The Game of Lives by James Dashner

Author:James Dashner [Dashner, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Computers, Boys & Men, Social Issues, Emotions & Feelings
ISBN: 9780375984655
Google: xiaiBQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00QE1A6O4
Barnesnoble: B00QE1A6O4
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2015-11-17T06:00:00+00:00

5

The guard claiming to be Kaine seemed to like talking.

“Our perception of the world, of intelligence, of mortality, of life…with each passing year, it seemingly evolves at double the rate of the previous year. Our understanding of death has transcended even the most optimistic religion, when we can plainly see that the termination of our physical bodies does not have to mean the end. Although you may despise me now, that will change. In time, as we rule and show you the way…”

Kaine stopped, his words fading out as if he’d suddenly forgotten a memorized speech. A blankness washed over his face, and the silence in the chamber stretched out. Michael watched, wondering what was going on, and a thread of drool dripped from the guard’s mouth. On the huge hologram, it appeared as a long line of silver-blue that flashed, then disappeared beneath the display.

“What the…,” Bryson murmured in awe.

Kaine, the guard, whoever he was—moved his mouth to speak again, but no sound came out. Another stream of drool dripped from his lips. Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backward, disappearing from the hologram.

Michael jumped to his feet just in time to see the man down on the dais crash to the floor, the thump of his body echoing through the chamber. A round of gasps circulated and another guard leaped onto the stage and ran for his fallen companion. Before the man made it halfway across the stage, however, he stumbled and fell, crashing face-first to the ground. He lay there, sprawled in a painful-looking tangle, unmoving.

Michael watched all this, bewildered.

None of the other guards moved. They stood looking at each other. It was impossible to know who’d been taken by Tangents and who hadn’t.

The chamber had grown incredibly silent.

Then Michael heard a sound. A familiar sound.

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. A steady rhythm. Coming from somewhere below, from a place outside the stage, hidden in darkness. Tap tap tap. Heeled shoes, footsteps tapping along like a musical instrument.

Then, far below, Agent Weber appeared from the shadows. She reached the dais, took the stairs, and calmly crossed the stage. Guards parted for her, their confusion obvious to Michael even from a distance. But a dozen or so feet from her, a man suddenly raised his weapon, aiming it straight at her. Before he could pull the trigger, he collapsed to the ground, rolled down a couple of stairs, and came to rest in a twisted bundle of arms and legs. His weapon clanked against the floor.

Agent Weber never even paused.

Michael’s heart felt as if it had forgotten how to pump blood, his breathing at a standstill.

Weber looked down at the body of the guard who’d claimed to be Kaine, stepped over him, and moved to the podium proper. The microphone stood before her. She appeared comfortable, serene, as if she’d waited her whole life for this moment. The hologram now showed her to the masses within the chamber, the NewsBops surely projecting her image to the entire world.

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