The Death Race

The Invitation

I woke up at 7 the next morning, which for me is quite early. I checked my phone; two new messages from Robyn. I placed my phone down on my desk and walked downstairs to the smell of pancakes cooking. My Dad was sitting on the lounge chair drinking his daily coffee. "You know it's Saturday right, no school." Dad mentioned, a hint of humor in his voice. I looked down at myself surprised to see myself still in my crumpled school uniform. "I couldn't be bothered to change." I muttered. I waited till the pancakes had cooked and then grabbed a whole plateful. I'm so starving I could eat a horse. I sat in silence and ate my pancakes. There was a knock on the door. No one else is bothered to get up, so I heave my heavy bones out of the chair and open the door. At the door stood a mailman. "Yes, how may I help you?" I asked, weary. 'I have a package for Clarke Miller." He handed the brown package over to me. "Umm thank you." I say. I'm confused, I never ordered anything. I chucked the rest of my pancakes into Neisha's bowl. Neisha is my black puppy. I walk up to my room and close the door. I stared at the package. 'I wonder what it can be?' I take the package and examined it closely, no return address. Strange. I start to unwrap the brown paper. What I find surprises me the most. The only contents of the package is a white earpiece and a small note. I turned the note over and read the message. 'Dear contestant, listen to the message on the earpiece and make your choice.' Make my choice? What message? Who are these people? Is this real? I had so many questions. I re-read the message hoping there was a hidden message inside. A prank from Robyn maybe? I wait a couple of minutes before putting the earpiece on. At first nothing plays so I take it off, there's an on and off button; typical. I switch the switch to on and a message starts to play. It's a woman's voice. . 'Dear contestant, we believe someone in your family has fallen sick to a rare sort of virus called Ziolia Virus. Apparently there is no found cure. Well that is not entirely true. We have one cure, one only. There is only one way to receive this cure. To compete in the death race.' I didn't like the sound of that. 'If you are the first to the base you win the cure. You will be competing against other people whose family members have also fallen victim to this disease. But be warned if you fail to complete the stage you may die. This race is life and death. But if you do not compete you have no chance of saving your sick family member. If you do decide to compete go to the following address: 54 Loway Road, Victoria, Australia by the 4th of September 4:00pm. Choose wisely.' Then suddenly the voice cut off. I quickly scribbled down the address and the date and then sat staring at it. I'm not sure if this is some type of practical joke but I'm starting to get a bit scared and worried. I need to figure out if this is real or not because today is the 2nd of September.