I take a few steps back to the side of the wall’s narrow summit. I’ll need every sliver of distance I can get. As I do, Anna’s hand reaches the top. I look at the distant platform and ignore the crowd’s comments. Their murmurs fade into the background as my heartbeat pounds in my ears. The platform slides closer. Anna pulls herself up.
I sprint past her. My first step goes further than I expect, yet I adjust easily. It’s like my brain always sensed the possibility I could do more. It just needs to switch into the new settings.
My second step zips me forward, as if pulled by rope rather than propelled by a step. My foot plants diagonally. My third step takes me to the summit’s edge.
I leap.
The air shifts around me as if helping my launch. There’s no way I should reach the platform hovering past the barrel. And yet my mind is telling me I’ll make it. Like a calculator has given me a result I can’t find with mental math.
My eyes widen as the platform looms closer in my vision. I realize I’m going to overshoot it.
I stretch my legs down as my arms slowly windmill. My toes desperately push off the platform’s top edge. Too much power even then.
I flip like a scrambled egg, only my flight continues straight ahead until I hit the next platform. My thoughts scramble on impact, but my hands instinctively scramble for a grip. The smooth, glass-like surface refuses any attempts to hold. I grip the edges of the platform like I’m carrying a window. This time the window is carrying me.
I catch my breath and hear lots of excited noises from the audience as Tara continues narrating, “What a gambit from Matt! But will it pay off? The rotating barrel slows as each contestant passes it. That is what we call a catch-up mechanism in the game design biz, folks! Anna starts crossing. Looks like Pablo is taking a different route as he reaches down the wall and breaks off a handhold! How could it possibly bring victory?”
We all find out when I feel something hit my back. It felt like a pebble. I look down and see a palm-sized rock hit the barrier below us. Not a pebble. I’m starting to appreciate my Rayment a lot more.
My best option is to keep my lead. I examine the glass. My fingers feel weird holding it. Like there’s a layer or film around my grip. It should be slick, but I’m not losing my grip. My lower body is hanging off the platform. The top of the platform isn’t that far. Which leads me to a ridiculous idea. For a normal human.
I start swinging my legs back and forth. Generating momentum. The angle of the platform is close to eighty degrees or so. Near vertical. I get one chance or I must retry the course. As my legs begin swinging back, I activate every possible muscle to fling my legs above me and release my grip.
I’m weightless. My legs aren’t making it. Then a wooden projectile smacks my body against the platform and I hook my ankles on the top edge. I grin triumphantly while upside down and can’t help throwing out a taunt “Gracias, Pablo!” My abs easily pull me up into a sitting position with the Rayment adding to the pull somehow. Now I can see the next platform. A shrill scream rises behind me.
“Pablo’s pushy today, folks! Anna takes a dive down the barrier. Just a reminder the obstacles will be easier for her to cross now that multiple contestants have finished the climbing wall. And a little moral lesson, Pablo should really consider the long-term consequences of being a bad sport. Who would want to play with him after this showing? Thankfully, Anna is fine while wearing her Rayment! Submit your Rayment designs to Lee after the competition, and we’ll do our best to dress you for success.”
Tara’s life lesson is all well and good. However, I expect another angrier missile. How can I respond?
I grip the top edge in my hands and do a handstand while letting one leg go forward and one back. As predicted, Pablo breaks another piece of wooden projection from the rotating barrel and tosses it at me.
It feels like it’s flying slowly through the air. A hair slower than I’m used to. I take time to adjust my legs and kick the plank right back at Pablo. I watch his eyes widen and smirk with satisfaction as the plank knocks him off the barrel, to slap into the barrier below.
Beautiful. I could get used to being superhuman!
I lower my legs back to the top of the platform and wait for the next few platforms to approach. Then I leap back and forth, like I’m skipping off stones in a stream or playing hopscotch. Until I land at the base of the warped wall. It reminds me of a half pipe for skaters. Some of the cities we salvage in still have a few. Lovingly maintained by local teens.
Somehow this warped wall obstacle looks like it’s stretching through the auditorium’s roof. It would barely fit in the auditorium if it started from the floor. There’s no way it could be floating midair without breaking the roof. I call shenanigans.
Tara must be projecting the wall like Sojourn’s dome projects the sky. Maybe she can affect our bodies with haptic feedback like our VR suits in Sojourn? Maybe we’ll make it to the ‘top’ of the wall if the physics work out. Like President Belen’s golf simulator where he smacks the ball into a padded wall and the program projects the trajectory and course. She could make it feel like ants were crawling all over us. Or worse. All with a simple command. A chilling thought. But for now I have a competition to win. One where my shortness works against me.
Tara narrates. I ignore her and examine the texture, feel the give of the ramp beneath my feet as I hop on it. It’s similar to obstacles I’ve trained on for parkour. Only this thing is about ten meters high. Ridiculous. Historical competitions were around six meters, or eighteen feet at most. Honestly, it’s probably easier to hop than the barbed wire fence I climbed to save Susie because there aren’t any spears and stakes liable to ventilate me if I mess up the approach.
I can’t lean into it as I run. My feet won’t have room to land and run up. The trick is to lean back and treat it like new ground. I can’t put too much force into my first step. I want to save full speed for my second and maybe third step. The Rayment throws off all my calculations. Can I portion out the power of my steps correctly? I hop in place a bit longer and jump from a neutral standing position, full power. I reach twice my usual distance. And keep going.
Eventually I land. Weirdly, I feel ready. Like I can control the Rayment perfectly after just a few of Tara’s tests.
I approach the wall in a controlled run. No thrown objects alter my path. My steps are precise. A perfect launch from my second step sends me whistling through the air. A human rocket. I pull up easily to the top and claim my trophy. The small gold trophy morphs into a hovering Gear icon above my hand. Tara raises my hand holding the Gear up and the crowd below me cheers.
Then we wait for the others. It takes a few minutes. Especially when Pablo breaks part of the ramp by sprinting into it. I don’t mind the wait. I’m too busy watching the Gear in my hand phase into new symbols, teasing me with its secrets.
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