For the rest of the day, I hid from Grant like the plague. It was cowardly of me, but I couldn’t find it in myself to give a shit. He had to have known what he was doing when he brought me there, how much it would hurt. I’d followed my gut, trusting he didn’t have ulterior motives, and my gut fucked me over.
Sulking in my room like a pussy, I spent my evening cramming stale potato chips into my mouth and watching cheesy comedy movies on the massive flat screen. Nothing helped lift my somber mood, though. Knowing today was my funeral had me unusually restless. And, even though it was stupid as fuck, I got shitfaced.
With each swig of the bitter alcohol, I willed it to rid me of the image with Megan crying. When I’d downed half a bottle—I was no lightweight—the picture finally blurred unrecognizably. My mind hazy and skin blazing, I finally drifted into a dreamless sleep.
The morning arrived with a vengeance, my alarm resounding through my room like a foghorn. Even though every hungover brain cell begged me to go back to bed, I didn’t want to miss breakfast before another task again. Forcing my brain to work, I chugged a bottle of water and went about dressing in a dazed state. After taking a piss, I trudged to the elevators and let the metal cage carry me down to breakfast.
Even in my sluggish state, I managed to beat a majority of the others, though I did spot a familiar dark head of hair at a nearby table. It was funny. Before yesterday, I had tried my best to befriend the sexy Bostonian. Now, I wanted to avoid him like he was an STI. I could sense his perceptive gaze watching me as I went through the line and forced myself to stare straight ahead.
I hated how every time Grant was around, his mere presence honed me in like a beacon. It grated on my nerves. He was an asshole, and I should not be attracted to him.
So, I quickly made my plate with foods that didn’t make me want to vomit and stole a seat at an isolated table far from him. For the first time since I could remember, I was grateful for the solitude.
I startled when a tray clattered onto the table as Grant sank into the chair beside me. My fork hovered over my plate, my blue eggs plopping back onto my tray as I gawked. Did he really not get the hint? What? Was yesterday not enough?
“Mornin’,” he greeted, taking a swig of his neon pink drink as he studied me.
My responding growl left much to be desired. The insects in my belly fluttered from a mixture of excitement and irritation, and my stomach coiled as memories from the day prior came rushing to the surface. “What do you want?”
“You’re avoidin’ me.”
If my raised eyebrows could speak, they’d be cursing a storm. “If you know that, then why are you sitting here? Remember? We’re not friends?”
Grant grimaced, far from offended at my scathing tone. “We aren’t. But you’re not lookin’ too hot, so I thought I’d keep you company.”
“Maybe I don’t want company.”
“Sure thing, green.” He tugged on one of my curls with a chuckle. I scowled, slapping his hand away. He dug into his food, shoveling the slop into his mouth like it was Thanksgiving dinner, and I slowly refocused on my own tray.
I met Natalia’s cool stare, and my insides froze as she arched one perfect eyebrow. Was Grant in danger simply by sitting next to me? Yes, yes, he was. Though why I cared left me baffled.
“You shouldn’t sit here,” I mumbled, ignoring his attempt at polite interaction.
His brow furrowed. “I’ll sit where I damn well please.”
“Your funeral,” I said, stabbing at my plate. “Again.”
He whistled low. “Damn, that’s cold.”
“Well, you kinda deserve it, asshat.”
As we ate in uncomfortable silence, the hairs on my arms and neck stood on end, and my ears pricked. A subtle hissing traveled beneath the clatter of utensils and muttered conversation.
“Listen, Lea, about yesterday—”
I held my hand up to his face, cutting him off, and he grunted in annoyance.
“Lea—”
“Shhh!” I listened, the hiss unmistakable now. “Do you hear that?” I whispered in the same moment Natalia leapt from her chair with wide eyes.
Mist billowed from the vents overhead, and Grant cursed as the room exploded into chaos. “On the ground!” he bellowed, shoving me off my chair, and I landed with a crash.
Whimpering, I settled on my belly as Grant tugged on my shirt. What the fuck was he doing? If he wanted to get naked, now was not the time to do so! Plus, I was still too mad at him to consider sexy times! Kinda.
“Cover your mouth, Lea,” he ordered hoarsely, but my mind was already swimming. “Lea, cover your—goddammit! Lea!”
Shadows swirled through my brain as large hands flipped my limp body, and worried brown eyes filled my blurry vision. With his shirt pulled over his mouth, I couldn’t read his lips, and his voice was muffled, like I had cotton in my ears.
Someone shouted my name, but I was fading away.
A heavy weight landed on my chest, and ebony locks tickled my chin. I smelled evergreen, then everything went black.
When I woke, my groggy brain pulsed with every beat of my heart, my limbs too heavy to lift. A voice crackled through a speaker somewhere above me, and the heat of a body warmed my side. What happened? Where was I?
Finding my eyes, I blinked lazily as I fought against the fog weighing down my mind. Cold cement chilled my cheek, and goose bumps exploded over my body as I lifted my head, taking in my surroundings.
I was in a small, dark room constructed of cement like a cellar. Like every horror film, the fluorescent lights above me flickered, illuminating the space in erratic intervals. I swallowed the cotton in my throat as I dragged my hands across the dirty ground.
Chains scraped across stone, the shackles on my wrist thwarting my attempt to pull both arms into my body to preserve heat. Fear trickled through the thick mud of my thoughts, and I jerked my hand, as if to dislodge the terrifying metal from my wrist. Someone moaned.
As my brain chugged faster, I squinted through the darkness, and a relieved breath whooshed from my lungs. Natalia. Connected through the metal chain, our wrists locked together. And we weren’t the only ones.
Lying in a line, linked at our wrists, were at least ten people. I recognized Natalia, but I couldn’t identify anyone else through the shadows. What the hell was going on?
The disembodied voice spoke again, as if on a loop, and I focused on the words as Natalia stirred beside me.
“Contestants, welcome to the second task. To challenge your ingenuity, bravery, and determination, we have a new arena with new obstacles. As you can see, the clock above the door is counting down. You have until the clock runs out before your venators are released. We suggest you escape the room before then.
“The first team to cross the finish line will move on to the third and final task. The team finishing last will be disqualified. Good luck, warriors, and remember, fortune favors the brave.”
A digital countdown hung above a large metal door, the seconds ticking by. 4:44, 4:43, 4:42… Shit, we had less than five minutes to escape the room.
“Hey,” I croaked, my voice cracking and much too loud for my ears. I swallowed and tried again. “Hey, wake up.” I rattled the chains, and Natalia moaned. My hungover brain agreed with the sentiment, but I shoved aside the pain. Survival instinct was a powerful thing. “Hey, get up! Everyone wake up! We’ve gotta go.”
Thankfully, Natalia’s head rose as the announcement started again, “Contestants, welcome to the second task…”
“Natalia, wake up.” Her arm flopped as I shook the chain. “Hey!”
“Mouse?”
Great, I was already pissed she was on my team, and apparently, the insults would be included. “Yeah, it’s me. Wake the fuck up! We have”—I checked the clock—“four minutes to get the hell out of Dodge.”
Her eyes sharpened as she rose on her knees, the line of people waking. “Why are we locked together?”
“Dunno.”
As
the person on the end, I had one free hand, and I scrubbed the final layer of unconsciousness from my face. Whether I was prepared or not, I had to get my head in the game. The second task had begun, and I had to survive.
When my team finally roused enough to get our bearings, Ye-Jun, the caboose to our chain gang, crawled to me to complete the circle, and my heart dropped to my feet. Grant wasn’t here. He wasn’t on my team. Shit.
Natalia took charge immediately, and I was grateful for the distraction. The last thing I needed or wanted was to scrutinize my conflicting emotions. “Okay, everyone up. We need to search the room for tools, anything that can help us open the door.”
Forcing away my nauseous heartache, I stumbled to my feet and headed to one side of the room. Natalia had no choice but to follow. We spread out as much as we could, but the chains hindered our movement.
“Stop pulling!”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Try picking the lock.”
Voices piled on top of each other, and I fought the urge to cover my ears. They wouldn’t give us an unbeatable task. What did the announcer say? The task was created to test our ingenuity, bravery, and determination. Ingenuity was what would get us out of this room.
“Listen!” I shouted, cringing at the clock on the wall. 3:22. “If we stretch the chains, we can reach across the room. There’s a reason we were given this amount of length. If they simply wanted us connected, they would have handcuffed us. They gave us—”
“Enough freedom to accomplish the task,” Natalia finished, and I nodded.
“So, why allow us access?”
The room fell silent, and an eerie shriek echoed around us. Someone screamed, and ice froze my blood. What happened when the clock ran out? Our venators were released. What the fuck was a venator?
“What was that?” a dark-skinned gentleman I hadn’t met asked, and the terrifying cry sounded again.
“Our venator.” Natalia met my gaze, her eyes hard as granite. “We’re being hunted.”
Hunted?
“Three minutes!” Helen pointed at the clock.
“Everyone spread out and feel along the walls,” I barked, shoving down my fear. To my surprise, they obeyed. “Search for anything that could be a button or a key. An object to pry the door open.”
We rushed through the room, panicked as the clock continued to count down. At the two minutes mark, an alarm blared, and the sinister wails of our hunters grew in volume.
“Oh my God, we’re gonna die!” A hefty woman crumpled to her knees, taking her two chain-mates with her. “We’re gonna die!”
“Don’t panic,” Natalia commanded, using her superior strength to drag the sobbing women up. “Keep looking.”
Another fifteen seconds passed before relief flooded my system. My fingers passed over a piece of wall different from the rest, warped and bubbled.
“I found something!”
I stood opposite the door, the expanse of the room separating me from freedom. If we stretched our limbs and worked together, Ye-Jun could touch the door. That had to mean something!
“Ye-jun, search for a button! A part of the wall beside the door that’s softer, bubbly.”
He obeyed as the clock continued ticking away the seconds of my life. 1:38, 1:37. Please. I didn’t want to die.
“Found it!”
“Everyone stretch!” Natalia ordered, and we obeyed.
My fingertips teased the button. I hoped this was right because we didn’t have time for anything else. “On the count of three!”
“One,” Natalia shouted.
“Two,” Ye-jun replied.
“Three.” I squeezed my eyes shut. One minute. “Push!”
The button gave beneath the pressure, and the alarm stopped. A breath of silence passed and then a deep groan of metal. The door unlatched, but the countdown didn’t stop. Forty-eight seconds.
“Everybody move!” I screamed, and we surged toward the door.
We jammed through the thin opening as the door gaped vertically. No instruction was necessary as we dropped to hands and knees. Army crawling, our group squeezed underneath the door. The crying, heavy-set woman whimpered, her thick bosom halting her progress as her shoulders wedged.
“Help!”
Unable to see the clock, we heaved on the chains, inching her forward until the floor trembled and the door halted its vertical ascent. The ghostly howls rose from behind the door, and the woman, whose name I never knew, released a blood-curdling scream before she was forcibly yanked back under the door.
Our line heaved forward, our chains still connecting us. But as soon as we staggered in the wrong direction, the pull on the chain went slack.
“Run!” Natalia shoved my shoulder, and I swallowed bile as the now empty pair of shackles dragged across the cement floor. Except they weren’t completely empty. A bloody stream dripped from a single severed hand locked in the metal’s grasp.
I was going to throw up.
“Mouse, move!”
We ran blindly through the shadows, the echoes of shrieks and snarls hot on our heels. Sweat poured down my neck, soaking my shirt, and the less athletic of our group slowed. Natalia had a death grip on my arm, practically dragging me after her too-fast sprint. Helen fell behind, along with Ye-jun and another middle-aged man I didn’t know.
Natalia, the extremely tall woman from her breakfast table, and the dark-skinned man with tattoos covering his bald head led our race, but we were only as fast as our slowest members.
Reaching a dead end, we skidded to a halt, and I bent at the waist, gasping for air. “What the—?”
“What do we do?” the tall girl with an Italian accent asked as she surveyed the cliff-like wall.
There was nowhere else to go, and the monsters chasing us weren’t far behind. “Human pyramid?” I suggested, and Natalia nodded.
She arranged us so the chain wouldn’t impede us, and we started building the human ladder. Since Ye-Jun and I were at the ends, we would be the ones climbing. As Natalia ascended, I followed behind, standing on the shoulders of those beneath me.
Ye-jun was taller and managed to roll over the top of the wall onto a platform. Offering a hand, he hoisted me up. I flattened on my belly, my hand reaching down for Natalia, when Ye-Jun shook my shoulder. Distracted, I lost my grip on Natalia’s fingers.
“What?” I snapped, my frustration disappearing when he dangled a keyring before my eyes.
“Looks like we can cut our losses.” He smirked as he made quick work of his shackles, the chain slacking as his cuff clanked to the ground. “Good luck.”
Without a backward glance, he turned tail and ran. “Ye-jun! I can’t lift them alone.” He disappeared around the corner. “Selfish asshole!”
Determined to help the others, I crawled back to the edge, but I hesitated. I eyed the innocent key ring as the selfish, human part of me whispered in my ear. It would be easy to simply unlatch myself and run. I probably had a better chance at reaching the end if I didn’t have Natalia breathing down my neck. And the creatures chasing me would be busy for a while if they had to face the group below.
I could do it. I could wash my hands of them. So simple.
“Mouse? Lea!” Natalia’s hysterical cry woke me, and I tightened my fist around the keys.
No, I wouldn’t win like that. I could never live with myself if I condemned seven people to death. I didn’t ever want to be that person.
Tucking the keys into my pocket, I shimmied to the edge and stretched my hands down. “Ye-jun left. I can’t lift you by myself!”
Natalia’s expression darkened murderously for a split second before she adopted her cool calculating mask. “Amelia,” she addressed the tall girl beneath her, “push me up on three.”
Our sweaty hands connected and we counted, “One, two, three!”
With Amelia shoving from beneath, I managed to lift Natalia up and over the edge. My shoulders nearly popped from their sockets, but with a cry of effort, she jo
ined me.
“How?” Natalia panted, eyes on the empty shackle left behind by Ye-jun.
“Later. Help me!”
With pursed lips, she obeyed. The more people we pulled to the platform, the easier it became until only the Helen and the dark-skinned man were left. The shrieks of our pursuers were so close now we couldn’t hear each other speak.
Helen was now on the end thanks to Ye-jun’s abandonment, and she gripped a metal rod in her hands as she commanded the young man to climb. Determination filled her aged eyes as she looked up at us, and our eyes met briefly. She nodded and then faced the oncoming horde.
“Chuka, jump!” Amelia called as numerous hands lowered to catch him as he took a running leap, leaving Helen below.
But I couldn’t focus on their rescue. The creatures had caught us, and my stomach turned violently. Rotting bodies shuffled forward. Maws gaping and crazed eyes flaring hungrily. Helen swung at the first one to reach her, and flesh and sinew sunk beneath the blow. But still the zombies converged.
“Run!” she cried as she battled valiantly, but soon enough, she was overcome.
I couldn’t watch them rip her apart, and I ducked behind the lip of the wall as I fished the keys from my pocket. Hurriedly with shaky fingers, I unlatched Chuka from the dead grandmother below. The loose chain slipped into the abyss where the monsters roiled.
“Where the fuck did those come from?” Natalia snarled, reaching for the key ring, and I held them over the edge.
“Try to take them,” I warned, and she froze, hand outstretched. “Everyone come to me, one-by-one, and I’ll unlock them.”
As Natalia glared, the others obeyed. Once everyone but Natalia and I were free, I worried my cheek and squeezed the keys in my palm. I was about to either save my skin or condemn us both to death. I wasn’t sure which.
Tossing the keys over the edge into the cannibalistic throng, I cowered in preparation as Natalia bellowed with rage. She gawked at the lost key ring before lunging at me. Her weight pinned me to the floor, and my head smacked the cement with a painful crack.
“What did you do?” She punched me and blood flooded my mouth. “You stupid child!”
The Death Games Page 10