Nice Day to Die (13 page)

“What?” I can’t believe my ears.

“Wait here,” he orders, and jogs away again.

I am standing with my mouth open, regretting having saved him. I need to forget about him. This boy is a walking, talking ape. That’s not good for me, so I turn and walk the other way back into the forest.

From now on, wherever he goes, I will go the opposite way.

As I walk away I hear news on my iAm about bad things happening to the Monsters’ families. Once you become a Monster your family gets downgraded. How bad? That depends on their rank. If they were Nines and Eights, they will be downgraded to Sevens and Sixes, and they will survive. But if they were Sevens and Sixes, serious bad things can happen to them. I suddenly realize the damage I have caused my family.

It’s not like I have never thought about it, but my parents tried to kill me when I was seven years old, for God’s sake. If I hadn’t met Woo, they would have killed me. I owe him more than I owe them. Besides, my brother Jack is a pre-Nine. If they can persuade the Summit to wait a year, their lives will be boosted up generously. No one cares about me.

Still, they are my family, and it will drive me crazy if something bad happens to them. Should I confess to the Summit about switching the iAms? Will I be forgiven? What about Eva? Granting her hope and taking it back again isn’t fair. The tragedies that happen to families of the Monsters are horrifying.

I want to call
Ariadna and check with her if my family is all right. If they are, I’ll have a clearer conscience and mind to go on looking for Woo. But Monsters in the games aren’t allowed to initiate calls with anyone outside the Playa. The only way to call someone is to ask permission from the Trickster. I dial three sixes on my iAm, the hotline number of the game’s headquarters.

It takes forever for someone to answer. I am expecting Timmy to pick up, but he is nowhere to be found. He must be preparing himself to wear a wig or get into character to answer the call and entertain everyone.

Timmy finally picks up. “Yes, sweetie. This is your aunt speaking.” He is dressed in an old woman’s bathrobe with his brown wig in rollers, as if he just came out of the shower. “How may I help you?”

How much money do they spend on this show? We could use it down here.

“I need permission to call someone,” I tell him.

“No can do, dear,” replies Timmy in a high-pitched voice. “No calls allowed before the number of Monsters alive is reduced to ten.”

“Since when does this rule apply?” I grit my teeth.

Timmy, looking at his big pink watch, says, “Mmm. Since just before you called. Had I picked up the call a second sooner, you could have gotten your permission.”

“Listen up, you—” I am losing it, watching him on my iAm.

Timmy’s eyes pop out, fixed on two spiral springs, and his ears grow bigger like a rabbit, each shaped like a phonograph. These effects are made using Instant-CGI technology. I’ve seen it on TV. They are CGI effects like in older movies, but they can be applied in real time. I used to like it, but not anymore.

I stop myself from cussing. I still believe I am a Seven. Sevens are polite.

“I want to check on my parents. I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. My brother is a pre-Nine. I want to make sure the Summit understands.”

Timmy is impersonating a judge wearing a French wig in a courtroom full of wailing Monsters, real monsters, goblins, trolls, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and more with full makeup. Timmy’s whole body is shaking when he sobs. “Her brother is a Nine,” he weeps. “A Nine.” He slams a sponge hammer against the desk. It spatters pudding all over his face. “It’s not the court’s responsibility to stop the Summit from whatever they plan to do with your family.” The camera closes in on his face. “Only when there are ten Monsters left — alive — and you are actually one of them can I grant you a phone call. If you really want to speed up the process…” He blinks repeatedly, his eyes roll like a slot machine. When the rolling stops, they don’t show apples or zollar bills. They show a gun in each eye. “You might want to kill’m yourself. Boo. Boo. Boom.”

The viewer counter increases dramatically. Almost two million viewers are watching right now. Those are just the national viewers. Worldwide, they might be ten times this number. The Summit is making huge money. Two million viewers in Faya are watching me. It really scares me.

“I am going to hang up now,” Timmy says. “Since your family is broke and is about to be evacuated, I don’t think they will appreciate paying for the phone call. It costs ten times as much calling from the Dizny Battlefieldz. It’s considered long distance, you know.”

“What? So you know what will happen to them?”
What have I done?

“You will know what you need to know when you downsize the Monsters to ten. Maybe your zippy-zap boyfriend could help you.”

“He is not my—”

Before I could finish my sentence, Leo appears from nowhere and pushes my disconnect button.

“I told you to wait for me, not to gossip with your friends,” he says flatly and tosses some clothes at me: blue jeans, white t-shirt, and a hair band. He is wearing a new blood-smeared white t-shirt instead of the one I ripped open.

“I am sure they’re your size. If the pants are a little tight, don’t worry, you will lose that butt of yours by tomorrow night, running for your life,” he says.

“I don’t have a big butt,” I protest. I can’t believe he said that. I don’t know who is worse, him or Timmy. I use the hair band, which I think is a good idea, then check out the pants and the shirt. They are blood-stained too, but dry.

“Where did you pick those up?” I am in shock.

“The pants are from an exploded girl. She had no head and no upper body, so I knew she was a girl from—” He shrugs. “From… whatever.”

I won’t comment on that. I put on the pants, trying not to think about the blood or about the fact that I am wearing a dead girl’s pants. I hold my breath and squeeze myself into the jeans.

“The t-shirt belongs to a boy. He had his legs—”

“Stop. I don’t need to hear this. I don’t want to hear about your shopping trip in zombie land.” I raise my hands in the air. “The only reason I am doing this is because I know I can’t spend the rest of the games semi-naked in a ruined dress. Could you please turn around?”

Leo puts a poker face on, but turns around eventually. I put the shirt on and throw the dress away.

“If you don’t like my taste, be my guest and do your own shopping from the dead bodies lying in the streets,” he says sarcastically. “There is Prada, Versace and—”

“Not funny,” I fire back. “You can turn around now.”

“As if I’d wait for your permission,” he mumbles, turning around and looking at me. It seems as if something about me amuses him. “Wow. You look good,” he says. Finally, he says something nice to me. “In blood,” he adds. “Here, take this.” He throws a knife at me. It swooshes next to my ear and sticks to the trunk of the tree next to me.

I am not going to question his sanity anymore. I am worried about my family, and I need to stay alive, and maybe downsize the others.

“Do you know what happens to our families when we’re outranked?” I interrupt him.

“All kinds of bad things.” He doesn’t even look at me.

“Are you for real? What are you?” I try to focus. I can’t seem to put the puzzle named Leo together. “Who are you? Why are you even here? Why did you come back? How do you know my name? Why did you have a bomb in your mouth?”

“Xitler wanted me to explode. It’s his way of punishing me for rebelling against the Summit.”

“And why does a Nine rebel against the Summit?”

“Don’t you ever stop asking questions? My grandma talks less than you do. Where is your off-button?” He flips me around like a doll. Is this his excuse to check out my ass?

“That button is definitely not there!” I purse my lips.

“Oh?” His eyebrows furrow. I think that is by far the best reaction I got from him all day. “So you do have an off-button. It just isn’t
there.
” He smirks and marches on. “Come on. I take it that you can pull the knife out from the tree by yourself.”

Suddenly, I remember why I miss Woo so much.

Before Woo died in the Monster Show, I never complained about being a Seven. All I wanted was to find my place among all the other teenagers, even though there were certain things I could never get and never be. I kept looking at those who were given lesser choices than me, and I was thankful for what I had been destined to have. Like my mother said, I tried so hard not to enjoy to the maximum, not to aspire for more. That way I could finally get what I was promised, what I worked hard for: to be accepted as a Seven.

Look at me now. I made a choice to enter the show and find Woo. If he isn’t alive, or if I don’t find him, I’ll be close to having nothing. Two inches below nothing.

I promise myself I will not die in this game. Not before I find out what happened to him.

I pull the knife out, thinking that I might stick it in Leo’s back eventually. Right now, I have to learn all I can from him. I know that no one has survived this game before. But if Woo did find a way to survive in the Playa, I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life here with Woo.

Why am I reminding myself of this? Oh, yes. I am attracted to a jerk called Leo in the middle of a survival game. Shoot me, please, if not for being a Monster, then for being a hapless romantic.

Suddenly, I hear a voice behind me in the bushes. When I turn around, I see a young girl. Once she sees me she runs away immediately. Leo is gone and I don’t want to risk going deeper into the forest after her. Who knows what lurks in there. It might be one of the Summit’s deadly tricks.

Confusion. Confusion. Confusion.

Sometimes I feel that the worst thing in the world is making decisions. Wasn’t it enough that I decided to enter the game to find Woo.

What the heck is wrong with you, Decca. This girl might lead you to Woo. Decisions are not all planned. Sometimes you have to act on a whim. If you really know what you want in your heart, the right decision will come to you.

The girl looked about seven or eight years old, which doesn’t make sense. If Woo and other survivors from the previous games have managed to survive, they would be older than me, not young like her.

I am such a dork. After wasting my time thinking and hesitating about it
,
I decide to run after her. This could be a way to find Woo. The young girl could be Woo’s friend.

No shit. Told you so about five half a minute ago!

I feel like have this other Decca inside me that knows what to do, but I foolishly manage to suppress repeatedly.

The forest is dense and dark in midday, which also doesn’t make sense. How does the Summit do this? What kind of technology is this?

I call out to the girl, but I get no reply but the echo of my lonely voice
.
Did I imagine her?

Standing at the forest’s threshold, I realize that I have blown my chance to find her. It still might be some trap or another silly part of the game.

However, I find a thin white plastic ring on the ground. I pick it up. Did the girl leave it behind? Is it a secret message from Woo to me?

When I put the ring on, it feels as if it buzzes slightly. What’s with all those buzzing devices here? But nothing else happens. The ring looks cheap and useless. I might have imagined it buzzing as well.

I rub it with my fingers. “Is that you, Woo?” I whisper to the emptiness surrounding me.