“Knew the risks?” Persey said. The android had no soul. “We didn’t enter a guillotine-dodging competition. We shouldn’t have to worry about getting decapitated.”
Neela, visibly weary of all the bickering and wisecracks, plopped down onto the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. “I want to go home.”
Even though she was two years older than Persey, Neela seemed younger. Maybe because she was so enthusiastic about life and its possibilities—hope and joy hadn’t been beaten out of her yet by the cruelty of the world—and Persey instantly wanted to make her feel like everything was going to be okay. Even if it wasn’t.
“Hey,” she said, crouching beside Neela. “You’re going to get out of here, okay?”
“Of course she is.” Kevin sat down cross-legged on the floor beside her. “We’ll just wait here until the clock runs out. Then someone will have to show up.”
“Clock?” Persey asked. She hadn’t seen a countdown since they were upstairs.
“Yep.” Kevin nodded and pointed to the back wall.
Persey turned and saw the red digital numbers on the wall, set for thirty minutes again. It hadn’t been there before, and even weirder, it hadn’t started moving yet.
“That’s your plan?” Riot asked, jumping down from the altar. The floor rebounded from the force of his body mass. “Sit here and wait?”
“That’s my plan,” Kevin said.
“Wait for what, exactly?”
“Police?”
“Maybe they can’t get to us,” Mackenzie suggested. “Maybe, wherever we are, the doors won’t open unless we do it ourselves.”
“Do it ourselves?” Neela’s voice went up almost a full octave as she spoke as her panic re-escalated. “We can’t keep going. What if there’s another accident? Or…or…” She swallowed, unwilling to finish the thought, but Persey knew exactly what she was going to say.
“Or what if it wasn’t an accident?”
“The. Fuck,” Mackenzie said, throwing her arms up. “This again?”
“Like I said, I’m not going anywhere until we get some answers.” Kevin’s carefree grin seemed out of place in the blood-splattered Cavethedral. “Whether that clock starts or not.”
A loud buzzer tore through the room the instant Kevin stopped talking.
The countdown had begun.
PERSEY JUMPED AT THE BUZZER, GASPING IN SURPRISE. Someone was watching, cuing off of Kevin’s words for dramatic effect. Why hadn’t they called the police?
“Thirty minutes,” Wes said, as if anyone needed to be told. “Now what?”
No one answered. In fact, no one moved. Unlike previous buzzers that had kicked off a flurry of motion and energy as the contestants began their search for clues, this time no one seemed to know what to do.
Persey didn’t blame them. She didn’t know what she was supposed to believe anymore. Her eyes trailed to Arlo’s crumpled corpse. Somewhere, she had friends, a family. Her brother who went to Notre Dame…What was his name? Atticus. Persey imagined he would be devastated when he learned Arlo was dead. Heartbroken by the loss of his sister.
I wonder what that’s like?
Riot approached Persey, touching her back lightly with his fingertips. “I’m sure she didn’t feel anything.”
I’m sure.
“You okay?”
Persey peeled her eyes away from the body. “I didn’t like her, but I didn’t want her dead.”
“Not your fault!” Kevin called up from the floor. He’d leaned back on his elbows and stretched out his legs before him.
Isn’t it?
Riot glared at Kevin. “Maybe if you’d listened to Persey about that Boyz Distrikt singer, we’d all be outside right now.”
“Maybe if you two stopped flirting,” Kevin countered, “I wouldn’t feel like barfing right now.”
“Us? Are you kidding?” Riot laughed. “You and that prep school groupie have been practically dry-humping since you met!”
Kevin wouldn’t be derailed. “And your eyes have barely left Persey’s face.”
Once again, Persey felt the heat rising up from her neck. She spun away from Riot, picked up her bloodstained T-shirt that Neela had discarded, and gently draped it over Arlo’s remains, obscuring the gaping neck hole from view. She hadn’t been a very nice person, or even a very good person, and there had been no love lost between them, but Arlo didn’t deserve this. None of the contestants did. And Persey wanted to make sure that no one else shared Arlo’s fate.
“Sit there if you want,” she said, without looking at Kevin. “I’m going to try to find a way out.”
“Excellent!” Riot dashed across the room, mounting the steps to the altar in one leap. He hoisted himself back up onto the marble slab and stood facing the crucifix, examining the engraving Neela had spotted on her way down the pole. “Exurge Domine et judica causam tuam,” he read.