Jailbreak!

For four minutes straight, Jordan had been sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed, humming a mismatched series of upbeat tunes—out of tune—that made Eligh want to kick him.

(Luckily for Eligh, someone else did.)

The captives were beginning to develop a case of cabin fever, hoping like hell that someone on their team would come break them out of jail either before too much time passed and they’d be eliminated or before someone killed Jordan. Eligh was desperate to return to Oliver and Mara. He needed to be in on whatever his brother was planning, or else all of this was for nothing.

Not to mention he couldn’t stop thinking about what Mara might think of his brother. His mind had him going crazy in here!

Just then, Eligh caught movement out the corner of his eye. To his right, someone was shooting up toward the airborne Captive’s Jail. He had no idea who this person was, he could only see the person’s blonde head from this angle, but they were sporting a yellow armband like the rest of them. A jailbreak!

“Come on!!” Eligh screamed, catching the attention of the other captives in his invisible cell. They all began echoing him, urging their savior to simply tag the area around them with their hand.

It was tough for their savior, though. Two members of the red team were on their tail, forcing them to evade two pairs of hands reaching out from every which way. “You can do it!” Everyone cried, “Break us out!”

Finally, the yellow teammate had a moment of breakthrough and zoomed toward the jail with renewed speed. “Yes! Yes!!” The captives screamed, until the red team chasers found a way to close the gap.

One chaser settled their foot on the other’s hand, and with their gear, the chaser on the bottom roared, “Power Blast!” and thrust their teammate’s entire body at the yellow team’s savior. Like a torpedo with claws, the red team’s chaser smacked against the yellow teammate, sending them both spiraling out of control. In the confusion, the yellow flag was ripped from the savior’s armband and instantaneously, Eligh and the other captives were knocked sideways as the new captive came crashing in.

“Noooo!” They all cried, despaired. Hands were covering faces; knees were hitting the invisible floor.

Jordan, still sitting cross-legged, shrugged. “Damn, we're done for." He said and shook his head.

Eligh rolled his eyes. Now even this guy’s all Doomsday and shit. He thought.

Meanwhile, ten points were loudly added to the score on the jumbotron's frantic screen. The red team was up by fifteen points—with twelve ten-point captives and three five-point jailbreaks; a total of 135 points. Yellow team, which had no jailbreaks, was just barely keeping up with captures.

Scattered about the jumbotron were clips of contestants dashing all over the jungle. Some were engaged in friendly fights against other contestants, trying to snatch flags or flee an army of chasers. Other cameras were focused on the captives in the red and yellow teams' jails.

Somehow, Eligh’s own face grew like a wart on center screen, right in between where the scores were being reported.

“Not. Again!” He growled. His face grew larger and larger still. With wild eyes, Eligh scanned the skies for a little camera trained just on him. “Where are you guys filming from? I know this is you, Kaien! Leave me alone!”

“Um, who are you yelling to?” A soft voice asked. Eligh’s eyes found a tall girl with low, braided pig tails looking back at him, concern on her face. Her blonde hair told him that she was the failed savior.

Jordan answered for him. “Don’t mind my friend, Miss…?”

“Tessa.”

“Tessa. He’s a little high strung. Must be his low stats.” He whispered, then addressed Eligh, “You know, I have a great relaxation drink to remedy...,” he fluttered his fingers in Eligh's direction, “this.”

Eligh wanted to throttle this man.

But before Eligh could do anything, the invisible jail cell broke open from the bottom and all twelve captives were plummeting toward the earth. Someone had broken them out of jail!

The yellow team's points adjusted loudly on the jumbotron, rising from 120 to 180 points.

On his way down, Eligh whooped in glee and geared himself up with the goggles needed for this round. With a power blast at his feet, he broke his fall just above the ground and burst forward with incredible speed back toward the center of the island. He had twenty seconds to escape using the “No Touch” rule allowed to those recently released from Captive’s Jail.

Now, he rushed toward Oliver and Mara. Except, he had no idea where to go.

That’s what compelled him to find a spot well hidden by shrubbery and fish out the gift orb his brother had given him. Although, remembering Oliver’s “reason” for giving it to him pissed him off.

“Damn, Olly,” he grumbled as he popped the orb open and extracted the tiny black cube that was inside. Just as he held the tiny cube in his hand, Jordan dumped himself at his left side with such force Eligh cried out in surprise and fumbled the cube.

“What the hell, man!” He cried, clutching both the cube and his heart.

“You’ve gotta carry me piggyback, remember?” was all Jordan said, and Eligh almost pulled out his own hair.

Defeated, he mumbled, “Fine,” and grimaced as Jordan clambered onto his back.

“So, what are we doing?” Jordan asked with a chipper voice. Eligh ignored him and thought, Now, how to use this?

He knew these gift orbs were of the highest technological quality and were programmed with an amazing assortment of advancements. It could do virtually anything one wanted it to for the duration of the Games, and more depending on the country of manufacture.

Maybe I can use it to locate Olly and Mara— “Ah!!!”

The cube pulled Eligh’s entire body forward, weaving through trees, bursting through bushes and waterfalls, under felled logs, and over the faces of countless shocked participants until he and Jordan were deposited with a mean smack to the ground right at the feet of Oliver and Mara.

Who Eligh realized, begrudgingly though he expected it, were still together despite being on different teams!

“Bahahahaha!” Laughter rang out from at least five voices. Mara’s included.

Eligh groaned in pain as he said, “Mara, don’t laugh at me.” He struggled to get up with Jordan on his back. He was mildly sure (hoping) that ten total minutes had passed carrying Jordan and tossed the older man away.

Then, Mara said something Eligh didn’t expect. “Get up, dummy. We’re fighting your brother now. Let me pair up with you.”

Eligh’s eyes basically flew at Mara. If they roamed free, they’d have smacked her in the face. He was more interested in the ‘pair up with you’ part of her sentence than the ‘we’re fighting your brother’ part of it. He did wonder a little, though. There were three people standing behind Oliver now.

“Y-You mean…” Eligh pointed to his back. Mara made an amused face and nodded.

The heavens seemed to glow brighter just then; clouds opening, light beaming, birds singing. The whole shebang.

Eligh said, “Am I dead?”

And Mara said, “Ew. I’ll take Jordan, instead.”

Screeching, Eligh pushed Jordan back who said, “Really?!” and made for Mara. Eligh rushed to pull Mara onto his back who was laughing boisterously again. Meanwhile, Eligh silently had a volcano erupting inside.

There was a lot going on.

“Are you idiots ready, now?” A short guy from the red team asked. Without asking, he hopped onto Oliver’s back who didn’t so much as flinch. Eligh wondered who he was, realizing he had indeed missed three months of his brother’s life.

The other two red teammates paired up as well. Jordan was the only one without a pair. Although Eligh didn’t like the guy, Jordan had given him those first ten minutes.

“Jordan,” he said, “if this fight takes a while or if your flag gets captured, it’s most likely game over for you. You won’t have time to partner.”

“Yeah.” Was all Jordan said. Eligh could tell he was ready.

“Alright, then.” Eligh said. He trained his eyes on Oliver. “Let’s go get some flags.”