"Right, individuals, show me your attention" Zongu commanded to everyone as he leapt to his feet faster than a bullet. 

They had all been milling through and fro along the large metal interior of the building. It was bright and white inside. Upon first sight, it reminded Dante of a dystopian movie where insane humans were kept in bright white padded walls. He couldn't help but grimly wonder if their reality wasn't that much similar to the straight-jacketed trapped victims of the asylums and their minds. 

According to Rachie, Lofi had constructed the grey square box through a few simple flicks of his hands. When Dante asked how he had done had he achieved this incredible feat, Lofi simply asked back "and how, Dante, do you walk?", before slowly walking away to pick up his share of the deer Rachie had ensnared just a few hours earlier. 

Zongu boomed his hands together in an enormous clap, which drowned out the sound of Yula's humming, along with fizzling away Lofi and Uzimati's quiet conversation they had been sharing. 

"I hold a plan in my mind. You all must hear it". 

Lofi gradually turned his head toward the abnormally large human. He had reluctantly gave  leadership to this Australian,  but he was regretting that decision more and more each day.

"From the data and intelligence I have gathered..." 

"We have gathered" Lofi corrected him quickly. 

Zongu gave a glance toward the attentive boy, before continuing "... we are in a race against thousands of other humans, and it seems only the winner gets to escape". 

Dante heard Yula lean back, head locked toward the inextricably pure white ceiling. 

"Unfortunately our probability of winning is extremely low. So far at least, we have zero intelligence about the location of our competitors in the race. We could be in first place, or we could be in the last place. The winner could access the East Coast tomorrow. How could we be possibly informed?" 

Dante heard Yula whisper "faith" into the air, a soft breeze drifting through his ear. 

"There has to be an alternative way of getting out of this. We were all brought together, all at the same time. Perhaps there is a second exit gate that all of us can use too" Zongu emphasized. 

"So where in this gigantic land of endless trees, dirt and hills do you propose to look for such a gate?" Lofi asked him plainly. 

"North" Zongu stated simply. 

The entire room's attention was focused upon Zongu now. He was of course proposing a loophole, but Dante still felt truly skeptical. "North, instead of east?" He heard Rachie ask from the back of the room where she had been sulking by herself all this time.

"You seem pretty defeatist Zongu, my friend" Lofi said.

"I am not defeated. I'm being real and logical here" Zongu protested.

"No point, no nothing" Dante heard Jacob mutter to his left in a listless Polish accent, but loud enough for all to hear. "We are just prisoners, cattled from one cell to another. We never been free, only locked inside invisible bars" he placed his bone-thin hand upon the wall, as if trying to wash himself through and fly away. 

Rachie laughed. "Now that's defeatist". 

Lofi considered this carefully, but Dante was confused. "Why North?" He just had to ask.

Zongu set his eyes upon him sharply. "The Canadian states" he said simply.

"Oh, of course... only a few of us would know" Lofi remarked, looking at Yula who was still gazing into the ceiling, seemingly lost in thoughts. But oh, she was listening acutely. 

"Only America, the States, were lost" Lofi began, a little aloof in his statements, trying to remember his teachings in history. "But the nations in the continent of Canada still exist. They're likely to be normal, still inhabited, perhaps we could seek refuge and then even be returned back to our normal lives".

Jacob stirred at the news, but made no verbal contribution. 

"What? No, we can win this" Rachie erupted from the corner of the room. "We just have to travel there as fast as we can, work hard, and then we will win. That's how it works".

"Win this for what, exactly?" Lofi asked her. "What would we be winning? If it's anything but a safe trip home, I want no part in it" he sighed loudly, his breath trailing off as he leaned back to mutter something to Uzimati, who had dreamily been gazing at each person while they talked without making a sound. 

"I agree" Dante said, surprised he had found his voice in the discussion. "I want nothing more than to be teleported back to Brighton and return to my life. Seriously, if one individual or group have the technology to bring us all here, there's a fair chance that another have the same technology to return us back. We just have to have some faith" He glanced at Yula who was unmoving.

"Ummm..." Rachie said loudly, as if aghast by the news. "My life actually was blowing bad before I was sent here. So... I have very little interest in what you all call 'escaping'. I want to win! And I thought that us, the team, had come together to beat them all, regardless of any costs! Why not have some faith in that?"

"Because it's madness, Rachie. Do you even know how far the distance across America is? 2,680 miles. It would take us months. We'll reach the Canadian border in only a week or so, and then... well that's a task we will face at the time" Lofi told her, standing up and sweeping his eyes across the small gathering of lost and confused souls. 

"I know you all feel exploited and used for being sent here, as if all of we are just rats in an experiment, which perhaps we are..."  Lofi shared a moment with all of them, especially Rachie. "But it doesn't mean we have to follow the cheese to end of the tunnel. There are holes that we can punch to reveal the light on the other side.  All of us have teeth, and we can gnaw our way out of this maze with a loophole of our own. I can promise you that".

Rachie did appear quite subdued by Lofi's small speech, pondering his words, her face transforming into one expression of deep thought. 

"You are walking with us" Zongu said blandly at Rachie. "You're all walking with us. It's the right strategy to do, so we are all doing it". He had remained above the words, extracted from the discussion. He would permit their little conversations to run to a conclusion, but ultimately he knew they were all following him. 

"Ah, that is not true" Yula said quietly, finally rising like one vampire from a coffin. She shook her head from side to side, her white hair puffy from lying on the warm ground. "I am going East. It is the correct way".

"But don't you want to leave this perverse land, Yula?" Dante asked suddenly. "Don't you miss the people you love most?"

Her purple eyes glowed knowingly in his direction. She was leaning on one arm with her legs wrapped against her side, trying to express. Then she laughed. "Why of course I do! That explains my choice to walk East. Not North" she laughed mechanically at the word 'North', the tone of her voice making it clear she thought Zongu and Lofi's idea to be  very absurd. 

"It has been explained why going East is not the best option" Zongu told her plainly, and Dante noted that he did not credit Lofi for the explanation. 

"I heard every single lovely song of your explanation" she said loudly and smiling, her head dipping toward the still-standing Lofi. "I deeply, deeply apologize. But I disagree with you". 

"State your reasons".

"I just do". 

"That is an invalid response".

"You're an invalid response", Yula replied, smiling still. 

Lofi laughed. "Whatever, I guess it's just us six" he whirled his head around to face Uzimati, who nodded eagerly and supportively of his choice to stick by Lofi. Lofi smiled warmly. Dante watched all of this, curious. 

Zongu was bristling. Shaking slightly, but under control. He was always in control. But never had such a small woman spoken to him like that. Not once in his 20 years of life. 

They heard the crackle and claps of thunder above, as if supernatural deities were shaking hands and high-fiving each other over and over again. The pincers of lightning were also heard, but it was just fine. They were sheltered. For now. 

"It'll  be five of you actually!" Rachie told them firmly, raising her voice just as a thunder clap erupted over their heads. "It'll be just all of you silly boys walking up there blindly to face nothing but futile dreams and shattered hopes. I will have no part in this reckless plan. All of my powers will focus upon the win ahead". 

Zongu glowered at her with dark eyes shooting his own form of lightning bolts. Six was unacceptable. Five was... She didn't care. He wouldn't harm her properly, of course. 

She turned toward Yula, who had closed her eyes now, trying to imagine each wave of thunder now, escaping this little piece of internal drama into a new world. "Yula, we will be companions, yes?"

"Yes" she said instantly, but wondered if the woman would keep up with her. She would not wait around like she had done with the strong hunter and that interesting fellow who had been snatching glances at her all evening. 

"But Yula..." Dante started, but then stopped. 

"Speak to me" she almost demanded.

Dante leaned back slightly, raising up his head. "It's unimportant; it doesn't matter". 

"Well..." Yula drawled. "Okay". 

Dante felt it. She was not bothered by the unspoken words that hung thick in the atmosphere, the choking perfume that simply needed wasting away through some spoken words. But he embraced the heavy scents instead, bottling it up inside him, making his mind choke instead. It was not the time, nor the place, for anything but a getaway plan. But was there ever going to be an ending? Dante did not possibly know. All he could do was trail his hands through the cold white floor beneath him, hoping for an answer,  simply waiting for the next day; embracing the gifts and the pains that they so constantly bring.