"Did you know, Carmen, that the stage before frostbite is actually called frostnip?"
The silly man had been trying this for a week now. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone else had made it this long through this. He seemed to be trying to keep a nonchalant countenance but Carmen could see the slight difference in his expression. Keeping his eyebrows from furrowing had become a labor. It was any day his face would scrunch up and he'd explode. He had become a time-bomb at this point. However, so had Carmen. At this point, it was weighted on who would cave first.
Everything counted on not caving. Caving in meant an eternity of this torture. The familiar harsh noise of the mental cuffs locking in around her arms still made her body stiffen. At least the man had hinted her to what today's activity was. Usually he liked to give her the joy of surprise.
"Do you do this all day?" Carmen's dry inquisition reached the man, surprise perturbing his collected demeanor. She had rarely spoken up during her time with him. It was so difficult not to smirk as she decided to further shock him a bit, "Dr. Galliard." He narrowed his eyes in reaction to this, probably to hide what Carmen thought might be fear. She had caught on to the man putting his best efforts towards not letting her know how scared he was of her. Couldn't say she could quite blame him. Messing around with extremely dangerous mutants all day was no tea party. Torturing them made it even worse, creating a vendetta and possible need for vengeance.
The way they ran things was rather simplistic. Mutants were brought in with most of their abilities being on record already. Those who had managed to keep a clean record would be taken into a room and given the chance to show their abilities. If you refused, they'd put you through various torture methods in order to force you to use your abilities to free yourself from the grueling pain or to give in and agree to tell them. Not only that, but you'd be isolated from other mutants and left devoid of socialization. They'd even pretend to forget to feed you at times.
Carmen was quite pleased with herself for making it this far but she wasn't sure just how long she could manage to endure this. Showing them their abilities meant she'd be stuck in this shit hole. The only option was escape.
"I don't know what game you think you're playing here, but I can guarantee you will lose, missy." The doctor gruffly said to her, running his hand through his small amount of hair. His hairline was obviously receding. His face was unshaved and he seemed to have lost a decent amount of week which one could during the time of a week. Clearly Carmen wasn't the only stubborn mutant. He moved swiftly over to a system of buttons and levers under a large computer screen. He pulled down a lever and the room quickly started to fog up. She caught a glimpse of his face as he opened the door and left her laying on the cool metal of the table she was strapped down to. He was grinning with the type of malicious joy comparable to that of a serial killer getting away with murder.
Seth exits the camera control room, heading down the maze of halls. He found the doctor standing outside a window to the room where he had seen the girl, "What's going on? You appear to be having trouble with this subject." "Yes." the doctor replied ,"she refuses to talk or do anything to provide us information on her ability, no matter when techniques we put her through." Seth stepped closer to the window before looking at the doctor and replying, "Give me a chance to speak with her." The doctor hesitated before going inside to pull the lever back. He came back, shivering and teeth chattering but moved out of the way to let Seth inside. Seth went inside and the doctor closed the door behind them, allowing them to be alone. "Hello, may I ask your name?" he speaks in a soft calm tone to the girl.
The Nikolaev Sisters were identical triplets kidnapped to study the differences in mutations in those with seemingly identical DNA. They loved to mess with their captors pretending to be one of the others.
Nadusha didn't agree with her sisters about not using their powers for personal gain. She wanted to make this Dr. Gallitard hurt, but they were right if they didn't know what their powers were the easier it would be to escape once they were free they would burn this place to the ground.
Nikita she always found it odd that as identical triplets one of them had the ability to replicate herself. She's used her ability on multiple occasions. She's filled in for her sisters at their jobs when they wanted an extra day off. She even had one replicant go to work while she went to college.
Natascha wasn't really interested in her power the constructs never lasted so she never really saw the use. Literally the only time she found a good use for it was when some drunk moron decided he was going to force himself on her, she used her power to create a knife to threaten his jewels with it.
Dr. Galliard walked into, truthfully he didn't know which one of the sisters. "Miss Nikolaev...." Nikita interrupted him. "I'm Natascha Dr....Dr. Gallitard, Dr. Galliturd, I know it's something like that. What sick perverse pleasure will you inflict on me today in a vain attempt to convince me to do what you want? I must ask you one question. Did you ever hear of Einstein's definition of insanity? I am thinking you haven't you keep torturing us to make us do what you want but we keep refusing. So I must question your sanity. Clearly you need to see a psychotherapist. I recommend seeing a psychiatrist instead of a psychologist, because the former can prescribe the good stuff, while the latter just talks and gives you bullshit tests like the Rorschach test."
The moment the man had left the room, it had become impossible to see much of anything in it. Thick fog had expanded through the air and Carmen felt like she was looking at a thick grey wall. Enough heat had already left her body at this point for her lips to begin to turn blue. Her limbs felt stiff and the cold was beginning to feel like a painful needle going into each pore of her skin. The heat had abandoned her body with malicious hast, leaving her shivering and teeth-chattering. She really was already willing to beg anyone in sight to take her somewhere warm. They didn't call it torture for nothing. Not many people could imagine just how bitter and callous the hand of nature could be. She shut her eyes and willed herself not to start crying to begging as another agonizingly went by. Then it all turned off. She opened her eyes when she noticed the caress of the cold steam was no longer present. It was all disappearing and the room was returning to its original state. There was no way that was all they had planned. She glanced around but all made sense as a man entered the room and inquired upon her name.
She sized him up and down curiously. There was no telling what this guy was here for but she had a feeling he thought he could try his hand in persuading her. "C-Carmen."She replied, her teeth still chattering. "Could we chat somewhere else by any chance?" Not only was she freezing her ass only, but she decided it'd be a good idea to see if she could earn this guy's trust. He seemed younger than the other people here.
"C-Carmen."She replied, the girls teeth still chattering. "Could we chat somewhere else by any chance?" Seth raised his brow to this request not knowing the girls intentions. If he were to unbind her, he knew she would not be a problem ability wise. Still, a person can have many plans brewing in their minds. "Well, I cannot take you out of this room but I can unbind you from this table with the room locked." He looked at her with a smile appearing on his face, "I am sorry, taking you anywhere else is against facility rules without proper authorization." he quickly added, all the while the smile remaining on his face.
Isolation. Such a bittersweet silence. Elie had been locked away long enough to feel like days. She sat in the back corner of the room, her knees pressed against her chest as her arms laid limp next to her. Her head rested back against the wall, staring at the other walls around her. The room was small, but large enough to hold her entire world at the moment. Also a good amount of guards to hold her back. She'd felt many things since she was taken to this place. Out of all of them she felt anger the most. Intense, and deep anger. She didn't know how many guards she had given bruises to. A kick here, a black eye there. They soon decided to lock her up, tossing her in this windowless room. She could feel her anger slipping with every moment. Her breath grew calmer. Their punishment had worked. Yet, she didn't think it was because of the loneliness. It was peaceful in this quiet, dimly lit room.
Her brows furrowed lightly, and she raised her right wrist into the air to look at it. After the immense torture of their experiments had ended, she'd begun to feel something new within her. She felt it first in her chest, but soon it had spread all of the way to her wrists. It was almost painful, but every time she'd felt this anger her bones felt as if they'd break. What had they done to her? What would they do next? She let her arm fall back next to her, closing her eyes.
A month ago, she'd been happy in her little apartment. She had a decent enough job. It paid her enough to keep her a life in the city. She was all alone then, just as she was now. No family to miss her. No friends to report her disappearance. Her landlord would surely cause a fuss, but soon her things would be sold and her apartment given away. It had already happened; she was sure of it. Hell, maybe even the government had taken care of it. There would soon be no trace left of her. She clenched her hand into a fist and the feeling returned. She slowly moved to her feet, staring at the door that had locked her in. She took a deep breath as she felt as if her body would break.
The scientists had continued to pester her. They tested her countless times to see what they had created, but nothing worked yet. At least, she hadn't exactly felt like anything changed yet. Now, she could feel their creation sparking within her. Give them what they want, she thought, the feeling growing stronger. Show them what their little lab rat can do. Her arm rose beside her, and she cocked it back. With one swift movement, she focused all of her anger into her fist and hit the door. The sound filled the room, and she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her wrist. At the same moment, the door before her shook within it's frame. A large crack appeared throughout it as she stepped back, clutching her wrist in her other arm.
"What the hell?" She said, her voice full of shock and pain. She panted, looking between her throbbing arm and the door she'd just given a new look. She looked around, glad that she couldn't hear any alarms or the sound of feet pounding against concrete. She hadn't done anything noticeable. Which now that she thought about it she felt stupid for doing it in the first place. She sighed, no longer feeling anger but exhaustion. She slowly moved back to her spot, wondering what exactly they had made her into to do something like that.
It was impossible for Aubrey to tell how much time had passed since she had been taken and placed at the facility. It felt like months, but in reality it had only been three weeks. During her stay there she was provided with a bed to sleep on, regular meals, and clean clothes, but she wasn't allowed to leave her room on her own, or have contact with any of the other subjects she had heard about. The only time she saw anything outside of the four walls of her cell was when she was taken out to have tests done.
At first the tests were small and insignificant, but over time they grew to become more regular and intense. There was no pattern or consitancy to the time of the tests or what they included, it was all very random. Which she could only assume was to add to the stress and panic the tests seemed to be designed to induce in her. None of it made any sense. As far as Aubrey knew, she ahd been kidnapped by a group of sickos who enjoyed watching the torment and suffering of innocent people.
The most recent of these tests was a maze full of mirrors. Aubrey had been directed to find her way from the center of the maze to the exit. She had no idea how big the maze was, but it seemed to be quite large as she had been trying to figure it out for at least two hours. What she didnt know, however, was that the maze was only about the size of a standard bedroom, but the walls were always moving, causing her to go round and round in circles. There was no chance of her ever finding the exit, because there wasn't one. Another hour in they added another factor to the maze; every time she met a deadend, she was hit with a blast of cold water. So not only was she hopelessly lost and confused, she was wet and cold too.
Eventually she gave up and slumped down onto the floor and started quietly sobbing to herself. She didn't know why she was there, or what these people wanted, and she didn't care, she just wanted to go home. "Is anyone there? I can't do this, I give up, please just let me out!" Aubrey shoudted into the air, while looking up in the general direction she assumed the cameras would be. No one replied but she knew they were here, she knew hey were watching. Their silence only upset her even more. "I know you're there! I know you can hear me! Just let me out!" She called out again, this time standing to her feet. She was determined to at least get an answer from them, she felt it was the least that she deserved.
Eventually Aubrey would get an answer, but it certainly wasn't the kind she was expecting, nor the kind she would like. There came a loud buzzing noise over the speaker, which only lasted a few seconds before the mirror walls of the maze would begin to move. Only this time, instead of creating new pathes in the maze, the walls were beginning to close in around her; that's when she really began to panic. She had no where to go to get away from it, and there was no sign of it stopping. "Stop! Please stop! I'll do the maze, I promise, just please make it stop!" Her pleading was no use, however, as the walls continued to close in around her. It quickly came to the point where she could barely take two steps before she was met with another wall. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for it all to be over, for the walls to move in and crush her to death.
But death would never come. After what felt like an eternity, Aubrey slowly opened her eyes to see a shield of strange, glowing blue energy surrounding her, stopping the walls from moving in any further. The energy seemed to becoming from her, but she couldn't figure out how or why it was there. As she stood there, staring in awe at the mysterious energy, she didn't noticed how the walls were slowly disappearing into the floor, until they were all gone. With the threat of death and the sense of danger gone, the shield of energy would begin to fade, until it was gone as well.
Dr. Galliard was very annoyed with this girl. He had no doubt this Nikolaev girl was lying about her first name. "I'm not here to torture you today physically. I thought I try a different route." He had her sit down in a chair. He pressed a button on a remote in his pocket and she was strapped down. "You know your sisters are being tortured periodically." Some goon rolled in one of those super old fashioned tube tvs on a cart and hooked it up then left. "Knowing and watching are two entirely different things." Nikita watched as one of her sisters had her head forced under water over and over again. When she tried to turn her head a strap came down and forced her to watch. When she tried to close her eyes some mechanical device forced her eyes open. Nikita felt her powers activating. She was going to follow the plan, half baked as it was. She forced herself to suppress her powers. After what felt like an eternity the tv went to snow.
A year can feel like an eternity in 24/7 isolation, with the added fact of being in the highest security area only seeing people for tests in the exact room. Alaia had gone through numerous methods of them trying to get something out of her, whether that be torture or other experiments and tests. However, today felt different as if something had finally clicked, and she felt huge amounts of energy and a need to get out of this hell hole. "HEY, YOU MOTHER FUCKERS EVER GONNA LET ME OUT!" she screamed looking around the blank room fury started to boil in her blood.
Alaia snapped banging against the walls with her fists and her body hoping to get the attention of someone, That's when the door opened up and four armed guards barged in to calm her down but even tasers and plastic ammunition could not tame the rage flowing in her. Alaia screamed at the guards "I will fucking kill you all you nasty worms, I am done being your damn lab rat." just as she said this her arm began to bubble up and change shape to an enlarged blade ending at her elbow. Alaia was shocked for a moment but quickly returned to the situation she was in "Now you're done for." she gave a large grin before laughing, Alaia lunged slashing one of the guards completely in half at the waist she then turned stabbing another guard numerous times leaving the lifeless body lying on the floor. "You really came unprepared for a situation like this." she said staring at the two guards left in front of her, She jumped at them grabbing one and beheading him then throwing the headless corpse at the remaining guard and just as the guard was knocked down she leaped onto him plunging the blade into his stomach. Alaia began to search the guard for a key or a way out she dug through many pockets before finding what appeared to be a card they would use to enter and exit her room, Quickly snatching it she ran to the door lock and flashed on the lock the door began to open and the alarm was set off.
When the alarms went off the Nikolaev knew one of them had initiated the break out plan, which was simple break out and do as much damage as possible.
Nikita made numerous replicants of herself that overwhelmed Dr. Galliard. They held him down while another free the Progenitor. They strapped the good doctor down in the chair. "Dr. Galliturd time for you to experience your own medicine." Nikita and all but one of the replicants left their room.
Nikolaev waited for a guard to check on her to make sure she didn't escape. She hid behind a digital construct making it look like she was dead. When the guard went to check on her 'corpse' she lunged from behind her door with a digital knife and stabbed him over and over and over and over and over again.
Nadusha sat calmly in her seat when an orderly came in. She sat there and didn't visually appear to respond to his entrance at all, but the orderly suddenly collapsed to his knees & started screaming in pain. "Free me or the pain will spread from your balls to every part of your body. If it reaches your brain it will never end it will become permanent." The orderly painfully stood up and freed Nadusha. She snapped his neck.
The three sisters met. "My replicants are spreading out and killing anyone who works here. One has the doctor and torturing him." Nikita pulled out the doctor's keycard . "So let's go free the rest and burn the place to the ground."
Xavier confronts Elie and she retaliates, freeing herself.
Xavier
An audible sigh filled Xavier's office. He sat back in his chair, crossing his arms on his chest as he read the recent reports from the staff. His brows furrowed in annoyance. Countless subjects refused to comply, and he was beginning to lose what little patience he had. He sat forward and clicked on the surveillance footage of the experiments he deemed the most important. Mostly because they were the ones he'd invested the most in. He knew each of them had mutated with 100% success. Unfortunately the human side of them was proving to be the only variable he had not accounted for when he first began these experiments.
He clicked through four different cameras. One for a particularly difficult subject named Carmen currently in what he called the fridge, another on a set of triplets. Each of the triplets were being subjected to various rough treatments. The other two were of the subjects named Alex and Vayne, who had yet to comply as well.
Finally he landed on footage of the last subject. Elie. She'd only been at the lab for a month, and had shown no signs of any mutation. It wouldn't be long before she was scheduled for another experiment to make the mutation develop further. Maybe then she would finally make herself worthy in the eyes of the government. She was a fiesty subject, and he grinned as he watched clips of her thrashing at the guards. He saw her now in an isolation room, sitting in her little corner looking defeated. "Why is she holding her arm?" He thought aloud, looking around at the room. Had she punched the wall? He sat straighter, smirking as he finally noticed the door to her cell. "So, she finally figured it out. And damaged the door, no less." He stood, gathering a few guards to take with him as he headed towards the isolation ward.
He nodded to the guard outside of her door, who promptly moved to the side to let Xavier approach it. "Don't let her give you another black eye this time, Andrews," he quipped, smirking at the guards before he scanned his ID card and pulled open the door. The guards filed into the room first, and Xavier followed to stand in the middle of them.
Elie gasped softly as the door swung open, her heart immediately beginning to race. She moved to her feet, hiding her wrist behind her back as if she were a frightened child. She'd done something wrong, and they were here to punish her. Her gaze moved over the guards, finally resting on the man in the middle of them. She had only seen him once, but the memory made her skin crawl. She shifted in her spot, clenching her jaw as she tried to hide her fear.
Xavier looked the girl over, noticing how she hid her arm from view. He turned slightly, shaking his finger at the door. "Do you have something to tell us, Elie?" He said condescendingly. If she was going to act like a child, he was going to treat her like one. Elie glanced at the door before looking back to him. She didn't answer, preferring not to speak. It was obvious enough what had happened.
Xavier sighed, feeling rather irritated that she remained silent. "Show me your arm." He commanded firmly. Elie swallowed, looking down at the floor before she moved her arm into sight. "It's fine," she said, wiggling her fingers to prove that it still worked. Was she defective? Would they kill her if she was a failed experiment?
Xavier frowned, looking to Andrews. "Hold her still. It looks like there's an issue with her abilities." He turned to examine the door, listening as he heard the guards close in on Elie to grab her. Elie stepped backwards, feeling her heart race within her chest as the guards reached for her. She struggled against them, but they quickly overpowered her. Andrews held her right arm in one hand, the other gripping her hair tightly to ensure that she would comply. The other guards grabbed her other arm, pushing her roughly towards Xavier.
The man turned from the door, smiling at the sight before him. "Now, no nasty tricks, okay Elie?" He purred as he stepped over to her. He grabbed her wrist with both hands, hearing her gasp in pain. After a quick feel, he sighed softly and looked up at her. "What have you done to yourself, Elie? I thought you were smarter than this."
Elie jerked against the guard's grip, sticking her chin out as she glared at Xavier. "You did this to me, so why don't you tell me?" She hissed. Andrews tightened his grip on her hair and she grimaced, going limp within the guard's grips so that they wouldn't hold her so tightly.
Xavier shook his head, tsking at her remark. "Take her to a demonstration room and get her to repeat whatever she did to this door. If she says her arm is fine, then she can surely do it again." He stared into her eyes, a look of determination on his face. "I don't care if you have to beat it out of her or not. Just keep away from that pretty face." The guards all nodded, beginning to force her towards the door. Elie struggled to keep her footing, now beginning to panic as she worried if she could even repeat the act again. She felt the panic swell in her chest, feeling as if her body were shaking in fear. It felt as if the whole room was shaking as well. Xavier frowned as he felt something strange in the air, stepping aside to let them pass as he watched Elie closely.
It was then that the building's security alarm went off, filling the room with a sound that made Elie's ears hurt after the silence of the isolation room. Xavier growled, raising a hand to halt the men. "Nevermind. We'll come back to her after we figure out what's going on. Maybe then she'll be willing to explain herself." The guards grunted, each visibly disappointed that they'd have to wait to return the bruises that Elie had given them. They turned and threw her to the floor in the back of the cell. Elie caught herself, whimpering lightly as she put her weight on her wrist. She turned to see them all heading towards the door, and the frustration of being locked away in this room again overwhelmed her.
"No!" She yelled, raising her left palm towards them and releasing a second wave of pent up energy at them. A blast of vibrations released from her palm, creating a shockwave that knocked all of the men off of their feet. Two guards hit their head against the wall, emanating an audible crack as they were incapacitated. Andrews was thrown against the door to the cell, and Xavier fell face first into the concrete.
Elie panted, quickly moving to her feet as she realized what she had done to them. She looked down at her hands, glad to feel no pain in her left arm at all. That was lucky, she thought, looking over each of the men. What now? She took a deep breath, still feeling panicked about her current situation. If they got up, she was surely going to be punished severely. Moving quickly she stepped over to Xavier, who was beginning to groan and shift in his spot. With only a moment's hesitation she grabbed the ID card from his pocket and rushed towards the door to the cell. She pushed it closed just in time to see Xavier look up at her. His nose was broken and bloodied, and he looked at her as if he wanted to kill.
Elie slammed the door shut in his face, panting as she stepped away from the door and the unconscious body of Andrews. The alarms in the hallway rang in her ears, and in the distance she could hear yelling and screaming. What now? She thought again, looking around as she tried to decide which direction to go.
Xavier confronts Elie and she retaliates, freeing herself.
"Aw, what a good boy." Carmen replied to his words with an eye-roll. "I bet you were just tons of fun at part-"The sound of a blaring alarm interrupted her next words and she locked eyes with the man as if to not give away that she had any ideas of escaping. Staring at the door would give it away too quickly. This could be the opportunity she had been waiting for but Carmen decided to wait until she heard something that indicated that perhaps the guards here were overwhelmed enough for her to sneak out of here. This could be some amateur doomed to fail after-all. "I'm guessing that's not a fire alarm."She mused to Seth.
Mari's hand slid across the smooth grey walls of the room. She passed by each wall one by one, circling around the room. She thought she knew what lonely was, but after being in this place she realized she had it all wrong. What she felt now was a desperate need to talk to someone, to see someone, or at least to do something. Since the day she had arrived everything had been a blur.
On the first day she arrived men were around her holding her down. A man in a white lab coat ordered them to place her onto the table. They strapped her down and the man with the white lab coat grabbed a needle that had the plastic thing at the end. He patted the top of her head, pushing the hair out of her face. "I wonder what this one will do?" He let out a cackle, and shoved the thing into her arm. After that all she remembered was being in the grey room. Occasionally they gave her food and water. It didn't seam like enough, it wasn't even close to enough. The hallucinations said it all. The other day she could of swore she saw a rabbit, that had bit her hand. The funny thing about it was that afterwards there was no mark of it at all.
The moving of her motions stopped soon as she let out a sigh. Maybe it wasn't the lack of water and food. Maybe she was just losing her mind? She shook the thought out of her head. Either way, she needed a way out. She stopped walking a slumped down on the wall. She hugged her legs closer to her, and burrowed her head. "How much longer? Is there someone out there?" She looked up and down the walls. She knew they were watching her. She figured that out one of the first days she woke up. Yet she never got any response of any sort.
Her eyes went wide as the door creaked open. She jumped onto her feet looking at the man. She expected it to be the same man that usually through food at her, but it wasn't. This time it was the man with the white lab coat. The man she would not have one inch of trouble recognizing from a mile away. The one who shoved the needle in her arm. He stepped forward into the room, behind him were to guards. "Come with me Marissa."
Her feet were trapped underneath her. She did not move forward but instead her mind let her quiver into a field of questions. "Who are you? Where am I?" Her voice dampened to nothing as he spoke again.
"You do not have any right to ask me any questions. My name is Mr. Grenard and that is all you need to know. Come with me now or see what happens." The man turned away from her. She eyes the guards back and forth before she follows the man through the hallway and into another room, but this room wasn't plain like her other room. It was much different, much more to look at. "Sit down." He pointed down to a seat.
Mari finds her place to the seat watching the man closely. Was she getting another shot? If that was the case she wasn't going to allow it. She wasn't going down with out fight.
Mr. Grenard didn't pull out another shot. Instead he grabbed a clip board and a pen. He swerved a chair around and sat in front of the girl. "So Marissa."
"Mari. I go by Mari." She pointed her finger up, instantly the filth of regret coursing through her. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again.
"So Mari, show me what you got."
Mari shook her head. "What do you mean, 'what I got?' I don't have anything? "
The man leaned forward letting out a laugh. "You don't huh." He looked down upon his watch and then up at the girl. "Then I guess we'll just have to place you back in that room. What a shame. " He shook his head about to leave. Mari grabbed his wrist before he got up shaking her head.
No! Please don't make me go back there. Please don't!" She looked him in the eyes, and let go of his hand.
He stood up and looked around the room, before he made a check on the clipboard. "Send her to the area with the rest of them."
The two guards exchanged looks at each other. One stood up and said, "But she didn't do anything."
The other guard chuckled letting out a solid laugh. "Mind control. High security on that." He took a step foward before the pounding alarms went off. The guards immediately turned around, locking the door behind them as they slung there guns over there shoulder. Mara stood up running to the doors behind them. "Whats that? What's going on?"
"It's nothing. Please sit back down and wait a bit.
Seth looked at Carmin in a state of shock knowing what the alarm was for. "We need to leave right now." he said as he grabbed Carmin by the arm, quickly heading to the door of the room. He looked down the halls, making sure the area was clear still holding on to Carmin's arm. They then started making their way through the maze of halls to the exit of the building before the full lockdown of the facility began. The two had finally made it to the exit. Seth swiped his key card on the door and it opened. He looked at Carmin and said, "We are in this together from now on."