In the arrangement of letters and numerals below, by how many different paths can one spell AMC8? Beginning at the A in the middle, a path only allows moves from one letter to an adjacent (above, below, left, or right, but not diagonal) letter. One example of such a path is traced in the picture.

$\textbf{(A) }8\qquad\textbf{(B) }9\qquad\textbf{(C) }12\qquad\textbf{(D) }24\qquad\textbf{(E) }36$
Notice that the upper-most section contains a 3 by 3 square that looks like:


It has 6 paths in which you can spell out AMC8. You will find four identical copies of this square in the figure, so multiply ${6 \cdot 4}$ to get $\boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ 24}$ total paths.