Z 2134

you!” even though she couldn’t.
    Another several seconds of silence were followed by footsteps as the hidden player stepped forward from the darkness and into the dim blue moonlight.
    It was the red-haired 12-year-old girl, the one who’d taken out the big man with the sword using a board with nails in the opening of The Games. She stood eight feet away, her face caked with mud, blood, and an almost savage concentration. The front of her violet coveralls were even muddier and bloodier than her cheeks. Her eyes, wide and blue, were stuck somewhere between innocence and shock.
    Ana stared without any words in her frozen throat. The girl held a knife, so small it may as well have been the jagged edge of an old tin can. The blade gleamed in the moonlight, casting fractured beams of secondhand moonlight from the girl’s hand into the snow.
    Even armed, the child was tiny and unassuming. But looks were often deceiving. The girl had already proven herself once with a vicious, and incredibly fast, sneak attack on the fat man with the sword.
    Is she planning to attack me the same way?
    Ana wasn’t a killer, and couldn’t imagine eliminating the child unless they were in the Final Battle. Right now they weren’t, and Ana’s life wasn’t in immediate jeopardy. Ana couldn’t kill the girl just because she might pose a threat at some point later in The Games.
    But she could scare her away and avoid having to fight a child.
    “I’ll kill you,” Ana said. “I already killed one guy, twice your size.”
    The girl stared, like she was savoring her next words on the tip of her tongue, or maybe waiting for Ana to say something else. Ana waited, hoping the girl would speak. It was too damned cold to stand still for this long.
    “Go!” Ana yelled.
    It was growing colder by the second, icy wind whipping through Ana’s hair. Standing here forever didn’t do either of them any good. If Ana was cold, the child must be freezing.
    The girl stared at her, with a creepy look that both terrified and confused Ana. Her teeth were chattering.
    Poor child. I should ask her to walk with me.
    She had no idea what such a small child could have possibly done to get thrown in prison, much less sent outside The Wall and into The Darwin Games, but there was something about her that made Ana think she didn’t come from the Dark Quarters, or whatever equivalent stained the back alleys of City 2.
    The girl stood, holding Ana’s stare while Ana held her sword.
    Ana considered turning and running herself, but didn’t dare — surrender in The Barrens was always a mistake, and besides, the girl was probably faster.
    The Network orb that had been hovering above Ana for fifteen minutes suddenly descended as though dropped by a god, spinning like a top through the frozen air and pouring brilliant blue light into the forest below. Kirkman wasn’t on screen and was likely at home in bed, but the orb was prepared for whatever was to come next, with an audience watching, eager for bloodshed, even if it was a child’s. Or Ana’s.
    Ana continued to stare at the girl, wondering if her legs were as frozen as hers, standing in the snow for what felt like eternity. The girl took a small step, almost tiny, slowly moving forward with one tentative foot in front of the other — bold, brave, and almost beautiful as she cautiously crept toward Ana, stopping a few feet in front of her, silent.
    What is she doing? Is she trying to make peace or preparing to strike?
    “Are you gonna say anything?” Ana asked, confused.
    The girl shook her head, then opened her mouth.
    Her missing tongue told Ana a long, horrible story in one short, miserable second.
    Ana had never seen a cut tongue but had heard plenty of stories about the many atrocities that happened to the girls and women in the Dark Quarters, often used in sex rings. Their pimps cut their tongues off to prevent them from ever naming their “customers.” This also served as a warning to any who might fight or flee — showing them how quickly a blade could change their lives.
    Ana winced, then whispered, “Oh God.”
    She wanted to invite the girl to stay.
    They could team up. She’d keep her safe. She’d —
    Blood erupted from Cal’s neck as Ben danced across the stage in Ana’s mind.
    You can’t trust her.
    You’re NOT a team.
    Even if you SOMEHOW made it to the end together, you’d have to kill her at some point if you wanna win.
    Can you do that, Ana? Murder a little disfigured girl