body, making all my limbs seize up, but apparently I had set off a chain reaction, because the Tommys closer to my feet—starting with the one I’d hit—were all getting in each other’s way and falling over each other; there were simply too many of them.
I got my feet on the ground, seeing my chance, and attempted to lift the rest of my body. But there were still so many Tommys holding my arms and punching the wind out of me that I achieved nothing, though the little movement I caused made a few of them fall over and let go of me. I was still very much out of breath, but I rolled over and jumped unsteadily to my feet. A few Tommys advanced on me immediately, while most of the rest were pulling themselves back to their feet, looking hungry for revenge.
With every ounce of energy I had left—which wasn’t much after the pounding I’d just copped—I ran for the door, swung it open, and hurled myself through it, shutting it behind me and locking it in the process. For a moment, I thought the door would collapse under the weight of the pounding from the Tommys on the other side, but it seemed to be holding up okay.
The last of my strength left me as I fell to my knees, and then onto my stomach. I could hardly breathe, and every part of my body was aching horribly. I couldn’t move a muscle without feeling terrible pain. I could feel blood running down my face, and knew my nose was broken. I thought perhaps a rib or too was broken too, but I wasn’t sure about that.
Now that I was safe, at least for the moment, I could think about what had taken place in the previous room. Hall had said that this game was about resisting temptations, and judging by what had just happened, I’d failed the first test miserably. It was infuriating to think that Natalie’s words could so effectively make me forget everything else going on around me. Hall had told me that I could die if I failed badly enough, so I supposed it could have been worse. Perhaps the Tommys would have had guns if they’d caught us rooting or something. As I lay there, I resolved myself of two things: I was going to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible, before anything worse happened; and that in order to do that, I would have to walk right past any further temptations that might present themselves to me.
After a few minutes, during which the door took the pounding from the army of Tommys, I sat up and, for the first time, took a look at where I was. It was just another corridor, the same as the one I’d started in, and there was nothing to see. With a groan, I pulled myself up, leaning on the wall for support, and began to move along it, grunting in pain with every step. I still couldn’t help thinking about Natalie—at least the one that had been in the other room. She’d said exactly what I wanted to hear, but I had no reason to believe anything she’d said now, and I despised myself for getting so caught up in her words that I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. All the same, it had felt good to hear her talk that way. If only those Tommys had waited three more seconds…
Within a few minutes, I reached the next door. I felt extremely fearful about going in there this time, knowing what might be awaiting me. Okay, I told myself; whoever’s waiting for you in here, tell them to get stuffed because you’re not interested. I was too sore to fight if I had to, but an almighty crash sounded behind me, meaning only one thing: the army of Tommys had broken down the door behind me and were now charging up the corridor towards me. That meant I had to move. I pulled the door open and slammed it behind me, just in time to see the Tommys come racing up the hall. They started pounding on the new door, now, and I turned away from it. Only then did I have a look at the room in which I was now standing.
For a split second, I thought I’d won, because I was back in Room 11. Then I realised that it was not Room 11 at all. It was, in fact, Room 12; I recognised the settings through the windows. But it couldn’t be the real Room 12, because instead of Hall taking to a detention class, I saw Mrs. Worlker apparently talking to a History class. Everyone looked around at me in surprise when I straightened up.
“There you are,” said Peter, patting the back of the seat that I usually sat in. “Come sit down. We were wondering what—blimey, John, you’re a mess.”
I had no idea what I looked like, and considering these people weren’t even real, I hardly cared.
“Sorry, Pete,” I said, dragging myself excruciatingly past his row. “Can’t stay.”
There was a door at the back of the room, which normally led into a storeroom. On this occasion, though, I knew that it was the way to keep moving forward. I headed straight for it.
“Enough of that, John,” said Mrs. Worlker angrily. “You’ve disrupted this class already, now sit down or it will be detention. What on earth is going on out there?”
“You sound just like Hall,” I muttered, and a few people laughed.
Someone suddenly grabbed my hand as I passed the last row of seats, a hand that felt very much like Natalie’s had felt, though perhaps slightly larger. I looked around and saw Serena staring at me.
“John, you’re really hurt. Do you want me to take you up to the sick bay?” she asked, concerned.
“I’ll take him, he’s my brother,” said Peter, jumping to his feet and glaring at Serena.
“That’s enough,” said Mrs. Worlker. “John, Peter, sit down, both of you. And you two sit down,” she added as Harry and Simon both rose to defend us. “And you too, Ugine.”
I looked away from Serena and realised, with a thrill of horror, that Ugine Wilwog was standing right in front of me, blocking the storeroom. He was several inches taller than me, and more muscular than anyone I knew. When he was with Ather Hignat, his job was to beat up on anyone who tried to fight back; while the much smaller Hignat was the brains of the operation, Wilwog was the brawn.
“You heard the teacher, Playman. Sit down like a good little boy, or I’ll have to make you,” he said, raising his fists. I cringed; why hadn’t I guessed it would come to this?
“You wouldn’t dare,” said Serena, jumping to her feet beside me. She twisted my hand in the process, but refused to let go.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Wilwog said, chuckling as he squinted down at her.
But she did. She delivered a fierce right hook to his face, and as he staggered backwards, clutching his nose and looking dumbfounded (even more than usual), she delivered an equally heavy blow to his nether region.
“That’s enough, all of you!” shouted Mrs. Worlker in a way that always made me cower. She could be a scary woman when she got fired up. “Detention for all of you! Serena, sit down; I’ll see you after class. Peter, Harry, Simon, get in your seats. John—”
But I wasn’t listening. I let go of Serena’s hand and staggered towards the door at the back of the room. Wilwog did not try to stop me, but just as I reached the door, Peter appeared beside me.
“I know you’re up to something,” he said quietly so that no one else could hear. “But you look so not right for it. You sure you don’t want me to come?”
“Of course I—” But I stopped, realising just in time that this was another temptation I had to fight, as much as I didn’t want to. “Sorry, mate,” I said, “but—”
The rest of my words were drowned as, looking up, I saw Hignat opening the front door to allow the army of Tommys to flood into the room. “Get him, everyone!” one of them shouted, and I was only just quick enough to get through the door before they reached me. Thankfully, the rest of the class slowed them down, at least by way of simply being in the way and not allowing them a direct route to the door. . I locked the door and, for a moment, listened to them attempting to bang it down like they had all the previous ones.
Looking around, I saw that I was in another corridor, no different from the others, and, without wasting any time, I staggered along it. However, this time something caught my attention in the ceiling. There was an opening, and a ledge that looked as though it led to another corridor. I was curious to know what was up there, but it was too high for me to climb up the wall, and I was hurting too much anyway.
I stared at it for