The Kill Factor by Ben Oliver

Author:Ben Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Emerson had thought she was not going to be able to sleep, but eventually the sound of the crashing waves lulled her into a broken rest for a few hours.

The next morning was the same bizarre display of cognitive dissonance that Emerson had seen yesterday and the day before: an island full of hostages pretending that everything was wonderful. Imelda, Decker, Levi, and Steele were going for a run up and down the shoreline, and now that Gwen Perez had shot up the leaderboard, she had been invited to join them, which only added to her popularity with the viewers—her follower numbers were going up quickly.

Emerson watched the group of five running along the wave line, and noticed that Imelda’s quips and cutting jokes were now aimed at Steele, the muscular boy who always wore sunglasses, who had dropped down to sixth place. It seemed that any sign of weakness in that group was set upon mercilessly.

“It’s like some messed-up nature show, isn’t it?” Kodi asked, sitting down next to Emerson on the dunes.

“Yeah, they remind me of hyenas,” Emerson said, listening to the laughter of Imelda’s disciples as she aimed another barb at Steele, who grinned grudgingly, trying not to show any more vulnerability than the scoreboard already displayed. Emerson imagined he was glad to be wearing his aviator shades, which would be hiding the hurt in his eyes.

“What do you think the next game will be?” Kodi asked.

Emerson looked at him. There was something off about him, she could sense it. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I’m not looking forward to finding out.”

Kodi laughed half-heartedly. “Yeah, me neither. Hey, come sit in the shade with me. I’m getting burned out here on the dunes.”

Emerson looked intently at him, and saw a look in his eyes that said trust me. She made a quick decision and followed Kodi into the plastic forest—dozens of drones tracked them into the dense and fake foliage. They sat down together at the foot of the same tree that Emerson had run to after the first game. The heart-shaped leaves threw scattered shadows onto the ground.

“I hate this place,” Kodi said.

“Well, I’m so glad you brought me here,” Emerson replied.

“I don’t mean this place specifically. I mean this whole fake island, it’s so … soulless.”

“I know what you mean,” Emerson agreed, and as she spoke, she felt Kodi’s hand take hers, their fingers interlinking. A rush of electricity ran through her.

“I keep thinking about how much I hated the Burrows and even the Topside, but I’d give anything to be back there now. Even the air in this place feels wrong.”

As he spoke, he moved both of their hands slowly behind his own back and against the rough plastic of the heart-tree’s trunk.

“Me too,” Emerson said, trying to act natural as the drones scrutinized them.

“I made a lot of mistakes in my life. I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just got out of eleven months in juvie a week ago, and I was breaking into Topsiders’ vacation homes the next day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.