Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:31 Her Great Escape

Alex tried to keep her eyes glued to her monitor as Sam prepared to engage the Brothers of Stone. She knew this would be his greatest challenge yet, his first confrontation with the Fire Bearers but his timing was poor, at least for her purposes. Milner, Stephen, and Alphonse were all conversing a few aisles over and she really needed to pay attention to them at the moment. The trio were too far for her to hear.

Milner continued around the room, talking to various designers and the other two followed, with Stephen right by Milner's side. Milner walked to the front of the room for what looked like an announcement.

"Attention designers!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood to give Milner their full, undivided attention.

"We have an update to the top testers list. Remember, this list is a combination of every player metric with an emphasis on combat and area progression. There are also a few hidden metrics that I am personally tracking."

As Milner talked, Alphonse walked down her aisle towards the exit.

This is it.

As the young blond approached, Alex positioned herself partway into the aisle. He looked at her warily through his thick rimmed glasses.

"Hey, excuse me," she whispered. When it seemed like he would keep walking past, she scooted further into the aisle. "Excuse me."

He appeared taken aback by her intrusion. "Yes, excuse you."

She glanced over at Milner and Stephen, who thankfully hadn't noticed her.

"I'm sorry. I was wondering about those stats you read us last time. How much of that has changed?"

Alphonse scrunched his face up, "What are you ... can't you see that Milner is about to update you all?"

"Will he give us the update on the player deaths?"

"I don't know, probably. Regardless, you shouldn't ever stop me like this. You understand?" He stepped forward and Alex slipped in front of him.

"I understand, but one of my players is about to fight the Fire Bearers. We programmed these guys to be more difficult than anything the players have fought so far. I just want to know his chances and if other players have already defeated them."

He wasn't at an optimal angle, but she slowly reached over to him anyway. The chances of her getting detected at this rate were very high, but she had to take that chance.

It may be my last.

"I already told you –"

Alex felt a heaviness in the pit of her stomach as she saw Milner looking over in her direction. What was worse than that was the fact that Stephen wasn't at Milner's side, but instead walking towards her from the end of the aisle. The terror she felt must have been written on her face, because Alphonse quickly turned to see what elicited her response.

She let out a breath and reached down into his back pocket as carefully as she could. She didn't dare look down as Stephen approached, but she couldn't rummage either lest she alert Alphonse. She had to be precise and quick.

"Why are you still here?" Stephen asked looking between Alphonse and Alex with those hard eyes filled with skepticism.

"I work here and besides that you guys won't let me even take a bathroom break without permission."

Stephen just stared at her while Alphonse turned ever so slightly and said, "I think he was talking to me." He turned back to Stephen, whose eyes were glued to Alex. "This designer stopped me to ask a question. I told her that Milner would have her answer."