Prologue

Ander stood in the doorway as a sea of faces stared right back at him. He took in the brightly colored walls, anthropomorphic animals littered the walls frozen in games with the other little critters painted there, and tables and chairs sized too small for any adult. And that was the problem. Two teachers and a full class of children, most couldn’t be older than 6. As horror mounted in his chest Ander pressed his comms button.

“Gabe, You didn’t tell me there was a daycare here.” He could see the teachers starting to panic. They knew him, or rather, his organization.

“Ander it’s not a problem, just get out of the building.” The voice coming from his earpiece sounded both annoyed and a little frantic.

“What the hell do you mean it’s not a fucking problem?” Ander’s voice was strangled. It was all Ander could do not to panic. He couldn’t get this many people out of the building in time, it was impossible.

“Look, their parents are the life-ruining scientists that work in this building, they are going to grow up and be the exact same, so leave them to die and GET OUT.”

Ander was stunned for a second before he ripped out his earpiece. This wasn’t how this was supposed to be. He threw his earpiece to the ground and crushed it under his boot. Then he looked at the kids, scared looks on their faces, with tears welling up in their eyes. Ander stopped and took a deep sort of calming breath.

“Hi, can I talk to you for a moment?” He knew his smile was as fake as a fruit display at Ikea, but he had to hope it was enough. He couldn’t afford to scare the kids. If they started crying right now it would likely kill them all. The teachers nodded and walked toward him like they were trying to calm a crazy man.

“So, the building might be about to explode.” He said this as quietly as possible, just loud enough for them to hear. Of course when they heard it he could see them start to panic. Great. “Woah, woah, woah, I can take you and the class somewhere safe but you have to keep calm.”

“Ok,” the teacher on the right said. She seemed to be in her late twenties, fit and attractive. The other was a woman in her fifties, who was the size of a boat and wore glasses connected to a beaded chain around her neck. It took noticeably longer for her to get under control.

“Ok,” Ander replied, widening his fake smile. “Get the kids together and follow me.”

“OK class!” The younger teacher called out. To Ander’s surprise and respect her voice was sweet and without an ounce of fear. “Get in a single file line! We get to go with the security guy on a field trip! Yay!” Ander looked at his combat gear and shrugged. It was a good lie. It took a minute to get all the kids in line, as each one insisted on taking one thing or another. Mostly phones. As soon as they were in line, Ander started off. He had memorized the entire layout of this facility. In fact he knew that there was a decontamination chamber not far away. Those were always secure due to the sheer amount of piping and other hardware in the walls. Moreover this decontamination chamber was also integrated into the blast shielding of one of their high strength testing facilities. It *might* survive.

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The halls were sterile and white, easily cleaned so that contaminants wouldn’t spoil any tests. And of course, it was swarming with lab coated scientists. Like a hive of termites, ready to chew up anything to build their little castle of ‘facts.’ As they walked they passed by these groups of scientists, but fortunately no real security. The scientists would recognize him and raise the alarm, but they would be too slow to do anything else before they and everyone else was dead. A list that would probably include him in exactly 1 minute and 57 seconds.

They rounded the final corner, and came to a standard wooden door. Ander kicked it in revealing a room full to bursting with desks and various diagnostic equipment. It was also full of lab coated scientists. Ander immediately pulled out his sidearm and trained it on the scientists.

“Get out now, and count yourself lucky. If I thought shooting you would be quicker, you would already be dead.” The scientists hugged the wall as they made their way to the door and sprinted away, screaming. The teachers ushered the kids into the lab, and ander flipped a table against the open doorway.

“Ok,” Ander yelled. “Come right this way we are almost there. He went into the observation room and pulled open the door to the decontamination chamber. It was heavy with a rotating wheel like a vault door.

“Come right in. It is a little cramped but we should all fit.” Ander breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it and with some 40 seconds to spare.

“Where is Lily?” That made a hole right through his middle. The older teacher was looking around frantically.

“She was in the bathroom.” one of the kids said.

“Where?” Ander growled.

“In the back of the classroom.” The young teacher said.

“Stay here.” and with that Ander slammed the door and spun the handle to lock it closed.

And then Ander ran as fast as he had ever run in his life. He skidded around corners and knocked over groups of scientists like bowling pins. 30 seconds. He turned a corner, and there were five armed security guards walking in his direction. He barely made it back around the corner before they opened fire. He stuck his gun around the corner and fired his whole magazine. Not one hit, for all the good his training was. Instead, he holstered his gun and pulled out a cylindrical grenade. He pulled the pin and threw it down the hallway. It clattered against one of the walls, and he heard shouts of “Grenade!” before it went off. He had always been better with bombs than with guns. He rushed off. 15 seconds.

He came to the classroom door and burst in. There, in the middle of the room was a girl, maybe five years old. She had obviously been crying before he came in and now she screamed. Ander winced, but didn’t stop as he grabbed the girl and ran back to the bathrooms. As gently as he could manage, he shoved her in the gap between the side of a toilet and the wall, and threw himself down, covering her as best he could. She was still screaming, wriggling, trying to get…

BOOOOM