Grid Seekers (Grid Seekers Book One) (24 page)

Liam whispered to me, asking for my talisman, and I obliged, before he backed up a few inches.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked.

Liam, holding the talisman with his right hand, dangled it over the edge of the cliff, his feet inching closer to the edge. I couldn’t believe what he was doing, risking our talisman, though I knew he wouldn’t do something like this unless he had a solid plan in place. God, I hoped he had a plan.

“Put that card away or I’ll drop this,” Liam said, the talisman hanging out in the open.

“You won’t do it. Why would you? You’d rather lose your talisman, never to find it again, instead of handing it over? Even if you
do
drop it, I’m still firing this thing at you. You could give it to us and leave the competition with dignity,” Jason said.

“I’ll have no dignity if I give up to you,” Liam said.

“Just do it, Jason. He’s too scared to drop it,” Bridgette said.

Jason took the card, placing it against his skimmer, though not swiping it yet. He stared at Liam, who wasn’t backing down, as I tried to make sense of it all.

“I’m giving you one final chance to give up, Liam. Just do it,” Jason said.

“Bite me,” Liam retorted.

“Modify,” Jason said, quickly swiping the card a second later.

Jason handed the card to Bridgette before it happened. The cannon appeared out of thin air and attached to his chest. The barrel must’ve been four feet wide, a giant circle, and it pointed directly at us. Handles came out of the sides, little red buttons on top of each one, as the inside of the cannon assembled and a blue glow began to emanate from within.

“Alexia,” Liam said, moving back towards me.

“Yeah?” I asked nervously.

“Get your gold card out
now
,” he said.

I unclasped my pouch, the cannon starting to warm up, the humming sound from within beginning to get louder and louder with each passing second. I didn’t have a clue how long it would take until he fired, but I didn’t want to find out.

I fumbled around with my cards, the mist reducing my grip, my cards starting to stick together as the residual dirt began to moisten.

“Alexia!” Liam shouted.

“I’m trying!” I screamed.

My fingernails grabbed it. The humming of the cannon had stopped, and I heard Bridgette laughing, her cackle forever etched in my mind. I pulled out the card, raising it up to my skimmer, and Jason fired.

“Goodbye,” Jason said, clicking both buttons.

A massive ball of blue built up quickly, both Jason and Bridgette squinting. The beam of energy was so bright it was blinding.

“Modify,” I said, swiping the card, just as the plasma ball left his cannon.

The ball came at us, Liam behind me, and the shield came up just in time, the plasma ball hitting it as the energy shot all around me, blowing my hair back. The semi-transparent shield looked like the membrane shield from our dueling phase test.

I put my hands up, shielding my eyes, as the blast ended, my hair falling back down. Jason clicked the buttons again, but nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?” Bridgette screamed.

“It has to warm up again!” Jason yelled.

“Give me the card we found buried on our first day,” Liam said.

I pulled it out, tossing it to him, and it escaped the shield, morphing through it the way our energy blasts shot through the membrane during our rifle duels.

I looked back as he stepped forward and took the card I gave him, swiping it.

“Modify!” he yelled, the alert going off overhead as he swiped the terraform card.

As he came in front of me I saw his body blur for a split second before he kicked the ground, still holding the talisman. The earth below us rumbled, and Bridgette fell down into it, Liam kicking a hole into the side of the cliff. Jason looked back in shock as Bridgette’s scream got fainter as she fell down towards the water, the cannon now fully back online and warmed up.

Jason clicked both buttons, and the ball started to form. Liam raised his fist, a slice of rock coming up and knocking into the bottom of Jason’s cannon, pushing it upwards, the blast shooting up and towards the ten-foot wall behind us.

The ball of plasma shot towards me, skidding off of the top of my shield, the rest of the blast hitting the wall, the area around it crumbling, the ground beneath us starting to collapse.

“Liam!” I screamed as the ground quickly turned to dust underneath me.

The cannon’s recoil knocked Jason back, making him stumble, and he fell into the hole Bridgette went down. Liam jumped forward to grab my hand.

The shield was still active, and his hand hit the side of it, it forcing him away as I fell backwards, staring into his eyes, and he did the unthinkable. Standing on the side of the cliff, he jumped off, risking his own life as he dove down after me.

With my eyes shut, I soon hit the water, the shield breaking like a popped bubble, and I went in, sinking down. Liam shot down next to me, diving into the pool of water, as rock fragments flew through the water all around us, small bubbles forming in their wake.

I floated underwater with my eyes open, looking around, before Liam looked at me, his front facing the bottom of the pool, the scores of rock like bullets raining down in the water.

As Liam swam towards me, his hands and arms cut through the water as they swatted away any rocks that came down towards him. I reached out, grabbing his hand, the two of us trying to get to the surface.

Why did we have to run?

Chapter Twenty

Liam a
nd I swam towards shore, the same side of the pool that we had fallen off of, a few small pebbles still crumbling down into the water, though luckily away from us.

We stumbled onto shore, now near the front of the waterfall, making sure it didn’t box us in any longer. On my hands and knees, I looked around, trying to find any sign of Jason or Bridgette, though the mist was still thick, even more so at the bottom, the dust from the exploding rock almost mixing with it in mid-air, causing my vision to be even more hampered.

I looked down, getting up on my knees, before noticing my pouch was still open, since I hadn’t closed it when I was forced to take out and use that gold card. The shield had long worn off, though it wasn’t completely bad; I now knew that Jason’s cannon was definitely gone, as he had swiped his earlier than I had swiped mine. That was a
little
sigh of a relief.

I put my fingers inside the holster. All of my cards were gone, the only thing left was a pouch full of water, which wouldn’t save my butt in here in the slightest. Liam’s hand still clutched the talisman, the front of it pushed into the sand, though still safe.

“My cards. They’re gone,” I said.

“I still have this one,” he said, flashing the terraform.

I stood up, looking behind me, seeing two cards floating in the water ten feet from shore. Those must be my cards! Well, two of them, anyway.

I swam in, my hand slapping down on them from above, pushing them underwater before I gripped them, not letting them go. Too tired to tread water and see what I had recovered, I swam back in, where Liam was standing on the shore, holding something else in his hand: another card.

“I found one washed up on shore. It’s your plasma shield card, though I guess it’s useless now,” he said.

I walked up onto shore, the water dripping off of me, before I turned my recovered ones around, seeing I had only gotten my feast and canteen cards back. With Jason and Bridgette after us, I wasn’t too sure I was in the mood to even get hungry.

“I lost the rifle card,” I said, looking up at Liam, a sad look on my face.

“So, you thought you could get rid of me that easily?” a voice asked from my right.

I jumped back. Jason was walking out of the water, blood dripping from his nose as he held his talisman in his hands. Bridgette was nowhere to be seen, not even surfacing or coming to support him, though I never heard any notifications go off overhead that a competitor had been eliminated when Liam flung her off the cliff. She must be here, though there was no guarantee she could help him now.

“Get back, Jason. We aren’t giving you
anything
,” I shouted.

“You know, I don’t really feel like getting back,” Jason said sarcastically.

“We don’t want to hurt you, but we will if we have to,” I said.

“With
what
, exactly? You don’t have your precious rifle, so I know you aren’t going to use that. I figure if you had any other weapons, you would’ve already used them against me, but you didn’t, so I think I’ll stay here and take my chances, which are pretty good, wouldn’t you agree?” Jason asked.

I looked around, those same floating cameras coming forward and bobbing around, three in all, though they kept their distance from us, maybe because they feared what Liam and I would try to do to them.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Doing what? Trying to win? I have a family too, you know, and I’d like to make sure both they and myself are set for life. Maybe you only care about living some fairytale life and seeing the world, but I’m greedy, and I want to make sure I’m rolling in money until the day I die,” Jason said.

“Well, that’s strange, because it looks like that day might be today,” Liam said.

“Always one for a quip, right, Liam? It’s just a shame that you’d do this,” Jason said.

Liam looked confused, squinting a little, before Jason wiped the blood from his nose with his sleeve.

“It’s a shame I’d do
what
, exactly?” Liam asked.

“Give it all up for this girl. You and I could win this right now, go on our merry way and each get a wish. You could use it on your own family, right now, and nobody would blame you for it. Well, maybe Alexia here would, but it isn’t like you’d be seeing her anytime soon!” Jason said, chuckling.

“I’m not like you, Jason. I don’t betray my friends,” Liam said.

“Friends? You’ve known her for just over two weeks! She was just another face in the crowd before coming in here!” Jason said.

“Yeah, but she’s become more than just a face since then,” Liam replied.

“So, you’re going to screw over your family for this girl? You’re going to risk being eliminated right now, getting sent to a labor camp, and hurting all of them just because you
think
you might have a shot with her? You have a sure thing right now! You hold the talisman!” Jason said.

Liam looked down at the talisman he was holding, rubbing it, staring at it. He scared me, he was looking at it the same way he was when I caught him looking at it in the shack last night. He was almost entranced by it, like it had some kind of hold on him.

“Liam, don’t do it,” I said, starting to feel like I was going to cry.

“Don’t listen to her! Of course she doesn’t want you to do it! She’s selfish and only cares about herself! Think about your mother!” Jason said.

Liam froze, a slight frown on his face. I stared at him, begging him in my mind to ignore Jason, though I could see he was slipping. He nodded slightly, like he agreed with what Jason said. I knew his mother was a sore spot; he only wanted to help her and his siblings, but he had to know that this wasn’t the way to do it. We could still win this. The other half of the talisman was right there in front of us.

“Liam, please, I’m begging you,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks.

He looked over at me, a look of sorrow in his eyes, and I could tell he was incredibly conflicted, unable to decide what to do.

“Please, don’t do this. We can still win this. Jason has nothing on us,” I said, as I started to sob.

“Oh, don’t I?” Jason asked, pulling out a card.

“What’s that?” I asked, sniffling.

“Modify,” Jason said, swiping his card, the alert going off overhead.

A sword assembled in his hand, the long, sharp metal blade piercing the sky as fragments of sunlight shimmered off of it, the blade quickly becoming scattered with beads of water.

“I’m not afraid to use this,” Jason said, sounding desperate.

“Liam!” I shouted.

“I’ll do it,” he replied, looking up at Jason.

“Excellent,” Jason replied, smiling.

“No! Liam! How could you do this to me? I thought we were partners. You told me that we had each other’s backs and I believed you. You’re throwing away everything we had because of a cheap way out? I thought you were my partner. No, I thought you were
more
than my partner,” I said, the flood of tears escaping me as my head tensed up, my face starting to feel warm, even in this humid heat.

“I’m sorry, Alexia. I still care about you, but I have to think about my family. You’ve been a good partner, and I’ll never forget that,” Liam said, peeking back at me.

“I have a family too, you know. I have a family who needs me, and we could’ve both gone back to our families together, as winners, but you chose to betray me. I’ll
never
forgive you for this, Liam. Never,” I screamed.

“I said I was sorry, Alexia. There’s nothing else for me to say,” Liam replied.

“Hurry this along. I want to get out of this godforsaken jungle,” Jason said.

“I’ll come in a minute, Jason. You have one half and I have the other. We’re going to win this, so just chill out for a minute,” Liam said.

“Ugh,” Jason mumbled, looking angry.

“So you’re really going to do this?” I asked.

“What else would you have me do, Alexia? Call my mom from prison and say hey, I’m sorry, but I’d rather be loyal to this random girl I met a few weeks ago instead of you, the woman who gave birth to me?” Liam asked.

“So, I’m just some
random girl
? Not your partner, the same person you opened up to and became close with?” I asked.

“I’ll love and cherish those moments, and I really did enjoy being with you and being your partner, but this is bigger than you, or hell, even me. Family comes first…always,” he said.

“Hurry up!” Jason said, getting visibly impatient.

“Fine. Go. I hope you’re proud of yourself,” I said.

“I’m about to be very proud of myself, thanks,” he said, before turning around.

Still crying, I wiped my nose with my hand. Liam walked towards Jason, about to connect their talismans and be done with it all. The only thing I could see in my head was an image of my mother and Saraia, both of them probably watching at home, both of them sobbing that I wouldn’t be coming home. I’m sorry, I thought.

“Yes,” Jason said, as Liam began walking towards him.

When Liam was halfway to him, his sword started sputtering and he tossed it aside, and it soon disappeared completely. Jason lifted up his half of the talisman, cackling like a mad scientist, as Liam began to lift his up.

“Ah, I can’t wait to get home and see my family. This is great,” Jason said, smiling, as he looked upwards.

“Well, it might take longer than expected,” Liam said.

While looking forward at him, Liam flung his talisman back, chucking it towards me, before pulling out a card.

“Modify,” he yelled, swiping the card faster than I had ever seen one be swiped before, the carbine rifle appearing in his hands.

He pulled it up to his cheek. Jason’s eyes widened as I scrambled to pick up the talisman that Liam had thrown back at me.

“Oh, shi—” Jason muttered.

Liam fired once, directly between Jason’s eyes, and his body disappeared, turning into a horde of floating pixels. Jason’s talisman half-fell to the ground, rolling around a little, before Liam put his foot on top of it.

I was in complete disbelief, unsure if there was some kind of glitch in the grid and I was dreaming. Liam bent over, the carbine rifle hanging in his left hand, and picked up the talisman half with his right.

I set my talisman down on the ground, my hands quickly coming up to my eyes, as I sobbed uncontrollably, trying to make sense of what I had just seen. I wanted to slap Liam, punch him in the gut, and pull out his hair, but at the same time I wanted to hug him and never let go. He didn’t really betray me, it was all a ruse, and I was at a loss for words.

As I sobbed, I felt his arms envelop me, his right hand rubbing my back, my head now buried in his chest.

“I told you we were partners. I’d never do that to you, not even for the world,” he said.

I pulled away a little, looking up at him, sniffling, as my now puffy eyes almost had trouble focusing on him. He reached up, wiping away a falling tear, and smiled, and it was enough to tell me that everything was okay.

“Why didn’t you let me know? Why didn’t you wink or something?” I asked.

“I needed it to seem real, Alexia. I needed your emotion to be
real
so that he would believe it. If you knew, you wouldn’t be able to convey that,” Liam said.

“I would too…” I said.

“No, you wouldn’t, and we both know it,” Liam said.

I noticed cameras, five of them, all floating around us, their blades spinning rapidly, the lenses zooming in and out as they moved forward and back. Bridgette was nowhere to be found, and I began to wonder what had happened to her. I looked down again, seeing my talisman on the ground, the beads of water almost forming a little rainbow on the surface.

“I’m still mad at you,” I said, before bending over and picking it up.

“Hey,” he said, his hands going on the sides of my shoulders.

Talisman in hand, I looked up into his eyes, a little smile on his face.

“I’d never hurt you, Alexia. Remember that,” he said.

“They have both halves of the talismans!” a man screamed.

We looked over towards the jungle, seeing a group of three standing there, pointing at us, their hair all messed up and their clothes ripped, like they had been living in the wilderness for months. They looked like they were going to run towards us, an aggressive look on their faces, and one of them started fumbling with his cards.

“We better get out of here,” I said.

“Yup,” Liam replied.

“Modify!” the man said, swiping a card, the alert going off for the last time.

I lifted up my half, Liam his, and we connected them, the people screaming as the two halves touched for the first time in almost a year. They clasped together, melting the connection, turning the talisman into one solid piece, our hands still on either side.

Time froze. The arena started rumbling, the waves of sound becoming louder and louder with each passing second. Stuck in place, we all watched as the ecosystem around us was destroyed, bright white light ripping it all up, the competition coming to an end. The light came for us, ending in the center where we were before it finally came, a sense of relief and happiness filling my body.