Chapter Twenty-Eight Hell Is an Explosive Finale
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hell Is an Explosive Finale
We sprint back through the tunnel until we get to the trapdoor Daniel found. But when we get to the base of the volcano, it’s deserted.
Ava, Noah, and Chase are still at the top of volcano with Dawn and the camera crew. Loud victory music is blaring.
“Chase! CHASE! ” I scream at the top of my lungs. But it’s no good. There’s no way they can hear us from up there, especially with the music playing.
“We have to get to the top,” I tell Daniel. He’s eyeing the volcano.
Will we even have enough time? Chase and I just finished scaling the volcano, and I don’t know if I can do it again.
“There has to be some way to get up there without going through the challenge course,” I say, studying the area. “The crew’s up there, and there’s no way they climbed up with their cameras.”
“This way,” Daniel says. He takes my hand like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and we’re running around the perimeter of the volcano. We find a portable staircase, like the kind that gets set up for airplanes, and then we’re going up. It’s better than climbing the course all over again, but not by much. My knees burn and my thighs ache as we make our ascent.
Daniel swings himself over the top, then reaches back to help me up.
At the summit, it’s chaos. Confetti cannons are going off one by one. White smoke is billowing from a smoke machine somewhere. Ava and Noah are getting down to the music, while Chase cheers. And at one end of the platform, Dawn Taylor is descending from the sky, cables connecting her to a giant crane. She’s covered from head to toe in a shimmery white dress. Large silver wings unfurl from her shoulders, and in her hands is a giant golden trophy. She looks like a model in a Victoria’s Secret fashion show, but with slightly more clothes on.
Daniel and I push through the crew, ducking under the cameras to burst out into the open.
“Dawn!” I scream. “You have to get down from there!”
But Dawn Taylor continues to smile beatifically as she holds up the trophy.
“Alice,” Daniel says urgently, “Peter Dixon’s here.”
I follow Daniel’s gaze, and yep, there’s Peter Dixon making his way over to us. His usual genial smile is gone, and he looks pissed.
I look around frantically, scanning the scene. Peter Dixon said in the video that they would use fireworks as cover for the explosion, but that doesn’t tell me much.
My gaze falls on the trophy that Dawn is holding. A spray of sparklers is just barely visible over the top.
“It’s the trophy!” I shout to Daniel. “We have to get it away from her.”
“I don’t think so.” Peter Dixon shoves a cameraperson aside, and in an instant, he’s upon us. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Daniel steps in front me. “Go! I’ll handle Peter.”
“Drop the trophy!” I yell up at Dawn desperately. She looks down at me, her nose wrinkling in confusion, and shakes her head.
I want to scream in frustration, but there’s no time. I’m already casting about for another solution. If Dawn Taylor won’t drop the trophy, I have to get up there somehow. I look at the rock formation acting as a backdrop wall. It must’ve been part of the labyrinth set or something, because there are handholds on it. The top of the wall is just high enough for me to jump over to Dawn Taylor and grab the trophy. It’s risky, incredibly so, but it’s possible. And right now, it’s my only choice.
I take a running leap at the wall. I manage to scrabble up several feet, but then someone roughly drags me down. My arms scrape against the rock face painfully as my feet hit the platform, and I scream when I’m jerked around to face Bryan.
“You know, I really don’t know what Chase saw in you,” he sneers, grabbing my arm and wrenching it behind my back.
“Fuck you, Bryan,” I spit. I throw my weight forward, trying to get him off me, but he wrenches my arm again, sending pain shooting through me. He forces me forward and I catch sight of his shoes with their narrow, distinct pointy tip. They match the shoeprints near Anton’s body.
“Ohmygod, you killed Anton,” I blurt out. “Peter Dixon told you to do it, didn’t he?”
Bryan just shoves me again, harder. “You know, I never thought I’d regret asking Chase to come on the show. He’s dumb as a rock and easy to manipulate. He should’ve brought a trophy girlfriend, not someone who’s such a pain the ass. But don’t worry, I know exactly what to do with your type.”
I’m breaking out in a cold sweat now. I don’t want to find out what Bryan means by that.
“Hey, man, what is this?” Chase’s voice cuts through my panic. He comes up to us, looking from me to Bryan, like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing.
“She just went psycho,” Bryan said. “Started screaming and going crazy. You really dodged a bullet with this one.”
“Peter Dixon is trying to kill Dawn Taylor!” I tell Chase. “And Bryan’s helping him!”
“You’re not going to believe this bitch, are you?” Bryan laughs.
“Oh, shut up,” Chase says, and punches him. Bryan stumbles back, cursing, and I break free. Bryan tries to block me from escaping, but Chase gets in the way.
“Chase, keep him occupied,” I yell as I start to climb again.
“You got it,” Chase says, inexplicably rolling up the sleeves on his short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt.
At this point, my arms feel like they’re about to fall apart from Bryan’s manhandling and having to go rock climbing for the second time today. I never want to do this again. As I push myself upward, muscles screaming in protest, I vow to unsubscribe from all those Rock World Gym emails I’ve been keeping in my inbox because of some delusional idea that I’ll magically become the kind of person who rock climbs.
Hilariously enough, it’s the thought of things going back to normal that allows me to push forward. I can’t wait to go back to my regular life. I can’t wait to clear out my marketing emails, and play board games with Cindy and Tara, and craft the perfect lesson plan, and make dinner with my mom.
I make it to the top of the wall and gauge the distance between me and Dawn. It’s daunting, to say the least.
“I can do this,” I mutter to myself. I inhale for several seconds, then exhale. I can feel my world narrow to a point, to this one moment and what I have to do. Calm washes over me, with an undercurrent of adrenaline. I summon the feeling of complete concentration and focus that I used to take my team to victory time and time again back in high school.
I pivot, carefully hanging on to my handhold while angling myself at Dawn Taylor.
Finally, she notices me. Her eyes widen in surprise, and it’s at that moment that I leap. I grab onto Dawn, wrapping my arms and legs around her. The weight of my body causes us to careen sideways.
“Hey! Get off me!” Dawn shrieks in rage. She attempts to bat at me, but her dress is limiting her range of movement. The trophy is crushed between us.
I make the mistake of looking down. The ground feels very, very far away, the trees minuscule dots of green. Below us on the platform, Chase has gotten into a shoving match with Bryan, while Daniel is wrestling Peter Dixon to the ground. The crew, along with Ava and Noah, don’t seem to know what to do with this turn of events.
I close my eyes against the height and compose a to-do list:
Get the trophy.
Get down somehow.
Stop the explosive.
Easy.
Three steps.
I open my eyes again, snake my hand between me and Dawn, and yank the trophy out from between us. Step one, done. But how am I going to get down? I’m just high up enough that I’d break something if I jumped onto the platform, and I can’t catch myself with a front roll, considering I’m holding this heavy trophy. And with the way we’re swinging back and forth, if I drop at the wrong time—I don’t even want to think about it.
“Alice!”
I look down, and there, right in the middle of the platform, is Daniel. His arms are open wide.
“When I tell you to jump, just jump!” Daniel shouts up at me. “I’ll catch you!”
“I don’t know if I can!” I shout back.
In the middle of all the chaos, he actually has the gall to smile up at me. “Yes, you can. I know you, and you don’t let anything get in your way. You’re Alice fucking Chen!”
When he says it like that, I find myself believing him. I grip the trophy harder and take a deep breath, summoning that same focus and concentration from before. I imagine myself the way Daniel sees me. Smart, sharp, brave. Capable of doing anything. Capable of jumping down. Capable of trusting Daniel to catch me.
Because when it comes down to it, I do trust him.
“Jump!”
I let go.
I fall away from Dawn Taylor, and all I can see is her figure wreathed in light, her wings brilliant in the sun. Then Daniel’s arms close around me, strong and solid, and he lowers me to the ground. I’m safe.
“I got it,” I say weakly. I hold out the trophy, and Daniel takes it. Together, we peer inside. Below the sparklers, there’s a mess of wires.
And then it starts beeping.
“Oh shit, oh fuck,” Bryan moans from where he’s sprawled on the ground. Chase is sitting on him like he’s a chair. “We’re all gonna die!”
Nestled among the wires is a little timer with glowing red digits.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
I dart a look at Daniel. He’s studying the wires, brow knit in concentration.
Seven.
Six.
I grab the trophy. I chuck it into the volcano.
Five.
Four.
The trophy sinks into the lava in a burst of red bubbles.
There’s exactly three seconds before the bomb goes off. Those three seconds seem to slow and expand. Daniel looks at me, and I can see the desperation in his eyes. I know what he’s thinking because I’m thinking the same thing myself. If this doesn’t work, these are the last three seconds of our lives.
And I know how I want to spend them.
I reach for Daniel, and suddenly his arms are around me, his lips on mine.
Three.
Two.
One.
Boom. Lava explodes upward in a huge geyser, then showers down on all of us. It’s raining slimy red goop, but we’re all alive, and that’s the only thing that matters.
We don’t stop kissing until Dawn Taylor yanks us apart.
“Babes, someone seriously owes me one hell of an explanation.”
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW: CHEN, ALICE AND CHO, DANIEL (CONT.)
Conducted by detectives from Pedazo de Paraíso, Islas Marías
ALICE: So after the trophy exploded, Daniel and I made sure everyone was okay. Chase, Ava, and Noah kept an eye on Bryan.
DETECTIVE: And Mr. Dixon?
ALICE: Daniel knocked him out, but it turned out that he’d been playing dead. He actually tried to escape.
DANIEL: But Dawn was on the platform with us by then, and when she noticed that Peter was trying to get away, she grabbed a tiki torch—
ALICE: Oh, yeah, this part is good.
DANIEL: —and yelled, “Your flame in hell is about to be extinguished!”
ALICE: And then she whacked him really hard.
DANIEL: He stayed down after that.
ALICE: Then it was just a matter of having Leah and the PAs drag him and Bryan off and put them in the pantry, which we’ve been using as our makeshift brig.
DETECTIVE: …Okay.
ALICE: I know. I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime on this show.
DETECTIVE: Ms. Chen, during your retelling of the moments leading up to the finale, you mentioned several other accidents that had happened before Mr. Brophy’s death. Can you tell us more about that?
ALICE: I can do you one better. I’ve prepared a couple visual aids to help me explain and account for everything. I gave them to your partner before we came in here?
DETECTIVE: Oh, yes. They’re right here. You really didn’t have to make this for us.
ALICE: Actually, I made this before we knew we’d be talking to you.
DANIEL: She was really excited to get her hands on a paper and pen. It was like seeing a raccoon eat a hot dog.
[Detective glances at diagram, 10 seconds]
DETECTIVE: Why don’t you sum up your findings for us?
ALICE: Yes. Great. I’d love to. Basically, Peter Dixon wanted to take over Dawn Tay’s Inferno and replace Dawn Taylor in season two with Selena Rivera as host.
DANIEL: To be clear, Selena had no idea Peter Dixon had this role in mind for her.
ALICE: Yes, thank you. Selena had nothing to do with any of this. I think Peter Dixon saw a beautiful, accomplished woman and decided he could use her for his own designs. But clearly, he underestimated her and us. Anyway, Dawn felt threatened by all of this and tried to bully Selena into leaving the show by giving her food poisoning, exploiting her fear of the dark, and who knows what else.
DANIEL: At the same time, Peter Dixon was trying to force Dawn Taylor off the show by intimidating and manipulating her. He made her think her stalker was on the island and placed her dangerously close to a fireworks blast, among several other incidents, all orchestrated with the help of production assistants Anton and Freya, as well as Bryan, a producer.
ALICE: But Dawn Taylor wasn’t having it. Then Anton decided to blackmail the wrong person—
DANIEL: That person being Peter Dixon.
ALICE: And Peter Dixon had Bryan kill him. Then, when it became clear that I was investigating Anton’s murder, Peter Dixon tried to scare me off with a snake in my helmet.
DANIEL: Don’t forget that he had Freya push you off the balcony.
ALICE: Oh, yeah! I almost died!
DANIEL: Twice. The bungee cord, remember?
ALICE: Ohmygod. I think I was blocking that out. Note to self: Email admin and ask if my insurance will cover therapy for near-death experiences.
DANIEL: Did you just say your note to self out loud?
ALICE: It’s been a very long week, Daniel.
ALICE: Anyway, after all that, Peter Dixon tried to murder Dawn Taylor by rigging the winner’s trophy to explode. And here we are.
DETECTIVE: That was…thorough.
ALICE: Do you have any more questions for us?
DETECTIVE: No. It sounds like you’ve all been through quite an ordeal. We may want to reach out to you later, so please stay available via phone. I’d like to extend my thanks to you, Mr. Cho, and Mx. Wex for your cooperation and—
ALICE: Wait. I’m sorry, Lex’s last name is Wex ?
DETECTIVE: Yes. It is.
ALICE: Wow. Thank you for this key piece of information.
DETECTIVE: Please leave.