Z 2134

monitor, staring into the tiny green dot at the top that would capture her voice and broadcast her words, if only she could make them. Between her river of tears, her missing tongue, and the shrill, sudden scream as another zombie slammed into the side of her box, every one of her sounds was further proof she was not fit for The Games.
    “Oh yeah,” Kirkman cackled, “I’m afraid the kitty’s been playing with Charlotte’s tongue for far too long! Let’s all imagine together: If she could speak, surely she would say something like, ‘Please, please, not me! Anyone but me! I’m just a little girl!’”
    The audience laughed, fueling Ana to almost uncontrollable anger. She had to stay measured. Her father had told Kirkman to fuck himself, but with the Network pulling strings and three lives in the balance, the bastards wouldn’t need much of an excuse to end the mini-game with all of them dead.
    She glared at the monitor, biting her tongue.
    Kirkman said, “OK, Ana, have you made your decision? Will it be your boyfriend or the poor, innocent child?”
    Ana continued to stare at the monitors. Liam was speaking, likely with no clue that she couldn’t hear a word. The girl stared at Ana from her monitor, hands cupped as if in prayer, pleading with her eyes.
    Ana’s guilt rose into full bloom as she remembered scaring the girl away when she first encountered her in the woods. Ana hadn’t meant to be so cruel. She’d only wanted to scare the girl away, to protect her. And now, ironically, after the girl saved her and Liam’s lives, her own was on the line. In a just world, Ana would save the girl and leave Liam — the man who got her into this whole mess — to fend for himself.
    But nobody ever claimed this was a just world. And if Ana died, who would be there for Adam?
    Still, Ana couldn’t imagine opening the child’s door. There was no way the girl could survive a zombie attack. At least if she opened Liam’s door, he might stand a chance of making it out of the barn alive.
    Kirkman’s voice cut through Ana’s thoughts. “One more thing, Little Miss Lovecraft. In order to make such an important decision, you need all the information available.” His bright tone went brighter as he said, “Which is why I think you need to see this!”
    The screen broadcasting Liam in his box went black, then back to bright as it played a recording of him marching into a City Watch office. He was refusing to spy on The Underground any longer.
    He had been a traitor!
    To The Underground and — to her father.
    Ana stared at the screen in openmouthed shock.
    The screen cut back to Liam in the box, silence screaming from his mouth as he protested.
    “Yes,” Kirkman said. “Seems your sexy lover Liam was really a spy working against The Underground. How’s that for a WOW moment, ladies and gentleman?”
    The audience oohed.
    Ana wasn’t sure if Liam heard her, but she stared not at the monitor above, but right at him, glaring through the plastic. “How could you?”
    She didn’t finish with “betray my father?” since The Games had never announced Jonah as an Underground rebel, and Ana didn’t want to risk anything happening to her father in City 7 if word got out.
    If Liam was a spy for City Watch, maybe he was responsible for her father’s framing. Perhaps it was he, not she, who was to blame for those deaths at Duncan’s church. Perhaps — Ana shuddered at the thought — he was also responsible for her mother’s death.
    Ana swallowed, blinking back tears as she continued to glare at Liam.
    You did this!
    Liam kept screaming, punching the plastic, his face red and raging.
    Ana repeated: “How could you?”
    Kirkman said, “So, Anastasia, are you READY to decide? Remember, you’ve only got 60 seconds, which we’ll be counting down on the center monitor. You can open Charlotte’s box at any time by simply pressing her screen and sending the itty bitty girl from City 2 into the zombies’ mauling arms, or…you can punish your lover for his shocking betrayal by pressing his screen and feeding The Underground scum to the starving zombies! The choice is yours, Lovely Lovecraft.”
    Large white numbers appeared against a black screen on the center screen.
    “The time is on the clock, and we’re starting…NOW!”
    The monitor ticked life away for either Liam or Charlotte, demanding that a decision be made.
    60…59…58…
    Ana went back and forth in her mind, waffling between Charlotte and