Chapter 88

I gasp when my eyes fly open, hauling breath into my lungs as if I’ve just broken out of a pool of water.

I immediately it up. panting, staring around at my unfamiliar surroundings. And my

thought, absurdly, is that I’m in the dream state-

Because this – this is not the dorm room that I was in with my friends ten seconds ago.

first

No, as I look around I realize that I’m in the woods now. But it takes me a few moments and blinks to realize that these are not the dream woods in which I meet Luca – but real woods. And it’s dusk, which is absurd, because it was just night time, but why…

My instincts come back to me in bits and pieces and I curl my legs beneath me, ready to get to my feet as I look warily around, trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. My body feels sluggish and tired, but I would swear that moments ago I was drinking a toast with Daphne

Daphne, who I suddenly remember betrayed us. But why!?

I dart my eyes around, trying to figure out my surroundings, how I got here, why I’m all alone, and I almost jump when I turn to see a wooden box behind me.

Ari Clark, it says, my name written onto a piece of paper nailed to the top. I just stare at it for a long moment, putting together the clues.

I’m here, alone, in the woods, with a long box with my fake name on it.

And the only ones who use my fake name are…the Academy…

Suddenly, as I move my hands to the box and flip open the lid, I figure it out.

The Examination. This is the damn Examination – they lied to us, telling us it was next week so that we wouldn’t suspect or prepare. And Daphne didn’t betray us – she was just doing her damn job, drugging us with the wine so that they could get us here to be…to be examined, I guess.

I glance around in the box, which doesn’t hold much, though I admit that the contents are fascinating. For a moment I ignore the long crossbow and the set of six vials, opting instead for the little folded piece of paper, which surely has the thing I want most in the world right now: information.

My hands shaking a little, I sink back onto the ground with my legs underneath me, my eyes flying over the note as I unfold it.

Cadet Clark, it begins.

Your Examination begins the moment you wake and read this note. In order to continue at the Academy in the spring term, you are required to be amongst the top 60% of cadets in your year who pass the Examination.

The Examination ends when you reach the Final Destination, noted on the included map.

I take my eyes away from the letter just for a moment, glancing into the box to see that there is indeed a map inside along with a small compass.

All cadets have been given the same map and compass, though yours has been marked with your unique starting point. The other supplies in the bin have been given to you by the professors in your specific discipline in order to aid you on your mission to reach the Final Destination quickly and ahead of your fellow cadets. Please note that only the first 60% of cadets to reach the finish line will be invited back in the Spring term; even if you do reach the Final Destination, if you cross the finish line too late, you will not be invited back.

your

The supplies included have been designed by your professors to aid you to slow any of fellow candidates on their own way to the Destination, should that be part of your tactics. However, be aware that these supplies are not designed to kill. While this is a war simulation at a military academy, your fellow candidates are your countrymen. Any blatant acts designed specifically to kill will be met with strict discipline.

My eyes go wide at this warning because….well, I mean, they’ve given me a cross bow, haven’t they? What do they want me to do with it, make friends?

I return my attention back to the page, finishing the letter in a quick glance.

You have thirty–six hours to reach the Final Destination. Any candidate who takes longer than that will not pass. We wish you the best of luck.

I glance through the note one more time, my mind coming fully back to me now adrenaline starts to pump through my veins. Once I’m sure that I’ve committed it all to memory. I crumple it and toss it into the corner of the box, sorting quickly through my supplies as I glance around the forest, eager to get on the move.

1

Because it’s not only that I’m on a short timeline here, but I’m also newly aware that the vast majority of my fellow cadets are now my enemies, seeking to slow me down. And considering who I am, and how small I am?

I’m easy pickings, all alone like this. No, I’ve got to move, and fast.

My hands shake a little as I strap the crossbow to my back, examining the quiver full of arrows lightening fast before I attach their little belt to my hip. All their points, I noted, are suitably dulled – not designed to rip through flesh, just, as the note suggested, to do enough damage to slow someone down.

Unless you get someone in the eye, my wolf says, her hackles raised, all of her instincts on high alert as she turns around, examining the forest as I pick up the set of vials at the bottom of the box. noveldrama

1 smirk a little at her comment, because – quite frankly – I’m good enough with a crossbow now that I could sink an arrow into someone’s eye. Not that I’d do that, I don’t think, but….

I mean, would I?

If I were pushed to it, could I kill someone, even a countryman, as the note says?

My wolf hesitates alongside me, but I brush the thought away, forcing myself to concentrate on the supplies after another quick glance around the quiet forest.

I immediately recognize the chemicals as those from Neumann’s collection and, considering my expertise, I know precisely what to do with them. The collection, as the note suggests, includes enough ingredients for me to make a moderately toxic poison that will definitely stop a cadet in their tracks but won’t kill them. The kit also cleverly contains a series of decoy chemicals, designed to trick an espionage–track cadet who hasn’t properly studied our textbook.

But me? I studied.

Lightening fast, I quickly mix the correct toxin and then hurl the remaining vials into the forest, wanting them out of sight. Then I grab the canteen of water from the back of the box, quickly chugging as much

as I can from it before dumping the toxin in it, making sure that I get in every last drop. Then this vial, too, I throw into the woods.

1

Finally, I grab my map and an apple from the bottom of the box, leaving the rest of the food behind, knowing that on my small frame I won’t be able to carry it. Thirty–six hours I can go that long without food and water, and I need to be fast.

So 1 chew the apple as I go, consulting my compass and then moving north in the direction that the map indicates the Final Destination lays. As I pass out of my little starting grove, I casually drop my water canteen behind, almost like I did it by mistake as I ran.

I’m not going to get a chance, after all, to get close enough to any of my fellow cadets to press the toxin directly to their skin or their faces. Getting close enough to do that would mean that I got knocked out before I even had a chance.

So my best chance? A scavenger cadet who is loading up on lost supplies.

I clench my teeth as I move away from the canteen, glancing at my map and the landscape around me, trying to figure out my best route.

All the while wondering desperately how the hell I’m going to get through this in time.

And where the hell my family and friends are.

As I plunge into the woods, I hope desperately that they, too, are safe and on the move.