Chapter 13 #2
For a long moment, Kyle did nothing but glare at me, so I leveled my gaze right back at him.
“You won’t get away with this,” he finally growled. “I’m going to figure out how you did it and expose you as the cheater you are.”
“Good luck with that,” I replied with a casual shrug.
Kyle stomped past me toward my door, but he paused before opening it and turned back to face me.
“And I don’t want to see any of that leadership shit again,” he warned. “You aren’t the leader here, and if you try to take charge again, I’ll end you.”
“Whatever you say buddy,” I said in the same tone I’d use if I was speaking to an angry toddler.
Kyle’s threats didn’t scare me in the least, and it wasn’t because I didn’t believe he’d try to screw me over. I absolutely knew he would, but I wasn’t going to put up with his bullshit anymore.
Kyle leveled one final glare at me before he finally huffed, opened the door, and stormed out of my room.
I shut and locked it behind him, and I was impressed we hadn’t drawn attention with all of Kyle’s shouting.
Were these rooms soundproof?
Kyle witnessing my match with Parker wasn’t ideal because I wasn’t sure who he would blab to. I still needed to figure out what the matches even meant, and I also really needed to discuss it with Parker and Sadie before making it publicly known.
I wasn’t sure how Sadie would feel about it, especially because she’d previously shared her thoughts that Parker would make a better match for me than her.
So far, Sadie hadn’t displayed any jealousy toward the woman or insecurity about herself, but that could all easily change once she discovered I’d matched with someone else as well.
And as far as Parker went, well, I wasn’t entirely sure she even wanted the match in the first place.
I shook my head to clear away my thoughts. There was no point in worrying about it now. I’d wait to discuss things with the women, and then we could all go from there.
I moved back into the bathroom and retrieved the metal part I’d found in the woods, and then I took out the other, larger piece.
There weren’t many empty spaces left, so it wasn’t as hard to find the place where the metal piece snapped into the whole. This time, when I lined up the depressions and protrusions and then clicked them down into place, the entire thing began to glow with a faint, blue light.
The sudden change startled me, and I accidentally dropped the partially-finished ball. It rolled a few feet away and stopped against the wall, and as soon as it fell from my hand, the dim, blue light faded out.
Shit.
Had I broken it? What was that?
I scrambled to pick it back up again, and the moment my fingers brushed against the cool, dark metal, the blue light came back.
What the hell?
I carefully set the metal piece on the counter and removed my hand, and the light faded out again. Then I grabbed it, and the light came back once more. I tried it three more times, and each time it did the same thing.
When I wasn’t touching it, the light would die out, and when I was touching it, the light would glow.
I tried to touch my cloth-covered arm to the metal, but nothing happened, then I rolled up my sleeve and tried again. The foreign object immediately glowed to life.
I still wasn’t sure what this thing was, or what the light meant, but it only seemed to work with direct skin contact.
I turned the partial, metal sphere over in my hands as I studied it. It looked like only a few more parts were missing, and I still wasn’t any closer to figuring out what it was.
Could it be some sort of weird alien lantern or night-light? It wasn’t particularly bright, but maybe the glow would become stronger as I added more parts.
I had a very strong feeling I wouldn’t figure out what it did until it was fully complete, assuming it actually did anything. For all I knew, I very well might’ve just been wasting my time with all this.
I carefully placed the alien tech back in its hiding spot, and it was big enough now that the drawer barely closed over it. If I found any more pieces, I’d more than likely have to find a new hiding spot for it.
Once my weird, metal ball was safely hidden again, I turned my attention to something different. I carefully tapped the side of my collar to pull up my status screen. I was positive with all the things I’d done yesterday, I’d earned some new points.
Sure enough, there were three new glowing lines, one in each category. I now had four points in senses, three points in mind, and two points in body.
I didn’t have any way to confirm it, but I knew those points had been a big part of the reason I was alive at the moment. I wasn’t sure how, exactly, but each point had helped increase my abilities.
I’d been faster, stronger, more aware of my surroundings, and I’d been able to think quicker on my feet.
As far as I could tell, we could only earn a maximum of one point in each category per trial, but I couldn’t imagine what I’d be capable of if I actually lived long enough to earn all ten points in each category.
I was about to close out of my status screen when something else caught my eye: a fifth glowing mark next to the word ‘favor.’
I’d earned another favor point.
I studied the five glowing lines intently for a long moment, and I tentatively stretched out my hand to touch one of the marks. The moment my finger brushed across the line, a loud voice came on.
“Favor point selected. What would you like to receive?”
“Uhhh…” I froze with my finger still in the air as I stared at the holographic screen.
What was I supposed to do?
“What would you like to receive?” the voice repeated.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I changed my mind.”
I double-tapped my collar again, and the screen disappeared.
I wasn’t sure what sort of items the favor points could be used for, and I didn’t need anything in particular at the moment. I also felt that asking for freedom for myself and my fellow contestants wasn’t on the list of possible options.
“Please report to the common room and await further instruction,” the disembodied voice suddenly announced.
I sighed and moved to my door.
I wondered what the aliens had in store for us now, especially because we hadn’t really been given a chance to rest properly since the last trial.
Sure, our injuries were gone, but I was still sore, and I certainly hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.
I moved down the hall, and when I got to the lounge area, the wall to the transporter room was already open, and everyone was already waiting there.
I hurried to join the others, and as soon as I got close enough, the robotic voice spoke again.
“You will be paired with someone for this next trial,” it said.
I glanced around the room at everyone, and my brow furrowed in confusion. There was an odd number of people here, so how would we be paired?
The voice proceeded to list off Tyler and Claire as a pair, then Kyle and Clarisse were paired. I exchanged glances with Sadie and Parker as we waited to see who we’d be paired with.
“Liam Davis will be paired with Sadie Truman,” the voice announced.
Sadie gave me a relieved look, and I shot her a small grin before I turned my gaze to Parker.
Who was she supposed to be paired with?
“Liam Davis will be paired with Parker Rose,” the voice went on, and I heard a surprised murmur cut through the group.
Everyone looked surprised by the announcement except for Kyle, who merely glared at me.
“Why would you be paired with two of us?” Sadie whispered to me. “Do you think it was simply because there aren’t enough men now, or do you think there might be something more?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell Sadie that I got paired with both of them because I matched with both of them.
Of course I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but I couldn’t think of any other reason for why we’d get paired so specifically.
This also wasn’t the sort of conversation I wanted to have right now, especially not in front of everyone else.
“I’m not sure,” I replied.
I didn’t want to lie to her, but we were about to go into a brand-new round of the hellish alien games, and we all needed to be clear-headed. I glanced at Parker, but she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes, and I desperately wished to know what she was thinking.
I didn’t get a chance to say anything else anyway, because a moment later, the disembodied voice was giving us its next set of instructions.
“Please step onto the transporter pad.”
We weren’t going to change first? I glanced down at my white bodysuit. I guess if I was going to be forced to participate in an obstacle course or something, this would work just fine.
At least it was stretchy and breathable.
We all slowly filed into the transporter room, and as soon as we all stepped onto the metal plate, the humming began.
I shut my eyes out of habit, and when I opened them again, we were high up in the air on a wide metal platform.
“Holy shit,” I breathed as I stared out at my surroundings.
This was an obstacle course alright.
An obstacle course from hell.