Every now and then, there are more footsteps heard running by us, and from the sound of things, it seems like the guards have split up again. I wait another minute before silently asking Aiden if he is good to go, and by silently asking, I mean by giving him hand signals of me pointing at him, giving him a thumbs up, and then pointing out the booth. He seems to get my message and proceeds to wait until it is quiet again before peeking his head out from around the bottom of the booth.

Aiden slowly stands up and reaches out his hand for mine. I take it, and together, we start cautiously walking around the area. We make a few more turns and find ourselves right back near the entrance. How many times have we been here today?

We move to walk behind the game booths, where it is a little darker, and I let Aiden lead the way since he seems to have a better memory of the layout than I do. We have to stop walking a few times to let the guards pass, but ultimately, I think we are doing pretty good, considering just a few minutes ago, we had a whole army of guards behind us.

When we are able to move again, we get about ten feet before we end up making a right turn around a corner. We move quietly to get behind the first booth, then the second booth, and then the third one.

As Aiden and I are about to cross over behind the fourth booth, a guard’s head sticks out from behind two booths. His head is about three booths away and is currently looking away from us. Fear courses through my veins. Before I could even think to move, his head turns to look to his left, and he looks directly at us.

Aiden pulls us back the way we came, and we start running again. I don’t look back behind us to see if the guard is chasing us because I already know he is. Of course, he is. Aiden and I are practically enemy number one in their book, and they just won’t leave us alone.

We continue running, and as we make more turns, we are seen by more guards, and the number of people running after us grows again. Aiden lets out a series of curse words and then leads us right, left, and left again. After that, we gained some distance from the guards, and I catch sight of the next place we could hide for a little while until the guards spread out again.

I give Aiden’s hand a tug and point to the rock wall. He nods his head in agreement, and we both run to hide behind it before the guards catch up to us and see where we are going. Once behind the wall, I realize that this might not have been the best idea. There are a lot of big leafy bushes behind the wall.

“Too late to change our minds now. The shooters will be here any minute. I think we should get in the bushes,” Aiden says.

I know he is right, so I cover my face with my arms and lower myself into one bush. Branches poke at me, and leaves hit me in the face as Aiden comes to sit down in the bush next to me. This is definitely not an ideal situation, but I guess it could be worse.

I hear the sound of running feet go by, and I wait a minute after that to speak.

“What do we do now?” I whisper to Aiden through the leaves.

He looks at me, but he looks exhausted. “I don’t know.”

After another minute, I decide to ask another question that has been on my mind. “When Ethen gave away where we were to the guards, why did we run away from the maze? We weren’t that far away from it. Why didn’t you want to run that way?”

“I didn’t want to give our plan away,” Aiden says. “If we ran that way and didn’t make it to the maze, then they would have found out that we were trying to go that way, and the maze would have at least ten guards standing outside it by now if we did.”

He takes a short pause before speaking again. “Anyway, if we managed to make it to the maze and get out of the carnival, they would have chased us into the woods and found out where we were hiding. It just wouldn’t have ended well, so I figured we should run in the opposite direction.”

I nod my head in understanding. If we were to have run to where Theon and the other Jumpers are in the woods with Devin and all the other Treegrass people, then we would have been putting them in danger. We could have accidentally given away their location, and the guards could have sent all their men out to hunt them down and capture them. What they would do after they caught them, I have no clue. Would they kill them, or would they let the people who originally had the green light live?

I think about what Aiden said earlier about the people who didn’t go to the carnival. People who didn’t go to the carnival could be seen as defying the government’s wishes and killed. If Devin or I were to be caught by the guards, I have no doubt in my mind that they would kill us, too, since we didn’t do what they wanted us to.

But how could we? There was no way anyone would willingly let their family or friends die just because the New World said that they should. I don’t care if the New World is having problems. As long as I have my family, I would not mind the hardships.

Even now, if I had to give up my house and live in a bush, I would do it as long as I had my family, and I knew that there were people out there who were doing the best they could to fix whatever problems came our way. But I no longer know if I have my parents or my house. All I know is that I am sitting in a bush because the stupid New World government made the wrong choice.

I want to make them pay, but how? The people who are doing this live far away and have the best military. Even if we went around town to town and rescued everyone, we still wouldn’t be able to stop the people in the town of Officials.

I wonder what the Jumpers are really like. Are they all like Aiden, Theon, and Vesper? Do they really want to help all the towns escape the deadly carnivals? What is their plan after that if they succeed? There are just too many questions and not enough answers.

"What is the plan after the carnivals? I mean, what will the Jumpers do after they rescue everyone?" I ask.

Aiden doesn't answer right away. "I don't know. We haven't thought that far ahead yet. We have just been taking it one day at a time so far."

I guess that answers all right. They weren't prepared for something like this to happen. There was no plan. “Were you really going to let Ethen join us? That guy clearly wasn’t in his right mind. He wished his own brothers dead,” I tell Aiden.

Aiden thinks about it for a moment. “Yes,” he says, “just because someone thinks or believes something today doesn’t mean they will tomorrow. People change, and although Ethen might not be the most sane person I have ever met, it does not mean that he can’t change over time.” After a brief pause, he says, “So yes, I would have brought him with us.”

After that, I kind of feel like a jerk for asking. Of course, people can change. No one is born to be just one way in life. On top of that, Ethen has probably had just as bad of a day as I have, and we are just handling it in two different ways.

I wonder where Ethen is. Did the guards take him away to interrogate him about our whereabouts, or did they kill him after realizing that he does not have much information about us since we didn’t tell him anything too important?

I feel something crawling up my leg, and I try to swipe at it with my hand.

“Try not to think about it,” Aiden says.

“That is easier said than done, especially when you’re in a bush surrounded by creepy crawly things that are gross and disgusting.” I stare at my legs and arms, trying to catch the sight of anything on me that I can smack off.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Aiden says with some amusement in his voice.

I grew up surrounded by bugs and insects. I have a brother who never let me forget about their existence. Just because I am used to them doesn't mean I like them or want them crawling all over me.

I give him an angry look, but unfortunately, I don’t think he could see it in the dark behind multiple bush branches. “I know they won’t hurt me. That is not the problem. The problem is that there are creepy, crawly, disgusting things crawling up my legs and arms. Sorry, but I’m not very happy about it.”

I think I hear Aiden laugh a little, but I ignore him. I am too tired to argue or fight. I just want to go home and go to bed. I think today’s events are finally catching up with my body because it feels like I have just worked out for six hours straight. My feet hurt, my legs are tired, my lungs are on fire and I am pretty sure my brain stopped functioning sometime during the chase.

I hear footsteps come walking towards us, and I hope they walk away soon. The footsteps get closer, and I start to hear the sound of static on the guard's walkie-talkie. I see a light shining our way, and I close my eyes. I’m done fighting. I’m too tired. If the guard sees me, he could have me, but he is going to have to kill me because I am not telling him anything about anyone.

I hear the static sound again and then the guard’s voice, “All clear over here. Has anyone checked back over at the front?”

His voice, along with his footsteps, get further away, and I let out a breath of air. He must not have seen us in the bushes. The leaves probably covered us. I open my eyes again and see the familiar darkness.

“Okay,” Aiden says once the guard walks away, “I think I know what we should do now.”

“What’s your plan?”

Chapter 26

0 Comments