Chapter 11: The Last Challenge

Zack wiped the sweat from his brow, his heartbeat hammering in his ears. The hallway they had just walked through was gone...behind them was nothing but a blank white wall.

"This place is messing with us," Jake muttered, gripping a rusted metal rod he had scavenged earlier.

Zack took a deep breath. "Stay close. We move slow..."

A voice interrupted him. Soft. Familiar.

"Zack?"

His breath hitched. He turned sharply toward the sound. At the end of the hallway, Arya stood hunched over, blood seeping through her fingers. Her dark eyes met his, desperate, pleading. "Help me."

Zack didn't think. He ran.

"No, wait!" Jake's hand barely brushed his shoulder before Zack was sprinting forward.

"Arya!" He dropped to his knees beside her, hands moving instinctively to assess her wound. The blood was warm, real. "What happened? Where are the others?"

She grabbed his wrist. Cold. Ice cold.

His vision blurred. The walls shifted. The light dimmed as a whisper slithered into his ears.

Not her.

Zack's heart stilled. Slowly, he looked up. Arya's lips curled into a twisted smirk. Her skin cracked like porcelain, dark veins spreading up her neck. Her eyes sank inward, sockets hollowing into pits of black. "You should have run."

A flicker of movement. Jake tackled him. They hit the ground as the illusion shattered, dissolving into a swarm of writhing shadows that screeched before vanishing.

Zack gasped, his hands trembling. It felt so real. Jake pulled him up. "No more running ahead like that." Zack swallowed hard and nodded.

Then the walls groaned.

The corridor ahead shifted, twisting into a new passage. A doorway appeared at the end leading into the next challenge.

They didn't hesitate. They ran.

—

Zack and Jake stumbled into a vast, dimly lit room. A single chair sat in the center, surrounded by strange metallic pillars.

And standing just beyond it was Arya, Ellie, Mark… and Ambrose.

Arya turned sharply, eyes widening. "Zack! Jake!"

Zack's chest tightened. She was alive. 

Jake nudged him forward, but Zack hesitated. The illusion had felt so real before. Could he trust his eyes now?

Then Arya stepped forward. She grabbed his wrist. Warm. Human.

Zack let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. For now, they were together again. But the next challenge was waiting.

Ellie exhaled in relief. Mark, tense as ever, kept his make shift weapon raised. Ambrose simply watched, unreadable as always.

"Wait, where's Carter?" Ellie asked.

Zack tensed at the question. He hadn't even thought to ask in the rush of seeing Arya alive. Now, the silence that followed chilled him more than the illusion had.

Mark stiffened, his grip tightening on his weapon. "Ambrose, he was with you, right?"

Arya looked away. Ellie's voice cracked. "Tell me he's okay."

Ambrose swallowed hard, "He's… gone."

The words sank into the air like a stone in water, rippling through them all.

Ellie took a step back. "No. No, he's not. He's tough...he wouldn't just—"

"He's dead, Ellie," Ambrose said flatly.

The cold finality of his tone made Ellie snap. "You don't get to just say that like it doesn't matter!" Her voice was raw, laced with something broken. "How did it happen? Where is he?"

Zack had never seen Ellie like this before, furious, desperate, on the verge of breaking apart. He saw her as the happy-go-lucky kind of girl, a positive one despite of all what's happening. 

Ambrose hesitated, his expression strained. "He was deceived by the illusion." His voice wavered, barely above a whisper. "It got to him first."

Ellie's breath hitched. "No. No, he wouldn't fall for that. He's smart, he..." She looked between them, frantic. "Why didn't you save him?"

Ambrose's golden eyes met hers, unwavering. "It all happened so fast. I was with him when he died."

Ellie's hands shook. "What does that mean?"

Ambrose exhaled, slow and measured. "It means I watched it happen."

The words sent a tremor through the group.

Mark took a step forward. "You watched?"

Ambrose didn't blink. "Yes."

Ellie let out a choked sound, her breath ragged. "You could've stopped it."

Ambrose didn't answer.

Ellie lunged at him, fists swinging, but Arya caught her, pulling her back before she could reach him. Ellie struggled against her grip, sobs wracking her body. "You let him die! You let him die!"

Ambrose didn't move, didn't defend himself, didn't speak. He just stood there as Ellie crumbled.

Arya held Ellie close as she sobbed. Zack could only watch, numb.

Carter was gone.

They had all known death was inevitable in this trial. But this? Watching Ellie shatter, seeing the unspoken weight in Arya's eyes, the blank emptiness in Ambrose's expression; this was something else.

Zack clenched his fists. What the hell happened back there?

Before anyone could say another word, the overhead speakers crackled, the mechanical voice devoid of emotion.

[The final challenge of the Second Trial will now commence. One of you must sit. The others will watch.]

The moment shattered.

They turned toward the chair. A sharp silence fell over the group. 

The words rang in Zack's ears, heavy with unspoken implications. He stared at the lone chair in the center of the room, steel, bolted to the ground, wires running from its base to the strange metallic pillars surrounding it. It looked like something out of a twisted execution chamber.

Ellie sucked in a breath, her body still trembling from the grief of Carter's death. Mark's fingers twitched around the handle of his weapon, his stance guarded, wary. Jake shifted uneasily, exchanging glances with Zack.

No one moved.

No one wanted to be the one to sit. 

The sound of the voice broke the silence and echoed:

[You have 20 seconds to decide.]

[Goodluck, Survivors.]

Zack swallowed, his throat dry. "What does it mean by 'watch'?"

No answer came. Only the hum of unseen machinery lurking in the walls. A long beat passed. Then, slow and deliberate, Ambrose stepped forward.

The sound of his boots against the cold floor echoed unnervingly. His golden eyes flickered under the dim, sterile lighting. "I'll do it."

The declaration sent a ripple of unease through the group. The timer started to beep.

[15…14…13…]

Ellie blinked. "What?"

Ambrose kept walking, not looking at her. "I'll take the chair."

Mark narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Ambrose didn't stop. "Because someone has to."

Zack frowned, something about Ambrose's certainty gnawing at him. "We don't even know what'll happen."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I have a secret." Ambrose finally halted before the chair, his fingers brushing over the cold steel. He glanced back at them, his expression unreadable.

A pause. Then, almost too casually, he said, "I don't die easy."

Zack felt the shift in the air.

Arya's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ellie let out a shaky breath. "And that means…?"

Ambrose considered his words before answering. "It makes me… harder to kill."

A muscle in Mark's jaw twitched. "Harder? Not impossible?"

Ambrose exhaled through his nose. "I haven't tested it."

Silence.

The weight of his words settled over them like a suffocating blanket.

Ellie stepped forward, her eyes wet but burning with frustration. "So, you're just betting on it?"

Ambrose met her gaze, unwavering. "Yes."

Ellie let out a sharp breath, hands shaking. "You don't even know if you'll survive."

"No." His voice was even. "But I volunteered. Why? Do you want to sit instead and be with your friend, Carter?"

Ellie did not respond, she didn't know what to say. 

Jake shifted uncomfortably. "What if it doesn't work?"

Ambrose turned away from them. "Then you'll know."

The cold, detached way he said it sent a chill through Zack's spine.

Ambrose adjusted his coat, then, without hesitation, lowered himself into the chair.

Metal restraints snapped around his wrists and ankles.

[3…2…1…]

The machinery roared to life. It was a deafening sound, like it had been created to claim or suck the life out of you.

And the last challenge began.