The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter thirty-six

Behind her, the others were talking, and although they were keeping pace with her, she was still mad at them. How could they idly chat while so much was at stake? She tried to tune them out for the most part, but even the small snippets of conversation that managed to get through made her just that much madder.

Johnny had said she didn't have to be a grump just because they were in danger, but he wasn't exactly here to enforce that.

So she found herself picking up pace, only to collide head-on with Scarlett, who was walking in the opposite direction. She ricocheted off the other girl, knocking into the wall due to the rebound.

"Thank goodness," Scarlett said, quickly recovering from the collision. "I've been looking all over the place for you guys. I've finished teleporting the prisoners, so we can leave."

Clarity nodded, her spirits soaring at the good news. But the soaring turned to falling as two very pressing thoughts invaded her head.

The first was the coliseum. The doors were shut, and were most likely water-tight, so none of the water would be able to reach there. It could prove to be a safe-haven to any surviving guards, or even Eric Lance himself.

The second was Xenia. She was almost surely in captivity. There was no way she could have escaped from the hoard of guards that had flooded that hallway.

She expressed her concerns to the other teleporter before anyone else could get their hopes of finally getting out too high, also recapping what had happened to Johnny for Scarlett.

It put an immediate and somber halt to their escape as they huddled up to form a plan. Clarity found that she wasn't much help, her mind unable to focus on much of anything. But there were plenty of brilliant minds to go around, and the plan was soon solidified:

They would split up into two parties. The two groups would have a teleporter each, to get them out if things went wrong. Clarity would be going with Benjamin and Sam to find the switch that opened the door, and Scarlett would accompany Alex and Rachel to rescue Xenia.

As soon as the orders were issued, both groups moved out. Scarlett informed them that, unfortunately, their paths went in opposite directions. They would be splitting right off the bat.

Clarity tagged along behind Benjamin and Sam, lost in her sea of thoughts.

It took her quite a while to realize that they were heading back towards Johnny, and by the time she did, they were nearing the fateful location.

But they walked right past where she'd been so sure of leaving him.

Johnny was gone. There were no signs of a struggle, and there weren't any blood smears to show if he had been dragged away. There was only the very faintest stream of pink-tainted water to show he had even been there in the first place.

She said nothing, and the others continued walking without a glance, but she was silently despairing. What could have happened to him? There was no way he was already up and walking around on his own.

A few moments later, they passed the long hallway, which was still gushing water at a steady pace.

They passed it, their feet sloshing through the water. She glanced sideways into the hallway, glad to see that the generator door was still open, and the water was allowed to flow freely. It would be quite the damper on their plan if someone closed it.

At length, they reached the out-of-place blank section of the wall that marked the doorway to the coliseum.

A thorough search ensued. No one could find a switch or a lever nearby, so it was decided that they would go back to the long hallway with the generator room, and try searching the rooms there, in the hopes that they would stumble upon a control room. It was the best they had.