"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" A male voice yelled.

Asia's rapid moving feet urgently stopped. An eerie chill slithered up her spine as her heart thudded against her ribcage.

"Don't turn around." Leslee urged with a squeeze of Asia's hand. "Don't. It'll only back things harder." She studied the delight growing behind the mist in Asia's brown eyes.

"But..." Asia pulled her hand back tugging Leslee's arm in the process. "That voice."

"It's not him," Leslee added.

Asia ignored her friend's words and swiveled her head in the direction of the male baritone. "Cole." She breathlessly affirmed.

Asia's heart lurched and her food-deprived body grew weaker from the vision of her brother clad in black standing before her. It was a face she'd only seen in photos placed around her childhood house and the one that sat on her dresser back at her apartment; which was why Leslee knew how he looked.

"Cole, have you been here this whole time." Asia took a step toward him, her movement was limited since Leslee hadn't released her hand and her friend kept her feet grounded.

Shaka's back arched as he filled the silence with a low growl.

"Stop, boy," Asia ordered without pulling her sight off the man. "It's Cole. You know him. Cole..." She took another step to him.

Cole tossed the single barrel shotgun into his other hand and then cocked it.

The rigid sound of a shell being locked in place yanked that breath from Asia's lungs.

"Don't call me that." His black desert boots slapped the ground as he stepped forward. "I don't know a Cole. My name is Lance." His measured footsteps were eating away at the distance between him and the girls. "And this is a Restricted Area incoming OXRO's must be checked in on the first floor."

"Cole." Asia couldn't stop herself from calling him by the name she learned as a child, the name she screamed for when she thought the boogeyman was hiding in her closet. "I'm your sister." She took a panicked step back as Leslee begged her to flee. "Help us."

Lance held up the gun and aimed it at Asia, "Come with me or be declared a Defect."

Shaka's growl deepened to an animalistic snarl as his lips pulled back showing his sharp teeth.

"De­—" As the prefix slipped from Asia's mouth, a thunderous boom exploded in the white hallway accompanied with a spark of flame.

Asia screamed for Shaka as she and Leslee cut around the corner.

Doors along the off-white hallway flung opened paired with young women with confused faces. None of the faces were familiar as Asia darted passed them. She heard the gun cock again just as Leslee took a sharp left turn into a room. Asia slipped into the room and Shaka galloped behind. Leslee bushed the end of his tail as she slammed the door close.

Leslee dragged a metallic chair from the corner and rammed it underneath the doorknob. She let out a heavy breath as she peered at the chair.

"That's not going to hold for long." Asia declared running her eyes over the generic dorm-like room keeping up with the white motif: a dresser, a twin bed, a nightstand with a lamp and a book resting on top of it. Her eyes stopped at the blindless window taken up a wall.

Asia pulled the chair from under the doorknob.

"What are you doing?" Leslee yelled thumping her back against the door and planting her feet on the ground getting ready for an intruder.

"Breaking the glass." Asia curled her hands around the back of the chair and began to lift it.

"You can't!" Leslee blurted out. "The alarms will sound."

"Alarm's or not, they already know I'm here." Asia lifted the chair at shoulder height and swung it toward the window. Spider web cracks spread across the window from the center of impact.

"Get your asses back in your rooms!" Leslee and Asia heard Lance's loud forceful voice in the hallway and closer than they wanted him to be.

"Grab the sheets off the bed!" Asia told Leslee before lifting the chair again.

Leslee ripped the sheets off the bed sending the rectangular folded blanket falling to the floor. Asia grabbed the chair and hurled it toward the window fueled with strength from all the days of torment, all the anger from the lies she was told, the friends that died and the will to survive.

The chair thrashed through the window, cracking the glass in jagged pieces. A couple of seconds later they heard the chair splat to the ground along with the sprinkle of glass.

A hard, heavy thud banged against the door, "Open up. You won't like the alternative."

Leslee and Asia's hands worked quickly trying the sheets together. The girls dropped the bundle of fabric by the broken window as a gentle spring night breeze blew into the room.

Asia swiped the blanket off the floor and whistle for Shaka. The wolf abandoned his surveillance of the door and move to his owner. "You go first." She told Leslee while dropping to her knees.

"What are you doing?" Leslee asked tearing her eyes off the door as Lance assaulted the structure with what sounded like kicks.

"You're going to take him." Asia looped the rough blanket around Shaka's back. She gestured for Leslee to kneel down.

Leslee dropped to her haunches, "You're going to be right behind me. You can take him."

"Let's not be naïve, Les." Asia ignored the cracking of wood that came from the door. "Nothing's guaranteed and I'm not leaving here without my brothers." She secured the blanket around Leslee's chest, the fabric making an x. Asia tossed the bedsheets out the window "Climb down."

Leslee glanced at the door, that last kick rattled the hinges. She hoisted Shaka on her back like a backpack on the first day of school. "I'll wait for you." She wrapped her arms around Asia's neck.

Asia looped her free hand around Leslee's back, resting under Shaka's neck. "Don't." She muttered before pushing her friend away. "Now. Go." She moved her eyes to the window.

Leslee sat on the floor, swung her legs over the edge then took hold of the sheet. Asia rooted her feet and bent her knees preparing for her friend's weight.

"Goodbye, old friend," Asia muttered to the four-legged creature producing whimpers.

Leslee dropped her body over the edge and began her descent. Grunts and moans were the only things Asia heard as the bedroom door flew opened and slapped against the wall.

With her back to the wall, she didn't see it coming but she felt it. A sting to the shoulders brought her to her knees. Her eyelids grew heavy and her limbs were numb.

"Welcome to Lucid." Asia heard the words after her head hit the floor.

The End Is Near.