Chapter Sixty-Nine

            Alice darted behind the wall and glanced around. When she was sure there was no one around, she motioned for Scenario and Pria to come. So far they had only needed to take out one of the guards and from then on they hadn’t encountered anyone else. Scenario thought it was very strange but he also couldn’t help think of how the other group was doing.

            Alice leaned against the wall and checked one more time around the corner of it to make sure no one had appeared. When she was assured there wasn’t anybody there, she reached into her pocket and took out a cigarette. She blew on the tip of it and it was lit in seconds.

            “Hey Al, give me one?” Scenario softly asked. She handed him one and lit it for him by snapping her middle finger and thumb together. For some reason this moment made her remember an argument Scenario and she would always get into back in the day. She remembered how he would always scold her for smoking more than the whole gang combined. Every time she would shrug and tell him, “Ever since I received my powers, this shit,” she shook the cigarette in her hand, “doesn’t affect me at all.” And every single time he would raise his eyebrow in a skeptical way and respond with, “Oh yeah and I’m suppose to believe that immunity to harmful substances in cigarettes and all that other lovely stuff?” At the end of all those arguments she’d stop bothering trying to make sense of it and after some time Scenario just dropped it.

            It was starting to bother Alice how she kept thinking about the past, it just seemed to remind her of all the things she screwed up, lost, and left behind. She dropped the cigarette and took the spare map out of her pocket and skimmed over it. They entered through an opening in what was Sector 1. There were 7 sectors in all, one of them being unused. Each sector had its own purpose and was contained building called Chambers.

            Alice had narrowed down her choices of the sectors Amelia could be in, she thought she would be in either Sector 5,6,or 7 and in worse case scenario she could be at Chase’s house. Right now, they Sector 1 by Chamber 6, which was located two buildings down from 15. Right above Chamber 15 there was a bridge that connected Sector 1 to Sector 2. That would be place they would have to be the most cautious around.

            Scenario watched Alice checking over the map. He slowly leaned over her shoulder to see the map as well. From the corner of his eye, he could see Alice mumbling some words. She then turned her face toward him and he couldn’t stop being aware of how close she was to him. He could her warm breath against his lips. He wanted to freeze time at the exact moment. They were face to face and Scenario was about to close the space between them but felt himself coward out and stopped. Alice, on the other hand, hadn’t been aware of how close they were and so she began to explain how they needed to pass by the bridge, but Scenario didn’t hear a word she said. He was too distracted by her flawless lips. Alice suddenly heard a noise and turned away. Scenario cursed himself and at the noise that had ruined his moment, but then again he felt it didn’t make such a difference since Alice wasn’t even aware of his feelings.

            “Scen…” he heard.

            “What?” he retorted.

            “We have to pass that bridge as fast as we can, in order to not attract any guards.”

            “So we’re running it?”

            “Yeah, just be aware of what’s going on around you.”

            “Got it.” Alice quickly folded the map and shoved it into her back pocket. She then took the elastic band off her wrist and tied her hair back. She slowly looked around the corner of the building, that’s when she saw on the bridge a few guards and she noticed them, Matt and Jaime. It seemed the guards were escorting them to the training grounds. Alice smirked and waited for them to pass.

            “Now!” They ran across the dirt road and stopped right at Chamber 15. Once they were clear they darted towards Chamber 4 in Sector 4. As Pria ran ahead of them, Scenario checked behind to make sure no one had seen them.

            “All okay back here, Al,” Scenario whispered to her. She nodded and then promptly stopped. “Hey,” Scenario walked into her, “Why’d you stop?” he realized she was staring ahead and so he followed her gaze until it ended up on Jaime and Matt. They were standing directly in front of them.

            Alice smirked, “So you saw us?”

            “Oh, don’t act stupid Al! You knew darn well that we saw you,” Jaime shouted. Alice shrugged as Jaime glared at her. “A b**** like always, right Al?” That didn’t faze Alice at all.

            She leaned back and whispered to Scenario, “Go on ahead and meet with the others.” He was about to begin to protest and Alice noticed this, “Don’t you dare argue with me, now go!” Scenario tried to prolong leaving but he never disobeyed one of Alice’s before and so he left. Matt and Jaime paid very little attention when he left since they were only set on one thing, defeating Alice.