Page 169 of The Most Dangerous Games

“You’re all right?” Zhi asks.

“Well as can be expected under the circumstances,” Jack says.

“What about Alek and Tipton?” Zhi asks him.

“Still in their chambers as far as I know,” Jack says.

Zhi nods.

“So now it’s down to two,” Zhi says.

Just not for long.

116.

There is no time for Jack and Zhi to share the personal horrors they’ve just experienced in their chambers. As soon as they’re outside they hear Alek’s muffled cries for help from down the hall.

Jack and Zhi are sprinting in that direction when they see Alek’s door fling open, see her stumbling and falling into the hallway, wildly slapping at her own body with both hands.

She’s sitting on the floor when they reach her, arms hugging her knees, crying hysterically, rocking back and forth.

Despite everything that has happened to her—everything that has happened to all of them since leaving Ohio—Jack has never once seen Alek Andrich cry.

Had never seen her lose control like this.

Until now.

She looks up at them, bleary-eyed, trying to catch her breath and stop herself from crying at the same time.

Finally, she uses the same words Lin Zhi just used with Jack after making his own escape:

“I . . . couldn’t . . .” she manages.

Then, smaller, as if saying it might make it true: “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Jack says.

He sits next to her. Zhi leans down and respectfully places a comforting hand on Alek’s shoulder.

“They finally found a way to break us,” Jack says. “Maybe that was the goal all along. Maybe they didn’t really want anybody to win.”

“It was . . . awful,” Alek whispers. Her voice cracks. “I can still feel them.”

We’re all a wreck today, Jack tells himself.

They wanted us to lose our minds before we lost the money.

She tells them about the snakes and the spiders—how they kept coming, how they climbed, how the bites felt real. How she screamed for it to stop until her throat went raw.

“It was like death in there,” Alek says. “I can’t believe Wyatt let this happen.”

“Maybe he’s no better than his father,” Jack says. “Bad apple not falling far from the tree and all like that.”

Jack gets back to his feet and opens the door just a crack, looking back into her room to see for himself if somehow Alek’s demons had been real.

“They’ll get out!” Alek shouts, scuttling farther away from the door.

When Jack looks inside, Alek’s chamber is completely empty.