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Forty-Five
BROOKE
It was just past dusk by the time we dragged ourselves beneath the final arch, emerging into the grandeur of Duomo Square. The city’s most breathtaking cathedral loomed over everything, as well it should. The final checkpoint lay perfectly centered before it, as we always knew it would be.
“Damn.”
Devin swore the word wearily, and with the weight of a thousand disappointments. Noah Frost stood on the platform, looking uncharacteristically somber. His expression could even be considered sympathetic, although that could’ve been for the benefit of the half-dozen cameras.
“C’mon Dream Team,” he smiled weakly, urging us in with a gentle hand. “You’re almost home.”
There was no golden bell anywhere we looked. That would’ve told us everything we needed to know, even if the other three teams hadn’t already been standing behind him. But there they were, and that could only mean one thing.
It was all over.
Fuck.
I was too exhausted to say the word aloud. We’d started at midnight the night before, and had gone through eight different challenge stations. Three times our team was required to split up and do separate tasks. Twice we’d screwed up and had to run all the way back to the previous checkpoint, only to do the same task again.
We’d made up some time with our speed, but by now all the teams left were good ones. We could only pray they made the same mistakes. We could only hope one or more of them got stuck on a task, as we had, and somehow ended up behind us.
But now here they all were, checked in and moving on to the final. They’d be in every single episode, including the finale. They’d be the top three Second Chance Champions.
And we’d be going home.
“You four have had a rough day, huh?”
Noah’s words were meant to be consoling, but we really didn’t want to hear them. The four of us stepped into the checkpoint area together, still out of breath. Our hands went to our hips as we awaited our fate.
“You came so close,” said Noah. “You went so far…”
Everything word out of his mouth hurt a little bit more. It felt like he was rubbing it in. Not that he was of course, but that’s what it felt like.
“You had some ups and downs today,” Noah went on. “But you got tripped up in a few different challenges. You fell behind. You came in last. And that means—”
“This is a non-elimination leg?” Reese offered hopefully.
Noah smiled weakly, and for a moment I saw a glimmer of hope. But that hope faded as the host dropped his head and shook it slowly.
“I’m afraid not,” said Noah. “This is most definitely an elimination leg. I’m sorry.”
A thousand different emotions surged through me as we stood there together, staring down at the flagstones of the six-hundred year old square. Crushing disappointment. Guilt-laden regret.
Overwhelming relief?
I felt anger and discouragement, but also joy, exuberance, and a sense of peace now that it was finally over. The tremendous weight I associated with losing was finally lifted. We’d already lost.
“The worst part though,” Noah went on, “was how long it took you to finish that fifth checkpoint. The one in the porcelain shop, where you had to match all those different patterns against one another.”
It was strange, the way he kept going on. It wasn’t like him to prolong the final phrase; the one that would tell us we were eliminated.
“It was especially hard, because it seemed like some of those patterns weren’t there. Like they just… I don’t know…vanishedor something.”
There a shifting going on now, somewhere behind Noah. An uncomfortable shifting. And then:
“Do youknowanything about that… Think Tank?”
The cameras swung in unison, shifting from our team to theirs. All four members of Think Tank appeared totally dumbfounded. But some looked a lot more uncomfortable than others.
