The converted hospital was chaos. The once sterile corridors were now filled with panicked faces, hurried whispers, and the occasional cry of a child. Medical beds lined the walls, many stripped bare as mainly Symmetrist families hurried to evacuate to the hangar. As explosions rocked the depot's shields, and lights flickered under the strain of intermittent power, casting disjointed shadows along the cracked tile floors.
Ava and Viktor moved swiftly after Jo's latest command, their footsteps muffled by the din of hurried movement around them. Ava's augmented visor flickered with faint blue light as it scanned ahead, highlighting structural weak points and emergency exits. Each highlighted path only deepened her growing unease. Her rifle hung across her back as her hands guided rushed evacuees forward.
Ava instructed a group of older patients being wheeled by a nurse. Meanwhile, Viktor struggled to close a set of heavy doors, his augmented exoskeleton humming. The grinding sound of metal scraping against metal reverberated down the corridor. His augmented exoskeleton hummed faintly as the doors were shut and locked. “This won't hold'em long,” he said, his voice low and grim. “We’re sitting ducks when they breach the front.”
“Jo will delay them, she's a tough cookie,” Ava replied, glancing over her shoulder. “But we need to seal off the underground. If they track us there, it’s over.”
Viktor grunted in agreement, his focus shifting to the flow of evacuees. “They’re moving way too slow.”
“Most don't know the way, and they’re scared,” Ava shot back, her tone sharp.
A sudden noise stopped them both—a metallic clang, distant but deliberate. Ava froze, her head tilting slightly as her augmented auditory sensors sharpened, locking onto the sound of voices, distorted but unmistakable: Veridian soldiers.
They’re close,” she whispered, her jaw tightening as a distant metallic clang reverberated through the corridor.
Viktor’s hand moved to his rifle instinctively. “We don’t have time to play nice.”
“No doubt,” Ava agreed. “Keep pushing.”
Ava surged forward, urging evacuees to pick up their pace. Her voice carried authority, but inside, doubt gnawed at her resolve, 'Was this evacuation enough? Or just another delaying tactic in the face of the inevitable?' A mother carrying a toddler stumbled, her face drawn. Ava stepped forward, steadying her with a firm grip. “You’re almost there,” she said, her voice soft but urgent. “Hurry!”
They reached the lower entrance to the underground tunnels, long ago giving up on securing intermediate doorways. A reinforced hatch set into the floor of what had once been a surgical wing. The metal edges were scuffed and dented, the result of rushed modifications over the past weeks. Ava crouched, her fingers flying across the control panel. The hatch creaked open, revealing a dark void beneath.
“Down you go,” Viktor said shining a light from his rifle into the hole, motioning the evacuees forward. “Next!”
One by one, the evacuees descended into the tunnel below, as the sound of approaching boots grew louder. A young woman clutching a small case stumbled, her face pale. "My brother's still back there," she whispered. Ava nodded curtly, her own heart heavy with unspoken promises.
Viktor glanced back, his expression dark. The evacuees descended quickly, their movements spurred by the weight of fear. He took the crying baby to allow the mother climb down then, laid down to hand it back. There was no time, "Catch lady," he said as the baby dropped two feet into its mother's arms. Something about the free fall silenced the baby's crying, its mother's face stark as she disappeared into the shadows below, followed by others, their hurried steps echoing faintly.
“Close it,” he said. “We should find another way to draw them.” Viktor adjusted the fit of his exoskeleton, scanning the depot for choke points. "Here’s the play, Ava," he said, his tone hardened by years of field command. "We funnel them into the north corridor, buy enough time to blow the central hatch."
“Yup,” Ava agreed. “Camouflage first.”
They dragged debris and medical equipment across the opening, creating a makeshift barrier that blended seamlessly with the chaos of the hospital. Viktor’s exoskeleton whirred as he pushed a heavy gurney into place, sweat beading on his forehead.
Above them, the converted hospital felt like a battlefield. The air was thick with the acrid tang of disinfectants and sweat. The once-sterile corridors were crammed with rushing bodies and overturned equipment. Military personnel moved through the chaos with practiced efficiency, securing the facility and tagging non-citizens for transport. In the lower levels, Ava and Viktor moving against the tide, exchanged glances. Dim emergency lights flickered as generators pushed beyond capacity.
The sound of boots on tile was unmistakable to Ava now as she started picking up audio: orders barked in clipped tones, Veridian troops closing the distance. Viktor took position at the door, his rifle raised as his augmented sensors locked onto the distant figures still several corridors back.
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Ava glanced at Viktor, his determined expression mirroring her own sense of dread. “Double time, we need to move out,” she urged and took off running. Her full speed was narrowly faster than Viktor's exoskeleton but she needed to save her energy. Her augmented optics picked up the evacuees below and a path through the corridors to another access point to the underground, calculating the best route to rendezvous while giving them more time.
Viktor paused at a fork in the corridor near another tunnel access maintenance hatch, his gaze sweeping the pursuers. His sensors honed in on the weak vibrations of footsteps growing louder behind them. He motioned for Ava to stop, the tilt of his head enough to convey urgency. They needed to buy time.
Ava pulled her rifle from her back, the familiar weight settling into her hands. Her grip tightened as she scanned the passageway they had come through. Her visor locked onto muted movements in the distance. She could feel the heat rising in her chest, the urge to strike back. The Veridian troops wouldn’t hesitate to fire at them.
Viktor put a hand on her shoulder, his grip firm and grounding despite the chaos around them. She turned to meet his gaze, catching the flicker of concern that his steady expression failed to mask. For a brief moment, Ava felt the weight of their shared history—the fights, the losses—but she pushed it down. There was no time for sentiment.
His lips pressed into a thin line as he gestured for her to follow him into a narrow side passage. The walls closed in as the ceiling lowered, causing them to duck. The damp air thickened as they moved deeper. They stopped shy of a three-foot-wide pipe, barely enough for Viktor to fit while crawling. The hatch lay at the end where the pipe opened into a small rectangular opening, a small alcove with room for only one at a time.
Viktor knelt, his augmented hands moving with practiced precision as he removed a small satchel from his belt. The charges were compact, their metallic casings gleaming faintly under the flickering light. Ava watched as he worked, her rifle trained on the passage behind them.
Voices of the Veridian troops carried through the passageway, distorted but growing clearer without augmentation.
“Man are they on our tail,” Ava muttered, breaking the silence. Her voice was low but sharp, tinged with frustration. “Locked doors, full run, and they’re still on us?”
Viktor glanced over his shoulder, his expression grim. “They’re not chasing evacuees, they’re hunting.”
Ava’s mind raced. “No one knows these layouts well enough. They are tracking us now, but no way they could have done that without inside knowledge.” Ava's brow furrowed as she searched for meaning.
Viktor set up a charge between the access pipe and the outer passageway, his hands steady even as tension coiled in his body.
The glow of the charges cast erratic shadows on the damp walls of the passage. Viktor’s hands worked quickly, securing each detonator with methodical precision. The rough stone beneath him felt cool, grounding his otherwise tense body. Ava crouched nearby, her rifle at the ready, her visor tuned to her more precise thermal signatures still tracking their pursuers through vibration sensors as they approached quickly. The distant echoes of boots reverberated through the tunnels, closer than either of them liked.
She froze, realization hitting like a freight train. “The Abacus,” she whispered. “And maybe—” her eyes narrowed as another thought clicked into place. “The mesh generator. Damn it.” Then, in full realization, "Cassandra! She could've mapped the place through Sarah and Nova's augments."
“Wouldn’t put it past her,” Viktor grunted as he adjusted the placement of a charge. “Her whole game is control, isn’t it? So that's what she's after? Not the evacuees?”
“Right-o,” Ava said, shaking her head. “Not them.”
Viktor’s head snapped up, his face hardening. “They’re after the underground lab!”
“Charlie has the Abacus, I needed his help to study it,” Ava continued, her voice rising. “And that mesh tech—it’s the only prototype in existence, made from parts stolen from her museum. Cassandra could have fed intel on the substrate straight to them.”
Ava’s hand shot to her comm. “Chung, check the engineering lab. Now! Secure the devices and zeroize everything else. Do not—”
The sudden sound of boots pounding against the stone interrupted her. Viktor’s augmented senses were quicker, and he was already up, rifle slung, moving toward the charges. “Ava,” he said, his voice low and calm, “they’re here.”
She was already in position, rifle up, visor locking onto faint heat signatures emerging from the shadows. Her grip tightened. Her finger hovered over the trigger.
"Chung here, on way to the lab now," Chung's voice came over the comms.
“Ava, slow'em, don't kill,” Viktor said sharply. "Placing the last detonator," he said and then stepped back, his imposing figure framed by the red glow of the charges. “Keep'em out of the blast zone. That’s it.”
“Slow doesn’t stop them,” Ava hissed. "I say we stop them!"
Viktor’s gaze pinned her, steady but firm. “You want to blow this tunnel with them in it? Because that’s what happens if they’re too close.”
She swore under her breath but shifted her aim. Her first shot rang out, striking a metal beam near the troops. Sparks flew as the soldiers ducked for cover, shouts echoing down the corridor. Viktor joined her, his own shots calculated and deliberate, forcing the troops to stay pinned.
“Chung!” Ava barked into her comm, her voice strained over the echoing gunfire. “Zeroize the lab, secure the mesh generator." Ava laid down more fire, in a consistent spray precisely positioned shots close enough to singe eyebrows as a soldier got too close to the corner.
Chung’s voice crackled through the comm, incredulous and frustrated. “You can’t be serious! We need time—”
"Secure it and take it back to the district where it will do some good, we'll handle the rest. Hurry, these guys won't stop until they search every inch of this place.”
“No time!” Ava shouted, her rifle still firing as she ran past Viktor. “Move or lose it!”
The first charge detonated, a deafening boom that rocked the tunnel. Ava and Viktor ran full speed without looking back towards the access pipe, blast waves propelling them forward as dust and debris filled the air.
The corridor roared with the force of the explosions, the sound bouncing chaotically off the narrow walls as the ceiling began to give way filling the area with rubble. Ava’s ears rang as she pushed forward, legs burning from the effort, before dropping to a crawl. Dust choked the air, creating a swirling haze that clung to every surface. She could barely make out Viktor’s broad silhouette as she looked back crawling at full speed through the narrow pipe.
Her thoughts raced, disjointed fragments of strategy and urgency clashing with an undercurrent of fear. They hadn’t stopped the Veridian soldiers—just bought time. That, she reminded herself, was enough ... for now.