Page 96 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

96

I Don’t Think This is Over

S adie

“You okay, Anubis?” I ask as we walk toward the encampment. He hasn’t taken his hands off me since he climbed over the canyon wall. Right now, his arm is protectively superglued to my lower back.

“I won’t lie. That was frightening. More important, it helped me realize how much I love you.” He leans to kiss the top of my head, but we don’t stop walking. Erwann ran ahead to make sure the encampment is up ahead. It’s there, alright, it’s just farther away than Zedd promised. She lied. What else is new?

“Funny, I was going to say the same thing about realizing how much I love you.” I sling my arm around his waist and tuck even closer to him.

I’m still getting used to the way his body morphs from one state to another and that his eyes have returned to their handsome ice-blue. His body is larger than what it was when I met him, but smaller than a few hours ago. I shrug. It doesn’t matter. I love him no matter what he looks like.

The group is fairly quiet. You’d think we’d be jubilant, but we’re all wary. We’ve been lied to and screwed over too many times in this competition to think it’s over. Who knows, there might be hell hounds or head hunters or Jurassic raptors ready to ambush us.

“We stick together, right?” I ask. “Zedd’s got to have one more shady trick up her sleeve. We all go to the flagpole and touch it at the exact same time, okay. Like I’ll say one, two, three and we all do it in unison.”

“Yes.” They all agree.

“We don’t let them haul anyone away. That couldn’t be good, right?”

“Nope. We stick together,” Shah says.

We walk into camp to Zedd’s fake-happy face floating on holovids all over the site. Not only is she on camera, but she’s here in the flesh, not ten feet from the flagpole.

None of the staff look happy, despite the deafening sound of fake applause booming over the speakers.

“Look, females and males. Our contestants are arriving back at camp as heroes. Wasn’t that the most spectacular ending you could have imagined? How did they have the foresight to string those vines across? It’s almost as if they knew our brand-new bridge was going to fail. I’ll tell you one thing. The Ashland Construction Group of Melitus Prime is going to receive a very strongly worded letter from TGN corporate.”

I make certain the cameras are recording this, then count to three. We all simultaneously touch the flagpole in a moment that will be memorable only because it is so anticlimactic.

“Since all of you arrived on the Crown Nebula cruise ship as slaves—was it only a few days ago—here are your papers of manumission. You are now free people.”

She hands us each a rolled piece of paper tied with ribbons as if she were the Wizard of Oz bestowing us with fake diplomas. Not trusting her as far as I can throw her, I tear off the red ribbon, but since I can’t read Universal, all I see are squiggly lines.

Anubis takes the scroll and examines it for a moment.

“It says all the right things,” he says, “although it still might not be legitimate.”

“And here are certificates of ownership of your land parcels, given to each team, not individuals.”

What if a couple had managed to cross the finish line even though they hated each other? Oh well, I’ll be happy living with Anubis, and from what I’ve seen of the other couples, they won’t have any objections to staying together.

“And the comm-bracelets we gave you are now loaded with generous stipends.”

“How generous, Miss Zedd?” I ask in my most eager, optimistic voice, hoping to catch her in a lie on camera.

“You’ll see just how generous the TGN corporation can be when you make your first purchase,” she says, her smile as genuine as a wide-mouthed shark’s.

“Where are these parcels of land?” I press.

“Show them, Kartom.”

The holo-screens show a closeup of wooded acreage. When they pan out, the pictures look alarmingly like this planet.

“The land is on Ultera? The planet we’ve been stranded on for four days? This uninhabited planet overrun by humanoid-eating dinosaurs?” I ask, my mouth dry.

Zedd’s already cut to commercial, but I can’t control the accusations spewing from my mouth.

“You’re going to leave us here? With no housing? No weapons? No communications to buy anything and have it delivered, even if TGN was generous enough to give us more than enough credits for a stick of gum? You’ve made millions off of us. Billions, maybe, and you’re just going to leave us stranded on this forsaken rock?”

Okay, I’m screaming. If I’m alive long enough to ever watch a playback of this, I’m certain I’ll see my face is red as a beet. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone as much as I want to race across the clearing to choke the living shit out of her.

I may have been the only one talking, but by the expressions on their faces, Anubis and my four friends are ready to do the same.

Just at this moment, a hover arrives. I’m new to this end of the galaxy, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know this is either the network execs or some type of military black ops vehicle.

By the way Zedd’s eyes dart to Anubis, I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.