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had said nothing of the sort, not even mentioning rumor, revealing only his wife’s cold-blooded murder, which, Ana supposed, was somehow more acceptable to the audience than treason.
    She glared at the screen, hating the orb and the horrible world inside it. Cody was maybe six seconds from the platform. Her death a given unless she started to run. Ana planted her heel harder against the bridge, then launched herself forward.
    Just then, Cody reached the platform, then slipped, screaming as he fell out of her view behind the pedestal. Ana wasn’t sure if she heard him scream, or if his cry was lost amid the squealing from the boars below, but she figured he must be dead. She took another long step toward the platform, feeling the pedestal within her reach.
    The moment her feet found the platform, she saw Cody hanging onto the edge of the platform by his fingers, his eyes and mouth both open wide in horror. Then he saw her, and his eyes narrowed in anger as he somehow managed to swing his leg onto the ledge.
    She considered running toward him and shoving him off, but was terrified that he’d either get up before she reached him or grab her leg and yank her over the edge. Instead, she grabbed the sword.
    As she raised it, Cody found his footing on the other side of the pedestal and brandished a knife he must’ve had with him when he fell down the chute.
    He swiped the blade at her, but his reach was too short.
    She stepped back, then remembered she didn’t have but a few feet to move before she’d fall into the pit. She jabbed the sword forward, trying just to scare him back because she hadn’t quite committed to murder.
    “Go!” she shouted, gritting her teeth. “Go, and I won’t kill you.”
    “No way!” he sneered. “You go, and I’ll let YOU live!”
    “I’ve got the sword,” Ana said, taking a swing, again purposely missing. Part of her reason for not striking him was a fear that if she missed and the sword was close enough to him, he’d be able to wrest it away from her. Then she would be a dead girl.
    “Yeah, but I don’t think you’ll use it,” he said, taking a brave, or maybe stupid step forward.
    “Just go!” she screamed. “I swear I’ll kill you!”
    “You know I can’t do that,” he shook his head, holding his knife out in front of him. “If you go, they’ll leave me down here to die! We both know how it ends for whoever doesn’t take the platform back. So get off and let me on. You can take your chances with the boars and your sword.”
    Maybe Cody is right.
    Maybe she could make it up without the platform. It wasn’t impossible, though you did have to get through the boars and find the alternate route. It had been done once in Games history, she thought.
    She didn’t have time to realize the lunacy of her logic. Cody charged. Ana shocked herself by raising the sword, waving it in a wide arc, swiping him with a long gash across his chest, and painting the already-red button with a splatter of blood. He fell a step back, eyes wide and dazed, his mouth open in a capital O of surprise.
    Ana shoved the sword deeper, then hefted it up and through his guts as he screamed.
    She pulled it free from his body, as if his skin were its scabbard, then fell another step back, expecting him to fall, maybe even over the edge. Instead, Cody did the impossible by lurching forward, blood drooling from his mouth, and waving his knife madly through the air.
    He missed, but his surprise attack sent her sword to the ground. Ana ducked, then jumped at Cody, aiming for his waist and sending him hard onto the ground. She straddled him, curled her fingers into his hair, then lifted his head and sent the back of his skull into the platform’s metal bottom over and over as she unleashed her pent-up rage.
    Rage at City 6.
    Rage at The Games.
    Rage at the orb and Kirkman’s incessant chatter.
    And rage at Cody for forcing her to kill him.
    The orb hovered beside her, filling the air with a play-by-play.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Kirkman said, clearly giddy. “Little Miss Jonah Junior is 114 pounds of RAGING FURY! Look. At. Her. GOOOOO! City 6 might want to consider laying odds on our brand-new favorite!”
    Tears streamed down her face as blood spilled out, soaking the knees on her coveralls, as Cody’s dead eyes stared up at her.
    Applause filled the cavern, the fickle fans suddenly finding their new darling underdog. She didn’t dare turn to the orb and let the vultures see the