ALEX

𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚁, 𝚆𝙷𝙴𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚈 𝙵𝙸𝙽𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙳 𝙽𝙰𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙾𝙽 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙻𝙳, 𝙰𝙻𝙴𝚇 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙼𝙰𝙼𝙰'𝚂 𝙱𝙾𝚈 𝚆𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙾 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙰𝙲𝙺𝚈𝙰𝚁𝙳. Though, to call it a backyard when it had little vegetation would be a stretch. Instead, the ground was made of wood, as expected. Farther up had been a trellis with pink flowers strung to the bars. A sick knot formed in Alex's stomach the more she looked at it; a gate to hell would be her best description. To the right, a wavy orange tarp blew, decoupled from the pole with a large tear stabbing down the centre.

  Looks like something happened here. Nothing good.

  And indeed it did. Had there been an attack, and that was the reason nobody was here anymore? Or maybe they did take off after Esmond. Whatever the reason, it was obvious that the place was deserted, which meant it was safe.

  The darkness clouded Alex's sight as the rain swept over her shoulders. Gripping her beanie by the sides, she followed Mama's Boy. He trundled and trailed his sight along the walls, hoping to find some rectangular bump in the walls, or something that could reboot the power and give life to this hellhole once again. And all the while Alex paid attention to the features that made up the cabin, because out here everything was a little bit clearer. A drainpipe slipped down the rightmost side and curved off into an 'L', spewing out a caisson of rain. Had the flood been any faster, or perhaps any louder (and it was pretty loud with the extra gravity), then she would have been able to shut her eyes and imagine a waterfall. And at the end of this waterfall, she would find a civilisation, maybe a village, that aligned against the river on either side. That's what she needed right now. It didn't matter where she went, as long as she was with others, as long as she was with Scarlet. As long as—

  "Here!" yelled Mama's Boy.

  They had fully circumvented the house, returning to the front. At one side of the large staircase leading up was a small passageway digging all the way through. Mama's Boy scrabbled under and swept the hem of his trench coat beside the wall. He had to crouch to stop himself from bumping his head on the ceiling, but not Alex. Alex was short enough, and so she hurried inside. To her immense frustration, the rain still managed to pellet in and tap her on the neck. She wouldn't have minded this so much had the weather not been so finger-numbingly cold. She rubbed her arms and shivered, remembering what it was like in the last subdivision when she and Scarlet had to find a cabin similar to this one. There was definitely a great deal of danger surrounding this area; both the conditions and the creatures—if you wanted to call that dragon a creature—were pretty darn extreme. She supposed she was lucky to have someone like Scarlet at her side. If not, who knew if she'd have been able to make it this far? The Man with the Ski Goggles would have killed her, she wouldn't have found the godshard, Mama's Boy would have taken her out with that spike. And what was most terrifying was the uncertainty surrounding death. She didn't know—or want to know—what would happen after she died in this world. Was there a heaven? Possibly. Was it run by the creator of the Reach Project? Probably not. Even still, there was no way to know, and this thought alone sent her skin into a state of unparalleled gooseflesh. But hey, maybe that was the cold.

  Mama's Boy stopped inches from a power box, clanked it open, and eyed it intensely. "Hm. This is weird."

  "What is it?"

  "Look, all the buttons are weird."

  She stepped forward and saw the mysterious structure Mama's Boy had been referring to. The buttons were misshaped and more in line with that of a dream, slipping down like melting ice cream frozen in time. A fluorescent bulb was positioned next to them, with red and blue wires wrapped haphazardly all the way down.

  Brow lifting in a pucker, Alex said, "That's . . . What's going on? Is this supposed to be . . .?"

  "Nah," he said. "I ain't know if this'll work. Looks busted as fuck." He started playing with the buttons, punching them pell-mell with those ruthless sausage-fingers. After a while, he said, "Hm, see—"

  A spark of white light erupted from the power box, causing Mama's Boy to flinch in what Alex could only assume had been an instant of terror. Because she herself did the same. She flew back and hit her head against the wall of the passageway. Ouch.

  The melting buttons were backlit by a dim blue glow, and the fluorescent bulb shone as a heavenly aura.

  "Interesting," said Mama's Boy. And although Alex wasn't sure of it, there seemed to be a hitch of fear in his tone, one which she had not heard thus far. "I don't get why this shit has to be so difficult."

  Alex said nothing; only watched him with her two front teeth showing, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

  Mama's Boy looked at the buttons some more, reached a finger for the top-left one, and pressed it. The fluorescent brightened again, and suddenly a flash of light sounded from above them, like curtains drawn away to reveal the sun.

  Alex reluctantly backtracked to the front of the house and peered inside. One side of the house was lit up now; the centre hall. "It worked! The hall light is on! I think you need to do the rest!" She made sure to shout with as much force as her lungs would allow, and it seemed that did the trick.

  One after another, the lights to the cabin flicked on, beginning with the lower floor, working their way up, even to the little attic window tapered at the top. Alex's lips coiled and swerved into a smile—into a grin. A wry laugh escaped her. "That's . . . that's awesome!"

  The glow from the cabin filtered through the windows and shone a half-light in her eyes. She could see where she was going now, even without the lamppost, which didn't help all that much. With the stormy weather only getting worse, Alex opted to head inside, but not before informing Mama's Boy that his act of randomly testing buttons had succeeded. He seemed thankful, not that he told her, but that he managed to not electrocute himself. That would totally suck, no doubt.

  By the time they made it inside and headed upstairs to tell Scarlet, she had already been fast asleep, tuckered-out on the bed with the quilt draping the neck down. She deserved it—a good rest. After all she did for her, after picking her up in the middle of the grassland and protecting her (even though it seemed as though Alex was the one doing the protecting, she believed that was not the case. She was so uneducated about this world, about how she got here, about what to do. She was afraid. She needed someone), after showing her where to go, she certainly needed to take a load off. Scarlet almost died twice! Twice since Alex met her! How crazy was that?

  Totally ripshit, thought Alex. She sighed through her nose, and another smile coalesced on her visage. She shut off the light and closed the door behind her. Mama's Boy was standing in the well-lit hallway, already checking out another room. He shifted and averted his gaze to Alex, still glassy-eyed as ever.

  Alex returned the glare. "What?"

  "How long you plan on stayin' here?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "How long? A day, two days, a week?"

  Alex lifted a finger and wiped her eye with it. "Why does it matter? It's not like we're close to the Spiral."

  "Hm," said Mama's Boy. "That's the point. There can only be one winner, right?"

  "Stop talking like that, please," said Alex, defiant. "We'll figure a way out together." Her eyes fell soft, and that smile disappeared.

  "How do you suggest we do that? It even says on the leaflet that there ain't no way to cheat. So I think you should be comin' up with a plan soon." There was a sharpness in his tone that Alex hadn't recognised up until now.

  Alex groaned. "Listen, I don't know how anything works. So you're asking the wrong person for answers. Scarlet will probably come up with something."

  "Hm." Mama's Boy shook his head. "There can only be one winner."

  "That doesn't mean we all have to die," replied Alex quickly, arms crossed. "And so what if one person can live? I'm still not leaving Scarlet."

  "Not what I'm saying," said Mama's Boy. "I'm just interested. Because, for me, I need to get out of here and see my mama again. I know that the game says only one person can get out, but surviving on your own is impossible. We've already established that with . . . with the cliff. And, some people have terrible powers compared to everyone else. At least, I don't think everyone's walking around with the power of a god at the ready. Either way, it seems God made it so that people have to work together, which goes against the purpose of the game. There's a contradiction here."

  Alex understood what he was saying now. Eyes wide, she said, "So you think more than one person can win?"

  Mama's Boy shrugged. "It depends on what God's intention is. I still ain't got a reason for why all of this exists. For why, you know, the game started, or how. I just know we ain't able to get out without (A) dying or (B) reaching the Spiral."

  "Guess we'll never know." Alex gestured with her arms.

  "It sucks, really sucks." He hesitated, and then added, "Don't get me wrong about all this. I hope we can all escape. I hope . . . we can all, you know, get back to our families. You have both your parents?"

  Alex nodded, perplexed. "What kind of question is that?"

  "An important one. My mama and pops divorced a long time ago. I live with my mama and sister in Orlando."

  "Orlando . . . that's a . . ."

  "Terrible place, no need to sugar-coat it." Mama's Boy let out a wheezy laugh. "Where did you say you were from again?"

  "St Anderson's City. New York." Alex rubbed her shoulder.

  "Hm." He folded his arms high against his chest. "That's an expensive place to live in."

  "Not really," corrected Alex. "In West Ample Street the houses are more . . ."

  "Shitty?"

  "Yeah." Again, she laughed.

  "Hm. Orlando's the same. Hasn't changed for the past fifty years. Guns, violence, and a whole lot of racism. Stuff like that never changes."

  "I guess so," said Alex. "Some people are evil."

  "That's too soft a word to describe them," snapped Mama's Boy. "For people stealing, cops shooting without warning, absolute chaos in the streets? All these protests, and for what? Seriously, I don't even know anymore."

  "In my city, people protested against hover-cars," added Alex.

  "Hm." He nodded. "I heard about that. The amount of money wasted on environmentally unfriendly machines, and that's not even taking into account the resources it takes to make them."

  "A lot of plasma," said Alex. "Way too much plasma."

  "Plasma . . . I ain't even sure what that is. I know what it is, but not what it is, you know?"

  "Yeah, I don't even think the scientists know much about it, either." She rubbed her forearm, still in shock.

  Another nod. "Hm. Anyway—" He paused and started heading inside the room. "—you should probably rest up, too. I ain't know how long we're gonna stay here, but you've uh . . . you've been through hell like me."

  "You have no idea," murmured Alex. Then, loudly, "You, too. I hope we can find a way out of this."

  "I hope so, too," he said. "Otherwise, what's the point of this shit?"

  "There wouldn't be much point at all."

  And that was true. She understood that like how one understands the Earth was round or the stars were bright. It was obvious.