Chapter 17 Ellis
Ellis
“Danny’s sister. A word.” It was a command. Ellis had mastered the art of dominating with the minimum number of syllables. It was essential in sports, and pretty damn useful in life too, as it turned out. He walked up to Ana, looming confidently over her, placing himself between her and the sun.
She looked up nervously at him, squinting awkwardly into the light.
He’d planned this, waiting until the others had gone. She’d challenged his authority in front of everyone with her whole bus-shelter plan. He couldn’t afford to lose his position as leader, not with so much at stake. Time to set boundaries.
“You do realize what you’ve done?” He dropped his voice, projecting calm control with a dash of barely concealed irritation.
Ana bit her lip and looked down, forced to by the harsh glare.
“You’ve given them hope,” Ellis said. “That’s a dangerous thing when we’re fighting for our lives.”
“I think—” Ana mumbled.
“You think you’re helping. I get it. But the truth is, your little plan is only going to delay the inevitable.
Maybe it’ll get us through this hour, but when Bates figures out what we’re up to, he’ll find a way to destroy the bus and anyone cowering inside it.
Your little shelter plan will kill us all. ”
“But what if—”
“What if we get rescued? Come on. Think! We’re over an hour’s drive from the nearest town. That gives Bates plenty of time to pick us off one by one. By the time help gets here, it’ll be too late—we’ll all be dead. You read the message. It’s play or die. If we don’t play, we die.”
She shook her head, frowning as though trying to formulate her thoughts before speaking.
“I know it’s risky, Ellis…but what’s the alternative? If we don’t even try, then when the hour’s up someone must cross the line.”
“And your point is?”
Ana didn’t respond. Ellis didn’t like the way she was squinting up at him, with Danny’s bright hazel eyes. She was a mousey little thing, but Ellis could sense something beneath it. Something unbendable.
“I understand. We’re trapped between a rock and something fucking harder.
But we have no choice, we need to play the game if we want to have a chance of getting out of here alive.
We need to buy more time. When the hour’s up, if we haven’t figured out a way to get out, someone needs to cross that line, as brutal as it sounds. Then we reset—a new hour, more time.”
Her face was unreadable. No tears, no drama, just that annoying, watchful expression. Taking him in, processing. Ellis was starting to feel uncomfortable.
“But…we can’t just…”
“Let someone die? We are fighting for our lives here! If we have to…lose one person to save everyone else, then that’s what we have to do. This is not a time for weakness. There’s no place for cowards here. Don’t you get it? We’re at war.”
She winced when he spoke—he’d struck a chord.
Ellis had made his point, there really was nothing she could add.
It was a no-brainer. Hiding out in the bus would be a death sentence for all of them.
They would do everything they could to escape or be rescued.
But if they were still trapped by the end of the hour, they would have no choice.
There was no way around it. Someone would have to cross the line.
Worst case, they would play out the whole game, and only one of them would be going home.
Ellis didn’t want to think that way, but at the same time, he was a realist; if he wanted to walk away from this alive, he had to face the terrifying truth.
Winning the game was his best shot at surviving, and he wasn’t going to give that up for anyone or anything.
He adopted a conciliatory tone. “Look, someone will notice we’re missing or see the smoke signal.
Jax’s fans will raise all kinds of hell without their daily post. We will be missed.
People will come looking for us eventually.
Until then, we buy time. We play the game.
We stay alive. Trust me, I’ll take care of everything. ”
Problem handled. He was so fucking good at this. A natural born leader, like his dad. Not someone who was going to wind up dead in the back of a red pick-up truck. He turned to walk away.
“Ellis?” Ana’s voice stopped him in his tracks. Weren’t they done here?
“What?” He was impatient and didn’t bother to hide it.
“Who dies first?” Ana looked at him directly for the first time. There they were…Danny’s eyes. Ellis almost flinched. Almost. “In your plan. Who crosses the line first?”
Who was she? He was getting a bad feeling about her. Danny was something—everything. People had loved him—no one more than Ellis. Maybe the twin was more like her brother than he’d thought.
He needed to end this. No more wasting precious time. He’d been watching everyone from the moment the bus exploded. It was a useful skill—sizing up the opposing team. Ana had given her weakness away at the pool last night.
“I think you know the answer to that.” He looked pointedly towards Alex and Caden’s retreating backs. “We’re playing the Balloon Game after all, aren’t we? A morality game. Who’s the guiltiest? Who most deserves to die?”
Ana followed his stare; her face dropped, eyes widened. For the first time, Ellis could read her expression clearly. Fear. He had her.
“That’s right.” Ellis’s voice was matter of fact.
“When it comes to guilt, we have our first two volunteers. Caden got Hunt stoned off his face before he killed himself. Guilty. As for Alex—we all know why he’s here, don’t we?
We all know what happened a year ago. Guilty. It’s a pity, I like the guy.”
Ellis turned to face the pool. A thin line of smoke had appeared. Raya must have lit the fire already. His eyes narrowed.
“As for who deserves to die…well, let’s see. Anyone who has attempted suicide in the past would be bumped right to the top of that list. I mean, clearly, they don’t value their life if they’ve tried to kill themself before. Tragic, really.”
Ana had been warned. He could tell from the shocked expression on her face that she understood his message very well. Challenge me and I will hurt the people you love. I will see to it that Alex and Raya cross the line. He hadn’t wanted to play hardball, but she’d pushed.
“Now, forgive me if I stop wasting what little time we have left,” he said, turning his back on her. He walked away; relief coursed through him. That had been harder than he’d thought. He hadn’t gone ten paces when her voice stopped him again.
“I have a name, you know.”
Slowly, he turned. There was something in her tone that set off his alarm bells. She was standing still, head dropped, eyes locked on him. There it was again. Danny. He could see it. As if he was standing in front of him. Danny, the rock star, the hero. His Danny.
The little mouse was gone.
“It’s Ana,” she said, her voice low and dangerously calm. “My name is Ana. You’ll want to remember that.”
With that, she turned her back to him and walked away.
Ellis watched her go. He tried to smile, but there was a new feeling in the pit of his stomach, fluttery, nervous.
They’d played their cards. Shown their hands.
He’d pushed. She’d pushed back. He was going to have to be careful.
Very, very careful. He had a possible challenger.
Ana Reyes was the unknown factor. This was about to get interesting.
Well, fine. Ellis could do interesting. He was his father’s son.
Game on, little mouse. Game on.