Page 27 of Rat Race

Ella tried to run the way we’d come, her little fists banging on the invisible barrier that the roaches were still trying to crawl up—the ones that weren’t floatin’ around us in the water at least.

I didn’t have time to think. Picking up one of the heavy blocks from the puzzle table, I took a few steps, slowed by the water, now up to my thighs.

“Move it, sugar!”

She turned, duckin’ out of the way just in time for me to miss her with the brick. But it just bounced off the barrier and flung itself back at us.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Okay, Cam. Think. Look. Deep breaths. Do not spin out.

My eyes moved around the room desperately, looking for somethin’—anythin’—to help us out of this mess when my eyes caught on a tiny gap where bugs were disappearing beside the barrier.

The water was already to my chest by the time I made it to the wall, usin’ my fingertips to pry the hidden panel open to a swarm of writhing bodies covering an electric panel.

Doin’ my best to dry my hand, I took a deep breath, throwin’ my fist into the machinery. Punchin’ and punchin’ until my knuckles split open and the siren stopped with a peel of feedback.

I grabbed the back of Ella’s shirt to stop her nearly overbalancin’ as the current of water tried to pull her down, free to run now that the barrier had fallen.

But instead of starting to thin, the roar became louder.

I cursed, yanking her behind me as I began to run, trying to get ahead of the Architects’ renewed efforts to drown us in the form of a giant wave rocketing from the door and pipes.

“Run!”

Aubrey

Not the fucking time to be simping.

He’s not very talkative.

And, as far as I could tell, he didn’t trust me very much, but that was neither here nor there.

At the very least, Hiram had believed my act enough that he was willing to underestimate me. Keeping me behind him as we walked, my eyes on his back and gray hair. But it wasn’t enough to ignore me completely. Every few steps he’d turn his head and look to check I was still there.

Or maybe it was to make sure I didn’t have a weapon pointed at his back.

None of my business, really. It was in his best interest not to trust me. It was in mine to make him forget that.

“I’m scared,” I muttered softly, sniffing a little in the underground chill of the maze.

Dark, damp, and dirty. This place was a far cry from the modern metallic Tron-inspired arena of a few years ago.

It was always a bummer when they decided to go rustic. I was really hoping for more of a high-tech feel. It would be less… icky.

I fuckinghateddirt. But more than dirt, I hated being bored.

And the long walk through dusty, half-moldy, rocky hallways was more than a little boring. So boring that I was tempted to mess with Hiram a little just to fill the time.

Maybe set off a trap? That’d kill some time.

But the more time I killed, the further I was from realizing my dream of slicing open Natalie’s throat like a fucking juice pouch.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” I asked, adding a heavy dose of doe-eyed innocence. “We haven’t run into anyone in a long ti?—”

“I know what I’m doing,” Hiram said with a huff, looking back at me in his glowing yellow mask with an irritated shake of his head. “I was an Architect, you know. I have this place memorized.”

A man can’t help but brag.At least I didn’t have to hide the sly smile that appeared behind the mask. A little fluffing of his ego, and surely I’d be on my way to earning a bit of trust in no time.

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