Chapter 8 Ellis
Ellis
Ellis was up early and pissed.
He didn’t care if the whole deal with the message was some sick joke. He was done. He was packing food and water and hitting the road. When he got cell service, he was going to call his father and get a ride home.
He dragged his rolling suitcase violently across the red dirt, bouncing it hard into the air as he headed over to the reception area. There had to be some food somewhere in this godforsaken hole.
It was early—all pastel colors and deserty blah-blah everywhere.
Very beautiful, no doubt. Also, very boring.
Ellis had zero interest in scenery. He had set his alarm for an ungodly hour with a plan.
He would leave before anyone else woke up.
Then he could enjoy a peaceful hike without having to talk to some imbecile, and he would get to be the hero of the day—the brave kid who hiked solo for thirty-five miles to save his classmates.
He grinned to himself. His father would like that.
In the reception area, he nosed through cabinets and around the counter.
Nothing edible. Next, he tried the small office.
Just a desk and empty filing cabinets. Useless.
He headed back outside and walked around the side of the nauseating pink building.
His stomach was rumbling, and he was hangry as all hell by the time he found the snack machine.
It was half-stocked with candy bars and chip bags that looked like they’d been there since the previous millennium.
Grabbing the machine by its sides, he shook it hard in an unsuccessful attempt to free some of the snacks.
Frustrated, he tried sticking his arm through the slot—a nerdy obsession with magic tricks in middle school had made him remarkably adept with his long fingers, but they barely brushed the corner of a lonely bag of Doritos.
Pulling his arm out, he gave the machine a solid kick, squatted low, and ran at it, toppling it over sideways with an immense crash.
It took him all of a minute to realize his mistake. Now the snacks were stuck down the back of the machine.
He was not going to be defeated.
Ellis stood on top and jumped up and down on the surprisingly resilient plexiglass.
A snickering sound behind him made him stop. Jade and Jax were watching, amused expressions on their faces. Jax had his camera out and was filming him beating the crap out of a junk-food machine.
“Delete that,” Ellis said, pulling himself to his full don’t-mess-with-me height.
“Okay…okay. Chill.” Jax made motions to delete the video. “No big deal. We’re just hungry too.”
“Then help me!” Ellis shouted, turning back to the machine, irritated. What were Barbie and Ken even doing up this early? Weren’t they missing their beauty sleep?
It took ten minutes of combined effort, but soon they had most of the stock of Chex Mix, Starburst, and Gatorade packed in Ellis’s suitcase, along with several dusty bottles of water.
“I’m leaving. Are you coming?” Ellis asked as they sat in the shade munching on Doritos.
“Hard pass,” Jade said, glancing dismissively across the desert stretching out on all sides. Even this early in the day, heat waves were shimmering and warping the distant mountains—it was going to be unbearable.
“Why would you want to stay in this place?” Ellis asked incredulously. It was inconceivable to him that anyone would voluntarily be here a minute longer than they had to. A quick image of the message shot through his mind, along with a brief, hard flash of panic.
“We’re not missing out on the game. Are you kidding me? This kind of exposure is the best thing that could happen at this stage of my career,” Jax stated enthusiastically.
“Besides, we don’t hike,” Jade added flatly.
“Send someone for us, okay? I’m going to my room to pick out the perfect outfit to ‘die’ in.
It’s really hard—you have to stand out, without looking like you tried too hard.
You know?” She swept up a handful of bottled waters and stalked off around the building.
Jax filmed her leaving, head cocked on one side appreciatively.
“Aww, man, just look at that walk—damn, my girl’s hot!
Gonna add this cut to the final edit—keep the subs sweet.
” Jax must have caught Ellis’s look. He pulled up defensively.
“What? Jade likes me posting her. It boosts her stats too. Plus, she always approves the edit. If she doesn’t like the way she looks, she can pull it.
Jade totally gets it—she’s the coolest girl I’ve ever dated.
I’m not even kidding you. We’re in sync, like soulmates, know what I mean, bro? ”
Ellis gave Jax a clear do-not-bro-me glare.
Jax was hot, undeniably, but boringly straight and about as interesting as cardboard.
Not Ellis’s type. He liked sporty boys. All those endorphins just made them easier to get along with.
No drama. No commitment. Yup, if they hadn’t made varsity, Ellis wasn’t interested.
Apart from Danny, of course. The one exception to every rule.
Ellis stood up quickly and brushed himself down. Time to get the hell out of this place.
“Later.” Ellis walked around the front of the motel, dragging his snack-filled suitcase behind him. He checked his Rolex. It was close to eight already. He’d lost his head start. Better hit the road before it got any hotter.
As he cornered the pool fence, he stopped in dismay. A figure was standing at the edge of the road behind the burned-out shell of the bus. Fuck. Now he’d have to share the credit for saving the day.
Worse still, as he got closer, he recognized the emo witch. Raya Mori was staring at the ground. He could just make out something white at her feet.
“Good morning,” he announced as he got close. He’d already decided he wouldn’t tell her about his snack supply. Maybe he could outlast her and leave her along the roadside. “Are we escaping together?”
“Ellis, come here. You’ve got to see this,” Raya called out.
She was pointing at a thick white line that had been spray-painted on the red dirt.
It stretched out in both directions on either side of them.
“Weird, right? I don’t remember this being here when we arrived.
Why would someone paint a white line in the middle of nowhere? ”
Ellis stopped. His eyes followed the line off towards the horizon on one side, only to see it curving back on itself. A feeling of dread started in his stomach, creeping up slowly as he turned to look at the Motel Loba.
“It’s not a line. It’s a circle. Look.” His voice was tinged with tension.
Both of them faced the cluster of pink buildings.
From their vantage point it was clear what Ellis was talking about.
The white line formed a perfect circle around the motel, the bus, and all the random sheds and outbuildings.
The only part of the Motel Loba that wasn’t inside the circle was the road sign, which stood a solid ten feet outside the line.
“Jesus, it’s starting…isn’t it?” Raya half-whispered. She wrapped her arms around herself.
Ellis didn’t say anything. He got the message.
Yeah, very scary. So, they were trapped inside the circle.
Maybe Jax was right, and it was some stupid online prank.
Don’t cross the line, win a million pretzels.
If some idiot YouTuber did show up, Ellis would get his father to sue the hell out of them. Some fucking joke.
He walked up to the edge of the white line and nudged it with the tip of his sneaker.
Whoever painted the line had made one small miscalculation: Ellis Locke wasn’t into games. They could spray-paint all over the place. No one was keeping him here another minute, and if they thought a stupid line would stop him—well, he was the king of crossing fucking lines.
He was about to step forward when a black-fingernailed hand caught his arm.
“Wait,” said Raya. “We should think about this first. The message said—”
“I don’t give a fuck what the message said. Some fucker is playing with us,” Ellis snapped. “Someone thinks this is some great game. Very funny. Well, I’m not playing.”
“But what if the message was right? You heard it. It said if you leave the circle—”
“Jesus Christ, Raya. It’s just a line—it’s spray paint! I’m not afraid of a damn line.” Ellis turned away from her dismissively. This was not the time for overthinking.
He checked his watch again. It was eight a.m. now and the air temperature was creeping up steadily.
It was time to get going. The game wouldn’t start for almost two hours.
He had a head start and a bag full of snacks.
He was leaving, and as far as he was concerned, Raya Mori could do whatever the hell she liked. She wasn’t his problem.
Raya stepped away from Ellis.
“Fine. You go for it, Ellis. Knock yourself out there, big guy. I’ll just stay here and watch from a safe distance,” she said, smiling.
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes. He definitely wouldn’t get her rescued.
This conversation was getting old. In fact, this whole drama was getting old.
In fact, this whole motel was…well, already old.
Grabbing his suitcase, he marched across the line, not a flicker of worry.
He was going home. A few steps in and nothing bad had happened.
He couldn’t resist gloating, just a little bit.
Turning back, arms outstretched as if to say I told you so, he smiled.
“See. Nothing to worry about. Nothin—”
Bang.
A sharp crack made him cower. Dirt flew up inches from his feet. He froze in shock, his mind processing what was happening.
Bang. Another report, just behind him.
Gunfire.
His instincts kicked in this time, and in one bound, he leaped back across the line, stumbling and falling to his knees. Hands grabbed him. Raya pulled him back from the edge, both scrabbling to get away.
Somehow, they made it to the wreckage of the bus and fell, panting, in the dirt behind the warped metal frame.
Ellis looked around wildly, catching Raya’s eye.
There was a familiar look there. One he had hoped he would never see again, not in this lifetime.
It was more than fear. Not the hollowed-out look of shock or grief.
It was more basic, feral. Like a cornered animal.
He’d seen it in the school gym a year ago.
He’d seen it in the eyes of his friends when the roof fell, flames crashing around them.
He saw it in the mirror for weeks after the fire, staring blankly back at him, taut with shock.
This was really happening.
Someone was shooting at them.