I Am Alive 2: Increscent Read online

  With the victorious chuckle of the soldier behind me, Woo pulls me closer to him, burying my head into his chest, not uttering a word. I feel the warmth of his body and arms wrapped around my back. It feels so good – better than chocolate. And it feels like an old memory wrapping me in velvet. Somehow, I don’t care that we’re going to die without even knowing why or what’s going on. Are we going to be shot with poison arrows, dying next to each other like Romeo and Juliet?

  “You should’ve listened to Leo,” Woo says his last, whispered words in my ear as I listen to the trigger being pulled behind me while I am on my knees and in his arms.

  The gun is fired. I close my eyes.

  “You’re damn right, she shoulda listened to me,” Leo grunts as I hear the soldier sink dead to his knees. The gunshot was Leo’s. “Stand up, lovebirds. It’s time to follow uncle Leo.” He says, and I can sense the bittersweet words on his tongue.

  Woo pulls my hand and runs toward the industrial building.

  “No, ‘thank you?’” I hear Leo shout behind us. “A peck on the cheek maybe?” Leo speeds up before us to the building, securing the way. I can’t believe I am being taken care of by my two favorite boys. “That last sentence wasn’t for Woo, in case you wondered.” Leo adds.

  I stop at the building’s door and turn around to Woo. “I am not going to hide inside until you tell me who I really am,” I insist. “We were just going to die a second ago. If it wasn’t for Leo, I’d have been dead without knowing what my whole life was destined for. I want to know now, Woo.”

  I don’t know if suddenly insisting on knowing the truth now is fueled by the danger surrounding us. It could also be the guilt I feel toward Leo. My subconscious mind might be trying to balance things for me. And where the hell is the cuckoo in my head? It’s not telling me much now.

  “Don’t do this, Decca,” Woo still sounds at ease since we were in each other’s arms. I have to seize the moment. He is not going to stay vulnerable forever. “Can’t you see that someone is trying to kill us?” He says.

  “I don’t care,” I say. “I want to know everything you know about me. Now!”

  “Don’t bother,” Leo says as he peeks back out from the building’s metal door. “It’s not the right time. Let’s just figure out what’s going on and then do this. Get in, Decca.”

  “No,” I shout back at Leo. “Why are you defending him?” I say as I hear gunshots in the distance. They are going to find us. “You told me if I want to know anything I should ask Woo, remember? Why?”

  “I am not defending him,” Leo says, shooting at some approaching soldiers. “Did I ever tell you that shooting guns is a great substitute for falling in love?”

  “Stop it, Leo,” I hold out my hand. “Be serious for a moment.”

  “I was pretty serious when I saved your ass seconds ago,” Leo purses his lips. The look in his eyes is cynical. “And of course I saved Romeo’s ass, too,” He points his gun at Woo. “I really should’ve let you die, you know,” Leo says to Woo. “It’s what they used to do in the Amerikaz movies. Let the rival die, get the girl, credits scroll down, saying, ‘James Bond will be back in the next Monster Show’” Leo says and shoots at another soldier.

  “Don’t say that Leo,” I say. “You and Woo aren’t rivals. We’re all in this together.” I add, wondering why Woo isn’t even talking or thanking Leo.

  “OK,” Leo raises his gun in the air. It didn’t take long for him to go back into Terminator mode. All he needed was someone aiming a bullet at him, and hooray, here comes the silent boy killer. I can’t confess to myself that I really like him way better now. I am a terrible girl, right? But I don’t care. The way he just saved Woo and me was amazing. “Woo isn’t my rival, but he isn’t a leader either. You really shouldn’t be asking him for answers.”

  “What does that mean?” I say as Woo still tries to pull me into the building.

  “It means you might not like what he’s going to tell you,” Leo shouts against the sound of approaching machines in the sky. Are these helicopters?

  “What?” I gasp. What does that mean? I turn and look at Woo, who has his blaming eyes on Leo.

  “Don’t look at him,” I pull Woo by his sleeves. “Look at me! Tell me what’s going on, Woo. Tell me who I am. At least before we die—“

  Before I can get any answers, the lights shine back in the streets, and everything goes back to normal.

  But it isn’t the light coming from the street lamps. It’s a sum of glaring lights coming from the hundreds of Zeppelins in the sky, reminding me of when they were looking at me when I was fighting for my life in the last Monster Show. The Zeppelins have the words, ‘Happy Birthday’ written on them. The Fayan lunatic crowd screams my name in the sky. Fireworks and roses fill the sky and petals fall down on me. I look up with tears in my eyes and hysterical laughter. Who are these people? Are they so out of this world? This is a birthday party?

  “That must be the birthday of the century!” Timmy speaks to me in my iAm with his theatrical attitude. So he isn’t in the Caribbean like I was told. He’s up there in one of the Zeppelins. What is Timmy doing here?

  Circus music plays from the Zeppelins’ speakers.

  “Is this what I think it is?” Leo looks at me, puzzled. “Is the Summit celebrating your birthday by pulling a deadly trick on us?”

  “That’s why we got fake iAm messages to meet with Decca,” Woo says. “It’s a staged episode on TV. They must have paid people tons of money to get them out of the streets and into those Zeppelins above and must have sold this worldwide now. We’re still only puppets on a string for the Summit. Nothing has changed.”

  “I am really sorry,” Leo tells Woo.

  “For what?” Woo asks.

  “For blaming you when you wanted to kill them. I hate Faya. This is not a nation. This is a circus.” Leo comments.

  “And I have a feeling that’s not all,” I say, pointing at Xitler, standing up in the balcony of his silver Zeppelin, preparing for a speech. What’s Xitler doing here?

  “People of Faya,” Xitler says, and the voices of the crowd fade away. “Today isn’t just a celebration of our one and only Ten’s birthday. Today is a really, really special day for our nation.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Leo says. “I smell bad news from his stinky mouth.”

  “Timmy,” Xilter says. “Play the videotape, please.”

  “What’s going on?” Woo wonders.

  Timmy plays a videotape from Zootube that shatters my existence. Once Leo watches it on his iAm, he runs his fingers back in his hair and sighs. “This is bad,” He says. “Really bad.”

  “How did they even get this tape?” I wonder.

  The video we’re watching is a secret phone call to me in the past Monster Show. The call when an iCoder was used to warn us about the Summit’s plan to finish us off the second day. It strikes me that it is not important how they got the tape. What’s important is that they tampered with the call so the Summit doesn’t sound as evil as it is. The video makes the viewer understand that a Nine conspired with the Monsters against the Summit, which is a huge crime in Faya.

  “Shame on a Nine for helping the Monsters,” Xitler says in the microphone. “We’re lucky that someone who loved Faya dearly has found this footage and sent it to us. Or I’d have been blind to the fact that a ranked citizen has helped a Monster. An unforgivable sin that can’t go unpunished.”

  “Is he going to hurt Ariadna?” I ask Woo and Leo.

  “How will he do that?” Leo wonders. “Ariadna isn’t in Faya.”

  I get it now. That’s why Ariadna never came back.

  “It’s my duty to keep balance in our nation,” Xitler says. “And to ensure that this horrible mistake will never occur again, I will announce a new show this year,” Everyone holds their breath. Did he just say there will be another Monster Show this year? Is that punishment? “It will not be a Monster Show. This is not about the Mon
sters. This is about the ranked citizens of Faya. This will be a punishment show so no one ever repeats this horrible mistake again.”

  “The crowd in the Zeppelins are going to wee in their pants now,” Woo almost laughs. “The lunatic has just decided to punish his own people.”

  “I will call this the Ariadna Show,” Xitler says. “It’s the same deadly games as last year. The only difference is the players will not be Monsters. They will be one boy or girl from each faction, to repent for the sins that Ariadna committed by helping the Monsters. In the name of the Burning Man, I can’t allow this to happen again.”

  “What a loony toony,” Leo mumbles. “Who’d have thought this would ever happen?”

  “And he was trying to convince us that he wanted peace with the Monsters,” Woo shakes his head. “I told you I didn’t buy it.” He tells me.

  The crowd murmurs everywhere. The time has come for Xitler to torture his own people, who enjoyed watching us fighting for our lives in the games.

  “The players will represent each faction,” Xitler repeats. “And since I don’t want to be hard on my own people, and because I will host this game only to remind you that you can never help a Monster, I have chosen the six contestants who will represent the factions.”

  “Six?” I wonder.

  Xitler points at a hologram screen to show the faces and names of the contestants. That’s when a shriek bursts out of my chest. We’ve been played with and fooled.

  The six players are Leo, representing the Nines, Faustina, the Eights, Vern, the Sevens, Bellona, the Sixes, Pepper, the Fives, and Woo on behalf of the Monsters.

  “I can’t believe this,” Woo says, gritting his teeth.

  “Each one of them was ranked yesterday so they are eligible to represent you,” Xitler says. “But that’s not just it. I chose them because they are the survivors of last year’s game, which they cheated on with the help of Ariadna. I will exclude Decca, of course, because she has proven that she is our Ten by killing Carnivore.”

  The crowd hail and scream happily; as long as the scapegoats are not any of them, they don’t care. Xitler played this perfectly: a game that will remind ranked Fayans not to ever help Monsters again and a game where he could get rid of us and still compete with the Far Eastern Wargames by making more money.

  “Why is Faustina one of them?” I ask in the iAm.

  “Because she helped Ariadna get the information about the Monster Show. Remember when she told you she knew someone who passed her the info? It was Faustina.” Timmy explains.

  “Why did she do that?” Woo wonders.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Leo says. “We’re going to have to fight this all over again.”

  “I will come with you,” I tell Woo and Leo.

  “Xitler won’t let you,” Leo says. “Besides we need you out there so you can bargain with him if we need you to. You’re the only person who keeps him from killing the rest of the Monsters.”

  “It’s all a hoax,” Woo says. “Xitler just made up excuses and fooled us into yesterday’s ceremony so he can have his Monster Show again, only under a new name.”

  “What’s the point of the show?” I ask Xitler. “Do you want to have another Ten?”

  “No,” Xitler says. “I don’t care if they all die in the game and pay the price for Ariadna betraying us. But to make it a spicy game, the winner will be granted something that all Monsters want badly.”

  “And what’s that?” I ask.

  “The whereabouts of the Rabbit Hole,” Xitler says.

  “You’re lying,” Woo says. “You don’t know where the Rabbit Hole is.”

  “Don’t I?” Xitler smirks and plays another video. This one shows Woo’s friends, the ones who had just died two days ago, the ones who claimed they knew where the Rabbit Hole is. Then the video shows them being hostages in Xitler’s prison. “They have told me everything, and that’s why I have caught them. One of the Six of you survives and you get your Rabbit Hole. We get an epic show in Faya and we get rid of the Monsters because frankly, we can’t take you being here anymore.”

  The crowd hails like last year. They want the Monsters out of Faya.

  “Are you ready to scream, ‘I Am Alive’?” Timmy shouts enthusiastically to lift the crowd’s spirit. “Are you ready for the first Ariadna Show? A much crazier and better show than the Monster Show?”

  “I can’t leave you here,” I repeat myself to Woo and Leo.

  “You have to be out there,” Woo says. “If this will get us the Rabbit Hole then we’ll do it. All we need is one of us to survive to get the Monsters out of here.”

  “Then you have to tell me what I want to know before I go,” I grunt at Leo now.

  “You keep asking him that,” Timmy interferes in the microphone. “Can’t you see all the signs, Decca? The signs that say you’re the one?”

  “Shut up, Timmy!” I say.

  “Come on,” Timmy insists. “Think of it. You were born on the Day of the Ranking Day. Didn’t you ever notice that no one else in Faya was born on that specific day? That’s why we celebrated the birthday of the century—“

  “What?” I let out an uncontrollable sigh. I never knew about this before.

  “And you were born in the Year of the Ten,” Timmy continues. “The only year Dame Fortuna ever predicted a Ten will be born.”

  “That’s all nonsense,” I resist to believing in that, although I feel it’s true somehow.

  “And your name is Decca for the Burning Man’s sake,” Timmy continues. “Which means ten in some ancient language.”

  “No, that name that means ten is pronounced Theka in Greek,” I am reciting what Leo had taught me.

  “And you’re the only one named Decca in Faya,” Timmy continues. “Can’t you see the signs? Can’t you see that the national sign for Faya is a Decagon, which is a shape of ten angles? Can’t you see that Decagon is the name derived from Decca?”

  “Is that right?” I ask Woo, who keeps silent as usual.

  “Is that right?” I ask Leo.

  “So what?” Leo shakes his shoulders. “It could all be a coincidence. It doesn't mean you’re the one, and it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life for anyone. Don’t listen to him.”

  In my confusion, I see Pepper, Faustina, Vern, and Bellona being transferred toward us in the Humvees, which is the same vehicle that will drive me away from here. Will I really leave them to fight on their own? I can’t do that. Should I stab Woo now with one of his knives so he’ll tell me what he really knows about me?

  But I am too late. The soldiers are already pulling me away from them. I reach out for Leo and Woo but they don’t reach back for me. Leo wants me to live so he prefers I won’t be in the show. Woo wants to find the Rabbit Hole and probably wants me away from him so I don’t keep asking questions.

  “Why are they transferred here?” Woo asks Timmy about my friends. “Aren’t we supposed to all be transferred to the Playa?”

  “Nah, Nah, baby Woo,” Timmy says. “This year there is no Playa. Why do you think you were all tested for being Clairvoyees?”

  “Bastard,” Leo puffs. “They totally fooled us. I get it now.”

  “That’s right, Monsteritas,” Timmy begins his new show with a lollipop in his mouth, wearing a black tuxedo and white gloves and a long black hat. “This year the game is everywhere. With your Clarine in your eyes, the crowd watching you from the sky like insects running from a giant, this year, the games are played everywhere. Did you hear me? Everywhere, like an epic computer game. This year, the world i-i-is your p-p-playground!”

  Epilogue

  A year ago, when Decca won the Monster Games

  “She made it,” says the mysterious voice on Xitler’s iAm.

  Xitler nods, pacing the room, hands behind his back. He watched the monitors, showing the awes in shock all around Faya. The little girl won the Monster Games.

  “Who would have thought.” the vo
ice spoke again.

  “I have,” Xitler says proudly. “I told you she could win it.”

  “You did. And I didn’t believe you, Xitler.” the voice says. “I even laughed at you giving her a second chance.”

  “I knew she could be a Ten. The iAm knew. Our analysis has been accurate. She is the one.”

  “But showing her your ugly mechanical hand wasn’t wise, though.”

  “It was on the spur of the moment,” Xitler says. His eyes glued to the monitor showing Decca having killed Carnivore. “I don’t regret it.”

  “Showing a human side to yourself isn’t your strongest charm.” The voice snickered, mocking Xitler.

  “Don’t make fun of me. I am what I am.”

  “Yes. A brutal, unforgiving, and harsh ruler of Faya.”

  “Am I?” Xitler put the iAm aside on the table nearby and listened through the speaker.

  “Smart and calculative as hell, I have to admit,” the voice said. “I mean planning Woo and Decca’s meeting years ago, that was genius.”

  “You didn’t like it then?”

  “Nor did the Breakfast Club.”

  “The Breakfast Club,” Xitler’s sighed. “You people pretend you’re the revolution when you’re also the enemy.”

  “Look at the bright side. The Breakfast Club teaming up with you, that’s how we got the result we have now,” the voice said. “Still, hats off to you having planned Woo and Decca’s teenage life. You practically faked history.”

  “I wonder how they will feel when they know what I have done.”

  “Since when do you care about feelings, Xitler?”

  Xitler said nothing. As painful as the words sounded, he wasn’t proud of most things he’s done.