The Grand Game

The Grand Game

‘Quick! Left here.’ Eli shouted as we sprinted around the corner.

‘Are they close?’ I gasped out between breaths as we ran as fast as we could.

‘I don’t know but we need to keep moving, just in case.’ Eli was always a leader. He was the first of us to be there helping anyone that needed it.

‘We need to find somewhere to camp out, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.’ I called out to Eli, racing ahead of me.

‘Okay, follow me.’

‘Not far now Elly, go right here!’ Eli reassured and guided me through the darkness.

We finally came to a stop in front of this old brown barn. No other buildings were around, no animals either. It looked deserted.

‘This will be a good place to camp.’ I smiled at Eli.

‘Okay up we go!’ Eli led me over to the ladder and we climbed onto the second floor of the barn.

Inside it was dusty and smelt of old hay. The moonshine and starlight provided plenty of light to see most of the barn in front of us.

It wasn’t anything unusual or special, but it was safe and provided cover for us.

‘How long do you think we can stay here for Eli?’ I asked as Eli prepared our rations for the evening.

‘Just for the night, if we want to do this then we will have to leave first thing in the morning.’ Eli answered me as he passed a chicken and lettuce wrap over.

I took the wrap and devoured it, being careful not to drop any and waste it.

What we are doing is intense, it has the best of the best racing for the chance to be the last survivors.

Yes, we are playing a grand game of spotlight.

If the ‘hunters’ catch us by shining their flashlights on us, then we lose and become ‘hunters’ too.

The prize is $40,000 and we need to win it.

That money could save mine and Eli’s best friend, Gwen.

She’s not well and her only chance of survival, true survival, is this expensive medicine. If we can do this and have a chance of saving her life, we need to give it our all.

‘Alright Elly, time for sleep. I’ll take first watch.’ Eli’s authority was clear in his voice, and I knew arguing would be pointless. Even if I knew he needed more sleep then I did.

I set my backpack up against a pile of hay and used it as a pillow for my head. Snuggling into the hay, I pictured clear as the night sky, the last time Eli, Gwen, and I played together.

It was 5 years ago; we were all 12 years old and just being silly at the park. The sky was clear and blue. The voices of children playing happily were all that you could hear. It was wonderful. Later that day we had a sleepover and enjoyed our last movie night with horrors.

After that night, they became too real.

Chapter Two:

Looking over at Eli sleeping, I regretted having to wake him up so soon. I knew it was time to get moving though and he would be angry if I let him sleep in. The sun was about to set, which meant the games would continue.

I walked over to Eli and gently shook him awake, ‘Eli, it’s time to wake up. We need to get going.’

‘Okay Elly, let’s go.’ Eli was quickly on his feet with a newfound look of determination. We were getting close to the finish line. We both knew tonight would be the hardest so far.

As we climbed down from the barn and were about to take of running towards the East, we saw a flash of light in the distance behind us.

‘Move El, move!’ Eli’s hushed shout made me jump down the last of the three ladder bars and bolt.

We ran as quietly as we could in the shadows, dressed in the black clothes that marked us as survivors and carrying our backpacks with the last of our rations.

The suspense of knowing we were so close but could also be found so easily now that we were only hours away from the finish line weighed heavily on us. It was as if our thoughts of hope and fear of being caught tried to slow us down more. We needed this; Gwen needed this.

‘Eli there are lights southwest of us!’ I called to Eli, so he knew to steer us away from there.

He slightly changed our direction as we ran. Our breaths were getting louder with every step, our hearts were bursting out of our chests. We would need to find shelter to rest and re-hydrate soon.

As if Eli had read my mind, we found a shroud of trees and slowed to a walking pace.

‘Rest and drink up Elly, we only have about twenty minutes left before we reach the line.’ Eli said between gulps of his drink.

I did as told and took small sips of my water to avoid getting a stitch on our last stint. This is it Gwen, we are almost there. We will win that money for you. We must.

I took Eli’s hand and smiled at him, ‘We have this, Eli.’

‘Yes, we do, Elly-bear.’ Eli smiled back, using my childhood nickname.

Eli went out and scouted the area to see if he could find any hunters as I packed up our belongings.

‘Time to go, all clear!’ Eli called out as I exited the trees.

Together we ran, we ran for about ten minutes before we saw the first group.

There were four of them, a red bandana adorned their black clothing and they each held a flashlight in their hands.

We dropped to the floor, folding our breaths, and hoping they wouldn’t see us. Thankfully, luck was on or side.

Once we were sure they moved on we got up and sprinted in the opposite direction, another five minutes of running and we saw another group of hunters.

‘Damn it, there are so many now.’ Eli whispered as we hid behind a building, out of sight.

I stayed quiet and as still as possible. ‘There is only one group remaining. Find them and the hunters win. Sharing in the prize pool.’ A voice came over one of the hunter’s radios.

‘Let’s go west, they may not be this close yet.’ A deep male voice spoke to his group.

‘Okay Elly, this is it. We run as fast as we can and stay together. No stopping. Gwen is counting on us.’ I nodded my head at Eli, in agreement and we took off.

Neither of us had ever ran so fast in our lives, urgency and hope steered us forward. Shouts from behind us signaled hunters from all over of our location. We were found and now just had to stay far enough ahead that they didn’t touch us with their lights.

In front of us a building was lit, the only one in all this darkness. There it was, the finish line. The $40,000 for Gwen’s medication!

‘Go, go, go!’ Eli’s excited shouts were mixed with nervousness but helped to push me to go even faster still.

‘Yes!’ We both shouted as we made it through the doors and the alarm to signal our win went off.

I looked out the doors and saw the hunting groups were so close to catching us. We only just made it.

‘We did it Eli!’ I shouted in triumph and high fived his hand.

‘Yes, we really did Elly!’ Our grins were evidence of our win, all the groups came in and congratulated us. We could now go home and save our best friend.

The Grand Game was over.

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