Author Scott Reintgen shares his thoughts on an exclusive, an action-packed excerpt from his debut YA novel Nyxia. Plus, enter for a chance to win an advanced copy of Nyxia!
Nyxia centers on Emmett Atwater, a teen from Detroit who is recruited to join a strange and secretive mission for the mysterious Babel Corporation. Along with other troubled teens, the Corporation takes Emmett aboard a ship to distant regions of space, with generous compensation promised when they return.
But life on board the ship rapidly turns into a competition, with teens jockeying for the right to serve as miners on a hidden planet. As the stakes of the game rise, Emmett is forced to reckon with terrible choices — and the possibility that even victory might mean destruction.
Scott Reintgen on chapter 5 of ‘Nyxia’
I’m a little too competitive. It didn’t help that my two brothers were better than me at just about everything. We competed all the time: sports, video games, who could run from the grocery store entrance to touch the car first (that person got to ride shotgun, of course). So it’s no surprise that competition made its way onto the pages of Nyxia.
The company that hired Emmett — Babel Communications — wants the best. That means training and testing each contestant for life on a foreign planet. Some normal competitions made sense: swimming in harsh conditions, studying an alien species, learning to mine valuable materials.
But my favorite competitive arena is definitely the Rabbit Room. Like most of my writing, the Rabbit Room is just a twist on something we all recognize. My first attempt at writing the scene featured the contestants running on treadmills, building their endurance. That was boring.
So I asked the question: what if they were all running on one giant treadmill? After throwing in Babel’s technological marvels and a healthy dose of our team vs. your team, the Rabbit Room was born. I hope you enjoy Emmett’s discovery of Babel’s grueling challenge in this excerpt:
Exclusive excerpt from ‘Nyxia’ by Scott Reintgen
Day 1, 4:03 p.m.
Aboard Genesis 11
“Afternoon activities will be group-oriented.”
I glance around and it’s clear I’m not the only one unhappy about group activities. We just spent all morning fighting tooth and nail with each other for spots. People above me on the scoreboard? Not my friends. People below? Doubt they’re excited to ball out with me either. Defoe ignores the tension and groups us at random. I mentally groan when I see Longwei sorted onto the other team. So far, he’s been unbeatable. Whatever the next competition is, his team will definitely have an edge.
Defoe leads us down two flights and through a double-wide blast door. The room is empty except for a mesh barrier that divides it in half. It almost looks like a tennis net, except that it cuts across the length of the space rather than the width. On either side of the hip-high barrier, the empty room stretches thirty meters long, twenty meters wide, and twenty meters high. The ceiling, floor, and walls are all nyxian black. Defoe sends my team to one side and Longwei’s team to the other. I scrunch my toes and test the floors with my weight. It’s a slightly bouncy material, but not so soft that you lose your balance. Maybe some kind of rubber?
Even though we don’t have Longwei, our team isn’t half bad. Jaime, Azima, and Kaya are all right behind him in the standings. Isadora, though, is in last place. I eye her like she’s deadweight until I realize Jaime and Azima are eyeing me the same way.
They think I’m one of the weak links. I’ll have to change that. Soon.
We wait for Defoe as he strides past the mesh net to the side of the room opposite the entryway. He swipes at his data pad, and clockwork mechanisms rumble to life. The floor begins to vibrate as Defoe takes his place on an elevated platform. As always, he’s smiling his hunter’s smile.
“We call this the Rabbit Room.”
He gestures to the walls on either side of him. The black spaces flicker, and identical images of a forest materialize on either side of the net, each with brilliant, lifelike color. It reminds me of the Neverland Simulators, but the digital imagery is a thousand times more realistic. Like looking through a portal into another world. I’m pretty sure the technology in the room is worth more than my neighborhood.
Defoe continues his instructions. “If you make contact with the back wall, you’re out of the competition. The team with the most people standing at the end of the exercise wins.”
Without another word, Defoe slashes his data pad and the floors literally start to move. Both teams are borne slowly toward the back wall. On the distant screen, an unseen runner begins through the trees. We’re the runners, I realize. On a gigantic treadmill.
Jaime’s the first to wake us up. “Come on!” he shouts.
At a jog, he moves away from the back of the room. Longwei’s team is already to the middle of their side. I can hear them talking strategy as our group follows Jaime forward.
“Let’s get as close to the screen as possible.”
Jaime doesn’t just sound like a captain; he looks like one too. Something about his assumed leadership annoys me, but I don’t have a better plan, so I fall in with him and Kaya. The others join us, and when we’re close enough to touch the screen, we slow to an arm-pumping speed walk. The forest is so vivid that I feel like I could break through dimensions and be there.
After just a few minutes, the speed increases. I’m already breathing hard, and so is the rest of our team. The path twists, and our first obstacle appears. A massive tree trunk splits the road in two. We keep jogging side by side, waiting for the invisible runner to pick a direction.
Which is why none of us expects the tree to appear. One second, empty air. The next, a full size trunk materializes onto the treadmill and levels Azima. The crunching sound echoes, and her fall clips Kaya’s legs. The two of them are carried back with the tree trunk, which is rooted absurdly into the floor of our treadmill.
I consider going back for them before Isadora shouts, “Watch out!”
Together we duck a low-hanging branch that’s just swept to life. Jaime does the same before shifting over to close the gap between us. As the path levels out, I look back to see Kaya trying to pull Azima to her feet. She’s too dazed to move, though. Just before they pancake into the back wall, Kaya rolls to one side and sprints away.
Our side of the room pulses. A brief flash of white along the walls and floors and then the speed of the treadmill increases. We’re going faster than the other group now. The punishment is clear. Lose a teammate and your odds decrease.
And now the obstacles are coming faster too. A rockslide crashes down from the left, and the three of us swing to the far right. Kaya’s nearly caught up with us when some kind of animal thrashes through the trees. I catch sight of fangs and claws and roll instinctively as it leaps to life. The creature’s lunge misses me, but it snags Jaime by a shoulder. I watch him go down, hear him cry out, and then Kaya’s cry follows his. I look back to see that the beast is gone, but both Jaime and Kaya are tangled together. Before they can recover, the treadmill ferries them to the back wall.
I curse as our side pulses twice and the treadmill goes faster, faster, faster.
We’re basically sprinting now. Isadora’s holding her side. Seeing her pain reminds me of mine. The stitch in my stomach sharpens, so I shout, “Keep going!”
Side by side, we press through the thickening forest. A massive crash sounds on our right, and I hear shouts from the other team. Their walls pulse with successive lights. I can’t risk looking over to check the numbers. Isadora and I keep moving.
Ahead, a stream crosses the forest path. I’m wondering if we’ll have to leap over it when our runner decides to go straight through. A brief flash of the floor is highlighted blue, and my feet slap down right into the colored strip. The ground snags like quicksand. The sudden change clips my footing, and I hit the treadmill hard, nailing my shoulder on the fall. Isadora screams, and we both whip back toward the entrance.
I make it to my feet. Isadora doesn’t.
The light pulses again and I’m alone. A quick glance shows Longwei, Bilal, and Jazzy are still up and running. It’s a surprise to see Jazzy running at the head of their tight knot, but a second of watching her form is answer enough. She’s composed, running like she’s halfway through a normal cross-country race. Longwei and Bilal follow her lead through each obstacle.
I pump my arms and manage to get back to the center of our side of the room. The forest clears, and I see a series of twisting ravines ahead. The road dips a little, and my stomach takes a nosedive. Cliffs and canyons wait. The first is a snaking fissure that divides the path in two. I watch the unseen runner approach the edge and leap.
You’ve got to be kidding.
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Enter to win one of three advanced copies of Nyxia by Scott Reintgen from Hypable! Open to readers in the U.S. and Canada.
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