Page 147 of The Most Dangerous Games

The A Team is down to three:

Alek, Jack, Wyatt.

That’s what Alek keeps telling herself, anyway.

They will be told at tonight’s dinner what their next destination is, when they are leaving.

Before that, Alek decides to check in on Jack, see how he’s recovering. She finds him stretched out on his living room sofa, one hand on his ribs.

Jack tells her that the worst of the damage, according to the doctor—and his portable X-ray machine—is a hairline fracture of his kneecap, of all things. His ribs are badly bruised, but not broken. Nor is his nose.

“The doc’s English was thin. The diagnosis wasn’t,” he says. “I’m basically fine, which is doctor talk for: ‘You’re going to hate your life for a week.’”

It’s plain to see how swollen his nose is, even underneath the bandage the doctor had applied.

“Let’s face it, the biggest bruise is my ego,” he says. “No offense, but I got my ass kicked by a girl.”

“No offense taken,” Alek says. Now she grins. “Well, maybe a little bit.”

“By rights, I’m the one who should be out of here,” Jack says.

“She didn’t seem to think so,” Alek says.

They talk for a few minutes about what they might be facing next. Both Alek and Jack agree that they must be approaching the end of this competition, even though The Host hasn’t come right out and said anything like that.

“All I know is that we’re still here,” Jack says.

“Are we sure that’s good news?” Alek asks.

Jack reaches up and pulls the bandage off his nose.

“Don’t you still need that?”

“Probably,” he says.

He groans as he slowly raises himself up off the sofa. Alek can see he’s favoring one side. He is tough, though, she thinks, and she loves that about Jack.

Alek leans in. “Easy.”

Jack waves her off. “We should go get Wyatt. He needs us.”

When they arrive at Wyatt’s cottage, Alek gives a couple of quick raps on the door.

No answer.

Alek does it again.

Still nothing.

“Hey kid,” Jack shouts through the closed door. “It’s Alek and me. Let’s go eat.”

Still nothing from inside.

“He said he’d be waiting for me to come get him,” Alek says. “And my experience with Wyatt is that he generally does what he says he’s going to do.”

Jack tries the knob. The door is open.

They both step inside.