Ava let out a scream as she watched the man who was meant to be her husband explode into thousands of binary particles in front of her eyes. Still in shock, she felt herself being pulled away.

She didn't resist the pull as she began to run full speed behind the mysterious man from her dreams who had somehow manifested into her waking world.

"Come on, let's hurry before he wakes up." He said to her as he led her through the twists and turns of several different alleys.

"Wakes up? You blew him to smithereens!" She said, still trying to process what was happening around her.

Everything was happening so fast that she was beginning to think it was all a dream. That would explain why this man she'd dreamt of was running besides her and why her life had skipped seven whole days.

"He'll regenerate." Was all he said in response convincing her that he had completely gone crazy.

Then again she was pretty sure that no one turned to binary when they were blown up.

They ran for a couple more blocks before they abruptly stopped. She saw him tense up and take out a pair of guns.

"What's going on?" She asked him. She was pretty much on the verge of panic because this was not how she had envisioned her birthday going.

Maybe she had spent her entire life hoping for some excitement but today was a little too much.

"Get behind me." He commanded without answering her question.

She was about to protest when suddenly someone appeared on the other end of the alley.

"What the hell?" She exclaimed as he stepped out into the open in front of them.

She didn't know how but Ryan Prentice stood right in front of them without a single scratch on him. If she hadn't seen him get blown up she wouldn't believe it had happened but because she had, Ava was having a hard time believing her eyes.

As crazy as it was, a regular afternoon of her life had suddenly turned into the opening scene of some movie.

"Judy my boy, surely you weren't stupid enough to come here all on your own and think you'll get to walk out. Did you?" Ryan asked the other guy with a cocky smile causing him to tense up even more.

Something about him was different but Ava couldn't quite put a finger on it. It was almost as if someone else was speaking through him at that particular moment. His eyes glowed an unnatural green in contrast to their regular blue.

He suddenly turned his attention to her as he held out a palm and materialized a strange looking black sword.

"Ava, love, for your own good you should not be associating yourself  with renegades. We will judge you as one if you do." Ryan said to her, a crazed smile spreading across his face.

There was something about that smile that made her feel uneasy. As if sensing her unease, her blond companion turned and threw her a tiny black earphone.

"Keep going, I'll catch up with you." He said. "Just follow the directions they'll give you."

Ava wanted to ask him what he meant but she could tell that now was not the time to do so. The atmosphere was already tense enough as it is.

Without waiting for any further instruction, she turned and ran just as the two men attacked each other. She was not much of a fighter but she had a feeling that it would be one kick ass fight.

For a moment she wondered where to go from there but almost instantly someone spoke through the earphone she had been given.

"Jude, talk to me. What's going on?" Came a male voice.

"Uh, he's unavailable right now." She responded, trying to make a little sense of what was happening.

"Wait, who are you?" The man asked.

"Sorry, I'm Ava. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Can you please tell me where I'm supposed to be going." Ava explained as she tried looking around for any clue.

"You're Ava?" He asked before letting out a string of curses. "Damnit Jude, you're gonna get us all in trouble you dumb fuck!"

There was a few seconds of silence before he spoke to her again.

"Sorry about that, I'm guessing you must have run into trouble and he decided to give you his comms whilst he cleaned up his mess." The man said.

"Uh, can you please tell me what is going on?" Ava said, trying to get him to explain himself.

"Don't worry, you'll get answers soon enough. For now you have to get out of there and fast. Let me see if I can map out a quick and easy escape route that even that idiot can identify without drawing the sentinels to you." He replied.

"Sentinels? Oh my god this is starting to sound like some kind of movie." Ava commented as she tried to process all that was happening.

"Trust me, the movie only gets better. Okay, I've hacked into Unity's main frame. Just follow the neon signs flashing to your left." He instructed. "I'd hurry if I were you. Unity is real pricky about being hacked. It doesn't forgive such insults to its ego."

Although she did not understand any of the things they were talking about, Ava decided that she would trust what they were saying. She had never imagined she would see the day when she trusted some random strangers but then again there was a chance that this was all a dream and she would wake up still on the express train on her way home. That thought made more sense.

With that comforting thought, she ran following the glow of the neon signs that would flash in one direction, like her own personal glow map.

She had ran close to two miles when she came to a large wall that blocked her path. Thinking she had taken a wrong turn somewhere, Ava began to look around for any clue as to where she was meant to go to next.

Sure enough, her neon markers led her up to this point so she had not made a mistake. So where the heck was she supposed to go now?

She turned when she suddenly heard the heavy footsteps that were approaching. For a moment the unknown terrified her but then she saw the blond guy from earlier. Somehow he had managed to follow her.

Without slowing down, he reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, let's get out of here before he catches up." He said as he ran towards the wall.

She wanted to tell him he was insane for thinking she would crash against the wall with him but he was already pulling her along and before she knew it she jump right into the wall.

On natural instinct,Ava let out a scream as her body came in contact with the wall but the pain she had expected never came.

Blinking, she found herself waking up on a rather uncomfortable metal base bed with tubes sticking out of her.

Her thoughts were foggy. She couldn't add two and two nor could she figure out how she had gotten there. As a feeling of panic seized her, she began to pull at the tubes, forcefully removing them from her person until a gentle hand stopped her.

"Easy there, you'll hurt yourself." A male voice said.

Looking up, she saw the now familiar blond haired man she had followed blindly into wherever it is that she was now.

She remembered running into a wall with him but how on earth had she ended up in this less than sanitary industrial hospital?

"Where am I? What happened? Who the hell are you people?" She asked all at once.

"Of course, I owe you a lot of answers to a lot of questions. Come on, we have to get you out of here and head back to the fort." He replied softly. "I'll tell you everything when we get there. It's not safe here."

"And where is here?" She inquired.

"I'll tell you that too but for now we really need to leave before we attract anymore unwanted attention." He replied. "You trusted me before, I'm going to need your trust one more time. I got you out of the simulation but until we make it back to the fort, you're not entirely free. The sentinels will hunt you down with the intention of putting you down under for good and this time around they'll make sure you can't ever leave. "

~Words 1 448~