal, but he could have problems later on. Head injuries sometimes have long-term effects—he might have headaches for a while.”
    “Is that what Ship said?” Zoheret pulled a chair to the bedside and sat down.
    “Ship doesn’t have to say it. I know. I’ll have lots of time to learn about medicine while I’m here.”
    “I brought you something.” Zoheret held out a small box.
    “My charcoal pencils.” Kagami smiled. “Ship’ll get me paper.” The smile faded. “Have you seen Ho anywhere?”
    Zoheret shook her head.
    “He’d better hide if he knows what’s good for him. I heard Gowon and a couple of other kids are looking for him. You know what Ship said? It said it was proud of us, proud that we finished the Competition. Thanks for helping—I know it slowed you down.”
    “It doesn’t matter.” Zoheret saw that Anoki had entered the infirmary. She was surprised, knowing how much he disliked the place after his own long stay. He glanced at Federico, then came over to Kagami’s bed.
    Kagami stared at him impassively; her mouth tightened. Anoki bowed his head. “I’m sorry about what happened.”
    “You were on Ho’s team,” the injured girl said slowly.
    “I know. I tried to talk him out of it. But a lot of the others went along with him, and all I could do was just refuse to help. He said no one would really get hurt.”
    “You should have known that wasn’t true.”
    “There wasn’t anything I could do about it. I told Ship—it didn’t say anything.” His black hair hung over his brow, hiding his eyes. “Willem sure cooperated. He didn’t know any better, it was all a game to him. He’d do what Ho said, and Ho was telling him what a fine fellow he was and laughing at him at the same time. It made me sick.”
    “You might lose anyway,” Zoheret said. “Your team must have used up a lot of time doing all that stuff.”
    Anoki shook his head. “Not really. We never stopped to rest, or to eat, and we didn’t sleep long. He had us marching along in the dark while he and some others blasted away at anything that moved. Manuel was the one he really wanted to beat—somehow he knew which route Blue would take. He didn’t know Red was going to go that way, too.”
    Kagami sighed, holding her ribs as she did so. “Those two. When they fight about something, they’re crazy. I just hope one of them gives up before they start dragging the rest of us into their fights.”
    Zoheret said, “I thought they were friends. At least I always thought they were before.” She wanted to say that Manuel wasn’t like Ho, but she did not know that; it was only something that she wanted to believe.
    “They were never real friends.” Kagami adjusted her pillow.