- Lobby -
Amy and Lucy reach the lobby of the main entrance. Amy's strength has improved, but she still had to exert a tremendous amount of energy to get here. But once they reached the open floor, Amy's legs were drained. She collapses to her knees and breathed heavily, sweat was dripping down her neck.
Lucy immediately went to her, kneeled in front of her, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. She knew Amy was exhausted, but with the exit only meters away, they can't spare too much time.
"I... I'm sorry..." Amy huffed in between long breaths.
"Shh... it's okay." Lucy reassured, as her fingers begin to stroke the curves on Amy's back.
"...I wish I were stronger. I wish you could... just run away from this place. You were captured once... because I was too weak." Amy whispered as her breathing begins to level.
Lucy pulled back, held Amy's face with both hands, and looked right into her eyes to show her sincerity. "You are strong, Amy. You have always been. That's one of the things I love about you. It wasn't your fault I got here, it was mine." She then smiles gently and continues, "And it was worth getting captured just to hear you tell everyone you wanted to be with me."
Amy returned with a weak, but loving smile. Then, she takes a big breath, and using Lucy as support, she pulls herself back up.
As soon as they stand, both see a figure coming in from the shadow in the right side hallway, the body slowly stepping into the light. Even before this person showed her face, it was obvious from the long legs and the puff of smoke being exhaled that this is the final member of Amy's old team.
Amy couldn't help but to feel completely exasperated at this point. Dominique is yet another ex-teammate she needs to convince to let them go. And as the French-Japanese Agent steps completely out of the shadows, not only can you see her face, but also the twin-barreled shotgun she holds with the hand not holding the cigarette.
Just as Lucy was about to say something to begin the negotiations, Dominique surprises them both by something neither of them expected.
She gave them a warm smile.
After a last puff of smoke, she drops the cigarette to the floor and steps it off with her stilettos. Her face returns to the unsmiling seriousness she is always known to show. She then flips the large heavy shotgun over to her shoulder, and speaks coyly with her thick French accent.
"I'm on a coffee break."
As both Lucy and Amy look on with perplexed expressions on their faces, Dominique turns around swiftly and saunters back into the hall. Her legs and hips sashaying like a fashion model on a runway... a fashion model carrying a shotgun with twin 12-gauge barrels, that is.
Amy and Lucy each turn to look at each other, but since they have no time to question what had just happened, they dart off into the exit.
- Breach -
A 45-foot long tunnel runs from the outside to the building entrance. The ceiling is littered with cameras and microphones, but with no one conscious in the control room to see or hear them, that wouldn't matter at this point. There are two metal arches near the tunnel opening 15 feet apart, each emitting a separate repel field. Lucy drops Amy off right before the first arch, and so when Lucy shuts down the field from the control module by the building entrance, Amy doesn't have far to run to the outside. However, that means Lucy would need to be the one to run the distance from the entrance to the outer threshold, and she only has 5 seconds to do so.
"As soon as you see me start running, you gun for it." Lucy says sternly. "I'll see you outside."
Amy nods cautiously, before Lucy leans in with a passionate kiss. They soon pull apart, and Lucy smiles before running back towards the building.
Lucy reaches the control panel, and begins to type in the exit command.
"This is it." Lucy can't help but think to herself with both excitement and nervousness. Only seconds to freedom from this accursed place, and with her, the girl of her dreams.
After a quick scan of the area to make sure it is clear, she takes a quick breath, and presses the 'enter' button.
Amy looks up above her, and sees the light indicators in both archways go off, along with the sound of the electronic hum fade to silence.
She turns to Lucy, and sees her jump away from the controls, then running at maximum speed towards her.
Amy makes a break for it. Running on pure adrenaline, she darts towards the gaping exit, expending as much of her recovered energy as needed. Soon she was outside of the farthest threshold, and she was out. Quickly breathless, she turns to look at Lucy, and sees her already close to the first archway.
Lucy was mentally counting the seconds down. As she approaches the first arch, she knows there's 2 full seconds left. At her rate, that would be plenty of time.
She blazes past the first arch, but immediately, a deafening siren blazes around her.
"CODE RED AT ENTRY CHECKPOINT... CODE RED AT ENTRY CHECKPOINT..." The robotic voice continued to repeat loudly in conjunction with the alarm.
Lucy continues, but can see the outer field has already reappeared in between her and Amy. She slows down and tentatively approaches the field with her raised hand. As she does this, she sees the diodes surrounding the large metal bracelet on her wrist are flashing like a Christmas tree. She looks at the other one, and not surprisingly, it's doing the same thing. These devices must have been designed to trigger the perimeter defenses in case of a breakout, a secondary function to these bracelets she hadn't anticipated. She quickly turns to look behind her, and she can see the first field has also returned.
Amy looks on in horror at what just happened. It took a moment to recall what Bobby warned her about a Code Red alarm, essentially a 10-minute countdown to a complete and overwhelming military presence. Out of angry desperation, she slams her right fist over the field. It reflects the force back at her amplified 10-fold as a flash of light pushed her entire body back forcefully, knocking her to the ground.
"Amy!" Lucy called out from her trapped location. But she can already see Amy pull herself up.
Amy rises, and Lucy can see the tears in her eyes and the quiver in her lips. It ripped at Lucy's heart to see Amy in such despair, but there's nothing she can do from here.
Lucy can only look on as Amy approaches the field again.
"Amy, listen to me very closely." Lucy says sternly. "Run away now. You don't have much time."
Amy could only shake her head in sorrowful defiance. She gets close to the field, drops to the ground and kneels there in anguish at her failure.
"Amy! Listen to me!" Lucy calls out as tears fill her eyes, and she let her body fall until she is also kneeling on the floor in front of Amy. "Get out of here, PLEASE! I don't want them to capture you too."
The girl stayed in her position, staring dejectedly at Lucy. She tries to speak but no words could come out.
"We'll find another way. We will. ...I love you so much." Lucy then raises her open right hand and presses it onto the field, causing the appearance of light scatter on the transparent surface.
Amy followed suit with her left hand. She blinks away some of the tears and manages to speak through the overwhelming emotions. "...I love you too."
They both look at their almost-touching palms. The field was less than a millimeter thick but was enough to block their touch.
"You will see me again. I know it." Lucy says with an assured smile.
Amy could only nod, as she was too broken to do much more.
The electronic buzzing of the archway emitter dwindles, the lights blink off, and through a sudden dispersal of light, and Amy and Lucy suddenly feel the warm contact of their hands against each other.
Both girls blink in sudden confusion, and then each quickly raises their other hands as they instantly clutch onto each other with them. They get up instantly, and without wasting a single moment, Lucy jumps forward at the same time Amy is eagerly pulling Lucy out and away from the arch.
They ran. They ran as hard as they could, tears of sorrow quickly replaced by tears of pure elation. Their hearts were pumping at full force at a thousand beats per minute. They don't know what happened, but at this point there was no desire to question their sudden good fortune. I was like a dream, and they clutch onto each other's hand firmly as they ran, as though reaffirming to each other that this was real.
They ran far into the dark unpaved street by a forested area. Amy reached to her ear and pressed a button on the transmitter.
"Scud! Exit! Now!" Amy bellowed loudly to make sure the microphone picked up the message.
After a second, they hear the sound of a roaring motor as Scud's van barrels out from its hiding spot beneath a dense pack of trees and onto the street. It swerves to face away from the direction of the building as the side door electronically slides open. The van stops just a few meters in front of the pair. The girls quickly jump into the van and immediately shut the door.
"Amy! Lucy! Holy shit! Am I glad to see you two!" Scud gushes from behind the steering wheel.
"You too Scud, now floor it!" Lucy always knows when to get to the point.
"My pleasure!" Scud replies gleefully as he stomps on the pedal and the van peels forward at full thrust.
Amy and Lucy each give a long relieved sigh, both wiping the remaining tears from their faces. They then sit quietly in the bench seat, their hands still locked together. Both of them are silent, but their hearts are still racing. They turn to face each other, and they smile in long awaited relief. Lucy leans in for a kiss, but just as Amy was ready to receive it, she is interrupted by a buzz sound coming from the transmitter in her ear.
"Amy." The voice was slightly distorted by some minor radio interference, but Max's voice was unmistakable.
"...Max?" Amy replies with some apprehension.
"...Don't ever say I never gave you nothin'."
Amy closes her eyes and smiles. The reason for their miraculous escape from the final obstacle now fully explained.
"I won't, Max. Thank you."
"You wanna thank somebody, thank Janet. She can be very persuasive."
"I won't forget this."
"You better not. I hope you know what you're doing, Amy. I hope this really is what you want."
"It is."
"Just promise me..."
"Yes?"
"Both of you. ...Be good."
"I promise."
"Goodbye Amy."
"...Goodbye ...Max."
There was a flicker of static from the transmitter when Max reached in and pressed a button, and then it became silent. She then unhooked it from her ear and flung it across the control panel in front of her with little regard as to where it landed. She watched the monitor in front of her showing clouds of dust kicked up from the van's tires dissipate off to the distance on the public road by the entrance.
Max reaches for the keyboard, types in a few keystrokes, and the screen blinks off to a field of black nothingness.
She can hear the door into the control room open. She turns and sees Janet coming in, her timid posture a far cry from her recent rather-uncharacteristic brashness.
"You... you did the right thing." Janet says, almost whispering, as she steps over an unconscious technician sprawled on the floor of the control room.
"I hope so." Max states unenthusiastically.
Janet clears her throat tentatively. "Are... are we... okay?"
Max's face turns serious in a hurry. "Point your gun at me ever again and I will make sure you regret it."
Janet's face darkens. "...Fair enough."
Then Max relaxes her countenance again. "But I am proud of you."
Janet's eyes perk up. "...Really?"
"You were doing what you thought was right, and you stood by it, fully aware of the risks." Max fixes her gaze right at Janet. "Honestly, I didn't think you had it in you. If I'm still allowed to after all this, I'll be giving full recommendations so that you can finally get your stripes."
Before Max could say anything more, Janet has already jumped towards her and clutched around her body in a gleeful swaying hug.
Max returns the hug and briefly allows Janet to bounce her around a bit before finally calling out, "Okay, okay! Alright, that's enough!"
To Max's dismay, Janet held on for a few more moments before finally letting go. The big bright smile seems to be permanently plastered to her face. Both sense motion near them, and so they each turn to look at the entrance.
They see Dominique leaning by the doorway, looking perfectly unimpressed with her arms crossed. She shakes her head in feigned exasperation and says, "Not you two as well!"
"-----------
- to be continued -