Page 6 of Failed State

“I…” Licking my lips, I shake my head. “I don’t even know what to say. My ears are ringing.”

The video finally ends and Taterman’s face leaves the screen only to be replaced by the ugly mug of our Dean. Patrice Wallace-Brickman looks like she’s just sucked on a lemon—as usual—as she stares at the camera.

“F.E.A.R. Academy students, I am certain you are as honored as I am that President Taterman chose you all to represent the Federated Human States of America on the global stage!” She grins toothily, looking terrifyingly like a human jack ’o lanternin her orange power suit. “Tomorrow morning, we will be augmenting the student body here with new recruits to flesh out the teams of six for the challenges. You will be expected to accept the teammates assigned to you as you would new pack mates as your lives will depend on working together.”

“Shit,” Thad says softly. “They’re really doing this. The humans are going to pit us against one another to the death for paid TV.”

I wish I could find it as surprising as he does, but I don’t.

Wallace-Brickman claps her hands, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she continues. “You will be sent home early to rest up. When you arrive tomorrow, you will head straight for the auditorium to sign up in teams from your current classmates. Any team short of six will be assigned the balance from the new students.”

“Great,” I mumble. “We’re going to have three more people for me to want to stab myself in the eye over.”

Huck snorts. “They can’t be worse than me, right, sweet pea?”

Unfortunately for me, he was dead wrong about that.

PITCHING A HISSY FIT

HUCKLEBERRY

The mood was darkerthan a hog pen on butchering day as everyone filed out of the cafeteria to go home.

There were plenty of students talking in groups—the time for those who aren’t affiliated with a group to get attached is now. No one wants to bet on whatever supes are brought in to flesh out the teams. If I were in charge, I’d schmooze some of these known entities before allowing them to put unknown people with us. But Sydney hates most of the supes in our school and I’m not going to piss her off further by mentioning it.

“Wonder where they’re getting the overstock from?” Thad says as we walk down the front steps of the F.E.A.R. building.

Syd sighs, her shoulders hunched as we trudge down the street. “Probably re-balancing the larger settlements amongst the small ones. We're medium size, I think, so they won’t have to send too many new folks. It will make the boarding house crowded, though.”

I frown. Our girl lives in the adult version of the orphanage she was dumped in as a kid because she has no relatives and no supe group to associate with. Thad’s tried to convince her to move in with him at the bear compound and I’ve even offeredto let her bunk in my hidey-hole, but she refuses to move. New blood we know nothing about makes my ass twitch.

“You could always?—”

“Thad, I’m not moving in with your mini-sleuth. Your uncle has enough on his plate between you, your siblings, and the other orphaned bear shifters.”

Damnit. She’s so stubborn.

Grinning, I tip my hat back and look at her. “You know I’d let you bed down with me in a New York minute, sweet pea.”

This time she actually scoffs, shaking her head. “Huck, I can barely stand you all day at school, much less living together. Plus, the demon places are too close to the lockdown losers. I don’t like the vibes.”

“You realize those supes aren’t there because they’re all criminals, right?” I tsk softly as we continue down the path together. “The government locked down anyone from species powerful enough to challenge them. Some of my kin are locked down in other sectors, Sydney.”

My quiet rebuke stops her in her tracks, and she looks at me apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I mean… Okay, I meant it, but I think it’s because they keep shoving that down our throats. I shouldn’t judge the supes in lockdown because it could be any of us if we lost control of our shit.”

“Aw, come on, guys. We have bigger fish to fry now. What the fuck are we going to do about this damn challenge thing?”

Our burly bear friend has an annoyed expression on his face, but I canfeelhis fear. It’s delicious, so I use my power to siphon some of it off so he won’t go home radiating it like a beacon. He’ll have to tell his uncle the news, and the kids will smell it as easily as I did. It gives me a boost and helps him, so I don’t mind invading his privacy a bit.

Sydney shifts her bag on her shoulder, shrugging again. “Nothing. I mean, we obviously don’t have a choice aboutentering. We’re going to get three other supes to fill out the team and if we’re lucky, they won’t be total fucknuts. Then we all get to dance to the government’s tune and hope we don’t die. That’s it—the only option we have.”

I hate that she’s right; her aura feels like she’s given up.

“We’re not going to die, Syd,” Thad says. “Everyone has the Markers, so power levels are evened out. All the supes have the same chance.”

“Um.”

They both look at me and I roll my eyes upward, not believing that I’m going to share one of the things that got me shipped off from my last sector. The information I have is super top secret, and I never shared it because I didn’t want to put them in danger.

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