17. All Knowledge Can Be Used
Chapter 17
All Knowledge Can Be Used
Maverick
Present Day
T his game was easy. Too easy.
Maverick cast a glance around the room. 197’s team had solidified what he had already guessed. Anyone could be in the barrel and the organs would count.
At this point, it was almost as if the rules were being thrown together haphazardly. As if they were showing how little they mattered.
It was lawless. Chaotic. Difficult to predict.
A suspicion had bloomed in his mind during the last game when The Host had said only 65 players remained…but there had ac tually been 67 left.
Maverick had hoped to hear The Host again, to see if he could find any other oddities occurring, but a robot had replaced him.
Something else had changed since the puppet game, and it infuriated Maverick.
Or maybe it didn’t.
Maybe what was truly breaking Maverick apart was his crippling anxiety. The realization that Enzo was holding a secret close to heart. But even worse than that?
Maverick turned his head, finding her.
Raven.
One of the few women left in this game.
A beacon of hope and light.
A reminder that he had risked his brother’s life for the possibility of saving her.
What was I thinking?
That was the scariest part of all. He hadn’t been thinking rationally. She caused his mind to go blank, for him to stutter and pause.
Part of him wanted to kill her. To just do away with the distraction.
But he knew that wasn’t possible at this point. She had sunk her claws in too deep.
A flickering flame that someone had poured drums of gasoline onto. At first it would go out before sparking again out of nowhere. Burning everything you ever knew to be true into ash.
“It’s our turn next. We’re the last ones to go. Who do you think it’s gonna be?” Levi leaned over, murmuring into Maverick’s ear.
That was just another unpredictable variable.
None of them had any family left, no one that they knew of at least.
“I say we don’t find out,” Maverick spoke under his breath.
Even if they did know the person .
What difference will it make?
Enzo jerked his head, and Levi hummed his agreement.
Enzo still hadn’t told them what he had done. Instead, he had chosen to hide away from them. He hadn’t even spoken to Maverick, his own brother. As Levi’s anger waned, Maverick’s sizzled over.
He had no one in this game he could truly trust. No one that he could rely on.
His focus flickered to the small woman with raven black hair and striking eyes.
Get a grip.
“Next up is 182, 173, and 174.”
174. His number. At first it had been hard to remember, but now it was a reflex to jump up when his number was called.
And he did just that,. marching down the podium steps into the surgical room.
For a moment he just stood there a few feet from the medical table, staring at the body.
Except. There was something off.
The person strapped to the table wasn’t moving. They were stock-still.
From this distance Maverick could see the hood covering them, but also just a bit of red hair had escaped it.
Maverick’s breath stuttered.
“What is this?” Levi moved further into the room until he stared down at the person on the table.
Levi raised a hand to their wrist to check for a pulse but jolted back as soon as he touched it.
“They’re dead. Frozen.”
A high-pitched frequency pierced into Maverick’s brain .
Enzo’s hands landed on his shoulders. “Get it together. We don’t have to look. We don’t have to know. I’ll unlock them. We can carry them carefully over, get inside ourselves, and be done. We don’t have to know.” Levi repeated the phrase.
But Maverick didn’t understand “ not knowing.”
All knowledge can be used.
Maverick walked forward in a haze, he stopped at the weapons table grabbing a pair of shears similar to the ones Raven had used and then he made his way to the dead body.
He took them in. They seemed to be about Enzo and Maverick’s height and build. Maybe just an inch taller. Definitely a man, with broad shoulders and bulky arms.
Maverick didn’t hesitate any longer. He bent forward, cutting open the hood.
The red hair fell out first but once it had, Maverick was able to see the corpse inside. The frozen corpse.
“No!” Enzo screamed behind him before the unmistakable sound of vomiting permeated the space.
Maverick didn’t realize he was shaking until Levi’s hands reached across the body, taking the shears from him. “Go to your brother. I’ll handle this. I’ll be careful. Promise.”
Maverick staggered back in a trance before he too bent over, emptying the contents of his stomach. After a beat, it turned to dry heaves.
Maverick stayed bent like that until Levi’s steady hold grabbed onto his wrist pulling him to the large metal container. The barrel.
“Close your eyes. You don’t need to see any more of this. I’ve got you and Enzo.” Levi’s voice was soaked in warmth and empathy as he guided Maverick .
Maverick acquiesced, shutting his eyes. But when he did, the image flickered brighter. Neon. Echoes of the same picture. The smell of bleach surrounded him but focusing on it he could detect the decay. The rotten acrid burning his nostrils.
“Fuck, I just. FUCK! FUCK YOU ALL!” Enzo screamed. “Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted?! You sick fuckers just wanted a reaction? Well, you fucking got one! We are going to kill you all!”
Tightening his fists and grinding his teeth, Maverick agreed with the sentiment but remained quiet.
“Congratulations. You have secured forty organs.”
Maverick took in a deep breath.
It was a mistake.
He was clearly much closer to the body now, and while the corpse was frozen, it was easy to tell they had been dead for a long time.
Not all knowledge can be used.
Maverick didn’t need to know that after his brother, his triplet, George had been killed, they had frozen his body. He didn’t need to know what his brother would smell like after being dead for years. He didn’t need to know the ghostly white color he would turn.
Maverick’s eyes shot open, and he found what he did need.
Raven was watching him. She inclined her head and offered a sad smile.
I’m sorry she mouthed.
Me, too .