Page 55 of Matched to the Alien King
“This is a water-pouring puzzle from Earth’s medieval times,” Bling rushed to explain, holding vials in each hand. “AlsoDie Hard With a Vengeance. The movie? With Bruce Willis?”
“Are you having a stroke right now?” Judge demanded, waving his hands. “I don’t know any of the words coming out of your mouth.”
I could barely focus on what she was saying because I was practically wrapped around her now, so I jumped up onto the haiku chocolate table, the wild tempo of my pulse lighting my nerves like a flame to a fuse.
The two of them followed my lead onto their own table, and where the three of us once stood, our tables collided. Instead of a loud crash—or maybe including; I sure as hell couldn’t hear it—orange holographic pixel squares exploded outward like a chainsaw was chewing through steel.
“Thenumbers, Bling,” Maxx demanded in a shout.
Miekil narrowed his eyes at the non-moving, but likely still moving, walls. “Or we’ll be holding a lot more than each other’s hands.”
“I ain’t touching nobody’s rando body parts.” Judge leaped from the table toward them and began scaling the wall, first with the number five hand, then seven, then five.
“Five, zero, two, three, two, zero, zero, two, five, two, four, three,” Bling spouted.
Wow. I had no idea if she was just shouting numbers off the top of her head or if that was really the answer to the puzzle.
When she caught me staring, she said, “I’ll explain later if we’re not crushed to death.”
“Yeah. Okay. Good idea.” I nodded.
By that time, Judge was already to the gap high in the wall.
“Bling, you’re next,” Maxx ordered. “Let’s go.”
We had to dance a little jig through little flying holographic squares for her and her three big boobs to get around me. Maxx and Miekil, with their muscly bulk, were practically kissing.
Four feet by four feet and shrinking.
“Attent—, cont—ants,” Pete started again over the loudspeaker, but I couldn’t make out the rest of what he was saying.
But then, Judge was at the top of the gap with a thick rope in his hands and a wicked glimmer shining brightly in his oversized eyes. Instead of tossing the rope down to Bling to help her climb, he chucked it to the other side and then leaped, vanishing behind the thirty-foot wall.
Everybody else froze, including Bling about halfway up, seeming to catch what I’d missed Pete saying.
Then the hands supporting Bling’s weight bent backwards. Bling plummeted.
Maxx and Miekil rushed to catch her.
I moved out of the way, my shoulder blades hitting the back wall, once again too soon.
A three-by-three room was all we had left.
Bling landed safely in their arms, her eyes screwed up tightly. Poor thing.
Miekil quickly sent her back to climbing while Maxx waved me forward.
“Pete promised the first person out a seven-course meal if they helped the others out,” he quickly explained, his purple eyes flashing with menace. “And 10,000 credits if they didn’t.”
I gaped at him, even as I started climbing. “Judge took the credits. That’s really low.”
I didn’t catch what Maxx said after that, but I was sure it wasn’t complimentary.
As fast as I could, I scrambled up after Bling. WouldAlien Love Islandreally crush us until we were dead? What kind of show would it be if they killed the contestants off?
We’d be replaced, I answered myself,just like what would happen if we were voted off.
Would anyone even really care?
