Chapter 24- Intruder Alert
Caroline yawned as she walked down the hallway of the Capsule Corp. med-bay. She was a kind of short, pale, woman with dark brown eyes and the same color curly hair. She wasn't one for any physical activity and so she was a little plump. Her genius when it came to medicine and a great sense of humor more than made up for any shortcomings, however, and she was all the more respected for it.
She really wasn't use to this late-night stuff. Usually, the med bay shut down the same time that the rest of Capsule Corp. did- at ten o'clock. But whenever there was a patient staying overnight, someone had to be there to 'keep watch' on them.
And, unfortunately, tonight, that someone was her.
She had been sitting in the monitoring room, that allowed her to check all of the vitals on her patient, so she didn't have to actually sit in the room with him. The monitors also kept track of all the security devices too. Which was why she was where she was now.
A few minutes ago, one of the movement detectors alerted her that there was something seemingly wandering around the building. She wasn't too worried about it, though. It was probably just one of Dr. Briefs's many animals. They have been known to get locked in at night and wander around the building.
Or it could be Herman Collins coming early to relieve her of her shift. She took her purse with her in case of that event.
As she rounded a corner, however, she found that neither of her guesses were accurate. There was a man, not an animal and much too tall and built to be Herman Collins, coming down the hallway and looking into each room seemingly searching for something.
She hurriedly jumped back around the corner so as not to be seen and started fumbling through her purse. The whole time, she was trying to think of who she knew that looked like that, or for any reasonable explanation why someone who didn't work at Capsule Corp. would be in it's med bay at twelve o' clock at night. She couldn't come up with either, but she did find what she had been searching for in her purse- her mace. Holding the hand with the mace a bit behind her, she stepped back around the corner.
"...c..." She cleared her throat. "Can I help you?"
What she could see of the man tensed up and he quickly pulled himself out of the doorway and into her plain view. He stood there stunned for a minute before pulling a walkie-talkie out of his belt and whispering something hurriedly into it.
Caroline's eyes bulged as she caught sight of the huge hunting knife that was also slipped in his belt. Caroline felt herself walking backwards until her back was pressed up against the wall. As she watched the strange man put his hand on the knife, she willed her legs to run.
The man didn't hesitate to take chase. The second she moved, so did he, and he was much faster. She could hear his boots hitting the tiled floor. The footfalls were getting closer by the second. Just as she was about to cut around the second corner the man grabbed her arm and spun her around.
Caroline screamed and, shutting her already teary eyes, sprayed her mace- everywhere. Another scream accompanied Caroline's, this one more masculine.
The man had let go of Caroline's arm and the knife, which went clattering to the floor.
Caroline being so terrified, did not even attempt to grab the knife, but instead, turned again and fled down the hall.
Finally, after running for what seemed an eternity to her, she realized that the man had not followed. Caroline stopped running and leaned against a wall to catch her breath. Her head was in confusion. The man had just tried to KILL her! But why? What had she done to him?
She shook her head as if to clear it and started looking for something to help her. If the man wanted to murder her, a little spray in the face wasn't going to stop him.
Spotting a fire alarm at the end of the hall way, relieved her a bit. As quick as her now tired muscles could take her, she made her way to the fire alarm and pulled it. The red flashing lights on the walls and the water spraying down from the ceiling and even the loud siren like beep, seemed like a gift from God.
Everyone that worked at Capsule Corp. knew that Police, Firefighters, and the works would arrive at the compound in less than three minutes if ever called.
She savored the feeling of safeness, before realizing that she wasn't actually safe. With a sudden fear of being found again gripping at her stomach, she continued down the hall to where she knew the emergency stairs to be.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Damn it!" Locke cursed as the water from the sprinklers mixed with the mace in his eyes only making the situation worse. When the woman sprayed him, he had been taken by surprise and had let go of her. As he was now finding out, that had been a stupid thing to do.
"Stupid woman ran off." He mumbled to himself while picking his knife up again. "Now what? Kill the kid? Or kill the woman? Decisions decisions." He thought about it for a bit and then figured it would be wiser to kill the woman. He would have to do it fast, however, because the cops were bound to show up sooner or later.
"Now where did she go?" Locke looked down the hall to his left and then the one in front of him, realizing that none of it looked familiar. "And where am I?"
He looked around for a second longer before figuring that just standing there was not going to help him any and decided to take the hall to the left.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Bulma was awoken by the loud siren that signified that a fire alarm had been pulled. Seeing that there was no water sprinkling from the ceiling, she concluded that the fire was not in this part of Capsule Corp. But how had anything caught on fire anyway? It was 12:18 in the middle of the night. No one worked after ten o'clock. No one should be here.
Bulma was interrupted from her puzzlement by her father bursting through the door.
"Come on dear. You know we're not supposed to stay inside of a building during a fire." He said.
"But what's on fire daddy?"
"I don't know sweetheart. But we can find out from the police once they get here. But we have to get out of the building. It's not safe."
Bulma got out of her bed and followed her father into the hall. They were met by Mrs. Briefs who was tying her robe shut. "Dear." Mrs. Briefs addressed her husband. "What about our pets?"
"Oh yes!" He exclaimed. "I almost forgot! Bulma, you go on outside. We'll gather up all of the animals and meet you."
"But dad!" Bulma yelled. "Your stupid animals can't be that important! You can get new pets!"
But neither of her parents had heard her for they had already scurried down the hallway.
Bulma rolled her eyes at her parents' ridiculous love of animals, and figuring that since this part of the building wasn't actually on fire, started making her way outside.
By the time she had gotten out of the Building, Firemen, police and ambulances were already in the front yard and going into the med wing of the building.
Bulma's stomach dropped, but she figured that it would be best not to jump to conclusions. She stopped by one of the policemen and asked him what was on fire.
"Nothing." The man replied.
"What do you mean?" Bulma asked. "Why are all you people here if there's no fire?"
The policeman sighed and started to elaborate. "A nurse pulled the alarm." He said pointing over his shoulder to a nurse sitting in an ambulance. "Said there was a man trying to kill her."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Locke was completely lost. It seemed like he was walking in circles and he probably had been.
Suddenly, over the sound of the sirens, he heard someone running. Locke smiled a sadistic smile. The woman. He would get to kill her after all.
He raised the knife up over his head and rounded the corner only to see a gun pointed square between his eyes.
"FREEZE!!!" The man, obviously a cop yelled.
Had it been only this one man, Locke might have been able to get away, but looking to the side of the cop, he saw two more, both with guns aimed at point blank range at his head.
Locke let his knife fall to the floor and put his hands behind his head.
This was it. His mission was failed. The game was over.