Let's Seek!

That night crept by as slowly as the seasons change. It was perhaps because nothing happened; or better, because what the group wanted to happen, didn’t. No one slept past a few hours each, burdened with unrest because Jade, the fourth of Patrice’s group, never came back.

By the time the cerulean blue of the morning sky began to light their surroundings, Eligh’s eyes were heavy and burning, seeing but foggy. It was no surprise to him that Oliver’s matched his own.

They sat shoulder-to-shoulder inside the makeshift shelter, so close to the unseen metal walls that their knees bumped against it every time they moved. For nearly two hours, they’d been sitting, doing the same thing: watching and waiting for something to happen. Eligh was waiting for Jade to come back.

Oliver insisted he was waiting for someone else to be dragged away.

The sentence stirred something inside of Eligh, and he knew without much reflection that it was guilt. And embarrassment. Maybe some fear and confusion, too. Awkwardness, for certain. In the hush of the island, Eligh could only hear himself think about how Oliver must be cursing his name. He thought about how different the last three months could have been if he’d just listened to his brother the way May told him to.

Unconsciously, he sighed, and when he heard, “What’s eating you?” his body snapped into a straighter position.

“Um! Uh…” Eligh rubbed the back of his neck and tried to fight the urge to look at his younger brother, wishing to avoid making eye contact. He wanted to get back in Oliver’s good graces, but he didn’t want to push his luck. So, all he chanced to say was, “Olly…,” and hoped something meaningful would follow later.

Oliver answered right away, knocking his left knee against Eligh’s right. “Don’t sweat it.” He said, “We’re good.”

“But…” Eligh knew they weren’t. At least, he felt it couldn’t be resolved that quickly; that he shouldn’t let it be resolved so quickly. He decided that his brother deserved a complete apology.

Shaking his head, Eligh said, “I’m sorry, Olly. It did sound crazy what you were saying. It did, but… you were right, and I was—”

“Wrong. Like you always are?”

“Ouch. Okay.” Eligh made a face. “Guess I deserved that.”

“Yeah. Guess you did.”

Eligh let a beat of silence pass between them before he made a correction. “I was gonna say ‘stupid,’ you know? For doubting you.”

Oliver nodded fervently, eyes still locked ahead. “Absolutely. Can’t argue with that.” A sliver of a smile passed over Oliver’s lips, and nothing could have made Eligh feel any better than that.

He knocked his knee into Oliver’s this time. “You suck.”

“More than you? Doubt it.” Oliver said, laughing. Eligh laughed, too. It felt good to laugh. Really, really good to laugh, especially with his brother without whom he’d been lonely over the past few months.

And especially after the shock they’d had over Jade’s disappearance.

The two of them sat there, laughing, enjoying one another’s company until Patrice’s voice cut through the moment like a scalding hot blade. “Why don’t the two of you shut the hell up before any more of us get snatched up! Have we thought about that?”

The brothers sucked their lips in, appearing lipless, so quickly that turning their heads to look at each other just made them crack up without filter. If there were real birds around, they would have scattered like flying roaches. The ruckus woke Mara up who grabbed her shoes and chucked them at the back of both their heads.

It proved effective in shutting them ‘the hell’ up.

“It’s just…” Patrice began, as if continuing a conversation. Her voice was sharply opposite what it had been just seconds ago. They’d only just met but the sound of such sadness was weird on her voice, and it made Eligh and Oliver turn to face her and the slumbering group. “I hope nothing bad happened to her.”

“It didn’t.” Eligh found himself insisting without hesitation.

Patrice’s bottom lip quivered, but she didn’t cry. She looked at Eligh with doubt in her eyes. “How can you be so sure?”

“I just know.” He answered and offered more when his words were met with silence. “I just think… I don’t know— these are the Gear Up! Games, right? The Games of peace. I have a feeling that we don’t know everything.”

“Ha! No shit, Sher—” Eligh pushed Oliver’s forehead against the metal wall with a dull thud—“Ow!!” —and continued speaking.

“Don’t you think the Games has something up their sleeves like this on purpose? I’m not convinced that people are just being dragged away and that’s the end of it. I think we’re supposed to do something about it.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” This was Jordan, who still lay on his back looking completely like an unconscious person. He yawned as Eligh said, “Well, this is a game of hide and seek, isn’t it?

“I say we find her.”

Of course, that was easier said than done.

Their fourth mission had popped right out of a tree like a torpedo poised to take someone’s eye out as they approached a stoney river in their path.

“Oh, could they give it a rest!” Oliver cried at the sight of yet another mission. Anton, Tessa, and one of Patrice’s remaining two friends hushed him urgently, and Oliver hissed back, “Since Jade’s disappearance, they’ve slapped us with three of these things! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they don’t want us looking for Jade. They don’t want us to find her!”

“I agree,” Mara chimed in, looking at Eligh with a frown.

He blushed, I wasn’t even the one talking. But she spoke to lil’ ol’ me? What is this?!

“It does seem a bit deliberate.” Mara added, and Eligh nodded passionately in agreement.

Then, a deafening horn broke through the air, drowning out the constant stomping of the giant teddy bears as they searched restlessly for other teams. Eligh and his companions looked up toward the jumbotron and noticed an animation playing on its surface. Twenty-four hour glasses were shown quickly running out of sand, and then breaking open to reveal a “YOU’VE SURVIVED ONE DAY!” message within.

“KEEP THE PEACE!” The animation continued to play. “HIDE, THEN GO SEEK!” A little animation of a very round man wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat and holding a magnifying glass played on the screen. And then, it all disappeared, abruptly replaced by the timer which now read: 23H 59M Remaining.

Eligh was gob smacked. “Well, if that wasn’t a blatant tell, I don’t know what is.” He said and looked around at the faces of his teammates and newest companions. “We seek. It’s what we do now.”

“But where?” Patrice asked. She still had that frown on her face. Eligh thought that she must be the kind of woman who lives with her heart. She had so much care in her, he felt jealous of Jade a little.

For some reason, he knew exactly how to answer her question.

“We complete the next mission.” He said and tugged it from the holder that stretched from the top of the silver cylinder. He read it aloud.

“Fourth Mission: Seek out another team, make merry, and entertain! Tell spooky stories, sing songs, clown out! Be the #peace in #GearUp!Games.”

“I guess it’s no coincidence the word “seek” was used here.” Oliver said after Eligh had finished reading.

Eligh tucked the paper in his pocket and said, “Guess not. I guess, we search, then?”

“This is turning into much more of a chore than I thought a game of hide and seek was ever supposed to be.” Jordan grumbled as they started walking on. For once, Eligh agreed with the man.

“Located. Eligh Persil, Mara Ono, Jordan Noble, Oliver Persil, Anton Tilly, Tessa Fass, Patrice Coor, Laurie Mann, Fatima Cruze. Located. Located. Located—”

The black birds were speaking now, their voices projected as if through a megaphone. The cameras in their eyes were trained squarely on Eligh’s group and, peeking at the jumbotron, he saw himself and all the others reflected in several circles across the screen just as before.

But then, the number ten popped up over each of their faces. And then it changed to the number nine.

“Hide!!!” Eligh cried and grabbed the person nearest him. As always, it was Mara, and they took off running in the direction of a thick overlay of thorny brush. Unconcerned with the cuts they would undoubtedly suffer, the pair dove through and crawled to a more obscure area, out of the birds’ sight.

What is this?! He cried internally as he crouched with Mara, hardly breathing. He didn’t see if everyone else had scattered, but he hoped they all managed to get away. If any one of the team was found, they’d all be affected.

The announcement system kicked in as if to answer his question. “Welcome to the second half of Hide and Seek! Now that you’ve got one day left, it’s time to up the ante. Watch out for the giant teddy bears! They can still seek you out. But now, you’ve got a whole lot of little birdies to worry about.

“Happy hiding!”

Not a-fucking-gain! Eligh thought.