Battle of Fate 77

We were back at the stadium. Three games remained and I couldn’t wait for it all to be over. I had been looking forward
to participating in the game for as long as I could remember. All the drama and the worry and everything else that kept
happening had me feel like I was done with it. I just wanted to go home, shut myself away with Finlay in his house for a week and pretend this month never happened. I couldn’t do that until we had finished the tenth game. So that was my
aim. Finlay had told the pack about the new threat and I could feel them closing rank. I should make Finlay go to the
different meetings of the packs, I had all intention of forcing him to be social when we got here, but now I hesitated. I
didn’t think I had it in me to handle him finding his mate on top of everything. Which made me a hypocrite. I sighed.
‘Hey, Red. What’s wrong?’ Finlay mindlinked.
‘Nothing, I’m just having a little issue with getting into the right headspace,’ I told him.
‘Do you need to sit this one out? It would be understandable,’ he asked.
‘No. I will be okay.’
‘When we get back home we will take a vacation,’ he said. I smiled.
‘I don’t think I want to leave the pack so soon again.’
‘We can set up in one of the caves on the pack land,’ he suggested. I laughed, making others look at me.
‘Thank you, I needed someone to pull me out of my pity party,’ I told him.
‘If any one deserves to have one of those, it’s you. Let me know if you need another laugh and I will trip Sam or
something,’ he said. Before I could respond, the speakers came to life.
“Welcome to the eight game. Today will be a test in agility.”
‘That will be it for my brother then,’ Finlay mindlinked us. We all tried our best to not laugh.
“The game is to be performed secluded. Ten identical rooms have been set up. By now you know the drill. Wait until your
pack is called. Please follow the rules given, if you break them, there will be punishments. We wish you the best of luck.”
‘Time to break out the cards again,’ Ramses said and took out the deck. We got as comfortable as we could and tried to
focus on the cards. Every now and then, Sam would make us move around.
“Blue mountain pack, you are up,” an official told us. We packed away the cards and followed him. He let us inside a
room with the instruction to stand within the marked area inside the door.
‘The last time we got that direction, I almost had my head taken off,’ Sam said and made sure we all stayed inside the
marked square. The room was again about sixteen square feet and on the other side of it, there was another door with a
marked area in front of it.
“Welcome to the eight game. In front of you, you have an empty room. The room has lasers across it. If a laser beam is
broken the red light will light. The objective is for each member of your pack to make it across the room to the other
marked area. Once a member is across, a green lamp will be lit. Once five lights have been lit, counting both red and
green, the game is over. You have two hours to complete the game. When the two hours are up, a red light will be lit for
all members who aren’t standing in the marked area across the room. You can use anything you find in the room or have with you. Good luck,” the speaker said.
“Can you see the lasers?” Finlay asked.
“No,” Sam said, and the rest of us shook our heads.
“That will be an issue,” he pointed out.
“How do we make them visible?” I asked.
“There are special glasses. Smoke or dust,” Jake said.
“We don’t have the glasses or dust. I’m not that eager to light the room on fire to get smoke,” Sam said. We all agreed.
“How about water?” Ramses asked.
“Um, like filling the room with it? I think that would break the beam. Or rather refracting it,” Jake said.
“And we do need to breathe,” I added.
“There is that,” Jake agreed. Ramses chuckled.
“I don’t think we need to fill the room. I was thinking more of a mist,” he said.
“That could work. But we don’t have enough water to create a mist,” Jake answered. Ramses pointed upwards. We all
looked up and we all smiled. There was a sprinkler system on the roof.
“How do we trigger it?” Finlay asked. “We are not starting a fire,” he added before anyone could suggest it.
“Well, we don’t need to start a fire, it’s usually enough to cause smoke or increase the heat,” Jake said.
“And how do we do that without starting a fire?” I asked.
“We start a small fire?” Jake hesitantly suggested. I giggled when I saw Finlay’s face.
“We will not burn down the council’s game room,” he told us.
“Of course not,” Ramses agreed.
“Just a small fire,” Sam said.
“Which will go out from the sprinklers,” Jake added. I continued to giggle.
“I have to be insane, but go ahead. Tell me how we are going to start a fire?” Finlay said with a deep sigh. There was a moment when everyone looked through their pockets and had a look around the room. There wasn’t much to work
with.
“We can use the Gammas smartwatch to make a shortcircut that may ignite the scrap paper and we can then use the
paper to light the cardboard box and some playing cards. They should create more smoke and heat than the paper. But we will still need to get it as close to the detector as possible,” Jake said. We all looked up at the ceiling.
“Amie can get on my shoulders,” Finlay said.
“So we are doing this?” Sam asked.
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“I guess we are,” Finlay admitted. He squatted down and I got the message and climbed onto his shoulders. He stood up
and I confirmed I would be able to reach the sensor. Jake started fiddling with the smart watch and Ramses was making a
bundle of playing cards with scrap paper in between.
“Here we go,” Jake said, holding the watch close to the pile of scrap paper they had placed on the floor.
‘If we burn the council’s building to the ground, they will definitely force us to merge with my brother’s pack,’ Finlay
mindlinked me. I did my best not to laugh and slapped him on the shoulder. Jake gave a cheer as he created a spark that
made the paper catch fire. Ramses hurried to hand him the cards and Jake lit it on fire, it looked like a small torch. He
handed it to me. It smoked and it was hot. I raised it towards the detector. Nothing happened.
“Give it a moment,” Jake said. We all looked up at it. I could feel the fire creeping closer to my fingers.
“Make another card bundle,” I said. Ramses started to work. I would have to hold out until he handed me the next one. I
felt my fingers get uncomfortably hot. Ramses raised a new bundle up to me and then there was a ringing sound and water started to fall down, drenching us all.
“Well, it worked. Now what?” I asked.
“Look,” Sam said. We looked out over the room. Faint lines of lights were seen. It wasn’t like clear ribbons like it was in
the movies. But it at least gave us a hint of where the lasers were.
“Let’s do this,” I said, getting down from Finlay’s shoulders. I wanted to get out of this room. The water was cold and the
longer we stayed, the colder our bodies would be and the harder it would be for us to move.
“Amie, you are the most agile. You should go first and try to scope out a path the rest of us can take,” Sam said.
“Sure. I’m guessing it would be best to try and find the best gaps and keep close to the floor?” I asked.
“Avoid things that need me twirling like a ballerina,” Ramses said. We all laughed. I brushed water out of my face and
looked at the beams. I started moving through them, knowing the others were watching me, trying to remember the
path I was taking. Once or twice, I needed to stop to look at different options and ask the others how it looked from their
angle. It felt like it took forever, but I landed on the marked area by the second door. A green light switched on.
“Next one!” I called. Finlay was next. He was an impressive Alpha, but he wasn’t built for this kind of thing. He needed to move even slower than me to make sure no part of his large, well built body interfered with the lasers. It was a treat to be
able to watch his body as it twisted and flexed. The water which made our clothes cling to our bodies, didn’t help. A
couple of times I had to call for him to stop before he would break the lasers. He made it to my end and a green light
turned on.
‘Well done,’ I mind linked him as we focused on Jake.
‘I think we need one of these at home. It was interesting to watch you move through it. We should do it again in a more
private setting,’ he told me.
‘I’m game as long as we both do it,’ I agreed. He looked at me. First with surprise and then with a grin. Jake made it
through with no difficulty. His more lean build was an advantage here. Next it was Ramses’ turn. I wor