It's coming to an end!
The Outside - Part II
After a minute of scrambling in the dark for her flashlight, Lisa eventually found it and sighed in annoyance as she tried to open up the electrical box while holding the torch in her mouth. The Project probably would not even notice the blackout, and it wasn't like Lisa could contact anyone to fix the problem with the landline refusing to cooperate.
"Stupid thing," she muttered, glaring at the rows of switches and wires that confronted her, "I'm a psychologist and a pediatrician, not a damn electrician-"
Doctor Schreyer froze as she felt steel come to rest beneath her chin and she suddenly remembered her phone in her back pocket, but Stormkrigeren reached it first.
"What do you want-" Lisa started to say when the Project's hand came over her mouth.
"You know what I want," the girl whispered in reply, "When you wake up, tell him that I will not hesitate to kill anyone who comes after me. So consider this mercy and get some sleep."
The knife was removed from her throat and Lisa felt the butt of the handle hit her skull with a sharp crack before promptly losing consciousness.
Stormkrigeren caught the body as the doctor slumped into her arms and gently lowered her to the floor. She considered tying her up, but that would waste precious time and the older woman was in no shape to give chase even if she was awake. Turning off the flashlight, Stormkrigeren made her way down the long concrete hall, where exactly as the stolen blueprints had predicted, she found the elevator - the only way out of the Rooms. She had been extra careful in making sure that it remained powered during the electrical fault and to her satisfaction, it worked perfectly when she pressed the single button pointing upwards.
The doors slid open with a soft ping and Stormkrigeren stepped inside but didn't stay long, hopping up on the support railing to force the maintenance panel up. The few screws that held it in place snapped under her blow and she leaned back down to select the button for the first level before climbing up through the new hole in the ceiling out onto the top of the car. It only took her a few moments to complete the entire process and replace the maintenance panel, leaving a small crack so that she could see inside the elevator as the cables tightened and pulled the lift upwards.
It was only then that Stormkrigeren realized how heavy she was breathing and how her pulse was thundering unnaturally loud in her ears, probably caused by a mixture of excitement and the sudden change in atmosphere from her regulated Rooms. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, shutting out the flood of sounds as the elevator slowed to a halt at the selected floor and the doors opened automatically. Only after she had counted twenty seconds did she finally descend from her hiding place and out into the clean white hall, mentally applauding herself for her impeccable timing. Most of the scientists employed at the research park would not arrive at work for a few more hours, and Stormkrigeren only had to sneak past one nightguard and eight cameras to reach Laboratory Five. Its project file had said something about studying meteorites, but she had merely glanced over it and was far more interested in the fact that the research room was equipped with both a first aid kit and an unsecured printer connected to the internet.
Security had not bothered to change the factory bypass code for the lab door's keypad, and Stormkrigeren had no trouble breaking in and avoiding the security cameras while she found the first aid kit under a counter. Opening it up, she sifted through the plethora of treatment tools that were standard for rooms where chemical analysis was taking place, conveniently including an instant-cold pack and a morphine sulfate injection. Personally, Stormkrigeren was a little averse to using painkillers when a chug of whiskey could dull the pain just as well without any nasty side effects, but she was in a hurry and it would do the job. She stuffed both items into her pockets along with some bandages and alcohol wipes before dumping the other contents in the trash to take the first aid bag itself.
The printer had done its job and the Greyhound tickets were ready by the time she reached it. Neatly folding the papers, Stormkrigeren tucked them into her bra and silently headed for the nearest emergency exit a few doors down from the ransacked laboratory. There was a security camera aimed at it, but she had no trouble cracking the lens with her stolen knife before it was able to get a clear picture of her, and successfully slipped out without raising any alarms.
The fresh air hit her like a wall and Stormkrigeren almost stumbled as the roaring in her ears suddenly increased in volume till it felt like there was a jet engine rumbling in her head, but she knew she could not let the pain stop her when she was so close to getting out. Gritting her teeth, she mentally went over what she had learned about the area from studying Google Maps' imagery. The first obstacle would be the thirty-meter gap between her building and the fence surrounding LexCorp Research Park, then there were the three cameras that if aimed correctly might catch a glimpse of the muscular young woman legging it across the parking lot. Luck was with her and all of them eventually turned in another direction just long enough for her to sprint to and hide behind the bush conveniently growing against the fence. Stormkrigeren spread out the empty first aid bag into a sort of clumsy mat, resisting the urge to cover her ears against the noise in her head as she arranged it over the five strands of barbed wire on the top of the fence. The bag was not as tough as she had hoped, but it worked to protect her from the barbs as she clambered over the wall, panting hard as she dropped to the sidewalk on the other side. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest, but she did not stop to rest and instead turned towards the skyscrapers in the distance and ran like her life depended on it - for all she knew, it did.
Once Stormkrigeren was out of sight of the Research Park, she forced herself to slow down to a moderate jog. Hopefully, anyone who saw her would think she was only an early-morning runner and not bother trying to stop her before she reached her destination. She had memorized directions to a gas station a little over three klicks away, chosen because it had an ATM that allowed cash-withdrawals using only a PIN, not to mention a bathroom.
The noises in her head were getting louder with every step and she struggled to shut them out and carry on. Something was wrong with her eyes as well, her vision flickering every now and again as weird versions of her surroundings appeared and vanished. It occurred to her that Lex might have poisoned her with something that reacted with the air Outside and caused a sensory overload, but Stormkrigeren was able to control the effects enough to stop the hallucinations and reduce the noise down to a low drone, so she doubted it was the results of a drug. She didn't have the time to wonder why her senses were so overstimulated and carried on running.
The sky was still dark when she reached the gas station she had chosen on the outskirts of Metropolis, but the sun would be up in about half-an-hour and her bus left around the same time. Stormkrigeren slowed her pace as she approached the building, trying to look casual for anyone watching and resisting the urge to stare at the two people filling their cars. It had been almost a year since she had seen anyone new - a year since she had had the chance to even speak to a stranger, and now she found herself watching the two civilians move and speak with rapt fascination. Stormkrigeren felt an unfamiliar and dangerous urge to approach them - not to talk, but to study another person in a free environment - though the idea itself was idiotic if she didn't have her guard up and they chose to attack. She did not dare stay long in such a risky situation, even if she was only observing them, and instead concentrated on keeping her face out of view of any cameras.
Finding the ATM outside, she quickly signed into her account using an authentication PIN and withdrew as much money as it would allow in fifty-dollar-bills. She had done a lot of work online throughout her life in the Rooms but had never needed to purchase anything, so she had a considerable stash at her disposal - as long as Lex did not close the account.
Stepping inside the station building, she was immediately hit with a fresh wave of sights, smells, and sounds threatening to overwhelm her again, but she quickly shut it out as she moved through the small shop. Stormkrigeren grabbed a large water and a couple of pre-made meals from one of the fridges, then a backpack, a trucker hat, and a souvenir sweatshirt with a picture of the Metropolis skyline emblazoned on the front before bringing her pile to the checkout counter. The tired cashier did not even bat an eye when Stormkrigeren added a cigarette lighter and began scanning the items, only pausing once to ask if she wanted a bag.
"No, thank you," she answered politely, packing her purchases into the backpack.
"All right. Yer total's forty-six dollars and seventy cents."
Stormkrigeren handed over one of her fifties and accepted the change as she hefted the bag over her shoulder before asking, "Where is the bathroom?"
The cashier pointed out the woman's sign on a door next to a rack of chips, and Stormkrigeren thanked her before going inside. Choosing the stall that looked the cleanest, she put the toilet seat down and locked the door before emptying her pockets.
By now, she had been out of the Rooms for almost twenty-five minutes, which meant she maybe had ten before her escape was discovered and Lex sent someone to follow the tracker embedded in her hip. And that meant she only had five minutes to get rid of it.
First things first, she snapped the activator inside the ice pack and pulled her pants down enough to press it over the small bump on her left hip. While it numbed the area, she broke the seal on the morphine sulfate injector and wiped the skin with an alcohol wipe before lining up the needle, but it refused to penetrate her skin. She swore as it bent skew and tried again, but it just bent even more. She did not have the time for this or to wonder when the hell her skin had gotten this tough, so swearing under her breath, she grabbed the stolen utility knife and the not-stolen lighter, turning the flame on under the knife to sterilize it. The process took a good thirty seconds before she was able to use the blade to carefully make a small slit in her skin and insert the needle to administer the localized dose. The morphine worked quickly while she sterilized the knife again, then Stormkrigeren made another, larger incision immediately above the small bump on her hip. Gritting her teeth, she used the knife to dig out the small disc-shaped tracker, eventually removing it without too much damage to the surrounding area. Now came the hard part.
She heated the knife again, hotter than before, and kept the flame focused on the flat side instead of the tip. Once again she wished she had some whiskey to dull the pain, but gritted her teeth instead and pressed the hot knife against the wound. Stormkrigeren did not flinch as the heat cauterized the injury and calmly removed the blade after a few moments. After wiping the area again and applying a bandage, she hurriedly packed up her supplies, pulling on the sweatshirt and trucker hat while everything else went into her bag, but the knife she kept tucked out of sight in the hem of her pants. It had worked, but she would have to get a better one soon.
Exiting the building, she found a car at one of the pumps with its passenger window open just enough for her to slip the tracking disk inside before she left the gas station, half-hoping whatever mercs came after her would not give the car's owner too much trouble. Putting the thought behind her, Stormkrigeren quickened her pace to a steady jog as she headed towards the nearest Greyhound stop just over a klick away. She had her ticket already, though security might give her a little crap for not having any identification, but Stormkrigeren knew she would be fine with just a confirmation code and at the most, an eighteen-dollar fee. The bus for New York City left in twenty minutes, and the sun was just beginning to light up the night sky to the east. Stormkrigeren was still not sure what her freedom had cost, but it was definitely worth it.