Blending Into Gray

Chapter 24

Gently, I slowed the motorcycle in a small, dark alley, attempting to conceal Giana's bike as much as possible.

Not that I thought that anyone would really steal it, unless they planned on hot-wiring it since I had the keys.

I parked the motorcycle, but still balanced on it until Roman got off the bike.

No need to hurt us both or anything ridiculous.

As I ensured that the bike wasn't going anywhere, I felt a spike in Roman's emotions, and turned.

Towards the center - mostly - of the city, we saw something moving on one of the rooftops.

We couldn't possibly be so lucky, but it looked as if it had fur.

But that would be almost too easy, right?

Because nothing was easy anymore.

Besides, if we picked the wrong building, we'd either have to hope for the best, engage Geoffrey, or just climb back down and try again. The last one would waste all of our energy, so we had to hope that we were right the first time.

And many of the buildings were still on fire, so that wouldn't help. Granted, half of the buildings were made from bricks, so they weren't going anywhere, but their inside contents were aflame.

This wasn't getting any easier.

Roman and I began picking our way towards the building, careful of any fleeing individuals or any debris that was littering the road.

Luckily no one seemed to recognize us yet.

Good. Being shut-ins our whole lives seems to have been good for something, at least.

Hearing a snarl, and feeling Roman's resolve, I glanced up.

There, a few buildings away from us, was Geoff, who was standing atop the roof looking mighty justified.

He didn't seem to have noticed us either.

How well could lions smell?

Maybe we were downwind.

Who knows?

I turned to Roman, but he seemed just as confused as I was.

"He should've seen us by now," Roman pondered, his eyebrows drawn together.

"Usually," he continued, "he can smell someone from a long ways away. Unless maybe the smoke is covering our scents, which is possible, of course. But even so, he can still see. He hasn't seemed to notice, though...."

He trailed off, and I looked back up towards the lion, who was, indeed, still oblivious to its surroundings. At the very least, it still hadn't actually noticed that we were here.

I guess that could give us a good temporary advantage, then.

We could possibly be halfway up the building - on a good day - by the time Geoff realized that we were here.

That being said though -

"Do you know how to scale a building?"

Roman's confusion emitted, and he shook his head.

"Do you?"

I snorted.

"No, unfortunately between teaching me how to ride a motorcycle and handle a sword, he apparently forgot the lesson about building-climbing."

Roman laughed, genuine amusement trickling from him.

"How about we just try the steps," he suggested.