Chapter 8: Omega's Surprises
"Hey! You! Where do you think you're going!" a voice yelled, making Tecna jump from her crouched position on the ground. 'Oh no! I've been seen!' Tecna thought, she panicked as she heard footsteps pounding towards her. As she hurriedly scrambled to her feet, she tripped on a rise in the ground but managed to stand back up properly and run for what was most likely her life. Behind her she could hear shouting followed by various more pairs of feet chasing her. As she ran she wished more than anything that this was all a dream, but as the footsteps gradually got nearer she wished for good luck. She found a small alley which she could just about fit through. She slipped through and watched a stream of convicts flow past her, Tecna sighed in relief and edged her way deeper through the alley. When she reached the end, instead of seeing the usual ice and snow of Omega, she found herself in a beautiful room, the walls were made of ice like everything else but it looked like it had been hand-decorated to look like shimmering crystals. Tecna stared in awe then slid down on the ground with her back against the freezing wall.
"Ugh, I'm exhausted, can we slow down?" Stella asked as she trailed behind her friends, dragging her feet on the ice. Aisha replied "Stella, we need to find Tecna, and besides, we've only been walking for twenty minutes". "But… but… I… that's nineteen minutes too long!" Stella moaned. After that everyone just ignored Stella's complaints. Musa then walked towards Timmy,"Hey Timmy", Musa greeted, "Are you okay?". Then they had a conversation for a while until Stella began moaning again. "Guys, we've been walking for like, ever and we haven't even seen a footprint". "Actually, Stella does have a point", Bloom pointed out, "We've been walking for over two hours and we haven't seen a single form of life". This fact haunted the travellers as they realised just how true that was. Just then, they heard faint shouting in the distance, this was undoubtedly one of the convicts so they all hid behind various pillars and ice walls. A small group of convicts wandered past them, completely unaware of the visitors hiding so close to them. A while after the convicts had disappeared from sight, the friends regrouped. "Well" Brandon started, "We now know where some convicts have their camps." "I'd say we go in that direction" Sky suggested, pointing in the direction that the convicts came from. Everyone nodded in agreement as they began to walk in that direction, this time they were all being careful to make sure they weren't being followed or they weren't at risk of being seen.