The Hedgehunter: A TAWOG Fanfic

Chapter 8: Little White Rose

Even in the darkness of the fast-approaching night, Gumball, Darwin, and Carrie could make out the unmistakable shadow of the Chanax Inc building. A great black spire silhouetted against the deep navy blue of the sky. In the time it'd taken them to get here, the sun had almost totally set beyond the horizon, and none of them were keen on spending another night living in fear. One way or another, this chaos was ending tonight.

The three of them cautiously stalked up to the doors of the building and peered inside. There were still some dim lights turned on, but it was very safe to assume that the building had been closed for the night. There was nobody at the front entrance, and what windows they could see walking up to the building showed no workers or other employees. It was almost assuredly vacant.

Gumball pressed against the front doors, but they wouldn't budge. "Figures they'd be locked at this time of night..." He muttered.

"Hold on. Let me see if I can get them open from inside." Carrie said, drifting forward and phasing through the glass doors. She quickly turned around, motioned for them to be quiet and stay put, and then began to study the door and comb the foyer for any way to get them inside. Meanwhile, Gumball and Darwin glanced around the ever-darkening streets of Elmore, not too comfortable with the idea of being stranded outside for long, especially with the Hedgehunter certainly in the process of tracking them down. For now though, all they could do was wait and hope Carrie could get the door open in time.

Ten seconds... twenty... thirty...

The doors faintly creaked and opened up behind them. Carrie motioned for them to come in. "C'mon, hurry!" She whispered. "Before he knows we're here!"

Gumball and Darwin didn't need to be told twice. They quickly skulked inside, quietly closed the door behind them, and began to work their way around the halls of the building, illuminated only by the dimmed ceiling lights. The walls were all characteristically gray and black and boring, and the floor was so polished that they could make out their reflections in it. Aside from their carefully placed footsteps against the floor, the entire building was as quiet as the grave.

"So guys, you'll have to bear with me. I don't think I've ever been in here before." Carrie would say, glancing into every room and around every corner as the trio covertly made their way around. "If that contract really is here, where do you think we'll find it?"

"Gumball? You...you don't think it's in the archive department, do you?" Darwin asked nervously. His concern was a valid one. If the three of them had to sift through that literal swamp of loose papers and files, they'd die of old age before the Hedgehunter could even reach them.

"Pray that it's not. I mean...it's just one contract." Gumball would do his best to assure Darwin. "Hey, remember how Mr. Chanax kept Rocky's contract with him in his office? Maybe the Hedgehunter's is up in that office too."

"But that's all the way at the top of the building!"

"I know..." Gumball grumbled, now faced with the reality that they had a hefty climb ahead of them. "Guess we'll have to walk there."

"Hey, maybe we won't have to." Carrie would propose, glancing and drifting around the hallway, until she came across the unmistakable double doors of an elevator. A whole row of them to be exact. "Aha! We'll just take the ride up and be there in no time."

Carrie pressed the button on the control panel next to the door, but nothing occurred. The button didn't light up, no information flashed on the digital panel above the elevator, nothing. Confused, Carrie tried the same thing with the next elevator. Then the next. And then the next. Every time, the same thing.