Page 52 of Akarnae

The boys exchanged glances and Jordan said, “Trust me, you’re better off not knowing. Just steer well clear of any red squares.”

Seeing that Jordan wasn’t going to explain, Alex sneaked a glance at Bear. He mimed a quick action with his hands coming together before snapping his fingers out and mouthing a single word: ‘BOOM’.

Jordan hadn’t seen their interaction, but he must have noticed the panicked look on Alex’s face because he hurried to reassure her. “It’s fine, Alex. We’ve done this hundreds of times.”

She looked at the red squares dotted across the room and simply said, “You’re crazy.”

“It’s a piece of cake,” Jordan promised. “You’ll love it.”

“Yeah,” Bear agreed. “And besides, the red squares aren’t the problem. The real challenge is that all the squares change colour.”

Alex gaped at the boys before turning her attention back to the floor. Sure enough, within a few seconds a number of the squares changed colours. They pulsed for three warning beats before the change took place. One red square became grey, while another red square turned to wood. A black square turned red, while a blue square turned black. There was no sequence or order to the colour changes—they were completely random. And there didn’t seem to be a set time, either. Some of the squares changed within seconds; others weren’t changing at all.

It was a death-trap, but according to her friends it was also the only way out of the room.

“All right, let’s do this,” she said, causing both Jordan and Bear to whoop excitedly.

“I’ll go first, then you follow me, Alex, exactly where I step. Bear will come behind you,” Jordan said. “And remember, only one person on a square at a time.”

She hadn’t been told that before. “Why?”

Jordan grimaced and said, “They’re kind of… booby-trapped.”

“Booby-trapped,” she deadpanned.

He looked at her innocently and shrugged as if to say it wasn’t his fault.

“You know what?” Alex muttered. “I don’t even want to know how you know that.”

Jordan’s smile widened when he realised she wasn’t going to yell at him. “Ready, then?”

He took her terse nod as an affirmative and turned his attention to the square closest to him, waiting for it to change from black to a safer colour. The moment it became a wooden surface, he jumped.

I can’t believe I’m about to do this, Alex thought, as Jordan moved to the next square over, leaving her to jump after him.

The first jump was the hardest, but it became easier after that. She continued following Jordan around the room, only glancing back occasionally to make sure Bear was still following them. Both boys frequently asked how she was doing, but she was so focused on not tripping onto the dangerous squares that she couldn’t say much more than “fine” or “still here” or “I’m going to kill you later” without losing her concentration.

The further they travelled across the room, the more her confidence grew. It really wasn’t so hard. In fact, she could almost understand the thrill that both Jordan and Bear seemed to get from the experience. She felt a distinct sense of accomplishment every time she narrowly avoided a dangerous square or made a particularly impressive jump onto a safe one. It was… exhilarating.

“Still with us back there?” Jordan called, glancing over his shoulder.

Seriously? Where else would she be? Alex looked down at the ominous black square to her left and realised that perhaps he wasn’t enquiring just to annoy her. She felt tingly all over as she looked into the empty space.

“Yeah, I’m still—” Alex broke off when she realised that something wasn’t right, since her tingly feeling was escalating. Glancing down, she saw that the wooden square she’d been standing on had changed to blue. She hadn’t even noticed it pulsing, but now her legs were quickly turning numb.

“Jordan, move!” she called, hurrying him along.

“I can’t—I’m boxed in!”

She looked ahead. Sure enough, all the squares around his safe wooden one were either black or red. He wouldn’t be moving on until they changed colour, and none of them were pulsing yet.

“Alex,” Bear called urgently from behind her. “Move to your right.”

“But I—”

“NOW!” he ordered.

Trusting Bear, Alex jumped awkwardly off her square just as it turned a dangerous red colour. Her semi-numb legs almost sent her careening right over the other side of the new floor, but she managed to balance herself just in time. Unfortunately, she’d landed on another blue square, increasing her discomfort. The space diagonally opposite her was wooden so she leapt for it, but her wobbly legs couldn’t hold the landing this time and her momentum carried her onto the next piece of carpet.

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