Free I Am Alive by Cameron Jace Page B

of games. The rules demand a ten-hour rest between each game.
    They will not be broadcasting from the battlefields for a while. There is no point in that. Viewers can watch recaps and other shows while we rest. No one wants to watch the Bad Kidz’s boring and uninteresting lives inside the fields. No one wants to see the outranked alive. The cameras are still on though, in case the Trickster finds something interesting to share, and for the die-hard audience.
    The skaters leave together, as I follow Leo into the forest. Even though I don’t really care about whatever he wants, I don’t mind exploring. If Woo is hiding in the Playa behind the Summit’s back, I will have to explore every inch of it in the free time between the games – assuming that I am still alive.
    The Playa is humongous. It’s hard to imagine it was an amusement park for children many generations before. I was told the Playa is much scarier after the games end; so scary that the Summit prefers to close it down for the whole year, until the next games. Where are you hiding, Woo? I should start looking for you.
    Leo trots forward, wearing his backpack, with his rifle tucked under his jacket. He doesn’t look like he had a rough day . He looks like a mad kid with a gun, about to blow up a school. But he also looks like he knows where he is going. Since he was able to manipulate the rollercoaster, there is a great chance he has been here before. I have no idea how, but he could help me find Woo.
    We walk next to a big screen mounted on a tree with a wide base, watching Timmy interviewing ranked teens. They are talking about what they want to make of their bright futures — I wonder how Eva feels about being an Eight right now.
    Most of the broadcasting screens are mute at this stage. We can listen to the sounds through our iAms, though.
    Using eye language, Leo orders me to mute my iAm.
    “But of course, my lord,” I say, playing Cinderella until I figure out who it is. “We have to talk about where this relationship is going.” I try to keep up with his pace. I hope he doesn’t think that the kiss in the Speed Exploding School Bus was real. Boys always get ideas from trivial things like that. It’s not like I am not allowed to kiss a cute boy who I just met on live TV before I die. “By the way, I prefer boys who talk,” I tell him. “Especially those I have kissed to save their sorry asses.” He keeps on walking. “I am kind of your princess charming. I kissed you and saved you from exploding; that’s like bringing you back from the dead.”
    Leo turns around abruptly, snatches my iAm from me, pushes the mute button then gives it back to me, bumping it against my chest. He writes a message on his iAm and shows it to me:
    YOU KISSED ME TO SAVE YOUR ASS.
    “Oh yeah? Then why didn't you open your mouth and say you're alive?” I sneer at him – I find myself checking out his ass, non-metaphorically.
    I blink. He is so athletic. I lose focus on whatever humiliation I was planning to bring down on him. Since I spent most of my childhood with Woo, I didn’t interact with many other boys. I was shy, and utterly invisible to the boys in school. Finding myself in the presence of Leo, a boy who girls swoon over, is really uncomfortable, even in a game of death. I think that's the whole point. Death has made me appreciate things, lust for things. It has made me unapologetically go after what I want. I might have only few hours to live, after all.
    “I came here to save a friend, by the way.” I say with my hands on my waist. I don’t know why I act like that, but I want to camouflage my silly superficial attraction to his looks. "So I don't really have time for you. I mean seriously, talking to a set of chattering teeth is more fun than you."
    Leo writes on the iAm: I HAVE A BETTER IDEA. SAVE YOURSELF.
    “Not funny.” I stick out my tongue.
    OH IT WAS FUNNY. Leo writes on his iAm: YOU KNOW WHAT’S NOT FUNNY? I HAVE A BOMB IN MY MOUTH.
    I