Michelle Maddox - Countdown

Colin had a crush on me. Fortunately he'd never acted on it, but it was always there, like an unignorable presence in the room with us. And I'll admit it, I took it as a compliment. It was nice to feel wanted. I was banking on that emotion to make him want to help us. To help me. But the last thing I wanted to do was to put him in danger.

And that was exactly what I was doing by even talking to him.

"Where do you want to go?" He closed up his laptop and stood up from the table.

"You know what?" I swallowed and shook my head. "Never mind."

He moved a step toward me. "No, Kira, you look way stressed. If I can do anything I will. Just tell me what's wrong."

I took a step back and felt Rogan behind me. 'This was a mistake."

He eyed Rogan with a mix of fear and hate. "Is it him? Is he forcing you to do something? I can help you. You just have to come with me."

Rogan snorted. "You think you can save her from me?"

"If I have to."

"Brave kid."

"I'm not a kid," he snapped, and then looked at me again. "Is he hurting you?"

I shook my head. "No … Rogan and me … we're together."

"Together?"

I nodded. "I just wanted you to know so you … so you stop bothering me."

He put a hand to his chest. "I'm bothering you?"

"Just leave me alone, Colin."

He blinked. "He's a fucking murderer, Kira. Don't you know that?"

I gave him a blank look and turned my back to him. "Maybe I don't care."

"Kira-"

"Don't follow us, kid," Rogan said. "Or you'll regret it. Trust me on that."

I didn't look back. I left the food court with Rogan at my side. I never should have gone there in the first place. Now Colin must hate me. I didn't want to hurt him. He had nothing to do with the mess I'd gotten myself into.

Tears slid down my cheeks, and I pushed them away before Rogan could see that I was crying.

Two men in security uniforms approached us.

"We're going to have to ask you to leave the premises," one said firmly. He had a hand on the gun at his side. "Now."

An almost-smile twitched on Rogan's lips. "My, how times have changed. How do you know I wasn't about to do some shopping with my gold card?"

One of the guards eyed Rogan's dirty clothes and the bloodstain on his shoulder and then glanced at me. "Is this vagrant bothering you, miss?"

They didn't seem to recognize Rogan like Colin had.

Tell them! my mind screamed. Tell them everything. They can help you.

I saw a flash of silver out of the corner of my eye. The camera.

"The level's already begun, hasn't it?" I asked Rogan quietly.

"I think so."

I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that if I told the security guards what was going on, I would be severely and painfully punished. And the guards themselves would probably not walk out of there alive.

I knew it.

I was too scared to risk it. The people running The Countdown seemed to know absolutely everything.

"He's with me, actually," I said instead. The words felt thick and unnatural leaving my mouth.

'Then you'll both have to go." The other guard grabbed my arm.

I wrenched away from him. "Fine. We'll go."

I didn't say anything else as we cleared the food court and headed down a mostly abandoned hallway toward the exit. I felt like crying again, but I forced the tears back. Crying wouldn't solve a damn thing.

"What are they doing to us?" I asked after a moment, mostly to myself. "How would anyone find this entertaining?"

"Some people are sick," Rogan said.

"Why did they even put us here in the mall? Just to mess with our minds?"

I felt Rogan's arm tighten around my waist then, and it was a strange feeling. Like he was trying to comfort me. Weird. As if he realized what he'd just done he pulled away from me.

"Do you remember what Jonathan told us this level is all about?" he asked.

I tried to think back through the thick cloud of memories. "The accountant."

He nodded. 'Take a look."

I looked in the direction he pointed to see the man who had been on the holoscreen. I think his name was Bernard Jones-I recognized his balding head and bland features. He emerged from an electronics shop with a bag of purchases, then turned left and started walking toward the same exit we were headed for.

I heard the whir as a camera moved behind us. It was moving behind things to stay hidden. No one even gave it a second glance.

Rogan's attention was fixed on the man. "We've got to follow him."

"He's got a wife. And a kid."

Rogan looked at me. "And we can't let him leave our sight."

"There are ten minutes remaining in this level of The Countdown."

I turned to meet Rogan's gaze.

"You know what we're supposed to do," he said. "And we have ten minutes to do it."

To successfully complete Level Three you are required to assassinate him, Jonathan's instructions echoed in my mind.

I shook my head. "No. It's not going to happen."

"Do you want us to die?" Rogan asked.

I blinked at him. "I don't want us to die. But I also don't want to kill a man I've never met before. Somebody who doesn't deserve it or even see it coming. There's no way."

"Come on." He grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him. "We can't let him get away."

"You can't kill him."

He moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. "It's him or us, sweetheart."

"I don't care."

"We'll see if you're still thinking that way in a few minutes."

"I'm not capable of murder. I'm not like you."

Rogan let go of my hand, but kept walking. He didn't look at me. "You don't know what I'm capable of. You don't know me."

"I don't want to know you." I bit the cruel words off. They sounded worse than I wanted them to.

That earned me a look. "We're running out of choices. Have you got that through your pretty head? There are no choices. We do what they tell us to or we die."

"Maybe I don't care. My family was murdered. I'd never do that to another person's family. I'd rather die first."

"I'm not in the mood to argue with you, Kira. We don't have the time."

I watched as Bernard Jones exited the mall through the swinging doors.

"So you're going to follow him and then what?"

"And then I'm going to kill him." He raised an eyebrow. "But then again, I am a murderer, right?"

"So it's that simple for you?"

His fists clenched at his sides. "You're acting as if I have a choice."

"There's always a choice."

"Not for me," he said grimly. "Not anymore."

And with that he stalked out of the entrance to follow his prey. I raced to keep up with him.

Kill or be killed.

There had to be another way. And if there was, I needed to figure it out. Fast.

Bernard Jones walked down the sidewalk outside of the mall, completely oblivious to the fact that he was being followed.

"Where'd the camera go?" I looked around the surrounding area, gray and bland, and noticed that we were all alone again.

"It's around, I'm sure."

"You seem awfully sure about a lot in this game."

He raised a dark eyebrow. "Do I?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yeah. You do. And I'm going to figure out what your real story is, Rogan. Don't think I won't."

He snorted at that. "Ah, so you're actually an intrepid reporter at heart, are you? Going to get to the truth behind the man? Find out what makes me tick, other than the countdown in my head?"

"Don't mock me."

"But you make it so easy." He gave me a sideways glance. "Do you give all the men in your life such a hard time?"

"There are no men in my life."

"What about your boyfriend, Colin?"

I made a face. "He's not my boyfriend."

"And what the announcer said about you using your sexuality to get whatever you want?" His gaze slid down the length of me.