It had been a little over a week already that the raid happened and Alice met Amy. During this week, the girls had gotten closer and closer with time, and Alice considered Amy already as a little sister. She was already thinking about how she could persuade the boys to let her stay with them.
Besides that, Alice had learned a lot of unexpected new things in the course of her errands. It wasn't easy at first, but as Alice got better used to it things went smoother.
On the day before, Alice had realized that the amount of patrolling Soldiers had significantly decreased, so she had decided that she would try to return to the guardian's territory on the next day together with Amy. She would have liked to wait until the soldiers are completely gone, but they had to cross the territory of several other groups, so they had to make use of the time where they still hadn't reorganized themselves.
She had already told them that she would stop doing those errands for them, especially since they wouldn't even have a use for her in the future when their own people could move around outside again.
Now that she and Amy were about to start their little journey, Alice started thinking. She suddenly realized that she had no idea which was the best way to return.
If they entered the territory of their group, Alice was confident that she would recognize it since she knew it very well. On the other side, she knew almost nothing about the rest of Harborton.
The easiest way to go would be to go to the harbor and enter the territory from there. The problem was that there were alway especially many guards.
The second possibility Alice thought of was to go through the market as it stretched along the whole length of the city. If they were to follow the market street, they would even end up directly inside the right territory. And although they would have a much easier time evading guards and soldiers in the crowds there, what Alice was worried about was to lose Amy in exactly those crowds.
The third possibility Alice thought of was to use the church's tower within the Noble district as a landmark, but she dismissed that possibility right away. As far as Gale had told her, the noble district was the most dangerous place for them in the city.
And last but not least, she could take the way through the slums as far as possible and then change directions. But although that way was the longest and Alice was worried if Amy would be able to make it, what she was even more worried by was that they would have to go through the Free-Zone.
As far as she was told, the Free-Zone was by far the most dangerous territory in the city. Not only was there no group that controlled the children in the area, but the slums as a whole were much more dangerous there when compared to the ones under the turtles' control, where they were right now.
In the end, Alice had to choose the smallest risk and go through the market. It was the shortest and safest way as long as she made sure to hold Amy's hand tightly at all times.
"Amy, wake up!"
It was still early in the morning and Amy was still sleeping. When Amy was awake, they proceded to drink all the water they had left over and only left a little of their food for later on the way.
"Ok, let's go!"
"Yes...", Amy answered her and gave her a cute smile.
During the first three to four days, Amy had still been very afraid and often stated trembling or even crying, especially if Alice returned late. But whenever that happened, Alice had been trying her best to console Amy, though the best thing she could think of was giving her hugs and distracting her by telling her stories.
After a few days, Amy got less and less afraid and started smiling more often, though she was still barely talking, one or two words at a time at most.
While the two where on the way, Alice was leading the way and Amy was following closely behind, never leaving Alice side. Even in the market, Alice fear of losing Amy was almost unfunded as Amy herself made sure to never let go of the hand of her big sister.
Like that, they proceded slowly but surely to the vultures' territory, every now and then evading the sight of a guard or soldier by hiding in the masses of people.
When they finally reached an area that Alice knew, the day was already half over.