Chapter 6 - The Countdown
The pristine, blindingly white laboratory was instantly and terrifyingly bathed in the pulsating, deeply ominous glow of massive emergency warning lights.
A cold, totally mechanized female voice began calmly counting down from ten minutes over the incredibly loud main intercom system.
Dr. Vance furiously struck the terrified technician across the face with his heavy cane, screaming and demanding that the self-destruct sequence be aborted absolutely immediately.
The entirely terrified technician frantically typed on the glowing keyboard, but the complex computer system completely and utterly denied all of his highest access credentials.
Clara struggled violently against her thick leather restraints, entirely ignoring the sharp, blinding pain rapidly shooting up and down her fragile spine.
Leo remained perfectly and unnervingly still, his eyes tightly closed as if he was deeply concentrating on something no one else in the chaotic room could possibly see.
The massive mercenaries nervously aimed their heavy weapons at the sealed blast doors, fully anticipating an immediate, deadly assault from whoever had just hacked the impenetrable system.
Instead, the room's large metal ventilation grates loudly snapped shut, and a thick, highly toxic green gas began rapidly hissing into the sealed chamber.
Dr. Vance coughed violently, instantly realizing that the mysterious override had successfully triggered the facility's deadly chemical purge designed exclusively to erase all biological evidence.
He desperately ordered his panicking men to shoot the thick glass of the main observation window, wildly hoping to escape the rapidly filling, deadly gas.
The heavy bullets simply ricocheted violently off the heavily reinforced glass, wildly pinging around the small room and violently forcing everyone to dive for cover.
Leo suddenly snapped his dark eyes completely open, and a brilliant, intensely bright blue light flared aggressively from the unique barcode on his arm.
He had miraculously managed to wirelessly and successfully interface with the medical chair's internal, localized network strictly through his advanced neural implant.
The heavy, restrictive leather straps tightly binding his wrists and ankles clicked open simultaneously with a sharp, incredibly loud mechanical snap.
Leo leaped gracefully out of the terrifying chair, moving incredibly swiftly through the rapidly thickening green fog directly toward Clara's helpless position.
He manually and violently ripped the incredibly tight straps entirely off her arms, lifting her entirely from the chair before the highly toxic gas could fully settle near the floor.
Dr. Vance saw them successfully escaping through the thick smoke and instantly drew a small, silver pistol from his coat, aiming it directly at Leo's exposed back.
Before he could even successfully fire, one of his own massive mercenaries, totally blinded and choking on the heavy gas, stumbled violently right into him.
The deadly pistol fired wildly into the metal ceiling, perfectly buying Leo exactly the split second he desperately needed to confidently drag Clara entirely away.
Leo violently kicked open a small, easily overlooked maintenance hatch entirely hidden beneath the main computer console, firmly shoving Clara inside the cramped, dark tunnel.
He crawled rapidly in right behind her, violently sealing the heavy metal grate completely shut just as Dr. Vance screamed in pure, unadulterated rage.
The claustrophobic maintenance tunnel was completely, totally dark and barely large enough for them to successfully crawl forward on their hands and bruised knees.
Clara coughed the harsh, residual toxic gas completely from her burning lungs, quietly asking Leo how he possibly knew the heavily guarded secret hatch was even there.
Leo paused completely in the suffocating darkness, his young voice trembling heavily with a genuinely terrifying fear she had never once heard from him before.
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"I didn't actually know it was here, Clara," Leo whispered breathlessly in the absolute, pitch-black tunnel.
"The mysterious person who just brilliantly hacked the impenetrable system and activated the self-destruct just wirelessly downloaded the exact escape route directly into my brain."
