Sara brought her arms around and dived off to the side and she too seemed to be mired in some substance that was slowing her movements down. Consciously she understood that she was moving at a normal speed, as everything else in the room was, it was her perception that was off. Sara skidded over the top of a desk and fired at the attacker to the right of the door. She hit the desk and rolled off into a crouch before she could see if the she had taken the man down. As soon as she touched the floor she came back up firing twice more in the general direction of the doorway to give herself some cover.
It was the attackers' turn now to dive out of the way. It looked like there had only been four of them because no-one else moved up into the room. Sara ran forwards no longer confused by the attack. She could do this sort of thing in her sleep it had been drilled into her so hard. Sara came to a stop between the two men who only then realized where she was and the danger they were in. Sara would have liked to keep one of them alive for questioning but it was more important that she stayed alive than that they did. Both attackers were clearly professionals, already bringing their weapons back to bear on her from their crouched positions, but they were just too slow. Sara didn't face either of them as she crossed her arms over her chest and fired twin rounds into their heads.
The lifeless bodies, the contents of their heads exploded out of the backs of their skulls, tumbled backwards onto the floor. Sara heard them slap onto the ground and saw them out of the corners of her eyes. As they bounced on the floor her perception of time returned to normal. She checked through the open doorway past the first two bodies but she had been right there was no-one else there.
When that was done Sara stuffed her guns into each of her jacket pockets. She didn't know how many rounds were left in either weapon but they were small enough to carry easily and they could come in useful so she didn't want to discard them. She would take the assault rifle from one of the first attackers she had killed to be her new main weapon and the magazine from the other to be a spare, they were the ones that would have most ammunition in them. She took the rifle, slinging it over her shoulder with the strap cutting diagonally across her back and between her breasts so that she could have her hands free but be able to fire it quickly with one hand if needs be, and frisked the bodies. It was no good taking some armor for herself it would only serve to slow her down.
All of the bodies were sterile. None of them were carrying anything that could be used to identify them or who they worked for. The only things they had that Sara bothered to take, other than the assault rifles she had already taken, were the key cards she found on two of the men, one on each, and one of the gloves each of the men had worn on their hands. She didn't want them for her own hands, but turned inside out they could provide her with a means of finding out who these people had been from their fingerprints.
There was a crash and a moan from behind her. Sara came around her hand dropping to the grip and the trigger on the rifle. Carla was struggling forwards from behind the desk Sara had tipped over for cover. She staggered along like a drunkard. Her eyes were streaming and she looked around slightly glassily. She seemed to have some idea where Sara was because she looked in her general direction and bumbled along towards her.
"You said it was okay." Carla's voice was too loud as she tried to compensate for the ringing that would still be sounding inside her head. The ringing in Sara's ears was already down to a barely noticeable tinkle.
"It was until they came in."
"Yes, well." Carla seemed to getting steadier on her feet. "Next time can you maybe just tell me to duck instead of battering me down like that? And what was with that slapping me on the head?"
"Can you shut up for one minute!" Sara snapped. "I just saved your life and all you can do is complain about it. I could be out of here with a lot less hassle if I didn't have to drag you along with me. Maybe I should let you find your own way out."
Carla's lower lip trembled and she turned her face away. Sara couldn't believe she had yelled at her like that. She was still only young, younger than Sara was by a couple of years, and she wasn't used to dealing with this sort of stuff.
"I'm sorry. This is a tense situation, you know? I didn't mean to snap at you." She stepped up to Carla and put her left hand on the other woman's shoulder. It was shrugged off and Carla took a step further away.
"I'm not used to dealing with this shit. I'm sorry I'm useless, and I'm sorry if I'm making this more difficult for you. I can't help it, it's not every day I get attacked by crazy robots and kidnapped and have to break out of some top secret facility with people shooting at me and-"
She had to pause for a breath. She had started her tirade in anger but it ended in tears. When she paused the crying started and she couldn't go on.
"I know this all must seem insane to you and I didn't mean to lose my temper with you. Believe it or not this is my first time being kidnapped as well." Sara stepped back up to Carla and this time she didn't move away from her touch. "We are going to get through this."
She tried some humor. "Besides, technically in this last attack they were just shooting at me."
She turned Carla around and used the cuff of her jacket to wipe away the worst of the tears from her cheeks. "Just keep it together for me and I'll try not to fly off the handle again. Here, put this on and the next time they start shooting, even if it is at you, at least you'll have some protection." She pulled the body armor off one of the men and helped Carla get into it. It was much too large for her length wise and in width except where it went over her chest, in fact when the straps were pulled tightly around her to make the thing sort of fit it crushed her breasts and still wasn't properly fitted everywhere else.
"Can you believe they still don't make this stuff mass production for women?" Sara had had a set specifically made to accommodate her but after it was damaged on an operation she had been forced to revert back to wearing the cheaper less protective more flexible stuff worn by the police force and other mainstream security forces. The sheer fact that the attackers wore this stronger body armor indicated that whoever was behind their kidnapping was well financed.
"Now let's get moving before somebody notices that these guys are missing. You've done really well so far just keep it up a little bit longer, okay?" Sara was surprised to find that she actually meant what she said, for a civilian thrown into an unbelievable situation Carla had coped quite well. When it came down to it she could follow orders and she didn't do anything stupid to give them away or slow them down.
Carla nodded her assent and wiped the last remaining tears onto her orange sleeve. Sara considered giving Carla one of the assault rifles but quickly decided against it. There was no time to teach Carla how to use it properly so she would be more dangerous to Sara and herself that she would be to any attackers they might come across. Besides Sara didn't think this young woman had it in her to kill, even with a weapon designed to distance the killer from the act of killing. It was still a profound and personal event that took a person of a certain disposition, something that Sara sometimes thought of as an emotional wrongness to take another human life and be able to cope with it. Sara often thought that she must have some wiring wrong in her head that let her do it for a living. Surprisingly it was this concern for Carla's psychological well being that was the stronger factor in making Sara's mind up not to give the other woman a weapon rather than concern for either of their physical safety.
They left the room through the entrance the four attackers had used. Carla pulled faces looking down at the corpses they had to step over. She tiptoed around to avoid stepping in any of the growing puddles of blood. Sara also avoided stepping in any of the blood but it was as a precaution to stop her leaving a trail for others to follow rather than as any sort of squeamish desire to avoid contact with it.
As before Sara took the lead cautiously moving forwards and Carla followed behind her. Whenever they came to another room or a junction of corridors Sara got Carla to wait while she explored and made
sure the coast was clear. Then she would move back to get her and they would go on. They had been travelling in this fashion for a while, with the sounds of alarms gradually growing louder, when they came to a junction and were face with three choices. At all the other junctions the choice had been a simple one, either between a corridor that carried on upwards or one which headed back down, or a corridor with surveillance cameras or one without, or a corridor with a locked door and one with an open one. This time it was a choice between two corridors heading upwards at approximately the same gradient with one turning slightly to the left and the other slightly to the right or a corridor that met a narrow set of stairs again going upwards.
Sara stood surveying each of the options. Carla hovered nervously behind her anxious to continue and escape but keeping her mouth shut and letting Sara think. Not that there was that much for her to think about. There was no way that Sara could know which of the three directions would give them the greatest chance of escape or which would land them with a drama. She would have to do a quick recce of each of the possibles and see if there was anything a little further on that would help her make up her mind. She wanted to just choose one and get on with it. They didn't have much time left and she didn't want to waste it on a series of reconnaissance's that could still leave her with no idea which option would be the best to choose. But a little time spent in preparation was never time wasted. If she rushed in she could take one option that led them further into a maze of corridors when the exit was just a short distance down one of the others.
At first she was going to leave Carla behind while she performed the recces but then she thought better of it. She had no idea if this junction had a lot of traffic but the sheer fact that four corridors met up here meant that it was a good possibility that someone would come through here sooner or later. She got Carla to follow her and started into the corridor on the left. She held the assault rifle ready in both hands prepared for trouble.
They were maybe twenty meters into the corridor, approaching a point where the drab corridor color gave way to off-white tiles, when Carla grabbed the back of Sara's jacket and pulled.
"Wait!"
Sara didn't even have time to turn around and ask Carla what the hell she thought she was doing before the question was answered for her in a red laser flash. The flash was over before Sara could blink but the damage had been done. The front half of the assault rifle clattered down onto the tiled floor. Sara's right hand, that had been supporting the barrel, had only just missed out on joining it. As it was the laser had only taken the top layer of skin off the finger closest to the truncated end of the useless weapon. Sara didn't feel the sting of it because it was still flashing through her head how close she had just come to being sliced in half.
If Carla hadn't stopped her she would have taken that extra step letting the beam cut through her. She would have been dead before she even had time to realize it. She took a step backwards, not daring to turn in case she put another part of her body over the line. The assault rifle was dropped to the floor, it was no good as a weapon other than an oddly shaped club anymore. The laser flash came again, still too fast for her to see which direction it travelled in, and cut through the dropped rifle where it crossed onto the tiled area. Sara looked down at it for a moment and then retrieved the near-side portion.
These people were either very concerned about things leaving along this corridor like Carla and herself were trying to do, or they were very concerned about things coming in the opposite direction. Either way Sara couldn't see any controls for the laser trap so it looked like this was a dead end, at least it wasn't literally so.
Which reminds me. "Thanks," Sara said belatedly realizing that she hadn't thanked Carla for saving her life.
"Don't mention it," Carla replied with a confused and frightened look on her face that told Sara she had been as shocked by the trap as she had. "Get us out of here and I'll owe you plenty."
They retreated back to the junction. Given what had just happened Sara had a feeling that the corridor leading off to the right wouldn't be any good either. Still it had to be checked out. Sure enough this corridor changed from drab grey floors to off-white tiles just like its left-hand counterpart. Sara tossed the piece of junk that had once been the butt of an assault rifle over to the tiles. It landed in two pieces on the other side cut apart in mid air. This way was out as well which left them with only one choice. They went back to the junction and took the stairs.
Sara had her twin pistols back in her hands and she was on the lookout for any change in materials of the walls and floor that would indicate another laser trap. Carla seemed terrified for Sara every time she moved forwards. For her own part her muscles were fully tensed as though she could spring out of the way of another trap. She knew her reflexes weren't up to that challenge, if there was another of those traps that she or Carla didn't notice then she was dead, but it made her feel better all the same.
Chapter Seventeen
Sara waved Carla back against the wall and indicated that she should stay silent. She could tell that they were on the right track. The corridors and rooms they were moving through now weren't the abandoned disused things they had been moving through. These were still full of equipment, signs of life, and too often actual people. These for the most part looked just like any normal office workers. The alarm sounds had died down some way back so gradually that it had taken some time for Sara to finally notice their absence, and the workers were just going on about their normal work as though they were totally oblivious to what else was going on in their workplace.
Of course I still don't know what is going on.
None of the groups of people they had recently started seeing looked like they could pose much of a threat in themselves. But if they were able to raise an alarm or if they were missed then a drama would develop in short order. So they continued to try and get passed the populated areas without being seen. Alone Sara might have been able to just walk past them and out before anyone noticed she didn't belong, but Carla's prison uniform and badly fitting body armor would stand out like a sore thumb.
They had made steady progress staying out of sight by sneaking around occupied rooms or crouching past where the top half of their wall was made up of windows. Now they found themselves at the entrance to a room with seven people busy at work. They had a choice of either going through the room or backtracking and trying to find another way around. Sara had decided that they should try their luck and move through the room. They had to expect to find more and more people as they came closer to the exit so they couldn't keep away from them forever if they ever expected to leave. There wasn't anywhere else close by that looked like it would be any more promising than this way. If they backtracked they would have to waste an awful lot of time with no guarantees of finding anything better at the end of it.
Now Sara stood carefully looking into the room, assessing possibilities and deciding exactly how to go about getting them through the room. The workers were busy tapping on keyboards and staring at the screens of their computer terminals. They didn't look to be so absorbed in their work that they would fail to notice the two women walking through their workspace.
Sara was considering again whether they should try looking for a different way out when the other door into the room, on the right hand wall adjacent to the one that Sara was looking through, came open. A young woman, dressed in a smart skirt and white blouse matching the type of attire the others already in the room wore, came just inside and said something Sara couldn't hear clearly. The other people nodded or acknowledged her otherwise. She left and the workers started closing their terminals down. They pulled jackets off the backs of their chairs and started chatting between themselves. It was time for them to clock off.
Sara was turning to give Carla the good news when there was a tug on the back of her jacket. "I think people are coming this way."
It must be clocking off time for some other people as well. Carla's eyes were wide with fear,
she really didn't want to get recaptured.
"It's all right." She tried to keep her reassured. It still seemed like Carla was walking the knife edge between coping and falling to pieces and at any moment she would topple. "Look this is good for us, the more people there are the less chance of them noticing that we aren't supposed to be there."
Carla just looked down at her bright orange prison outfit, badly fitting body armor and raised an eyebrow at Sara. She didn't have to say anything both women already knew what she was thinking.
"All right." Sara smiled at her, a sarcastically raised eyebrow was better than a nervous comment. "Get out of that armor."
She helped the younger woman unfasten the straps holding the body armor in place. Then she stripped out of her jacket and gave it to Carla. She had to leave her pistols in the pockets because there was no way for her to conceal them otherwise.
The jacket didn't do much to conceal the orange outfit but it was better than nothing. Once they were in a crowd hopefully no one would be able to get too good a look at how far up those orange trousers went. If, as seemed to be the case, the people up here didn't know about the rest of the facility down there then they wouldn't automatically connect the part of the uniform they could see with a prisoner.
Carla felt the weight of the pistols in the pockets and pushed her hands inside. Sara saw the concern build in her face when she felt the cold metal and her suspicion was confirmed. "I don't think I could actually shoot someone. You know, kill them?"
"You won't have to." She took Carla's arm and they walked into the office. She tossed the body armor down the back of the nearest desk before anyone could notice she had it. She continued talking, smiling to make it look like she was sharing a private joke although anyone who looked at Carla would see that she wasn't an amused woman. "Just stay close to me. If there's any trouble I'll take care of it."
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