Glitch

4

Instead of heading straight, which would take me to the kubes, I make a right turn down an unfamiliar hallway. Time for some exploring. I sprint for what seems like ages, until I come across a large metal door. Lab, it reads in large white lettering. After a quick examination, I determine that the door is seemingly unbreachable. Just as I am about to abandon it and continue down the hallway, I hear the locking mechanism click. The lab door opens, and a man in an unfamiliar white jumpsuit comes striding out. He looks up from a clipboard in his hand and notices me standing right in front of him, brown eyes widening. As if on cue, an alarm begins to blare through the hallway. At this point I'm assuming it must be for me. I shrug my shoulders at the white jumpsuit guy. I see the door to the lab start to swing closed behind the man, and make the kind of split second decision that only a Killer can.

Before white jumpsuit can think, I kick him right in the face, sending him staggering backwards and his clipboard flying from his grip. I catch the closing lab door with my foot and glance back at the man. He's holding his nose and sobbing softly. I grab him and pull him into a headlock, dragging him with me into the lab. I'm greeted by about fifteen more people in white jumpsuits, all of which seem very wary of me. Probably smart.

"Get me out of here, or I'm gonna kill your buddy, here," I address everyone in the room calmly. At first, no one moves. Then a chorus of whispers erupts and one white jumpsuit steps forward. It's a girl with thick brown hair. I can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy for the rich hue.

"I... I can get you out. Just don't hurt Marcus," she says, voice trembling slightly. "We have a... a portable kube-"

"Lena, no!" an older man standing in the back barks. The girl glances at him but continues.

"It's just a prototype, I think it will work," she explains, gesturing for me to follow her through a door. I don't move, tightening my grip on Marcus's throat.

"Um... it's in here," the girl says uncertainly. I assess my options. I could follow Lena, and she might lead me directly into a trap, and then I get terminated. I could leave the lab, where I would probably get caught and terminated. On the off chance that Lena is telling me the truth, she's my best option. I pull Marcus along through the door Lena pointed to. Inside, she cautiously clips a metal bracelet onto each of my hands, then one more around my neck. The cold metal makes me shiver.

"I don't need a karetaker?" I ask her. I've never seen any sort of kube that wasn't... well, a kube.

"No, just you. The bracelet on the left controls everything. Touch it," she tells me. Experimentally, I tap the bracelet on my left hand. A hologram screen pops up, asking for a location to begin my mission. Cool. Except I don't know any locations other that Killtec, and to be honest I don't even know where that is.

"Er, where is the Seattle District Courthouse?" I recall the site of my last mission. Lena looks at me in confusion.

"It's in Seattle," she says slowly. "And, just so you know, if you, you know... if you die once you're out there... you won't reset. Like I said, it's still just a prototype." My stomach twists a tiny bit. On every mission I've gone out on, I've always known that if worst comes to worst, I'll always have another try. Not this time.

"Oh, okay... thanks," I say, not sure why she even told me in the first place. I type the location into the holoscreen and without another glance at Lena, hit enter.