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JAYDE WAS THE SECOND PERSON I SAW after I recognised Rubie. The portal had taken us to another ship, but something inside me felt as though we were far from Second Earth and even farther from Venus.
The players that had made it through the previous game waited in a small holding bay. Sapphire stood with Neon and two female players I didn’t know the names of, and Jayde was with Jaaspar. Anyma sat by herself on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees and her head buried in them.
Jayde glanced around at everyone, quickly identifying each player. Jaaspar stared at me, but I didn’t want to meet his eyes. I didn’t want to face the music. There was no easy way to tell them that our alliance was falling apart; that Thebe had died.
“Thebe?” Jayde asked me quietly.
I shook my head and creased my mouth as wrinkles lined my forehead. My throat tightened, and tears began to stream down my face. Jayde threw her arms around my slim body and squeezed tightly. Jaaspar joined in for the group hug, but it only made it harder to take in deep breaths.
“I tried to save her,” I cried into Jayde’s shoulder.
“It’s alright,” Jaaspar’s voice cracked near my ear. “Thebe would want us to win.”
“Then we do it for Thebe,” Jayde said as she wiped a single tear off her cheek.
Jayde was strong, and she rarely showed any emotion. I had never seen her cry; she was built different, made of stone perhaps. Thebe’s death didn’t trigger any more tears or cries from Jayde, but I could see her fighting to keep her composure.
“We do it for Thebe,” I repeated as we let go of each other, and I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“I see Kuiper got what he deserved,” Sapphire said.
I nodded.
“He killed Cobalt,” she continued.
“I know. I saw,” I said.
“Karma’s a bitch,” Jaaspar said.
“No,” Jayde said seriously. “Karma is my best friend.” She was trying to lighten the mood, but our grief was too heavy.
“Kuiper didn’t have to kill Cobalt,” Jaaspar began. Everyone’s attention was on him. “We can all make it out of these games alive; nobody has to die from here on out. If we all work together, we can all win the Exogames.”
“That’s a wonderful speech,” a female player said sarcastically as she clapped.
“Sol, he’s right,” Sapphire said.
“Alright, time is up for quick reunions.” Rubie took back control of the room.
She stood, like before, in the centre of the holding bay and congratulated us on making it through the second game. She held a plain mesh bag open in front of her.
“As Moirai mentioned prior to the commencement of the second game, some players will receive an advantage in the third game. However, one player will receive a disadvantage.”
My heart sank straight to the very bottom of my stomach. Nobody had said anything about a disadvantage in the Exogames, and now wasn’t the best time to find out about it. We had all just been through literal hell and back to win our freedom. A disadvantage was never on the cards.
“The rules for this game are simple,” Rubie continued, this time not reading the instructions from her tablet. “Game three, light the way. Players, your suits are not only designed for the heat; they are also designed for the cold. Swim through the depths of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, and try to find your way out of the maze. But be warned, the maze is dark, and your suits will not be waterproof forever. Three players consumed nanobots following the first game and have now been equipped with a source of light. Use your players wisely,” she concluded.
“How much time do we get to complete this task?” Sol asked.
“That is all up to you,” she answered. “The suits will begin to dissolve once the game has begun. My advice? Swim quickly.”
I really didn’t want to know the answer to Sol’s question. The more Rubie spoke, the more difficult this next game seemed, and it hadn’t even begun yet.
“Is this game underwater?” Jaaspar asked nervously.
Oh no. Jaaspar was terrified of being submerged in water. It was an absolute truth that was never going to change.
“Can’t breathe, won’t be able to breathe, can’t breathe,” he muttered uncontrollably under his breath and his hands shuddered.
“Each of you will take an aqua shield from this bag and fasten it to your suit. One of them is faulty. The rest will allow you to breathe underwater,” Rubie said as she looked directly at me to choose first.
I took a step forward but hesitated to walk all the way to her. She rotated the bag towards me and nodded for me to reach in. Jayde nudged me gently from behind to hurry the process, but it just made me more nervous. I reached my hand into the bag, not knowing what I would touch, and pulled out a finger-sized metal latch that fitted perfectly over the suit’s white button between my collarbones.
Rubie leaned closer to me and whispered into my ear so quietly that nobody else could hear her, “Two rights, two lefts, straight ahead, then right again.”
Jaaspar was next, followed by Jayde and the rest of the players. Sapphire and the last female player I didn’t know the name of were last to take their aqua shields.
“Good luck, players,” Rubie announced as she exited to another room through the airtight door hidden in the corner.
The ceiling opened slowly, and heavy water rushed in and filled the entire holding bay to the brim. It was freezing cold, nothing like the warm shower water in our luxury player dorms back on Second Earth.
I covered my face with my arms to stop the water from splashing into my eyes, but the aqua shield had activated, creating a force field around my head to keep the water out and the oxygen in. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t sure if they were actually open because all that surrounded me was darkness. It was pitch black left, right and centre.
“Can anyone hear me?” I heard a voice ask, but I wasn’t sure where it came from.
“Loud and clear,” someone else said.
“Who said that?” I asked, thinking I was going crazy.
“It was me. Sapphire,” she answered.
“Testing, testing, one, two,” I said aloud.
“We can hear you, Fate,” Sapphire responded.
It took a second for me to realise that our suits were equipped with radios to communicate with each other. At least the game makers didn’t want us to lose each other in the dark. They had thought of everything, but the cruel part about it was that we would hear each other’s deaths.
“Jaaspar, are you okay?” The whole time Rubie was explaining the rules, I thought about him. He would have been too distracted by his panicked thoughts to pay any attention to her.
“No,” he said simply as he hyperventilated loudly.
“Breath. Breathe slowly,” I commanded, and I performed breathing exercises with him.
“So, who has the advantage?” Jayde asked.
Three yellow lights gradually emerged from the darkness like tiny glowing orbs that lit up the surrounding water. The lights spread out and formed the shapes of three humans.
“What’s happening to me?” Neon shrieked.
“You must have the advantage in this game,” I said excitedly. It was the first time I was pleased with what Neon said.
“Me too,” Sol and Sapphire said in unison.
“This is the second advantage you’ve had, Sapphire,” Neon scoffed.
“Hey, I didn’t ask for any advantage, but I’ll take it. I got a whole bunch of players out of the first game. I can be useful in this one, too,” she responded.
Their entire bodies glowed as if they had consumed a small slice of the sun which was now burning deep under their skin — harmlessly, of course, and blindingly bright.
Sapphire led the way out of the holding bay. It was part of a small spaceship I had never seen before. Perhaps it was a submarine of sorts; my department had never dealt with submersible ships.
The water was colder outside the holding bay, and I shivered uncontrollably for a moment. It was pitch black beneath us, but above us was what looked like a stone ceiling that seamlessly connected to rock walls on the sides. The hovering cameras followed our every movement, without any flashlights this time.
“Who has the faulty aqua shield?” Jaaspar asked as he trod towards me. His eyes glinted with worry.
“I don’t know. Maybe the game makers wanted us to think one of them was faulty to have us on edge,” I answered as I grabbed his hand in case he had the disadvantage.
“Guys,” Jayde said slowly.
Neon, who had been glowing previously, flickered like a broken light bulb — on, off, on, off. His gasps for air were heard through the speaker as gushing water filled his throat, and his screams bubbled out. We watched, horrified, as his body sank below the point where his light could reach us.
“Oh, God,” I said as I gulped. “One of the aqua shields was indeed faulty.”
“Shit, now there’s only two of us with the advantage. Only two of us can lead the way through,” Sol said, seeming annoyed that she had more responsibility on her shoulders.
When we realised that below us was an endless abyss waiting to swallow us, we trod the water as if our lives depended on it; because they did.
“Look at this place. How are we going to find a way out?” the only player whose name I didn’t know asked.
“No idea, Ocean,” Jayde answered.
“It seems impossible,” Anyma said.
“I might know a way,” Jaaspar began, then paused for too long.
“Tell us,” Sol demanded, without understanding that he needed a minute to calm down.
“I read about this once,” he continued. “There is a way to get out of a maze, but it won’t always work.”
“We can always try,” I encouraged.
“If you keep your hand on the wall, either right or left, it will lead you to the exit,” he concluded.
“That could take hours or even days. We don’t know how big this maze is,” Ocean complained. “We don’t have time. Our suits are dissolving as we speak.”
“It’s worth trying,” Jayde said. “We don’t know how long we have to complete this game, so we might as well start figuring a way out. If nobody else has any solutions, we’re going with Jaaspar’s idea.”
We lined up against the wall on our left side with Sol at the front and Sapphire at the back to spread out the light. The wall was cold, and I felt it through the suit.
“What is the maze made from?” Ocean asked.
“I think it’s just stone,” I said.
Sapphire looked at the wall closely. “Ice,” she answered. “It’s made of ice.”
“That makes more sense,” I responded. “That’s right, Enceladus is covered entirely in ice.”
Forty years ago, my department had studied all the moons of Saturn. They researched the most viable moons to resettle the human population because they were unsure if planet Earth would be sustainable again. That was around the time we sent an expedition crew to Titan and lost everybody on board. Never again did Second Earth attempt another expedition. It was too risky to begin with.
The ice shook slightly, and we could hear a low rumble, but it was nowhere near as vigorous as Venus’ quakes and I hoped it wouldn’t be as detrimental either; but we were already made aware that the games were more difficult the further we progressed. Venus would have been nothing compared to Enceladus.
“What was that?” Jayde asked.
“Is water the only thing your down here, Fate?” Jaaspar worriedly asked as he held onto Jayde.
“I’m not sure,” I answered, not knowing why he asked me in the first place.
“I don’t want to face any monsters. Not now, not ever,” Sol announced as she began leading us through the maze.
We turned at every left bend, never taking the path on our right, unsure if we were any closer to the exit. It felt like we were moving further away from it. At this point, my legs ached and almost detached themselves from my body from all the swimming. I was sure we all felt it. But none of us wanted to end up like Neon — in the deep dark depths of Enceladus. His body was certainly compressed from the pressure so far down, shrivelling like a thin piece of spaghetti.
The maze rumbled again, and crashing noises grew louder.
“Watch out!” Sol yelled.
We pushed away from the wall as an enormous chunk of ice crashed between us. The light from in front of me went out as Sol disappeared on the other side of the new wall.
Sapphire, who was now the only one providing light, called us to join together. Jaaspar, Jayde, Sapphire and I were the only ones left. Ocean, Sol and Anyma were either dead or trapped on the other side.
“Sol,” Sapphire called.
There was a moment of silence, complete silence. Nobody breathed until we knew what had happened.
“Are they dead?” Jaaspar asked.
“We’re alright, guys,” Sol panted. “We’re alright.”
“Same here,” I said in relief.
“We all have to get out of this maze,” Anyma said.
“There’s no way out,” I responded.
“Jaaspar’s method won’t work anymore,” Sapphire said. “The maze just changed on us.”
“There has to be another way we can get out of this maze,” Jaaspar said as his breaths became increasingly irregular.
“We have to split up,” I suggested.
The others gasped.
“No, it’s alright.” I tried to calm them down. “You have a light on the other side. Luckily, nobody was trapped without light. We’re basically already split up. If we follow the paths, I’m sure we can find the way out.”
“I’m not sure it’s a gamble I’m willing to take,” Sol said.
“I agree. We don’t know how far the exit is or if we’ll even be going the right way,” Ocean sounded as though she was beginning to panic as well.
“Have any of you got a better solution?” Jaaspar asked.
He gave them a few seconds to answer, but they were speechless.
“Exactly,” Jaaspar said with enough confidence to mask his inner fear. “We use Fate’s method of finding a way out. You can choose to do whatever you want, but we’re not going to die here.”
I nodded to Jaaspar and smiled. He smiled back, and it was the first time he actually smiled with his teeth. Jayde chuckled with Sapphire because nobody else had stood up to Sol like that.
Sapphire explained to us that she and Sol were cousins and that at family gatherings, Sol would act as if she owned the place. In reality, Sapphire was two years older than her cousin.
“She’s only twenty-three and acts as if she’s the older one,” Sapphire scoffed.
“Hey, I heard that,” Sol said.
Even though my group was moving farther away from theirs, our radios still connected through the thick walls of ice and freezing cold water.
Sapphire led us lower, sinking below the rest of us, and I assumed it was because her muscles could no longer tread the water efficiently, but it was because she saw something the rest of us didn’t.
“There’s a path we can walk on,” she said. “Hey, Sol, look for a physical path to walk on. It might lead you to the exit.”
“Yeah, we found one a few minutes ago,” she responded.
“Thank you for telling us, greatly appreciated,” Sapphire said sarcastically.
My legs collapsed when I made contact with the ground, and I just sat on the cold ice floor for a moment to regain my strength. Jayde sat beside me while Sapphire and Jaaspar leaned against the wall.
The new path was a cave system entirely made of ice. It was big enough for all of us to fit, but we were squished together a bit too much. We travelled in one direct line with Sapphire at the front to guide the way. Jayde stayed at the back, and Jaaspar and I were in the middle.
The maze rumbled and crashed constantly, and the water whooshed around us with every noise. Whenever there was a crashing sound, a small current pulled us forward, and there was no warning when it came.
“I guess there are no monsters,” Jaaspar said, laughing.
“OCEAN!” Sol shrieked at the top of her lungs, catching us off guard.
None of us could do anything because they were nowhere near us. Sol’s deafening screams filled our ears, and I felt goosebumps rising on my skin.
“Sol, calm down,” Jaaspar said. “What happened?”
“It’s Ocean,” she answered, panting between words. “She’s trapped. An ice wall split us up.”
“Ocean?” Jaaspar asked. “Can you hear us?”
“It’s dark,” she whispered. “And cold.”
“I can’t see a way to get to you,” Sol said before she let out a scream of frustration.
“Go without me. I enjoyed playing the Exogames with you, with you all,” Ocean said.
“Sol, you’ll have to keep moving,” Jaaspar said. “We don’t know how much time is left, and we don’t know where the exit is.”
“Fate, it’s only Sol and me on this side, and I don’t know where to go,” Anyma said.
“Where do we go from here?” Jayde asked.
“Just keep moving, and eventually, we should find a way out,” I answered.
Sapphire continued leading us through the maze, but the path was one direct line, continuously straight. There were no turns, left or right. Eventually, the grey ice walls transitioned to a pristine light blue, although, the soft amber glow from Sapphire’s body tinted the colour slightly. Further ahead, we reached a fork in the path. There was one opening on the left and another on the right. Our hovering cameras looked down both paths, which didn’t help in choosing the correct one.
“Which way do you think we should go?” Sapphire asked.
Something deep inside of me tugged towards the path on the right.
“I think we should go left,” Jayde suggested.
“Me too,” Jaaspar agreed.
Just before Sapphire could enter the path on the left, I shouted a bit too aggressively for her to stop.
“Wait!” I said as Jaaspar and Sapphire looked at me with haughty eyes. “I think the path on the right is the correct one.”
“How do you know for sure?” Sapphire asked with genuine interest, but her delivery was slightly harsh, and she definitely realised because she tried to pull back her words as they came out of her mouth.
“I can’t be certain. It’s a feeling I can’t really explain. Just... trust me. I feel that it’s the right path,” I answered.
“Alright then. There’s no way of knowing for sure, but hey, anything is possible,” Jaaspar said.
The water in the new path was ever so slightly warmer.
“What do you think the exit looks like?” Sapphire asked.
“I’m assuming it’ll be the same as the exits in the previous two games,” Jayde said. “Another space bridge portal to take us out of here.”
The portals generated quite a bit of heat. So if the water was warming up, it was a sign that we were getting closer to reaching the end. My instincts fired up pretty well, but they were usually incorrect. This time though, I was certain I was right.
We stumbled on another fork, this time with three paths to choose from.
“Now, look.” Sapphire waved her arm. “Which one do we go through?”
I tapped my chest with my finger as I tried to think of which direction to follow; the answer formed in my brain like a beam of light wanting to poke through the cracks.
“The one on the right,” I said eagerly.
Sapphire guided us through the path on the right, and thankfully, my intuition was correct again. The water was warmer than before. I realised why I knew which paths to take. When we chose our aqua shields, Rubie had whispered something in my ear. I think it was the path out of the maze. But I didn’t want to tell the others in case there would be detrimental consequences for Rubie.
“Swim faster,” I encouraged everyone. “I know the way out of here.”
“How do you know that?” Sapphire asked.
“The warmer paths will lead us to the portal,” I told them. “Sol, if you can hear me, find the paths where the water is warmer. The portal generates heat.”
“Thanks, Fate. I’ll find the way out. I hope you’re right,” she responded between breaths.
The maze growled again, and a much larger current pulled us backwards. A thick wall of ice crashed down and cut off the path behind us just after Jayde had pushed me out of its way.
“Phew, that was close,” I said in relief.
Jaaspar placed his palm on the new ice wall and felt all around it for some kind of opening. “Jayde!” he screamed in a panic and his entire body trembled as if he was having a seizure, but he was still in control of his muscles.
“Jayde! Oh no,” I said in shock as I rushed to the wall, struggling to get there. “No, no!”
“Jayde, we are going to get you out,” Jaaspar said.
I knew he was lying. It was impossible to find a way out of the maze in complete darkness.
“There’s no way out,” Jayde whispered in disappointment. “I’m blocked on both sides.”
“We have to try,” Jaaspar responded as his voice cracked.
“Good luck, you two. I know you can make it out of here alive and win the Exogames. I know it,” Jayde said.
“You’ll die here, Jayde,” I cried.
“I know. There’s no other choice. This is what I signed up for. I knew the consequences.”
“Jayde, please,” Jaaspar begged. “We have to try to get you out. You’ll die alone,” he sobbed.
“I’m going to deactivate my aqua shield now,” Jayde said quietly. “Please go. Get out of here. I’m grateful to have met you both, honestly. Thank you.”
“No, Jayde, please,” I said, choking between sobs.
Jayde’s silent cries were muffled by the rushing water that filled her lungs as she deactivated her aqua shield. My throat tightened, and tears flooded my eyes. Jaaspar sobbed uncontrollably. Sapphire pulled both of us away from the ice wall. I tried to resist her tugs, but I was too weak. It should have been me on the other side of that wall. Jayde had pushed me out of the way. I was meant to die, not her.
“Pull yourselves together,” Sapphire said. “We have to keep swimming.”
I knew we had to make it out of this maze, for Jayde at least. My heart was ripped out of my chest, and Jaaspar’s soul was most likely torn in half. Jayde never had the opportunity to express her feelings towards Jaaspar, and I knew she wanted to.
We came across another two forks in the path, and each time, we took the left opening where the water was warmer. My disoriented brain occasionally mixed up which way we were going, and I wasn’t even sure if the temperature was warmer or colder than before.
“Fate, which way now?” Sapphire asked.
“What?” I responded because I wasn’t paying attention to her words. I was too disoriented to concentrate on the game.
“The path. Which path do we take?”
“Um.” I tried to recall Rubie’s words. We had taken two rights and two lefts. “The middle one, straight ahead.”
“Fate, I hope you’re correct.”
I hoped I was correct as well. Otherwise, the game makers would lose more players, and the Exogames would end here with us unless Sol and Anyma made it out safely. We hadn’t heard from the others in a while, so Sapphire checked in to make sure they were alright.
“Sol, how are you tracking along?” she asked.
“Following Fate’s instructions to take the warmer paths. I hope it’s getting me closer to the portal,” Sol answered.
“Alright, keep us updated if you get stuck.”
“Hey, Fate and Jaaspar,” Sol said softly. “I’m sorry about Jayde. She really cared for you two.”
“Thanks, Sol,” Jaaspar said.
“Jaaspar, there’s something you should know,” I said as I grabbed his arm.
I paused and considered if Jayde would have wanted me to tell him, but she was no longer here, and I felt that Jaaspar needed to know.
“Back in game one, when Jayde and I were talking about you,” I continued as he paid closer attention to my words, “Jayde told me how she felt about you.”
“What do you mean?” His voice quivered.
“She cared about you, Jaaspar. She wanted to be more than friends with you.” I let him soak in my words.
“I liked her too,” he whispered, almost unable to get the words out.
That was the sad thing about love; sometimes, it hurt more to keep it a secret. Now Jayde was dead, and she would never know Jaaspar felt the same way about her.
We stopped in front of a much larger fork in our path, the largest we had come across. Five different openings waited for us to choose a path. The last direction Rubie had told me was the path on the right. But there were two options to choose from.
“This one’s hard,” I said.
I shook my head to refocus my thoughts. Middle right or furthest right? There was only one other way to find out.
“Sapphire, we take the path on the furthest right, and if there is no temperature change, then it’s the middle right,” I said.
She agreed that it was the best possible plan to find a way out quickly, so we took the path on the far right and swam for a few minutes. There was no change in temperature, but before we could turn back around, a giant ice wall crashed down and blocked our path back to the main fork. Thankfully, nobody was trapped this time.
“Oh no, what do we do now?” Sapphire said with a mix of frustration and fear.
“I guess we keep swimming forward and hope there will be a way out from here,” I said.
We followed the path all the way around until it spat us out into the open space to choose another path. It was as if the maze had given us a second chance. We took the path on the middle right this time, and as predicted, the water was warmer. Sapphire wasn’t the only source of light anymore. The walls glowed a bright white, and the further along we swam, the brighter it glowed.
“We’re at the homestretch,” Jaaspar said in excitement.
We exited the path into a large opening where the triangular portal rotated slowly in the centre of the abyss. There were multiple openings in the walls, which suggested that there were multiple paths to take from where we began the game. On the opposite side of the portal, an amber glow emerged from an opening. It was Sol who swam out to us, with Anyma following close behind.
“You made it,” Sapphire said. “I’m so happy to see you alive.”
“Let’s get out of this nightmare right now,” Sol said as she made her way towards the portal.
“Fate, I’m so glad you made it,” Anyma said.
“There should have been more players here,” I responded.
We swam through the portal and landed safely on the other side, where Second Earth greeted us, almost as equals. Our suits dried up quickly, and Moirai entered the holding bay with his hands behind his back and head held high. I didn’t know what his natural posture looked like, but I was sure this wasn’t it.
I looked over to Jaaspar, who shrugged his shoulders and gave me a look of bewilderment. Moirai cleared his throat three times and shook his head at all of us. None of us wanted to get up because by the look on Moirai’s face, we would have faced severe consequences if we moved; consequences I was certain we were about to face regardless of our actions.