Page 87 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

87

Hallelujah… and a Vow

S adie

“Hurry up, idiots,” Zedd scolds from her hologram. “Get to the table. It’s time for highlights and I want to get it done before we’re out of prime time.”

There’s a harvest table set up nearby, with tents behind it. Thirty people left the hotel yesterday morning, but all I see are the four who urged us on at the flagpole.

“Where is everybody?” I whisper to the Halckons.

“Shut. Up,” Zedd orders. If looks could kill, she’d be burning a hole through me right this moment. “Welcome back, females and males,” she says with a bright smile that looks so real only someone who’s seen the side she reveals to us would know what a heartless bitch she is.

“I’m sure you’re all glued to your seats to hear from our remaining contestants about these last two days. There have been some harrowing moments.” She flashes a big smile at the cameras. Maybe I was wrong. Perhaps the whole galaxy’s already grasped that the female is a psychopath.

“But first, I thought we’d like a little levity. Kartom?” She glances at one of her assistant producers. “Can you roll that footage?”

There I am in all my glory, looking more bedraggled than I’d imagined as we wended our way through the boulder field before the Pterodactyl attack. I may look like shit, but Anubis looks… amazing. He’s such a handsome male. Morphing into a larger, fangier version made him look even better. At least to me.

Did she promise the audience levity? I can’t think of one moment today that had anything light or funny about it.

The onscreen me starts singing. Well, it’s my version of singing. The snippet she’s playing is “Hallelujah”. She lets the footage roll for a few moments, then quips derisively, “Even on a backward planet like Earth, don’t songs have words?”

Wow, how can such a pretty female cram all of that disdain into one sentence?

For a moment, I feel my cheeks flare in embarrassment. I’m used to hanging from silken fabric or doing acrobatics in the rafters of huge venues. Never, not once, did they ask me to sing. “Know your strengths,” was what my dad always told me. I have a terrible voice, that’s not news.

Then searing anger obliterates my embarrassment. Fuck Jahzara Zedd. Why can’t I sing in the middle of nowhere on a Jurassic planet?

I’m going to own this moment. Instead of being the butt of a galactic joke, I’m going to double down. Scooting my chair back, I stand and sing along with my messy self on the screens.

A moment later, my five dinner companions rise to join me. It’s not hard to follow along. I only repeated one word over and over, along with a bunch of humming.

My eyes fill with hot tears at this moment of support and solidarity. Instead of squashing me down, Zedd gave me the opportunity to be lifted up.

I don’t know what the viewers at home are thinking, but I’m feeling more powerful by the second. And of all the songs that have ever been written, all the songs that could have been sung, the fact that we’re all singing the word “Hallelujah” seems like a sign.

Zedd may be an evil psychopath, but I can’t accuse her of being dumb. She knows she’s fighting a losing battle right now, so she says, “Kartom. Stop rolling. Let’s enjoy the highlights, shall we?”

We all sit down and surreptitiously cut our gazes at each other. Everyone at the table is trying, but failing, to hide their sly smiles. We just won a tiny victory.

As a robot serves us, I reach for a bottle of water as the surrounding holovids play.

Anubis puts his arm around me in support. We both know we’re going to not only see our life-and-death struggles played out not ten feet away as entertainment, but we’re going to see how 24 of our fellow contestants died.

Anubis still can’t talk, but he puts my fork in my hand and nods his head at me. It’s clearly encouragement to eat. I want to argue with him, tell him no sentient being, at least not one with a heart, could put fork to mouth right now. When I look at him, my body bowed up, my expression full of protest, he slowly shakes his head.

He’s right, damn it. I went through a lot today and need to eat to keep up my strength. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

I steadily shovel tasteless food into my mouth as I keep my eyes averted from the screens. I don’t need to watch, though, to know what’s happening.

It’s obvious when they’re showing the trials and tribulations Anubis and I experienced. We lived through it. I remember quite well what it sounded like.

When the screens are depicting what happened to the other contestants, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to intuit what happened. There’s the sound of a thundering herd of some type of prehistoric animal, the sounds of screaming, and the sounds of voracious eating accompanied by the noise of breaking bones.

I manage a glance at our table companions. They may be aliens of other species, but it’s easy to read the grief on their faces.

My stomach is churning in anguish, but I keep conveying food to mouth and chewing like everyone else at the table. This disgusting display just makes me double down. I want to survive this fucking game, then spend the rest of my life ensuring that no one has to live through anything like this in the future.

“Let’s send our remaining couples off to bed, shall we?” Zedd asks with an evil smile. “Although they all look tired now, we’ve laced their food with a stimulant that has a little something… extra in it. Make sure you’ve paid for your upgraded Passion Packages. You’ll want to stay tuned to those tonight.”