It's funny how thinking about cheeseburgers makes your reaction time slow down considerably.

You get a cut on your broken arm instead of getting your broken arm cut off, though, so that's good.

"How the frick are you so quiet?"

Cross ignores your question. She looks disappointed. "You're slow," She complains, putting the tip of her sword in the floor and leaning on it. Fresh blood droplets slowly slide down the blade. "You were faster when I was chasing you at the motel, and you were half asleep."

"Oh I'm sorry," you hiss, holding your arm. The cut almost hurt as much as the rest of your arm when it was jostled trying to avoid the attack. "I didn't think I was obliged to make this fun for you assholes."

She tilts her head to the side. "Hey now. We fed you and took care of your wounds. I think you owe us a little bit of fun."

You snarl at her. "Like hell I do!"

She smirks and picks up her sword. "Oh, you've got some fight in you now. Good."

She raises her sword, and you run before she gets a chance to swing. You're more awake now than you were last time, and you hope you're faster. You don't know if there are any loops arounds in the maze though. You don't want her to cut you off.

You don't want to give away your new weapon yet. You'd carefully tucked the glass shard in your pocket, and you don't want it to be taken away just yet. You need some kind of advantage.

She's not being quiet now. You can hear her laughing behind you. You blame the cheeseburger daydream for this.

Is there any way you can lose her? She knows the maze better than you do, can you even hide? You skid around corners trying to shake her off. You happen to pass another mirror, and get to see that she's nearly within slicing distance, without having to turn your head and risk running into a wall!

You run faster.

She didn't have her sword anymore, probably because it was large and hard to run with, and it was easy to summon to her hand when she was ready to dismember you. You see the crazy light in her eyes and the deranged grin spread across her face.

"You can't outrun me," she calls. You can hear the thrill in her voice. "And you can't hide."

You don't try to argue with her. You don't want to piss her off or make this a challenge. You just have to run and hope. You're not used to running this much, though. If you can't lose her, you're dead.

You end up in a section of the maze with a lot of turns and short halls, and do your best to get yourself lost in them. You do a pretty good job, apparently, as you finally find your first dead end. Luck must've been on your side up until now.

You whirl around, expecting to see a sword coming down o your head, but there's nothing. You hear faint, muffled footsteps and swearing from somewhere nearby.

Holy shit you actually did it.

You take a minute to catch your breath. Maybe you should've grabbed that water bottle after all. Once you're no longer gasping for breath, you carefully poke your head out from the safety of your dead end. You don't see or hear anything. Quietly, you sneak out, and try to avoid where you heard Cross muttering rude things about your heritage.

If your luck holds out, you won't run into any of the Meme Squad for a while, at least.