Z 2134

many fallen bodies, and so frequently, the zombies had learned to hang around, like birds at a feeder, waiting for the next drop-off of fresh meat. One Game didn’t even last an hour because after the initial scrum for weapons, there were only three people left — with 40 zombies to manage.
    Ana shivered, wondering how long she would last.
    Would she get a chance to make it to the woods?
    Or would someone in the van, perhaps from one of the other Cities, target her immediately?
    Being a girl in The Games was doubly worse. You not only had to worry about murderers and zombies, but sometimes the male contestants would rape the females. Ana hoped this would be an all-female edition of The Games.
    Just as a chill ran down her spine, the van stopped, and with barely a pause, the man from the other side of the partition — or perhaps the driver, it was hard to tell since they were both now wearing helmets and fully armored — threw open the door and yelled, “Get out, and when you hear the cannon fire, get to running if you want to live!”
    Ana was grabbed by her arms and pulled roughly from the van, with two girls before her and one immediately following.
    The man yelled again, pointing to a shed about 200 yards off, in the center of a clearing stacked with boxes of supplies and a small swarm of zombies in front, feasting on the raw meat set there to bait them. “Head over there if you want weapons and food,” he jabbed his finger toward the forest, “or over there if you wanna live a few minutes longer.”
    He spun from the girls, then turned his eyes to a small glass card in his palm and swiped his fingers across the top. A pair of orbs flew from on top of the van, then hovered above them, high in the sky.
    There were maybe two dozen zombies scattered across The Halo, with most lingering around the meat and all the supplies surrounding it, with many more pouring into The Halo from the forest to the right. Another five black vans were emptying passengers from their cargo holds, four players per van, all too far off for Ana to clearly see.
    Five other vans were letting contestants out beside them, forming a line in front of the field, which was surrounded on all sides by thick woodlands. Ana noticed, to her disappointment, that the other groups were varied in sex and age, which meant this wasn’t an all-girls Game.
    As the contestants eyeballed one another, and some even started shouting threats, trying to psyche out their opponents, another van suddenly pulled up, drawing everyone’s attention.
    What’s going on here? Another surprise for The Games?
    She wondered what the producers had in store. Were they going to open the door and set free a group of already-armed contestants, like they had a few years back?
    The passenger-side door opened, and a producer jumped from the van, his helmet already on. He ran up to the two producers who’d driven her and her fellow City Sixers, and began moving his arms wildly through the air. Ana figured they were talking on radios inside their helmets, which no one else could hear.
    Whatever was happening, the excitement was thick.
    Once the new producer finished speaking, one of the men who had brought them to the Halo approached their group.
    “We’ve got a last-minute addition from City 6. Do any of you wanna go back?”
    The youngest ran forward, crying, “Please, can I please go back?”
    “Hop in,” the man said, jerking his thumb toward the back of the van they’d just arrived in.
    The girl climbed inside the van, and the producers closed her door and then got into the front of the van.
    All eyes turned to the fresh arrival as the new producer pulled the doors open, then reached inside the van to pull the replacement player out.
    Ana gasped as Liam was shoved to the ground.
    “Good luck, anarchist,” the man behind him said.
    Ana met Liam’s eyes.
    She hadn’t seen him since they got into the argument and he told her to get out of the apartment. She wondered if his anger was enough to paint a bull’s-eye on her back.
    Or did it make more sense to stick together and fight as one?
    They looked around the clearing, taking in the other clusters from each of the Cities as the vans kicked dirt into the air at their departure.
    Six groups, four people each.
    And an army of zombies surrounding the weapons stash.
    The woods, which seemed so close on TV, looked a quarter mile off, at least.
    A long way to run in the snow.
    Ana eyed the weapons in the center of the