It actually took us half the time the Bosses gave us to get ready.

Either we were too good at packing up, or we barely had anything to pack up. I mean, I only had at most five pairs of clothes, some money, my little fox plushie named Arrow, and my collections of daggers. That's all.

Coming out of the room, I only had a duffle bag slung onto my right shoulder. Trivia and Pay were also waiting, with only one bag with them. Pay had a backpack sitting on his back, while Trivia and a huge purse slung on her shoulder.

Yeah, I think it's just that we were too good at packing.

"You guys also finished?" I asked Trivia and Pay.

Pay just pointed at his backpack.

"Is that a yes, or...?"

He pointed at the backpack again, except more harshly.

"No?"

Trivia looked like she was on the verge of screaming. She opened her mouth, but whatever she was planning to say got cut off by Pay.

"Now that everyone's here, we can leave. Unless, of course, you have to argue with someone. In that case, go ahead and be my guest in joining the games of Cicada when she catches you," Pay directed the last sentence at Trivia. With that, he started to walk off.

She said nothing, just shot out hard, harsh glares.

"So you were done packing?" I confirmed with Pay.

Trivia went up to me, stepped on my foot, and walked away. My foot felt like it was heating up, maybe even glowing red under my socks. But at least I didn't stub my toe. Or have any wet socks.

Those were the worst.

"Target, you're welcome to stand there and get caught by the police," Pay called from up ahead.

Right, the police! They were still out there, looking for us and trying to put us in jail. I completely forgot about that. By now, they should've given up. But I guess they weren't going to stop until they beat at least one round of cops and robbers. I've been keeping track, and so far it's us with about fifty wins, and them with none.

It's fine though, I'm used to running away. I've run away from a lot of things, like the government and law, Defendants, all of my ex-Boss's threats of killing me. Oh, and the weasel. I can't forget about the weasel I once accidentally let into the office that tried to bite off my toes, thinking it looked like peanuts.

"Wait up Pay, Trivia!" I ran up to them with my duffle bag. "Does anyone need to use the restroom before we leave? There's no stops along the roads."

"Porta-Potties exist," Pay rolled his eyes.

"Those are disgusting," Trivia gagged.

"Then don't use it."

"So does that mean you guys don't need to use it? Because I'm going to go without you then," I reminded them.

"Go ahead then! At least that makes it easier for us to leave you behind," Trivia snapped.

"This isn't the time to play hide and seek Trivia," I sternly reminded her. "Otherwise the bosses- or is it ex-Bosses -will come after us, and we already have enough running exercises with the cops playing cops-and-robbers."

"There is no us, Target." Trivia's voice became louder with each word spoken. "It's you. The bosses are going to go after you. Heck, it's your fault we got fired! We don't need you to mess everything up again!"

"It's not just my fault," I argued. "You guys weren't clear with the instructions! If you would just teach me how to fly with the pulley, I could've helped Pay out earlier."

"Trivia, you're right. There is no we in this," Pay simply said, before walking away from us.

At that, Lemonhead called Pay some no-no words.Then she proceeded to yell, "TRAITOR! I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO DITCH HER TOGETHER!"

"Ditch as in build a hole for me, or runaway-without-me kind of ditch?" I arched my eyebrows.

"Like you said, Trivia," Pay said, completely ignoring me. "There is no we in this-"

"She actually said us, not we," I mumbled under my breath.

"-fine by myself. You guys only slow me and, and my skill, down," Pay finished, before turning back. His backpack faced me, looking very light. The bag itself wasn't sinking down, but looked like it was floating.

I was pretty sure that the backpack was mostly filled with money. And a few necessities.

"Okay, well it's just us," I turned to Lemonhead. "Unless you decide to dig a ditch for me. Then it's just me."

Trivia looked like she was going to blow up at me, but all that came out of her was distorted words. They sounded like something a fangirl would say. Giving up on communicating, she just stomped away from me, not before quickly stomping on my foot again before leaving like Pay.

Instead Trivia walked off in a different direction than him.

"Wait!" I called after the two of them. With each passing step, Trivia and Pay were becoming tinier and tinier, as if they drank a shrinking potion and the potion was starting to be effective. "We shouldn't split up!"

They continued to walk.

"Seriously! It happens in every horror movie!" I continued. "The moment people split up, the moment everyone is going to die. Or in our case, get caught by the police."

"I really don't know how many times I've repeated this, Target: This is reality, not some dumb movie of yours," Pay called from wherever he was heading, without looking or turning back.

Okay, fine, I don't know what Pay said, since I couldn't hear him (or see him, at this point). But that was something he probably said. Or would've said if he heard me.

I turned from straight ahead to my left, looking at the directions Trivia and Pay set off. Looks like I'm going to have to choose one of them. Taking a deep breath, I started to contemplate my choices.

"Eenie, meenie, mieny, mo..."

***

"Hey Pay!" I stopped to breathe after running up to him. No answer. And he didn't stop for me. He's probably ignoring me, typical Pay. This time, speed walking up to him to match his pace, I tried again. "So... where are you going? Ooh, are you finding a new group to work with?"

Still no answer.

We both continued to walk in silence. During that period, Pay all of a sudden started to speed up his pace. I mimicked him and caught up to him. Another time, he all of a sudden slowed down, making me go in front of him while he strolled in the back. Then I waited for him to catch up to me.

He continued to do this, which got very suspicious. Almost as if he was trying to throw me off track... While we were walking at the same pace again, I asked, "Are you trying to lose me off the trail?"

"Really? What gave you the idea?" he asked sarcastically.

"Oh, well you tried to walk faster, then you all of a sudden slowed down, throwing me off..." I stopped to think. "Oh, and you all of a sudden made that police car appear."

"What?" Pay suddenly stopped again.

"You made that police car magically appear while we were walking, as if trying to throw me off track." I looked at his startled face, while it looked like it belonged to someone who had recently seen a ghost.

"Wait... you didn't make the police car randomly appear out of nowhere?" Now I was the one who was confused.

The door to the car opened, and out came two figures. The first one out of the passenger seat door , the other out of one of the backseats. They were wearing white lab coats, which had the symbol of a teal and pastel lime green shield.

Realization dawned on me. "Oh. Oh."