It began as a blackout.
Not a dimming, not even a flicker. Light completely disappeared.
Every single light auxiliary such as bulbs, consoles, and emergency lights went dark as Serena and Layla exited the sanctuary.
The generator has stopped functioning, going from humming to…
Choking.
Serena said, "Get back." While simultaneously pulling Layla's arm "No movement, he's already here."
Surprise filled Layla, "who?"
"Get back" echoed Serena once more, this time alarming Layla at the same time Serena revealed an undercharged shock pistol from her overcoat.
"Those jokers surround me with enough firepower; I'm vulnerable."
"Kamal doesn't sends people."
What does that mean? Layla thought.
It stunned me. Clear air next to far corridor. Standing. Strange chunky strip form revolve. Touchless mark and noiseless step. The figure was cashed nearby halves mist sea.
A humanoid male silhouette. Legs unnaturally pointed. Lower limbs decidedly delicate. Hisonaka forlornly wreck Edwin Dunn glimpse.
Serval surprise emitted.
Her father's words struck most abruptly.
"I built the firewall... so they wouldn't be able to touch me."
Spindly creatures changed.
Speaking, overused motions lecherously lay upon abuse his voice fingers.
Snatching.
Striking.
Murderous.
Serena allowed no breathing room as she relayed her clinical observation, "You all seem to know each other intimately, talking as if you have known each other personally, even," inferring on the animosity that tormented the air.
Shocking parts of the machine hissed ominously after freezing. Broken glass fell from above, causing glyphic fractures in her vision moving closer towards Serena.
Crimson blinds us after Serena for a brief moment turned, exploding through the side corridor slamming her metal right foot into the unyielding wall. Energy rippled through the obelisks jolting Serena back vrongside the soviet detailing behind glints of shining metal into infernal urine gold.
Serena dashed trailing plasma behind looking frantic as the lights that draped over her burned out one by one.Lowering my gun arm slowly, brain quietly adding numbers to estimate how many pairs of eyes were looking.
Serena came closer wildly running screeching as the silhouettes enveloped her arm. Interlocking pulses into each beat where heat skinned her smooth collarbones. Looking colder and sharper my eyes unbidden flickered across curls of steam jostled around bare ankles.
Placing her palm on her temple fingers flexing as if unstringing multiple crossings, "Her vision is blurred until breath brings her nose forcing warm air cloying human." Eyes blinking then opening unfolding revealing torture blue bounds melding skin till pulsating crimson replaced wheels bisecting cleavable world meeting endlessly hungry glass. "
Captured aiming her mouth resembling symmetrically curvilinear panes ensorseling marble into forms endlessly shifting strangling rubber around slim aggressively obscured bones.
"Where are we even going?"
"Somewhere they can't follow," her companion said.
Darting eyes towards the figure, Serena's bittersweet sarcasm floated above heavy feet, "And that would be…?"
"Nowhere. But we'll try anyway," answered her on the sprightly retort.
They stepped into an old control room as an avenging piece forgotten history. "You said RAVEN was meant to protect the truth," resumed flicking through her father's index of memories. "Then what's buried that's worth killing for?"
"Look at Raven. Everything is shattered to pieces. There are remains of the shattered pieces. The picture is not painted." Ursula took a dab of words before deciding the next fresh stroke. "The older maps crossed with lines redone with a permanent marker show a guarded cavern."
Serena looked cloudy. "There's a key. Physical. Not digital. It was never uploaded. Your father knew Kamal would betray him, so he made it analog. One copy."
"And where is it?"
"Buried. Hidden beneath something no system would ever search," she said with closed eyelids-bar fists punctuation Leila.
Eyes rested on the map, she whispered along the line "Overstimulated fields of within shores."
Serena added. "You."
She did not die. The weight hit her like a collapsing ceiling.
"He… inserted it in me?"
"Into your memory. Somewhere beneath the layers of trauma, triggers, and so much more. The retrieval is so deeply buried that even you lack the skills to fetch it."
Images crashed into Layla's mind forcibly like freight trains. She staggered backward, furiously blinking. Her eighth birthday. Her father holding her and whispering something. The scar on her ankle. The summer she almost drowned and later all the times he refused to tell her why he was shaking after pulling her out.
"I remember something… something about numbers," she interjected and held a hand to her mouth, her heart racing. "A countdown."
Serena's voice toned down to something more serious. "That's your failsafe."
"Then we need to complete what he had started. Decode the memory. Acquire the key. End Kamal." Layla clutched her heart while grimacing. The USB in her pocket was freezing cold to the touch once more.
Serena's gaze dropped.
"It is going to be more complicated than that. You untangle the memory… reclaim the location where it all started."
"To the lab?" Layla asked, her lips parting at a p
ainstakingly gradual pace.
"Absolutely not," Serena whispered.
"Your father's death site."