One elevator ride later

Behind the decrepit, large tube that brought up the two boys, there was a smaller, well-kept one hidden from the public eye. It went only up, and it passed through several layers without a stop between them. Savan was invited to take it, along with two strangers, on a specific day, at a specific hour. 

“Miss it and you are out of the competition”, said the invitation message. 

Once there, the other two gained their attention immediately.  One was a medium-sized, but bulky young man, who had a lazy expression on his face. Between his metallic, shiny head, Savan’s genetically induced inability to grow hair, and the third girl's shaved cut on each side of her mohawk, “It's a going to be a shiny competition this year”, they jokingly thought.

-“Oh, you can’t be serious”, spurted the woman at the sight of Savan. She then, indignantly, crossed her arms together and tried to let out a small chuckle, but her gasmask made it sound more frightenedly than it was supposed to be. “Why, oh why, are you also bald?”

-“Ah, it’s because I’m a clo…a C.E. My name is Savan Forg, by the way. Are you also going, well, up there?”. Savan didn’t know if they were connected to the competition, so a bit of secrecy wouldn’t hurt. That confused the woman a bit, and she takes a second to comprehend what the C.E was getting at. “What? Oh right, yes, we are also patients. I’m Angie and this sleepy fellow here is, uhm, what did you say that your name was again?”

She tries to wake him with her elbow when he failed to react to the woman but somehow dodges the attempt. Savan gasps surprised and exclaims in a high-pitch, raspy tone: 

-“ A fully integrated cranial motion sensor, right? Where did you get that mister? At what range does it work? Does it hurt to use it? What is the minimum BMI required for a person to activate it?”. The rapid-fire succession of each question awoke the boy, then made him aware of Savan, then of Angie, and in the end, of his surroundings. He looks up and down at the elevator, then again at the people around him, and at then his wrist.

-” Oh, so I made it on time.”, he says nonchalantly. He then, as if by routine, strokes what little facial he has on top of his chin, does some stretches, and let's out a yawn that bends him backward, elongating his green gym shirt . 

-“ Hello, my name is Marchos. With a silent h.”, he said in a polite manner, which surprised Angie.

She knew that both of them were supposed to be her competition, and even set up a rule. While she wouldn’t mind knowing her rivals, she would keep her company on a tight, but slim leash. But the reality was harsher than expected, as she felt swept a little by those two. The boy, in the meantime, was looking through the conversation log on his WristCom and tried to politely answer all the questions asked of him.

-” You seem quite, curious, I think is the right description, for a C.E. You even have your own custom name, huh? Savan, you said?”, he asked, as his log had the inquiries attributed to a Seven-Four. ‘Most probably a nickname’, he thought to himself. “Yes, I am using motion sensors, but I can not give you more than that. All I can say is that my job requires me to have them and that company rules won’t allow me to talk more about it. “

-” Well that’s a bummer”, huffed Savan. “I didn’t get that many customers with that kind of military-grade tech at the office, you know, so I was curious about them”. Marchos didn’t even make a peep afterward, as both he and Angie were taken a bit by surprise by how easily Savan noticed what type of tech it was.

-” Nice eye you’ve got there, you sleuth, you. Is that some kind of learning protocol used during the cloning process?”, inquired Angie. Unlike most people, she was accustomed to speaking with a C.E outside work, but she found them either to be way too formal in their speech or tedious to talk to. While never aggressive or creepy in their conversations, she noticed that a C.E would always keep some kind of distance from people, never trying to connect with a person more than required.

-“No, I don’t think so. I mean, when I woke up 26 years ago I knew all about the products before that point, but since then I just simply learned about them by myself. I wouldn’t have survived for this long if I hadn’t done that, to be honest”. Exactly the answer she expected from them, even became a bit disappointed that they got her hopes up. That quickly disappeared, though, by the next question asked by the clopy.

-” So mister Marchos, why the silent h in your name? The name Marcos still exists and is used by many people, correct?”

Angie felt as if her guard was breached for a second, and just stared in disbelief at how easily they asked a normal question. ‘Huh. Are they not like the rest?', she thought to herself. Afterward, she joined in on the fun, piling on Marchos about his name, while then giggling with Savan at the boy's explanation. 

-“ Are you for real, your family really did that because of a bet? So, technically, you are the only Marchos in the world, on papers?”, the girl asked incredulously.

-” Ye, yes. Can you please just call me Marc, though?”, he was a bit shaky in his voice, not used to someone they just met teasing him. “And yes, I tried to change it, but my fathers and mothers said that it would break their hearts if I did that”.

-” Oh, well, it’s kinda nice and sweet of you that you care so much for your family, you shouldn’t be ashamed of that Marc”. It was still a mystery to them if the clopy said that because of their programming or genuine concern. “But you did shoot yourself in the foot a bit with that last one. Sorry, buddy.”- With that, Angie was sold on Savan, after getting caught off guard by a C.E making a joke. Marchos, on the other hand, didn't get he was being picked on again.

-” Yep, I got to agree with one. Well, since we are sharing some moments, it’s my turn then. Now, regarding this”, she points towards her mask - “ before you ask, yes, it’s grafted on the face”.

-" You're a miner right?" I mean the overall kinda gave that away, but the mask had me confused a bit. Deep miner?".  

Angie tried to imitate the old way of stretching the belt loops, but since she used those to tie the uniform around her waist, she did to the tank-top worn underneath:

-“Yap, you're also some kind of sleuth? Part of the fourth commune, born and worked my whole life under the earth. That's also how I got my pale looking face even more ghostly, we barely get any lamps, let alone Artf. UV light. Also, back to the mask- I got it when I was 16, but they failed to mention that it can’t be removed.”

-"Well, how do you eat or drink then?"

The girl widens her big eyes even more, and with a metaphoric grin on her face, pulls out from her backpack a toolbox, filled with giant syringes, tubes, and lots of packs.

-“ Ta daaa”, she adds as she opens it. 

-“ Ohhh”, Savan responds, trying to go with the mood. 

-“ It took months to adapt, but solid food tastes like crap anyway. And I found some spices for this method, so to speak. I can either inject them intravenously, through a breathing tube, eye drops, snort them, or insert them through the backside. Oh, and I can also control the speed at which my body absorbs the nutrients by either injecting them through my legs or higher up the body. Neat isn’t it”, she asked, waiting with glittering brown eyes to see their reaction.

Before any of the other two could try to avoid giving their honest answers, the elevator’s door opened. While Angie and Marc pondered if it was safe, Savan was the first to enter it. 

- “We would still have to ride it, right? And my message from the management said that I'd be disqualified if I missed it.”