To Be A Rebel

Chapter 39: DNA

Running.

Always running, constantly running. Can't stop running.

If I stop running, it will catch me. It's coming for me.

"You're hearing voices again, aren't you, Five?" Moonchild taunts I run down an unknown tunnel, afraid and alone. I think I can hear a voice in my ear. I can't tell if it's real. "You've been hearing voices for a long time. Mine, Sarah Smith's, Archie's. So how sane are you? You shouldn't come to the mausoleum of madness if you doubt yourself."

I clutch at my head. Childish laughter echoes down the tunnels, and footsteps, and voices-coming from every which direction. How close is it?

"Boo!"

I hear it right in my ear, but there's nothing there.

What am I afraid of? Why am I afraid?

"Oh, Five. You know Veronica was working on Van Ark's experiments. What did he inject you with, Five? What are you now? I have to tell you, Five, there's something behind you. You can't see it yet. It's walking behind you." Moonchild laughs.

I hear a thump, then a drag. It's dragging itself, coming after me. In the darkness, I'm all alone, afraid, being chased by something-something bad. I don't know what it is, but I know I don't want it to find me...

So I run. I have to run. I can't let it catch me.

"I know I'm just a voice in your head, but I know things. That thing is still coming. It's walking through the parallel tunnel, through the hydrochloric acid. It wants you. Keep running!"

It's coming for me. It wants me. It's not going to let me go.

Suddenly a hand grabs my arm, and I'm not in the same tunnel I was in before. I almost go to attack before I see that it's Janine.

How did she get here?

That's when I realize...

This isn't real. I'm dreaming.

God help me.

"I literally do not have time for your hurt feelings right now," Sam says. "Five, Janine, you need to get moving down that tunnel. If the Glass Protocol is after you, it's behind you."

I blink. Glass Protocol? Where have I heard that before? It's been years.

"Oh, yes, I think we all know it's behind you, but when you turn and look, will it still be there?"

"Go, now, run!"

We keep running, and I feel time go by. I feel it all. We're farther down the tunnel, but it's still coming for us. I can feel it. It wants me and me alone. Why? I don't understand why. What is this thing? This monster?

"Come on... show yourself," Sam murmurs, and then he gasps.

"Mr. Yao, what are you seeing?" Janine asks from beside me.

"Well, the lights went out! Just as it should have been running past the cam, the lights went out! That's... I don't feel so good about that."

"Bad moon rising, Five... It wants you."

I'm no longer in the tunnel. I'm somewhere else, a building. The doors are shut. Janine and Amelia are with me. I still feel scared.

I should be scared. It's smart to feel scared. The thing that's coming for me should be feared. It's something odd, something that should not exist.

High pitched laughter rings through the air, sending a chill down my spine.

"That is the laughter of a predator whose prey has walked into its lair," A voice says from the speakers. It sounds familiar, but it's robotic. "It is stronger here, where the bones of its victims lie. It will toy with you, as a cat does to 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, Five. But I can see it."