"Syncing failed. System corrupted. Syncing failed. System corrupted. Syncing failed. System..."

Through distorted vision, I was just about able to make out the hand that pulled the needle from my own hand. It was his.

Alarms blared out of the machine a following his decision, jolting me to action. As small as it was, it had the loudest speakers. Probably Beats by Dr Dre.

"Syncing failed. System corrupted. Synching failed. System corrupted..."

Oh my God, shut up.

The time showed 4am... And then I realised, it wasn't the alarms that awoke me. Swift as mercury, electrical impulses, sprinted up my neck. Remember how I felt the Titanic was balanced on top of my head? The best way to describe how I felt when the clock struck 4am was it felt like watching Titanic on rewind. 

Spontaneously, my mind replayed some of Director's mumbled words from about two minutes ago. Something about 4am... 

"4am...weakest...th fusion must...wears... ff." 

The drug wears off at 4am! 

Ha! I wasn't going to die today! But do you know who was going to die? Director who betrayed me! And Anne who betrayed me too! And the Front who also betrayed me! And Everest who I didn't trust in the first place to be betrayed by anyway...

But then it hit me. The only reason I was still standing was because he corrupted the process. But that made no sense. Why-

A hand grabbed my wrist and tugged me forward. Instinctively, I followed. 

With a few pushes of a few buttons, Everest turned off the evil machine. And then that was left was silence and my confused thoughts. 

It was only a duration of a heartbeat before he threw the door of room HCT001 open and we sprinted down the hallway at about fifty miles an hour or so. No metaphor intended.

But why? There was no need for a 'we'. This was strictly an 'I' situation. I am the one they wanted to terminate. He's the one who is supposed to do the termination. Things are happening quite so oppositely if you ask me. Not that I'm complaining.

Being this perplexed of his motives was almost as bad as nearly dying. But since I first met this glacial Everest, it's been nothing but almost with him. 

I almost beat him in our first dual in Director's office - before he, of course, cheated using that iniquitous drug. I almost choked the life out of him, when after I awoke from but ubiquitous drug the first time. And he almost killed me,the prospect was right at his fingertips. Then, why didn't he?

Now running through the hallways of what I thought of as a home, I glanced at the iron grip on my wrist, that just a few seconds ago, had the power to end my life, but now turned out to be my liberation.

He's so weird. 

It was when I saw some natural light and some green when I realised we were heading towards the exit. We were getting out of the Front! Still didn't know why, but I went along with it. 

What if he's planning to finish the deed outside? What, don't blame me for being suspicious, I nearly died some time ago. 

Clearing all the cynical conspiracies out of my mind, I grasped the handle that belonged to one of several back doors of this building, ones that I'd been in and out of a million times, and pulled. It didn't budge. 

"It's locked!"

Everest wrapped his hand around the handle just as I did and pushed. With a click, it opened. 

Of course. 

"I was going to do that," I commented awkwardly. "You just didn't let me."

I slid out of the door before the security were on our feet. Judging by the quantity of surveillance cameras that inhabited the precise area where we stood, I was surprised they weren't already at our feet. Lazy people. 

Just as I thought this, I heard several footsteps approaching. 

Shoot! I just jinxed myself! 

Oh well, if I had broken into a run now, they wouldn't have been able to catch me. So I did. 

The early morning air brushing across my face was the first hint that indicated my near freedom. Soon Everest was running beside me, and although my head screamed why, I pushed the questions aside for now, schemingly making my way round to the entrance.

At this point, more prominent issues lay ahead, such as getting past those huge gates. You know, like the ones every muliti billionaire company's headquarters had. 

Sixteen-feet-high-and-four-inches-thick-worth of titanium awaited us at the front of the Front. 

"Can you climb?" Everest asked.

"Can I lift heavy loads thrice my size?" 

He stared.

I sighed. "Yes. Come on." Latching onto one of the bars, I began scaling the metal mass. Once I reached the top, I jumped to the ground on the other side, without hesitation. A few seconds later, Everest jumped down beside me. 

We were no longer inside the Front's premises. I couldn't help it. "Freedom, baby!" I hollered. 

For this, I received a piercing glare from Everest. It probably was not the best idea to scream that, regarding there was only a gate separating us from an empire size of a security team. Sixteen-feet-tall-and-four-inches-thick-worth-of-titanium gates, sucker! 

"Come," He commanded, and we sprinted the opposite direction of the building, before I tested my luck any further. 

  ***

The Front being surrounded by a forest put is at an immediate advantage. It was simple, really; I was an excellent climber, and there were many trees in this area. This particular forest enveloped the Front in a circular formation, with the Front in the centre. The radius from the Front to the end of the circumference of the forest was about seventy-seven miles. If I'd travelled strictly north from where I was, I could have taken a train from Harrogate station and go as far from this place as possible. Easy. 

Except, it struck me again that this wasn't exactly an "I" situation anymore; it was a "we" situation.

Ugh. 

It had been a few minutes since we entered the forest. Having the fascinating ability to run at over 78 km/h, it was decided that continuously running at this point would be a waste of effort, as we would have already lost them. And judging by the fact that there were now hundreds of trees blanketing us, locating a five-foot-seven girl and a six-foot guy would have been quite a challenge. Hence, it felt safe to decelerate into a walk. 

After walking for a few more minutes in complete silence, I'd had enough. All the unanswered questions made my head feel as if it were about to explode any second. 

Abruptly, I stopped in front of him. "I don't mean to give you a life story, but when I was seven, those people at the Front would give me a set questions to answer in all sorts of fields: physics, maths, government... you name it. And they weren't the typical one times one equals one questions either. Some were questions were for college students, others went as far as Masters. They wanted to test the 'growing knowledge of 202'. And not to boastful by any means, but frankly none of those questions posed a challenge to me," I paused. "And then you come along."

His eyes narrowed a fraction. 

"Mr Mysterious with a thousand questions that seem to only increase at a rate that makes my head spin; Mr Bipolar, who plots to kill one second, and save the next; Mr... how did Director put it? Oh! 'Has Been at the Front Longer Than You, 202'," I spoke, dropping my voice down an octave for imitation's sake. 

"I fail to see where you are getting at."

"Answers!" I spat, stepping dangerously close to him. This charmer was one unanswered question away from choking on the poison ivy that was sitting just a few feet away from where we stood. 

Are you sure you want to do that, Emerald? Even after he saved your life? Shut up! He was prepared to kill me before that as well!

"It's the only thing I wanted since I met you! What do you want me to do? Beg?"

"As amusing as that would be—" 

"I'll give you amusing!" I took another - threatening - step forward.

"—you did not specify what questions you want answered at this current moment." He finished, taking a step back. 

"You want me to specify? Fine, I will specify! Where shall we begin? How about why the Front wants me dead? And don't feed me the 'Everest has higher capabilities than you' crap, because I know there's more to the story than that. And whilst, we're on the subject, what exactly makes you better than me? How do you know so much about me? Why do I not know anything about you? Why save me when you were specifically ordered to 'terminate' me? And if you were going to not kill me anyway, what was the point of going through it until the last second? Like literally."

He took a step back towards me. At this rate, we could have been holding hands, waltzing through the middle of the forests. 

"I can't answer that," his eyes penetrated into mine. "As for the second question, I can't answer you that either," another step. "Number three, I only know about you as much as you know about me," another step, prompted me to step an equivalent step back. "Number four, this one you'd have to answer me; what did the Front do to make you forget?" He took yet step forward, and another step back on my part. Five, if I had not saved you, I would have allowed worse things to happen." When he had taken the fifth step forward, my attempt step aback was prevented by the tree behind me. 

Stupid tree! Which idiot put a tree here? 

Now, fully towering over me, he finished. "And six, I had to do what had to be done, if you were ever going to get out of there." Half a step was all his was able to take if he didn't want to completely sandwich me between a tree. 

I closed my eyes. 

Hydrogen, 1; helium 4; lithium, 6.9, beryllium, 9; boron 10.8— screw this! 

My eyes flashed open. "You didn't even answer anything!" I screamed, out of pure rage. And more importantly how good was this guy's memory? "And what the hell does that last part mean?"

"I can't answer that."

I sighed. A moment later my hand pushed at his chest. Was it surprise to me a this point that his ribs didn't crush? Not anymore, no. "Please move, you're blocking my pathway to that poison ivy there. I was planning on shoving it down your throat but I think I'll shove it down my own throat now."

He said nothing and did nothing. 

That's when I snapped - and not just the tree trunk behind me. "Fine! I'll beg! Please tell me things! Anything!need to know! I want to know! I would go down on my knees, but that's a bit hard to do in this stupid dress! But you get the point. Please tell me you get the point! Why can't you tell me anything? We're not even with the Front anymore! I'll sell you my soul!" Okay, wasn't really considering the last part. I think. 

"I can. But I don't want to."

This is ridiculous!

"This is ridiculous! That's it? Because you don't want to?" The frustration was getting to the tear ducts of my eyes and the tree behind me was about to experience my wrath.

"It's for the best."

"Oh, come off it. Whoever told you ambiguity is a good trait is a bigger liar than you are."

"It isn't a lie."

"It isn't? Go on then, dazzle me with your truthfulness!"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

He sent me an indecipherable look. Silence took over until he spoke again after what felt like eternity. "Because I'm almost certain that the truth will break you. And believe me, no one is going pat your back when it does."

I chuckled. 

I actually did that. And it wasn't even a mocking chuckle; it was a genuine laugh.  And believe me when I say, I tried, with all my will, not to. But really, how could I not laugh at that?

Why was I laughing? Surely, someone who almost just died shouldn't be laughing. I was going mad.

"That was a joke, right?"

"I don't joke."

"Well, now I feel bad for laughing," I said through my continuous laugh, ignoring his cold stare. "I mean, not to be boastful but have you met me?"

"You say "not to be boastful" before a highly boastful thing follows."

I shrugged. "If the truth sounds boastful, then I'm sorry that it can't be helped. Realism over judgemental-ism, right?

"That isn't even a word."

"You're drifting away from the subject. My point is, nothing breaks Emerald. Literally, you can't break a diamond." I always found myself wondering if I was deliberately named that. 

"Sometimes they can be," He replied.

"Then, you're going to need something really good up your sleeve,"

"A diamond can be broken under high pressure."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are we doing that thing where two people are speaking about each other, using an inanimate object as a metaphor?"

"Are we?"

"I think you're just trying to sway away from the real question." 

"I care little about what you think."

"Tell me," I persisted. 

"No."

"Tell me."

"We need to move."

"I don't care."

"You are going to get us both–"

"Tell me!"

A twig snapped behind Everest. "-killed."

I was really hoping that it was a squirrel, however the sound of a gunshot that followed, proved otherwise.

My hand shot out close to the back of Everest's head and wrapped it around seemingly thin air. When I brought it back, a silver bullet lay in my palm. 

Oh, you didn't know I can catch bullets? Come on, how uncool would I be, if I couldn't?

"Move!" I exclaimed, in a hushed whisper, although the whole hushed whisper thing seemed pointless, because judging by the accuracy of the bullet, whoever shot it, had already seen us. 

I bolted into a run. Many more bullets went off, only to be deflected by the trunks of the trees –our only source of defence. 

An idea shot into my mind.

The trees!

Spotting half a dozen huge rocks sitting astray, I leapt behind them, and began to consult a genius of a plan. "The average Deciduous Tree in this forest has an average height of 98 feet," I thought aloud. "If one were to be tipped over..."

"That would be 98 feet of land, blocked." Everest finished, dropping down beside me. Well finally, we were on the same page. 

"That one!" I exclaimed, picking out a tree nearby. 

Without hesitation, Everest leapt over to the tree and pushed and soon I came came to his aid. A few efforts later, the roots gave in, and the tree quaked. It really wasn't hard considering the strength of both of us combined. 

Snap! Snap! Snap!

"Hold on," Everest stopped me. "Due to it's height, if excess force is applied to the tree when it falls—"

"It's momentum can take out another tree along with it!" I exclaimed. "And that tree will take out another, and that tree will take out another and that tree will take out another..." my sentence faded away when I saw how his eyes were piercing aggregately into mine. "Sorry... It will be like a domino effect!" My eyes glistered. 

"You might not be as dumb as you act." He commented. 

"Shut up and push!"

With the tree almost down on the neighboring tree, all that was needed was one last push to stimulate the domino effect...

One after another, they collapsed onto one and other, provoking poor hundreds of poor birds out of their nests. The ground trembled at every fall, as though a giant were prodding at the surface of the Earth with its finger. 

The sight marveled me. There now stood a barrier, constructed of colossal trees, between the Front and ourselves. It obviously wasn't a permanent blockade, but it definitely offered us valuable time to get ahead of them.

"How long do you think it would hold them off?"

"They would have to go around it. By vehicle, about an hour."

"By vehicle would be equivalent to us on foot. So we would always be an hour ahead of them?"

"Correct."

"But, that's not enough."

"Correct."

"So we're going to get caught eventually." 

"Incorrect." Ah, finally something different.

"What do you mean?"

"They would still have to locate us."

I smiled. "So we need to make that as hard as possible."

"Correct."

"But first we need to move, instead of wasting time playing yes or no games?"

"Correct."

"And whilst we're walking, you can answer some of my burning questions?"

"Incorrect," He stated, walking off. 

Shoot! 

He was going to be solid one to crack.

Perhaps he's the diamond, after all.

Author's note:

Stubborn little &*%$!, ain't he? Emerald definitely thinks so. But fear not! She will get around to him... eventually.. possibly... anyway, swiftly moving on...

There are still a lot more questions to be answered! A lot more than the six questions Emerald listed earlier on in this chapter - in fact, Emerald doesn't even know what she doesn't know (kind of like me in maths).

 So stay tuned for future chapters if you also wish not to remain as confused as our poor super human. 

Please vote, comment, and share. 

Byeeee! And scene.