Out of the Ashes (The Game 5)

“Spread out and find them!” That bellowing voice belonged to Reese. “Get the first group to the quarry!”

The what?

Shay and I jumped into the ditch, about two feet deep, but the grass and shrubs concealed us, and the trees offered more shelter.

“Down, down, down,” he whispered breathlessly.

I dropped to a crouch next to him. We were essentially hugging a tree between us, and now all we could do was wait and catch our breath.

I swiped sweat off my forehead.

“Aiko Tanaka—you’ve been caught.”

“Aw, man,” I breathed. “I was rooting for her.”

“You don’t have tracking activated on your phone, right?” Shay asked. “Like iPhones have, what do you call it, find your friends or whatever.”

I shook my head and lifted my tee to wipe my face. “Shit—my phone isn’t on silent, though.” I quickly dug it out and turned off the sound. Hell, that could’ve ended badly.

While Shay retied his sneakers, I craned my neck to get a glimpse of any activity going on in front of the house. We were far away, though I could see people coming out on the front porch. A large group of people.

Then a vehicle backed out of the big carport, one I’d never seen before. It was an actual van.

They were taking us somewhere.

“Do we have a quarry nearby?” I asked in a hushed tone.

“No idea—”

“Look.” I pointed to the carport.

They were loading our friends into the back of the van. I counted six of them but had no idea exactly who they were. Actually, one of them was easily recognizable. Noa was about five feet tall and didn’t climb aboard willingly. He was literally kicking and screaming.

“Light up the dirt road!” we heard Lee yell. “They’re here somewhere!”

Shay and I quickly locked eyes.

“Run or hide?” I whispered.

More than one engine roared to life a moment later, and we watched the van and two trucks drive around the fountain at the center of the cul-de-sac.

“They’ll see us if we run now,” he whispered back. When he ducked lower and ended up on his stomach, I did the same. “When they find us, we fight.”

The adrenaline started pumping again.

When we got caught. Of course it was a matter of when. If we didn’t get caught, we’d miss out on the event.

“Hiding in ditches is just not my favorite thing to do.” I smacked a tiny spider crawling on my hand.

I shut my mouth as everything around us went white in the headlights of three vehicles. The van kept driving, apparently going to some quarry I’d never heard of, and the two trucks stayed behind as brat finders.

Shay swallowed hard. “They’re gonna see us as soon as they walk past on this side.”

“We can still run,” I whispered. “I say we run—”

“Found them!”

“Son of a bitch!” I shouted. My God, fucking heart attack warning! As I jumped to my feet and did a panicked scan of my surroundings, searching for whoever had yelled, Shay cursed loudly and shot up with much more grace than I possessed.

“Get them!”

“Run!”

“Don’t let them get away!”

Chaos erupted. Blinding light wrestled with the blackest of shadows. I ran straight for the fields, but as soon as I was out of the ditch, I felt a large hand clamping down on my shoulder. Fight mode kicked in, and I spun around and threw out my fist, hoping to make impact somewhere. And it did.

“Oomph.”

“Ouch,” I hissed. My hand hurt! Someone had a rock-hard chest.

That someone was completely hidden in black and another one of those ski masks, but I knew those eyes. It was Greer. Summoning all the strength and defiance I could find within me, I rammed into him with my elbow first, and I yelled for Shay to run.

“The fuck did I ever do to you, kid?” Greer growled and pushed back, and I went flying a whole lot easier than he did. I toppled over with a painful thump, but I scrambled to my feet quickly and darted backward, putting several paces between us. “C’mere, lemme hurt you a little.” He was smirking. I didn’t need to see his mouth to know he was smirking behind the mask.

“Go fuck yourself.” I could pounce again—and lose again. I was up against a behemoth of a man who’d spent twelve years in the Marines and did manual labor every single day.

My time was up. At least four Sadists were heading my way, and I didn’t stand a chance. They were gonna catch me within seconds. My only option was to inflict some pain in my downfall.

Greer advanced carefully.

I flicked a glance to my right, to where the others were running from, and I wondered which one was Lee. I wondered which one I could fight.

“Get your hands off me!” Shay shouted angrily farther away. He had to be on the other side of the ditch, on the dirt road.