DAY 188, 1:13 P.M.

Aboard Genesis 11

Vandemeer doesn’t come down too hard on me. Instead, he makes me do yoga. I inhale, exhale, stretch, roll shoulders, and find the anger fading to the distant corners of my brain.

“I have to go see him,” I say when we’re finished.

“Bilal?” Vandemeer asks.

“When I was down there, I thought everyone abandoned me. I won’t let him feel that way.”

“Your wound was directly caused by nyxia. It’s standard protocol to not allow visitors in those situations. Bilal’s injury happened naturally. You’ll be allowed to visit him, all right? I’ll take you down after the Rabbit Room,” Vandemeer offers. “How does that sound?”

“Sounds like shit.” Points before people, that’s what Babel’s teaching us. That’s what I used to think before Kaya. “Sounds like I care more about my score than I do about my friend.”

“Think about it, Emmett,” Vandemeer replies impatiently. “He’s going into surgery right now. He won’t be able to see you and you won’t be able to see him. Not until tonight. No sense in you wasting an opportunity to keep fighting. You’ve worked too hard.”

I grind my teeth together. He’s right. Still makes me feel like a lurch, though.

“Are they still at lunch?”

“They’re due in the Rabbit Room,” he says. “I’ll take you down.”

All I can see in my head is Bilal’s bone jutting into the open air. As we walk, Vandemeer tries to remind me of the climates we studied earlier. I’m too distracted for that, though.

I ask about Bilal instead. “How long will it take him to recover?”

Vandemeer grimaces. “Earthside it’d take him a year.”

“But here?” I ask. “It wasn’t a nyxian injury like mine.”

“No, it wasn’t. Here it will be much faster. Nyxian pins and plates. Advanced blood treatment and muscle rebuilding. He’ll be back in a month.”

“That’s an eternity.”

Vandemeer stops me in front of the Rabbit Room. “I know you like him. He’s a good kid with a good heart. But there’s only so many more spots left for the trip to Eden. We’ve been working hard to make sure one of those spots goes to you. No letting up, all right?”

I give him a guilty nod and join my team. With Bilal in the med unit, the teams are even for once. Not that it matters. The past few months, our team has ruled the Rabbit Room like tyrants. Another way to honor Kaya’s memory. We use her strategies and we never lose.

Breaking the illusion that we were in separate rooms running separate races changed everything. Now the tennis net has to be guarded. Now the groups have to figure out who to send over to the other side. Defoe’s stopped having digital wolves chase us. We’re the wolves now.

A glance shows Longwei’s still feeling dizzy. I’m surprised he’s here at all. I volunteer to cross over to their side. It’s always better to be aggressive with a wounded creature. Jaime and Isadora will guard the front end of our border and Azima is chosen to run on our safe wing. Defoe stands on his platform like an overlord. With a flick, the room kicks to life.

One of the keys now is deception. If the other team sees a shield, they assume you’re on border patrol. If they see long poles, they’ll know you’re trying to cross over into their territory. I manipulate my nyxian rings into a shield and fall in line with Jaime and Isadora. Three shields makes us look like we’re turtling. All defense with hopes of having Azima outrun their runners.

Our eyes have to flicker from the screen to the other team, to the screen and back again. It sharpens the senses when you have to fear everything around you. We watch Katsu and Roathy drift over to the border. They run in stride with us, just a few feet away, with only the mesh net separating us from them. Both have their nyxia formed into standard padded shields.

Katsu shouts, “Look at these lurches! They don’t stand a chance.”

“We’d be more scared,” I shout back, “if you could actually jump over the net, Katsu.”

He laughs loudly. Our attention is forced forward, though, by low-hanging branches that materialize from the front screens. We dip and duck. I use the distraction to transform my shield into a staff. I plant a knee until the treadmill’s whisked me to the very back of the room. In a smooth sideways motion I leap into enemy territory.

It takes Roathy a few precious seconds to notice. He calls out the breach, but I’m already across and dangerous and hungry. Playing the wolf is my favorite game. Move too early and the whole team converges to eliminate the threat. Move too late and you put your team in impossible situations. Fifteen meters ahead and ten meters to the right, Longwei’s running guard with Jazzy. Katsu and Roathy are dead ahead. If either drops back, Jaime and Isadora will double up on the straggler.

Our positioning is perfect. My adrenaline spikes just thinking about Longwei. I want another shot at him. My staff isn’t nyxia-blunted. Swung hard, it could break a bone or two. Up ahead, the trail descends toward the ravines.

My eyes flick back to Jaime for our signal. He starts to raise a fist when Isadora takes her padded shield and slams it down into the back of his legs. He lets out a cry of pain and whips past her. He hits the back wall before he even knows what happened. Isadora transforms her shield back into a ring and stops running.

With a quiet nod at Roathy, she lets the treadmill carry her out of the race. I mutter a curse as Roathy and Katsu climb the barrier. They stumble onto our side and Azima sees them. She’s helpless, though. Isadora’s betrayal is blinding. Blinding because she’s adding an element to the game that shouldn’t exist. Our team is our team. We leave rivalries at the door and always compete.

But her spot’s guaranteed for Eden. We should have known she’d take advantage of that for Roathy’s sake eventually. I take a glance around and know the numbers will only get worse. It forces me to pick up my pace. Jazzy and Longwei run down a narrow center shelf. Both wield nyxian balancing poles like me. Jazzy’s the one who invented them, said her middle school track team used something similar. The flexible shafts help us vault impossible distances. Or swat at a competitor’s legs. The addition has made Babel’s course far more navigable.

Out of the corner of one eye, I see that Roathy and Katsu have Azima cornered. I focus on my footing and drive my pole down into the rubber. It jerks, tightens, and springs me two meters into the air. On my right, a cry sounds. Azima has her arms wrapped around Katsu. The two of them roll into the nearest canyon, and only Roathy’s left on that half.

When the lights flash, I know I’m alone. Three against one.

My feet land with a shocking thud. Then I’m sprinting. Three bounding strides draw me nearly even with Longwei and Jazzy. Before Roathy can cross back to our side, I edge my way toward the center and plant the pole again. My forearms absorb the shock and I’m airborne. Time stands utterly still. I lose my grip on the nyxia, but instead of falling, it transforms. I’m too lost in the adrenaline of my leap to give any direction. Darkness blooms like a gasp of smoke from a grenade. A war cry tears from my lungs and my body goes parallel with the floor.

Longwei’s twisting his shield around, but the blackness descends on him before I do. My nyxia drapes over his shoulders and cinches like a net. He crumples as I land. My shoulder collides with Jazzy, but somehow we both keep our feet. She shoots me a terrified glance and then drives her pole into the ground. I know if she leaps away, I’ll never catch her. Desperately, I lash out and give her lower half a hard shove. She screams as the angle of her flight lands her in the nearest ravine.

I leap left, quick-step through a patchwork of crevices, and straighten. Adrenaline turns into laughter. The lights flash as Jazzy and Longwei are eliminated. I am a titan falling from the sky. Roathy’s pulling himself over the mesh barrier. I laugh again and launch myself. He rolls to the side, but it costs him his footing. He flatfoots his next jump. I keep running and pump both fists when he shorts it.

The treadmill flashes to a stop. I go down on both knees and raise my arms in victory. Jaime and Azima come flying from the back of the room to dogpile on top of me. Isadora scowls at me from the back, but I don’t care. I feel like I’ve conquered galaxies; I feel like I’m supposed to be going to Eden. It’s the first time since Kaya died that I feel like I deserve to win.