Page 32 of The Most Dangerous Games

As Tipton pushes Jack back, a familiar voice once again fills the dining hall.

“Jack!” The Host says sharply. “Tipton!”

They both freeze.

“Either behave,” The Host says, “or continue the discussion outside. Without my assistance.”

Jack and Tipton eyeball each other for a moment longer. But Tipton sits back down and returns to his steak. Jack walks back around the table.

Elena doesn’t say thank you. She doesn’t need to.

But she puts her hand in his.

Wyatt leans over to Hannah and whispers, “I know what place I’m picking, if I get the choice.”

“Where?” Hannah whispers back.

“Any place where Tipton isn’t,” Wyatt says.

Game#1

Continues

Three Days Later

Patrick Arrasmith

24.

Antarctica

The killer whale hadn’t been coming for Wyatt, as it turns out. It blows past him—black, white, massive—close enough to take his breath. For a half second, the water around his head turns violent—pressure, wake, noise that he feels in his teeth. Then it’s gone, diving under the surface without leaving so much as a drop of blood. He doesn’t see what it’s after, and he doesn’t care.

He cares about Hannah.

Wyatt swims in her direction again, feeling he’s going in slow motion, arms already thickening, joints already refusing him. Every stroke feels delayed, like his body and his brain are arguing over whose job this is. He tells himself that she’s not dying before help arrives—if it arrives in time—and neither is he.

Up ahead he can see that Alek has almost reached Hannah.

Then another swimmer flies right past Alek, appearing almost out of nowhere, the way the orca just had.

Wyatt recognizes Reg Drummond, player #2, the Australian Olympic athlete. He’d been on the Zodiac boat with them and now here he is, muscular arms pumping hard and fast above the frigid water.

If the water temperature, feeling like it’s a hundred degrees below zero, is slowing him down the way it is Wyatt, Reg Drummond sure isn’t showing it as he passes Alek. Wyatt remembers his lifeguard training and tries to estimate time and can’t. Three minutes? Five? Ten? His wrists feel like they don’t bend right anymore.

A rescue Zodiac is coming, small and fast in the distance.

Not fast enough.

How long have I been in already?

Three minutes? Five?

The boat is still too far away.

Wyatt can’t tell now whether the burn he’s feeling in his arms and legs is from the water, or because he’s stretching his endurance to its limits.

The three swimmers finally meet where Hannah is floating, face down.