Chapter Five: Order Breaking Consequences

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"Are you lost?" It was high and sounded genuine, but he knew better.

He snuck up to the metal door and set his ear to it. He could hear metal footsteps, but they were far away.

After a breath, he opened the door.

The occasional light from the wall or ceiling shed a pool of light upon the wall and ground. However, he could barely see the crates–some covered, some not, all of varying sizes–and pallets and the occasional forklift. He shut the door behind himself. Like the rest of the Mega Pizzaplex, he could barely see the ground beneath his shoes. Though the rest of the Mega Pizzaplex had neon lights that gave the illusion of help, this place did not.

Gregory looked at the flashlight in his hand.

...welp.

He flicked it on and then off again.

...

Roxy called, "I bet I'm your favorite?" Her footsteps didn't cease, but they also didn't change direction or speed.

Gregory flashed his flashlight again to get a look at where he was going. A corner blocked his view of the rest of the giant room close ahead. After another flash, he crept up to the corner. A few lights hung above an extremely long and tall stack of shelves filled with all sorts of random stuff. Roxy stalked past, looking over the territory with bright eyes and perked ears.

He shut off his flashlight. As if he was going to use that around her!

He tapped on the CAMS tab on his glasses and searched through the cameras. Thankfully, although the place was dark, the cameras picked up quite a bit more light and he could actually see what surrounded the cameras. He pressed another one of the boxes. It flickered another color and a triangle facing the direction opposite Gregory appeared on it.

Finally, he growled to himself, "Urg! There's nothing here. Must be in another camera."

A few cameras on opposite sides of a long, tall shelving unit took a second or so to become usable. A doorless entryway was carved into the wall far near the top. "Ha! There!"

He stayed on the camera for a little while longer to study her movements. She walked in a simple circle, her left flank facing the shelving unit at all times. She never stopped but swiveled her head back and forth like a security camera. With her far away enough, he turned on his flashlight so he could see where his feet were.

"I bet you don't even have friends," she goaded. Her voice came from outside as his glasses didn't pick up audio from the cams.

"I bet you don't have real friends," he grumbled to himself.

Gregory tapped his glasses and stalked around the corner, his side brushing the wall and then the covered crates pushed against the wall. He noted the thin space between the crates and wall he could probably worm his way into which Roxanne definitely could not.

She turned a corner around the shelves. He could still see her in the gaps in the shelving unit, her sunny yellow eyes glittering in the light as she swiveled her head back and forth.

Gregory crept over to the other side of the hallway made of crates leading up to the shelving unit. A thinner hallway with yellow lockers opened on the other side of the shelving unit, behind Roxanne. He took a moment to watch her move so he would not be caught in her peripheral vision and then crept as quickly as he could around the shelving units.

Then, he heard her yell, "I see you!"

She faced him, her lavender eyes shining.

She charged.

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