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“Will somebody just tell me what the fuck is happening?” Nobody answers, and this causes her voice to rise. “Seriously. Why are we playing this game, and why does it look like my life depends on it?”

“Because it does.” The words leave my mouth flat and simple. There’s no use in comforting her with soft-spoken words and lies.

Amani’s face falls. Enough for me to see the exact moment the situation becomes real.

“Move,” I command, and neither of them argues. We rush into the hallway and down the stairwell.

Our footsteps echo against concrete as we descend floor after floor, the sound bouncing around us in sharp bursts. Lucas takes the steps two at a time. Amani nearly misses one and catches herself on the railing.

By the time we burst into the parking lot, my pulse had finally settled into a forced focus and tunnel vision on what this situation demanded.

The night air is cold and eerily still for a Friday night. It shouldn’t come to me as much of a surprise, seeing as half the city is attending the biggest Halloween and final event for October. This must be why the event was so highly anticipated; this is all a front for the survival game.

Lucas unlocks his car, headlights flashing in streaks across the grey underground parking bay. Amani scrambles into the passenger seat while Lucas rounds to the driver’s side. Before he can close the door, I grab the top of it. “Explain Kill Feed to her.”

He looks up at me and nods once. The fear is still there, swimming in his hazel irises, but now it’s buried beneath purpose.

I release the door, and it slams shut. The engine starts immediately. I round the car again and swing a leg over my motorcycle, shove my helmet on, and pull out my phone, clipping it to the tripod.

0 minutes and 5 seconds.

The moment the timer hits zero, my screen glitches. The skull vanishes as static tears across the display once before a map loads in its place. My location flashes as a blue dot and a red pin waits farther north at a location I immediately recognize.

The pin is smacked dead in the middle of the forest next to where Nightfall was held. The place where everything truly started unravelling.

Of all fucking places.

A humorless laugh almost escapes me because, of course, it’s there. How fucking original, but at least I know exactly how to get there. Added, that is the least of my worries.

There is a green circle encasing a large area around the pin location, and we are right on the fucking edge.

If the boundary shrinks—as Lucas said it would— we’ll be outside it almost immediately.

The forest is roughly twenty-five minutes away. Maybe less if we push it. The urgency settles as the engine roars to life beneath me. I pull beside Lucas’s car, tapping sharply on the passenger window, pointing toward the road ahead, and making a sharp motion with my hand.

Go.

Now.

Chapter 32

Adrian

I keep Lucas’s taillights fixed in my sight as my motorcycle eats up the distance between intersections, the engine vibrating beneath me while cold air pushes against my jacket.

He’s speeding.

A lot.

But surprisingly, he’s not driving like a maniac.

The car stays centered in the lane, movements smooth and controlled as he takes corners and merges onto larger roads without swerving and with no hesitation.

Funny how fast one’s mind can reset in dire situations. That, and he seems desperate to keep Amani safe. He would happily wrap himself around a tree if left unattended, but with her in the passenger seat, suddenly he remembers basic driving skills.

My gaze leaves his car for mere seconds as I sweep my surroundings. The roads should be busier. It’s a Friday night after all and well past ten. Yet the further we drive from the city center, the fewer cars I see.

A pickup passes us heading the opposite direction. Then nothing for almost a full minute before a blue car speeds past.