Z 2134

by Platt, Sean

  And then she saw something the man had not — a small red-haired girl, who couldn’t have been an hour older than 12, the earliest age allowed into The Darwin Games, racing from the woods toward him. The girl was holding a wooden board over her head as she ran. The man must’ve heard the little girl because he turned back, but he was too late.

  The girl swung, and the back of the board smacked into the man’s head and stuck there as the man fell face first into the snow. The man was wounded but not yet dead.

  The girl ran to grab the man’s sword from where he’d dropped it, but it must’ve been too heavy for her because she dropped it, then went back and started yanking the board from the man’s head, where it was still stuck. It was then that Ana realized the board must’ve had nails in it.

  The girl pulled the board free and began bashing the man again and again, until he stopped moving. She looked around and froze for a moment when it seemed like she was looking right at Ana.

  Ana’s heart leaped into her throat, suddenly afraid the girl would come after her next.

  Instead, the girl scurried off from the direction she’d come, board in hand.

  No matter how many times Ana had seen the brutality on live TV, nothing prepared her for the brutality of in-person gore. She stared at the crimson-soaked corpse, stunned.

  Just beyond the burning shed, Ana spotted a handful of players working together to stave off a sea of approaching zombies who were streaming in from the north end of the woods. It looked like there were as many as 40, the entire swarm seeming to move faster than normal, though she had no idea if they were actually faster, or if it was the difference between living it and seeing it on TV.

  She wasn’t sure if the rest of the players were among the dead, had taken off into the woods, or what, but it seemed like these were the last humans on the Halo. She squinted her eyes trying to see past the flames and billowing smoke.

  Ana gasped, seeing Liam’s long hair whipping back and forth as he came into view, swinging a machete with wild abandon. Seeing Liam fight for his life, with a machete no less, made Ana think of her father, flooding her with an aching guilt she couldn’t afford to nurse.

  Liam cut four zombies to nothing in twice as many seconds. Helping him was a large, black-bearded man swinging an oversized mallet into one of the zombie’s skulls, sending it to a twitching heap on the ground.

  A horn brayed in the distance, and though she’d heard the horn countless times before, it still filled her with icy panic.

  The Fire Wall!

  Ana stood frozen, not knowing what to do next. She’d completely forgotten about the Fire Wall.

  Between 10 and 15 minutes into each game, a massive wall of fire erupted through a seam in the earth. The seam, which was made of a six-foot-wide metal pipe, ran north and south for miles in both directions, across the Halo and through a charred clearing in the woods. The snow around it was already melting, and she watched as the thaw created a dark line that split the Halo into halves.

  From her angle, it seemed as if Liam’s group was practically on top of the seam. They would have to pick a side — right or left, east or west — and get there immediately.

  Ana looked down to see that she was on the right side of the seam by a few feet. The Fire Wall was meant to divide players early on. She couldn’t risk being on the wrong side of the seam once the Fire Wall was turned on. The Wall lasted for at least a full day, and if she wasn’t on the same side as Liam once it went on, it might mean that she’d never see him again.

  She’d have to get closer to Liam, and quickly, in order to determine what side of the seam he and his group were on, as she was too far away to tell with certainty. But she’d have to risk being seen by the zombies and being too close to the seam once it erupted.

  She ran forward, out of the woods, feeling the cold air burn her lungs.

  As she raced closer, she saw that Liam and his group had killed all but 10 or so zombies. They were, however, down to just three people. Liam, Black Beard, and a skinny, curly-haired guy with a pistol. They were, to her delight, on the right side of the seam, though. But they were also perilously close once the Fire Wall was turned on.

  Liam and Black Beard worked in tandem, slicing through the remaining zombies as the third man took down zombie after zombie with nearly perfect precision with his pistol.

  The group continued drifting toward her and was 50 yards away, close enough to see her, if any of them bothered to look up. She stopped, not daring to go any closer and risk being seen by the zombies. Once they’d killed all but four zombies that had yet to reach them, Ana waved her hands over her head, trying to draw Liam’s attention.

  The horn’s second blast warned of 30 seconds to go before the Fire Wall burst through the seam.

  Suddenly, the skinny man with the gun turned the pistol at Black Beard and Liam, who were looking away from him, at the oncoming zombies. Liam was in the lead, closest to the zombies, with Black Beard just behind him, holding his mallet, readying for more deadly swings. They were both oblivious that their partner was about to betray them.

  “Liam!” Ana screamed, earning the attention of all three men, along with several of the surrounding zombies.

  The moment froze, and several things happened at once.

  The skinny man fired point-blank at the back of Black Beard’s head, sending the big man to the ground in an instant. At the same time, Liam had spotted Ana and was frozen as their eyes locked onto each other. He opened his mouth and screamed at her, waving her toward the forest as the zombies began to run after her.

  Oh God!

  The skinny guy then turned his gun on Liam, who was still looking at Ana and waving her away. She wondered if Liam hadn’t noticed the skinny guy murder Black Beard. Perhaps he’d heard the shot but figured the man was just shooting more zombies. She tried to scream and warn him of the gunman’s threat.

  As the skinny guy took aim, Liam surprised both the gunman and Ana by swinging his machete without looking. The blind swing sliced through the man’s gun hand, lopping it off at the wrist in a swoop and sending his hand, still holding the gun, sailing through the air and into the ground where the snow had already melted away.

  As the skinny man screamed, his left hand clutching the bloody fountain spraying from his stump, Liam thrust his blade through the man’s chest, then ripped it back out, grabbed the gun from the man’s dead hand, and looked up at Ana.

  The horn screamed again as the four zombies raced toward Ana, now 50 feet away. Liam fired twice but missed both times.

  No way he could kill all four before they reached her; there wasn’t time. Zombies rarely fell at a single bullet unless you hit them in the head. Even if he had more than the scant seconds he did, there was a damned good chance he’d wind up shooting her instead.

  The zombies were a dozen yards off, and Ana was again frozen with fear.

  The horn brayed a final time — five seconds until the Fire Wall would ignite. Ana looked down. She was practically on top of the seam and would be fried in moments if she didn’t move one way or another.

  To the right were the zombies, fast approaching.

  To the left, nothing but woods.

  Liam was 20 yards behind, racing toward her and firing shots as he ran. She moved without thinking — racing across the line, glancing back long enough to see that three of the four zombies were following, but still on the other side of the seam.

  She closed her eyes and pushed herself to run faster, hoping she had managed to lure the zombies into the path of the coming fire.

  Then the line bisecting the field erupted in a wall of ungodly heat behind her, hissing loudly, charring the debris that crossed the seam. Something nearby exploded so loudly, she thought for a moment the explosion was closer than it was.

  Ana dared to look back and stumbled, falling face first into the snow.

  Ana rolled over onto her back to make sure the zombies weren’t still on her trail.

  Then she saw them, charred bl
ack bodies caught within the fiery curtain, screaming as they died again. However, one of them refused to die, stumbling out from the screaming blaze, still on fire, its arms reaching out and waving madly as it awkwardly stumbled toward her.

  Ana forced herself to get up and run toward the woods as the burning monster followed. But before she’d made it 20 feet, she heard the creature hit the ground, surrendering its charred remains to fate.

  Ana stopped in her tracks and turned back, desperately scanning along the Fire Wall for any sign of Liam.

  A lump hardened in her throat.

  Oh God, what if he was caught in the flames?

  Ana swallowed, feeling sick to her stomach when she spotted a dark shape in the fire, a body.

  Oh God! Liam!

  Then she heard a scream above the fire. “Ana!”

  “Liam!” she screamed back, looking up and down the flaming wall for him.

  “Are you OK?” he asked.

  “Yeah, they’re dead!” she shouted over the loud flames.

  “Face the fire and look to your right!” he screamed. “Are you?”

  “Yes!” she yelled, “Why?”

  “That’s south. Stay in the woods and head south. I’ll find you where the fire ends!”

  “OK!” Ana cried, swiping at her stinging eyes.

  “Be careful!” he shouted. “I’m going now, moving away from the fire. We won’t be able to hear each other again!”

  “OK!” Ana screamed. “I’ll meet you where the fire ends!”

  She waited for a reply.

  None came.

  After 10 seconds, she retreated into the forest, glad to know Liam was alive and looking to help, however temporary that assistance might be.

  As Ana trudged deeper into the woods, she tried to ignore the constant buzz from the Network orb, hovering above and broadcasting her every move.

  CHAPTER 11 — Adam Lovecraft

  The TV hall inside Chimney Rock erupted as the horn signaled the coming Fire Wall.

  Adam’s emotions were balled up and thick in his throat, trapped between fear, terror, and numb humiliation as the many spectators inside the orphanage’s TV hall had one eye on the spectacle on the screen and the other on his reactions. Some pretended they weren’t watching him, but most didn’t bother to hide it.

  And he refused to give them anything more than the blank mask he gave the TV as he chewed on his inner cheek and dug his nails into his leg.

  While he’d managed to hide most of his emotions, it wasn’t like they weren’t tearing him up on the inside.

  Ana was barely gone, and Adam would never see her again. Every time he saw her on the screen and the camera closed in on her face, he saw the fear and terror, and it tore right through him.

  His new friends were all around him; Tommy, Morgan, and Daniel, each dividing his attention between the oversized monitors blanketing the long length of the wall and trying to talk to him. Fortunately, they were also talking to some girls in the front of the hall, which kept most of their attention.

  Adam kept his face blank, showing them nothing as one side of each monitor showed Ana running from the fire and the other showed a near-frantic Liam running behind her.

  Ana cleared the Fire Wall as Liam’s feed went temporarily dark, heightening tension as the producers liked to do. Ana had just barely escaped, momentarily safe as flames swallowed the three zombies. Then one of the monsters emerged from the Fire Wall, completely on fire but still walking.

  Adam sank into his chair, glad he was near the back corner of the room. He sighed, still trying not to cry as he watched his sister narrowly escape both zombie and fire.

  Once Ana was safe, the whispers surrounding Adam grew louder. He could see several kids staring from the far sides of his peripheral vision and felt the bristles of others watching him.

  Being watched was worse than being invisible — how he had spent his time at Chimney Rock, and most of life, thus far. When he and Ana first arrived at the orphanage, Adam was happy to wear his usual cloak of invisibility. The last thing he wanted was what he’d always had — people laughing at his expense, making fun of him and his “weirdness.” He was content to just go to class, spend time with his sister, and keep to himself.

  But now that his entire family was gone, he felt truly alone for the first time in his life. And he wished that he’d been wired differently so he had an easier time making friends.

  He thought of his father and how easy it always seemed for him to speak to strangers, even when he didn’t want to.

  Adam watched the screen as it shifted to show a girl with long black hair climbing out onto the wide branch of a tree, then lying flat against the bark as a couple of zombies passed below.

  I hope they see her.

  Come on, stupid zombies, look up.

  Immediately, Adam felt horrible.

  While others openly rooted on the zombies against players they didn’t like, or hadn’t bet on, Adam had never wished for a player to die. But every player who died who wasn’t his sister put Ana a bit closer to City 7.

  He wondered what the odds were that Ana could actually make it to City 7. He smiled a bit as he imagined both his sister and father living in City 7, free and happy. But then when he imagined that scenario, and him still being stuck in City 6, his smile faltered.

  If Ana somehow wins, maybe I should get myself arrested. Maybe all three of us could live in City 7, all happily ever after.

  He watched as his new friends laughed with the girls. He thought about his father again. It was three years ago when Adam first realized just how different he was from other kids. He suspected that his parents had always known. It would explain the frequent whispers when people thought he wasn’t paying attention. But he’d never really thought much about it until three years ago, when kids started picking on him more harshly. They called him names like freak, Quarter Boy, and stupid.

  It was three years ago when he nearly broke down in tears and asked his father why it was so hard for him to make friends.

  “Wanna know the secret?” his dad had asked.

  Adam nodded.

  “Double I and F,” he smiled. “Remember that and you’ll always be fine.”

  “What does that mean?” Adam said.

  His father smiled. “It means be interesting, interested, friendly and funny. That’s the formula for making friends. It’s never been more complicated than that.”

  Still trying not to cry, Adam said, “How can I be interesting if I’m actually boring?”

  Adam’s dad shook his head. “No one’s boring unless they think they are. So maybe it’s time you stopped sentencing yourself to the lie.” His father smiled then winked, like he always did when trying to cheer up his son. “Being interesting doesn’t mean making stuff up to make people like you. It means framing who you are in a riveting light. You know all those books you love to read?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Well, those books should give you an endless list of things to talk about. People love stories, Adam, and they always will. Keep reading and you’ll never run out. Beyond the stories,” his father put his arm around Adam’s shoulder, “lies the other side of interesting, and that’s being interested. As much as people love stories, every beating heart wants another ear to listen to theirs. Treasure their words like they were your own and respond to what they’re truly trying to say, and not just that surface layer. Any time you’re talking about things that are interesting to someone else, you’re instantly more interesting to them.”

  “What about friendly and funny?”

  His dad laughed. “You’re already friendly,” he punched Adam lightly on the shoulder. “Problem is, you’re too shy. There’s nothing wrong with that, really, but it does make it harder in the making-friends department. If you don’t have the courage to say hi first, that’s fine, you might grow out of that. Even if you don’t, you can always smile with your eyes. But no matter what, you have to genuinely enjoy meeting new people, or they’ll see th
rough your smile.”

  Before Adam could push the next protest from his mouth, his dad said, “Being funny doesn’t mean being a comedian, it means being able to recognize life’s regular humor. And if you don’t think something’s funny, at least try to see why someone would. The more you see humor in your world, the easier it is to draw it into conversation.” He tightened his embrace. “Truth is, Son, making friends is about being yourself more than anything else.”

  After a few months in Chimney Rock, Adam finally listened to his father’s words and was shocked when he found that his father was right. For the first time ever, Adam had friends. Tommy, Morgan, and Daniel all seemed to genuinely like him. They thought he was interesting, seemed interested in what he had to say, and laughed at most of his jokes.

  Still, even with new friends around, nothing replaced the familiar comfort of the people who really knew you — family.

  “Holy crap!” Tommy cried, “Check out the black-haired bitch!”

  “Don’t call her a bitch,” Daniel said. “You’ll get us in trouble.”

  Everyone turned to the screen as it showed a slow-mo replay of the girl with black hair dropping from the tree and launching her heel hard into a lone zombie’s chest. The zombie hit the ground, screaming as the girl smashed her heel repeatedly into his face.

  Morgan leaned into Adam’s ear and whispered. “Hey, Adam, let’s hit the mess hall. There’s something we wanna show you.”

  Adam shook his head, then turned to Morgan and met his blue eyes. “I don’t want to leave the hall,” he said. “I don’t want to miss what happens with Ana.”

  “You kidding, man?” Morgan ran his hand through his curly blond ringlets. “They’re going to rebroadcast this shit a billion fucking times!” His voice hit the air with a whispered hiss, low enough that none of them could possibly get in trouble for his dirty mouth.

  Daniel said, “Nothing ever happens the first day, not after the Halo anyway, and we’ll only be gone for a minute or two.”