Chapter 117.
They stand in the corridor for a long moment, the three of them not sure what to do with the fact that their bodies are safe but their minds are still trapped inside those rooms.
Up here—high above the city—the world feels very far away.
All they know is that they had made it this far only to end up defeated this way—crushed—their worlds shrunk to the size of these small rooms.
“I’m starting to wonder how much of the whole thing was real,” Jack says.
Zhi’s face is pale, his eyes fixed on the floor like he’s still watching a needle descend.
“I have never felt more like a failure,” he says. “I thought I was stronger.”
It’s clear that they all feel the same sense of loss.
It is because of everything they had overcome along the way—the whales and sharks and deserts and mountains and caves and the death of friends.
All of it. They had experienced the reality of war, only to end up beaten by the hideous augmented reality of these rooms.
Alek looks at Jack, then at Zhi. She wipes her cheeks with the heels of her hands, furious that she has tears at all.
“Why drag us all the way here,” she says, “to end it like that? Not with courage. Not with skill. With . . . humiliation.”
“Maybe that really was the sick plan all along,” Jack says. “Cruelty is easy. That’s the whole playbook.”
“They made us believe we were pursuing a higher calling,” Zhi says. “But it was all a lie.”
“Like that was their endgame,” Alek says. “To see if we lost every form of hope.” Alek takes a shaky breath. “So what now? We just . . . wait?”
Jack looks both ways down the empty corridor.
“What are you looking for?” Alek asks.
Jack stops walking. “If we’re all out here . . . and Tipton’s still inside—” He doesn’t finish. Doesn’t have to. “He outlasted us. He’s The One.”
Alek’s stomach turns.
“He said all along he was going to be the last man standing,” Alek says. “As much as I hate to admit it, he was right.”
Jack shakes his head and whistles softly.
“People always talk about the last man out,” he says. “He’s the last man in.”
Ward Hillshire appears from around the corner, moving slower than he used to, like the building itself is heavier on him now.
“Just so you know, Tipton didn’t win,” Ward says to them.
“You’re still here?” Alek says.
“Not by choice,” Hillshire says. “And on that you can believe me.”
Jack’s eyes narrow. “Why isn’t Tipton out here?”
He ignores Jack and points at Alek.
“You won,” he says to her.