Page 72 of The Most Dangerous Games

“There’s always the red button,” Alek says.

“You won’t need it,” Jimmy says.

They don’t tell them how the winners are chosen. Only that there will be winners, if they make it across Death Valley and back.

Alive.

They start walking toward dunes that look as far away as the other side of the earth. At first, it feels manageable. Awful, but manageable.

Then the sun climbs higher and the valley turns into an oven. Sand crunches under their shoes. Their screens stay stubbornly blank—no coordinates yet.

No mercy.

The four of them go silent because talking is wasted water.

They walk.

And walk.

And they walk.

It truly is a death march.

They’re silent, all four of them.

Until they hear a single voice.

“I have to quit.”

49.

Mount Washington

Wyatt Jordan is part of the group that has been flown to the airport in Portland, Maine.

The Host has only told them—mid-flight—that they were on their way to a “rock-climbing expedition.”

Then he added: “And since you wouldn’t be here if you all weren’t thrill seekers, rest assured that you’re going to love it.”

Reg Drummond is part of this group.

As is Hannah Wagner.

So, too, is Ant Tipton.

Wyatt hates having anything at all to do with Tipton, but he is secretly glad to have Hannah along for this particular ride, as strained as things have remained between them. He still can’t help feeling he needs to look out for her as much as for himself.

Maybe even more.

A different emotion, frankly, than anything Wyatt has ever experienced. But then this girl is different, whether she’s ghosting him or not. Maybe things would change for the better over the next couple of days.

Maybe he could find a way to make things right.

Once they’ve boarded the bus waiting for them on the tarmac, he sits two seats away from Hannah and tries—once—to look at her.

She doesn’t look back.

Her face is calm in the way a person’s face is when they’re holding something in.