CHAPTER 5
No Man's Land

The pilots' common room was pretty posh. I mean, in order to get in, you had to give your ID over to the security guards waiting at either side of the two revolving doors and wait while they go through this whole procedure to make you think that they are checking to make sure this is really a real ID. Although this procedure may have just been instated recently because of the killing, it was still pretty hilarious to watch. The guards might as well give your ID a flame test or something, or take out this whole portable lab to do experiments on it. It takes them about that long, anyway.

"Aww, check out the fancy shit going down in this place," Jax commented as soon as we stepped in. And he was right. The carpet underfoot was the fluffy kind, in a dark maroonish color, with intricate flower designs curling everywhere. The place was lighted by big scary looking chandeliers up above and little lights on the side of the walls. There were fake potted plants, real potted plants, fake flower arrangements, and real flower arrangements. Then we walked past the indoor pool, then the huge arcade room (that I had to drag Beckem and Jax away from), then the billiards room, then the mini-gym, then a restaurant currently serving dinner, then the bar, then the salon and spa, and then finally, we reached our destination.

"How much did we walk, a mile?" Beckem whispered into my ear.

"About," I replied.

All three of us now stopped to gaze at the beauty in front of us: a TV that was about as big as the wall, which was pretty good sized. From far away, it could almost fool you as a window, since one whole image needed a lot of separate screens to put it together fully, kind of like the one we had in the briefing room to review race footage on (or to see news of a tragic murder). But this one was a lot bigger. There were also a lot of comfortable looking couches and plush seats and even beanbags sprawled about, just seducing us to sit and stay forever. Yeah, I decided that No Man's Land (what Beckem and I liked to call this common room, err, building) was pretty nice after all.

But it was still No Man's Land. Because not one team could call this property their own, and even though we most of the time faked friendliness, we were still inwardly hostile to other teams.

It seems that we weren't the first ones that made it through the maze of temptations to find the big screen. Team Skylark was already there and seated on one of the soft center benches in front of the screen. The bench had no back and so all three of them were sitting up straight, all prim and proper. But I noticed that all of them were wearing black and that one of them was clutching a pretty soggy looking tissue. Instantly, my heart went out to them. To be beaten by a rookie team and then to have your mechanic killed…that'd probably cause me to have a panic breakdown. They were strong compared to me.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the much anticipated race of the day: Team Satomi against Team Sledge Mamma! It is the first race of the season for both of these teams. Which one of them will be victorious? Stick around and find out!" Benjamin Bright was punching those lines for all he was worth. However, none of us sitting rigidly in front of the screen were cracking a smile. As the IGPX intro rolled in, the one they played before every single televised race (although they've changed it a bit over the years to incorporate the new teams and the ones that have left), my eyes wandered from the screen to the people around us. I saw the members of Team Edgeraid saunter up and take seats the farthest away from the screen. Their Forward, Bjorn Johannsen, caught me looking at them curiously and gave me a dirty look. His copilot dog, Sola, was sitting with her head on his thigh, wagging her tail against the ground. I looked away for some less hostile individuals to observe.

Every once in a while, some random IGPX personnel would walk by, chatting with one of their friends. They disappeared from my available observing area quickly and so only held my attention for short periods at a time. Finally, starting to get bored, I heard the catchy upbeat music sanctioned just for IGPX sporting events. It meant that commercials were over. I turned to gaze back at the screen and found a surprise.

We were witnessing history here. For the first time, I think, in his life, Benjamin Bright was somber.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you probably already know, it is with a heavy heart that I bring you this broadcast. I actually didn't know if they'd hold this race today because of a very unfortunate event that happened just this morning. Mechanic Nancy Mathews of Team Skylark…" As Benjamin solemnly repeated the news I had heard already, I couldn't help but get distracted by the small sniffling sounds coming from the Skylark pilots. I mean, I said that my heart went out to them, but I kind of wanted my heart back because they were getting a bit annoying. Yes, I knew it was a difficult time for them, but honestly.

I couldn't help myself. I turned to look at Fantine. And in turning to look at Fantine, I caught sight of someone else that was truthfully much more interesting and good looking, in my opinion.

Cunningham seemed to have been looking at me too. Because when my eyes finally drifted to him, his eyes were already on me. He nodded in greeting but didn't give me anything more. I knew that it was only appropriate for the occasion. But why I expected, why I wanted anything more was a mystery to me. I wasn't starting to like him, was I? Oh, now that wouldn't do.

Someone had just died and I was considering if I had feelings for Cunningham? Jesus Christ, give me a break.

But I couldn't help but notice that extra thump my chest and heart (now that I had reclaimed it from Skylark) when I spotted him and his fellow pilots, being the last team to join us in watching the two teams racing.

It was odd that all four teams were here, I suddenly reflected to myself. It was like, after the murder, all of us were scared into traveling everywhere in a pack, even if we hated each other's guts.

But it was a good reason to be in a pack.

"All right, so let the excitement begin!" Benjamin said, pointing to the screen with his big index finger. Even though I knew he was trying, I, along with everyone else, could see that Benjamin Bright was not as bright as he could have been tonight.

---zoOM---

By the time the third lap rolled around, Takeshi was practically a half a lap ahead, River was practically a sobbing mess, Yamma was practically beating up his own teammate (the one that I just mentioned), Liz was practically laughing her head off because this race had turned out to be so easy, the other guy from Sledge Mamma (who I forgot the name of because he was just that unimportant) was practically having a frightful breakdown, and Amy was practically…uh…not quiet.

In a nutshell, Team Sledge Mamma was getting their asses handed to them.

And over on this end, all of us were practically yawning our heads off. Because all Benjamin was saying was, "Oh, and another lethal blow from Satomi's Forward to Sledge Mamma's Defender. That's right, their Defender. Team Sledge Mamma's formation is all out of wack!" or "Wow, and Sledge Mamma Midfielder River Marque is shoved off the main track to the longer alternate route by Satomi's Defender, Liz Ricarro!" or "Come on, Sledge Mamma, GET A GRIP!"

Yawn, bore, snore.

My eyes started to wander again. But honestly, what was I going to learn from this match? River was not performing at all and Takeshi hadn't really done anything to River, other than maybe hit him once and then pass him.

So, I couldn't help myself. I turned my head around slightly and saw that Cunningham was still looking attentively at the race. Well, that was surprising. You'd think he'd be dead from boredom by now.

Slowly, as I was remarking about this to myself, he turned and found me staring. And I hadn't even tried to catch his attention. Because why would I want to?

Now he was jerking his head in small, jerking movements. I gave him the what? face and then he mouthed something I couldn't quite understand. But when he jerked his head again, a bit more pronounced this time, I kind of understood what he was saying.

And it freaked me out.

I stood up as quietly and unnoticeably as I could but Jax still whipped his head around. "Where are you going?" he whispered. I sent thanks up to the heavens that this time he actually whispered quietly, because usually his whispers are about as loud as Benjamin Bright on a good day.

"I don't feel so good," I whispered back. I placed the back of one of my hands up to my forehead and then pretended like I was fainting. "Headache. I'm going to go back to HQ."

"Oh, okay," Jax said, patting me on the arm and turning back around to watch the race. As I walked away, I noticed that River might just have gotten it together because he finally was initiating an attack against Takeshi. Just catching up to Takeshi would have been an accomplishment to River at this point.

As soon as I had walked out of sight of the TV viewing area, I turned around to see Cunningham striding up to me, cool-as-can-be, his hands stuffed in his pockets. I could feel myself blushing even as I hoped that I wasn't. I turned and continued on my way out of No Man's Land.

"Hold on, Miss Carmarand," the security guard nearest me said, putting an arm out to stop me from going any farther. "I can't let you go anywhere alone, remember? If you are going back to your team building, I will escort you there."

"No, that won't be necessary," Cunningham's voice was gentle but firm at the same time as he addressed the security guard. I turned and saw him standing there, the slight night breeze ruffling his brown hair. "She's with me."

"Um, okay," the guard said, dropping his arm back down to his side. I caught him giving me a weird look as I walked over to Cunningham and we walked down the stairs together. It did seem a bit odd, didn't it? Even to me, this whole scene was kind of…not real.

"So, where are we going?" I asked Cunningham as we walked away from the dull roaring behind us, coming from the track. Before he could respond, a much louder rumbling zoomed past. Without turning, I knew it was the mechs, racing toward what had to be almost the end of the race. After a minute or so, after all the mechs had raced by, Cunningham turned to me.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

"I kind of want to go ice skating, to tell you the truth," Cunningham said, looking down at his feet as if he were embarrassed.

"There's a rink around here?" I asked him. I was careful not to walk too close to him. I mean, I didn't know what this was yet. This meaning us.

"Are you kidding?" he replied with a smile. "This is the party city. You could probably find everything here. I bet if you dug deep enough, you'd find a Disneyland."

"That's pretty cool. Want to go there?"

"No, let's go ice skating."

A/N: Well, well, well. I am back. With a new chapter. It's not that great of a chapter. But I'm really starting to like this story. Since I'm, well, writing it, that's a good thing. Ha.

So thanks to my three reviewers for the last chapter. You guys are the faithful that everyone loves and ultimately thanks in the end. So thank you, faithful.

In other news, I have decided I like writing the races more than I like writing what comes in between. It's just good old me coming out. Action over romance. But I'm trying hard in the romance department too, this time.

Well, then. Until next time.