Hide(19)

Six more days. Six more days is nothing.

When she finally comes out, ten of the competitors are back. Everyone is sunburned, sweaty, bug-bitten, and cranky. Except Brandon, of course.

“That was wild!” he says, carrying a full plate back to his cot. “I don’t think I’ve held still for that long in my whole life. I found this weird old roller coaster, shaped like a circle—or a cylinder, I guess? Is that a 3D circle? No, that’s a sphere. Anyway, it goes down in a ring around and around and around the frame. Called the Cyclone. Pretty cool! It seemed a little obvious, but how could I pass that up? So I climbed the frame—I thought for sure it was going to break—and set up shop near the top. Man. I wish I could have ridden it down at the end of the day. How great would it be if everything was still running?”

Mack wants to tell him that he shouldn’t share information. But he’s happy and unconcerned, so why bother?

He sees her eyeing a cookie and passes it to her without being asked. “Did you look for the book? I don’t know how anyone could find it out there. Are you going to hide in the same place tomorrow, or pick a new spot?”

Ava plops down on the end of Mack’s cot. She’s sweat-stained and dirty and frankly glorious, as refreshing to see as the water was to drink. “I don’t think it matters, strategically,” Ava says. “This place has to be a mile, mile and a half across at least. I walked the perimeter fence to get back here. It’s the only cleared-out space. Honestly, I’ll be amazed if they found anyone at all. It’s not like there’s a limited number of places to check and they can just cross them off.”

Brandon hands his last cookie to Ava. “I think I’ll find somewhere new tomorrow, anyway. Make it more exciting!”

She grins. “Yeah, fourteen hours of silence and stillness. Loads of ways to make that exciting. I’m glad you two aren’t out yet, though.”

Mack fights against the instinctive relief and happiness she felt when the other woman returned. Ava’s serious competition. Mack should be disappointed she’s still in. She leans away from the other woman and takes stock of who remains.

The writer, clutching his notebook and looking exhausted. Everyone who returns eyes him for a moment until they realize it’s just his notebook, not whatever bonus book Linda mentioned.

LeGrand, already off in his corner.

The sad-eyed woman—Ruby? Rosiee? Maybe Mack should learn their names now that people are going to start getting out—toying with her silver jewelry and sporting a bandage on her arm.

Jaden and beautiful Ava, back in secret conversation.

The toothpaste commercial, talking with a chipper Linda. “Can we get more information on that book?” she asks.

Linda laughs. “No, no. Just keep an eye out for it.”

“What about the bonus?” Ava shouts.

“You’ll know it when you get it!”

“Fuck that, then,” Ava mutters dismissively. Mack feels the same, and suspects most of the others do, too. What’s the point in looking for a bonus with no hint as to what the bonus is?

The prank girl, so sunburned she’s almost purple, winces into camp. “Has anyone seen Logan?” she asks, holding a cold water bottle against her face. The clipboard guy reappears from the bathroom, adding himself to the lineup. Mack honestly can’t think of which one Logan was, but probably the bland-looking dude in the backward baseball cap always sitting next to the prank girl. Either him or the slouchy guy with the beanie and the black fingernails, but Mack can’t imagine the prank girl worrying about him. The only other person missing is the intern who went into the park in pumps and a pantsuit. No surprise there.

“No Logan, no Isabella. No Atrius.” Ava frowns thoughtfully. “Hey, Linda! Who’s out?”

Linda doesn’t hesitate. “Logan and Isabella.”

“Who’s Isabella?” Brandon asks, then grimaces in embarrassment over not being able to remember her.

Ava answers. “Blazer. Looked like she was going to a job interview instead of playing hide-and-go-seek in a creepy-ass rust jungle.”

“I was going to make an app with Logan,” the prank girl says. She sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. “When are they coming to say goodbye?”

“They’re gone, Sydney,” Linda says.

“Wait, really?” Beautiful Ava is aghast. “No goodbyes? No ceremony, or interview?”

“They were found. They’re out. Two per day, that’s how the game works.”

Mack frowns. They hadn’t been told that detail before. It seems important. Why, if only two people per day get out, did they have to keep hiding if two had already been found?

Ava seems to be wondering the same thing. She opens her mouth, but Linda neatly cuts her off by emphatically clapping her hands together once. “Now, if you need anything, leave a note on the table. An alarm will give you your thirty-minute warning in the morning. I’ll see you—” She pauses, then tries to smile. Mack wonders if she’s sad over Isabella getting out, since they might have bonded over an affinity for pantsuits. “I’ll see most of you tomorrow night. Sleep well.”

With a roar of her ATV, Linda disappears into the night.

“Fuck, that’s cold,” Jaden says.

“Maybe it’s like The Bachelor, and you only get goodbyes if you make it further so the audience is invested in you,” the toothpaste commercial says.