The Lost Code Part 17

"That will be us," Leech announced loudly. Todd had drawn names from a hat to make the teams. I was on Leech's.

"But remember," Claudia continued, "the carnivores will be after you."

As Claudia said this, I pictured Lilly somewhere in those dark woods, hunting me, and felt a twist of excitement that made it hard to keep still in my seat.

"And there are no safe zones for omnivores. If they catch you, you must give them one hundred credits each in the form of your food supply or armbands, then return to the entrance and wait twenty minutes before entering again. Obviously if you are captured after the one-hour-and-forty-minute mark, you're out. Your counselors will be patrolling the Preserve to a.s.sist with questions and in case there are any injuries. Remember, as senior campers, you have earned the privilege of acting as your own leaders during the game. Please don't abuse that tradition.

"And one last thing," said Claudia. "Teams should not leave the trail system except to hide, and then hiding is only permitted within ten meters of a trail. Any team spotted cutting between trails will be sent out to restart. Omnivores, are you ready?"

We shouted snarling cheers, and of course we were drowned out by the Arctic Foxes.

"Survival of the fittest, of the strongest and most cunning," said Claudia, reading from the pad. Paul probably would have been excited about that line. "Okay, let the contest begin." She waved us toward the door.

We pa.s.sed through the entrance. Three paths branched out into the dark woods.

"Have fun getting chomped, everybody!" Leech shouted. Our team also had Noah, Xane, and Beaker.

"You're going down, skunks!" called Paige as her group split off to the right.

"We're heading left," Leech announced. "n.o.body follow us."

"Who'd want to when you have him him on your team?" Paige pointed at me with her chin. on your team?" Paige pointed at me with her chin.

We turned, and the other groups headed off in separate directions.

"Dude, that's aMAZing!" said Xane, punching my shoulder. "They HATE you!" He seemed impressed.

"Yeah," I muttered.

"Way to blow your chance, Turtle," said Leech.

I was about to respond when, behind us, an air horn sounded.

"Showtime," said Leech.

Quiet closed in on us. We walked in a cl.u.s.ter up the wide dirt path, peering left and right into the muted world between the trees.

"Shut up up, Beaker!" Noah hissed.

"What, I didn't do anything!" Beaker replied, pulling his fingers away from his mouth, where he'd been chewing his nails.

The trail crested a small rise. At the top, Leech immediately turned and left the trail, darting between the trees along the ridgeline. Noah followed.

"Where are you going?" Beaker called. He stood beside me on the trail's edge.

"We're going this way," Leech said like it was obvious.

"But we're not supposed to leave the trails," said Beaker, and I hated how he sounded like such a wimp, even though I felt the same way.

"Hey!" Leech snapped. "Who's played this game three times before and won twice? This was the plan we made this morning."

"Take the high ground to gain surprise," Noah added, as if this cleared anything up.

"What plan?" I asked.

"You wouldn't know," said Leech, "would you, freak boy?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means." Leech turned and kept going.

"They didn't tell me the plan plan either," said Beaker. either," said Beaker.

But I was busy trying to contain the squeeze of adrenaline spreading in my gut. Leech knew about me. Freak boy. What else could that mean but gills?

"I'm going," said Xane, almost like he was apologizing, and followed after Leech.

"What should we do?" Beaker asked me.

I looked up and down the path we were on, then at Leech's, Noah's, and Xane's silhouettes, then at Beaker, who was apparently going to do whatever I did. Great. "Let's stay with them," I finally said. We started into the woods.

We walked through the shadows, our feet making light scuffs in the pine needles as we followed the line of crumbled rock along the ridge. The tree canopy was thick above us. Things scurried in the foliage, and I saw flashes of birds and little creatures. The air was still, heavy, and smelled like baked goods and soil. I felt a slick coating of sweat forming on my skin.

We heard distant squealing, hollow foot crashes echoing in the underbrush, then a high-pitched wail, a battle cry by one of the Arctic Foxes as they pursued their first prey. I peered through the gloomy labyrinth of trees, wondering where Lilly might be.

Beaker and I caught up as the others descended into a little gully that held a pocket of cooler air. A stream gurgled down the center, cascading over smooth rocks. There was a path running alongside it. The flats on either side were coated with furry moss.

"See anything?" Noah whispered.

Leech peered up and downstream.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"Food tokens, obviously," Leech muttered. "There's always some hidden around this spot."

"Here they are!" Beaker called. He was crouched by a boulder, pointing underneath.

"Sweet!" Leech ran over and elbowed Beaker out of the way. He picked up the palm-sized stack of wooden coins. There were five disks, four painted blue and one black. They were each marked with the number twenty.

"Why is one black?" asked Beaker.

"That's the food carrying toxic chemicals," said Leech. "We don't have to worry about those, but if the carnivores get too many, it kills them off. Here, you can have the toxic one, Beaky." He handed a blue each to Noah and Xane, and stuck the other two in his pocket.

I watched this, and almost thought about not saying anything, but then I did. "Hey, what about mine?"

"No food for you at this stop, mutant Turtle." He smiled at me like it was a challenge. "Okay, let's keep moving up the hill-"

But no. I felt my nerves and anger twisting together. As he pa.s.sed me, I pushed his shoulder. "Give me one of the tokens."

He glanced at me but kept walking. Just smirked.

Lack of sleep, I would think later, lack of sleep clouding my judgment was the reason for what I did, because I just ran at him. Slammed both hands against his back. The blow was harder than I'd meant, or maybe not. Leech's head whiplashed and he toppled over, hitting the ground with his face first. He rolled over holding his nose. "Guh!" He pulled his hand away and there was a smear of blood.

"Dude!" Xane shouted.

"Whoa," said Beaker softly, like I had just performed some kind of sorcery.

"Sorry," I mumbled, but then I hated that I'd said that, almost like some little unconscious betrayal. I didn't need to be sorry. I wasn't. Though I hadn't meant for there to be blood.

Noah glared at me. "What's your problem?" He watched Leech like he was waiting for instructions.

Leech surveyed the blood on his hand. Looked up at me. "You want to die, huh? That's what this is?"

"Give me a food token," I said, trying to keep the shaking out of my voice, the pathetic fear of this little kid, but I had changed the game just now. It was something I'd never done before. My heart was slamming against my ribs. My fingers tingled as adrenaline coursed through my body.

And then Leech was up, springing to his feet and coming at me, and I had no idea what to do, how to move or defend myself. All I did was put out my arms, but he barreled through them and crushed against my chest. I staggered back. One arm was around me but the other clawed at my neck, his long nails scratching. Was he going for my gills? His fingers slipped on the slick of NoRad I had there. I grabbed his T-shirt and whipped him to my side, spinning away, his shirt tearing at the collar.

He turned toward me again. His face was beet red. Blood had streaked from his nose down over his mouth and it splattered when he spoke. "So this is it, huh?" Drops rained down onto his shirt. "This is where you think you make your big move?"

I could feel my face burning too, my chest and neck aching, but at the same time, what he'd said had thrown me off. What big move was I making? I wondered if this had something to do with Paul. Was Leech jealous because Paul seemed so interested in me? He almost sounded like Evan had the night before.

Leech stepped toward me. "I'm gonna take you out, Turtle." His eyes narrowed. We were about to become savages, and it sounded fine to me. I'd had enough.

"Try it," I said.

"Whoa, someone's coming!" Xane hissed.

Then we all heard it. The top pitches of a group of voices, carrying over the sound of the stream.

Leech looked over his shoulder. "From down there," he whispered. "Hide." And just like that, our battle was suspended.

We all scattered to different rocks and dropped to the moss. I lay on the cool carpet, springy and soft and sweet-smelling. Dampness on my bare knees and elbows. I was still breathing out of control. My side ached, my shoulder too, but I was glad to have the confrontation over, glad to just be back in the game.

A group of herbivores appeared, girls from the Koala cabin, their faces painted with cute whiskers and black noses. They were silent, nervously glancing up at the ridges on either side, a few clutching food tokens to their chests.

They had nearly reached us when Leech cupped his hands to his mouth and called, "Whoop-oop-oop!" "Whoop-oop-oop!" A battle cry, and though I hated him, it was also the right thing to do, because the girls jumped and screeched, terrified, and we all leaped up from our hiding places. A battle cry, and though I hated him, it was also the right thing to do, because the girls jumped and screeched, terrified, and we all leaped up from our hiding places.

They spun and ran, b.u.mping into one another. "This way!" shouted their counselor, and they fled back down the hill. We took off, a pack in pursuit, the gravity of the hill spinning our legs. We were all making the whooping animal call now. I hadn't even realized I was doing it at first, but it felt good, and combined with all the adrenaline and nerves left over from the fight, I felt myself in the grip of a bloodl.u.s.t, a predator, running full speed after the meek beings below, mine for the kill.

We caught them as the trail flattened out. Noah and Xane tagged the last girls in the pack and both shouted, "Caught!" and then I was reaching a little girl in pigtails who saw me and squealed in terror. Nearby, a girl tripped and fell and skinned her knee just as Beaker was about to grab her.

"Ooh, sorry!" said Beaker, the least predatory of us all.

"Okay, that's enough!" the counselor called. "You got us."

They had only found one stash of food so far, so we got all one hundred credits of that, plus five of their armbands. The counselor collected the loot from the girls and then turned toward us. "Here."

Leech stepped up and took it.

As the girls headed back to the entrance to get new armbands and wait to reenter, Leech turned with the spoils. "Everybody gets their forty," he said, and handed things around. He gave me a token and an armband without looking at me.

I tensed, ready to pick up where we'd left off, but Leech just said, "Come on." He wiped at the still-trickling blood beneath his nose and started up the other side of the gully, off the trail again. I figured our fight wasn't over, but maybe it was suspended for the rest of the compet.i.tion.

Noah and Xane followed Leech. Beaker was watching me again, to see what I'd do. I thought about taking off on my own, but I kept following them. They knew these woods from the previous games, and I didn't.

We continued cutting our own trail. At one point we had a silent run-in with an Arctic Fox team. Now and then, we heard the ghostly sounds of other kills happening in the distance. I walked behind Leech and Noah. Each time they leaned close to whisper, I tensed for the retaliation, but then they'd just change direction. Noah would turn back to me and Beaker and Xane and make a pointing motion in our new direction, like we were a military unit.

"Where do you think the carnivores are?" Beaker asked quietly.

"I don't know," I said. In terms of winning the game, I wasn't supposed to want to run into them, but the thought of that encounter, of Lilly and the chase, was starting to dominate my thoughts.

We crossed another stream and pa.s.sed a high-fenced pen where two black bears were sleeping in a rock enclosure. They didn't move. I wondered if they were real. A sour stench seemed to indicate that they were.

In the distance, the air horn sounded twice.

"What was that?" Beaker asked.

"Halfway point," said Leech, "but it also means that half the food in the game has been taken away, to symbolize it being lost to the Great Rise. Resources are scarce now, so we have to be extra careful."

We twisted through the trees, peering in all directions. Heard more screeches of a distant attack in progress.

"Wait," Leech suddenly hissed. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" I asked.

"Listen." He pointed toward a huge boulder, maybe three meters tall and wide, just off the trail. We were silent for a few seconds, and then we heard someone snicker, then a shushing and a young giggle.

"Whoop-oop-oop!" Leech shouted again, and we rushed the stone. Herbivores sprinted from behind it, a herd of squealing little boys all with black-and-white stripes on their faces. They headed straight back through the thick forest, dodging and twisting through the underbrush. Leech shouted again, and we rushed the stone. Herbivores sprinted from behind it, a herd of squealing little boys all with black-and-white stripes on their faces. They headed straight back through the thick forest, dodging and twisting through the underbrush.

We tore after them, screaming our banshee wails and closing fast. The boys answered with their own screams of terror.

"Over here!" Their counselor had found a path. The herbivores veered after him. Ahead, a dirt clearing opened up, ringed by trees. There was another animal pen, with a little rock mountain in it. A cougar lounged atop it, basking in the SafeSun, watching us mildly.

We broke out into the s.p.a.ce right on the heels of the herbivores, our fingertips almost to their shirts, when more cries and shouts sounded.

Our cabin's other team suddenly swept out of the trees on the far side of the clearing, Jalen leading the charge, fangs bared. The little ones screamed even louder.

"Get there first!" Leech shouted.

We sprinted. The kids were heading straight toward the fence of the cougar pen. Nowhere left to run. But then as soon as they hit the fence, they all turned and started shouting, "Safety Zone! Safety Zone!"

I saw it now, the yellow signs hung on the fence.

"d.a.m.n!" said Leech.

The little kids huddled against the fence, looking at us, relieved and yet still wide-eyed. We'd all arrived at the same time, and now both teams stood in a semicircle around them, panting, like animals leering at the edge of the firelight.

"We can wait all day, meat," said Leech.