My legs are shaking so much that I’m forced to sit down in a chair. As I will my body to calm down, I glance around the room, trying to find something to distract me while I wait for the guards. The room is all white, and the only furniture in it is the chair I’m sitting in. My eyes lock on to a sign hanging on the closed door which I’ve already read a hundred times.
Jumper Waiting Room. Please remain in this room until someone comes to escort you to your platform.
I clasp my sweaty hands together, wishing that Kel was still here. I need someone to talk to me.
Five more minutes pass until I hear a knock at the door. I spring to my feet.
“Yes?” I call out.
The door opens, and two women in navy uniforms enter.
“Jay Rylin?” the one on my right asks.
I nod my head. “Yeah.”
“We’re here to take you to your platform,” the other woman says.
I swallow, and nervously tuck a stray strand of my red hair behind my ear.
“I know,” I whisper.
The women exchange looks, and then gaze at me with sympathetic eyes.
“We know you’re scared,” the lady on the left tells me. “Don’t worry, it’s normal to feel that way.”
I let out of puff of air. “Just take me to the damn platform,” I mutter.
The women raise their eyebrows, and then gesture for me to follow them out of the room. I take a deep breath, and then hurry through the doorway after them.
I rode the elevator up to the 15th floor like I did every day, but this time, everything felt different. The elevator seemed smaller; the ride seemed to take longer; the air seemed to be crushing against me. I closed my eyes, trying to steady my breathing.
“There are millions of people in this city,” I whispered to myself. “I won’t be chosen.”
Aw, who was I kidding? I was one of the smartest people in this whole damn city. My test scores and grades from school proved that I had a gift. It ran in the family.
I would be chosen to play the game.
The elevator came to a halt and the glass doors opened. I walked out into a hallway that circled around the elevator and took a right. There were ten doors in the opposite wall of the hallway, and I passed three of them until I reached a door that had the numbers ‘154’ on it.
I pulled out my keycard and swiped it across a scanner to the right of the door. The scanner turned green, and I turned the door handle.
“Jay, is that you?” a voice called out as I entered my family’s apartment.
“Yeah,” I answered, shutting the door behind me. I sat down on a bench in the small entry room I was in and kicked off my shoes. I heard footsteps approaching, and I stood up just as my dad entered.
“Have they announced the names yet?” I questioned quietly.
Dad closed his eyes and shook his head. I rubbed my arms, feeling goose bumps starting to form.
“They’ll be announcing them soon though.” Dad removed his glasses and then immediately put them back on. He was definitely nervous. I was too.
“Is Kel back yet?” I asked, pushing past Dad into the kitchen. I needed to find something to eat to take my mind off this impending doom.
“No, not yet.” Dad awkwardly shoved his hands in his pockets, watching me rummage through the kitchen cupboards for food. “There’s some pasta in the fridge that Melanie made.”
I turned away so Dad couldn’t see me rolling my eyes.
“Melanie’s pasta sucks,” I muttered.
“Really, Jay?” Dad sighed. “That’s pretty immature.”
I slammed a cupboard door shut, saying nothing. I didn’t care if my comment was immature or not. My stepsister, Melanie, was a jerk. She made it her goal to insult Kel and me every chance she got just to get on our nerves. And it worked, unfortunately. Kel and I were easily angered, and our tempers got us in trouble more than once.
It was easy to say that I strongly disliked Melanie. I had so much contempt for her, in fact, that the primary reason I wanted to move out of my family’s apartment was so that I wouldn’t have to live with her anymore. Every bit of money I made at my crummy government job was another step closer to living in my own apartment without an annoying stepsister.
I finally found a loaf of bread and cut myself a slice. Dad watched me with a worried gleam in his eyes.
“Jay…” He cleared his throat, and I glanced at him as I took a bite out of the bread.
“Don’t say anything,” I said, not bothering to swallow my food first. “I know I’ll get picked, and nothing you say will make me feel better about it.”
Dad scratched the back of his neck. “I know, but…I just…don’t want to lose my daughter.”
I gulped down a bite of bread, and then smiled encouragingly at my dad. “I’ll be fine. I’ll make it out of the Grid alive. You managed to do it, and frankly, I’m smarter than you, so if you can do it, I can do it too.”
Dad chuckled. “That’s the spirit.”
I took another bite of bread, trying to keep up my nonchalant façade. I didn’t want Dad to know that I was terrified of hearing my name being called. He was already worried enough.
“They’ve started listing off names!”
I stopped chewing. The voice that had just cried out belonged to Melanie’s mother, Ree. Ree was a short, clueless woman who loved to fret over anything and everything. She wasn’t annoying like Melanie, but the frequent, anxious wringing of her hands drove me insane. She clung to my father like her life depended on it…which it kind of did. If Dad hadn’t decided to marry her a couple years ago, Ree and Melanie would be stuck out on the streets, begging for money.
Ree’s voice had come from the living room, so I dashed out of the kitchen, shoving the rest of the bread into my mouth. Once I entered the living room, I saw Ree and Melanie sitting on one of the couches facing the television screen. The screen showed a man standing at a podium reading off a bunch of names from a sheet of paper. Every time he said a name, that name showed up on the bottom of the screen.
I shakily sat down in a chair, eyes fixed on the screen. The names were in alphabetical order by last name, so if I was on the list, I wouldn’t be called until later. I wished that the guy could hurry things up. The suspense was making my stomach queasy.
“I feel terrible for these people getting called. I am so glad that I’m not gonna get chosen.”
My face flushed, and I jerked my head to look at Melanie sitting on the couch. She was playing with her long, dark hair, looking bored.
“Shut up, okay?” I snapped. “Not everyone is lucky enough to be as dumb as you are.”
Melanie’s jaw dropped in astonishment. Ree started wringing her hands, her expression worried.
“Oh, don’t argue now, please,” she pleaded in a timid voice. “It will make things worse.”
“Yes, please listen to Ree,” said Dad, entering the living room. I reluctantly decided to keep my mouth shut. I narrowed my eyes at Melanie before once again focusing them on the screen.
The man was almost halfway through the alphabet. I wondered how many names he had called out already. I knew that when he was done, there would be a total of 128 names announced.
128 players to enter the Grid and risk their lives for the rest of humanity.
Dad, Ree, Melanie, and I sat in silence as we waited for the man to get to the ‘R’s. Would my name, Jay Rylin, be on the list? Or would I luck out?
At least Kel’s safe, I thought. He’s gonna be assigned as a Correspondent, for sure.
My hands were starting to sweat now. I jiggled my leg, trying to keep my anxiety down. Geez, this was nerve-racking. I just wanted this to be over.
The man was starting to list off last names starting with ‘P’ when I heard the door to the apartment open and shut. After a couple seconds of muffled shuffling, Kel hurried into the living room, his face sweaty and his hair disheveled.
“I had to stay a few extra minutes at work,” he explained breathlessly. “But I tried to make it back before they started calling off names.”
“Well you’re a little late,” I said. “This guy’s almost to R.”
I met Kel’s concerned gaze, and my throat tightened. He knew too that I had a good chance of getting picked. I nodded slightly, my way of letting him know that I was fine.
The man finally called off a last name starting with ‘R’. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands. Everyone in the room was so quiet, I swear we all stopped breathing.
He was getting closer to the letter ‘S’ now, and still my name hadn’t been called.
Maybe I would get lucky after all.
And then he said it. The two words that I dreaded to hear.
“Jay Rylin.”
My shoulders slumped and I let out a groan. Ree gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Melanie just rubbed her forehead. Dad removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Kel closed his eyes and sighed angrily.
“H-hey, it’s okay,” I stammered. “I knew I was gonna get picked anyway…so it’s not a surprise—”
“Kellion Rylin.”
My heart stopped beating. Everyone in the living room was frozen solid with disbelief. I blinked and slowly turned my head toward Kel, my vision hazy as if I were dreaming.
Kel’s face was plastered with complete and utter shock. His eyes were filled with fear. I slowly shook my head, letting out a shaky sigh.
“No…T-that can’t be right,” I breathed. “Why would they choose you to Jump?”
Kel said nothing, still looking startled. Everyone in the room kept completely quiet, not sure what to say.
We had all known that I was probably going to get chosen. But none of us even thought for a moment that Kel would too. He wasn’t cut out to be a Jumper, but rather a Correspondent.
So why had his name been called?
Finally, I cleared my throat. “Maybe it was a mistake,” I suggested softly.
“You know it’s not, Jay.”
I met Kel’s eyes, and we exchanged sympathetic gazes. I didn’t know what else to say to make Kel feel better. At least I had been preparing myself to hear my name get called. I couldn’t imagine how stunned Kel must have been when he heard his name. I wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t know how.
“So that’s that then,” said Kel, his voice breaking. “Jay and I are going to take the jump into hell.”
