"Mr. Yao?" Janine calls, clutching her headset. "Come in. A.N.N.I.E. has-"

"Sam can't hear you, Janine," A.N.N.I.E. interrupts, her voice taunting. "But the Glass Protocol can."

A high-pitched laughter echoes down the halls, the sound seeming to rip through the darkness and go straight through me. The lights are off now, curtesy of A.N.N.I.E. I can barely see anything.

"Oh, Employee Five, that is the laughter of a predator whose prey has walked into its lair. It is stronger here, where the bones of its victims lie. It will toy with you, as a cat does a mouse. But what it is going to do to you, a cat cannot do to a mouse. It is not for human eyes to look upon, but I can see it."

My chest tightens.

"Runner Five, Janine, Amelia, listen to me!" A new voice shouts from the speakers.

"Veronica?" I say, my voice shaking. Every hair is on end. I can hear my heart pounding, my blood roaring in my ears. I was so stupid! I forgot all about this, all about A.N.N.I.E. and Project Glass. I forgot about the risk, how it was always coming for me.

I remember some of A.N.N.I.E.'s taunts in previous visions, but that was so long ago. I haven't heard much about A.N.N.I.E. in months. Sure, I've had a few run-ins with Valmont, but with everything that's happened...

I was stupid. I started worrying about different things and forgot about old threats. I let my guard down because there was so much silence regarding this-regarding the Glass Protocol. A.N.N.I.E. must have known this. I played right into her trap.

So freaking stupid!

"It's me," Veronica says. "I can't hold her off for long. I've been in touch with Mr. Valmont. I messaged him as soon as the doors closed. I had to tell him what I am. He's very sorry this has happened. This part of A.N.N.I.E. is rogue, not connected to the main part at all.

"He's given me a code to temporarily access the building's systems and I can do a few tiny things, but A.N.N.I.E. can still hear us. I have to be careful what I say. You've walked into a trap, and there's no choice but to keep walking. This is the birthplace of the Glass Protocol."

I tremble. "Oh, God."

"It is at its most powerful here, but also its most vulnerable. I can't tell you how. I'm sorry. She can hear me."

"Veronica, why did you warn us?" Janine asks accusingly.

"A.N.N.I.E.'s been hiding this from me, and Mr. Valmont too. That's very clever of you, A.N.N.I.E." If she had a face, I can only imagine the annoyed expression Veronica would have. "I assume she gave intel to Jones about that chemical neutralizer to lure you here. And she was careful to make sure the building appeared completely without power until the trap was sprung. The Glass Protocol will never stop hunting Callista. It won't stop until it's killed her. It has to be dealt with, but I can't help you. If I make a move, A.N.N.I.E. will counter. You're on your own."

Janine looks at me, and through the shadows I can see her wide-eyed expression before her blue eyes narrow in determination. "So, what do we do, Veronica?"

"Act as you always do. It will get you through," She answers, and my face scrunches up at her vagueness.

Amelia rolls her eyes. "Your confidence is touching, but entirely misplaced. The way I always act is to avoid getting myself in stupid situations like this in the first place."

Janine gives her a glare. "Your fate is tied to ours, Ms. Spens, whether you like it or not."

More laughter reaches my ears, louder this time. I can't tell where it's coming from.

"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?"

We turn a corner, and Janine looks over her shoulder, an annoyed look on her face. "We cannot give way to paranoia. The Glass Protocol feeds on fear. For now, we have one advantage. The lights are on. We will at least see the Glass Protocol coming-"

There's a loud sound of electricity cutting as the lights go out.

I sigh and burry my face into my hands for a quick moment. "You just had to say it."

This darkness isn't like what it was before. I can't see shadows, or the facial expressions of the others if I squint. No, here it's pitch black. I raise my hand up in front of my face, or I think I do.

I see nothing.

But I hear it laughing, along with a loud thump, and a drag.

It's coming.

"I think we're being toyed with," Amelia says, and I scowl in her general direction.

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed," I hiss, before squeaking when I hear the dragging sounds as the Glass Protocol pulls itself towards us.

"We must find a way to turn the lights back on," Janine says. "In the darkness, we stand no chance. I've memorized the layout of the immediate vicinity. Turn right at the end of the corridor. Run!"

I run, stretching my hand out since I can't exactly remember how close we were to the end of the corridor before the lights went out, and I don't want to run face first into a wall. The Glass Protocol is already trying to disorient me with the lights and the... sounds. If I get hurt, that might make it even worse.

"Turn right now," Janine commands, and I nearly roll my ankle swerving so hard, but I don't slow down, not when I hear it laugh again, as if it knows how my heart is pounding, how afraid I am of this thing because I don't know how to stop it.

I breathe in deeply, slowly, trying to slow down my racing heart and crazed thoughts laced with paranoia and hysteria. It will do me no good having a breakdown here. It wants that. It wants me afraid because when you're afraid you act irrationally which leads to more mistakes.

As we turn another corner, I remind myself that we can't afford to make even one mistake. The Glass Protocol may only be after me, but A.N.N.I.E. has a range of other weapons she could use on Janine and Amelia. As much as I hate to admit it, they both need survive, not just Janine.

Janine is Abel's leader, and Amelia is New Canton's. If anything happened to them, the two settlements could fall into chaos.

"Janine, I can't see my own hand in front of my face," Amelia says as we make another turn. "How immediate a vicinity did you memorize? Are we talking memory cathedral or more of a memory yurt? It feels like we're taking turns at random."

"I admit that I have begun to rely on instinct, Ms. Spens. Keep going and remain calm," She replies, and we do, for another corridor. It's at the end of it that I hear bones cracking and flesh squelching under my feet. Warmth splatters up onto my ankles, seeping through my socks and pants.

Oh no...

"I believe we've just found the bones of some previous victims," Amelia says in a strained voice. "That's soothing."

My voice is equally strained. "What's even more soothing is the fact that there's blood on me, or some other body fluid, and it's warm. That means it can't be very old."

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

I tense, reaching for my pistol, as if that will do anything. "What's that?"

"Something is behind the door up ahead," Janine answers. "We have to open it."

I don't have to see her to know the face Amelia's making. "Those sentences don't go together."

"If there is a threat, Ms. Spens, we must identify it to deal with it. But I do not think it is a threat. I think Veronica is sending us a message. Five taps. Runner Five, open the door."

"M-me?" I sputter. "But if it isn't Veronica-"

"Open the door," She says again, more firmly, and I swallow, my muscles tensing up as we go a bit farther ahead to reach the door. I prepare myself to jump back, away if I feel an arm or a claw or a tentacle or whatever else the Glass Protocol might have for limbs latch onto me.

I push open the door, and the tiniest bit of light comes in from a blacked-out window, just enough for us to see shadows, like before.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

The sound is coming from the ventilation shaft, near one of the cupboards. I tip my head to the side in confusion. "Why would Veronica lead us here?"

Janine reaches up and grabs something from the shelve-goggles. "I think these might be night vision. Put them on."

She hands a pair to me and I slip them on, blinking when everything becomes visible. I can see... everything. I look at the cupboard, and after a few seconds the goggles seem to zoom in, as well as...

"Woah," I say in awe.

"I think I prefer these to my actual eyes," Amelia says. "I can finally see the walls. And also through the walls."

"Good Lord, yes," Janine agrees in amazement. "Even MI6 didn't have technology this advanced."

"I think..." The blonde pauses for a moment. "Janine, I recognize this building's layout. It's like Brent's Oslo HQ. There should be..." She looks up. "Yes! Huge circular room, floor above us."

I look up, giggling when I can see it too. But the laughter dies in my throat when I look at the door and corridor we came in through and see nothing but darkness.

"Uh, guys-it's here. The Glass Protocol. It's-" My breath hitches when it laughs, as if it knows we've spotted it. "It's interfering with the goggles."

"Come on," Amelia says. "Follow me. I know where we're going."

The Glass Protocol laughs again.

"Run!"

•

"Goodness. I don't think I've ever seen so many computers," Janine says, eyeing the bank of dozens of black screens.

Amelia grins. "Yes, I was right. This is one of Brent's blue sky think bowls."

She grimaces. "Oh dear."

"I know. See that big 'H' on the floor? That's to remind people to take the helicopter view. He really is awful. I'm so glad I left. Anyway, think bowls were where his top minds had free reign to develop whatever they liked."

"That sounds..." I trail off, my face scrunching up. I guess we know why the Glass Protocol was given a green light, since they never had to worry about a red light.

If Feive had come to Valmont with her idea, I wonder how well that would have gone. I wonder if I would still have my... programming, for lack of a better word, to help people-if our purpose would have just been to save the world or whatever it is Feive convinced herself that creating us would do, or something more sinister.

With that haunting thought in mind, I press the power button on the large tower in the corner of the room, hissing when the screens light up and my goggles take a moment to adjust.

If this was where the Glass Protocol was created, maybe these computers can show how it can be destroyed.

"Hello, Amelia," The computer greets, and while the goggles keep me from seeing her eyes, I'm almost certain she's rolling them.

"Yes, yes. Jimmy Singh was in charge here. He was one of Brent's more ambitious researchers. He was also insane. Of course he would be in charge of the Glass Protocol. Oh!" She pauses her scrolling through the files, letting her curser rest on the one called 'Targets'. She clicks it, and a list of initials pops up.

"SG, EM, RW," I read. "MZ? Does that stand for Mark Zuckerberg? Funny, I honestly thought he would be a creation of these labs, not a target. Before the apocalypse everyone was sure he was part reptile."

"Look at that one at the top!" She gasps. "BV. Brent Valmont! He was planning to set the Glass Protocol on Brent. Good old Jimmy."

"Amelia!" I gape at her, but she just shrugs.

"No wonder Valmont shut the program down," Janine says. "If only he'd done so sooner."

"But we are having so much fun, Janine," A.N.N.I.E. says suddenly, making me jump a good six inches off the ground. "You and Employee Five and me, I mean. Amelia, I have no interest in harming you. Even if I wanted to, I can't. My programming forbids it. My tertiary objective is to make Amelia feel beautiful. Leave the others, Amelia. Take the door on the left. I will guide you out. You, and only you."

Janine's gaze snaps over to the blonde. "Do not trust her, Ms. Spens."

"Yes, thank you, Janine. I'm not an idiot," She snaps. "We'll take the door on the right. That's where the high-level research went on. If there's a way to deactivate the Glass Protocol, we'll find it there."

"I wouldn't do that, Amelia," A.N.N.I.E. warns. "My secondary objective-in here, that is-is to protect Mr. Valmont's research. Like so."

There's a flash of light combined with the sound of an explosion. The alarms that sound off barely mask my and Amelia's screams of shock and pain. My eyes sting and I can't blink back the tears that slip from my lashes.

"Why is everything white?" Amelia asks, panicked.

"The computers are on fire," Janine replies, and through squinting eyes I see the blur of all white become layers of moving white as flames eat away at all the computers. "Your goggles will adjust shortly. We have to get out. Run!"

We run for the exit, through the door on the right, like Amelia said. My eyes still sting and burn and water, but it gets a bit better as we run through the corridor, further into darkness. But what worries me is that A.N.N.I.E. didn't shut the door to keep us out.

I know that Amelia said this is where we needed to go, but the fact that A.N.N.I.E. only tried to stop us by setting the computers on fire is worrying. Maybe it was Veronica keeping it open for us, but we don't know that. What if we're running right into another trap?

I suppose we don't have any other choice. It was either through this door, the door on the left which A.N.N.I.E. had suggested, or back towards the Glass Protocol. No option was a good option.

We get to the end of the corridor, running into a large room that smells absolutely rancid. It's like the odor people have when they'll really ill or have an infected wound.

My focus on the smell dissipates when the steel doors to the room slam shut.

"The fire doors have closed behind us. We should be safe," Janine says with a sigh. "From the fire, at least. Runner Five, are you unharmed? And you, Ms. Spens?"

"Besides the fact that a deranged AI wants to kill me and has sent a weapon that has my DNA and can't be killed after me, I'm pretty good," I pant, while Amelia gives a sarcastic smile.

"Couldn't be better."

She huffs in amusement. "I'm surprised you're here at all. A.N.N.I.E. offered you a way out, and you didn't take it. Why?"

"I think we can agree that A.N.N.I.E.'s behavior has been off-color. I don't trust her. Which doesn't mean I trust either of you. Just more than a twisted AI. And what is that smell?"

I gasp, pointing at the mass of... something in the middle of the room, moving. Is it bodies? Is it human bodies? My voice comes out in a horrified whisper. "What is that?"

"Stick close to the wall. We have to look around them." Janine looks over to me. "Runner Five, lead the way."

"What?! Why do I have to-" I shake my head, pressing myself so hard into the wall I think I may go through it. I inch around them thankful this room is big and there's several feet between me the heap.

My stomach twists when I see that they are in fact human bodies. I can't see much, since they're all huddled and squirming on top and around each other, but I see Mark Zuckerberg's face in the mix, with his beady lizard-like eyes.

But that makes no sense... Mark Zuckerberg lived in America before the apocalypse. How could the Glass Protocol have gotten him and turned him into this?

"I know those people," Amelia says as more faces are shown as the bodies wiggle and writhe around each other. "That's Sally Greene, head of Datafold. Richard Wallace from Cloudserve. Elon Musk! They were some of the world's top tech CEOs, but there's something wrong with them. Their flesh is all swollen and covered in gross malformed..."

She seems to lose the word.

"I don't think it's really them. I mean, Elon Musk died before the apocalypse. His funeral was broadcasted. There's no way the Glass Protocol dug up his body so he could be made into this creepy flesh thing," I say. "Do you think it's like, a clone-"

"Five, you're in there."

She says the words so quickly I nearly miss them, but when I look at where she's pointing, in the bodies... It's me.

"Oh, come on," I groan. "So now I have four doppelgangers, a zombie lookalike, and now this. Why is everyone so obsessed with cloning me or having different versions of me?"

"You look so wrong," Amelia says, coming to a stop as me and Janine keep moving away from it. "Bulbous. You're looking at me, but your eyes are facing inward."

"Ms. Spens, come around the bodies. We have to get out of here now," Janine stresses, and her eyes widen with fear when a new voice chimes in.

"Oh, it's too late for that," A.N.N.I.E. says. "You could have left, Amelia, if you'd trusted me. You are Mr. Valmont's property!" She laughs. "If you try to leave the building, you must be stopped. Stand up, Target Five."

The weird, wrong clone of me snorts, then stands. I gape at just how big it is. It must be twice my own size.

"What the hell?" I whisper before A.N.N.I.E. speaks again.

"Now restrain Mrs. Amelia Valmont."

Target Five takes a step towards her, then another and another.

"It's coming for me. You're coming for me, Five," Amelia panics, jumping back towards one of the open doors.

"Ms. Spens, do not let the Five entity touch you," Janine commands. "We do not know what it can do. Take the corridor to your right. Runner Five and I will head straight on. With luck, our paths will converge. Run!"

•

I don't know how long we've been running, turning corners and going through rooms. It feels like we've going for hours and we still haven't found Amelia.

Instead we're here, in some kind of premature baby unit with incubators. Monitors are beeping and there are babies crying, but when I look at the incubators, they're all... weird. I can't see the outline of a wrapped-up baby, even with my goggles. The shadows make it seem like there are... more to them.

"What could A.N.N.I.E. possibly be keeping alive here?" Janine asks, and I shrug.

"Clone babies? She's already made some really weird clones of me and Elon Musk." I shudder violently. "Maybe it's best not to think about what they are or why they're here."

"Speaking of you..." She raises her hand up to her headset. "Ms. Spens, are you there? Have you escaped the Five entity?"

"No, Janine, I haven't!" Amelia all but screeches in reply. She's breathing heavily, tired from the sprint, I imagine. "It's right behind me and it is dripping!"

I scrunch up my nose. "Ew."

"We will formulate a plan. Whatever you can tell us about the threat will help."

That seems to calm her down a bit. "Right. Right. Sally and Richard-they were the head of rival firms. Elon-he wasn't a direct rival, but he was a critic of artificial intelligence. And Mark-well, he just like sticking his nose where it didn't belong. I believe he made a few rude posts regarding Valmont's company and researchers. Jimmy must have been using the Glass Protocol to pick off the competition and anyone with influence who spoke negatively about the company."

She nods. "And the process of designing a target creates a dangerous simulacrum. Hmm. I believe Miss McShell would not have led us to that room intentionally. A worrying suspicion begins to dawn."

"Which is?" I ask in confusion.

"Miss McShell impressed on us the importance of being ourselves. This was no mere encouragement. She was able to predict what we would do, as long as we acted perfectly in character. I memorized the layout of the ground floor, you obeyed my orders even when you were afraid of the outcome, Ms. Spens remembered the Oslo office.

"But then you failed, Ms. Spens. You turned down the opportunity to save yourself. Miss McShell cannot have predicted that. Whatever stratagem she'd planned for Five and I, we've almost certainly missed it. We can only help ourselves. Ms. Spens, do not allow the entity to touch you. Runner Five and I-"

She's cut off by the sound of glass cracking, and the babies' cries turn into violent screams.

"The incubators are cracking!" I shout, pointing at the ones all around the room. Hands poke out, but they're not human. They can't possibly be.

"Oh, Employee Five," A.N.N.I.E. laughs tauntingly. "They're not cracking. They're hatching! Look at their darling little hands! So leathery. Such sharp claws. Wait until you see what they can do to you! Here comes the swarm."

Something-no, somethings-start glowing above me, and I look up to see more incubators mounted on the walls as the little creatures claw and break through the incubators.

"They're on the walls," Janine says in horror as heads start poking out, the eyes seeming to glow in the dark as they open their mouths to scream, revealing rows upon rows of sharp, pointed teeth. "Oh my God, they're all over the walls!"

A/N: Yet another cliffhanger! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's dedicated to jettmanas Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!