We keep moving at a constant pace. It is a good thing I am used to racing Devin because it has really helped me practice for tonight.

We keep running and running and running, just trying not to get caught.

As I make my way past them, the booths turn to blur. The vibrant glow they once had turns into smooth, thin lines of vague colors that I can no longer remember the names of.

All that consumes my mind is Devin. I need to make it back to him alive. I might be the only family member he has left still breathing. I need to get out of here and away from these guards, and I know the only way I can do that is with Aiden's help.

Every now and then, Aiden pulls my arm to steer me to the right or to the left, and I don’t question him. My heart is racing, and I am almost out of breath. I keep telling myself that it’s just a little further. I just have to make it a few more feet, and then everything will be alright.

I know it’s not true, but I need to keep moving. Wherever Aiden is taking us can’t possibly be much farther, right? There are only so many places where a person could run to.

I know that we have run in a circle a few times. I don’t know if this is to confuse the guards or something, but I don’t bother asking Aiden. Whatever he is doing is working. With each turn we make, there are fewer guards behind us. I keep looking over my shoulder every few minutes to see how many guards there are, or in other words, I look to see how much danger we are in.

At the start of this, there were only two, then there were five, and at the height of it, there were eight since we ran past one of those small rooms I was in earlier, and there were still guards outside of it. Now though, with Aiden’s weird but useful tactic of taking random turns and running in circles, there are only three behind us.

We are both running at top speed, and every now and then, Aiden has to tell me when we will make a sudden turn. He tells me when we should go right or left, and how he says it makes me believe that he memorized this whole carnival.

For all I know, he could just be guessing what direction we should go in. I don’t think he could really have memorized the whole layout of the place since he had to think about what direction we should go in when we were with Ethen. He must have remembered the way the carnival was in Tundris and figured that the carnivals were set up the same everywhere.

The governors probably figured they could make all the carnivals the same since it would make moving the carnival to the next town easier. They probably didn’t think about the possibility of people escaping the carnivals and breaking back in when they moved to another town.

I glance behind us. A handful of guards are still chasing us, but two of them are much faster than the others. "They are gaining on us," I tell Aiden.

“We will lose them," Aiden says. "Just keep moving! Another left"

Just as we start to turn left, I see two guards come running at us. "Not left!" I say quickly.

Aiden pulls my hand, and we backtrack our steps and take off in a new direction.

"Left,” he says right as he pulls my arm left down the main entrance plaza. We make another turn left and start running past all the game booths. We run a few more feet before he says left again, and we are running through the food area with all the tables and chairs laid out.

The place looks kind of eerie since I could practically see all the faces of the people who were having a good time earlier before the government started to kill people. I look behind us to see two guards left.

“Right,” he says, and in that instant, we both turn right down an alleyway. The second we make the turn, we both start backing up and running back in the direction we were running before.

Down that alleyway, there are a whole group of guards. We try to make another turn out of the food court, but another group of guards turns us around. I don’t bother turning around to see how many are behind us now. There is no doubt in my mind that they are catching up to us.

All the guards I thought we lost behind us apparently just grouped together. I have no idea how many guards there are in this whole carnival, but if there are more guard groups like that behind another corner or turn, then Aiden and I are screwed.

“What do we do?” I ask Aiden in a panic.

“I don’t know! Just keep running!”

We try to run for the small entryway that leads to another section of games, but more guards turn us around once again.

The two of us run in another direction and take off towards one of the last ways out. There is a decently large opening between the guard surrounded area we are currently in and the other side of the carnival. We start running that way just as guards come in from that direction. I start to slow my run so that we can turn around and look for another way out, but Aiden apparently has other plans. He keeps pulling my arm in that direction anyway.

“We can make it,” he says. “I think we can make it. Just keep running!”

I understand what he is saying. The guards coming in from that direction are not moving that fast, and if we run fast enough and stick to the left side of the wall, we might be able to run past them and get out of this guard-infested part of the carnival.

I look at Aiden and see the determination on his face. He really believes we can do it. I try to force my legs to go faster. If we do make it, then it will be by a hair.

We get closer and closer, and I think the guards start to realize what we are planning on doing because they start moving faster towards the little open gap as well. As we are running through, a guard reaches out and grabs my arm. I am instantly yanked back and I let go of Aiden’s hand. I tug my arm free of the guard and kick him in the shin. I claw at his hand, and his grip loosens. I manage to free myself from him and avoid the other arms reaching for me. More guards start moving in. I push past a guard, but they get too close, and I can't fight them all.

One grabs me from behind, while another comes at me. I kick my legs at the guard that is holding me in the hopes of him letting go. There is the sound of a gunshot, and my blood runs cold.

Did they shoot me? I don't feel any pain.

I feel the guard's grip on me loosen, and I see Aiden start pushing guards out of the way while waving his gun at them. I manage to break free from the guard, and once I do, Aiden motions to start running again.

Aiden grabs my hand once again and starts running with me. He definitely could have run off without me, but he didn’t. He probably should have since that could have ended very badly for the both of us, but I am glad he didn’t.

We take off running full speed ahead with the guards right behind us. The guards are getting closer to us, and I don’t know how much longer we can run before they catch us. Right after Aiden and I make a quick right turn, Aiden lets go of my hand and grabs hold of his gun once more.

The lack of pain I feel must mean that he was the one who shot the gun before. I don't know where he aimed it, but it helped us get out of there.

I hear the sound of his gun going off, but I am too afraid to turn around and look. I slow down my running pace a little bit so that Aiden can catch up with me, and he does. We take off running at full speed again until the sound of the guards gets closer. Aiden does what he did before and slows down his pace so that he can shoot at some of the guards.

This time, I take a look behind us and see that he is aiming for their legs. This makes me feel a little better since I am not sure if I would be able to handle the death of so many people in one day. I also don’t know if I could live with myself knowing that I played a hand in another person’s death. The guards might not be the best people in the world, but they are still people nonetheless. I also don’t feel good about Aiden or me killing someone who isn’t even shooting at us.

But then again, all the people who died here in Treegrass today and in Tundris a little while back also didn’t have guns or weapons, and yet the government had the guards kill them. This is all just an awful situation.

Aiden stops shooting, and we speed up our pace again. The shooting has luckily caused us to gain a little distance from the guards. I take a quick glance back and see that there are still many guards running after us, probably about fifteen to twenty. Not that I am complaining, but I really don’t understand why they don’t shoot at one of our legs. They need to catch us alive in order to find the others, and they have guns, so why don’t they use them?

We run straight for a while before Aiden decides that we should go left. Once we make the turn, we could either go straight down and make a right or make another left. Instead of either of those options, Aiden grabs my hand again and leads the two of us towards a game booth. Once inside, Aiden crouches down, and I do the same. The two of us move as far back into the booth as we can and wait to hear the sound of the guards running by.

As the sound of the guards gets closer, I instinctively push myself as far into the booth as possible, although I know that a guard running by would not see me or Aiden in here.

I look at Aiden as we wait to hear the guards leave. He is out of breath, just like I am. We look at each other for what feels like an eternity before the sound starts to fade again. Neither of us says anything after it gets quiet. We just continue to look at each other until our breathing slows down.

Chapter 25

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