The Initiation

by Chris Babu

  Catrice and Sidney stepped to the sides to allow room for Charlie and Alex to land.

  “You guys know what to do?” Drayden asked. “Pause right in the path of the third blade, and I’ll yell when to continue.”

  Charlie gave him a thumbs-up. Alex kept his head down.

  Drayden zeroed in on the third blade, which was the key. The first three blades were about to begin their descent.

  “Ready…one…two…three, go!” he yelled as the third blade zoomed by to the left, from this side.

  They bounded across.

  “Stop!” he shouted when they reached the path of blade three.

  They paused in blade three’s lane. Alex locked his eyes on it, cowering. His face contorted in terror as it reached its peak and began its descent.

  The fifth blade passed, and the fourth was just zipping by.

  “Go now!” Drayden screamed.

  Alex was frozen. Charlie jumped forward. He reached back and gripped Alex by the arm, yanking him along.

  For a moment, Drayden was sure Alex would be cut in half, but he made it in one piece.

  Charlie grasped Alex by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. “Alex, focus, goddammit! You almost died. Don’t look at the blades!” Charlie released him, shaking his head.

  Alex’s pale lips quivered, his vacant eyes staring into space.

  Charlie peered over his shoulder at his calves. “I felt that blade. That was about as fun as dinner over at Alex’s house.”

  They were running out of time. This was taking way too long. Drayden turned to stone at the sight of the looming next section. The gap in which they stood offered the first clear view of it, unobstructed by the blades that preceded it. And it was intimidating.

  The others fell silent.

  Sidney stared in shock. “Seriously?”

  “Is it just me, or does that look like a monster?” Charlie asked.

  Drayden thought it did. He didn’t need to view it from the left side of the station to find the next gap. This was the last section and it represented the grand finale of the blades. It contained ten blades, all various heights and blade types. Some were downright medieval.

  But it was the way they moved, like a python would slither. Effectively, each blade swung one after another, creating the effect of a wave. So while blade five was at its peak, blade six tumbled down, while blade four approached its peak. If it wasn’t designed to kill them, one might find it quite elegant.

  “It’s a wave pattern,” Drayden said. “Look. There’s always one peak, and one trough, and it moves down the line and starts again.”

  “How do we get through it?” Charlie asked.

  Drayden studied the movement. While a simple pattern to understand, visualizing how to traverse it baffled him. “Catrice?”

  She focused on it, her expression revealing intense mental gymnastics. She squinted. “We need to move where the wave is at its crest or trough, and pause where it crosses center, then move again. I think.”

  Catrice seemed much less scared when she was busy solving a problem, Drayden noted. He visualized her suggestion. Start when the first blade crosses to the right. The few that follow will still be near their peak on the right. They could pass some of those blades, but eventually one would be coming down too close to continue. They would have to stop, let it cross, and then jet to avoid being filleted by the one in whose path they waited. This would require some thought, some adjustment, on the fly. It differed from the previous sections, in which they could strategize in advance.

  “Yeah, that’s it,” Drayden said. “We have to go in groups again. Charlie, I’ll talk you guys through it after we’re through. Okay?”

  Charlie’s face looked pained, and he pinched his nose. “I guess.”

  Drayden felt like Charlie looked. His necked tensed contemplating this final section. Yet the clock was ticking and they needed to move. “Catrice, Sid, let’s get ready.”

  They lined up, with Drayden in the middle. “Sid, stay close, right on me. I’ll yell out ‘stop,’ but when we do that, let the blade in front cross and then rocket immediately. Don’t look at the blade approaching us. It’ll be very close. Just look straight ahead.”

  “I got it.” Sidney closed her eyes and said a quick prayer.

  Drayden memorized the pattern. If he hesitated, if he was indecisive in there, they would die. This section required split-second decisions. The stops and starts simply couldn’t be determined at the outset. Ten blades were a lot to clear.

  “We’re going when blade one crosses going right,” Drayden said. “One more cycle. Get ready.”

  Drayden followed blade one, his eyes glued to it. It was a shiny curved blade, five feet long, serrated on the top edge, smooth on the bottom. It blew by to the right with a swoosh. Wait…what was that? A tiny red mark dotted the blade on the side. Was it an imperfection of some sort? No, it was too square, too exact. As the fearsome blade screamed by to the left, Drayden recognized it. The Bureau insignia.

  He clenched his jaw. “Ready…”

  Blade one crested on the left, and began its drop. It crossed the center.

  “Go!” he yelled.

  They took five hurried steps out. Drayden fixed his wide eyes up to the right, at the airborne blades. They passed blades one through three, but blade four plummeted down toward the center. They wouldn’t make it.

  “Stop!” he yelled, freezing in blade three’s path.

  Ignoring his own instructions, he glanced up at blade three, rapidly approaching from the right. Blade four crossed the center to the left in front of them.

  “Go now!” he screamed.

  They bolted, barely making it before blade three impaled them. They took five additional steps. Drayden peered up to the left now, observing the blades at their crest. They passed blades four, five, and six, but blade seven rapidly neared center.

  “Stop!” he yelled.

  He maintained his gaze straight ahead this time, avoiding the sight of the plummeting blade six. Blade seven screamed by in front to the right.

  “Go!”

  They passed blades seven, eight, and nine peaking on the right. Blade ten was too close to risk.

  “Stop!”

  One more to go, he thought.

  Sidney screamed. She gawked past him to the right at the axe-like blade nine shrieking toward them.

  Blade ten flew by to the left.

  “Go!” Drayden yelled, pulling Catrice by the hand.

  They crossed the finish.

  “We made it!” Sidney cried out.

  Catrice doubled over, holding her stomach.

  “Yeah!” Drayden screamed. He jumped up and down. “Woohoo!” He’d survived the swinging blades.

  What else you got, Bureau? It’s going to take more than that.

  Thank God he’d never have to do that again. Now he needed to guide the guys through.

  “Hey, Charlie!” Drayden yelled, over the grinding metal and swooshing blades. “You guys ready?”

  Charlie raised both hands in the air, like he didn’t understand. He cupped his hand around his ear.

  “I said, are you guys ready!” Drayden screamed at the top of his lungs.

  Charlie mouthed something inaudible back.

  Oh no.

  “They can’t hear me,” Drayden said. “We’re too far away. What should we do?”

  “They saw us do it,” Sidney said. “Maybe they’ll copy us.”

  Charlie and Alex stood beside each other. Charlie stretched, as if warming up to play football. He clapped his hands, and rubbed them together.

  Catrice approached the blades. “Charlie! Can you hear me?” she shrieked.

  He didn’t respond.

  She scrunched her face up, and pressed her lips together. “We have to rescue Charlie. We have to do
something.”

  Drayden studied Catrice, with her worried expression and palpable concern. Did she feel she needed to repay Charlie for saving her life, or was it something more?

  Stop being so petty. Drayden shrugged it off and refocused his attention on Charlie and Alex. “My God, are they starting?”

  The first blade flew by to their right. Charlie and Alex stepped out three feet, and stopped, in the path of blade one.

  What were they doing? They could have made it much further.

  Charlie’s eyes flashed right, then left. He grabbed Alex and jerked him backward, jumping out of the blades, back to the start. He raised his hands up in the air, as if he were asking a question.

  Drayden positioned himself in the center, in front of blade ten, following it closely.

  “What are you doing?” Sidney asked. “Are you crazy? We were lucky enough to survive ourselves. You want to push your luck? For Alex?”

  “I have to do this,” Drayden said. “We can’t leave them.” Technically, they could leave them behind. If Charlie and Alex stayed there, they would be exiled, which would increase the other pledges’ chances of being chosen for the Bureau and moving to the Palace. Charlie and Alex were not likely contenders for that Palace spot. Two challenges remained, as well. Though Alex would be useless, they would almost certainly need Charlie.

  Yet those weren’t the only reasons Drayden couldn’t leave them. He needed to save them because it was the right thing to do. It was what Mom would want him to do. They shouldn’t be exiled if he could do something to stop it.

  “Thank you, Drayden,” Catrice said. She pulled him into an embrace. “Please be careful.”

  When she let go, Sidney took her turn to hug him. “You’re so brave, Dray. Good luck.”

  Their words felt so good. He needed that.

  Focus on blade ten. It’s the same thing, just in reverse this time.

  Up to the right, crossing center, up to the left, coming back down, and crossing the center.

  Drayden started. Five steps, and stopped.

  Blade seven whizzed by right.

  He lunged, four steps, and stopped.

  Blade four blew by left.

  He sprinted and dove, barely clearing blade one.

  Charlie caught him before he hit the ground.

  He should have waited for blade one to pass. That was stupid. Reckless. Although his confidence in himself was growing, he shouldn’t become cocky.

  Charlie pulled Drayden into a bear hug. “Oh man, thank you. We were screwed. I can’t believe you came back through that.”

  Alex turned away.

  “Still going to make jokes about leaving you behind, Alex?” Drayden asked. “You ungrateful flunk. You’ve complained about me leaving you behind so many times that when I save your butt, you don’t even appreciate it. You think I owe it to you. I could never do enough. You believe the whole world owes you. What a joke.”

  “I…I don’t…nobody owes me anything,” Alex said.

  Charlie slapped himself in the face a few times. “I’m ready now.”

  Drayden knew he shouldn’t be cocky, but he owned this blade challenge. He’d done it twice now. He knew how fast to go, and when to pause. He’d even improvised on the trip back, diving when he should have stopped, and still survived.

  “Follow my lead, Charlie. We’ll probably stop three times. When we stop, and the blade in front of us crosses, we have to sprint. Clear?”

  “Clearer than Catrice’s eyes,” he replied. He play-punched Drayden in the shoulder. “It’s all good, bud. I know you like her. I’ll stay out of your way. She likes you and not me, anyway.” He chuckled.

  Drayden eyed the ten deadly blades before them with Catrice waiting at the end, wondering if Charlie had only said that because he needed Drayden’s help. Still, it was pretty cool of him.

  “Thanks.”

  Alex stood on the other side of Charlie, probably so Charlie could pull him along. When blade one swung down to the right, they started. They paused at blade four, moved again, paused at blade seven, went again, paused at blade ten, and ran through the finish.

  Catrice hugged Charlie after he passed the final blade.

  “No time to celebrate,” Drayden said. “We have to go. Now.”

  He sprinted down the platform. The Watchers must be freaking out at their success. He held his chin up as he ran. “That all you got?” he screamed.

  Drayden jumped down onto the tracks with the others following him.

  CHAPTER 22

  Everyone’s footsteps and heavy breaths echoed throughout the bleak, narrow tunnel.

  Drayden’s body was a wreck. He’d never been injured like this before, because he’d always been so cautious.

  His ankle wobbled in a mush of tendons and ligaments, his back and head had deep puncture wounds, his arms and legs festered with open rat bites. His whole body ached. For the first time, exhaustion overcame him. He’d never experienced such fatigue. The urge to stop and lie down on the tracks, just for a moment, overwhelmed him.

  Although his lungs felt inflamed from the running, they needed to maintain this pace. The clock indicated thirty-five minutes remaining when they began the last challenge. How long had it taken to cross the blades? They must have burned ten minutes, perhaps more.

  They should reach the next station, Rector Street, in a few minutes. He’d studied the subway map before he’d abandoned it with his backpack. Following Rector Street was the final station—South Ferry. They had approximately twenty minutes to complete the upcoming challenge, the lengthy run to South Ferry, and whatever final challenge waited there. He tried to maintain a positive attitude, but that was going to be damn near impossible. The run from Rector to South Ferry was probably eight to ten minutes alone. For just once, he wished his mind would stop doing calculations. They weren’t quitting, even if the math painted a daunting picture.

  What in the world was left for them to face? Drayden recalled his conversation with Mr. Kale, joking about how he’d have to slay a lion. He was kidding then. It wasn’t so far-fetched anymore.

  He waxed nostalgic, calling to mind Mr. Kale. Drayden had been so naive listening to both him and Wes about entering the Initiation. They had no clue what it entailed. How could they? They were only guilty of believing in him. If they only knew. The rock wall, the bomb, the underground pool, the swinging blades—the Bureau was indeed trying to kill them.

  Like they had killed his mother, and that’s what this was truly about. Even if Mr. Kale and Wes had known the truth about the Initiation, or Drayden himself had, it didn’t matter. The Bureau murdered his mother. Now he needed to save what family he had left. That desire powered him through the burning lungs, and the legs suffused with lactic acid, which was like running with cinderblocks on his feet. Only crossing the finish line would suffice when he was so close to the end.

  Mr. Kale was right about bravery. While often dormant, it existed inside everyone. Now that he’d tasted it, there was no going back. Drayden could finally be free of the burden he’d carried since early childhood, when bigger kids bullied him for being skinny or too smart. His and Tim’s early lives had followed the same pattern, with the bullying. That formed the foundation of their friendship too. Drayden never figured out the truth about bravery, while Tim had. Even though it cost Tim his life, he was positive Tim wouldn’t change a thing about the way he’d lived it.

  Drayden pictured Tim and his mom looking down on him now, their arms around each other, both cheering for him. His eyes watered. That he still advanced in the Initiation, and Tim did not, wasn’t fair. He was alive, and Tim was dead. He wasn’t sure he could ever forgive himself or get over Tim’s death. It would haunt him forever.

  Drayden should have let Tim handle the bomb. Defusing a bomb, or other physical acts of bravery, were Tim’s strengths, not his. Instead of struggl
ing to do everything himself to prove he could, he should take advantage of everyone’s abilities. Bravery had nothing to do with it. In fact, it was intelligence, just a different type. It was common sense, street smarts, but intelligence nonetheless.

  If the upcoming challenge required athleticism and physical skill, Sidney and Charlie should shoulder the burden. That provided the highest probability of success. Attempting to lead it himself, to prove his courage to himself and everyone else, would be stupid. The bravery challenges were intelligence challenges as well, as it turned out. It wasn’t enough to simply be brave. Drayden needed to be brave and smart. This just happened to be what the Initiation was all about.

  “How much farther?” Charlie yelled.

  “Almost there I think,” Drayden said. Though Rector was far, they’d been running for a while.

  “If the Bureau wants to kill us,” Charlie said, “for the next challenge they should just have us run around the subway station a few times. My legs feel like they’re made out of lettuce.”

  “Only two stations left!” Drayden shouted. “We go in hard. No hesitating. No fear.”

  “Why don’t you tell that to my boiled noodle legs?” Charlie said.

  Drayden wanted everybody laser-focused for these last two challenges. “I’m serious, Charlie! We need you.”

  “Booyah, Dray-man,” Charlie said.

  “Charlie!” Alex shouted.

  Drayden shook his head. Charlie was actually becoming his friend. “What’s the matter, Alex? Charlie’s not allowed to talk to me? Afraid I’m gonna steal your best friend?”

  Alex eyed him for a moment, his face twitching. He carried on in silence.

  “I’m with you, Dray,” Sidney said.

  Drayden pumped his fist at her.

  The tracks curved gently to the left. A faint glow emerged ahead. That was it. Rector Street.

  Drayden stopped at the staircase to the platform and faced the other pledges. “Second-to-last challenge. Follow my lead. Whatever’s up there, we’ll get through it. Our biggest challenge right now is time.”

  A clock hung in the Rector Street station. Time remaining: 00:18:47, 00:18:46…