“Next challenge!” Paityn screams over the howling winds.

“You couldn't take us out of the simulation for this?” Guth asked, brushing his knotted hair out of his face. He still only ever brushes it if he’s ordered to, but it looks better from when we first met him.

“No! Now listen up! Each of you is going to be given a goal! The prize is meeting a girl named Akira!”

“Why do we care about this mysterious girl named Akira?” Nickolette asks.

“Akira is the one who runs the experiment, no she did not come up with it, but she has been overseeing it.”

Paityn has us all hold out our hands and an envelope appears. We all open our cards, making sure not to show each other it, and then when I see what mine says my jaw drops. I look around and everyone seems shocked, looking at each other to see if we can figure out the intensity of this challenge, but we all want to know the identity of Mal Chi, and why she’s important, and what this experiment is.

When Paityn says go we all run off into different directions. I head to the food mountain that I climbed previously, although there are no more flags or food on it. It’s just a normal mountain you would expect to see. 

“Move a mountain. How am I supposed to do that?” I asked myself. 

I take my hands and press them against the mountain but it’s no use, it won’t move.

“Of course it won’t move, this is a mountain. Idiot.” I patronise myself.

I sit on the ground and close my eyes. I can’t figure this out if I’m busy beating myself down.

I focus on the coldness, and only the coldness. I ignore the howling winds, and the footsteps running past me. I ignore everything around me. Finally, once it’s so easy to ignore everything that I forget where I am, what I’m doing, then I open my eyes, take a deep breath, and think.

“Ok, it doesn’t say I need to move this mountain.” I say and look around. 

Everyone else is so far away they are specs of colours, whatever colours their jackets are keeping them warm. 

I don’t see any smaller mountains, and even the big ones seem super far away.

I turn to stare at the obstacle in front of me and I think of what I know about mountains. 1) they are commonly used as a euphemism as an obstacle in life. 2) they are big and unmovable. 3) they are kind of like hills, but more pointy. 

I stare at the top of the mountain, covered in snow where you aren’t meant to climb it, like some sick snowy rock wall you’d find at a mall to climb in your free time. I look up to the very top, it’s a lot closer than a normal mountain, not even a thousand feet away, yet no matter how tall , you just can’t move a mountain, no matter how badly you want to.

“I want to move this mountain” I say and look to the sky for the familiar red message, but instead I notice the snow begins to melt, leaving letters in the snow and ice.

“I Can’t Move this Mountain for You, Only Give You What You Need to Succeed.”

“I hate you mountain!” I screamed at it and kicked it with my foot.

“Of course that didn’t work. Who’s dumb enough to kick a mountain?” I asked myself with an exasperated sigh.

I brush the snow into a pile and sit down.

“That’s it!” I saw, staring at the pile of snow.

“A mountain, not literally, a mountain of snow!” I quickly got up to my feet and began piling snow on top of each other, up to about my waist. 

I make sure to make it pointed at the top, then I push it all down and recreate it with the same snow.

I wake up and take my goggles off, just quick enough to see everyone else do the same.

Paityn has a triumphant smile on her face.

“Cadence won!” Paityn announces and everyone either groans or just sounds plain shocked.

“My challenge was impossible!” Sanderson complained and everyone murmured in agreement.

“The point of the challenge is to see who can think outside of the box, after all, everyone in this organisation has to think outside the box to fix certain problems. These problems were meant to seem impossible at first glance, but actually have a solution that just isn’t what first comes to mind.”

“What was Cadence's challenge?” Nickolette asks.

“To move a mountain.” I chime in and everyone looks at me as if I’m crazy.

“And you did it?” Isla asks incredulously.

“She made a mountain of snow, then moved it.” Paityn explains for me before I can even get the words out.

“Look, we’re all really tired, how about we all go to bed?” Guth suggested and everyone nodded in agreement.

“Ok everyone, follow Isa, she’ll show you where the hotel you all will be staying in. Cadence, it’s time for your prize.”

Paityn takes me up to an elevator and presses number 16, which seems fairly tall, I hadn’t even realised the building was tall enough to have 16 floors.

“You single handedly won both of those challenges.” Paityn says as we walk out of the elevator.

“Yeah.” I say, because really what am I supposed to say? Thank you for putting us through challenges in a virtual reality simulation and then complimenting me because I’m the reason we passed?

A woman who has hair like Isa is sitting at a large computer monitor when we walk in.

“Hi Akira.” Paityn says energetically and she looks up, flashing me not quite a smile but not a frown.

“You must be Cadence!” Akira immediately stands up and puts out her hand for me to shake, which I do.

“How do you know my name?” I asked even though I knew it was a silly question, Paityn and Isa knew my name too.

“We’ve been watching you for quite some time.” Paityn explains.

“What? And you don't think that’s at all creepy? An invasion of privacy perhaps?”

“It’s just to see how everything is going inside the city, that’s all. We make case files on everyone as well, that’s what your prize is.”

“Yes, thank you Paityn. You’ve shown yourself to be a worthy person.” Akira says.

“Thanks?” I ask, I’m not quite sure how I’m meant to respond.

“After seeing how you responded in the Virtual reality simulations, I believe you will do what’s right with this information.” She hands me a tablet with folders and folders of names. 

I search the name Grant and tap on it, seeing more than just my family’s name, I even see one for Ira Grant.

“Mal Chi was the first of the grant’s.” Paityn explains looking over my shoulder, but that’s not the Grant I want to know about. I want to know what information they have on me.

“I recommend taking these to the hotel, there’s signs showing you how to get there, and if you get lost, the guards on duty can always help. They patrol 24/7 to keep everyone safe.

I nod and walk out, not looking back. I wand for a while and then see a fish tank, momentarily forgetting my mission. I stare at the fish swimming around in such a limited space, not knowing how different their life would be if they were in the ocean, they probably don’t even know the ocean exists, or what it truly is. These fish are like what my friends and I are, but now we’ve thrown ourselves into the ocean, not thinking about how we plan to survive.

“Do you need help cadence? A voice creeps up from behind me and I turn to see Isa.

“No, I was just thinking about the fish.” I answered.

“Maybe you can help me, why do you think Isla and Amias are having such a hard time comprehending I’m alive?” 

“Well they grieved the loss of a friend, having to go through that, comprehend how they can never see you again, that must have been torture for them.”

Isa nods in agreement and says no more. We sit in silence and then suddenly I feel the urge to wrap my arms around her, so I do. Perhaps I did it as an act of comfort, whether it be for her or myself I truly do not know. She seems to immediately embrace me and we stay there for a little while, just strangers sharing a wholesome moment together.

“You should go to your room and get some sleep.” Isa said, pulling away and I nodded.

I begin heading back to my room, not my home though, because I no longer have a room to call home.