One Life

EIGHT

. . .

. . ."THERE'S EIGHT OF us left," I say, counting out the deaths so far. "Donatella and Jameson lost, then Delphi, Helios, and Griffin, and Cyra, Teros, Ares and Gwen. Now, it's—"

When a horn goes off I get so startled I nearly swerve off the highway. Kane lurches up from his position slumped against the passenger window, snorting awake.

"Contestant 3-5, eliminated."

Kane glances at me. "That's either Joaquin or Bianca. Is N or M first in the—"

He cuts himself off, running through the alphabet on his fingers. "It was Bianca," I snort. "She must've not made it to the second Holopass."

I round up whose left: Nox and Nymisa, Odessa and Joaquin, and... Kane and I. That's it already?

I must admit I've been dreading the moment it would come down to any of these people. Joaquin and Nymisa both deserve it, maybe more than I do. Odessa and Nox want it as much as I do. What it's going to come down to is who will go the furthest for it, and that will be me.

"Read me the clue again," I say to Kane, squeezing the wheel. I put the car into self-drive and shrug my dress up above my knees. It's too hot for this thing, and I'm too tired to have patience for it.

Kane notices my struggle. He stripped his jacket off a while ago and rolled his shirt sleeves up practically to his shoulder blades to alleviate the heat. While he pulls the clue out of his pocket, he summons a knife-shaped icicle and hands it to me to cut my dress shorter.

"In Enricks' green you will hear the sound; follow it and the third Holopass found. So, it's in Enricks, somewhere green, and there will be a sound. Same as the last time I broke it down."

I sigh. "Yeah, I know. I'm just tired."

I've been to lots of Onaian cities and towns with Father on his business trips, but I've never been to Enricks. He won't let me come to those. So while I do know some hearsay about it, I don't know the terrain—unlike a certain snarling girl who grew up there.

"Odessa will be a problem. She—" a yawn stifles my words— "knows the city and how to navigate it. We'll have to stay sharp."

Kane looks at me sceptically. "It's late, Val. We're not staying sharp if we don't get some sleep. Why don't you pull off at the next exit?"

I want to argue and insist that we reach Enricks before anyone else, but Kane is right. We're losing this thing if we try to do it without any sleep. I do as he advises and pull off the next exit.

"We're sleeping at the first shack we can find," I declare. "I'm not wasting time finding a hotel, and we have no money. One Life doesn't allow cutting these kinds of corners."

Kane snorts.

. . .

It shouldn't come as a surprise when I'm serious about finding the nearest rest stop, no matter the state of it, and calling it a day. Nonetheless, when I rear the car to a halt outside an old house with graffiti on the walls and cracked windows, Kane shoots me a repulsed look.

"You aren't serious," he cries. "Look at the state of—oh, I'm not sleeping in that."

I grin and hop out of the car onto wobbly, fatigued legs. "I didn't think you were such a diva, Hinata. That's my job."

He gives his door a good defiant slam when he climbs out. Despite the house's condition before us, there hasn't been a hotel in sight and we're running out of options and energy.