A/N: Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Amora felt the elevator shift beneath her feet and start to descend. This caused her to momentarily to panic; she was in the lobby and there wasn't any floor lower than that. She held onto the brass railing that lined the elevator. She put the key card into her pocket while all the rumors the reporters have been saying ran through her head. But they couldn't be real. No one in their right mind would fuse human DNA with praying mantis DNA. Mr. Johnson wouldn't do something so immoral as testing on people without consent.
Amora nodded to herself. There was absolutely no way anything really horrible could be down here. She was getting herself worked up over nothing. The doors to the elevator opened and Amora stepped out.
The floor was very different than those above ground. It was cold and sterile. White tiles were on the walls and floors. Amora walked slowly onto the white tiles, her heels clicked softly. She looked to her left and then to her right as though she was doing something wrong. She chuckled to herself, "I'm becoming as paranoid as Dr. Rattmann." She picked a direction and walked slowly. The hallway was well-lit and empty. Amora passed a window and she looked in.
A woman in an orange jumpsuit carrying a strange backpack contraption was running. Amora leaned forward to watch now curious. The woman in the jumpsuit stopped her running and spun around looking for something. She paused when she noticed her observer. Amora could tell that the woman was angrily shouting at her. She frowned curious why the other woman was so mad at her for.
The sound of gunshots rumbled in the room. Amora stared wide-eyed as a turret was dropped and promptly started shooting. She gasped and put a hand to her mouth feeling sick at the sight of the blood that now splattered the pure white tiles.
Amora spun around determined to get out of there and inform the authorities. The sounds of footsteps leaving the elevator sent a chill of fear through her. Amora ran away from the footsteps and turned down another hallway. She hurried down the hallway as fast as she could.
She passed another window but wasn't prepared to look through it. Amora stopped her running after she was certain that she wasn't being followed. She walked slowly as she realized that in her rush to get away she had gotten herself lost.
Amora sighed as she tried to figure out how to get back to the lift. She passed a window and paused to look in it. A man with an orange jumpsuit was on a platform near the ceiling when he slipped. Amora turned away before the man hit the floor not wanting to see what surely would have been a mess.
She backed away from the window. She looked down at her feet realizing that these people were dying because of her. If she was smart enough to wonder about all the rumors she heard, she could have stopped this. There was even a Senate hearing and she didn't think anything suspicious about it. She mentally berated herself until a loud alarm brought her hands to her ears. A red light flashed and Amora wondered if someone found her.
She turned around looking for a place to hide. Shadows at the end of the hall blocked some of the red light. Amora stepped back not recognizing the shapes the shadows created. She took another step back as the shadows grew larger.
The most horrendous beings came into view. Amora only caught a quick glance before she turned on her heel and ran as if her life depended on it. The strange creatures were taller than her with what looked like mandibles on their faces and their arms twisted into a mock semblance of a prayer. Amora could hear the creatures behind her starting to catch up. She heard a crack and fell forward crashing into the ground. She looked at her broken heel that decided to betray her before looking up at the mantis men that approached her. Amora scooted backwards trying to get as far away from their mandibles as possible.
She turned away from them, just seeing them terrified her. Her thoughts turned to Wheatley and how he was waiting for her. How he had planned this dinner only for her to mess it up by coming down here. She closed her eyes and waited for the strange experiments to tear her apart. Pain never came, but the sound of gunshots rang through her ears.
Amora opened her eyes fearfully. The strange creatures were crumbled on the ground; their dead eyes stared directly at her. "Now, that's what I call an entrance," Rick's rowdy voice said. Amora didn't think she could ever be as happy to hear his voice than right at this moment. She looked up to see Rick striding over. "What are you doing here, Amora?" Rick asked his tone was angry.
"I was on the elevator and it came down here," Amora said quickly; it wasn't a lie, but wasn't exactly true.
Rick frowned, "I'll help you get to where you need to be." The man reached down and pulled Amora to her feet.
"Thank you for saving me from those things," Amora said reaching down and taking off her broken heels.
"Don't mention it," Rick said before placing a hand on her arm. "Follow me." The woman followed as the man guided her through the halls.
He led her to a door and Amora knew that something was wrong; she didn't go through any doors in her mad dash. "Rick, where are we going?" she asked trying to release herself from his grip. The man didn't answer but the doors slid open.
"Rick, where have you been?" Craig's voice asked before Amora caught sight of him. The man looked at her before also frowning at her. "Amora," he said.
"What's going on?" Amora asked now feeling really frightened that neither man said anything to her. They were silent as she was pulled to a metal bed.
"Get on," Rick said pointing his chin toward the metal bed.
"No," Amora said as she wrestled with his grip on her arm. "I don't know what's going on," she shouted now thoroughly terrified.
"It's a simple test, Amora," Cave's voice said as the doors slid open again. "We've been so distracted with conversion gel and portal devices that we were ignoring the true future of science."
"Which is what?" Amora asked as she continued to struggle with Rick.
"A genetic lifeform and disk operating system. Uploading a person's memory and personality into a computer," Cave said. "We've been running test after test and have been less than successful." Amora narrowed her eyes as the pieces came together. Her missing friends, the personality cores. If only it wasn't too late.
Rick fed up with her struggling picked her up and placed her on the cold metal bed. He strapped her in. "You can't do this to me," Amora shouted.
"But it's for science, Amora," Cave said before turning to leave. "You boys tell me how this trial works out." Amora watched her boss exit through the doors. The slam was loud and final.