Grid Seekers (Grid Seekers Book One) (21 page)

“We’re so sorry we have to do this,” Jamie said.

Even though they were standing aggressively, like they were going to pounce, there was still a look of sorrow in their eyes, like they were feeling bad about what they were doing. These weren’t the people I knew, the people I’d made a pact with, and the longer I stared at them, the more I realized that our pact was nothing more than a whisper in the wind.

“Why would you help them?” I asked, my sadness coming out as I spoke.

“They’re making us. We get to stay alive and out of prison if we help take you both out. I need to get back home. I have a family,” Jamie said.

“And you think they’re going to let
you
win? They’re only using you so that they can win. They don’t care about you at all!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, but the longer I stay in here the better. At least in here I have a chance. If they eliminate us, then we have nothing,” Matthew said.

“It makes total sense now. That’s why you wouldn’t let us leave, insisting we stay together tonight. You wanted to ambush us all along,” Liam said.

“Like we said, we’re sorry. We don’t
want
to do this. We
have
to do this,” Matthew said.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Liam said.

Liam backed up to me, his back to me, before his head leaned back, whispering into my ear.

“Don’t talk to one another! Jamie, Matthew…take them out!” Jason screeched.

I reached into my pouch, pulling out my rifle card, handing it to Liam.

“What’s that?” Matthew asked, inching closer.

“I told you you’re making a mistake, Matthew. I meant it,” Liam said.

With one fell swoop, Liam placed the card against his skimmer. “Modify,” he said, before swiping it, my carbine rifle appearing in his hands.

I ducked down and Liam twisted around, firing two shots, one at Jamie and one at Matthew. They were direct shots, hitting both of them square between the eyes, both of them screaming before they turned into a bunch of pixels floating away.

“New York City group one has been eliminated,” Gordana said overhead.

“You just made a big mistake!” Jason screamed.

“Did I?” Liam asked, turning around, pointing the rifle at Jason and Bridgette.

They didn’t budge, instead reaching into their own pouches, before Liam shot Jason’s pouch, the cards inside scattering on the ground, and Jason’s face turned beet red as Bridgette ground her teeth furiously.

“You made a mistake there,” Jason said.

“Did I?” Liam asked.

Jason charged forward, not bothering to pick up a card. Liam tossed me the rifle as it fumbled in my hands, Jason quickly coming up and throwing a punch at Liam. He dodged out of the way, Jason falling to the ground.

“Oh, come on now. You can do better than that!” Liam said, smirking.

Jason stood up, wiping his nose with his sleeve, before huffing and puffing, Bridgette yelling at him to take Liam out. They circled one another, Liam moving back towards me, guarding me, the rifle still in my hands but pointing upwards.

Jason came forward, throwing punch after punch, Liam slapping them away like they were annoying flies that were bothering him. I didn’t know if Jason was this bad of a fighter, or if he was just too angry to fight with a clear mind, or both. Liam lobbed a punch forward, knocking Jason back, and Jason spat to the side, his nose starting to bleed a little.

I smiled, cheering Liam on, knowing that Jason didn’t have a chance without any cards to swipe. He was fairly powerless in comparison, and should’ve realized that when Liam knocked him out in training.

My smile didn’t last for long, though. Liam had backed up towards me, and Jason back towards Bridgette, before he reached down, picking up his cards. He looked at them, but before he could pick one, it happened. The ground below us started to rumble, a massive earthquake of biblical proportions rolling through as a shrieking siren went off overhead. We all stumbled around, unable to stay standing, before Jason dropped his cards again, quickly reaching to pick them up and secure them in his pouch.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“It’s the ecosystem! It’s changing!” Bridgette said, pointing in front of me.

Liam and I stood up, moved a little closer to the edge, and saw the landscape changing at lightning speed. The pine and maple trees vanished, a large canopy popping up in its place as gray clouds formed overhead, dropping floods of rain down in the distance.

“What do we do?” I asked, looking at Liam.

“It’s going to get rough, but we’ll get through it. Just try to stay low and close to me,” he said.

As the changing landscape got closer it dropped off, not disappearing, before a massive crack in the earth began opening up, the pit below much,
much
further down than we were now.

“Wait a second,” Jason said.

“What?” Bridgette asked, a tone of panic in her voice.

“This is going to disappear,” Jason said.

“What do you mean, exactly?” Liam asked, panicking.

“That’s way too far down and getting closer. What we’re standing on now isn’t going to be here anymore. We’re not going to be up here,” Jason said.

“Then where are we going to be?” Bridgette asked, looking back and forth between Jason and the incoming implosion.

Jason turned his head slowly, looking at her, the look of fear in her eyes something I wouldn’t soon forget. “Down there.”

“We have to get out of here,” Liam said, grabbing my hand.

All four of us began to run, enemies just a few minutes ago and now not allies, but working towards the common goal of surviving this. We had no idea how much of the land we were on would disappear, or if it even really would at all, but taking the chance of finding out wasn’t an option.

I looked back as we ran, Liam still holding my hand, and saw the cliff we were on start to quickly break up and disappear, with nothing at all popping up in its place. The ground was being swallowed up whole, like something out of a nightmare, and I desperately wanted to wake up.

“It’s here!” Jason screamed.

Just as we got to the edge of the hill we had climbed up with Matthew and Jamie, the ground under us disappeared, drifting away, and my feet were cycling through the air, my stomach turning. I closed my eyes, Liam still holding onto my hand, though our fingers started to slip apart as we fell. Our hands were both sweaty, so our hold on one another wasn’t tight. I opened my eyes again, seeing what was below us.

We were falling towards water, a lot of water, and we must’ve been a hundred feet up in the air. I clenched my teeth, the rush of humid air flooding my nostrils as I tried to breathe, even though I had the overwhelming urge to hold my breath.

I looked at Liam, both of our eyes barely open, before it happened. We hit the water, my eyes closing all of the way, and we shot down like torpedoes, though we didn’t go deep enough to hit the bottom.

The water was lukewarm, like a once hot bath that had been sitting idle for an hour with nobody in it. I flung my arms downwards, my head facing up, trying to get to the surface before my burning lungs ran out of the precious air we all desperately needed.

I hit the surface seconds later, my mouth opening wide as I gasped for air, and I opened my eyes, the murky water dripping off of my eyelashes, my hair slicked back, as I looked all around for Liam. I didn’t see him, or Jason or Bridgette either, and I began to fear for the worst.

As I panicked, I heard a gasp, looking to my left quickly to see Liam trying to get air, coughing hard, before spitting something out. He opened his eyes, seeing me, and I swam over towards him. We used each other to float more easily as we treaded water.

The water was dark, brown and murky, and I could hear the sound of howling monkeys in the trees in the distance. Neither Jason nor Bridgette were anywhere in sight. I didn’t care much about their well being, only making sure they weren’t right on top of us. I looked over and saw a shoreline not too far away, and Liam and I started to paddle our way over there.

The air was dreadfully humid, much warmer than in the forest ecosystem. The buzzing of insects in the distance was met by the noise of swarms of mosquitoes that hovered above the water, circling Liam and I like vultures out to get their next meal.

As we slowly swam towards shore, something swam by in front of us, the wake of water soon brushing up against us, causing us to stop dead in our tracks. I looked behind us, seeing another wake coming, brushing up against our backs.

“Is something here?” I asked.

“I bet it’s Jason,” Liam said.

I looked overhead, seeing a bunch of birds flying away, squawking, like they knew something that we didn’t. The wake came in front of us again, slowing down, before stopping, like it was right in front of us, floating there, waiting.

“I was disconnected for a few because of the ecosystem change. They really aren’t giving us hackers a good hold on everything. I see you’re in the water?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, and I think Jason is here or something,” I said.

“I’m detecting something, but I’m not detecting any
people
,” he said.

“What are you saying, then?” Liam asked.

“I’m saying that there’s something there, but it isn’t a someone…it’s a something,” Peter said.

“Like what, then?” Liam asked, as we treaded water.

The thing surfaced, moving towards us, its reptilian eyes like slivers as its long, scaly snout parted the murky water like Moses. It was an alligator, and it didn’t look friendly.

“Liam!” I screamed.

“I can’t get my cards out in here!” he shouted.

“Move!” I yelled, before pushing him away.

The alligator cruised between us, clamping its jaws shut, as both of us pushed hard so we wouldn’t get caught. I looked back, swimming towards the shore, and Liam did the same, though much faster than I. I wasn’t a great swimmer, since I’d never really had any type of lessons, that sort of activity being reserved for people of wealth. I looked back, seeing the alligator circling around, looking even angrier and much,
much
hungrier.

I swam as fast as I could, my legs kicking, though it felt like I was kicking through molasses. My heart was racing, my limbs cramping, but I fought through it, knowing that stopping would mean my ultimate demise. Whatever pain I was experiencing wasn’t worse than the pain of being eaten alive.

Liam got onto the shore, and I was still fifteen to twenty feet away, the alligator gaining on me as I looked back, almost in tears. I looked forward, seeing Liam fumbling with his cards.

“Modify,” he yelled, the bell going off overhead as his staff appeared in his hands.

With the alligator mere feet from me, he threw it like a javelin, somehow hitting it in its snout, causing it to jerk back. I crawled onto shore, him grabbing onto me, pulling me closer just before the alligator came up, snapping, missing my ankle by a mere six inches. We ran further up the shore, dripping wet, the alligator looking us both in the eyes, staring, before inching backwards into the water. Liam’s staff floated in the water, completely vanishing within a few minutes.

“Are you guys okay? Did you make it out? I’m not seeing any diminished health,” Peter said.

“We barely made it out,” I said, coughing a little.

“Why didn’t you tell us that was in there?” Liam asked angrily.

“I didn’t know! I swear!” Peter exclaimed, sounding a bit nervous.

“There’s no point in fighting or getting mad at him,” I said, looking at Liam. “What matters is that we’re out, but we need to get out of here. We still have no clue where Jason and Bridgette are, and we need to get dried off.”

“I still have the fire starter,” Liam said, patting his pocket. “My cards are all safe as well. I was afraid that drop would’ve loosened the pouch or something.”

“My card!” I said, before opening my pouch and scanning through my cards.

There were only four there, the carbine rifle card that I gave Liam gone. That was my only real weapon; it was already proving itself to be useful, and it was gone.

“I thought you took it back,” Liam said.

“No, you handed me the rifle itself, but not the card. Now we’re even more behind,” I said, my hand to my forehead.

“Well, wait a second before you kill him, Alexia. I think I see it,” Peter said.

“You see it? How?” I asked, looking around.

“Well, I see it on the map, but yeah, it’s not too far away, actually. It looks like it’s just off of the shore of the lagoon you’re at now. It’s just under a half-mile around,” Peter said.

Liam and I started to walk, the lagoon, which was more like a lake, massive in every sense of the word. The water was generally calm, no predators lying in wait, at least that I could see, though swarms of gnats and mosquitoes hovered above the water as they formed little clouds that looked like falling pepper.

“How are you able to see it, exactly?” Liam asked.

“The cards you came in with, and any cards that come into your possession, are linked to your competitor profiles, which they give us access to. That means that I can see where your particular cards are. It’s pretty neat, actually. I had to create this myself,” Peter said.