The light finally cuts out, and I blink rapidly to clear the dancing spots from my vision to look around us.
We’re outside. A cool breeze brushes against my sweat-soaked forehead, rustling my skirt as I stare at the location Red has brought us to.
It’s a forest. Or… something like it. There are trees everywhere ahead of us, trees of all shapes and sizes and colors. Somehave huge, crooked branches running from their trunks, others completely bare. And everywhere I look, there’s color. Leaves of pink, orange, purple, blue, brown – all of them painted or sprayed in some way.
They don’t fit. The seemingly never-ending space in front of us looks as if someone has ripped those trees up and planted them here, forcing them together in a twisted impression of forestry.
I catch glimpses of other things that don’t belong, too. There’s movement between those trees,thingsshifting in the darkness ahead of us that make me turn my head away.
Floodlights – less bright now – surround us in two straight lines on either side of the trees, and I look up to Chess. He’s staring at the walls they’ve built to keep us in, his jaw tight and eyes narrowed. The wire climbs up into the sky, the metal chain links too small to be able to climb and covered in trailing roses. Red, gold, black, some of them in full bloom and others in the last stages of decay.
“They’ve penned us in like fucking animals,” I mutter.
On my other side, Hatter loosens a sigh. “That’s exactly what they see us as, Alyss Lidell. These people… they don’t think of us as human. Remember that.”
Movement behind me, and I twist, my shoulders loosening. Buck’s dark eyes glitter in the low light. “Easier to cull us that way.”
He doesn’t look overly bothered. Pressing my lips together, I glance around at our fellow participants in this twisted little game. Varying degrees of panic and fear line their faces. One man, sweat dripping from his forehead, twists and vomits onto the ground beside him.
On the other side, one of the twins jerks away in disgust. Not Kayden – his brother. His eyes drift up to mine, and he offers me a solemn nod before Kayden pulls him away.
Good luck, perhaps. Or maybe just ahave fun dying.
Either works.
Ahead of us, the lights focus onto a row of black and white squares.
“Please move to the starting line and stand on a square.”
Each square is at least two feet apart. Chess twists to me. “Lyss.”
“I know.” My heart thumps inside my chest as I stay close, following Chess and Hatter as they split, taking a square each and leaving one open in the middle for me. Buck slips onto the other side of Hatter. We’re at the end, only the towering chain of metal keeping us hemmed in visible on Chess’s other side.
And we wait. We stand there, silent and braced, as seconds tick by.
When the voice finally comes, I wish she’d left us in fucking silence.
“My dears.” Red’s voice croons through invisible speakers.
Beside me, Hatter flinches.
“Welcome, all of you. Welcome, to our largest game yet. Welcome… toWonderland.”
The stark lighting changes. A dozen different colors flood the world in front of us, lights sweeping over the trees. The sudden kaleidoscope of color is enough to make my head spin.
I listen, but I don’t hear any response to her words. No cheering, no applause. Only an eerie, tense silence surrounds us.
“Now,” Red continues. “You’re all here because you’ve been chosen – and what an honor it is, to be a participant in Wonderland. Our investors are here, watching and hoping for quite the show. You can’t see them, but they, of course, can seeyou. Every part of Wonderland is recorded for their viewing pleasure.”
My shoulders stiffen. I turn to Chess, but he shakes his head in a subtle plea to stay quiet. His fingers flex by his sides as she carries on.
“Three nights. You will all experience the delights of Wonderland for three nights - or possibly less, depending on how long you can survive. And if you make it to the end… you might even make it out alive.”
A sharp inhale, and I glance at Hatter. He’s frowning as if in confusion.
Nobody makes it out of Wonderland alive.
But this… it sounds as though there’s a chance, undoubtedly slim though it is.
