Chapter sixteen

Daniela

Daniela sat down at the console she now knew like the back of her hand. If she wanted to, she could take the whole thing apart and know at sight where each part went and what it would do. She stroked the glass screen lovingly, it truly was her baby and it would do anything she wanted it to do with a stroke of her finger. 

“Daniela?” Kelly said. “Are you ready?”

Daniela let her fingers float across it’s screen at record speed, setting it up to go. The pods rose out of the ground either side of her and stood erect and glowing, waiting for her orders. 

“Pods are ready.” She said. 

Connor and Duncan went to the two lead pods and took Walker position, standing inside them. Daniela threw a few more strokes across the screen. The pods locked onto Connor and Duncan, identifying them and their vitals and showing them on the screen in front of Daniela. Daniela engaged the pods to lock down, ensuring that nothing would be able to set them free without her saying so. She jumped out of her seat with her hand held device and went over to each pod, first at Connor’s and then at Duncan’s. She logged the pods onto the device and slid a screen open on each pod, taking out the gloves necessary. She placed them on both Connor and Duncan’s hands. Once they were in place they glowed at the fingertips, activating the sensors. She climbed onto the ledge in front of Connor and swiped her hand held across his eyes, logging his retina scans into the pad. 

“Are you ready?” She asked Connor, looking him dead in the eyes.

“As I’ll ever be.” Connor said, his expression severe and straight.

Daniela let out a small smile, “Lock and load,” she said just so he could hear.

She clicked activate on her hand held and Connor’s head piece lowered onto his head, locking it in place also. 

“Sensors added,” she said. “Say goodbye to reality.”

Connor nodded and she hit the last button. His eyes clouded over and she knew he was ready. She jumped down and headed to Duncan, pushing her previous anger to one side, she repeated the process. After logging his retina scan she checked his eyes as well. 

“And you?” She said icily.

Duncan smiled a cocky grin. “Always.” He said.

“Pig.” She muttered and locked the head gear in place hitting the last button and watching his eyes cloud over as well.

“I’ll set the others up once these guys are established.” Daniela announced to Kelly.

“Already on it,” an overexcited man in his late twenties shouted as he and three others began to match her actions on the remaining 20 pods and the soldiers inside. 

“Fine.” Daniela said, running back to the console. 

She swiped the handheld over it’s scanner and saw both Connor and Duncan’s vitals light up, signalling ready.

“Let’s not leave them waiting in the middle of nowhere for too long shall we,” she said, excitement running through her despite the situation she was in. Regardless of what was going on, this was her element; seeing her machine being used the way she always dreamed it would be, with her at the helm. 

She swiped the two main pods to one side and brought up her control panel to the brand new element that made Stylo 1 so unique. It was a brand new substance that she had created 6 years ago, a substance that she had labelled ‘Danel’ because she felt that too many devices and elements out there had technical names and she liked the idea of a record breaking new element being created and forever known as her name. 

She briefly looked through the schematics of the element and came to a halt when she saw the components she had come to know inside out show at levels that were anything but normal. 

“What have they done to you?” She said quietly to the computer. 

She continued to scroll through the different equations and temperatures, all sky rocketing and breaching in every point, stretching to the very brink of what Danel could handle. 

“Where the hell have you put it?” She asked to the room. 

“Where do you think?” Kelly said, nodding her head to the direction of outside. 

Daniela let out a low whistle and shook her head.

“Are you insane?” She said. “What were you thinking exposing it to out there without proper testing?” 

“We have been testing it for years.” Kelly said. “We’ve been pocketing extracts from the exposure that has been breeching our atmosphere since the moment it starting coming. We put it to its most pure and undiluted state and tested Danel with it, we’ve ensured...”

“So you’ve taken one of the world’s most complex elements and let a bunch of stupid people play with it?” Daniela said. 

“I’ll have you know that I’ve been studying this element for years, I know all about how it works and what goes in it to make it function.” The voice who spoke was from the over-excited man from before. 

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Daniela snapped, throwing her most intense glare at him.

“I’m just saying that I am more than qualified to...”

“Did you build this element from scratch?” She asked.

“No, but...”

“Did you test it and mould it into the creation it is today?”

“All I’m saying is...”

“All you’re saying is nothing.” Daniela interrupted. “Unless this element was tested by me then it wasn’t tested at all. Why on earth wasn’t I consulted and brought in on this?”

“It was felt that with the dangers of the information getting out before the correct time, the less people who knew about this exposure, the better.” Kelly said.

“And you thought that I didn’t qualify as one of those people to be told?”

“Jensen has been on our staff for years, he has one of the best minds I know and has proven himself as a trustworthy person when it comes to government secrets.” Kelly said levelly.

“Well as far as I can see his intellect doesn’t come close to being able to manage Danel.”

Jensen’s face appeared to turn a beetroot red. “I hardly think that that’s...”

“Can you make it work?” Kelly cut over him. 

“Of course I can,” Daniela said, “Though we wouldn’t be in this position if you had called me in first.”

“How long do you need?” Kelly asked. 

“It’s hard to say.” Daniela said, turning her attention back to the console. “Give me a minute.”

“Ma’am,” a voice called over from the other side of the room. Daniela looked to see another man, sitting at a console not too different from hers.

“What is it Craig?” Kelly asked. 

“Predators sighted on the horizon.”

“Predators?” Daniela asked.

“How many?” Kelly asked, walking over to him. 

“Hard to tell, four or five at least.”

“Show me.”

Craig swiped his hand across his own touch screen and a section of the view on the window in front of them zoomed in to show large beasts the size of bears roaming around in amongst the fire. They were distorted by the amount of debris and flames around them. 

 “Can you get a better visual?” Kelly asked. 

“No ma’am, not unless they get closer.”

“We need our men Walking.” Kelly ordered. “Daniela we don’t have any time left, you need to get Danel working.”

Daniela considered asking what the beasts were but decided that now was not the best time. Instead she turned back to her console and started working through the different stressors on Danel. She tweaked and fought against the different components pressed against her baby, setting about different controls based on the various tests she had put on Danel in the past. 

“Ma’am they’re making their way to the bubble.”

“Daniela! We need the walkers now!”

“I know, I know!” Daniela shouted back. “Stressing me out isn’t helping!”

“Perhaps if we added coolers to the shields around...” 

“If I needed your help Jensen I would ask for it!” Daniela shouted once more. 

Daniela continued to let her fingers fly over the machine, adjusting the controls where needed. Danel was improving, but not enough. 

“Ma’am, full visual on the screen now.”

Daniela glanced up to see the screen zoom in on three of the beasts. They looked like some form of tiger but closer to the size of a bear. Daniela dropped her eyes to her console once more, deciding that if she didn’t want to have a panic attack, she was better off not looking. Things still didn’t seem right, she had most of the components within level but still Danel beamed hot, it wasn’t coping with the sheer amount of heat outside. She had the coolers on full blast, drawing out the heat and stretching over the outskirts of Danel like a shield so as to block any more heat from getting in. There was still too much heat already absorbed though, she didn’t have the power to cool it down. 

“Daniela, we really don’t have time to...”

“Everyone just needs to shut up for one minute!” Daniela screamed. Her voice had reached just the right level to receive the response she was looking for. Everyone fell silent for a few moments.

Then it hit her. She knew what to do.

“Katie.” Daniela said.

“I’m here.” Katie answered. 

“Go find that ridiculously chirpy woman who brought me into this place and ask her for my phone.”

Katie was gone. Kelly and Jensen were both on either side of her, watching her every move as she continued to push as much of the heat out as her console would let her. 

“What’s going on?” Kelly asked.

Katie was back in record time with Daniela’s mobile phone in her hand. She gave it to Daniela.

“There’s one thing that you need to know about this day and age.” Daniela said, sliding open a section of her screen to reveal a small port and slipping her phone inside. “There is an app for absolutely everything.”

She drew the information out of her phone and onto the main screen. Searching through its contents, she came across the programme she was looking for. It was a cooling structure built for storing heat, something that she had been working on in her spare time. She was known in her lab for overheating pretty much everything she tested at some point, she found that with this programme, she had saved 95% of her experiments without having to start from scratch all over again. 

She applied the programme to Danel and opened it up. She manically added the extra power from her console needed to cope with the heat in Danel.

“If you have bothered to build this programme correctly, there should be an airing vent built into Danel.” Daniela said. 

“Jensen?” Kelly asked. 

Jensen nodded. “It goes straight into the ground at its base.”

Daniela looked for the control panel for the vent and found it in seconds. She attached the cooling programme to the mechanics in the opening of the vent and hit enter. Immediately the heat from Danel started dropping. 

“Now we’re in business.” Daniela said, letting out a whoop.

She swiped away all the coolers to one side of her screen and brought back up the vitals for Connor and Duncan. She merged their vitals to Danel and let Stylo 1 do what it did best. 

“Where did you put the Danel?” Daniela asked.

“Just ahead of you.” Kelly answered. “Craig, highlight the Walkers.”

The window ahead of them changed. Slowly all the other figures darkened and a large metallic looking  structure in the shape of a rock no taller than four feet directly in front of the window shone out. Daniela hit the last button to activate Danel and watched as the rock changed form. It distorted and stretched until two figures made of the same metallic substance seemed to climb their way out of it. Daniela felt a shiver go down her back as it always did when she watched Danel work. The figures moulded more until they were in the shape of Connor and Duncan. They stood erect and still. 

“Adding the mental link now.” Daniela said and slid the last section into place on her screen. 

The figures came to life and looked around.

“Holy crap,” a voice spoke out through an unseen sound system, it was Duncan’s voice. “This place looks even more mental from out here.” 

“How are the pods doing?” Daniela asked. 

“Both are stable, no issues to report.” 

Daniela glanced over to Connor and Duncan still standing dormant in their pods, their eyes glazed as before. She turned her attention back to outside. 

One of the figures turned to the glass. “Hey Daniela,” Duncan’s voice came through again, the metal figure blew a kiss to the window but was directed about six feet away from where Daniela was sat. 

“Try a little to your left, jerk.” Daniela murmured.

“I heard that.” Duncan said and the figure saluted, this time in Daniela’s direction. 

“You were meant to.”

“Where are we headed?” Connor’s voice said.

“Five predators circling the ground twenty feet away,” Craig said. 

“Back up?” Connor asked.

“Adding them now.” Kelly said and nodded to Daniela who complied.

The Danel moved once more and Connor and Duncan’s figures moved away to let the new figures take shape.

“Um Daniela,” Connor said, “Should we feel this hot?”

“We did our best with what we had.” Kelly said, cutting in before Daniela could let out some sarcastic remark. “Daniela’s got your vitals under control.”

“I can’t control all 22 of them!” Daniela said. 

“Looks like you need my help after all,” Jensen said. 

Suddenly he and four others came to either side of Daniela’s console and pulled at the sides of the screen. The screen started to stretch until it was a circle encompassing them. 

“Woah.” Daniela said. “She’s never looked so hot.”

“Just a little idea from some of us stupid people working in the government,” Jensen said gruffly.

“Just keep an eye on the other twenty while I look after the leads.” Daniela answered back.

“Yes ma’am.” Jensen said in an overly sarcastic tone. 

A loud roar cut over everything, shaking the ground outside and stunning everyone to silence. One of the beasts came into view, it caught sight of the forming metallic army and got up on its hind legs, reaching the height of at least 10 feet. 

“Ummm, guys?” Duncan said. “A little height please?”

“On it.” Daniela said, working her fingers over the console, in response to her touch the metallic figures of Duncan and Connor grew to match the size of the beast. The other figures followed suit. 

“Now, how about some weapons?” Connor said.

Chapter fifteen

Jason

"Shit."

Jason ran into the private room, now empty except for just two people. One passed out actor and another dozing drunken woman.

"Shit."

He ran over to Christiana and shook her awake. She groaned and waved him away.

“Five more minutes.” She said sleepily.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Christiana, if you don’t open your eyes right now I will be forced to open them for you.”

“But I’m sleepy.”

“That might be the case but you are not allowed to go to sleep, do you understand?”

Christiana reluctantly opened her eyes and groaned again when she saw Jason.

“I don’t want to drink anymore.” She said.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Jason said. “You shouldn’t have had anything to drink in the first place! What did you think you were doing not telling me that you had a concussion?”

“It’s barely a concussion, I was out for only a second.” She said, closing her eyes once more.

Jason slapped her hard around the cheek. “Wake up now!”

Christiana opened her eyes again. “Ow! That hurt!”

“Better a sore cheek than slipping into a coma.”

“I’m not slipping into a coma, I’ll wake up eventually.”

“Well, I’m not taking that chance, given that I’m the one who got you into this state.”

He pulled her up into a sitting position and poured her a glass of water with the jug he had brought in with him.

“Drink this.”

“I don’t want to-“

“I don’t care what you want right now, all I care about is keeping you alive. Now drink!”

Christiana let out yet another groan but opened her mouth to take the drink. Jason put the water to her lips and let her take a sip.

“Jesus, Christiana,” he said, “You just gave me a heart attack.”

“I highly doubt that,” she said. “Anyway, I told you I shouldn’t be drinking, remember?”

“You didn’t tell me why!”

“I’m fine!”

“And I intend to keep you that way.” Jason said. “Now get up.”

“Where am I going?”

“You’re coming to the bar with me, where you will sit on a stool in my constant watch while I work.” Jason said.

“But I don’t want to-“

“I said get up!”

Christiana tried to push Jason away, but he grabbed her by both armpits and lifted her up. She held on to him and shakily got onto her feet.

“I’m really not that bad,” Christiana said, “My head doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“Let me have a look,” he said, checking the back of her head.

Dried blood had congealed some of her hair at the spot where she had obviously fallen but she didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore.

“You’re fine as far as I can tell, but then I’m no doctor.” Jason said. “I am, however, the king of looking after drunken people so come on.”

Christiana took one step forward but then stopped, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell onto him.

“Christiana!” Jason yelled. “Wake up now!”

“Hmmmm?” She said.

He pulled her away from him and shook her like a rag doll.

“Now Christiana!”

Her eyes shot open again. “I’m fine!” She said in a knee jerk reaction to the sudden yelling.

Jason held her face in both hands and forced her to look him in the eyes. She reluctantly obliged although her eyes took a while to find his.

“I feel a little dizzy.” She said.

“I have no doubt.” Jason said. “We’re going to walk now and you’re going to do as I say. I’m going to take you to the bar and force you to drink lots of water and coffee and you are going to take it gratefully.”

“Where’s Connor?” Christiana asked.

“He’s busy with something and asked me to look after you.” Jason said. “The moment he told me that you had hit your head and passed out, I swear I thought my heart was going to escape my throat.”

“You don’t need to worry, you barely know me.”

“That may be, but that won’t stop me from feeling highly responsible should anything happen to you and I’m sure I’m not the only one who would blame me. Your boyfriend is very big and muscly and I’m pretty sure I would lose in a fight against him.”

She smiled and shook her head. “He’s not that bad, he’ll probably find it funny.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, and anyway, you won’t be the one that has to live with him when you die.”

“Why are you living with my boyfriend?” Christiana asked, her eyes went wide. “Is he gay too?”

Jason smiled despite himself, “You would know that better than I do. Come on.”

Christiana pulled a reluctant expression and glanced back down to the pillowed mess where she had previously been, her eyes gazing longingly at where Adam was sleeping.

“How come he gets to sleep?”

“Because he’s famous. Move!”

Christiana started walking once more, Jason wrapped her arm around his shoulders and his own arm around her waist. She leant on him for the majority of the walk back to the bar but she did make the effort to walk herself.

He brought her round to his side of the bar and pulled a stool from underneath.

“Sit.” He said.

She plopped herself down on the stool, lost her balance and began to fall.

“Woopsy!” She called, laughing as she fell.

Jason grabbed her before she could go anywhere and adjusted her onto the stool so that she was balanced. She leaned onto the bar and propped her head up, sticking her hand under her chin.

“Why are you so serious?” She asked.

“It’s been a very serious day.” Jason said, pouring a pint of water and placing it in front of her. “Can you manage to drink that by yourself?”

She threw him a stern look. “I’m not an idiot."

She reached for the glass with one hand and then, after not being able to lift it, chose to use both hands. She brought it to her lips and took a sip.

“See?” She said, clearly pleased with herself. “I drink like a pro.”

“That you do.” Jason said shaking his head and turning on the coffee machine. It was the first time he had had to use it since he got here.

He made her a large cappuccino and placed it next to her pint or water.

“Did I tell you to stop drinking?” He said.

“Alright mum.” Christiana said, pouting and took a couple more sips of water.

“This doesn’t taste nearly as nice as the drinks you were making me before.” She said.

“Yes, but it is a lot better for you.” Jason retorted. “Drink some more.”

Christiana did as she was told. Jason breathed a huge sigh of relief, his moment of panic starting to edge away. One of his members of staff, Caroline came over with a tray of empty glasses, she eyed Christiana suspiciously.

“Is she okay?” She asked.

“She’s fine, I have it under control.”

“Michelle said that we’re not to have drunk people in the main bar area."

“I said it was fine Caroline!”

“But it was one of the main rules-“

“If Michelle has a problem with it then I’ll take the blame, how does that sound?” Jason snapped.

Caroline looked abashed and Jason immediately regretted snapping at her, she was only doing her job.

“Sorry, look, she’s been in an accident and I need to just make sure she’s okay.”

“What kind of accident?” She asked, her gaze turning back to Christiana, who was now waving the almost empty glass of water backwards and forwards, mesmerised by the liquid moving to and fro in the glass.

Jason felt his irritation stir up again, this woman asked far too many questions. He poured another pint of water and snatched the empty one from Christiana, putting the new glass in front of her.

“What can I do for you Caroline?” He asked, putting on his sweetest tone and matching it with a forced sweet smile.

Caroline tore her eyes away from Christiana and handed her new drinks order to Jason.

“The Vegas suite needs new drinks.”

Jason scanned the page, it was full of Group C occupants, the people from all the other groups appeared to have gone elsewhere.

“You can get the rest of these from now on.” He said, handing the order back.

“Are you sure?”

“Caroline, I swear, if you question one more of my orders, I will lose it.”

Caroline backed away, holding her hands up.

“Okay, okay,” she said, and walked off.

Jason sighed, he glanced over to Christiana who was making her way through the second glass. She seemed to be complying with him now so he took a chance to look over the rest of the room. It was empty. All drunken people had been escorted away. The only movement was people in packs moving to the large sliding door at the far end of the room. He felt his breath catch in his throat every time it opened, letting in the momentary chaotic noise from inside the room. The door was never opened wide enough or for long enough for him to catch a view of what was going on inside but he guessed from the noise that he was better off not knowing anyway. His mind flitted back to Mark, wondering if he was being selfish in asking for him to be transferred to this facility, it would have to be a dangerous transfer and he didn’t want to risk hurting him in the process. However, Michelle had appeared confident in the fact that this could be done with minimal risk so he decided to put that thought to one side and not dwell on it too much.

Another group of people rushed through the main hall from one of the private rooms, all looking efficient and business like. They reached the sliding door and once again opened it. Another round of screaming and banging entered the room which was all too soon cut off again as the door shut firmly behind them, throwing the room into silence once more.

“What was that?” Christiana asked, her attention drawn to the door.

“It’s another one of the private rooms,” Jason said, his answer already memorised from the list he’d been handed, “they’re watching an action movie.”

“It sounded loud.” Christiana said, still peering over at the door.

“We have the best entertainment system there is,” Jason said. “Built to sound almost like it’s happening for real.”

Christiana continued to look, her face a picture of curiosity.

“What have I said about not drinking?” Jason said, pointing at the half drunken pint of water.

“Sorry,” Christiana said and took a few more sips of water.

“Try some of the cappuccino if you feel up to it.”

Christiana gave the large mug a dubious look. “I might throw up if I drink that.”

“Good thing I have a bucket ready then.” Jason said.

Christiana let out a large overdramatic sigh and drank more of her water.

“I’ll try it in a second, I’ll just stick with water for now.”

Jason let it go and picked up a tray of glasses, fresh from the dishwasher.

“Jason?” Christiana said.

“Yes.”

“Thanks for not letting me die.”

Jason smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Chapter fourteen

Daniela

Daniela was pissed off. She was just getting to know Nathan and now here she was, waiting around on her own in the main bar again. It was bad enough that they pulled her out but now they had all gone off and left her there. She drummed her fingers against the bar and checked her watch. She’d been sitting here for 10 minutes. She was done. She got up and started to make her way back to the room, hopefully Nathan would still be there and she could actually salvage some of what was left of her day.

“Ms Davids?”

Daniela felt a shiver go down her spine at the sound of that sing song voice. She turned round to see her smiling at her, Katie at her side, face ashen and gaunt.

“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, Katie here was just being briefed on what is about to occur. The fault is mine, I had assumed she had already been told.”

Katie nodded to Daniela, but didn’t open her mouth. She seemed cold and looked terrible, her eyes appeared to be red.

“Is everything okay?” Daniela asked, eyeing Katie wearily.

“Everything is as it should be Ms Davids, I assure you.” The woman answered. “We just need your help on a few things, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“What kind of help?” Daniela asked.

“We are in possession of some of your software Ms Davids, we were hoping that you would help us in operating it.”

Daniela did a double take. Her software was here? Why the hell would they have that kind of technology at a bar?

“Which software are you talking about?” Daniela asked.

Katie spoke this time. “Stylo 1.”

Daniela let out a laugh. “Why the hell would you have Stylo 1 here?”

“I think this conversation is best explained if we show it to you.” The woman said. “This way please.”

Daniela followed Katie and the ever peppy woman across the room to a large metal wall on the far end. As they approached, there appeared to be a keypad entrance panel. The woman typed in a number and the wall slid open slightly with a click. They walked through the entrance, Daniela checking behind her to see if anyone had noticed the secret door. There didn’t appear to be many people in the room anymore, and those that were didn’t even bat an eyelid at the change in door. Her eyes eventually fell on only one other set of eyes staring at her; the barman from before, the one that Christiana had introduced as Jason. His face was grim and he was absentmindedly cleaning a glass with a dish cloth but he kept his eyes on her, unflinching. She gave him a nod but he didn’t respond, instead, he looked away and walked around the bar until he was out of sight. Daniela felt a chill run down her for some unknown reason.

She turned and walked into the entrance. There was a metal circular staircase in front of her, leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling. She followed Michelle and Katie up the stairs and through the trapdoor. It was from this point on that her world changed forever. The room that she had walked into was a giant bubble shape with cement floor and a glass dome that went from the floor all the way round. Daniela could see a 360 degree view of the outside of the building and what she saw was chaos.

The first thing that she really focused on was the sheer amount of fire everywhere. It looked as if the entire outside was aflame. Daniela couldn’t quite work out what would cause that amount of fire. It was ridiculous. On first glance, it looked like that was all there was, but on closer inspection you could see the vague objects of buildings, cars, and road signs. All of this however, paled in significance next to the third thing that Daniela spotted; some of the objects were moving. Not because they were falling or being pushed, no, these objects were running. Masses of people, one after the other were running in haphazard directions, trying desperately to get away from the fire but who all seemed to be unable to do so. Daniela stumbled backwards as she realised that she was witnessed live people on fire.

“What the hell?” She gasped.

“Is this her?” A voice came up behind her.

“Yes ma’am,” Katie said, her voice thick with emotion.

Daniela wanted to pay attention to what was happening, she knew that she was needed for some reason, but she couldn’t physically take her eyes off of the disaster around her. It was so horrific and she couldn’t quite compute what she was seeing.

“Daniela Davids.” The voice said. “I need your attention.”

“Is this real?” Daniela asked, hoping and praying that it was some form of projection on the inside of the glass.

“I’m afraid it is,” the voice said. “We have a window of opportunity to keep everyone inside this building alive however, but in order to do this, we need your help.”

She heard the words, but again they wouldn’t sink in. She caught sight of a woman screaming in pain, clutching her baby to her chest and running from the fire, but it seemed that wherever she went, the fire followed her, it was as if the air itself was the thing on fire.

A hand was on her face and she was forced to look away and straight into the eyes of the woman trying to talk her.

“My name is Kelly Mayhew and I'm sorry, but we really don’t have any time for you to deal with this. I’m sorry to ask, but I’m going to have to insist that whatever meltdown or emotional response you are working yourself up to having right now, is put on hold. I need your full attention. The lives of everyone in this building rely on it.”

Daniela could do nothing but nod. She was already void of emotion, the thing she witnessed was so large that she couldn’t quite work out how to get an emotion to fit it. In fact, she was pretty certain that she was dreaming.

“It’s best if you don’t look outside.” Katie offered. “Just look Kelly straight in the eye. Look at her only as she takes you through what they need.”

Daniela nodded again. She took a deep breath and did as she was told, staring directly into Kelly’s eyes, avoiding the moving images either side of her and trying her hardest not to focus on the screams and other horrifying noises that were all around her. She homed in on Kelly, shutting out everything else. When Kelly began to speak, she was able to focus.

“The world is ending.” Kelly said. “A meteor has collided with our earth’s atmosphere and although there has been no impact of rock on earth, it carries a strong and harmful chemical that has now intoxicated our oxygen. Debris from the meteor has been entering our atmosphere for the past 8 months, lasting damage however has been at a minimal.

“The earth outside this building is no longer habitable. People will eventually be unable to breathe in the air around them and they will die. We are the hope for the future, however we need to protect the building that we are in. There are outside forces that could threaten our secure air. We need Stylo 1 to help prevent this.”

Daniela couldn’t even muster a nod to that piece of information. She thought there couldn’t be anything bigger than what she had seen outside of this room but she was wrong, this was too much. World ending? People dying? She briefly considered focusing on the fact that they had been chosen and not others. What was special about them? However, that opened up a whole can of worms about those who were not in this building and Daniela couldn’t physically let herself think about that. She needed time however, time to process this information because at the moment it was just floating about randomly in her head in a stagnant state that wasn’t serving any purpose.

She could start with Stylo 1. This was her ticket to salvation. She knew exactly why it was suddenly integral to the continuing survival of everyone. She knew that they had built it. It was how she had met Katie. The army had commissioned her to work closely with Daniela in the construction and testing of Stylo 1, ensuring it’s effective nature. However, this was three years ago. Katie had occasionally asked her the odd question regarding it throughout their friendship but she had not been in the same room as the one they had made for over three years.

She had made improvements on the model of course, and those improvements were then sent to the Army as part of their original agreement. She also had her own version of Stylo 1 (or Stylo 26, as it was more accurately now) and due to this, she knew the system inside out. She had made, birthed and grown this piece of machinery, she realised that there was no way that they were going to enter into a post apocalyptic world with her Stylo and not have her sat behind the machine keeping it going. Her brain had meant that she had been selected for survival, it was never her intention when she built it but it was the reason she was in the room. And as for the others? No she wasn’t going to think about it, there were too many bad avenues to process and she needed to stay focused for what was at hand. It was pretty clear that what was at hand was quite literally the end of the world. Suddenly her head felt light, she stumbled backwards once more and was held up by strong muscly arms.

“Careful there.” She knew the voice, it was Nathan. She turned to look at him. Why was he here? She closed her eyes again, blocking out that thought process too, it wasn’t productive to think about that too much right now.

“Daniela?” Kelly said. “Are you alright?”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. It was all too much.

“Daniela, we need your cooperation in this matter. There are strong forces carrying even stronger risks on the safety of this building. We need your help with Stylo 1 to keep them at bay.”

Daniela nodded once more. It was all she could give.

“That’s good enough for me.” Kelly said and nodded to some people around her, they had built themselves quite an audience in the duration of Kelly’s explanation. “Get the pods ready, let’s take Daniela to see Stylo.”

Daniela was carried forward by Nathan and another man, she could walk but her legs felt a little like jelly.

“It’s going to be okay.” Nathan whispered in Daniela’s ear. “Just keep breathing.”

Daniela couldn’t make sense of this. Keep breathing? What else was she going to do? She wished people would stop talking to her, it was just adding more and more information on the damn in her mind that was scarily close to breaking.

She was guided to the centre of the room. It was open plan and her baby sat in the middle. She briefly wondered how she had not noticed it before but then caught a glimpse of a man burning to death and remembered she was distracted. She stood in front of the console, a tirade of touch screen equipment, all suited and booted with the best her mind had to offer, and that, apparently, was a lot.

“You will control the machine from here, make sure that no bugs or errors occur.” Kelly said. “Katie tells me that you work with your own version of this machine on a daily basis. Of course, we know that we can trust you to work this better than anyone else.”

More words. It was getting harder and harder to keep them all tightly held in her head.

“We have been training a core group of soldiers in the usage of Stylo and they have been it’s Walkers for over two years now.”

She shouldn’t be surprised at this. She should be excited at the thought. She had only used walkers for mundane tasks, today she would get to see walkers use it in only the way she dreamt it would be used. She wasn’t. She was just trying to stop a headache that was starting to take over.

“We have two of our finest soldiers here to lead the Walkers, they are the most trained and skilled Walkers we have.” Kelly said. “Might I introduce you to Connor Mayhew and Duncan Jennings.”

Kelly was now standing next to Connor, she recognised him from earlier. The one with the girlfriend. The guy next to him though wasn’t Duncan, it was Nathan. Wasn’t it? Unless... suddenly it made sense, all the evasive actions from Katie, the over exaggeration from everyone at the mention of the name Nathan. Everyone at that table knew who he really was and she was the only one who didn’t. She felt the damn explode around her ears and she stormed towards Nathan AKA Duncan Jennings.

“You lying bastard,” she said as she pushed him hard, causing him to stumble back. “You told me you liked me, that you were a decent wealthy man. You were lying the whole sodding time, making me the butt of everyone’s jokes.”

Daniela’s voice was raising with every word, Duncan just stared at her with a permanent shocked look on his expression. She shoved him again.
“You are a pig and a womaniser and a... a... bastard! A massive and pricky looking lying bastard!”

She gave him one last shove and he stumbled back onto the glass wall. Daniela could feel the heat emanating from it. She balled her hands into fists, unsure what she was going to do. Suddenly there were hands on her, pulling her back. Duncan didn’t fight back, he didn’t even answer. He just continued to stare at her with a completely perplexed look on his face.

“Daniela! Do you think now is the right time to be discussing this?” Katie’s voice rang through Daniela’s ears, just as she started seeing red. She turned on Katie.

“You! You are just as much a liar as he is! You were pretending as well! I feel like I don’t even know you.”

“Enough!” Kelly shouted over the din. “We are running dangerously short of time Daniela, are you prepared to work on this or do we need to use one of our own people?”

“Is that an option?” Daniela asked.

“Not the best one,” Kelly answered, but if you’re not going to cooperate then you’ll leave us with no option.”

Daniela took a deep breath, pushing Duncan/Nathan and Katie out of her mind, once more focusing on the problem at hand. She thought of someone else operating her baby for something as important as this. It made her cringe.

“I’m in.” She said. “Where are the pods?”

Chapter thirteen

Christiana

“Please slow down Christie.” Connor said, taking the drink out of her hands.

Christie gave a playful pout but let him take the drink out of her hand.

“Is this how it’s going to be now?” She said. “Now I’ve said that I’m your girlfriend, you’re going to be all bossy and tell me what to do?”

“Babes, you out of anyone will know how much I love you drunk.” Connor said. “It is usually very beneficial for me. However, you have just had a head injury, was unconscious and are probably now suffering from a concussion. As such, although drinking alcohol has had good connotations in the past, I’m not looking at risking your life just to get you more frisky. That’s what I now do as your boyfriend.”

“Oh boo to you and all your sweet words.” Christiana said.

Connor laughed and kissed her forehead. “Just promise me that you’ll take care of yourself. I’ve kind of got a little fond of this body.”

“Fine. I’ll try and stay alive.” Christiana said in a sing song begrudging tone.

“Good girl.”

A crash came from behind her and she saw Adam’s limp body give in to the drink from where he sat.

“At least I’m not as drunk as Adam Gammon.”

“I don’t think anyone in the world is as drunk as Adam Gammon.”

“Oooh! Guess what?” Christiana said. “Adam Gammon asked me to kiss him... twice!” She jumped up and down like a school girl. “Can you believe it? The Adam Gammon asked me.”

Connor laughed. “You do know that now that we are dating, you’re not allowed to actually kiss him right?”

Christiana waved him away. “I know, I know, but still! How awesome is this going to be telling people at work about this in the morning?"

Christiana’s face fell as she remembered that she probably wasn’t going to be going to work in the morning. The images of earlier in the day and their journey here came flooding back to her and she flipped through them all in her mind; Trees on fire, burning sun, people screaming, fear, unending fear for herself, for Connor, the fear that she wouldn’t see him again after that door shut behind her, the murkiness of her consciousness as she felt it slip away from her, waking up in that white room. Something was up, something big. The fear that crept in at that moment was so crippling that Christiana shut her eyes tightly, willing the memories away and opened them again, focusing them on Connor, who was now looking at her concerned.

“You okay?”

She nodded.

“Weird day.” She said

“I know.” Connor said.

Someone new was in the room. The bitchy manageress from before. She was still carrying her ridiculously over the top smile and clasping together her overly manicured hands.

“Ms Davids?” She said in a low voice to Daniela who was a few feet from her.

“Yes?” Daniela said.

“I was wondering if we might be able to borrow you for a moment.” The woman said.

Daniela looked incredibly put out by this. She was talking to Duncan and, from the looks of it, he was using all of his best moves on her.

“Can’t it wait?” Daniela said. “I’m a little busy at the moment.”

The woman just smiled even more. “I’m so sorry, but it can’t I’m afraid. Please follow me.”

“Go on,” Duncan said. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Connor’s hand was at Christiana’s waist at this point and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. She looked quizzically at him, he just smiled back, his face looking calm but his grip on her waist was too tight.

Daniela sighed and gave Duncan her glass. “Fine, where are we going?”

“If you’d like to follow me, Katie is outside and will help to explain things a little better.”

Daniela gave one more sneak look towards Duncan and seemed to pout as she left the room. Duncan smiled back at her, the moment she had left however, his face became full of concern. He turned to Connor and nodded towards him, motioning him over. Connor gave Christiana’s waist another little squeeze.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” He whispered, and kissed her forehead.

Christiana looked around for someone else to talk to but, other than the passed out movie star, found no one. She sat back down next to him, picked up her drink and, out of sheer boredom, downed the remaining contents of the glass.

Chapter twelve

Adam

Adam was wasted. Really bad. He tried to muster up enough brain capacity to remember him ever feeling this drunk and came up blank. He had completely lost track of where he was anymore. It was an Egyptian looking room with throw pillows and lots of deep reds and greens. People were chatting around him. Some of them he knew, some of them he didn’t.
He was sitting down. He’d figured that much out at least. There was someone next to him. He squinted his eyes and turned to see who it was, trying really hard to make the double vision go away and get his eyes to focus on this one thing.
The figure was female, she had red hair. She looked like a cartoon character. She was pretty. Very pretty. He had noticed that about her before, when they were talking. She liked him. She was a fan. He liked that she liked him. He smiled at her. She smiled back. He couldn’t remember her name. It was a long one. Something really hard to remember. She was laughing at something. He couldn’t work out what it was. Was she laughing at him? He let out a chuckle to show that he understood. He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand any of it.

“Have we kissed yet?”

Did he say that out loud? Did he want to say that out loud? He didn’t know. She was laughing even more. She must have heard that.

“No.” She said.

A man was there then. He was holding a tray of drinks. More drinks? He was going to throw up if he had anymore. The man was pointing to a door behind him. It was the toilets. Had he told the man out loud that he was going to throw up? He couldn’t remember.

The woman was laughing again. She was clinking her glass against his and drinking. He followed suit. It tasted really good. He liked it. The woman wasn’t alone anymore. Another guy was there. He was taking the drink away. She was pouting but she seemed to be playing. He wished someone would take his drink away. He took another sip. He didn’t want it anymore. He let it slip out of his fingers. There was a noise. Duncan was there, he was smiling and rolling his eyes. This was his fault. He wanted to say that but didn’t. Instead his eyes shut. Adam Gammon didn’t remember anything else after that.