Hour 11

Emi didn't know how many times she sank that small blade into Liam but he had stopped moving fairly quickly. Her whole upper body was speckled with his blood, and when her mind returned to her, she felt sick as she looked down upon her work. Realizing she had wasted enough time with him she stumbled to her feet to find Alex.

Even though Alex was running faster than he ever had in his life, arms and legs pumping like an athlete, the people giving chase weren't far behind him. As he was nearing the end of the store, he was going to cut down the last aisle, but he noticed almost too late that it would be a poor idea. Doing that would only increase the chances of meeting Emi again in the middle of the store, defeating the purpose of splitting up. Also, if only half the people followed him the other half could flank him down another aisle and corner him. Instead, he ran left and through the double doors that read "employees only beyond this point." On the other side, he found the doors didn't have a locking mechanism, so he improvised by grabbing a small staff locker stationed on the wall and bringing it down in front of them. As the people caught up and began ramming the doors he continued deeper into the back of the store. Unfortunately, the area ended up being considerably smaller than he had hoped for. To his right was a large door that led to the cooler; beyond that, a baler which was used for compacting cardboard. To the left, there were two large shelving units used to house merchandise and a back door used to receive truck shipments. That was it, basically just a medium-sized storage room. He heard the locker screech across the floor as the doors were forced open and he knew he had no time left to think.

The man in the military gear, whose name was Sergeant Clifford, successfully bludgeoned the doors open with one final shoulder slam. As he repositioned his sunglasses, the 6 men who had followed him entered the room, and one of them flicked the lights on, which stuttered to life with a dim, muted hue. Cliff ordered 3 men to stay behind to guard the doors, making sure Alex couldn't escape and took the remaining 3 with him to be extra pairs of eyes as they began tearing the place apart looking for him. Boxes were indiscriminately shoved from shelves, large trash bins were knocked over, and Cliff even turned the baler on, crushing anything inside. Cliff began to realize Alex wasn't there meaning he had to be in the cooler.

Alex watched from his hiding spot behind an old, cracked wooden pallet of eggs as the cooler door swiveled open with a metallic squeal and 4 men entered. He shivered as he pulled his body to the floor, trying to make himself as small as possible. He had attempted to empty out a section of milk jugs on the bottom rack to climb out and push open the glass door on the sales floor from the inside but found he couldn't fit. He thought there was a chance his pursuers might believe he had been able to escape with this method, so he left the milk as it was and hid in the back. One of the men, who appeared to be in his early 30s and had dark skin, said, "Man, it's so cold in here. Who'd want to hide in this place?" Cliff brought a finger to his pursed lips in a shushing motion, then pointed to his ear indicating he wanted them to listen. It was hard to hear anything over the rumbling of the cooler fans but it was obvious he wanted them to stay alert. Another one of the men, dressed in a v-neck and wearing his hair in a ponytail, pointed out the milk jugs that had been removed from the rack. He suggested, "Hey, maybe that kid already escaped." Cliff bent down and inspected the scene thoroughly. He used his arm to measure the distance between the racks, then said, "No, he wouldn't have been able to fit. He's probably still in here." Alex thought "crap, there goes that plan." As they started approaching his hiding spot, he desperately tried to think of something he could do. The man with the V-neck began checking over the pallet Alex was behind and he could see the man's shoes walk around the side. He closed his eyes, but before the man could look down at him, there was a scream from outside the cooler. The man with the V-neck asked, "The hell was that?" Cliff, now looking towards the cooler door, said, "That sounded like one of the guys we left behind to watch the doors." The man with dark skin said, "shit, that kid must've attacked them!" As the men exited the cooler Alex was careful to stay hidden behind the boxes stacked by the pallet and made his way down the length of the back cooler shelves to see if he could learn what had happened. There was another scream, and as he peeked out the cooler door, he saw chaos as the group turned on each other. Part of the group ran back out the door onto the sales floor, and that's when Alex realized one of the men chasing them had become IT. He thought, "Yes! That means Emi found a way to beat Liam, he isn't IT anymore." Alex didn't even consider the option that Emi could've been tagged by Liam, and he had lost his IT title from the hours he gained from killing her; he was confident his sister had bested him. Alex thought, "She could be hurt, though; I need to regroup with her." The reassurance in his mind that Emi was ok reinforced his resolve and he stepped out of the cooler to make a run for it while the group had lost its cohesion. Cliff, who had taken cover behind the cooler door on the opposite side, stepped out to block Alex's path. "Sorry, little guy, but this is as far as you go." Alex stopped mid-sprint, the energy instantly deflating from his muscles. With each confident step Cliff took forward Alex took two shaky steps back. Alex tried to bargain with him, "I promise I won't interfere with the game or do anything to you; I'll do what you say." Cliff said, "No, I can't trust that. Anybody who can play outside of the rules is a threat." His breath puffed out aesthetically in the chilled air as he finished, "You don't have to worry about beating this round, meaning you can find ways to help that girl win. That makes you my enemy." Alex wanted to deny his logic but knew he was right to think that way. Knowing he had to think of something before Cliff got any closer, he said, "Wait, look, I can prove to you that I'll help you." He dropped his backpack to the ground and fumbled through it as Cliff raised an eyebrow at what he was seeing. His eyebrows quickly locked into an expression of anger as Alex withdrew the .44 and pointed it at him. Of course, Alex knew it was empty, but it was the only bluff he had left. Cliff replied, "You conniving little shit." Then he said, "You don't have the guts to use that thing. I know your type." He smiled, his teeth an immaculate white, "You're bluffing." He took another step toward Alex but hesitated as Alex reciprocated with a step forward of his own, completely different from the scared backpedaling he had just demonstrated. Cliff thought, "It has to be a bluff... If it was loaded, he would've killed us from his hiding spot." Then he second-guessed himself, "No, maybe he only has one or two rounds left; maybe he wouldn't have had enough to take on the group all at once." Alex replied, "I really don't want to shoot you, but I'll do anything to protect my sister."

Emi was jogging as fast as she could while looking for Alex, but her head throbbed with every step and her knees felt weak. She was also trying to remain on alert for any threats; after Liam had been killed, anyone could be IT now. She had briefly thought of calling Alex, but if he had found someplace to hide it could give him away. As she made it to the back of the store she heard someone call her name, a voice she recognized. She turned to see Alice running towards her, Dutch braid hoping with each step, who yelled, "Emi! Are you ok?" Emi was happy to see a familiar face as Alice put an arm around her weak shoulders and, upon noticing the layer of blood that stained her clothes, asked, "What happened to you?" Emi replied, "It's nothing; I have to find Alex. Right now." Alice perked up as she said, "Oh, I saw him go this way!" As she began to act as Emi's guide, Jake bolted out from an aisle in front of them, his hands plastered across his stomach as he tried desperately to hold pressure to his wounds. He yelled, "Don't trust her, Emi! She's going to try to kill you!" Emi saw that Jake was currently IT, so normally she wouldn't have trusted such a claim, but the anger that twisted across Alice's facial muscles as she heard Jake's warning proved hard to ignore. Using a knife at least twice the length of the one Emi had used to kill Liam, Alice stabbed her in the abdomen.