Game over

One. Two trees in the distance. Two. Birds tweet in the sky. Three. Pavement under my feet. Four. That god awful BO lingering from where Bobby was standing. Five. Close my eyes. Six. Jump. I reach my arms out as far as I can and Bobby catches my hands and pulls me up against the building. “Good.” Bobby smirks. “That was good.”

I look up and see the gamers who jumped before me. They’re faces covered in dirt with holes scattered in their clothes. They’re all breathing heavily and laying on the ground as if they’ve never jumped from rooftop to rooftop before. Bobby, on the other hand, doesn’t look phased. He's been here the longest so he's done just about every challenge. It makes sense how he's survived so long. He’s built like a rock and is still someone how one the quickest people I've ever met. He's smart and resourceful and incredibly helpful. He’s become a lot like the dad of the group. “Let's go cricket! Catch up!” Bobby screams towards the back. I sprint to catch up with them as they run down the stairs of the building. I’ve been in the games a few months now and I am by far the weakest. That’s why he calls me cricket.

The games were originally created to be mostly entertainment but after a while, people stopped watching them so now the founders use the old arena as population control. My mom used to hate it when I said that but it’s true. If you get caught committing any crime on the outside, you’re killed on the spot. If you get caught committing any crime when you’re under 15, however, you’re thrown in the games and eventually die anyway. Population control.

We sprint across the street to our sleeping quarters. It’s the nicest building in the city. Everyone has their own room. Most have a hammock or mattress on the floor. Before entering the arena (post games), you're allowed to gather a few personal items. Remy has an old mexican flag above his bed and Ellie has two stuffed animals she sleeps with every night. Bobby has a few pictures and an old notebook he won’t let anyone touch. I brought an old blanket my grandma knitted for me and a heart locket that holds a picture of my family.

In the lobby, there is a sink with running water and a small screen that says what tomorrow’s games will be. I used to think it was nice that they told the gamers in advance what challenge was next but now that I'm here, I know it's just another tactic to scare us. Some challenges are worse than others. Some days we get floods, predators, and extreme heat while other days we get puzzles and riddles.

Flashing lights jerk me awake. I wrap my robe around me and run out to the lobby, thinking it's another late night challenge. I come out to see Bobby is staring at the screen with an almost blank face. I glance over at the clock to see it says midnight. I look at the screen and read it.

GAME OVER. SURVIVAL IS YOUR ONLY CONCERN. NO MORE CHALLENGES WILL BE GIVEN AT THIS TIME. GOOD LUCK.

The clock strikes 12:01 and all of the lights flicker off. Remy pulls the faucet handle but no water comes out. They cut our power. I hear voices from all over the room explode with questions and fear as Bobby stands there completely silent. He’s good at that. He always thinks before he talks and everything he says is exactly what we need to hear. I watch his chest rise and fall in a deep breath before he starts to speak. “I know we are all feeling a lot right now. Everyone needs to take a deep breath. We don’t have water which means we only have a few days to find a water source or a way out of this arena. We will split into search teams in the morning. Everyone try to go back to sleep. I have no idea what tomorrow will look like so I need well-slept soldiers.” Everyone listens and goes back to their beds without question. I fall behind and follow Bobby into his room. I can always tell when he's scared. He gets this quiver in his lip and his eyebrows sit lower than usual. He’s sitting up with his hands over his face. He always touches his face when he’s stressed.

“Hey” He jumps at the sound of my voice. ”I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. I just can’t sleep.”

“It’s fine, I’m just trying to think. You can sleep in here if you want.” Bobby pats the side of his bed. He makes the offer like it’s to help me feel better but we both know he can’t sleep either. I curl up next to him and have no problem falling to sleep.

When I wake up, Bobby is already gone. I walk out and see maps and drawings on scraps of paper scattered across the lobby. He must have spent hours drawing and mapping out the arena. He spends most of the morning going over every detail he knows about the arena with the other gamers. It’s split into four sections. The city, the swamp, the desert, and the shore. No one has found a way to get into the other sections because they’re blocked by electric fences. But with the power off, Bobby thinks we will have access to all four sections now. He sends eight gamers, two to each section, to go search and see what they can find. Bobby, Remy, and I agree to search the city for doors or pathways leading to the outside.

The city is probably the hardest section to search. There are large buildings towering the narrow streets. There’s thousands of doors and basements and turns. It would take weeks to search every corner of the city and we only have about three days. We leave right away and go across to the building where yesterday’s game was held. The building, like most of the other buildings in the city, is old and broken down and even moves back and forth in the wind.

Remy screams from ahead of us “There are no predators or traps!”. I guess they were telling the truth when they said there were no more challenges. We search up and down a few more buildings before the sun starts to set. Once the sun starts going down, we head back to the sleeping quarters like we discussed. The two gamers from the swamp come back with nothing but soggy clothes that smell like mildew. The two from the desert return with burns up and down their faces. It’s getting dark and there’s no sign of the gamers who went to the shore. We’re all worried but no one would ever say it outloud.

Remy offers to go after them but Bobby refuses. “No, I’ll look for them. Everyone else should stay here. As he stands up, we hear screaming in the distance. We all run to the street to find ,not two, but three people running towards us jumping and screaming at the top of their lungs. I can’t make out what they’re saying but they seem happy.

Ellie’s breathing so hard she can barely speak as she reaches the front of the quarters. “Person" -deep breath in- "found" -deep breath out- "gamemaker" -in- "knows" -out- "person" -in- "we -”

“Okay, Ellie, breathe.” Bobby rests his hands on her shoulders “you guys shouldn’t have run all the way here we need to be saving our energy.”

Ellie shakes her head. “No. Thats- thats what I’m trying to tell you. We don’t need to save our energy because we have a way out! Benny here is a game maker’s kid.” She grabs Benny by his arm and pulls him in front of the group. “This is benny. He was living in a lighthouse on the shore. His parents were game makers! He knows how the arena is set up! He can help us get out!”. Everyone erupts in a mass of yelling and shouting and crying. Bobby does what he does best and quiets everyone down long enough for Benny to talk. Benny tells us everything he knows about the arena, including that there's a trick door at the edge of the city that should lead to the outside. The edge is far so we all will go first thing in the morning. I don’t know if I believe this benny kid but it’s the only chance we’ve got.

Morning comes and I wake up to Bobby sitting at the edge of my bed. “You scared?” I ask him, giving him a little nudge.

“This is probably our last day before people start getting sick of dehydration. This is probably our last chance. I really want to trust this guy, cricket.”

“Well, then, trust him.” I smirk and grab Bobby’s hand. Bobby is the kind of person who thinks he has to stay strong for everyone else so I try to stay strong for him. He squeezes my hand and stands up. We both walk out and start our journey. Lucky for us, it's a pretty straight shot down the main street of the city. It’s just long. We spend the day walking, staying in the shade whenever we can. I can see everyone running out of energy. Their faces drooping lower, their skin looking paler and weaker. A few walk around the corner to throw up every now and then. Bobby was right. This is our only chance.

After hours of walking across the city, we see a building with a metal door directly in the center. Bobby mumbles something about how this hasn’t always been here and reaches for the handle. He looks back at me, takes a deep breath, and opens the door.

It’s bright on the other side. Too bright to see anything but we can hear sounds -people- I think. Bobby begins to take a step inside when a boom goes off in the distance. Something’s wrong. 4 or 5 people run toward us and the gamers retreat far enough back for me to see Bobby laying on the ground. They shot him.

I sprint up to him and my knees hit the ground as I assess his body like he taught me to. One injury to the chest. There's an exit wound. He’s bleeding so much and everythings kind of blurry. There's so much blood everywhere. I can feel my heart beating in every vein of my body. This isn’t happening. This can’t be real. I can’t breathe. Bobby wraps his hands around my cheeks. They’re bloody but I don’t care. He looks me in the eye and pulls my forehead to his lips. His breath is shallow and he’s crying more than I have ever seen him cry. I hope he’s not in pain. “You have to promise me you’ll take care of them. Okay? And don’t tell me you can't because if you can take care of me, you can take care of anyone.” He smiles. That just makes me cry more. “You need to stop crying, okay, and you need to help them get out. I’m okay. It’s okay. I love you. Now go.”

Before I can say anything, I feel someone’s hand grab my arm and pull me up. We are quickly rushed towards the door and I turn to look at Bobby one more time. “Cricket, thank you. For everything.” I watch his chest rise and fall one last time before he closes his eyes and the door shuts behind us.