Page 120 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

120

Not Going to Make It

B raveheart

My lightning-quick reflexes allow me to grasp the dung-brown, four-legged lizard directly behind its head and shake it until it’s dead. Although it usually gives me no joy to kill any living thing, I take pleasure in this. His attack felt personal.

Valor? I call.

Yes.

I’ve been bitten. I’m going to keep running.

Stop! Its venom will course through your system faster if you keep moving. Remain still. I’m coming to get you.

He contacts Willow and broadcasts it so I can hear it. Although I might be dying, it’s somehow reassuring when Valor relays both his and Willow’s concern.

I wondered if perhaps she was wrong, if the serpents on this asteroid were different from the ones on her home planet, but no matter what type of animal this is, it bit me. I can feel the heat and pain coursing through me. Within a few minutes, my ankle is swelling.

I’m coming. Valor’s voice is reassuring as he contacts me. Willow said don’t apply a tourniquet to your leg. Cutting off the blood flow could damage the nerves and blood vessels. Lie still and breathe slowly. I’ll send you calming energy to slow your heart rate.

If I didn’t know all three of us need to touch the flagpole to remain alive, I would have told Valor to go on ahead and leave me here. But the rules were clear. If I don’t show up, the two of them will be put to death. I do as he instructs and calm myself to slow my heart. My last thought as blackness descends is that I need to live not just for myself, but to keep the two of them alive.

Valor

I run at top speed toward Braveheart. I need to get to him as fast as possible for many reasons. Top on the list is that he’s the closest thing to a brother I’ve ever had.

Raised as a geneslave, our handlers did their best to make us into robots, unfeeling automatons. They told us repeatedly we were nothing more than living tissue to be used as tools. I didn’t know that what I’d been experiencing my whole life were emotions, because they told us we had none.

During our time in our cell and working in the mines, we shared our thoughts and feelings with each other. For the first time in my life, I had a friend. He was someone I could count on. When an oulii spider bit me and the site became infected, for days Braveheart practically carried my larger frame up the steps and into the mines, then filled my quota and his own single-handedly. We’re bonded.

We were told geneslaves had no souls. I now know I have one. Braveheart does too, I feel like I’ve seen it. It’s only since Willow arrived that I’ve allowed myself to realize, despite our vying for the same female, that I love him.

I keep running until I break a sweat, something it’s not easy for my body to do. I pass through Willow’s territory and run toward Braveheart. The system of following his verbal signature may break down soon. Each time I call his name, his response is weaker. I imagine any moment now he’s going to pass out. I’ll be running blind trying to find him. I pour on more speed, trying to get as close as possible before I lose him.

Braveheart?

Nothing. I was afraid of this.

Perhaps it’s a miracle when I see a low-slung bump on the horizon. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I run toward it even faster.

Zedd said there were no life forms on this shithole planet? By the time I arrive at Braveheart’s body, he’s covered in small insects. As hot and uncomfortable as these red coveralls are, so ill-suited to this desert asteroid, I thank the stars it’s keeping the tiny things from covering his fur. They’re only on his face and hands.

I drop to my knees, placing my fingers on his carotid to ensure he’s still alive. The fear that had been coursing through my veins is replaced by relief when I feel his pulse. Although it’s weak, it means he’s still alive.

I sweep the tiny creatures off his hands and face and see the fuckers stung him in dozens of places. As if the venom of the serpent wasn’t bad enough, he now has other venom coursing through him.

Our handlers dosed us with increasing levels of toxins and poisons to gain immunity to them. It was painful and some of my fellow geneslaves died excruciating deaths. I doubt the venom of this particular serpent was one they exposed us to, but our bodies have been trained to slow down and conserve energy in a crisis.

I down all the water I have in the pack and eat the nutrition bars in several bites. I’m going to need all the energy I can get.

I’m ready to lift him, but something nags at the back of my mind. I walk to the animal Braveheart killed. It’s not a serpent but a long-tailed ground lizard. I pick up a nearby jagged rock and slam the rock repeatedly against its body until I separate the head, then slip it into one of the numerous pockets of my coveralls.

After lifting my friend, I carry him with one arm under his knees and one under his arms. Heading back toward Willow’s territory, I use the same call and response system to find her.

She’s devastated to hear how sick Braveheart is, but after her initial sadness and worry, she’s all business. Soon, I hear an excited, I think I see it!

Then, Valor, I see it. I see that fucking Game logo . A few minutes later, I’m here. My hand is on the metal pole.

All I hear in my head for a while is her labored breathing, which forms a chorus with my own because the exertion, the heat, and carrying Braveheart are taking their toll on me. This is punctuated by his occasional moans.

When Willow finally catches her breath, she stops just calling my name to help me home in on her. She talks to me.

Is it okay if I talk to you? Keep you company?

That would be good. It will keep my mind off things. I don’t divulge I twisted my ankle in a small hole a few minutes ago. Now every step is agony. It hasn’t slowed me down, though. I’m a geneslave. I’ve spent my whole life ignoring pain and doing what I must.

Earth is beautiful. Nothing like this, she says . Where I grew up, it was lush and green all year round. And warm. We didn’t have seasons like most of the world. It was warm all the time. Not as hot as this, though. It never felt like your skin would start boiling and bubble off your bones.

The sound of her voice in my head is calming, reassuring. It keeps me company and makes me want to find her even faster.

My mom died when I was nine. Luckily, I was old enough to remember her. I can still picture her face, although I can’t quite remember the sound of her voice. It was soothing, though. I remember that. And I remember she had a loud, almost braying laugh when she thought something was hysterical. Just hearing it made me happy.

My body has been on alert since Zedd said “Go,” hours ago. It’s stayed that way through the blowing sands and blazing heat and chemical rush of fear when Braveheart announced, as if it were nothing, that he’d been bitten.

Now, hearing her calm voice, telling me bits and pieces of her childhood, soothes me.

As she tells me about her dad and two brothers, I see the flagpole up ahead.

I see it, I tell her.

I’m right here. I’ll tag you. And Valor? I haven’t mentioned it, but every drone has a screen, and they’re all counting down to sunset. I hate to put more pressure on you. But I’m not sure you’re going to make it.