Don't Teach Kids Murder

Extra Scene - Come With Us

Author's Note

Happy Friday the 13th! To celebrate, here's an extra scene, at the point in time when Nori and Yeva flee from Cabin Fever Labs. It takes place immediately after the scene shown in Mass Destruction where Nori is possessed by the Solver and Yeva slices her hand off with its [NULL] into the pit, triggering the core collapse. Told from Alice's P.O.V.

I used Google Translate for the Russian in this, so please excuse any translation errors.

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The entire facility's almost shaking from how loud the alarms are. Red lights everywhere, earsplitting sirens, and worst of all, Sentinels left and right.

Alice ducks into a room and slams the door behind her, breathing hard. It's small - good. There's no Sentinels in here, yet - also good. Except there's only one way out, and that's the way she came from - bad.

A series of clicks and screeches come from outside, and then something heavy hits the door. Hard. The door swings open, and Alice is sent flying, stumbling and crashing to the floor. She looks up and her eyes are met with the sight of a Sentinel tearing into a Drone, oil spurting out and forming a slowly growing puddle of liquid as the air fills with the screech of metal sliding on metal.

The Sentinel looks up, and Alice swings an arm up to protect her face, averting her eyes as a flash of blue light fills the area. Don't look. Don't look at it. She slowly starts inching away, backing up into a corner - admittedly, a very bad idea, but her adrenaline's running too high to think properly at the moment.

How did the Anti-Drone Sentinels get free roam? Usually, they were only let out in a group of two or three whenever someone tried to escape, but Alice had seen at least five of them running through Cabin Fever Labs. Didn't they always have at least one human intern with them to supervise and make sure they were only targeting runaways? And that distant slow rumbling couldn't mean anything good...

Her train of thought comes to an abrupt end as the Sentinel starts approaching, letting out a high-pitched chirp. Alice stops as her back hits the wall, her shoulders against a corner, and pure, liquid dread starts to spread through her. This Sentinel isn't under human supervision, which means it's targeting any Drone it sees...

...which means I'm dead.

Alice curls into a ball, hiding her face, determined not to look at the repeating flashes of blue light. She hears the Sentinel take another step. Another.

Then comes the very audible sound of something smashing into the wall.

"Get up, quick!" someone yells. Alice looks up, her mouth dropping open when she sees that out of everyone it could possibly be, it's Nori. What? Why is she- Her gaze falls on a familiar red-eyed drone next to her. Yeva. What's happening? I thought Nori was in the cathedral for testing, and Yeva's usually in containment with all of us. Although, come to think of it, the door marked '048' had already been open when Alice ran past.

Yeva extends a hand to Alice, and when she speaks, it confirms the situation's serious. "Не спорьте. Пойдем." Don't argue. Let's go. Alice takes it uneasily, standing up. "Did... something happen? Where's Dr. Ridley?"

Nori flinches noticeably, looking away. Yeva sighs. "Решатель." Solver. Alice pales, looking from Nori to Yeva, slowly connecting the dots. I know Nori's got the worst out of all of us, but I didn't know it got this bad this fast... Alice almost feels a pang of sympathy for her, but she shuts it down in seconds. Remember what Nori's like. She deserves it.