Warrior Zone Read online

  “Today’s course is inspired by ancient Gladiators of the Roman Colosseum. First, you’ll face a dungeon full of chains that you’ll need to cross without falling. Second, there’s the sand pit on the Colosseum floor, which you’ll also need to make it through. The third obstacle is a spear trapeze, where you’ll swing from one spear-shaped trapeze up to the next. This is where we’d like you to fall.”

  “Fall? Off a trapeze? Did you forget that I’m an award-winning gymnast? I would never fall off a trapeze.”

  “Right, well, that’s why it’s exciting, isn’t it? No one will expect it. Also, because you’ll have a lot of control, you’ll know how to make your fall look real. Sound easy enough?”

  I pause, forcing myself not to say anything rude. Instead I say, in my perkiest voice, “Sounds great! Wish me luck!”

  An hour later, I’m waiting in the start zone for my turn. Ravi waves hello but stays in his corner, stretching alone. We haven’t spoken since this time yesterday. Is he avoiding me? I wonder. But now is not the time to talk. We both need to focus and prepare—we have a course to run.

  To my surprise, it’s Paul who wants to talk. He crosses the room to stand next to me. “I just wanted to say good luck. You’re doing so well out there,” he says, loud enough for people around us to hear. Then he lowers his voice and whispers, “And you’re going to need all the luck you can get because my mistakes are in the past. I’m coming for you.” He glares at me with threatening eyes, but they quickly brighten into a smile and he walks away. What a jerk. I almost want to thank him. He’s just given me one more reason to do what I’m going to do.

  Ravi is up first since he came in last place against the Ninja. He disappears through the door and it’s just me and Paul for five minutes. Paul goes next. I watch the clock and he is gone for about the same time as Ravi. It’s hard to know without watching if he got farther or not.

  Finally, it’s my turn. The start horn blasts and I sprint through the doors. Like Sarah said, the first course is a web of chains hanging from a low ceiling in a room that looks like a dungeon. I grab a chain and swing through, taking the time I need to avoid any mistakes while still pushing myself as fast as I can go. The more slowly I move, the more energy I’ll waste. Better to zoom through.

  I make it through the dungeon of chains into the next obstacle. The sand pit is a large pool of sand surrounded by walls painted to look like the Colosseum. I trudge through the sand pit, careful to avoid areas where the sand appears to be sinking. Quicksand, I think, as I spot a patch ahead of me and change direction.

  I make it through the sand pit and up a few stairs to the first of five trapeze bars. Each one is higher than the next, so I have to swing both forward and upward. This would be a challenge for someone who has never done the uneven bars. Luckily, I’ve been doing them for years. If I were going to do what Sarah wanted, it would be easy for me to fake a fall. I’d mistime my swing and shorten my jump. Maybe I’d even let my fingertips graze the bar as I fell to make it look like I came close.

  But I have no intention of doing what Sarah wants—I am not a cheater.

  I grab the first bar and swing myself up to a standing position. From here, I jump to the second, the third, the fourth, and then to the final bar. Instead of standing on the bar, I decide to show off. I swing over the bar into a handstand once, twice, then a third time, before I flip off and stick a perfect landing in the finish zone. I hear the audience explode with applause, so I blow a kiss their way. If the producers want a performance, they’ll get one, I think triumphantly.

  I make my way off the course with the crowd chanting my name: “Fio-NA! Fio-NA!” I run over to them and bow, blowing more kisses. They love it. Even the announcer is cheering for me: “Let’s give it up for Fiona! Another amazing round. Our girl is unbeatable!”

  Unbeatable is right.

  I make my way off stage toward Ravi, who is staring at me, astonished. Beside him, Paul glares at me, furious and speechless. This is not how he thought today was going to go. But before I can reach them, Sarah comes up to me, smiling, and whispers in my ear. “Come with me—now.” I follow her off the stage and into a hallway. Her smile disappears immediately. “You did not do what we discussed.”

  “No, I didn’t cheat. But you said you wanted ratings, right? Listen to that crowd. They love that I am unbeatable. Let me keep going. Give me the chance of a fair game, and I’ll give you the best story for your show. And if I take a fall, or someone else beats me, then there’s your surprise twist. Either way, you win.”

  Sarah’s face darkens, past disappointment, past anger, to something more alarming. When she speaks, her voice is almost a whisper. “Wake up, Fiona. It doesn’t work like that. You don’t decide how things go, okay? We do. Everyone you’ve beaten so far, we paid to lose to you. The only reason you’ve made it this far is because we wanted you to make it.”

  This hits me hard. So it’s true—the game’s been rigged all along. It probably has been for years. But the cheating stops with me. “You can’t make me cheat. And you can’t kick me off. The crowd loves me too much.”

  Sarah’s jaw tightens. “This is your final warning. You have no idea what we can do to make sure you play along. I don’t suggest you find out.”

  Sarah blows past me and heads down the hallway. When she’s gone, I let out a breath I’ve been holding in. In this moment, I realize that I’m not competing against Paul and Ravi. The true warriors I’m battling are the producers themselves.

  Chapter

  5

  I really need some air.

  I find it at the hotel, which has a large rooftop pool. The sun is out and it’s hot, but there’s only one person up here. Ravi is sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water. I sit beside him and start taking off my shoes. “Ravi, you’re a genius.”

  “What’s up, Fi?”

  “Eh, you know. Trying to accept the fact that this reality show is faker than Santa Claus.”

  He laughs as I dip my feet into the warm water. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “So Sarah talked to you about cheating? When?”

  “Before we filmed our Within the Warrior interviews. That’s why I was trying to warn you. When did you find out? Just now?”

  “Nope,” I say, shaking my head. “Yesterday.”

  “But you—”

  “Didn’t do what they wanted? No way! Why did you?”

  Ravi hangs his head low so his face hovers over the water. I can see his reflection looking back at him. “At first, I was angry. Very angry. But when they explained I’d be guaranteed more money than if I actually won, I couldn’t say no.”

  I kick the water hard. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “You did it for the money? I thought you were better than that, man.”

  Ravi pulls his feet out of the water and hugs his knees to his chest. “You don’t understand, Fiona. My parents work hard to give me every opportunity they can, and it’s expensive. They don’t even know I know, but I hear them at night, after they think I’ve gone to bed, talking about their money situation. They’re barely getting by. But if I lose, I get forty thousand dollars. That money could really help them, and I owe it to them to help when I can. I’m sorry if you thought I was someone better. I guess I just can’t afford to be.” Ravi buries his head in his knees, making himself into a ball.

  I feel like such a jerk. I want to curl into a ball too and throw myself into this pool and sink to the bottom where no one can find me. Instead, I scoot closer to Ravi and put my arm around him. “I’m sorry I said that. I didn’t know. Will you forgive me?”

  Slowly, Ravi nods. He reaches his arm out and pats my back without raising his head off his knees. “I don’t want to cheat, Fi. I want to make my parents proud. If I lose, even if I explain that the producers made me do it and that I did it to help them, they won’t be proud. I don’t know how to help them and make them proud at the same time. It’s impossible.”

  “Me too. I mean, my paren
ts took me out of my gymnastics club when they found out it was corrupt. I can only imagine what they’d think if they knew how crooked things were here.”

  I lie down against the warm concrete and stare up at the empty blue sky. There must be a way to win fairly, and to get Ravi the money he needs.

  I bolt upright. “I’ve got it! I know how we can do this!”

  Ravi lifts his head and squints at me. “How?”

  “It’s so simple,” I laugh. “They can’t kick both of us off, right? They can’t have a fake competition if there’s no one to compete. So if we both agree to boycott their rules and play fairly, they can’t stop us.”

  Ravi scratches his hair. “Yeah, that could work. I mean, we still have to beat Paul, but that’s doable.”

  “If we do our best, one of us will probably come in first place. If somehow Paul magically beats us, we’ll still get the money from losing.”

  “So we try to win, but we get paid either way,” says Ravi, a slow smile spreading across his face.

  “Exactly! And whatever money I get, you can have.”

  “What?” Ravi looks shocked.

  “I mean it,” I reassure him. “I was never in this for the money. My parents don’t need it as much as yours. And you’re my friend. We help each other. If the money will help you, then I want you to have it. End of story.” I stick out my hand for him to shake. “It’s the perfect plan, admit it.”

  “Yeah. It is,” Ravi admits.

  “So are you in?”

  Ravi nods. “Yeah. I’m in.” We shake on it, then he grins mischievously. “Sorry, Fi.”

  “For what?”

  “For this!” Ravi jumps and yanks me with him, face first into the pool.

  Chapter

  6

  It’s Saturday morning and Ravi, Paul, and I are back in the start zone, warming up for the third challenge. An hour ago, Sarah called my hotel room before I left to tell me my routine for today’s course. “You’re going to struggle climbing the first obstacle and then you’re going to fall before the beginning of the second . . . if you make it that far,” she had instructed.

  “What do you mean if ?” I asked. Her cheerful tone made me uneasy.

  “You’ll see.” She hung up without any further explanation.

  Ravi and I compare instructions as we warm up in the waiting room. Sarah called him as well. She told him the same thing—to struggle in the first climb and fall before the beginning of the second obstacle. She also hinted he may not make it that far. “There’s never a guarantee we will make it through any course. And we know this one is going to be tough. She’s just trying to get in our heads,” I assure him. “She’s probably taking extra care to make sure you play along since I’ve turned out to be a giant pain.”

  “Do you think she suspects anything?” Ravi asks, lowering his voice.

  I fold my arm over my chest, stretching my bicep. “It doesn’t matter. She can’t do anything about it.”

  But can she? I remember her warning after yesterday’s course. “You have no idea what we can do to make sure you play along,” she’d said. I try to put it out of my head.

  I can tell Ravi is nervous. Not about our plan, but for the same reason I am: this is the second to last round before they determine the winner. I’m in first place with six hundred and sixty points. Ravi is in second place with three hundred and forty points. Paul is in third with three hundred and twenty points. Since we’re so close to the end of the competition, finishing as many obstacles as we can is even more important because doing so will earn us more points. We get thirty points for every obstacle we cross.

  Like the other rounds, this course will be harder than the one before. Unlike the other rounds, this is the first course that we’re allowed to see ahead of time. We also get to watch each other’s turn. The idea is that the course is so physically challenging that knowing ahead of time won’t give us an advantage.

  A few moments later, we walk through the doors and catch our first glimpse of what we’re facing. I can tell right away what kind of warrior inspired this round. Today we will face the Knight.

  I stare at the course in awe. Paul pushes past Ravi and me to get a closer look. But I can see it just fine from here. It’s massive. And it looks incredibly difficult.

  The course starts with a series of vertical, shiny nets, each one hung above the other. The highest one looks about eighty feet in the air. From here, the nets look like they are made from a knight’s chainmail. Instead of the wide squares usually found on climbing nets, the holes are only large enough for one finger at a time. Our shoes won’t fit at all, which means this climb completely relies on upper body strength. The net is also made of metal instead of rope. And metal is harder to grasp. Sarah instructed me and Ravi to struggle here, but she didn’t need to. It will be a struggle no matter what. We’ll have to climb all eighty feet of the chainmail and slide down a metal slide to part two.

  The second obstacle is a moat-shaped pool of water with stones floating on its surface. The task is to cross the moat by hopping from stone to stone. However, we have to do this dressed in heavy armor that weighs about fifty pounds. This is where Sarah wants me and Ravi to fall, which we can only do if we’ve survived the chainmail climb.

  Finally, if we are lucky enough to cross the moat, we have to complete the last obstacle. A sword is wedged into a boulder and we have to pull it out. It’s just like the myth where young King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone—except our stone is on a narrow, spinning pedestal. We will have to jump onto it, manage not to fall off, then somehow pull the sword from the stone, and jump down into the finish zone.

  I’m exhausted just looking at it. Ravi looks like he might puke. Paul is pacing and biting his nails. In the distance, I can hear the announcer speaking to the crowd. “I don’t know how our warriors are going to make it through this one, folks. I just don’t know.”

  A signal chimes, calling us to line up in the start zone. Paul, still in last place, will go first. I can tell he’s anxious. I’m not sure why, but even though he’s been rude and unfriendly, I suddenly feel bad for him. “Good luck,” I tell him, as Ravi and I head to our waiting positions. Paul looks up and shoots me a cold glare. The start horn blasts and Paul’s turn begins.

  Paul sprints toward the chainmail climb. He makes it up with the lightning speed of an experienced climber. I have no hope of beating him there. After just a minute and a half, he is down the slide.

  The audience gasps as Paul, wearing the heavy armor, jumps from stone to stone across the moat. He teeters a few times but never falls into the murky water.

  On the other side of the moat, Paul sheds the armor and jumps for the spinning platform. He lands with his arms on the platform and his feet dangling beneath him. He tries to swing his legs up onto the platform, but he can’t get a firm hold. He’s spinning fast—he must be getting dizzy. I can see his arms slipping. He fights to keep his grasp, but finger by finger his strength gives out and he falls onto a safety net below.

  “Oooooh,” winces the audience, but a second later they’re applauding. That was an impressive run for anyone, let alone Paul. He hasn’t made it to the last obstacle since semifinals.

  I give Ravi a pat on the back. “Don’t worry. You can beat that.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he says, nodding.

  “Make sure you jump for the sword, not the platform!” I shout after him. “It’s easier to hold on to. He tried to hold the platform, but it’s too narrow. That’s why he fell.”

  Ravi looks back at me, expressionless. No smile. No thumbs-up. Just a blank stare. He’s just in the zone. Right?

  The horn blasts and Ravi is off. He starts up the chainmail climb. He’s not going as quickly or effortlessly as Paul, but I’d be surprised if he was. He’s doing well though, slowly pulling his weight up each length of metal net. Ravi eventually makes it to the top and zooms down the slide.

  He advances to the moat. Once he has on all the armor, he hops to the first
stone. Then, disaster strikes. He lands with his feet only halfway on the stone. His limbs flail, trying to find balance. But they never do. Ravi falls with a hard splash into the dark water of the moat.

  He fell at the beginning of the second obstacle. Exactly where Sarah told him to fall.

  I try to push dark thoughts from my mind. Ravi is my friend and we had an agreement. If he fell, it was while trying his best. He wouldn’t cheat. Would he?

  Ravi emerges from the moat, covered head to toe in thick, muddy water. He makes his way off the course and the set hands walk him, wrapped in a towel, back toward the waiting room. As he passes me, he keeps his eyes glued to the ground. He doesn’t look up at me. Doesn’t wish me good luck.

  “Ravi?” I say as he passes. But he doesn’t stop, and he doesn’t say anything. It’s as good as a confession.

  The horn blasts for me to start and I run toward the first obstacle. Ravi cheated. Ravi, my friend, betrayed me. I try to focus as I climb, but I can’t get these thoughts out of my head. Ravi cheated. I’m in this alone. Distracted, I lose my hold on the net. I fall to the end of one net before I jam my fingers into the holes. I stop so fast my finger bones nearly break. That was close. And painful. I pause for a moment. I let the anger of Ravi’s betrayal build up. I feel it burning, the pressure of it behind my eyes. I feel it turn to water and begin to trickle out of my eyes. Oh no, I can’t be crying. The audience is watching. People will see this on TV. I have to get ahold of myself.

  I push my tears back and force myself upward. I’m not sure how, but I make it to the top. I’m too afraid to think or feel anything, so I slide down and try to get focused. I pull on the armor and jump to the first stone. I wobble, landing dangerously off balance. Muscle memory built up over years of balance beam work switches on and my body steadies itself. I can do this.

  I take a deep breath and look to the next stone. I calculate the jump, get my footing, and leap. I land safely in the middle of the second stone. I look to the third stone, an even shorter jump than the last. I measure the jump, bend my knees, and take my leap. I land with both feet on the stone, but an instant later they slip out from under me. My shoulder crashes on the stone before I slip sideways, landing in the murky water with a loud splat.