There Are Only Four (The Competition Archives Book 1) by Nicole Scarano

Author:Nicole Scarano [Scarano, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Luka lays sprawled on top of us, our limbs tangled together as we catch our breath. Laughter unexpectedly rips through me as we lay there, and I see Serene staring at me out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t care. I can’t. I’m just glad we are still alive, and my arms fling around both of them. I hug them to me as tight as our skin allows, and once the laughter dies on my tongue, I kiss Luka’s cheek and then Serene’s forehead. She giggles slightly at my affection and hugs me back with all the strength left in her exhausted body. Luka pushes his weight further into us, crushing us to the concrete, and burrows his face in our hair. We cling to each other for a long while, and hope floods my soul. I don’t know these two well, but I love them. Deep down I know I do, and I clutch them harder. We can do this; as long as we stick together, we will be okay.

After a few minutes, Luka finally peels his body from ours and swings back to his knees. His cheeks are flushed pink and his smile full as his hands reach for us. Serene and I accept his help, and together we stand atop this towering wall. The ledge is wide, and its thickness convinces me that the collapse below was an accident, a miscalculation on the game makers’ part. The power needed to bring down this much concrete would have dwarfed what was required to terrorize four teenagers. They made a mistake. I pray it isn’t their last.

My gaze travels from the wall to the extending maze all around us. My breath catches, and Serene releases an involuntary squeak. This structure is monstrous, vast and all-consuming. The convoluted walls bend and weave until they disappear from sight, their heights changing from high to higher without rhyme or reason. Some sections are worn and battle scarred while some are fresh, as if the concrete was poured only days before our arrival. This fact causes my stomach to pitch. I ignore its implications, searching the distant corners for any potential, but the dome has us sealed within this hellscape. They built this network of traps and death in a massive circle, and as I stare at the far edges, I realize the starting gates we entered from line the maze’s outer circumference. There is no escape the way we came, nor would we survive crossing the thresholds of the other competitors’ entrances. There are undoubtedly precautions on the competition’s part to ensure we do not backtrack.

“There.” Luka points to the center of the maze, and Serene and I follow his gesture. It looms a king among the unworthy, its height mocking our insignificant statures. The end of the labyrinth. The finish line. That tower of concrete and metal is what every section converges on. It is there on that peak that a winner will be crowned.

“If we run

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