Author's Note

In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the #PanicWritingContest on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

Don't forget to watch the series premiere on May 28th, only on Amazon Prime Video, here: http://primevideo.com/

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Iris~~

If Spurlock's home was painted in blood, I would be just as scared of it as I am now. The dirty white planks and a buzzing, glowing bug zapper near the backdoor tilted in its frame give the same impression when their owner is Spurlock.

"You're kidding me, right?" Grass brushes my cheek as I look at Colton. We're on our stomachs, tucked along the tree line. We had two choices: the woods or the cornfield. Most chose the latter.

"It's worth a hundred points, and we both have to have at least two-hundred to move onto the next round." He gives me a long look, and he doesn't have to say what he's thinking. His eyes do it for him. I was the one who chose not to jump from Suicide Leap like he did. I'm the one who doesn't already have two-hundred points.

I scratch at my arm where the grass tickles my Mark. Colton and I are the only
ones in Carp with Expiration Dates. He wouldn't die from jumping from the highest ledge, but as I'm Expired and death likes to take every chance it gets at me, I couldn't bring myself to do, instead choosing to go for the High Jump, which earned me only an extra twenty-five points rather than a hundred.

On our stomachs, we inch our way closer to Spurlock's. I strain my ears trying to pick up on any potential threats—any sounds of the other players, but all I hear are crickets, and the wind blowing through the trees. There isn't even the whine of a farm animal, most of which are locked in the barn for the night.

My mouth goes dry at the thought of the barn. At what—

I can't dwell on that. I can't let fear shut me down. For most, winning Panic means getting out of this town or the ability to attend college. For me and Colton, winning Panic's $50,000 is our chance to get to France—the last known whereabouts of Jonas.

When we reach the back of the house, Colton stands, sliding his back up along the rotting wooden planks and stopping alongside a window. The wood frame of which is splintering and has swollen.

The bug zapper illuminates the wall in an electric blue. No light though comes from inside the window.

I move from my stomach into a crouch.

Grasping the window's panels, Colton grits his teeth. I'm sure splinters are biting into his skin, but even so he pushes the window open inch by inch.

We get in, get evidence, and get out. That's the plan at least. To secure our points, we have to electronically send the evidence to Diggins before midnight.

I hold my breath while Colton continues to inch open the window. Spurlock's farm had been rumored to be booby trapped. It's not rumor. We encountered tripwires and ropes waiting to snag us when making our way through the woods.

There's a click, and Colton has the sense to jump back. A blade drops from within the window, glinting in the blue light and disappearing down into a slit in the wood.

Colton breathes deeply, stretching out his fingers, fingers he would have lost had he been a second slower.

The window is open enough now that I could fit through. It could have been my neck under there.

My chest swells, fear filling me.

Don't panic. It's the only rule to this game, and I'm only a few erratic heartbeats away from breaking it.

Colton looks at me. For Jonas, he mouths before taking a step toward the window.

My heart thuds.

Don't panic.

Don't panic.

Don't panic.

"Shouldn't we look for another way?" I whisper.

"With another trap? There isn't time. Besides, I can't die."

"You might not be able to lose your head, but you could still lose an arm."

"But I won't die." He shrugs. His brother is more important to him than an arm.

Grabbing a stick off the ground, he pokes it through the open space of the window before opening it higher so he can fit through. He again does a sweep with the stick before making his way inside and landing on the floor with a soft thump.

That's my cue.

I brace a knee against the sill and pull myself inside Spurlock's home.

Enough moonlight makes its way in that I can tell we're in a bathroom. The details aren't apparent, but there's a tub to my right and a toilet on my left. There isn't much space for the two of us.

"Do you see anything?" My whisper comes out trembling, my nerves about Spurlock hearing us getting to me.

Whatever we steal, it has to be evident that it's from Spurlock's. A roll of toilet paper isn't going to be proof.

Colton doesn't answer, pulling out his phone and turning the flashlight on before moving toward the sink where he grabs the towel hanging from the wall and turns it over. Letting go of it, he crouches low to the ground and opens the cabinet below the sink.

Cautious of possible creaks from the wood floor, I proceed across the bathroom until I'm standing beside Colton and in front of the mirror. I slide my fingers along the side of the mirror, a surge of triumph running through me when it comes free, swinging outward.

A medicine cabinet.

I squint and can make out a few prescription bottles with Spurlock's name. He lives alone, so all of these bottles should be his. I don't want to take his medicine. I'm sure he needs it, and even if I take it with the intention to bring it back later, who's to say one of our classmates won't take the pills for themselves? This would be a lot easier if the rules let us snap a pic from his house. Shining my own phone light on the bottles, I sort through them, scanning their labels.

It's on the top shelf in the corner that I find an empty bottle.

As I reach for it, an alarm blares.

I grab the bottle, and Colton jams his thumb toward the window.

From somewhere outside, a deep voice shouts, too far away to make out exactly what's being said.

But I know it's him.

Spurlock.

Colton squeezes through the window and turns to help me through. I'm halfway out when a gunshot cracks the night air in half.

Colton pulls me the rest of the way through the window, and we sprint for the woods, cellphone flashlights bobbing as we try to look out for tripwires.

There's more shouting.

More gunshots that sound like they're coming from a shotgun.

I jump over a thick tree root. "Do you have the map?"

"Just keep going until we clear the property."

My heart pounds. Did the bullets hit their marks?

Colton's arm swings out in front of me, and I fall back, smacking my butt into dirt and sticks.

Colton shines his light on a tripwire.

I pant. "Thanks."

Reaching out a hand, he helps me to my feet as another gunshot rings out.

Did Heather make it into the house? Ray, Natalie, Dodge? Most of the kids chose to go the route of the cornfield, which would put them at the front of the house, from which Spurlock must have come out. Have they found themselves in the path of any of the bullets?

I step around a fallen branch. They may be my competitors, but I don't want them to wind up dead. Panic has already claimed one life at Spurlock's farm in the past. It happened in the barn. Panic doesn't need to claim another.

Colton's farther ahead of me, a little off to the left of my path. In front of me is a thick tree log that has probably been here for years. Arms lifted to the sides for balance, I step on top of it, my shoes barely missing the mushrooms growing out of it.

I step off the log, careful not to land awkwardly and twist an ankle.

Colton's getting farther away, and I take off after him, but when I lower my foot, it never connects with the ground.

My stomach lodges in my throat as I fall.

I don't have time to scream before my body slams into the damp hard ground.

I groan as I crawl onto my hands and knees, my skin pressing into the dirt. My ankle spasms. "Colton!"

I brace myself against the dirt wall closest to me, the earth packed in tightly, and stand. The ledge is too high up for me to get out on my own with my ankle that with each spasm I am more sure is twisted.

My phone is across the pit, flashlight side up. Without its light, I'm not sure I would have found it. Beside it is a tarp, which must have been what was hiding the pit.

Using the dirt walls as balance, I make my way over to my phone and grab it. Every bit of weight put on my ankle sends it throbbing.

Colton's head appears above me, and I reach into my pocket and hold the pill bottle up to him.

"Take it. Get the points. You're already in the lead anyway."

"I'm not leaving you on this farm. Spurlock will check his traps first." He bends down and holds out his hand. "Iris."

I don't know what kind of danger Jonas is in or if he's even still in France, but if Colton wins the fifty grand, he would be able to find him. I know it.

"Iris." He holds out both hands.

I bite my lip and pocket the bottle and my phone before taking his hands, driving my uninjured foot into the dirt.

Colton drags me out, my stomach digging into the ground.

I'm free though.

He helps me to my feet, and I shift my weight onto my good foot.

"You good?"

I grimace. "Yeah."

He wraps his arm around my waist anyway. "Let's go."

Together we make our way out of the woods, every step putting us closer to the hundred points, to Jonas.

One of us will win Panic.

There is no other option.