The Tetradome Run

by Spencer Baum

  “Ten seconds to cue,” somebody said.

  “He’s going to do something,” said Jenna. “They’re going to do something! People are going to die!”

  “No shit, Sherlock,” said a guard, yanking on her arm. “People die on this show. If you’re lucky, maybe it won’t be you.”

  A producer at the back of the entryway began to yell a countdown.

  “Five!…Four!…”

  “Please,” Jenna said. “You can’t start the race yet!”

  “…Three!…Two!…Cue contestant entrance!”

  The theme music to The Tetradome Run filled the arena. The crowd came to its feet.

  “You’ve got to listen to me,” Jenna said. “Nathan and Sunny are up to something.”

  A guard put a walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Number eleven’s getting weird.”

  “It’s probably a bomb,” Jenna said. “Or maybe poison gas. Sunny could do either.”

  The contestants paraded into the arena single file. Nathan, Malcolm, Solomon, Byrd, Harold…

  “You’ve got to evacuate,” Jenna said. “You’ve got to get everyone-”

  A zap with the cattle prod stopped her sentence short.

  “It’s almost your turn, Eleven,” the guard said. “Get your shit together so you can get out there.”

  “Listen to me,” Jenna said. “Everyone in here…”

  They pushed her forward and she stumbled into full view of the crowd and the cameras.

  The crowd roared when they saw her.

  “Oh God,” she said.

  Two steps forward. She considered turning back, but she knew it was hopeless. They weren’t going to listen to her. She was a Tetradome contestant calling for the race to be cancelled. To them, she was a nut in the throes of a panic attack.

  Two more stumbling steps out, and now the crowd was going crazy, cheering and booing and chanting her name all at once.

  She looked up at the sea of people and thought, I should have known.

  A city of souls was gathered in this arena. The wealthiest and most committed supporters of the Redemption Act in the world. This was Sunny’s mecca. This was her ultimate target.

  This was why Sunny infiltrated the company. It had nothing to do with setting Jenna free. Barbara Lomax, the Desert Ridge Hotel—those were just warm-ups. The main event was here. The Finale race of The Tetradome Run.

  The watch party at Polaris was a dizzying array of wall-to-wall televisions. The entire north wing of the casino, including the sportsbook—projection screens on the walls, liquid crystal displays on the bannisters, televisions at the bar, on the tables, hanging from the ceiling…

  Gabe looked around the space and saw Jenna on every screen.

  “Here we are, just moments from the starting gun, and Jenna Duvall is in a highly agitated state,” Chad Holiday narrated, his voice filling Polaris as if coming from heaven above.

  The video zoomed in on Jenna’s face. She yelled something at the guards.

  “It might be a panic attack,” said Marion.

  The best view was on the sportsbook’s giant screen, where it looked to Gabe like Jenna was trying to say something to the security staff. Urgency in her eyes. Panic in her eyes.

  What are you trying to say, Jenna?

  Jodi yelled into a walkie-talkie.

  “What’s going on down there?”

  “Contestant eleven is agitated,” a security guard responded.

  “Would someone please click her so we can start the race?”

  “We can’t.”

  “What do you mean you can’t?”

  “We’ve been trying to reach you. We were told that contestant 11 has a special-order implant that only the Control Room can click.”

  “What the hell?” said Jodi. She looked to one of the production assistants, a woman named Parna.

  Parna shrugged.

  “Okay, I’ll look into that,” Jodi said. “Just get this race started!”

  The starting gun fired.

  Eleven contestants, the eleven who had taken their marks, began to run.

  Jenna looked around in panic. There was nothing more for her to do. She was on the arena floor, the race had begun, and, in seconds, some monster intent on killing her was going to come out and give chase.

  She ran after the others. The Finale Race of the 40th Tetradome Run was underway, and Jenna Duvall was in last place.

  CHAPTER 57

  The Night Before It Happened

  Excerpted from A Victim of Circumstance: The Memoir of Jenna Duvall

  The media would have you believe I spent the first five weeks of my sophomore year at Hillerman planning an assassination.

  Nothing could be further from the truth.

  I spent those weeks studying, nurturing new friendships (and old ones that had lapsed) and practicing my clarinet. I wasn’t in the Blue Brigade. I didn’t participate in the planning for Festival of Ideas and the Barbara Lomax speech at all, and I didn’t speak with Sunny or Seth.

  Until the night before it happened.

  The night before it happened, Seth came to my house…

  CHAPTER 58

  Twelve prisoners ran across the open floor of the Tetradome, a meadow of green grass, fifty yards wide, three hundred yards long.

  Standing amid the crowd at Polaris, Gabe watched with the world.

  He hadn’t heard yet from the person who brought him here, promising a scoop.

  I have many names, Mr. Chancellor. You mentioned two of them on Tammy Flanigan’s show.

  Was it really her?

  If it was, what did she want from him? Why was he here?

  Big fish gamblers and Vegas VIPs, celebrities and superfans, sparkly gowns and white tuxedos; the jingling of slot machines, the spinning of roulette wheels, a puddle of sound on which Chad Holiday’s amplified voice swirled like colorful streaks of oil.

  “Here they come!” Chad said.

  Gabe watched on the giant projection screen, largest on the Strip, as a buzzer sounded, a gate opened, and the first monsters of the night sprinted into view.

  *****

  …I remember when the doorbell rang.

  I remember opening it to find Seth standing on the porch.

  I remember how nervous and shifty he looked.

  I asked him what he was doing here. He said he needed to see me. I asked what this was about. He said it was important. I told him I was listening.

  He asked if I would go for a walk with him.

  “Right now?” I said. It was already dark outside.

  “Please,” he said. “It’s important.”

  *****

  Barghests! Chad announced. Three of them!

  It’s a race between Jenna and Harold to see who goes down first! said Marion. Jenna is behind but she’s the faster runner.

  As Jenna closed the gap on Harold, a barghest with silver and black stripes closed the gap on her. She and Harold were side by side when the barghest made its move. For half a second, it was unclear which contestant it was going to jump for. The horrible creep of anticipation as the barghest was in the air...

  And down he goes! Harold Lory, tackled from behind!

  Human and barghest tumbled to the grass. The camera slowed to stay with them, allowing Jenna to escape from view.

  The barghest emerged from its tussle with Harold, blood staining the fur around its mouth.

  The cuff on Harold’s wrist shows his vitals already beginning to fade, said Chad.

  A lucky break for Jenna, said Marion.

  But here comes Argos, the old man among our Barghest pack, said Chad.

  The camera widened to show another footrace. Jenna, once again in last place, once again closing on another runner as a barghest closed on her.

  *****

  I can’t be mad at myself for walking with Seth. I won’t be.

  I try not to be.

  He looked frightened and confused and there was an urgency in his voice, and seriously, how could I have known what he was planni
ng to do? The idea of Sunny and Seth bringing guns to school to kill a United States Senator and the policemen standing guard outside her lecture—it was beyond unthinkable. It was outside the realm of imagination.

  I hadn’t seen or spoken to Seth in weeks. His appearance knocked me off-kilter. I didn’t know what I was doing.

  And he seemed so serious. Serious and scared.

  I walked with Seth that night because I felt like it was the right thing to do.

  Seth seemed like someone who was in trouble and needed a friend.

  *****

  Argos clearly has his sights set on Jenna, said Chad. He’s making a straight line for her back. If she passes Michael…

  She just passed him! said Marion. Michael Petty is now in last place!

  Argos hasn’t noticed! He’s still coming for Jenna!

  Jenna’s closing in on Bertram Hess, said Chad.

  Gosh she’s fast, said Marion.

  Argos is closing, getting ready to strike!

  Jenna has adjusted her course! She just cut in front of Bertram and…

  The camera got a beautiful shot of Argos going airborne. A massive, mutant wolf, its four legs spread in the jump, its jaws open, its teeth gleaming in the stadium lights.

  Bertram Hess goes down!

  CHAPTER 59

  Jenna came to the ravine that ended Stage One and swung across. Ahead, the path narrowed, leading runners to a downward ramp.

  The ramp would take her under the wall and into one of the open-air stadiums—that much she knew. What she didn’t know was what would happen when she got there. The other contestants had been through two weeks of training for this course. Jenna was running it cold.

  Moving towards the ramp, she tried to recall what Sunny had told her on the Yack Shack the night before. Something about a forest, a yellow flower, being in last place…

  Did it make sense to try Sunny’s escape plan? Now that she started the race so poorly and had no chance of winning? Now that she knew Sunny and Nathan had something planned?

  A twinge of guilt percolated in her gut. What if she tried Sunny’s escape and it worked? Even if she managed to get out, a huge if, probably a one-in-a-million if, she’d only be saving herself. Sunny and Nathan were up to something. What was it Nathan had said before the race? If I could save anyone in here, it’d be you.

  Save them from what, Nathan? What are you guys going to do?

  What could Nathan possibly do while he’s running in the Finale?

  Maybe that was the strategy to adopt. Forget the escape, run faster, work your way to the front, stop Nathan.

  Stop him from doing what, though? If she tackled him, if she tripped him, pushed him off a cliff, delivered him into the waiting jaws of some beast eager to kill him, what would it accomplish? What was Nathan going to do?

  Escape. Yes, if Sunny was planning an escape for Jenna, no doubt she was planning an escape for Nathan too. Maybe their escape routes would converge. Maybe they’d be getting out together. Maybe she’d see Nathan or Sunny or both on the other side.

  And if she saw them, maybe she could stop them.

  The mad dash at the start of the race now over, some of the runners ahead of Jenna were slowing down to catch their breath. Byrd Jenkins was only a few paces ahead of her. Holding her speed, Jenna passed him. Then she descended the ramp, running into the tunnel below.

  *****

  Despite the litany of televisions begging for his attention, Gabe looked at his phone. An animated gif of Jenna yelling at the guards had gone viral. A close-up of her lips, the words she screamed repeated over and over again in slow motion.

  Was she saying something about a bomb?

  Chad Holiday’s ever-present voice echoed in the space: And here we go into the second leg of the race.

  On the big screen, Nathan Cavanaugh emerged from the tunnel into the open-air arena adjacent to the dome. A bright yellow robot, five feet tall and humanoid in form, ran into view. The robot raised its arm, reached out, and slapped Nathan on the shoulder.

  Then, in an overly robotic voice, one that reminded Gabe of the Speak-and-Spell toy he had as a kid, the robot spoke, its words mic’d directly into the broadcast audio.

  You’re it, the robot said, before sprinting out of sight.

  The crowd cheered.

  Nathan is first in a brand new challenge built for this year’s course! said Chad. We call it Robot Tag, and encourage you to talk about it using hashtag…

  Gabe tuned out the noise and thought more about this animated gif of Jenna.

  It would be ludicrous for a prisoner to have information about a bomb in the most secure arena in the world, right?

  So why did he believe her? Why, when he looked at this gif, did he feel like something terrible was about to happen?

  The contestants and their robot partners are now entering a maze the course designers have built in Arena Two, said Chad. For eight minutes, it will just be contestants and robots. But when eight minutes is up…

  Oh boy, said Marion. You won’t want to miss what happens when eight minutes is up.

  CHAPTER 60

  The Night Before It Happened, Continued

  Excerpted from A Victim of Circumstance: The Memoir of Jenna Duvall

  He told me he was sorry we hadn’t talked since the summer.

  I told him it was alright.

  He told me he hadn’t meant for us to fall out of touch. He said he missed me and he didn’t want it to be this way.

  “Really, Seth,” I said. “It’s okay.”

  I was clueless about the situation. I thought Seth was trying to bring me back into his life. I was thinking of a nice way to let him down. We were walking down the street under the moonlight and I was mentally rehearsing my prepared-but-never-delivered speech for Seth about needing to go my own way.

  He told me he was glad I was “up and about.” He said he wished he had more time to read to me but his trip to Dallas had been booked months ago.

  “I thought about not going,” he said. “I thought about telling my parents I had to stay here, with you.”

  We came to Palomas Park, a patch of trees and grass in the center of the neighborhood. Seth walked to the middle of the park and stopped. He looked at me.

  I knew something was off with him. I didn’t know I was in danger.

  “Seth, what’s going on?” I said. “Why are we out here?”

  “The timing,” he said. “It was never right for us. I miss you, Jenna.”

  CHAPTER 61

  Jenna followed the tunnel. It took her underneath a wall of the stadium.

  Garson Laramie and Edwin Foster were ahead of her. What happened to them when they emerged on the other side of the tunnel was so odd she didn’t know what to make of it. Robots, one for each of them. Garson’s robot, shiny tan in color, slapped his wrist. Edwin’s was powder blue and smacked him on the arm. The robots had a 50’s sci-fi movie flair to them. Humanoid in form, built to run.

  Jenna’s turn was next. She stepped into an open-air stadium, the crowd cheering her arrival, a pink robot charging into view to tap her on the shoulder.

  Why was she not surprised the producers decided her robot would be pink?

  After it tagged her, a robot voice, flat and overly computerized, echoed in the arena.

  “You’re It.”

  And then the robot was off, changing course with speed she couldn’t match. It ran with grace, in long bounding strides, a gazelle on two pink steel legs. Fast as she could, Jenna chased after the robot.

  It led her to a stone archway, a decorated gate worthy of old Europe with high-relief carvings of famous Tetradome monsters on its face. Her body alive with adrenaline, Jenna darted through the gate and into the maze on the other side.

  Long pathways with sharp turns, the maze had the feel of a Victorian garden, its walls a mix of neatly trimmed hedge and vine-covered brick. She chased her robot to the end of the row, where it darted to the right. She rushed to the same spot and made the turn, onl
y to find that the path ahead of her branched in three directions.

  She had no idea which way the robot went.

  She chose a path to the left. Ten steps in, she heard the crunching sound of a robot’s feet. As she neared the corner, a blue robot came round from the other side. She tagged it.

  Nothing happened. The blue robot ran ahead as if Jenna’s touch was meaningless.

  For me this game is about the pink robot and the pink robot only.

  Three turns later she was in a clearing that served as a major intersection of pathways in the maze. She stopped to get her bearings.

  A gnarled mess of turns down this path, a straight run to nowhere down that one. A path that led to a steel gate. A path that led to a cinderblock wall.

  And a bright green door.

  She ran toward the door, and when she arrived, she found it was one door of many. A green door, an orange door, a red door, three shades of blue doors, tan, black, white, purple, pink.

  One for each contestant, a keyhole in the wall next to each. One robot and one door. She went to the pink door and pushed on it, testing it. It didn’t budge.

  Above all the doors, hanging high on the wall, a giant clock with red digital numbers ticked away.

  3:01…3:00…2:59…

  She had a feeling she didn’t want to be here when the clock got to zero.

  A runner emerged from a pathway to her right. It was Nathan. He nodded his head at her, as if they were friends.

  He had a yellow key.

  The door flew open and he charged through. Jenna sprinted after him, but the door slammed shut behind him. When she got there it was already locked again.

  Ten steps back on the path Nathan had just run, a yellow robot lay in a heap on the ground, a panel open in its back.

  And now the whole of this game was clear to her. Tag your robot, get your key, find your door, and do it all before the clock runs out.

  CHAPTER 62

  Blake Miller walked through the Underdeck at the east end of the arena. He moved with confidence, speed in his stride.

  As he walked, he watched the live broadcast of the show on the TV monitors spaced along the walls. Jenna hadn’t caught her robot yet. Hopefully she never would.