My legs were aching even more, the adrenaline starting to weaken. I was going to be so sore later, but if we made it out alive I wouldn’t care. The pain was nothing compared to what I had endured in the Circus.
Just as we rounded a corner, Chase appeared in front of us.
“Chase—” I began but he cut me off as he turned to Melvin and Davis. They appeared as if they were going to punch him.
“I will meet you all there.” With that, he quickly grabbed my wrist and the last thing I heard was Davis and Melvin yelling at him.
Before I could even blink, I was up high in the tree, in the same place he took me the other night. His tree fort. I tried to catch my breath but my heart was racing and everything around me was a dizzy mess. Why would he pull me out of there? Had the plan changed, had something gone wrong?
“Calm down, you are safe here.” Chase sat down next to me, looking down at the battle that was going on. There were so many soldiers, I had no idea. There had to be over a hundred running through the streets, searching for us.
“Why...”
“They would have captured you if I didn’t intervene. They were naïve to think they could just run away from Bill.” Chase sighed as his attention was still on the city below. “This was the only way.”
“I thought Bill could find portals, won’t he be able to find us?” I asked as I sat down next to him. There really wasn’t anything I could do, as there was no way I could get down without Chase deciding to take me along with him.
Chase shook his head. “I made too many portals, he would have to know this was the right one.”
I stared down at the city. It was scary to imagine just moments ago I was in the middle of all that. “How did he find us?”
“I don’t know, I made over four dozen portals. He shouldn’t have been this prepared, if anything he would have just sent scouts to each. He knew this was the correct one somehow,” Chase said, frustrated that he had failed at his job. I felt bad for him, knowing that Howard and the others may blame him for Bill finding us. But I knew it wasn’t his fault, there had to be something else going on.
“What now?”
He took a deep breath. “We wait. I told the others where to meet. We wait for everything to die down then we will meet them there.”
I looked back down at everything going on, searching for the others. I found Melvin and Davis still running towards the edge of the city, knowing that they still had to act as if I was with them to keep the soldiers chasing after them. As for Malcolm and Howard, it took me a moment to find them, but when I did I couldn’t believe what I saw.
The two of them were fending off at least twenty men. Were they really that strong? Could they really make it out of there alive?
Malcolm promised me that they would be okay, he promised me that they would make it out safely and meet up with us, that he would be there when we faced Morpheus again. But the odds were completely against him. There was no way that someone could fight that many men at once.
My eyes didn’t leave the two of them. I could see exactly how the fight was going, but I could tell that many of the soldiers had fallen to the ground from the two of them fighting their hearts out. Malcolm and Howard were back-to-back as they went up against their next attackers. Even though they were surrounded, they had the upper hand with that stance. I had faith in them, but the worry they’d lose still wouldn’t leave my mind.
That was when it happened. The soldiers made them break their stance.
Chase slowly stood up, his cat-eyes fixated on Malcolm and Howard. They no longer held a great defense, separated from each other. One of the soldiers, thrusted at Howard and I watched as the sword went through his stomach.
I tried to scream out but Chase quickly placed his hand over my mouth. “Shh! We can’t be heard up here.”
After a few deep breaths, I nodded and he let go of me.
“Alice, I have to go down there and save Malcolm, he won’t be able to fight all of them by himself. I’m leaving you here alone. Don’t make a sound, all right? You will be safe you just have to wait for me.”
I wanted to say no, don’t leave me, but he was right. He had to get Malcolm out of there. There was no way Malcolm could defeat all those men by himself.
Chase disappeared and I peered down to see him appear next to Malcolm. Malcolm looked surprised and pissed but Chase grabbed him and they both disappeared to another place.
I looked around, searching for them but I saw no trace. I closed my eyes and whispered to myself. “It’s all right Alice, he will be back, he will be back for you.”
Minutes went by, which felt like hours as my heart pounded in my chest. If anything happened to them, I would be stuck up here. How would I get down? I was at least five stories high in a tree.
I heard footsteps behind me. “Chase?” I spun around to find a tall brown haired man. Not Chase. It was the man I had seen in the forest. It was Bill, his brown hair a bit messy as he had been fighting below. Blood stained his
