Chapter 13
There wasn’t an announcement like there had been for Sadie and I, or Tyler and Claire, but it was unmistakable. Parker and I had just matched. The soft pink glow that radiated from both of our collars proved it.
But… how was that even possible?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to think about it or say anything at all as I quickly helped the auburn-haired woman to her feet and dragged her along behind me.
But as I ran, the question swirled in my brain in an incessant beat.
How was this possible? How? How? How?
I couldn’t shake the thought away.
We ran until we somehow reached the first clearing we’d camped in, and when Parker and I broke through the treeline, everyone was gathered there trying to catch their breath.
“Where’s Martin?” Clarisse asked as soon as she saw me, and the others looked up at me as well.
“He-- he didn’t make it,” I muttered, and even though I tried, I did a poor job of keeping the bitterness out of my voice.
Clarisse’s face fell, but she didn’t cry. Instead, she merely nodded her understanding before she turned away from me. The others in the group looked disappointed and sad, too.
Wait…
I glanced at each of my teammates.
Where the hell was Kyle? Hadn’t he been in front of the group?
Before I could voice my question, there was a rustling in the trees behind me, and I turned to see Kyle come stalking into the clearing.
I wasn’t sure why, but he seemed more pissed than scared or nervous, and I wondered what his problem was.
“Wait, how did you get back there?” Tyler asked in surprise. “Weren’t you in front of us earlier?”
Evidently, I wasn’t the only one who had noticed.
Kyle only shrugged, which was unusual for him. Where were his complaints, the insults, all his condescending big talk?
It was unusual, but I also wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Kyle wasn’t talking, so instead of worrying about it, I was going to enjoy it.
Just then, something changed.
The black sky began to lighten as the sun broke through the clouds over the horizon.
It was morning.
We did it.
“Congratulations,” the disembodied voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere. “You have successfully completed this round of the games.”
My body began to hum, and I quickly shut my eyes to avoid the blinding flash. When I opened them again, we were all back on the ship, and I never thought I’d be quite so happy to see the alien spacecraft.
The panel in the wall opened up, and the little robot with the syringe was deployed again. This time, I leaned down without hesitation or complaint, and I let him inject me.
Within seconds, the burning pain across my stomach cooled and disappeared, and I knew my wound was gone.
If only Martin had survived long enough to be healed. It made me feel even more bitter knowing he died so close to when we were all going to be taken back.
The others weren’t as injured as I had been, but they all accepted an injection anyway, and pretty soon there wasn’t a scrape of bruise in sight. Everyone was perfectly healed and back to one hundred percent health.
“Return to your rooms to get cleaned up,” the robotic voice directed.
Damn, I’d been hoping for an opportunity to speak to Parker about our potential match, but it looked like it was going to have to wait.
We all filed back to our rooms, and I immediately headed for the bathroom.
I took the small metal piece out of my pocket, and quite frankly, I was amazed it had remained there for the entire camping trip. I’d climbed up a bear, ran up the side of a mountain in the pouring rain, and then fled for my life away from huge, flesh-eating bats.
And yet there it was, still in my pocket.
I carefully tucked it under one of the drawers before I began to strip down. I was covered in blood, sweat, mud, and grime, so my desire to be clean far outweighed my curiosity for the moment. I promised myself I’d check out my newest find as soon as I was clean and dressed.
I took my time in the shower and let the hot water hit me at every angle.
God, it felt good to wash all the crap off my body. If only I could scrub my brain of the memories the same way.
I tried not to think about Martin’s final moments, or how close all of us came to death over and over again during the last twenty-four hours. I tried to focus my brain on other things, but then my mind would drift back to Parker and the lingering questions there.
I’d already matched with Sadie, so how was it possible I matched with Parker, too? The aliens had told us there was only one match for each of us, so had something gone wrong? Was there a malfunction in the system? And if so, who was actually supposed to be my match?
I cut the water off before I stepped out of the shower and toweled myself dry. Then I moved into the bedroom where I found a fresh bodysuit folded neatly on my bed.
I put it on gratefully.
It was concerning how quickly I’d come to think of this room as my own, like it was a safe haven for me rather than the prison cell it actually was.
Once I was dressed, I moved back to the bathroom to check out the metal part I’d found in the woods, but I paused when I heard a knock on the door. Maybe it was Parker, and she’d come to talk about our little situation.
I moved to the door, but when I opened it, Parker wasn’t the one standing on the other side.
“You’ve got some serious explaining to do, Davis,” Kyle growled.
“Well, hello to you, too,” I muttered sarcastically.
Kyle didn’t wait for an invitation before he shoved his way into my room. Normally, I would’ve blocked him, but I didn’t particularly feel like fighting at the moment, so I let it slide and shut the door behind him.
When I turned, Kyle stood near the edge of my bed with his arms crossed. His mouth was twisted down into a frown, and he was glaring at me like he was waiting for me to make a confession.
He was probably pissed about how I overrode his ‘authority’ throughout the camping trip, but I wasn’t in the mood to play guessing games with an overgrown child.
“What do you want, Kyle?” I sighed heavily. I just wanted to get this stupid conversation over and done with and get the big, dumb, bastard out of my room.
“I want to know how the fuck you did it,” he practically spat.
Now, I was confused.
“How did I do what?” I asked as I furrowed my brow.
“You know exactly what,” Kyle sneered.
“I actually have no idea what you’re talking about,” I corrected.
“Oh, please,” Kyle scoffed. “Don’t try to play dumb, Davis. I was there when it happened, I saw the whole thing.”
I’d begun to have a creeping suspicion as to what exactly Kyle was referring to, but I didn’t want to say anything. If I was wrong, it would give him too much information.
So, I remained silent as I stared at him in confusion. My silence seemed to agitate my rival.
“Earlier in the woods,” he went on in an irritated voice. “I was… catching my breath behind a nearby tree.”
Translation: he had been hiding behind a tree like a coward.
“I saw you,” he continued. “You matched with her. There wasn’t some big announcement like everyone else, but it definitely happened, and I saw the entire thing.”
Shit.
So, he had seen Parker and I match earlier.
Now that I thought about it, it made sense.
When we’d gotten to the clearing with everyone else, Kyle wasn’t anywhere to be found, even though he’d been ahead of everyone earlier.
And when he did arrive after us, he’d seemed angry and agitated about something.
He knew, but the real question was this: what was he going to do with the information now that he had it?
“Well?” he demanded when I didn’t immediately speak to confirm his observation.
“Well, what?” I snapped.
I didn’t want to be having this conversation at the moment, least of all with Kyle. I could barely wrap my head around the situation as it was.
“I want to know how you did it,” he repeated in an impatient tone, and he took two steps toward me.
It was his attempt at appearing menacing, I guessed.
“I didn’t do anything,” I insisted. “It just happened.”
“Right,” Kyle scoffed. “You matched with the two hottest women in the group, and you had absolutely nothing to do with it. I’m so sure. Do I look like an idiot to you?”
Now probably wasn’t the best time to tell him yes, I did in fact think he looked like an idiot.
“Do I look like some sort of mad genius to you?” I countered. “I don’t even know how the matching system works, and yet you think I went all Einstein and rigged it?”
“No, I don’t think you’re smart enough to do something like that,” Kyle agreed with a suspicious glare. “But I know you did something.”
I shook my head at him. The dumb bastard wasn’t listening, so what was the point in trying to explain?
“You did something!” Kyle’s voice rose to a shout when met with my silence, and his face grew red. Then he took another step toward me.
Oh, he was really mad.
“I assure you, I didn’t,” I replied in a cool, calm voice, and I kept my expression neutral to show him that his presence didn’t intimidate me at all.
If anything, he was the one in danger of getting thrown out of this room and onto his ass.
“You had to have done something,” Kyle insisted as he jabbed a finger at me. “Because there’s no way it just happened on its own. What the fuck did you ever do to deserve two women? You don’t even deserve one.”
“Look, I’m telling you I didn’t do anything,” I repeated. “But just for a second, I’ll go along with your delusion, and we’ll say I did. Even if I did do something, why do you even care?”
“Because it isn’t fucking fair!” Kyle slammed a fist down onto the top of my dresser. “Why the hell should you get two women, and I get jack shit?”
There it was. The truth about him and Clarisse.
I’d had a strong feeling that they hadn’t actually matched, but this just proved it.
“Wait,” I said as I cocked my head to the side and played dumb. “What do you mean, you get jack shit? You and Clarisse said you matched, didn’t you?”
“I-- we--” Kyle spluttered for a moment as he tried to backpedal. “That’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point?” I asked.