Chapter 19 #3
I didn’t like the idea of letting him off so easily, especially after he’d literally just tried to kill Tyler, but I also didn’t want to outright shoot him in front of the women if I didn’t have to. They’d seen enough horrors for me to not add to them.
Though, I had a strong feeling that if it hadn’t been for the gun in my hand, Kyle would’ve reacted much differently. He only wanted to play friends now because I had the upper hand.
The coward.
With him temporarily out of our hair, I turned my attention back to the plaque and read the words etched on its surface out loud.
No smith forged my frame, yet I dwell in a cage where a red hammer beats in timed thuds…
I am lengthened whenever you run toward the sun, and I am shortened when you stop to stare at the ground…
I can bend under burdens that bow heavy iron, yet I only yield to the weight of the years…
I am squandered like copper by those who are young, and I am pleaded for by those within reach…
What am I?
When I finished reading the words, Kyle threw his head back and let out a loud groan.
“Are you serious right now?” he complained. “You’re wasting your time with a fucking riddle?”
I shot him a warning glare, and he quickly shut up. Then I glanced at the others to see what they all thought. Each of their faces were twisted in concentration as they pondered on the words.
“It talks about a hammer,” Tyler said. “There are plenty of weapons that are created by beating a hammer. Perhaps it’s a sword or a weapon of some kind.”
“But it also said that no smith forged its frame,” Parker pointed out. “So, that rules out most weapons. Plus, riddles are rarely literal.”
“It mentions bending iron,” Sadie said. “Trees can grow strong enough to break through concrete and into entire buildings. Perhaps the time part is referring to time spent out in the elements?”
The idea sounded promising, and we all read through the riddle again to see if a tree would fit as the answer.
“Yeah, but how would someone spend a tree like copper?” Claire suddenly asked, and we all deflated again.
No smith forged my frame… Okay, so it was safe to say we weren’t talking about any sort of weaponry.
Yet I dwell in a cage where a red hammer beats…
I’d never actually seen a red hammer before.
Aliens made the riddle, though, so could they be referring to some foreign material I was unfamiliar with?
No, riddles were rarely literal. So, the red hammer must be something else, as well as the cage…
I am lengthened whenever you run toward the sun…
For some reason, the strange puzzle painting we did earlier came to mind. That had a sun on it, could the riddle be talking about painting? Maybe the answer was creativity.
No… that didn’t sound right.
But something about the idea of the painting felt right, and I thought hard about what else was actually in the painting. There had been a couple with a baby, then the baby turned into a boy… then a man, then he got married, had a family, and grew old and died.
What was I missing here? So what, we saw a weird painting about the life of a stranger, and somehow that life made up a sun? How did that even make sense?
Wait--
No smith forged my frame, yet I dwell in a cage where a red hammer beats in time thuds…
A beating red hammer, like my heart. I could feel my heart beating in my chest right now, inside my body.
My frame…
I am lengthened whenever you run toward the sun, and I am shortened when you stop to stare at the ground…
Assuming it didn’t mean literally, running toward the sun could be like chasing after your dreams, or having ambitions. While stopping to stare at the ground would be the opposite.
I can bend under burdens that bow heavy iron, yet I only yield to the weight of the years…
This entire game show had been one big burden, but if I was being honest with myself, my burdens started long before the aliens came to Earth. I’d lost my parents, and for a long time, I struggled to find any speck of happiness.
Yet, I was still here and still standing strong, despite what I’d been through. However, no one was immortal, and eventually everyone would grow old and die with time.
I am squandered like copper by those who are young, and I am pleaded for by those within reach…
When I was younger, death felt like an impossibility, and I had my entire life ahead of me to do whatever I liked, but as I got older, I realized my time here was limited.
And how often did I see younger kids doing stupid stuff and wasting time instead of preparing for the future? Meanwhile, the older generation seemed to savor every moment they had left with their families and doing their hobbies.
Beside me, everyone was still trying to come up with suggestions for what the answer could be, while I silently pondered the final question.
What am I?
“Life,” I murmured, and then I repeated myself in a louder and much clearer tone. “The answer is life.”
Everyone fell silent when I spoke, and for a long moment, there was nothing but deathly quiet. Then the hedge in front of us began to rustle as the branches pulled away from each other to reveal a clear path into another wide, open area.
“No fucking way,” Kyle muttered in disbelief as he stood up and moved toward us.
We were all just about to step through the gap, when suddenly I felt my stomach drop and a strong feeling of dread wash through me. I whirled around just in time to see Kyle fly at me in an effort to tackle me to the ground.
I quickly dodged out of the way just in time to avoid his blow, but he still caught my leg on the way down. I teetered off balance before we both sprawled across the ground, and the gun flew from my hand and went sliding away.
Kyle scrambled for my weapon, but I held him back.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I yelled as we struggled against each other.
“You’re my problem!” Kyle rolled onto his back and aimed a punch at my jaw, and the blow stung, but it didn’t knock me away.
“You always walk around like you’re so much better than everyone else.
‘Oh, look at me, my name’s Liam, and I’m an orphan, so that makes me interesting, mysterious, and wounded. ’”
I dodged another blow and threw one of my own back at him, and my fist connected with Kyle’s left eye.
“Are you kidding me?” I snapped. “That’s what you’re going with? I think I’m better than everyone else because my parents died? How stupid can you possibly be?”
We struggled some more, and as I tried to reach for the gun that was a mere few feet away, the fucker bit into my arm.
“Fuck!” I punched him again, and he released me, but my arm was bleeding.
The asshole had done some damage.
Behind us, I could hear Tyler trying to keep the women out of danger, and I was grateful I didn’t need to be concerned about them at that moment.
“You always waltzed around like you owned the place,” Kyle spat, and his eye was already beginning to swell up. “You showed off your close friendships, your good grades, and your stupid, useless ‘talents’ with cars and machines. And you shoved it in everyone’s faces that you were better than them!”
“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” I snapped as I momentarily pinned him to the ground.
“I had one friend and a couple hobbies, and I didn’t walk around like I owned shit.
The only reason I had decent grades was because I didn’t have shitloads of money to buy my way through life like you! ”
“You don’t deserve any of it anyway!” Kyle screamed in my face, and he looked like a rabid animal. “I hate you, and I’ve always hated you! You didn’t deserve your friends, your grades, or your abilities. And you certainly don’t deserve what you have now!”
I instantly knew he was talking about Sadie and Parker.
He bucked and tried to punch me again, but I was able to duck out of the way, and I let my own fist fly.
It didn’t connect.
“I am so sick of your shit and your misplaced jealousy!” I snarled. “You always mistreated me for no fucking reason! I was already going through a hard time, and you just spat on me while I was down. You are the most selfish, ungrateful asshole I’ve ever met!”
“Fuck you, Davis!” Kyle spat, and then he whipped his head up faster than I could dodge away.
His brow connected with my nose, and even though it didn’t break, it certainly hurt like hell, and I instinctively stumbled back to grab it.
Kyle took that opportunity to scramble to his feet and rush for the gun, but before he could reach it, there was a low chittering sound in front of us, and a massive viscerid crept out from the area’s entrance.
There were soft gasps from behind me, but my friends all wisely remained silent. I froze in place, but stupid Kyle kept moving for the gun.
He seriously hated me so much he was willing to risk his life for a chance to shoot me.
The viscerid’s massive head swung in Kyle’s direction, and a moment later, it pounced on him. The beast carried the man down to the ground and immediately began to tear into him, and Kyle started to scream.
As badly as I wanted to save my gun, it just wasn’t worth the risk, and I quickly whirled around, raced for my friends, and gestured for them to go.
“Wait! Don’t go!” Kyle shrieked after me. “Help me!”
I turned only long enough to look him in the eyes.
“Fuck you, Kyle,” I echoed his words back at him.
Then I ran.
His screams continued as we all rushed through the gap in the hedge, and the moment we were all in the rounded clearing on the other side, the wall behind us closed up, and the disembodied voice spoke once again.
“You’ve successfully finished the final trial,” it announced. “You will be transported back now, please head straight to your rooms.”
“Wait, we aren’t going home?” Claire asked in a concerned voice. “But… we won. We did the full trial thing, so why wouldn’t they let us go?”
The others grumbled their agreement, but before I had a chance to respond, my body began to hum, and I quickly shut my eyes.
A moment later, we were back in the transporter room on the alien ship.