Page 56 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

56

We Need a Plan

S adie

I felt like someone should have been playing the triumphant theme from Rocky as I traversed the cliff like a mountain goat. Now that I’m on the floor of the wide canyon, reality sets in again. As soon as 1213 joins me, I order myself not to melt into his side. There’s something about his powerful presence and muscular body that comfort me. I don’t know why.

″We need a plan,” he says as we stand, surveying the area.

I climb back up twenty or thirty feet to get a better view. The hotel is about a mile away. We could walk it in less than half an hour. That’s not the problem. The problem is the gargantuan beasts munching on orange grass between us and our destination.

Unlike all my male grade school friends, I did not go through the dinosaurs-are-the-coolest-things-in-the-world phase. I wouldn’t know a T-Rex from a velociraptor if not for the movies. What I do know is there are herds of them moving in this valley. In the next few minutes, they’re going to notice the 78 people in front of us who are running straight toward the hotel, decide we’re all prey, and there will be a feeding frenzy.

″What are they thinking?” 1213 says more to himself than me.

I was wondering the same thing. How could all of them be so stupid as to make a beeline to the hotel with no regard for the twenty-foot-tall T-Rex-looking things?

He points to our right and says, “This must have been a riverbed in the past. There are still thick trees and shrubs lining the edges of the canyon. We can walk along the tree-line, then circle around and come in the back of the hotel.”

As I retrace my steps even higher up the canyon to better see the lay of the land, I realize he’s right. It looks like it might be as much as ten times longer than the direct route, but will definitely be safer.

″If anything comes at us,” he says as he moves his pack from his back to his front, “jump on my back as quick as you can and I’ll climb a tree.”

I should resent his assumption that I’ll need his help. In fact, I do. For all of ten seconds. Then I silently thank him for offering because I couldn’t climb one of the smooth-barked trees if my life depended on it. Sadly, I guess it might.

As we’re picking our way through the fallen rocks at the bottom of the canyon, heading for the cover of trees, the ground rumbles beneath us. Panicked screams reach my ears a moment later. Three enormous creatures are on the move out there, having finally spotted some of the contestants.

What follows is a feeding frenzy too bloody to watch. Even though we’re almost a mile away, I can hear the crunch of bones and the chomp of foot-long teeth tearing into their prey.

There’s a herd of smaller animals, maybe five feet tall, circling the main event. They work together to take down more of our competitors. A third species of animals, smaller still, join the fray to catch pieces of meat as they fall from the enormous jaws of the bigger animals.

″Don’t look, Sadie,” 1213 says, his soft voice close to my ear. “Keep moving. We’re smart. We’re going to make it.”

I’m shaking, my mouth is dry, and my eyes, though looking forward, see little other than what I just watched. It was disgusting and bone-chilling. I swallow hard to stop from vomiting. Should I run through the orange grass directly at one of the big ones just to get it over with?

″You’ve led an easy life?” he asks as he picks up the pace.

At first, it seems accusatory, but when I glance at him, his expression is compassionate.

″Everything is relative. My high school crush didn’t ask me to prom. It was devastating. Now I have a new definition of devastating,” I mumble.

″I’m not sure I understand you, but it sounds like you’ve never been in a life-and-death struggle before. I’ve been in many.”

His fur is so thick and luxurious I hadn’t noticed it at first, but my fingers found the evidence of thick keloid scars across his back as I clung to him today. I have no doubt he’s been in some serious situations.

″I’ll give you a crash course in survival right now.” Although he’s almost jogging, he turns his head to look at me until I nod for him to continue. “Don’t think. Decide what you need to do and then do it. What are we doing?”

I wasn’t fully paying attention. I have to replay his words to catch the question.

″Skirting the canyon floor, staying near the tree line on our way to the rear of the hotel.”

″Good. That’s it. That should be the totality of your thoughts. Your mind should think of one thing only: moving your feet in the right direction. There will be time to contemplate when this is over. We’ll discuss what we could have done differently and be better at this tomorrow when we have another challenge.”

He pauses, almost as if he’s waiting for me to wail, “Another challenge!” but I don’t. I keep moving in the right direction, blanking out my thoughts every time anything invades my mind other than the mission, which is to live long enough to slide inside the front door of the hotel before 7:57 tonight.

″Good, Sadie. We’re going to make it.”