Page 43 of Rat Race

I had gone up against many from the farm, but never under the duress that my own personal angel was about to die.

Another flash of the lights and another shower of red Xs above us, the leaderboard changing rapidly, numbers fallin’ away as fallen players were accounted for. Names moving by so quickly that I couldn't figure out who was gone.

"AUBREY!"

"Oh my God, keep your fucking cowboy hat on, Cam," she snapped, the screaming from the player whose arm I’d broken suddenly cut off, accompanied by another red flash.

Oh my God. She wasn’t dying.

She’s killin’ them.

"Aubrey! Stop!" I ordered as Elijah released me, clearly coming to the same conclusion.

Ella had hauled herself out of the fountain, pounding on her chest to try and dislodge the bloodied water from her lungs as she coughed it up.

I hopped over the stone lip, grateful again for my size as I overtook it easily, grabbin’ Aubrey around the middle and hauling her bodily off the tied-up player whose head she was about to bash in with the metal bat. I ran full tilt with her under my arm like she weighed less than a football, stopping only to pull Ella onto my back before crossing the room to the button, my hand jammin’ down onto it desperately.

Three. She'd PKed three people in a no-PK zone.

And we'd left two of their friends alive. One of them fuckin’ trained for the Games.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

This is not how I wanted my game to go.Tests come to those who are worthy.But I didn’t feel worthy. Especially not when Aubrey was threatenin’ to fuck it all up.

The middle-left door opened, and I was quick to get through it, turnin’ my head to adjust a slipping Ella and catching sight of the two remaining players. But it shut too quickly. I froze, waitin’ to see if pressing the button would open the door again… but nothing. Seconds ticked by—ten, twenty, thirty—before I let loose a relaxed breath.

"Are you going to put me down now?" Aubrey snapped.

I saw red. This mouthy little brat needed to be taught a lesson about listenin’. And I was gonna be the one to do it.

Aubrey

Manners, darlin’.

Idid my best to save us, so why the fuck is Cam so mad at me?

They’ve been all but ignoring me since we ran into the bloodthirsty player group.

It wasn’t my fault. They were asking to die.

And, if anything, Cam should have been happy about it, given how much of the competition I killed for them. Who would have thought that Kohl’s dad would have somehow found a place for himself next to the only other person from the Ranch in the maze.

I should have killed Hiram when I had the chance.That weasel somehow got accepted into a group and was probably going to be a huge pain in the fucking ass.

“Let’s stop for a break,” Ella said, looking back at both Cam and me. She was breathing heavily, still winded by Cam pulling her through the maze at breakneck speed.

I didn’t try to hide my distaste for her.She’s just fucking annoying.And I heard Cam scream her namefirstbefore they decided to check on me. Which pisses me off even more.

“Break? We need to get to the finish line be?—”

“A break sounds nice, actually,” Cam said and sank down onto the floor with their back against the concrete wall. They didn’t meet my gaze.

I opened my mouth to protest when a beep sounded. I froze, then quickly relaxed when I saw a service robot coming down the hallway. It held a pack and was coming straight for me.

When it was about a foot away, it stopped and let out abeep-boopnoise.

With a smile, I reached forward and grabbed the bag. There was a note attached to it. I opened it.

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