"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! ASHRAHAN!!! Look at the time, it's already 5:30 AM!"

  I'd been asleep for maybe three hours. But the shouting and the taps on my shoulder grew louder and more insistent. "Mm... get lost," I mumbled, waving my hand weakly to make whoever was hitting me stop.

  "Huh, knew it!" That was Akki's voice. Then a foot slammed into my ass. I gasped and rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with my shoulder. Pain shot through my arm but my eyes refused to open. I tried to push myself up with my elbows but my arms had apparently forgotten how to work.

  "You shouldn't have kicked him that hard, Akki." Murin's voice, somewhere above me.

  "Why are you blaming me? He's the one who told me to kick him if he didn't wake up."

  Murin grabbed my elbow and hauled me into a sitting position. My head lolled forward. Everything hurt. My back, my legs, my hands from all those IVs, my soul. "Shut up," I managed to grunt.

  I forced my eyes open. Akki was standing there already dressed in track pants and a fitted t-shirt that he'd clearly chosen specifically because it showed off whatever arm muscles he'd managed to develop. His hair was gelled for a trek. Murin was in his usual practical outfit, loose shirt, cargo pants, hiking boots already on.

  I looked like something that had been scraped off the ER floor and reanimated.

  "Stop wasting time. Go splash cold water on your face. How are you supposed to hike with those sleepy eyes? Go!" Akki yelled.

  I checked my phone. 5:37 AM. The bus left at 6:00 AM sharp. Shit. I grabbed my toothbrush and towel and ran.

  The hostel's communal washroom was a war zone at this hour. Eight basins total: three completely broken with missing taps, two with water flow so slow you could die of old age waiting for your mug to fill, and three functioning ones. Two of the good basins were already occupied. I made a break for the third one, feeling victorious for exactly two seconds until I saw a senior standing behind me in the mirror. He was brushing his teeth and glaring at me with the kind of look that said I will end you and hide the body. I silently stepped aside.

  "Ashru, over here!" One of my batchmates, Karim, was standing at one of the broken basins. He was brushing his teeth with water from a steel mug, white foam dripping down his chin.

  I went over and shoved my toothbrush in my mouth before realizing I'd forgotten to put paste on it. Fuck. I wasn't going back to the room. I grabbed Karim's tube and squeezed some onto my brush.

  "Hey, easy! Where's yours?"

  "Don't be stingy. We're comrades. We help each other."

  "That's the same thing you said when you took my underwear three days ago. You never returned it."

  "How could I? I'm still wearing it." I pulled my waistband out to show him.

  "You've been wearing it for three days?"

  "Didn't have time to change. I'll do it today. But if you want it back now—"

  "Just keep it. Please. For the love of God, keep it." He spat into the broken basin, rinsed from his mug, gargled, spat again, and bolted.

  I looked at the basin still coated with his foam. Whatever. Years of hostel life had killed most of my survival instincts anyway. I spat in the same basin, rinsed from his abandoned mug, gargled, spat.

  I ignored it and ran back to the room.

  My chair was buried under a mountain of clothes. Some clean, most not. I started digging through them looking for something that didn't smell. Found a t-shirt. Sniffed it. Borderline acceptable.

  Found jeans. Also acceptable. Socks were harder. I found one that matched nothing and one that had a hole in the toe. Good enough.

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  "Where's my backpack?" I asked nobody in particular.

  "Under your bed with the dead cockroaches," Murin said without looking up from tying his boots.

  I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed. He wasn't joking about the cockroaches. Three of them, legs up, definitely dead. My backpack was behind them covered in dust.

  I grabbed it and started shoving things inside. Water bottle. Phone charger. A jacket I'd probably need because mountains were cold, right? Probably. I had no idea.

  "You need actual hiking supplies," Murin said. "The list said proper footwear, rain gear, first aid..."

  "I have shoes. That counts as footwear."

  "Those are your regular sneakers. They're falling apart."

  "They have soles. That's what matters." I shoved them on without untying the laces, using my finger to crush the back of the shoe down while my foot forced its way in. One of the laces snapped.

  "Do you have a first aid kit?" Murin asked.

  "I am the first aid kit. I can bandage anything now. I'm like... professionally trained."

  Akki was checking himself in the small mirror on his desk, adjusting his hair. "You think girls notice when guys actually try with their appearance?"

  "I think girls notice when guys use an entire container of gel at 5:45 AM," I said. "Your hair looks like you stuck your head in an oil drum."

  "It's called styling. You should try it." He turned from side to side, checking his profile. "Who knows? Maybe luck works. Maybe there's a cute girl who appreciates effort."

  "Akki, we're going hiking. We'll all look like wet rats by hour two."

  "Yeah, but I'll look like a well-groomed wet rat."

  Murin stood up. "It's 5:55. We need to go."

  "Wait, my socks don't match."

  "Nobody cares about your socks. Move!"

  We grabbed our bags and ran. We burst out of the hostel building into the pre-dawn darkness. The main gate was maybe half a kilometer away. Normally a five-minute walk.

  "We can make it if we run!" Murin said.

  "I'm going to die," I wheezed.

  "You survived a mass casualty incident yesterday. You can survive running."

  "That's different. That had adrenaline. This just has suffering."

  We ran anyway. My backpack bounced against my spine with every step. My mismatched socks were already sliding down inside my broken shoes. My legs, which had stood for twelve hours yesterday, were staging a rebellion. The System helpfully provided running commentary.

  Up ahead I could see other students running toward the gate. Some in groups, some solo. All of us late.

  "There!" Akki pointed. The bus was visible now, parked near the main gate. Students were still loading bags into the storage compartment. We weren't too late. Yet.

  We pushed harder. My broken shoe was doing this thing where the sole flapped with each step, slapping against the pavement. Flap flap flap flap.

  "Shut—up—" I gasped between breaths. I could see Dr. Helena Cross, the Dean of Students, standing near the bus with a clipboard. She was checking off names as people boarded. Her expression suggested she was already regretting this entire event.

  My shoe sole finally gave up and detached completely. I stumbled, caught myself, kept running with one shoe and one flopping rubber sole.

  We reached the bus at 5:59 AM, gasping, sweating, looking like we'd been chased by demons. Dr. Cross looked at us over her glasses. "Ashrahan. Akki. Murin. Congratulations on almost being the last ones here."

  "Almost?" I panted.

  She pointed. Down the road, four more students were sprinting toward us in various states of disaster. One of them appeared to be wearing bedroom slippers.

  We shuffled toward the bus. I looked down at my destroyed shoe.

  "Problem?" Dr. Cross asked.

  "My shoe... kind of... exploded."

  She stared at the flopping sole in my hand, then at my foot, then at my face. "You're hiking in the mountains for three days with a broken shoe."

  "I have duct tape in my bag."

  "You have—" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just get on the bus. We'll figure it out when we get there."

  I climbed onto the bus, my bag bouncing against my back, my destroyed shoe in one hand. The bus was already half-full of students. Some looked ready for a professional expedition—proper hiking boots, quality backpacks, organized supplies. Others looked like they'd grabbed random items in a panic. One guy had what appeared to be a decorative pillow. Another had brought his laptop.

  I found a seat in the last row, right up against the back window. Murin sat next to me. Akki took a seat a couple of rows ahead of us, already trying to make eye contact with a group of girls three rows up. His hair was still perfectly gelled despite the sprint somehow.

  The last few stragglers boarded. The student with bedroom slippers got the same look from Dr. Cross that I'd gotten.

  The bus doors closed. The engine rumbled to life and just like that, we were committed.

  I leaned my head against the window as the bus pulled away from campus. I closed my eyes as the city streets rolled past, trying to steal a few more minutes of sleep before whatever fresh hell awaited us in the mountains.

  I could hear Akki already trying to start a conversation with someone. Something about "appreciating nature" and "adventure." And I was sitting here with a broken shoe. The bus hit a pothole and my head bounced against the window.

  Three days. I could survive three days.

  Probably.