Savage Run (27 page)

“
I think I have it,” Arthor
says after an inordinately short amount of time.

“
Seriously?” In school, he
used to be a whiz at memorizing preposterously long words, words
that I still don’t know what they mean.

Arthor climbs into the first one, his hands
running across the panel of buttons—a smile on his face. “I’ve
always wanted to go into space.”

“
Yeah, I kind of figured
that from your overenthusiastic reaction earlier.”

“
If I were a Master, that’s
what I would want to be—an astronaut. What better place to
be?”

I can think of a few actually. “Good luck up
there.” I reach my hand out to shake his and he takes it, pulling
me in for a long hug, his damp suit pressing against mine.

“
Meet you back down here,”
he says sincerely.

He releases me, and I watch him press his
index finger onto a small, red reader, causing the hatch to open.
He gets inside and the next thing I know, the hatch closes and
white smoke billows out from beneath the spacecraft. I step back
and watch him being catapulted into space, vanishing into the
clouds. I really hope I see him again.

I study the sequence some more, and when I
finally think I have it, I get into the spacecraft right next to
where Arthor’s used to stand. The door automatically closes at the
same time as blue and white lights appear on the dashboard. The
spacecraft hums for a moment before a cloud of white smoke swells
around it, and two seconds later, my head feels like it’s spinning
out of control, my stomach like it’s being wrung inside out. The
ship shakes violently, and I close my eyes afraid they’ll come out
of their sockets. I repeat the long sequence in my head to keep
myself from becoming too nervous.

Slowly, and the higher I climb, the shaking
decreases. Once I reach a certain height, the ride is so smooth, it
feels like I’ve stopped moving. I open my eyes and see a black sky
dotted with thousands of stars. Below me is the Earth—blue, white
and green—and for a moment, I forget that I’m afraid. I pass an
orbiting satellite, the light gleaming off of it. My spacecraft
heads toward a large, gray space station—two identical
diamond-shaped vessels held together by three rods—and enters via
an oval opening. Was this space station built specifically for the
Savage Run?

Gliding inside a circular atrium, I am
sucked into one of the many small cells in the wall, and the narrow
passageway seems to be lit the same way the inside of the UVC
station was: with illuminate walls. I have no idea what this
obstacle will be, which makes it difficult to mentally prepare for
it, and even harder to stay calm. My spacecraft stops, and when the
door opens, I get out in an excited hurry. To my surprise, Arthor
is waiting there with a Unifer.

“
Follow me,” the Unifer
says, and marches down the silver corridor.

“
What’s the obstacle?” I
ask.

He doesn’t reply.

“
Do they control you so
much that you can’t even talk?” I ask.

The Unifer remains speechless. After taking
a right and up some stairs, he stops in front of an invisishield
door. I’ve only heard of these types of shield doors that no one or
nothing can get through—not even bullets or fire.

“
Stay here,” he says to me,
waving his hand in front of the door so the clear shield vanishes.
The Unifer instructs Arthor to go into the room next to me, and
Arthor does as he’s told.

I step into the empty room and peer out the
apple-sized window. The other diamond-shaped section of the ship is
on the opposite side of the gulf. Looking over at Arthor, through
the transparent walls, I note how tense his body is.

The Unifer steps out of the
room and with the swoosh of the door, the invisishield is back up.
He presses a button on the outside and says, “Listen very
carefully. Exhale all the air in your lungs and then to
not
inhale again,
understand?”

I nod my head, as does Arthor.

He continues. “And you must each punch in
the code to continue on.”

Before I’m able to recognize that this is
the commencement of our next obstacle, the wall separating space
and me vanishes, and I’m sucked out into the black gulf. Everything
happens so fast; I hold my breath, the freezing air assaults my
skin, and momentarily, my legs and arms flail, not finding anything
to grab onto. I open my mouth to gasp, but instead, the air is
extracted out of my lungs. Remembering what the Unifer said, I
close my mouth so I won’t inhale.

Arthor is a few feet away from me—too far
removed to grab hold of. My eyeballs feel very dry even though I
feel like I’m crying. Fortunately I’m not being pulled into the big
void of space, but I am moving quickly toward the unit on the other
side. Right before I collide with the exterior wall, I reach my
hands and feet out, and then crash against a freezing metal
door.

Fumbling, I grab hold of the handle so I
don’t float off into the void again. It’s only been about ten
seconds, but I have to take a breath soon or I feel like I’ll pass
out. A keyboard with numbers, letters and symbols are to the right
of the door.

That’s what the code is for—to get back
inside. My first instinct is to start entering the symbols right
away—before I can think even—but I don’t know whether I only have
one shot at getting this right or whether I will have more
chances.

Looking over at Arthor, who’s at another
door, I see him punching numbers and symbols. The keyboard flashes
green and his door opens, taking him back inside. I stare at my own
keyboard again and start to enter in the code, but when I get about
halfway through, I freeze. I can’t remember it. Within seconds, the
keyboard flashes red.

Should I start over? Continue where I left
off? I need to take a breath! In a desperate attempt to get some
oxygen, I inhale, but instead of getting air, the saliva on my
tongue starts to boil. I enter the code from the beginning
again—this time able to recall the entire sequence—and the door
opens and sucks me inside. The instant the door closes, I fall to
the slick floor, gasping for air. The room almost turns black, but
the more I breathe, the lighter the room becomes.

“
Are you all right?” Arthor
asks through the clear wall. His voice sounds hollow.

Feeling my arms tremble, I look over at him.
“That was just a nightmare. I can’t believe I remembered the
code.”

He touches his fingertips against the wall.
Standing up, I meet him there. “I wish I had your memory.”

“
You passed the test. You
had what you needed at the time you needed it.”

“
I’d rather run a hundred
marathons than have to go through that kind of thing again.” I look
out the window and see other participants floating through space
toward other doors. None of them should have to die this way. Not
even Johnny.

We wait a few minutes for the door to open,
but the door remains closed.

“
Maybe they’re waiting for
us all to return together,” Arthor says.

I stare aimlessly out into the blackness
beyond the see-through wall. “Or do you think they’ll make us go
through that again?”

“
Why would you think
that?”

“
Because our spacecrafts
are on the other side,” I say.

Like an answer to my question, the wall in
front of me vanishes again, and I go sailing out into the
emptiness. I know better what I’m doing now, so I’m not as
terrified as I was the first time, but can one ever really stop
fearing for one’s life?

This time, Arthor and I float farther apart
than before. Just like before, shortly after I hit the side of the
space station and latch onto a handle. Right as I’m about to punch
in the code, I read the plaque next to it.

Enter the code backwards

What? Backwards? Having no time to think
about it, I begin to key in the code, and for some reason, I am
able to enter it without really struggling. The door opens. I’m
back inside a room full of oxygen. How did I manage that so easily?
I look for Arthor. He was just at the door three doors down from
me. To my surprise, the backdoor to my room opens, and I rush into
the corridor to search for Arthor. But he isn’t there. I run to the
door that I think is his, gazing through it, and there he is still
outside punching in the code. He sees me and bangs on the shield
with a fist. He can’t do it! I slam my hand against the
invisishield.

“
Arthor!”

He shakes his head, as if to clear it, and
his brows grow dark over his eyes. Punching in the code again, his
face turns redder. And redder. Purple. I stop breathing.
“Arthor!”

Finally the shield opens and he is pulled
into the room again. My hands rest against the transparent sliding
door, my eyes intently on him.

Coughing, he looks up, saliva dripping from
his mouth to the floor, and when our eyes meet, I smile.

The Unifer leads us back to our spacecrafts,
and soon I’m reentering the atmosphere. The spacecraft starts to
vibrate. Then it shakes. I grab onto the straps of my harness and
close my eyes, surrendering to the jagged movements. Approaching
the ground, the shaking decreases, and I reopen my eyes. My
spaceship has slowed down considerably, like it’s floating down
from the sky.

Below me, I see two participants hopping
onto bikes. I smile. Our next challenge should be a breeze for me.
I see someone sprinting toward the bikes; I think it’s Arthor.
There are three spacecrafts that lie in a green field next to where
the hundred or so other spacecrafts wait. The rest must still not
have made it here yet, so I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll be
able to finish in the top fifty percent. Then I notice, to the side
of the three spacecrafts, stands a guy dressed in black. He almost
looks like Johnny, but it’s difficult to see him from here. I
notice that he is carrying a long, cylinder-shaped object on his
shoulder and he’s aiming the device directly toward me.

Every single muscle in my body freezes.
What’s happening?

Just as I finish thinking the thought, a
sudden burst of light flares from the guy’s shoulder, launching a
missile.

Three seconds. That’s exactly how long it
takes for the missile to collide with my spacecraft. And my last
waking thought is I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not
anymore. Finally, I’m free.

Chapter 21

When I wake up, all I can feel is an intense
burning sensation across my abdomen, hands, and face. The burns
feel like a thousand needles stabbing my skin at once and my
muscles keep tensing, unable to relax through the pain. The air
around me vibrates, creating a buzzing sound, and the surface
beneath my back is cold and unyielding.

Where am I?

When I try to open my eyes,
my eyelids stick together. I eventually manage to lift my right
eyelid and see that I’m inside a white cell without doors or
windows. There’s
a symbol on one of the
walls that looks like a rod of lightening. The cell must be
electrified.

After the missile hit my spacecraft, there
was a bright light, a plume of flames, and black, thick smoke.
That’s all I remember before everything went black. President
Volkov must have found out my secret after Johnny tipped him off. I
can’t think of anyone I hate more right now than Johnny. And was
that Johnny down there? It was too hard to tell.

But somehow, having President Volkov find
out comes as a relief. Now I don’t have to hide anymore, pretend to
be someone I’m not, put on a façade just so I can race to be free;
there’s freedom in the truth, however small that freedom might be.
My chest slumps. I was so stupid to enter the Savage Run; I should
just have stayed home, but then again, I couldn’t have because then
Master Douglas would have killed Gemma and me.

Wait, no—the memory of Gemma being shot
comes as a sudden stab to my chest. She’s already dead. Gemma! How
could I forget? I sob only once, for the contraction of my abdomen
feels like my skin is being ripped off my flesh. I try to sit up,
but even with the tiniest of movements, I wince in agony. Every
inch of my body hurts, and I’m certain I have more than one broken
bone. How could I not? Having fallen from the sky.

Studying my hands, I see
that the skin is red and blistered. I’m afraid to look, but the
rest of my body must be equally as burned—if not more.
For the next few minutes, I lie as motionless as
I can, but there’s no relief from the pain whether I’m moving or
lying still.

Finally, pushing through the pain, I gather
the little strength I have and sit up. Screaming, spitting and
groaning as I pant, I rise to my feet. My right foot feels like
there’s something loose inside, and it hurts so much that I can’t
put any pressure on it. I go to lean on one of the walls, but then
I remember that they’re electrified.

“
Help!” I yell. I can’t
stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks, and when they do,
they sting the raw flesh on my face. “Help!”

I wait in the obscure chamber. Wait to be
killed, or wait for someone to rescue me. President Volkov knows;
it’s the only explanation. But if he found out I am a girl and he
wanted me out of Savage Run, couldn’t he just have shot me dead?
Maybe he’ll think I will go away if he sends me back home. Or maybe
he’s not certain that I’m a girl and he wants to verify it before
he kills me. On the other hand, the thought is a little
ridiculous—I hardly think President Volkov has time to deal with a
young girl like me—but why else did all this happen?