Evade

With just under fifteen minutes left on the clock Kitten decided to try for an alternate route. With a quick check to make sure Francesca was focused on the exit for cars Kitten made a series of stealthy dashes towards the exit into the office building itself. Having to contain a sigh of relief as she reached the door to the stairwell without getting spotted she gave it a tentative push to see if it was locked. But there her good luck ended as the hinges let out an extremely loud creak of protest, Kitten looked up in time to see Francesca whirl around with an expression of delight on her face. Charging through the door as the Hunter started to run towards her, grapple gun at the ready, bounding up the stairs two at a time the Hunted just hoped the doors at the top weren’t locked.

Reaching the top something impacted the roof above Kitten’s head, as she barged through the door she spared a look back and saw Francesca swing gracefully over the railing. Returning her attention to where she was running she found herself in a corridor lined with elevators and a sign for the lobby. There was no time to wait for a elevator and the main doors wouldn’t be unlocked at this time of day, the sound of a vacuum nearby meant the cleaning staff were in, meaning the offices would be open. Time was running out fast all she had to do was lose Mysterious Francesca and another Hunt would be over.

Tearing down the corridor in the direction of the offices Kitten took the first door she could to get out of the line of fire, tumbling sideways over the threshold with the momentum. She was in an open plan office filled with cubicles and crisscrossed with narrow corridors, the cleaners were hard at work and hadn’t noticed her dramatic entrance. Diving behind the nearest cubicle and keeping low as she scurried further into the maze of desks, she heard Francesca make an equally loud crash of an entrance.

“Little kitty cat? Where are you?” She called in a fairly creepy sing song.

Kitten kept moving from cubicle to cubicle checking carefully at each corner for the approaching Hunter, there had to be another way out somewhere. Making her way to the outer edge of the office she found it, a fire exit that would lead back outside, but she would need her friends help.

“Jen, can you hear me?” She asked, barely a whisper as she could hear Francesca’s calls getting closer.

“Yeah I hear you, I take it we had the same idea, the door is unlocked and the alarm disabled but you have to go now.” Jennifer really was very good at what she did thought Kitten as she ran as fast as she could in a crouch before making a dash for the door. As she barreled into it she heard a yelp from behind her as Francesca nailed one of the cleaning staff with her grapple launcher. Allowing herself a giggle Kitten slammed the door behind her and heard the click of the mag locks an instant before someone, and she could guess who, slammed against the other side.

“Oh, I can’t wait for you to watch that back, that was so awesome!” She heard Jen exclaim in her ear followed by a burst of raucous laughter. “Three minutes to go, get across the road ahead of you and you’re in the clear so far as Hunters go, don’t celebrate yet though that drone is still around somewhere.”