Wheel of Fortune (11 page)

I know one thing though: the Summit, Timmy, and Prophet Xitler will give us hell for this moment. At least we are back again to ten survivors. Woodsy is our new member.

“What an awfully nice day in Dizny Battlefieldz,” Timmy mumbles. Although he’s jealous and irritated, the audience still loves him. “First a kiss in the Breathing Dome and then this fluffy sacrifice thingy.”

Kiss in the dome?

The audience goes “Uhmmmmm,” as if Timmy shouldn’t have said that.

What is going on?

“Wait!” I say into my iAm. “What kiss in the dome?”

Bellona furrows her brows. “Did I miss that?”

“Don’t look at me.” I take a step back. “I know nothing about this. Who kissed who in the dome? It was all blood and gore.”

“In the middle of all this fighting?” Bellona wonders.

The crowd goes, “Awwww.”

I blink.

“Timmy?” I demand. “Timmmyyyyy!”

“Okay. Okay.” He kicks the empty air, giving up. This drives him crazy. “You have been kissed in the dome, sugar-bear. What? You didn’t feel it?”

I am blushing red. Did this really happen? What? No. I wasn’t kissed in the Breathing Dome. I was fighting for my life. They are talking about me as if I wasn’t there. Did one of the Bullies try to kiss me?

“You sneaky girl.” Bellona nudges me.

Suddenly, the memory hits me right in my chest, like an arrow of fire.

The gas mask!

When Leo saved me, and I was almost unconscious. When I thought he was Woo. That gummy sweet feeling on my lips, and I thought it was the rubbery part of the inside of the mask.

I feel mad all of a sudden. I turn back to Leo. “How dare you?” I tap my foot against the ground.

Pepper, holding Woodsy’s hand, laughs at me.

“What?” Leo says with his unemotional, unanimated posture.

“You kissed me while I was unconscious?” I accuse him. “Without my permission? Who do you think I am? Snow White, being kissed by a pervert prince?”

The audience laughs. I know most of the girls in the crowd favor Leo, and restrain my anger.

“You believe this loon? Grow up, will ya,” Leo says monotonously.

“I can’t believe you kissed me while I was dying.” I punch him in the face. He doesn’t move.

The crowd laughs more and more.

“This show is turning into a Bachelor show,” Timmy grunts. “Where is the blood? Where is the hatred? This show needs an extreme makeover.”

“I saved you,” Leo says. “Why in the world would I kiss you behind your back?” He laughs at himself, as if the thought is so preposterous to him. “If I wanted to, I would have done it. Why would I deny it?”

The audience goes nuts, especially the girls. “Go, Leo.”

Go, Leo? Didn’t they see him kiss me?

“Not that I really want to,” Leo adds.

Why is he so mean to me?

“Can you please play the scene again, Timmy?” I ask politely, secretly kicking myself in the head for needing Timmy to help me.

“No can do,” says Timmy. “I have seven million viewers online. Half of them didn’t see the show yesterday, so I can’t lose them on recap. They will be searching for this scene all night long.” I am amazed he says this aloud. He does not shy away, even one bit, from letting everyone know that this show manipulates people’s emotion in every way to make money. “And I stopped anonymous uploading into the network so none of you, my lovely audience, can share the scene before the recap.” He scratches his chin. “If there were actually a scene, and I wasn’t bluffing.”

“But you said—”

“Oh, you’re taking my word for it now?” Timmy interrupts me. “I’ll leave this between you and Zambo. All night long you’ll have to push him to admit what he did — if he did. I love my job.” He pulls two hands into a fist, raising one knee in between.

“I love the way you’ve entertained us so far,” a low grungy voice drops in. It’s Prophet Xitler.

The crowd is quiet. They all stand in respect for Prophet Xitler. They make a V sign with their fingers.

“Not again,” Leo mumbles, hitting fist into hand. “This sign is a peace sign. You don’t salute this goblin with it. What has happened to the world?”

“Shut up,” Bellona whispers. “Get a hold of yourself. We need you with us.” I don’t know how Bellona feels about the kiss.

Woodsy responds with a V sign. Pepper stops him. “We don’t do that here, baby,” Suddenly there is a passionate sweet-talker in her. I love it. Not that the presence of a new boyfriend turned her into a new person. It just helped the awesome person inside her to surface.

“Sorry,” says Woodsy. “I just arrived down here.”

“Welcome to the Playa,” Vern mutters. “From now on, you won’t have time to catch your breath.”

Prophet Xitler sits back in his throne. Now we all feel more comfortable.

“Okay,” I tell Timmy. “I am not going to whine and ask you to show the recording. Just promise me my family is all right.”

“No, they aren’t,” says Timmy.

“How dare you? I shot Orin eventually, and we entertained all of you like you have never dreamed of.” I talk to the nearest camera, hoping the audience will help me.

“Your family is not all right because you don’t have a family any more,” says Timmy bluntly. “That was the deal. As for those you once used to call family, they are perfectly all right.”

I let out a sigh, one that comforts me and hurts at the same time. I’ve saved my family by declaring I am not one of them. What matters is that they are all right and that my actions will not affect them anymore.

As for me, I am on my own now. As Leo said, this is the time when I have to grow up.

Timmy announces the end for today, although the audience wants more. Timmy convinces them that we, the Monsters, need to catch our breath so tomorrow’s games won’t be boring. How thoughtful.

What more can he ask for? All that fame and success and ten members guaranteed to show up for the games tomorrow.

“I still have a question—” I raise my hand at the camera.

“Not again.” Leo’s face knots as he grabs my arm. “I told you I didn’t kiss you.”

“Who said I have a question about you?” I look at him and pull his hand away. “How about food?” I ask Timmy. “Can’t you see we’re starving here?” I say. Leo looks embarrassed. “A girl needs to eat, you know.” I grin at Leo. “It’s not all blood and kissing.”

“Woodsy has two bags full of snacks,” says Timmy. “That will do until tomorrow, because tomorrow is going to be really meaty. Really meaty.” Timmy stops for an effect and raises his hands. “Tomorrow we have our favorite part of the game. Carnivore!”

The audience complains to Timmy that as much that they love the Carnivore part, they hate it too because they don’t get to see the real action in the white surroundings. They complain that all they do is watch the white Monsterium with vague movements until they see the red blood on sand and know that the game is over.

“Don’t worry, Faya,” says Timmy. “I promise you. We’ve fixed that. Tomorrow’s game has slight changes, and you will love it.”

I don’t want to hear about Carnivore now. I don’t want to know if Leo kissed me. All I care about is that I am starving.

We stare back at Woodsy as if he were food himself. “Where is the damn food?”

Sitting by the Fire

After we take the Monorail back through the tunnel we settle in the forest, emptying Woodsy Brown’s bags full of canned food, drinks, and candy. It turns out the bags were Woodsy’s idea, not the Summit’s.

“How come there are no animals in this forest?” wonders Woodsy.

I turn to Leo. Although I don’t want to talk to him, he must have an idea. Leo’s story still doesn’t make sense to me, let alone his behavior. I am still not sure if he did kiss me in the Breathing Dome. I can’t hide it. I’d be happy if he did, but his distance and secrecy are intolerable.

That would have been the strangest first kiss ever.

“I don’t know,” says Leo. “We haven’t been into the heart of the forest. If there are animals, and they aren’t hungry and dangerous, they must be hiding from us.”

If there are animals, that would be where Woo is hiding.

“I doubt the forest is inhabited in any shape or form,” says Bellona. “The Summit would be giving us hope to survive in the Playa. We could hunt and eat animals and stay here forever hiding from them. This Dizny Battlefield is an abandoned place with only deadly toys to play with, like a haunted house in one of those old horror movies.”

“But there was that incident in the fifth Monster Show when people from the Breakfast Club had sneaked into the battlefields with buckets full of planting seeds and ten pairs of animals,” Pepper, the educated, claims. “Like Zoah’s ark, you know? The animals were never caught though.”

“It’s Noah’s ark,” Leo corrects her impatiently. Pepper and Woodsy roll their eyes as if Leo doesn’t know what he is talking about.

“The animals could have easily died,” says Vern. “There is nothing to feed on here. I think it was a foolish attempt from the Breakfast Club.”

“How do you know that stuff?” Bellona asks Pepper. “You were what, eleven, in the fifth game?”

“We’re taught everything about the game from the day we’re born,” Woodsy says, holding Pepper’s hand. “We were taught that this is our fate, written on a stone called the Rosetta Stone in the highest place of the Royal Tower where Prophet Xitler lives.”

Leo puffs again, gritting his teeth, and looking upward at the night sky. “God help me not to kill myself,” he prays.

“Come down,” Bellona laughs. “My guess is that the Rosetta Stone is the name of something so different from what they said it was, and has a greater purpose, and its history has been altered by Prophet Xitler. Right?”

“You’re damn right,” says Leo.

“Since we don’t ask you how you know all of this, or where you were the last four years, or what you’re really doing here in the games, please stop complaining,” says Bellona.

I would have said that myself to Leo, but I am not talking to him.

“I am here because I am being punished.” Leo shrugs his shoulders, sounding defensive, which he never does. “I tried to escape Faya but I never did. I hid here and there, homeless on the streets, never knowing how to escape. Finally, I decided I’d better surrender myself to the authorities and declare that I was wrong singing the song. I had to do it to survive, since I couldn’t find help being banned and on my own. So when I did, Xitler decided to send me to the games as punishment. That’s why I am here.”

The one obvious thing that proves to me that Leo is lying is how long his speech is. He barely says a couple of sentences at a time. I don’t think any of us believes him, but we won’t push it. We trust him, and he does protect us. Whatever secret reason he has to attend the game, we will deal with later, if we stay alive.

Everyone has his own secrets. No one knows that I switched the iAm.

 “So what’s the name of the faction you and Woodsy come from?” I ask Pepper.

“We don’t have a name,” Pepper says nonchalantly. “Why would we? We’re losers. You might as well call us Zero. Can’t you see my name is Pepper? I come from a place where you could be called pepper or salt. It doesn’t matter, really. You’re an add-on to the main dish after all.”