To Be A Warrior

Chapter 55: Life In A Glasshouse

"A.N.N.I.E. is directing the Glass Protocol to you. Leave through the atrium," Veronica instructs. "Run!"

Fear jolts through me as I sprint off, my heart pounding in my ears. I can hear Janine and Amelia's footsteps as they run behind me, but it's quickly overshadowed by that horrible, twisted laughter. It's how I remember it, like a child's laugh, but wrong, demented.

It can do things, mess with light and technology, move through molten steel. It was created to kill. It won't stop until it's killed me. I was so stupid to have forgotten about something so dangerous, so fatal.

I may not be able to die yet, but that won't stop the Glass Protocol from trying. I mean, I know zombies can, so there are exceptions.

It laughs again, the sound running up my spine like a cold hand before burrowing itself into my brain. It has a way of getting in my head. It knows that I know it won't stop. It knows that I know that no matter how much I run, it will always follow.

"Reflecting you, like mirror glass."

I think that's the worst part, that it reflects me. It sees what I am, inside and out, seeing into my greatest weakness and reflecting it so that I have nowhere to go, nowhere to run.

My greatest weakness is being unsure what to do without someone telling me. I've tried to be a leader, and I can be, in a way, but I'm much better under guidance. I survive because I usually always have someone else as my eyes and ears, telling me where to go and what to do.

A.N.N.I.E.'s taken away Sam, and Janine is just as lost as I am, and Veronica...

Veronica's been quiet, even though we've left through the atrium and have been running for minutes now. Where is she?

As if she read my thoughts, Veronica speaks again, although the distress I hear in her voice makes me wish she had just stayed quiet.

"I'm sorry," She says, and my heart sinks. "I can't hold her off any longer."

"You can't help us?" My voice cracks. "What are we supposed to-"

"Remember, be yourselves!"

The door slams shut behind us, and then there's silence. We slow down to a stop, even though every inch of me is screaming to keep running. Veronica said this was the birthplace of the Glass Protocol, so I'm sure it knows this place better than we do, and even if it didn't, it's got A.N.N.I.E.'s help. We've got no one.

"And with that useless platitude, she's gone," Amelia sighs, before looking back at the closed steel door, and then ahead, down the hallways with CCTV cameras lining the walls. There are lights on in here, which I'm sure is Veronica's doing. I'm not sure I believe the same about cameras, which are all focusing on us as one. Amelia feels the same type of unease. "How are we doing, Team Abel? I think this is a very good sign."

Janine frowns at her sarcasm. "We must remain calm, Ms. Spens. It is possible that the steel door is Veronica's attempts to keep us safe. If so, she's bought us some time. We have to find a way out of here."

"Then we need to keep moving," I say. "The Glass Protocol doesn't stop, and neither should we. I don't... I'm not going to die like this."

She nods, and we start down the hall, the cameras moving to follow us. We go at a slower pace, since it wouldn't be wise to rush towards something since our demise could easily be waiting at the end of it.

"I suppose we do think that A.N.N.I.E. acted alone here, do we?" Amelia questions. "It wasn't any Last Riders, or some very intelligent fungus, or any of the myriad enemies you charming Abel people have collected?"