Ashildr stood up and stretched her arms and legs, glad to be out of the confined space. She took the sunglasses off and her vision had a green haze over it until her retinas adjusted to normal colouring. There was a fire exit door to her right which had a small black panel with a red light on it. To her left was an access door. She put the sunglasses in her front right jacket pocket, walking towards the door on the left when her hand touched the key she'd taken from the door in the showroom. She approached the fire door, taking a brief glance behind her, she tried the key in the space, and it fit much to her surprise. She turned the key ninety degrees to the right and the light turned green. After removing the key, she pushed the bar and found herself outside on the fire escape staircases. She looked to the plastic sign which told her she was on Floor 20. It was very high up and there were very few buildings of this height around, she dared not glance down.
"Two floors to go, you can do this," she said to herself. Looking up, there were many more flights above her, see-through due to the metal.
She made her way up to the twenty second floor. The doors were made out of chip board which she pushed and gained entry to the inside. There were no internal walls, very little equipment and the external windows had only been fitted half way round. There was a fierce wind rattling through the blue netting covering the outside. It was completely empty, nothing moved.
Ashildr walked towards the open side, pulling her jacket collar up against the wind. There was a spotlight covered in a green bag, and a square piece of plastic discarded on the floor. She picked it up and saw 'COME GET, ME' written on it, confirming she was in the right place. She felt cold on her left knee as she bent down, and her right leg and foot. She looked down at the holes, her skin formed perfectly underneath it. She sighed, looking at the exit wound on the back of her left knee which was two inches across. She could see the diner from this side of the building.
There was a noise of hurried footsteps on the far side. She spun around to see Clara running towards her, looking scared.
"Clara!" said Ashildr. "Oh my god! Are you alright?" She held open her arms to catch her.
Clara had dirty marks all over her top, her hair was messy and she was running with a pronounced limp. Her right forearm was very heavily bandaged.
"Not bad, considering," she said out of breath as she stopped running and went to hug Ashildr.
"What happened to you?" Ashildr asked, hugging her tightly.
"One minute I was in the diner, stuck to that door, and the next I was inside a room tied to a stretcher, didn't have a clue where I was," said Clara with a hand on Ashildr's shoulder through staggered breaths. "How did you know where to find me?" she exhaled deeply, "It's good to see you," she smiled at Ashildr.
"You shone a green light at the diner from this building and waved at me, holding a sign telling me to come," Ashildr said.
"Right," Clara said, confused. "That wasn't me."
"It was you, I'm sure."
"I promise you it wasn't, unless it is future me, then, maybe it was," said Clara whilst shaking her head. "Doesn't matter now, we have bigger problems." She pointed to the direction she ran from. "Probably should get out of here, I was being chased by at least ten burly men with machine guns with some woman telling me how much damage I was causing to the air conditioning." Clara started walking in the direction Ashildr had come from.
"They were after you?" said Ashildr surprised, following her, "I thought they were after me!"
"Oh, so that was you in the vents? They were after me!"
"Yes! They shot me several times as I tried to get away," said Ashildr pointing to the holes in her jeans.
Clara looked down at the clean skin through the holes. "Impressive," she said, "shame I can't say the same, I caught a few ricochets, they didn't go in, just grazes."
Ashildr now saw several large smears of blood in between the black material on the left side of her thigh and a tear on her left upper arm. Clara continued to limp slightly as she walked.
"You have to help me," said Clara holding on to her left side.
"I will Clara, come on, let's find a way out."
They went out to the plywood door, exposed to the biting cold again. There was the sound of footsteps a few floors beneath them, Ashildr looked down, estimating they were perhaps three or four floors below.
"Looks like we're heading up," said Clara.
"Yes," nodded Ashildr in agreement, following Clara up the stairs.
On Floor 24 they stopped to catch their breath. Ashildr looked out, dizzy from the height, starting to get cold hands and a tingling on her cheeks from the breeze.
Clara looked out over the balcony, "What a view!"
"Be careful, I'm not sure you would survive a twenty-five floor fall," Ashildr warned.
"Yes mum," said Clara, taking her hands off the rail, holding them up and taking a pace backwards, smiling slightly towards her.
"Hang on," said Ashildr, "when I was, sorry, you were being chased they said they had to keep you away from floor twenty five. What's up there?"
"I don't know," said Clara. "Shall we look?"
The footsteps continued up the stairs, getting closer.
"Let's go," said Ashildr.
Clara followed Ashildr up the staircase. There was no chipboard door here, just concrete pillars, the floor was completely bare. The whole outside was covered in the blue material. The wind was flapping through gaps in the fabric, making a faint eerie whistling noise.
Ashildr walked slowly into the expanse, holding her arm out to keep Clara behind her. She turned right, heading towards a dimly flickering light, hidden by the central lift shaft. When she reached the edge of the wall she peered round the corner and then turned back. She looked at Clara and gestured silently for her to follow her.
Going around the wall still holding Clara behind her, the flickering light became more intense. Ashildr sneaked another quick glance.
She saw what looked like a red sarcophagus lying on the floor, the top open, like a treasure chest. It was full of some sort red liquid. There were wires coming out of the foot end that looked organic, they snaked towards the lift shaft and disappeared out of sight. There was a console of computer screens to the left of the sarcophagus, five in total with a large container full of the same red translucent gloop. A large opening of the blue material was cut out on the far wall, almost like a window.
Ashildr turned round to look at Clara, noticing she was now not there.
"Clara?" Ashildr said in an urgent whisper, "Where are you?"
Ashildr walked back the way they had come, looking for her.
"Clara!" she whispered. She looked round the wall and saw the armed soldiers trooping in the other side of the lift shaft. Ashildr spun around, there was nowhere she could run. She turned back towards the side of the sarcophagus and saw Clara on the opposite side, crouched behind a pillar, gesturing for her to join her.
Looking left and right, Ashildr ran in her direction.
"Where did you go?" whispered Ashildr.
"What? Look," whispered Clara, pointing to the console.
The soldiers had surrounded it from the opposite side, forming a barrier.
Ashildr felt a sharp prod in the middle of her back and stood still. She turned her head around to see an armed soldier, wearing a black helmet, stab vest and a grimace on his face. She looked to her left and saw another soldier pointing a gun at Clara's back. Ashildr raised her hands and walked in the direction she was being shifted in. Clara did the same. The soldiers moved towards the front of them.
"Ma'am, we have apprehended the intruder," a soldier from the other side of the console shouted across the room.
The soldier pointed the gun at Ashildr shouted, "get on your knees!" She crouched down and held her hands behind her head, noticing there were now two soldiers in front her. Clara was out of her line of vision, she couldn't turn her head. Ashildr looked down at the ground.
"Copy that, soldiers," said the familiar authoritative female voice from behind Ashildr. She heard footsteps approaching, walking past her left side towards the sarcophagus. The female figure had her back to her, backlit by the light ahead.
"Not that you were much use... I had to do the last bit myself."