by Chris Babu
Catrice burst out laughing. “You’re welcome. Your shoulders are so broad I have no clue how you moved at all in there. Finally, for once it was good to be small.”
For crying out loud, it’s a hug-fest out here, Drayden thought. “We have to hurry.”
A clock hung outside the maze exit: 01:08:35, 01:08:34…
Drayden thought it had gone pretty well. They conquered the maze in sixteen minutes; a decent chunk of time. Still, now that the maze was behind them, he couldn’t help but face reality. Unless one or more of the upcoming stations didn’t have challenges, which was unlikely, they couldn’t finish the Initiation.
CHAPTER 19
Drayden kept his pessimistic evaluation to himself. As long as they were moving as fast as they could, he didn’t see the point of letting the others know they didn’t have nearly enough time left.
The pledges raced through the dark tunnel.
Alex, who’d fallen behind, called out, “We need to stop. I have to catch my breath.”
Drayden replied, out of breath as well, “We’ll take a quick breather when we’re at the backpacks.”
The tunnel maze had sapped everyone’s energy. Without time to rest, they’d resumed a full sprint on the dark tracks. Five hours straight of the Initiation was also catching up to them. Everybody wore the exhaustion on their faces.
They stopped at the backpacks and gulped water. Alex plopped down on the third rail, the elevated one that used to carry the electricity.
“Guys, time to go,” Drayden said through a mouthful of mixed nuts.
Alex rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head low. “I need another minute.”
While Drayden felt the same way, and the others probably did too, it didn’t matter. “We don’t have a minute,” he snapped. “I don’t want to be alarmist, but we may not have enough time to finish. We have to hustle.”
“Let’s go, Alex,” Charlie said.
Alex clenched his jaw. “In a second!”
“Fine, Alex,” Drayden said, “we’ll just leave without you.”
Alex stood. “You like doing that, don’t you?”
“Shut up, chotch. I’m getting sick of that leaving-you-behind garbage.” Drayden faced him. “You chose your own path. Stop blaming me for not coming along.”
Drayden took off running, leading the sprint again toward the Franklin Street Station.
Catrice and Sidney ran behind him, each of them on opposite sides of the track. Charlie and Alex ran well behind them.
He suspected the tracks must turn somewhere ahead. Franklin Street wasn’t far, yet the tunnel ahead only revealed further blackness. After the maze challenge, a brainteaser likely awaited next. The pressure would fall on his shoulders. He craved a distraction, before the stress of the impending challenge kicked in.
Drayden turned back to Catrice and Sidney. “Hey, you guys going to miss being in school?”
For a few seconds, neither answered.
“I think we’ll miss seeing our friends every day,” Sidney said. “Those of us that had friends.”
Drayden wondered whether that was a dig at him or Catrice.
Catrice stared straight ahead. “I think we’ll find out who our friends really were, now that school’s over. People who are friends with everyone usually have no real friends.”
“Yeah, it’s probably better to hide and not talk to anyone,” Sidney said.
Catrice fake-laughed. “I know I’ll miss learning. It’s amazing how some kids went through eleven years of school and never learned a thing.”
“That’s true,” Sidney said. “Like how to swim.”
“Or how to solve even basic problems,” Catrice said. “I guess if you’re destined to be a seamstress, you don’t have to know how.”
“Luckily in New America we’re all treated the same whether you’re a seamstress or a scientist.”
Catrice snickered. “Luckily for you, yes.”
“Well, luckily for me,” Sidney said, mocking Catrice, “I know I’ll pass the next bravery challenge, because I’m not a coward. We’ve got Dray for the intelligence ones. I don’t think we need you.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Drayden said, sounding exactly like his father. “I’m sorry I asked.”
The station glowed ahead like the noon sun on a July day.
The issue of the remaining time gnawed at Drayden. Given the lights ahead, Franklin Street housed a challenge. They hadn’t passed a deserted station since the early stages of the Initiation. Yet one or more of the next few stations simply had to be empty. After Franklin Street came Chambers Street, a major station. Then came Park Place, Fulton Street, and finally, Wall Street. That made five stations, with roughly an hour left.
Assuming five minutes to run between stations, that equaled twenty minutes of travel time after Franklin Street. He was being generous about their speed. It could take longer. That, at best, left forty minutes for five challenges. Eight minutes per challenge.
They’d spent more than eight minutes on most of the challenges. Some of the bravery ones burned up to forty minutes, and the upcoming challenges were supposedly tougher. It didn’t add up. How could the Bureau only grant them ninety minutes from Houston Street?
Drayden didn’t just need to solve the upcoming challenge; he needed to blow it out of the water. Take charge. Be decisive. Determine how each person could be utilized most effectively.
Sure, on the brainteasers that meant everyone besides Catrice in a supporting role. But on the bravery challenges, Charlie had proven to be brave, strong, and skilled. Like on the rock wall, and in the pool. Who knew what else he excelled at? Similarly, Sidney had displayed bravery and skill at everything from the rock wall, to the pool, to the rats. She’d even supported Catrice in the rat challenge, though the girls’ brief friendship had gone off the rails.
The only one with no value to add, anywhere, and who expected to be carried on everyone’s backs, was Alex. He needed to stay out of the way. Or be kept out of the way.
Drayden’s ankle ached, but thankfully they were arriving at Franklin Street. “Station ahead!” he yelled.
Damn the Bureau for cutting the time. They had said eight hours. What a bunch of cheaters, changing the rules in the middle of the game. If they’d lied about the time, what else had they lied about?
Drayden breathlessly sprinted down the platform, trailed by the other pledges, and stopped in the middle of the Franklin Street station. Where was the challenge? It was set up for one.
A clock hung here: 01:02:04, 01:02:03…. There was no table with instructions.
The pledges rotated around, devouring every corner of the station with their eyes. They braced themselves for some horrible surprise, like a wall crashing down, or someone jumping out. Anything.
Nothing happened.
Charlie peered down the tunnel. “Um, we missing something?”
“I don’t know.” Drayden rubbed his eyes. “They lit the station and put up a clock. Something should be here.”
Alex stepped forward. “Since you had us running like a pack of cheetahs, they probably didn’t have time to set it up. I’m sure it’s coming though. Any second now.”
Drayden wasn’t so sure anymore. He’d done the math. At a minimum one station had to be a free pass. Again, he tried to pry inside the heads of the Initiation Council who had designed this challenge. Maybe prepping this station and lighting it as if it contained a challenge was a trick to throw them off. A curveball.
Drayden faced the other pledges. “We can wait a few minutes to be sure, but I don’t believe there’s a challenge here.” He laid out the math. “With five stations left, including this one, that would only give us about eight minutes per challenge. Pretty impossible unless they’re stupid easy, and we know they won’t be. Even if they skipped this one, it still only leaves us eleven minute
s per challenge. Not exactly time to sit and have a snack.”
Sidney wrinkled her nose. “Should we just go, then?”
Drayden placed both hands on top of his hat and paced. It was possible the Bureau had planned a challenge here, but realized the pledges couldn’t finish in time and changed their mind. Though only a guess, the pledges had been at the station a few minutes and nothing had happened, which supported his theory. He exhaled in relief.
He pulled off his hat and turned it over in his hands. He thought of his mom. He had to change. The people closest to him in his life, Mom and Tim, exemplified bravery. He couldn’t be afraid anymore. Tim hadn’t been, and Drayden didn’t need to be either. Tim got it. Drayden had been striving to emulate Tim, but that just made him an actor. His mom and Tim weren’t innately any braver than he was, nor did they possess any special skills that he lacked. They simply understood that bravery was a choice. They consciously chose it, conquering their fear. They became free.
Drayden couldn’t go on this way, trembling at the prospect of each challenge. He needed to meet them head on. He didn’t have weaker fingers than everyone else; it was his fear on the rock wall that had led him to rush and fall. His lungs could retain just as much air as the other pledges; his fear had led him to panic underwater, sapping his oxygen. He held his hat, picturing both Mom and Tim looking down on him right now, disappointed with his cowardice. Well, no longer. If a challenge waited at the following station, he would lead the charge, without fear.
“Yes, we should go. There’s no challenge here,” Drayden said. “We need to hurry.” He retrieved his backpack and turned to leave.
“Whoa, whoa there, chief!” Alex shouted. “Where you running off to with your tail between your legs?”
Drayden stopped, his cheeks flushing with heat. He walked back to Alex.
“What?” Alex asked. “We’re waiting for this challenge. I’m not getting exiled because you were too scared to face a challenge and we skipped it.”
Charlie, Catrice, and Sidney stood off to the sides, shifting uncomfortably.
“I’m not scared,” Drayden said. “There’s just no challenge here.”
“You are scared, wetchop. You’re the biggest coward there is. Just a skinny wuss.”
“No, I’m not. What about you, chotch?” Drayden jabbed a finger at him. “You’re a shkat flunk with a huge nose. I’m surprised the Bureau didn’t give your nose its own backpack.”
Alex stared at him. “The only extra backpack we got was Tim’s.”
Drayden balled his hands into fists. He stepped toward Alex, but stopped. He wasn’t worth it. Why waste precious time fighting with him? He turned to go.
“That’s right, Dray, do what you do best. Leave,” Alex said.
Drayden turned back again. He had to put a stop to this conflict once and for all. He had an idea. “Enough, Alex. You’ve been crying about this for years. What did you expect me to do? Keep hanging out with you after you started doing drugs and dealing them? Pounding ack with the winoozes? Things changed.”
“Things didn’t change. You changed!” Alex said, his tone changing from tough guy to eight-year-old kid. “You were a lousy friend. You left me behind.”
“Alex, when we started middle school, they put me in the advanced classes, and we didn’t see each other much after that. Then you started working for your dad! I couldn’t be a part of that. My parents forbade me from hanging out with you.” Drayden raised his hands, palms up. “What was I supposed to do?”
Alex stomped his foot. “I had no choice!” he screamed, his voice cracking. “My dad made me! You were the only one who knew that! You were the only one who knew how bad I had it at home. How my dad would be drunk, or high, and hand out beatings like he was an evil Santa Claus at Christmas. If it wasn’t from him, it was my older brothers. You just looked the other way!”
“Alex, I’m sorry for how bad it was at home. I was sorry, I am sorry. But it wasn’t my fault, and there was nothing I could do about it. If you weren’t dealing we could have stayed friends. Unfortunately, you went down that rabbit hole, and I couldn’t follow you. If you were really my friend, you would have understood that. Instead you’ve made it your life’s goal to make me miserable.” He pointed his thumb down the tracks. “Now, if you don’t mind, we need to finish the Initiation. We’re leaving now.” Drayden turned to walk away.
“We’re staying. Who made you boss anyway?” Alex asked.
Drayden returned, exasperated. “Alex, I’m just trying to get us through this, like Tim was before the Bureau killed him.”
Alex scoffed. “We all saw what happened. The Bureau didn’t kill Tim. You did.”
Something snapped inside Drayden. Adrenaline surged through his veins. He dove at Alex’s legs. He powered through them, and executed the double-leg takedown he’d practiced so many times.
Alex crashed down onto his back.
Drayden landed on top of Alex flawlessly, sitting on his hips, raining down vicious punches to his nose and eyes.
Alex’s nose dripped blood. He covered his face and rolled onto his stomach to avoid more blows.
Drayden sat on top of Alex’s back now. He leaned forward, swiftly snaked his right arm under Alex’s throat, and connected it with his left arm. The perfect rear-naked choke. He squeezed with every ounce of muscle, cutting off Alex’s air and the blood to his brain.
Within seconds, Alex went limp.
Drayden was wild, animalistic. He should have let go, but he couldn’t. All those years of abuse from Alex, and the bullying from other kids before that, he let it all out on Alex. The jiu-jitsu skill he’d been bottling up finally uncorked and flowed like a barrel of ack. Drayden was a boa constrictor around Alex’s neck.
Strong hands gripped Drayden’s wrists and separated them, releasing the choke. Charlie yanked Drayden up and tossed him backward.
Drayden fell onto his back, executing a back roll to end up squatting. Powering through the pain, he shot up, in a fighting stance, ready to take on Charlie. For the first time in his life, he had the confidence to use his jiu-jitsu.
Charlie was kneeling over Alex, and rolled him onto his back. He wiped blood from Alex’s face with his shirt. Alex moaned. Sidney and Catrice both stood in shock, gawking at Alex’s bloody face. Alex’s busted left eye was already swelling shut.
Drayden touched his own black eye, courtesy of Alex four days ago.
Charlie dragged Alex to his feet. Alex wobbled, squeezing his nose shut with his shirt. Charlie used his own shirt to slow the bleeding from Alex’s eye.
Drayden’s moment of triumph over Alex proved short-lived. His heart still racing from the fight, he pitied Alex. Everything Alex said was true. Drayden didn’t have a choice, but he did abandon Alex, in a way. The accusation that he killed Tim hurt the most, because Drayden felt the same way. With Alex’s tough guy routine, his constant needling, and the bullying, he didn’t make it easy to feel sorry for him. Yet he did have a sad life. He never had a chance, growing up with no mother and a brutal father. Drayden limped over to Catrice and Sidney.
Both stood frozen in place and didn’t say anything.
They were probably thinking the same thing. Alex had that coming, but now that it happened, they felt bad. Drayden studied both girls’ faces. Would his sudden outburst of violence alter either girl’s opinion of him? If anything, it might make Sidney like him more, and Catrice like him less.
Drayden checked the clock.
That stupid fight had wasted five minutes. They had just under an hour left.
“We have to go, right now,” he said to Catrice and Sidney. “There’s no challenge here. If there was, we would know what it is by now. I think it was a trick by the Bureau, a head fake. We’ve already wasted enough time.” He snatched up his backpack and ran. He no longer cared if Charlie or Alex came along. He didn’t need them anymore.
CHAPTER 20
Drayden set a brisk pace on the tracks, between a full sprint and a jog. He still couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Despite his own conflicting feelings about it, Tim would be so proud.
Charlie and Alex ran thirty yards behind the girls, only their flashlight beams visible.
Drayden wondered what was going through their heads right now. Charlie must understand. Wouldn’t he? He’d watched Alex sucker punch Drayden four days ago. Not to mention, Alex had not helped one bit in the Initiation. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“Drayden,” Catrice said, out of breath. “I know what you did back there.”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “You mean beating up Alex?”
“No. Before that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. You did something for Alex right before you tackled him and punched him in the face.”
Wow. Nothing gets by Catrice. She’s so smart.
Drayden winked at her.
“What is psycho girl talking about?” Sidney asked, breathing hard.
Catrice frowned. “Why am I not surprised she doesn’t get it?”
Drayden had done something for him, but Alex wasn’t clever enough to realize it. While not without risk, it was one final act of compassion to try and make amends for everything that had happened between them.
The Watchers had heard every detail of that argument. They’d learned about Alex’s father dealing drugs, and forcing Alex to sell them. The Bureau would exile Alex’s father before day’s end.
If they followed the same protocol they always had, they would pardon Alex. His father had forced him to commit a crime under the threat of violence, and he’d carried out that threat with savage beatings. They couldn’t hold Alex, legally a child, responsible.
Alex’s father was pure evil. The fact that he hadn’t been exiled already suggested he paid off Guardians or Chancellors with drug money. Since the Initiation Council was observing them, and perhaps even Premier Holst himself, they had all heard Alex’s confession. There would be no escaping this time.
