Searching For Scarlett [Undergoing edits]

0.5

About ten minutes later, Mariana and Taylor were walking side-by-side down the road with one backpack full of clothes, the other, food. 

They stopped at the end of the street and looked at each other.

"What now?" Mariana spoke first.

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. Think. How could we find Scarlett?"

Mariana was silent for a few seconds.

 "You'd think my crazy parents planted a micro-chip onto her," Mariana snorted, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "We could find her through that."

Taylor gasped. "Oh my God, Mari, you're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Yes! Even if your parents didn't physically put a micro-chip in Scarlett, she put one on her herself!"

"What?" Mariana asked, confused.

"Her phone!" Taylor elaborated, "Scarlett's phone can tell us where she as, as long as she as it! She'd downloaded the feature herself so she could find us, remember?"

Mariana was silent as she thought back. 

About a year ago, they were at a carnival and Scarlett wanted to hang with her friends, but she had to babysit Mariana and Taylor, so she took their phones and downloaded an app called Pinpoint.

Taylor, Mariana, and Scarlett still use the app to find each other, so they know Scarlett still has the app.

Taylor pulled out her phone and Mariana drew closer to watch Taylor's fingers zoom out to locate the rest of their group. Instantly, Mariana's orange dot popped up next to Taylor's green one, but Scarlett's red dot was nowhere to be seen.

Mariana and Taylor stared at the screen and continued to zoom out until the third dot came into view. 

Taylor then zoomed in on it at drew her eyebrows in confusion as she squinted at the screen.

"Crap," Taylor muttered, and Mariana rested her chin on her friend's right shoulder, squinting her eyes and leaning in trying to see Taylor's small screen better.

"What?" Mariana asked.

"Scarlett's dot isn't in the borders of Saquan."

Mariana gave up looking at Taylor's phone and pulled out her own, opening the app.

Quickly, she found Scarlett's dot and swore.

"Damn it," Mariana swore, "we're forbidden to leave the borders without permission!" She groaned and quit out of the app, closing her phone and slipping it in the side pocked of her bag.

Taylor grunted and brought her phone closer to her face, eyes squinting into slits. "You're right," she mumbled, more to herself. "We need a plan."

"Right," Mariana agreed, leaning forward and resting her chin back on her friend's shoulder, letting her arms dangle between them. "Any ideas?"

Taylor shook her head, her eyes closed. Suddenly, they flew open.

"Mariana!" Taylor shrieked.

Mariana jumped and slammed her hand over her friend's mouth from behind, glaring at the back of her head.

"Shush!" She commanded, slowly removing her hand. "Any louder and we're gonna get caught! You know the rules," she hissed, stepping around to face her friend, bright blue eyes meeting burning green. 

"Mariana, think!" Taylor urged, gripping her phone tightly in her right fist. "You're right; we are forbidden to leave the borders. If we are seen leaving, we get caught, and we get punished. See where I'm going with this?"

Mariana nodded, putting her hands to her hips and leaning slightly forward, squinting her eyes slightly at her friend. "Yes. You're stating the obvious, Taylor. We're not allowed to go, yes whoever it was, took Scarlett into the— oh, oh, OH!"

Mariana's blue eyes grew huge and her hands cupped the sides of her face as she mouth opened. "Whoever took her is not a Saquanian!"

"Yes!" Taylor cheered, pumping her right fist in the air, her phone screen casting light shadows around them.

Mariana frowned. "But what are we gonna do? We're Saquanians; we can't go. If we do, we get caught by the Patrollers."

"But what if we don't get caught? Patrollers aren't everywhere," Taylor stated as she closed her phone and stuffed in her front jean pocket.

"Well, yeah, but still. With our luck, we'll walk right into one!" Mariana screeched.

Taylor shushed her and shook her head.  "All we have to worry about now," Taylor began slowly in an effort to calm her friend, "is finding Scarlett." She gave Mariana an encouraging smile and patted her pocket which held her sleeping phone.

"And now we know where to look."