My Wife Rules The World

Leon's alarm went off at 5:15. He'd set it earlier than necessary. He lay there for a moment anyway, then got up.

Noah was already awake, sitting on his bed with his shoes on, forearms on his knees.

"Sleep?" Leon asked.

"Not really."

Leon took his washbag down the hall. A few other students were already moving around. He washed his face, went back, changed into the layers he'd set out the night before — two base layers under his jacket because the location brief had said temperatures dropped after dark and he had no idea what the shelter situation was going to be like.

He checked his pack. Nothing had changed from the night before.

Noah was dressed by the time Leon finished. He stood in front of his bag like he was trying to remember if he'd forgotten something.

"You've checked it four times," Leon said.

"I know."

They went down to the cafeteria. Busier than usual for that hour, most of the building apparently having made the same decision about eating before a long bus ride. Leon went through the line and ate a full plate even though he wasn't particularly hungry. He didn't know when the next proper meal would be.

Emma and Jay were already at a table near the window.

"How are you feeling," Emma said when they sat down.

"Fine," Noah said.

"You don't look fine."

"I'm fine."

Jay was working through his food steadily. He had his group assignment up on his phone on the table in front of him and kept glancing at it.

At 5:50 a message came through: Buses depart 6:00 AM from Assembly Point B. All participants must be at assigned group marker by 5:55.

They gathered their things and went out.

The street was quiet and still mostly dark. Students were coming from several directions, converging toward the main road. Security officers in grey jackets stood at intervals. Nobody was talking loudly.

28 coaches were parked along the road two blocks from the dorm, each with a numbered placard in the front window. Four buses marked Group 7 were toward the far end. Krai was already at the marker, pack at his feet, reading his phone. He looked up when they arrived.

"Sleep okay?" Noah asked.

"Fine."

Boarding started at 6:02. The three got on the same bus, Leon scanned his ID at the door and found a seat near the middle. Noah sat next to him. Krai settled two rows ahead.

The drive was two and a half hours.

Noah fell asleep around the forty-minute mark, head tipped against the window. Leon watched the landscape change — city giving way to highway, highway to open land, open land to the beginning of real elevation. The mountains had been visible on the horizon for a while before the bus actually started climbing.

They turned onto a narrower road marked only with a Restricted Zone 4 sign. Trees on both sides. Another twenty minutes and they came out into a large flat clearing that had been set up in advance — portable structures, a distribution station, security officers, vehicles to one side. A few buses were already there.

Everyone got off and moved toward the assembly area. Group numbers were marked on poles. Leon found Group 7 and joined the cluster there. He could see Emma over at Group 1, farther to the left.

The remaining buses came in over the next fifteen minutes. Around 8:40, a supervisor-type officer walked to the center of the clearing with a portable PA unit.

"Before supply distribution, some group adjustments need to be noted. Due to last-minute participant additions, a small number of groups have been rebalanced. Affected students will receive a phone notification now. If you receive one, move to your updated group before checking in."

Leon's phone buzzed.

Group reassignment notice: You have been moved to Group 1. Please proceed to the Group 1 assembly point before check-in.

He read it twice.

Noah was looking at him.

"Group 1," Leon said.

"That's Emma's."

"Yeah."

Krai had come a step closer and understood from the exchange. He looked toward Group 1 briefly, then back at Leon.

"You should go," Krai said.

Leon picked up his pack. There wasn't a good way to handle the next part. The three of them had spent the last two weeks in a loose but functional routine — running in the mornings, going over the rules, talking through scenarios that might or might not be useful. None of it transferred.

"I'll see you after," Leon said.

"Yeah," Noah said.

Leon crossed the clearing.

Near the Group 1 marker, two clusters of students were having a conversation loud enough that he caught pieces of it while he was still approaching.

"— she was D4 last year, same as us —"

"— moved up two ranks from one optional tournament, which apparently has never —"

"— well, she placed second, so —"

"— still, two full ranks, that's not —"

Leon didn't catch the name. He filed it and kept walking.

Emma had already spotted him. She came a few steps toward him.

"You got moved?"

"Just now."

"Two others got added too. Neither first years." She glanced toward the far edge of the assembled group. "And there are four students I don't recognize. Grey bands."

Leon had already noticed them. They were easy to pick out — separate from everyone else, not talking to anyone. Their CPP bands showed numbers but no rank color. Just flat grey.

"Have you seen grey before?" he asked.

"No. I asked a third year and she hasn't either."

The check-in queue for Group 1 had started moving. They joined it.

Emma reached the front of the queue, scanned her ID, took her pack. Leon went next. His pack was heavier than he'd expected. He didn't open it.

They moved back into the group. The students who'd been talking about the D4-to-D2 promotion had moved on to something else. Leon scanned the assembled Group 1 faces — mostly older students, a heavy concentration of third and fourth years, which made sense with the cross-year format. He was probably among the younger half.

The grey-banded students had collected their packs and returned to the edge of the group without any visible interaction beyond what the check-in required. Four of them. They weren't standing together but they weren't quite separate either.

By 9:40 they were directed back to the buses. Leon got on a group 1 bus this time. He found a seat near the middle. Emma sat next to him.

The bus pulled out of the clearing and onto the mountain road. Tree cover closed in. The clearing disappeared behind them.

Emma had her pack on her lap and was going through the contents quietly. Standard kit — rations, water, first aid basics, rope, thermal layer. She lined everything up on her knees in a row, checked each thing, then repacked it.

"Sixty-one," she said at some point.

"What?"

"My CPP. I keep checking it even though it's not going to change."

"Mine's forty-seven."

She nodded. Didn't say anything else about it.

Outside, the road wound upward and the sky got narrower between the trees. The second-year student across the aisle had his eyes closed.

Leon shifted in his seat and looked out the window at the trees going past.