𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓯 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓮 ||𝓣𝓟𝓝 𝔁 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓻

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏: 𝕻𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖘

A/N: And another update after a month! And thank you for the 130+ votes and almost 3k reads. I'm glad to see that you're enjoying this story. 

Chapter 6: Plans

Start... 

"Play tag in teams?" Emma asked as the four of you hung up the wet sheets on the clothing line. "Yeah. The majority of us will die if we escape individually," Ray informed, earning a glare from the caramel-haired girl. "But I think the kids have some pretty decent moves and we've managed to collect some data too."

"We'll be able to escape if we do so in teams," Norman said. 'And to do that, we'll need to improve their individual skills as well as their teamwork,' you gestured.

Ray nodded at your response before turning to Emma. "For now, I'm going to have you memorize one-hundred types of team formations," he said. "By ear?" Emma asked, blinking.

"You can't do it?" Ray taunted. "Nope! Not a problem!" Emma announced.

'We've got to step up our game," you signed. 'We'll start by arranging these training sessions to make them more applicable in real life situations. Both pre and post escape.'

"Right. And I'm thinking about letting Don and Gilda in on our plans soon," Norman said. "We'll explain the situation and have them each lead a team."

'Already?' You signed. "The smaller the groups, the better," Norman said, nodding. "Anyways, we've learned a lot about Mama over these last ten days."
"What do you mean?" Emma asked. "Putting it all together, Mama already knows we are the targets," Norman explained. "To be more precise, I think she figured out that Ray has recently joined us. And as for (y/n), I'm sure she found out that you joined too."

He must have told her, you thought. But it doesn't change anything for me. Unless she finds out about that, everything's according to plan.

"Figured out?" Emma repeated. "Exactly," Norman said. 'Why do you think so?' You signed.

"There are many reasons but the easiest one to explain is how she utilizes Sister Krone," Norman answered. "If she couldn't identify us as the targets but had the intention of finding us, then there's no way she wouldn't mark the oldest kids. But instead, she's making Sister Krone watch over all the kids to make sure we're not doing anything strange as a whole."

'So Mama's not trying to weed out the targets?' You concluded, receiving a nod from the platinum-blonde boy. "But if she knew from the start, her actions from back then wouldn't make any sense!" Emma pointed out.

'She doesn't need to weed us out anymore because she was already past that phase,' you signed. "But how?" Emma asked. "She can't draw any conclusions from just the tracker signals and there aren't any cameras or microphones either... And why would she let us do what we want if she knows?"

"Because she already has another way of monitoring us," Ray cut in. "Is what you're trying to say, right?"

"She has no need for Sister Krone to mark us in particular," Norman agreed.

"In other words, it's highly likely there's a spy among us."
"Wait..." Emma's face paled at his words. "A spy...?"

'But we can't jump to conclusions,' you signed. 'It could be that one of the kids is unknowingly leaking information to Mama.' But you knew that it wasn't the case at all. You took a quick glance at him before turning away quickly. I've always had mixed feelings about that.

"Mama has another source. Using her sources to analyze and restrict her target," Norman concluded. "That's most likely... Mama's true strategy."

A source? Emma thought, panic running through her mind as she looked around at the kids. Who? How many? Since when? Why...? Thoughts were running through her head at a hundred miles per hour.