My gaze never left the screen as Rav, from time to time, called out the directions Dave provided him to Talise.

   Tali, on her end, didn't relent once, slinking to the left, right and corner areas Rav asked her to take. Her paces remained quick, yet calculated.

   Soon enough, the second camera was in the second classroom on the ground floor, hidden behind one of the desks' legs.

   As she moved up the stairs leading to the first floor with brisk legs, the hope within me at this point was an inferno.

   A level of optimism tended to be cemented in your thinking when you realised that you not only believed that someone could do something, but they did as well.

   Fortunately, she only had to drop the cameras in the hallway and the Physics lab nearby on the first floor.

   And then, just like that, there were two cameras left.

   One of the cameras, like Camila and Rav had mentioned days ago, was to be placed in the teachers' lounge found on the second floor, while the final camera was to be placed on the compounds of Zavlon.

   Right now, the teachers' lounge camera was Talise's focus.

   I would be lying if I said the idea of her going in there didn't make me feel uneasy. We'd been focused on the students for so long that the possibility of mind controlled teachers wasn't spared a single thought. Since the Virtual Dance had no chaperones, the teachers didn't have the Virtuo glasses like the students for the placement to occur so how did theirs happen?

   My mind instantly took me back to the girl and the two Yunies I saw in the classroom in the midst of my confusion on Liberation Day. The thought of the guns being used on the teachers like the screaming girl then filled every part of my bones with an unpleasant chill in no time.

   Even with regard to my Electronics teacher Mr Walsh... Sort of, anyway.

   Well, wherever they were, it's not like the teachers were going to be in the lounge ready to ambush Talise or something.

"Okay, Tali," Rav said. "Less than three minutes left. If you keep going straight and take a left five doors down, you'll find the teachers' lounge. Go!"

   This time, she took to her heels in the directions Rav provided, not slowing down as she bypassed door after door. Eventually, Talise took a left, halting her little sprint when she faced the medium-sized, brown-colored door situated between walls with large sized windows fixed in them. A peek through one of the windows gave her a full view of the teachers' lounge.

"Damn," she whistled. "This is Zavlon Academia's teachers' lounge?"

"I know," I mumbled.

   The astonishment in her statement was a reflection of my reaction when I caught a glimpse of this facility for the first time.

   A lush red velvet carpet filled up the floor of the large squared-sized room. At the center of the room stood several cream colored couches whose softness could be felt just by looking at them. The right corner of the room had a number of chairs and tables where the teachers had their meals. The tables contained the same serving system that students had in our cafeteria.

  With the exception of the 'fit test' system students like me will most likely never pass.

   Basically, the teachers had the choice to stuff their faces with everything I couldn't.

   And as if all that wasn't enough, they had a little enclosed space within the main room that was termed, "Virtual Space". No student knew what exactly happened there but did that stop the crazy theories of secret drinking games, strip poker and 'crush the students' souls cult' meetings?

   I'll leave that answer to you.

"Throw a bed in here and you'll get a bloody apartment!" Talise chuckled.

   And yet, despite all these things the teachers enjoyed, Mr Walsh still pulled off—very well, might I add— being a complete asshole.

   Happiness for some people was just impossible.

"Two minutes, thirty seconds, Tali."

   I gripped Rav's chair in front of me to remain steady. That, however, had little to no effect on weak legs and my rapidly pacing heart.

"Hurry up!" I yelled, even though she had already dropped the fifth camera and was heading downstairs.

   The chair was the only thing that kept me standing as I gawked at the screen, murmuring the words, "Hurry up" till I lost count.

"One minute, fifteen seconds."

   I knew Rav was only parroting what Dave told him on the phone and neither of them had any control over the time running out, but that didn't suppress the fury in me that wanted to be channelled by yelling at Rav to shut the hell up.

"One minute."

   Ugh.

   Talise was now on the first floor. Her loud breaths accompanied by heavy footsteps were the sounds that got back to us here in the van.

   Camila's eyes stayed glued to the screen. The stiffness her body assumed to portray a stable physical and mental composure was betrayed by the secret bites she made to her lower lip when she thought no one was looking.

   Rav however, didn't mask his reaction in the least. His vein-ridden grip he had on the phone as Dave spoke to him only got tighter and tighter. His forehead was drenched with tiny droplets that were instantly replaced when any dripped down his face.

  Dorian was the only one who made it a point to keep his gaze away from the screen. His scrunched up expression and clenched fists, however, clearly indicated that his imagination was substituting for all that his eyes refused to see.

   And probably making it worse.

"Thirty seconds."

   This time no one could look at the screen.

   I was glad Talise didn't respond to Rav. The very few seconds that passed were one of the longest I'd ever had in my life. I closed my eyes, toying with the fabric of my shirt in an irregular rhythm, as I wished for, yet dreaded at the same time, all this end.

   The pin dropping silence wasn't helping either.

   Wait... why was there silence?

   Why couldn't I hear Talise's breathing?

   My eyes darted to the screen the moment they flickered open to find it black. There was no live footage of Zavlon and certainly not my best friend.

"Rav?!" My voice was several octaves higher as I called his name.

   Rav raised his hand in a 'hold on' gesture as he switched his phone from one ear to the other. The remnants of rambling I could hear from Dave's side sounded a little too shriek-filled than I'd liked. For the next few seconds, Rav kept nodding his head multiple times, his undivided attention on whatever Dave was saying.

   Eventually, the noise on the other end of the call wasn't audible anymore. Dave had hung up.

   As he placed his device flat on the table, Rav took a minute before he regarded the rest of us to say,

"Time ran out earlier than expected. If Dave didn't want to be tracked, he had to stop the operation ten seconds earlier and leave before Zavlon got the alert."

"So you're telling me the cameras are back to normal?" My hand moved to brush over my forehead while asking.

   He substituted a verbal response with a quick nod.

   The feverish heat that struck next began in my face. Soon, every other part of my body was engulfed by the hot, unpleasant feeling of dread.

   The time Dave had estimated screwed us over. Zavlon's cameras most likely became well functioning again when Dave left, meaning no more 'blind spots' for Talise. All we knew was that she was still running when thirty seconds hit. Any form of communication with her was cut off for reasons we were yet to discover.

   So basically, there was no way of knowing whether Talise had made it to the bathroom in time.

A/N: Comment Yay or Nay if you think Tali made it back to the bathroom on time or otherwise.