Chapter 7: Win or Lose?

I gunned the accelerator and took off as fast as I possibly could through the woods without killing either myself or my terrified passenger.

What in the world was that creepy head counsellor doing here in the woods in the middle of the race? What did he want from us now? Damn you, head counsellor!!

…

Does that guy even have a real name?

“What’s going on?” Dylan’s voice boomed in my ear.

“Dylan, I’m right here!! There is no need to shout at me when I’m right in frigging front of you! Surely you, as the smart science guy, would know this!”

Dylan lowered his voice to a more appropriate level. “Sorry, you just took off suddenly…and you’re going dangerously fast... and I thought I saw the head counsellor back there.”

I said nothing, just pushed a little harder on the accelerator. Dylan’s hands tightened around my waist.

“Chill out, I’m not going to kill you. Believe it or not, I actually know what I’m doing.”

“Certainly looks like it.”

A third voice came from my left. Dylan craned his neck to see who it belonged to, throwing the bike off balance.

“Dylan, you idiot!” I leaned to the right to try and compensate. “You are going to get us killed!”

The sound of male laughter reached my ears, and I risked a quick glance to the left, curious.

A motorcycle had pulled up next to mine. I hadn’t even noticed it in my fretting over the head counsellor. It was being ridden by a guy in his early twenties, like us, with Maria’s nemesis Jaclyn holding onto his waist. Locks of his black hair fell down over his forehead and were blown about by the wind and his eyes were a deep emerald green.

He laughed again, then winked and gunned the accelerator, shooting past us.

“Chloe, he’s in front of us now.”

“I KNOW that, Dylan!” Damn that Maria, why did she have to glom onto Forrest and stick me with the dumbest smart guy on the planet who was too scared to touch a girl, even with her permission?!

Pushing on the accelerator, I set my eyes on the motorcycle in front of us, attempting to focus myself on catching up to, then passing, those two rivals.

I turned back quickly to Dylan and smiled sweetly. “However, I am not going to be beaten by a pretty boy or that little cow.”

With that, I pushed down as hard as I could on the throttle and shot forward like a bullet, with Dylan’s fingernails digging into my waist.

As we pulled up alongside the second motorcycle, the male looked over at us again and smiled.

What is up with this guy?

“Who are you?” That’s great, Dylan, make friends with our rivals in the middle of a race!

“Felix” the guy called back. “And you?”

“I’m Dylan, and this is Chloe… She doesn’t talk much…”

To further drive home his point, I pushed the accelerator again and shot in front of the motorcycle.

“See you at the finish line, Chloe” Felix called as we zoomed into a thickly vegetated section of forest. “I’ll be waiting there for you.”

The bike bounced over a tangle of roots and dirty leaves as I fumed over Felix’s comment.

“That arse! I HATE guys like that…”

There was a somewhat awkward silence following that statement.

I sighed. It wasn’t like Dylan was my favourite person in the world, but at least he had been trying to help me. I shouldn’t be so bitchy toward him.

“Hey, Dylan, I’m sorry I’ve been acting like… this. I’m not really used to having friends or anything.” I paused, trying to get my words together. This confession stuff is hard!

I felt Dylan’s grip relax a little bit. Good, at least now he apparently trusts me not to kill him.

“That’s okay. To be honest, I don’t really have all that many friends myself” he admitted.

“Oh, no kidding… Sorry.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway, I have to tell you about something that happened the other night…with the head counsellor…”

Before I could say anymore, I heard a terrific smacking sound and Dylan’s hands vanished from my waist.

“What the…?”

I slid the bike into a stop and looked back. I saw Dylan on the ground just under a low-hanging branch with blood coming from a wound on his forehead. I am SO glad I’m short!

The now familiar sound of Felix’s laugh echoed around me in an eerie way.

Dylan moaned and sat up. “Where is that coming from?” He pressed his hand against his forehead in an attempt to stop the blood flow and looked around, confused.

“I don’t know, but it’s creeping me out majorly.” I kick-started the bike and revved the accelerator. “Sorry, Dylan, but I’m gonna have to leave you behind. You can’t ride on a bike like that, and there is not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m gonna let that smart arse Felix beat us.”

Without giving Dylan a chance to reply, I took off into the darkness of the woods once more. I rode on silently, trying to keep what could possibly be happening to the other members of the group out of my mind. Despite myself, I cared.

The finish line became visible between the line of trees ahead of me, and with a final burst of acceleration, I crossed it.

I slowed the motorcycle to a stop and looked around me.

No one.

I’d won!

…

Or had I?

“So you made it, Chloe.”

Felix. He swung his leg over the side of his bike and slid off, his piercing emerald eyes fixed on me.

I stayed on my bike, rocking it slightly, hoping to keep some distance between us.

No such luck. Felix started walking towards me, with Jaclyn glaring at me from a distance.

“I have to admit, I didn’t think you would.” He smirked. “Although, technically, you haven’t.”

“Huh?” In retrospect, this wasn’t the most intelligent response.

“You only win if your entire team crosses the line.” Felix raised his eyebrows. “So, unless your team is either invisible or made up of poltergeists”, he crossed his arms, “you’ve lost.”

“Well, you haven’t won either” I shot back. “Where’s the rest of your team?”

Felix smiled, but it was a somewhat cruel smile. “I imagine that some of them are… caught up with their assigned tasks, but they’ll be here.” His emerald eyes looked right into mine. “As for your team, though…” He shrugged. “Who knows what’s happened to them…”

My heart stopped as I realised exactly what Felix had said.

The rest of my team was scattered across the woods, trapped in there with a bunch of psychos, lead by the biggest psycho of them all…

“What is your deal?!” My voice, despite it’s tough sound, had a slight shake in it.

“My deal?” Felix raised his hands palms up and shrugged. “No deal. I just do what I’m told… Maybe you should have done the same, Chloe.”

It felt like his words were draining the life out of me. It wasn’t natural.

I started the bike up again, drowning out Felix’s voice.

“I’ll round them up and bring them back.” I said it with such firmness that I almost believed it.

As I rode away though, the only thing I could hear was the sound of Felix’s laughter, echoing in my ears and filling up my mind.

Who are these people? Are we anything like them? How are we ‘affected’?