Someone cranked the gravity way, way up in the glass fishbowl of the Compound. Whatever drill sergeant who had dumped the latest hit of adrenaline into my bloodstream had officially hopped into the driver’s seat. I was on autopilot, watching my own body move like it was Figueiredo’s on screen. Barely in control of myself but somehow keeping my shit together. I only saw Kaori’s hands shake once while she unlocked a supply closet by her office before the staff escaped into the tunnels. She reached in and shoved a dozen handguns at whoever would take one. She kept one for herself and stuck it into the waistband of her pants at the small of her back, under her lab coat. Assault rifles had been banned a century ago, though a few black market high-capacity magazine guns were still out there, passed like heirlooms from mouth-breathing anti-government doomsday prepper parents to their kids. As rare as guns were, Kaori wasn’t stupid and wouldn’t have stranded us here without any defenses.

My feet clunked on the tiles below me, cement-shoed. Jesus. This was really happening.

“Go to the box!” Kaori snapped at me.

She brought me back down to myself. White coats whipped past me as I sprinted back to the Theater and ran my hands spirit-board style over the machine. Begging.

*   *   *

I held two scenes in my head, and they wanted to blur together.

SCENE A – INT. FIGUEIREDO’S OFFICE – EVENING

Tiago pops into his husband’s office to mention he’s going off-campus to grab dinner, and does Figueiredo want to come? But of course he’s blabbing like always to his journal and he waves Tiago over, pointing to the camera like come and say hi. They catch up a bit about their days until someone knocks at the door and bursts in with news that one of the techs is going nuts and trying to lock the rest of the staff out of the control room. Soon, the three of them pound through the hallways on their way to the Bridge – past the dozen barriers, locked gates, and foot-thick hepta-carbon walls – to get to the machine. But the Bridge door won’t close, even with Figueiredo slamming his badge at the reader and stabbing the buttons of a control panel. Unless this was a trap all along. Someone appears in the doorway but Tiago shoots before the other man has a chance to even lift his gun.

SCENE B – ENVISIONER INITIATIVE THEATER – EARLY MORNING