Lyn stepped over the broken glass which littered the floor of the lobby and street and crunched her way to the elevator. What must have been the last of the deliveries to the building lay abandoned. A single box, marked fragile, lay crumpled and scuffed and kicked to the wall by fleeing workers.

The elevator opened at once when she pressed the call button. She stepped inside and turned around to see Sam running to her. He jammed his hand into the door before it closed and forced his way in.

"Come on, we need to get out of here."

"I didn't see Alice. She might still be up there."

"You don't know that."

"That's right, I don't. So I have to find out."

Sam considered arguing with Lyn and pulling her to safety despite her objections but the look on her face told him that wasn't a fight he wanted any part of.

"Fine. But we take the stairs. The lift is too dangerous."

Lyn seemed braced for a fight of her own, but instead she shoved past him and ran for the staircase.

Lyn charged up the stairs two at a time, adrenaline and fear driving her forward. Sam followed, bounding up them with ease and passed Lyn on the second flight. He reached the entrance to the Zoi Tech lobby first. Lyn arrived, breathless and pale. Sam grabbed her by the shoulders and pressed her against the wall.

"You follow me, okay? Step where I step. If you want to go somewhere tell me, then follow me. Got it?"

Lyn nodded. She just needed to know Alice was all right.

Sam cautiously pushed open the door to the lobby. Smoke hugged the ceiling, acrid and black. The wall behind Iain's desk had cracked where something had hit it from behind, from inside the lab. The door to the offices had shattered leaving only a metal frame.

Sam stepped slowly and carefully through the devastated scene, expert eyes taking in every detail. He held out one hand to stop Lyn rushing forward.

"Where to?" he asked.

"Her office, at the end of the corridor. It's the one closest to the lab, at the far end."

Sam searched the walls, paying close attention to corners and beams, looking for signs of structural weakness. Satisfied, he crept forward, keeping low out of the way of the smoke and stepped through the remains of the security door.

The frosted glass wall separating the lab from the hallway had vanished. Sharp fragments littered the floor and needles of glass peppered the wall opposite, driven deep into the partition by the explosion.

The lab was a wreck too. The blast had overturned benches and smashed equipment. A printer lay upside down in the centre of the room. Smoldering sheets of paper spilled out of the open tray.

Lyn saw movement near the cryogenic storage.

"Sam, over there!" She tapped his shoulder and pointed at the figure emerging from the ruined Fridge.

"Hey, you okay in there?" Sam called out.

The figure froze, then turned toward them in a swift movement Sam recognised.

"Get down!" he grunted, shoving Lyn onto the broken glass and wreckage strewn across the corridor.

A gunshot rang out and fine plaster dusted the air where the bullet struck the wall above Sam's head.

Sam grabbed Lyn by the sleeve and half-dragged, half-threw her into the closest room, the same treatment room they had been in less than half an hour earlier, when the world still made sense.

The violence of Sam's saving throw winded Lyn. The broken glass on the floor scraped her knees bloody. She coughed and pulled herself up between chair and desk and turned to see Sam pulling the door shut behind him from the hallway.

Sam scrambled back to the lab window and peered in, but he couldn't see anyone. How many ways out were there? The door to his left, but was that it? There must be fire escapes somewhere.

Staying low, Sam ran to the end of the hall as far as Alice's office. The door was already open and it showed little sign of the damage inflicted on the surrounding wall. He ducked inside, scrambling to stay in cover. He hadn't heard a second gunshot, but that didn't mean the shooter had gone. The only thing Sam was sure of was that the shooter would most likely have to get past him to get out the front door, and if that was his way out Sam would need something to even the odds.

He crawled behind the desk and found Alice. She lay on the floor, her head twisted awkwardly against the furniture behind her. The phone handset sat in her limp fingers.

Blood oozed from multiple wounds caused by the flying glass. One deep cut in the side of her neck was bleeding heavily, painting her half-finished tattoo in red. But her shallow breathing and weak pulse told Sam she was not gone yet. Sam pulled a scarf from the back of her chair and used it to stem the flow of blood as best he could. It was something. He hoped it would be enough.

Sam popped his head over the desk again. Still no sign of the shooter but from here he couldn't see much. He snatched up the handset, dropped it into the cradle and dialled nine four times, assuming and hoping he would get an outside line with the first digit, and picked up the phone again. No dial tone. The phone had also been hit. He noticed his own mobile plugged in near the door, but when he reached it he saw the screen has been smashed in the explosion. Useless.

He ducked behind the desk again and searched the drawers for something he could use. His hands closed around a large pair of scissors.

Good enough.