22
“So why did you dedicate your song to the Monsters?” Pepper asks Leo, dropping the real question no one dared to ask until now. “You know, you being a Nine, coming from an all-Nine family… It doesn’t make sense.” Pepper is forward. I like her.
Leo looks like he has a sudden lump in his throat. Since I met him, I haven’t seen him hesitant and embarrassed, until now. “You’ll be surprised to know that I am no hero,” says Leo. “I did it because I wanted to make myself look like a rebel. I was sixteen, you know. Talking about Bad Kidz was prohibited. So I, in my rock star mode, wanted to do something outrageous. To sell more records, and win the Burning Idol. But I have to admit, I am glad I did. My life took such a crazy turn since then, especially when Xitler and the Summit banned me. I understood then what kind of a dictatorship we were living in. I turned against the Summit and went searching for the Breakfast Club everywhere, wanting to join them. But like Bellona, I never found them.”
“So, you’re just like every one of us,” says Bellona.
“If Leo is just as hopeless as we are, what’s the point of playing the game?” Pepper says. “We are all going to die.”
“Especially if none of us has a reason to form an alliance with anyone else.” It’s the first time I agree with Pepper. Not that I feel like giving in, but I need to see where this is going.
“The more we try to live — and eventually die — the more the audience is entertained,” explains Pepper. “Like in a horror movie, you can’t kill all the actors in the first scene.”
“In a horror movie, the hero never dies.” I beg to differ. I don’t know what kind of horror movies Pepper watches.
“The Monster never dies,” says Vern, with his knees pulled up to his chest, and his head buried between his legs. He thinks we didn’t hear him, then raises his head, surprised we’re all staring at him. “What? It’s a Stephen Zing quote.”
“King,” Leo sighs. “Stephen King, not Zing. Zing sounds as if he were a Samurai or something.”
“What’s a Samurai?” I ask.
Leo rolls his eyes. He is not going to answer me. Mr. I-come-from-outer-space.
“I am just messing with you. We killed the Bullies with Samurai swords, remember?”
“I agree with Vern,” says Bellona. “The Monster never dies. Not that I like them calling us Monsters. But since they do, let’s show them how strong-willed us Monsters can be. Let’s bond together and show them that this year, at least one of us will survive. We have to teach them that the Monster never dies.”
“How are we going to do that?” I ask. I am not here to win. I am here to find my friend.
“Military style,” answers Bellona, looking at the skaters.
“You sure you want to do it that way?” a skater boy asks.
“Yes,” Bellona says. “But no one else can know about this but us.”
“What’s going on? What does military-style mean?” asks Pepper.
“First, I want your iAms turned off now.”
Pepper nods. She seems convinced, or is playing along. We all nod too. How is a Monster never going to die?
“What I am going to ask of you is a technique we use in the army,” explains Bellona. “It is called La Roche: a tactic for survival in extreme situations.”
“Yes?” I prompt her.
“We will have to create an internal ranking that no one knows about but us. A ranking from one to ten. One is the one we sacrifice first, ten is the one we sacrifice last.”
“What does that mean?” Pepper asks, with a furrowed brow. She only has one eyebrow; the other is missing.
“When we go back to the Battlefieldz tomorrow, the Summit will try to turn us against each other with all the psychological tricks they have. They will push us as much as they need to, so we lose the games.”
“Okay?” I say.
“If we want at least one of us to win the games, here is what we will do. We will give each other numbers that will tell us who sacrifices themselves for the rest. It’s going to be our secret code.”
“This is awful.” I can’t believe my ears.
“We are likely to die anyway,” says Pepper. “And don’t worry. I’m ready to be number one. I was raised with the idea that I am going to die to save others for sixteen years. It’s going to be easier for me.”
“It is going to be our internal rank, to know who is worth the risk to save, and who is to die for the rest of us at any given moment,” Bellona repeats.
“How are we going to choose?” Orin asks.
“We vote,” Leo answers. He likes the idea.
“No,” Vern says, raising his hand. “We toss. If we vote, I will be number two.”
“And Decca will be number three.” Orin grins. This guy hates me.
“I saved all of you in the dome today,” I yell at him.
“Hah.” He shakes his head.
“Okay. We toss,” Bellona says. “But leave Leo out of it.”
“Why?” Vern asks.
“He is the strongest, and most experienced,” says Bellona. “If he dies, I don’t see how we can make it.”
“And if I don’t like my result?” Orin asks.
“Then you are not one of us. You leave and play on your own, like you did with Decca in the dome,” Leo explains firmly.
None of us asks Leo to participate. We all know that with him around, as silent and obnoxious as he is, we feel a little safer.
We all agree. Leo takes the lead and carves our names on big leaves with his sword. He collects them in his bag. We start picking our numbers.
Vern is number one, the first to be sacrificed. Pepper is two. I think she is okay with that. Orin is three. I would have wanted him to be one. Four, five, six, seven, and eight are skaters. Bellona is number nine.
I am number ten.
I wonder.
Did Leo cheat in my favor?