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Nineteen
BROOKE
The bell was so loud I thought my head would explode. I rang it just inches away from my ear, my hand still grasping desperately for it as I fell sideways to the hard surface of the platform.
YES!
Euphoria surged through my heaving body. I was shaking all over. Half from exhaustion, half from the adrenaline of knowing this leg of the Race was finally, at long last over.
Thank GOD.
I sat up, a little frightened by just how high I’d actually climbed. The platform itself was sturdy but small. Down below, I was surrounded by a cheering, surging crowd.
“Great job, baby!”
My eyes scanned through fellow contestants and spectators alike, until they finally found what I was looking for: the guys. Reese’s voice carried over the others. I saw Hayden’s grin, though. And Devin’s smile of satisfaction as I pushed myself to my feet—
— and fell right back down on legs that felt like jelly.
“Stay down!” I heard someone from the safety crew say. “Rest up and don’t move!”
I wiped my brow, glancing around the platform. From what I could tell, we’d come in ninth place. Eight other anchor-leg contestants sat heaving beside me, looking down at the other teams still scrambling to reach the golden bell.
This was nuts, I thought to myself.One of the hardest legs I’d ever run.
It made sense I supposed, being the Insane World Race. I just hadn’t expected it to get this hard this quickly. I was hoping for a few ‘fun’ legs first. Easy ones, that weren’t so physically demanding.
Instead I’d gottenthis.And I’d been randomly chosen to be the anchor, too! All the pressure was on me, but I worked best under pressure. At least I thought I did.
“COME ON!”
To one side of me, the final few teams still competing were struggling to finish assembling the highest part of their platforms I could see the anchor for Daily Grind - a team made up entirely of business executives - was almost finished. Keeping it in the Family was working slowly but methodically, sliding the metal bars and wooden planks into their proper spots in the scaffolding, as I’d just done.
It was trickier than it looked, mainly because you could get some pieces wrong. More than once teams had to backtrack on their own progress because they’d used larger pieces than they needed to, shortchanging them from reaching the top.
“Don’t stop!” I heard someone scream. “Why are you stopping?!”
The other team members were shouting so loudly at their anchors I couldn’t think straight. Not that I had to, anymore. We’d be racing the next leg no matter what happened.
“SARAH, NO!”
I whipped my head around, and saw the Boston Banshees’ anchor all the way at the bottom. She’d been the first to arrive at the final obstacle, yet somehow she’d constructed and de-constructed her platform three times already without getting it right.
Now she was starting overagain, and it looked like she was sunk.
“SARAH! WHAT ARE YOU--”
I pitied her because I’d been in her position before. Her expression had gone from a bright red frustration to one of total misery. She should’ve been at the point of giving up, only she wasn’t giving up at all. Her eyes were still determined. I could see her swallowing her anger and converting it into a laser focus.
Adda girl Sarah.
I’d loved the Banshees since they almost took season one. The four female rock singers from in and around Boston were one of the main reasons I’d initially applied for the Race.
Keep going…
I started watching her carefully as she reconstructed the platform, to see what she was doing wrong. Everything seemed alright. Halfway up though…
Halfway up I realized she was missing a piece.
