The 17 Read Free Page A

lose, it sucks.”
    Zack was curious. “Is that what this hunting is about?”
    “Duh,” Harness taunted. “That’s all we do here. Compete against the others. It never ends. The places change. The weapons change. But that’s it. Over and over and over again. Now with, what, seven of us it’s gonna get even harder. And we get you. I bet you can’t even lift your own weight. Great. Just awesome.”
    Harness took a final angry bite of his Hot Pocket and stalked off down the hallway.
    Zill looked at Zack and shook her head. “He’s competitive. And he’s right. We need to win. You don’t want to lose. Losing is, like, really bad.”
    Zack wondered just how bad.
    “What happens when you lose?”
    “You get put back in that room with just the cot and nothing to do but think. It’s awful.”
    Zack could understand that. Just those few hours he had spent in that cell were enough. He couldn’t imagine being put back there again.
    Jenai wandered back into the room, wiping wetness from her cheeks. Cass put her arms around her and hugged her. The African-American boy and Asian girl did the same, and then stared at Zack with curious looks.
    Zill noticed the inquisitive stare-down. “Guess I should introduce the rest of us to you. Brock is the black guy. Pretty handy with a weapon. He’s not a bad dude.”
    Brock held out his hand and Zack shook it, wincing as his fingers closed around his like a vice.
    “This is Mizuki. She’s a tough chica, can fight just as good as Harness.”
    Mizuki’s handshake was even stronger than Brock’s, but she had a soft glint in her eye. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you have to get yourself together,” she said in a perfect American accent. “Who knows what the ‘liens will throw at us tomorrow?”
    Zack was confused.
    “’Liens?”
    “Aliens,” Mizuki said. The others laughed.
    “We don’t know they are aliens.” Brock said.
    “Then how do you explain what’s been going on, the changing climates,” Mizuki said with a firm, calm voice. “The changing accommodations?”
    “We’re dead.” Brock answered, bluntly.
    Zill rolled her eyes. “And you’ve met Cass and, well, you sorta met Jenai.”
    Harness sauntered into the room, tightening his belt. “And me. Don’t forget me. Let’s have a little powwow, get oriented with the nerd.”
    They sat in a circle on the plush couch and chairs and told stories of their young lives before they ended up here.
    Harness was a classic jock, the star of his high school football team in New York. He was also the star on his basketball and baseball teams and won two state javelin titles with throws in excess of two-hundred feet. He got poor grades, but not because he was dumb, but because he didn’t apply himself to the material.
    Zack thought him cliché.
    Mizuki lived in the United States all her life, her parents moving to San Francisco from Japan when she was just in her mother’s womb. She, too, was all too stereotypical for Zack. An honor student. Captain of the debate team and blunt in her opinions almost to a fault.
    Cass was London born and raised and walled up inside. It was the broken home, Zack, thought. Or maybe it was just because she was British.
    Jenai was quite a bit like Zack: A loner, average in almost every way. She was short—maybe five-foot-one and very dainty. Got good grades, but wasn’t exceptional in anything.
    And then there was Brock, who had the typical back story of a young black man trying to rise out of the projects and make something out of his life. He was often overlooked and underestimated, but he was well-spoken, smart and capable. He could have fallen into gang life growing up in the bad part of Detroit—Zack wondered if there was a good part—but he resisted, ignoring peer pressure.
    His older brother was gunned down in a gang fight when Brock was just a boy and he swore to not follow the same path.
    Zack found all of their stories contrived and too perfect. It was as if they were