Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Lana looked at the game items yra had wrestled out of a Wraiths grip, and didn’t take it. She reached out and pushed the doll back. pressing it firmly to Lyra’s palm. “You keep it. You need ti more than do.

Tyra squeezed the doll, not quite following

You’re the one who’s been selected to play the game. I don’t have to go in. Lyra, do you even know the rules of this game?”

Lyra shook her head, then nodded. “As long as the Wraiths don’t catch and kill me, I win.”

Not quite Lana slowed her speech, trying to keep it simple. “Every day, the game randomly picks one person from each country to send in. If you win, then the next day it’s still you.”

“If you lose… if you die, then it picks someone new.”

Lyra blinked. “So because I won, I have to go again tomorrow?”

“Yes. At the same time, you’ll be sent into another mission. And every mission is different.”

Lyra ducked her head, poked at the doll’s skull, and suddenly broke into a grin. “That sounds great. Maybe tomorrow’s mission will have cake too.”

Lana didn’t smile. She stared into Lyra’s eyes, almost too intently. “Lyra, listen to me. The rewards you draw come in five ranks. And the missions, we suspect they do too. Maybe more.”

The difference is, reward rank is random. Mission rank only climbs.”

Lyra looked blank for a beat, not quite following. “Climbs?”

That’s right. But it’s just our theory. The game hasn’t actually ranked the missions, hasn’t even told us there are ranks at all.

“The game’s been running for forty-four rounds now. At first, the survival rate was above 80%. That’s the only reason we were able to come up from underground and live aboveground again. Because the players before you won those rewards for

us

“Starting round eleven, survival dropped to above 60%. Round twenty-one, above 30%. Round thirty-one, above 10%. Round forty-one and on, every survival rate has been under 10%.

“This round’s survival rate was just 6.25%. More than half the countries on Earth have already lost their territory-evacuated as a nation, or wiped out entirely.

r

The missions are only going to get harder. And the Wraiths are only going to get stronger.”

“I’m not scared.” Lyra answered fast. The Wraiths really didn’t seem all that impressive to her Though the Manor Lord, that one was a little impressive.

Lana’s lips pressed into a thin line. “But I am.”

Lyra froze

Lana’s voice dropped low, like a sentence she’d been holding back for a long time. “We’ve already lost so many warnors Eko

you

I’m scared something will happen to you too. So you have to protect yourself Every one of those items, use them on yourself

15

9:32 am

Tele

tailed Lanns-face, tilted her head, and stopped pushing the doll back across the table

She tucked the doll back into her arins and patted it. “Okay. I’ll keep it.”

Shed agreed out loud, but her thoughts were already somewhere else. She’d seen this look before.

Red, from Room 303 at the hospital, used to look like this-always telling Lyra not to wander off whenever she left

Uncle Maddox was the same. Every time he saw her climbing out a window, he’d pace the hallway in frantic little circles.

And Sister Jo. Whenever Lyra tried to sneak out of the ward, Sister Jo would drift over to the doorway and block it, saying it was dangerous outside.

They all worried about her. Thinking of that, a question suddenly popped into Lyra’s head.

Oh, right. Every time she’d tried to run from the hospital before, all those sisters and brothers and aunties and uncles would jam up the doorway and stop her.

One ume she’d climbed out a window and Uncle Maddox got so worked up he knocked out every light in the corridor. The night nurse had screamed for ages.

But this time, she’d actually left the hospital and come all the way here. Why hadn’t any of them tried to stop her?

Lyra thought about it. Maybe because there were too many people in uniforms? Strength in numbers. Red and the others couldn’t have won. Mm. That had to be it.

“Lyra?” Lana’s voice tugged her out of the daze.

“Your mom. I’ll help you find her.”

Lyra’s attention snapped back, her eyes lighting up. “Really?”

“Really.” Lana nodded once. “A lot of records and address data were destroyed during the war. It’ll take some time to pin down where your family used to live.”

“That’s okay.” Lyra smacked the table, her voice jumping up a notch. “I can wait.” She grinned and stuck out her pinky “Pinky promise.”

Lana looked at the small finger held out to her. She was quiet for two seconds. Then she lifted her hand and hooked it “Pinky promise.”

Ms. Reed watched from the side without a word.

Lana let go and stood up. “Full?”

“Full!”

“Come with me. The base has a medical bay. We need to clean that cut on your back and run a full physicalTM

Lyra’s smile vanished on the spot.

She shrank back into her chair, her bottom pinned to the seat like it had been nailed there

‘I’m not going’

Why

25

1:32 am

Chapte

+don’t need shorLyra clutched the doll, her voice going hard. “And I don’t need pills

Im not sick

Lana looked at her, opened her mouth, then swallowed whatever she d been about to say

Ms Reed walked over and took the seat next to Lyra, her voice gentle.

“Little one, this isn’t like the hospital. Nobody here is going to force a needle or a pill on you against your will.”

“We just want to clean up the cut on your back and make sure nothing else is wrong. And our medicine here is sweet Not bitter”

Lyra eyed her, half-convinced.

Ms. Reed smiled and added one more thing.

“Lyra has to get strong before she can go looking for her mom, right? If your cut gets infected on the road and you can’t walk, your mom will be waiting all alone, getting more and more worried.”

Lyra’s fingers loosened a little. She lowered her head, thought it over, then slid reluctantly off the chair.

“No shots.”

“No shots.”

And no tricking me into bitter medicine.”

‘No tricking.”

‘Then I’ll go.”

The base medical bay was lit cool white, the smell of disinfectant so faint it was nothing like the sharp sting of the hospital.

Lyra lay face-down on the exam bed, her chin propped on a stack of pillows.

The borrowed shirt she’d thrown on over her clothes came off, and the patient gown beneath was cut open along the wound. leaving her back fully exposed.

The gash sliced diagonally from her right shoulder down to her side, the edges already turning red, the blood that had seeped out dried into a dark crust.

Lana stood beside her. The moment she saw the wound, her breath caught.

It was longer than she’d imagined. And deeper

How much had that hurt?

Yet this little girl-inside the mission and out of it-hadn’t made a single sound from start to finish

r

She’d been grinning when she snatched the compass, grinning while running with the doll, still grimming while she ate dinner.

Lana turned her head toward the wall and blinked hard.

The medic on duty was Dr. Walsh, somewhere in her forties, with very steady hands

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