Z 2134

was ushered away and into the waiting van was two Watchers following Michael and Adam into the crowd. She screamed, trying to draw as much attention as she could toward her and away from her brother, to allow Michael time to get Adam away before things got ugly.
    Someone screamed in the crowd, and suddenly more Watchers moved forward, sticks swinging.
    The van door slammed shut as the sound of the crowd got ugly.
    She looked at the other girls, staring at her as if she’d incited a riot. She wasn’t sure what to do, or say, so she sat back against the rear wall and looked down at the floor, hoping Michael was able to get Adam away in time.
    She wasn’t sure if she’d been successful or not. As Ana sat in the van with the four other girls, silence cloaked the air.
    She thought more about the possibility that they might be playing a Special Edition Darwin Games, where the network changed the rules seemingly at random. A Special Game could be shortened to a single day or extended to two months. It was anybody’s guess, and they might never be told the rules until they needed to know them.
    She tried to keep her rising terror in check, not wanting to be seen as weak and an easy target, or too strong and therefore someone who should be eliminated immediately. It was far better to fly right down the middle and under the radar for as long as she could.
    Ana wondered if the additional contestants were a blessing or a curse. More players meant her odds of her winning were slimmer, but it also increased the odds that someone else would be targeted at The Halo when The Games began, meaning she might be able to slip away, as most smart players did, before chaos erupted.
    She tried to avoid eye contact while discreetly sizing the competition. None were familiar, which wasn’t surprising. City 6 was the second-largest of the half-dozen Cities, but social circles inside the City were small.
    Across from her sat an oversized brunette, who looked to be in her 20s and was so big she looked like she could have been Bear’s daughter. Beside her was another brunette, tall and skinny, who wore a smile that said she knew more than everyone else in the van added together even though she looked all of 14. Last was a raven-haired woman, in her early 20s if that, who sat beside Ana. While Ana was sure she didn’t know the woman, she looked oddly familiar.
    Ana wanted to know her story.
    The raven-haired girl spoke. “What’s going to happen when we stop?”
    She earned no answer the first time, but her second attempt saw a response when the partition between the driver’s cabin and the cargo bay opened and an older man with longish hair stared at the girls through the slit with his shadowy tired eyes and said, “Haven’t you girls ever seen The Games?”
    “Of course I have,” Raven said. “But everything happens so fast. What are the rules? Why do some people fight and others run?”
    The man laughed, then said, “Are you kidding? Sweetie, there are no rules.” He shook his head. “You run or you fight, that’s up to you. Just don’t let those zombie fuckers near you; they’re faster than they seem on the screen.”
    Ana swallowed, then spoke. “How do you stay alive?” She stared past the partition and into the man’s eyes. “I’ve never heard of TV crew members getting killed,” she said. “How do you all manage that?”
    “We’re producers for the show. They give us body armor when we’re in The Barrens,” the man said as he patted the thick, layered body armor that made him look like the dog trainers Ana had seen when her father took her to visit the K-9 Unit at City Watch, back when she was 10. “Mostly,” he added, “you learn to stay away, and to never miss a shot when you need to take it.”
    “You kill the zombies?” Raven said.
    “We’re not supposed to,” he said, then shook his head. “And usually don’t. But sometimes it’s them or us, and we do what we gotta. We get great training. All producers have a mandatory two-weeks training, twice per year. I’ve been taking mine for twenty years, so I’m used to the ugly fuckers. But you all, I assume none of you have ever seen a zombie up close?”
    Nobody said a word.
    The old man shrugged, then with no warning or ceremony, the partition closed and the back of the van was draped in another blanket of silence. Ana circled her worst fears for another hour or so, waiting until they finally arrived at The Halo.
    The Halo was littered with so