Gas chamber room, Facility 1B, Ibis Island.

01:05am

“Move aside!”- Julia’s roaring voice overwhelmed Jieqiong’s already alerted senses for a second as she came charging into the room again.

“Where did you go to?! You have to help me! T-t-t-the girl and my friend! They’re trapped inside there with the gas and I can’t open the door!”- Jieqiong, with tears already streaming down her face, pleaded for help while trying to explain the situation to the best of her abilities - “The gas! It just won’t stop pumping inside! I can’t… I can’t-!”

“Take a step back sweetheart!”- Not leaving the subtle flirting aside even for a moment, Julia quickly and roughly shove Jieqiong behind her, raising her MP5

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

The bullets impacted on the glass and, through reinforced, it started cracking. Jieqiong, even with her system on high alert, could note the small amounts of reddish gas leaking from between the cracks.

Unlike her, Julia didn’t waste time, moving in front of the panel that controlled the entire system as she promptly climbed up on it. Once directly in front of the glass, she aimed a quick but powerful kick towards it. The glass pane resisted the first impact yet more cracks appeared, giving Julia the much needed confirmation that she could take it down.

She hastily prepared herself to kick it again.

“Ugh-!”- Julia grunted as her leg went through the glass, subjecting herself to multiple cuts.

It was under this last kick pressure that the glass finally gave in, letting Julia’s feet in and the gas out, which made Jieqiong come to a worrying conclusion.

With the machine broken, emanating gas nonstop, it was a matter of time for the entire laboratory to be enveloped by it now that Julia had broken its container. Nevertheless, she convinced herself that it was a necessary action if she wanted to save her friends.

In the meantime, Julia had already entered the mist, pushing her way through the broken glass and disappearing as she was engulfed by the red gas.

A few seconds passed in which Jieqiong heard nothing.

5?

Maybe 10?

She didn’t even know nor she wanted to, time seemed to slow down as she stared, worriedly, at the broken part of the glass, now a gaping hole the size of a person, that Julia had entered the chamber through. The gas had started seeping inside the room, it’s tendril-like form creeping along the walls and floor towards Jieqiong.

It was starting to fill in the room, the molecules from the gas mass inside the chamber were adapting to the room’s shape. And soon the rest of the facility would follow.

She didn’t remember exactly how the system worked, but it wasn’t possible for it to have unlimited the reserves of gas, right? Jieqiong was sure it was a finite amount they had at their disposal, so maybe the entire facility wouldn’t be affected by it, however, she was sure the gas was toxic enough to at least filtrate into the air everywhere, making it more of an invisible threat than anything.

Of course, in small doses it wouldn’t kill them, but the more they breathed…

Jieqiong’s thoughts were interrupted by a coughing fit.

“Julia?!”- She couldn’t resist calling her name, and she felt relieved when she saw it was, indeed, the guard.

Julia was exiting the room, carrying an unconscious figure in her arms.

“Kyla! You did it! You got her out!”- Jieqiong, despite the situation, couldn’t help but to be overwhelmed by joy for a moment, just seconds before she remembered there was another person inside the gas chamber. - “Now we need to get inside and get Lance!”

Julia walked – more like, limped – up to her, leaving Kyla’s unconscious body in the floor as she struggled to regain her breath, panting raggedly for a few seconds as she massaged her own torso in a circular, rhythmic motion.

“Do I… look like a ing weightlifter to you…?”- Julia was in the middle of a coughing fit when she stared at Jieqiong, her eyes incredulous, as if baffled by Jieqiong’s request - “We need to get… the away from here…”

“But Lance…!”- Jieqiong protested

“The guy is probably dead, and little girly here will be too if we don’t give her the ing antidote…! … this cough…”- Jieqiong saw Julia’s legs wobble as the guard coughed violently once again, falling onto her knees.

“He can’t be dead! He was just unconscious when I left! He can still be saved!”- There was no way Jieqiong was leaving that place without her colleague, so of course she refused Julia’s ludicrous suggestion.

“Well, I have no idea when was the last time you saw him… but the guy inside there had a bullet hole in his head…”- Julia got up, struggling briefly with her right leg, which had a few cuts to its uniform, possibly caused by the stray glass shards –The result of her kicks – when she climbed inside the other room.

“Who…? No… that can’t be….”- Jieqiong gasped at the sudden revelation.

A gunshot? That could only mean one thing.

Somebody had entered the room when she left, she hadn’t thought about that possibility before with everything that was happening at the same time, but it was pretty clear the intruder was the one who set the machine in motion again, thus locking the door electronically with Kyla inside before busting the machine, hence why Jieqiong was completely unable to stop the gas flow.

And they seemed to be wounded, judging by the blood Julia found when they entered.

Jieqiong looked past Julia’s shoulder, glancing at the machine, but it was already way too covered by the red gas to detect any sort of mistreatment, she undoubtedly missed whatever signal there was of the broken machine when she was too desperate to open the electronic lock.

“Beats me… let’s just go…”- Julia didn’t wait for a reply before she grabbed Kyla once more, limping out of the room and leaving Jieqiong back by the door. - “I’d rather not spend a single second further in this place, the ing gas is making my eyes all itchy”

The Chinese scientist didn’t really bother to answer that, her eyes still focused in the broken glass. While they talked, the toxic gas had spread to more than half the room now, threatening to consume it whole in just a few more minutes. She wondered how much would the facility defense system take to activate and lock them all inside that place… She hoped they at least had enough time to get out of the labs.

Jieqiong clenched her teeth. She wanted to feel sad, she wanted to cry, her chest tightened but nothing really came out. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe her brain, overzealous when it came to rationalism and logic, that wouldn’t let her cry in such a moment.

“You’ll have time to mourn later, after you escape this island forgotten by the gods.”- In the middle of the ghostly silence, she heard herself. – “All your friends, every single one of them, you’ll make it out of here and carry on their memory…”

A flame lit inside her at that moment. Her fist unbaled as she made a reverence towards the red void, Lance memory would exist with her, she’ll bear the burden of carrying it along with every other researcher that died on that island. She promised herself that much.

She was going to make it out of here, whatever the cost.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Computers room, Facility 1B, Ibis Island.

01:12am

“Stop! Here is fine!”- Jieqiong shouted for Julia to halt once they entered the computers room - “We need to give her the antidote.”

“Sure, sure, just let me… ugh, ing hell… just let me sit her here, against one of these chairs…”- And so she did, gently depositing the resting Kyla in one of the nearby blue upholstered chairs.

Once she finished, Jieqiong – who had been gripping the antidote all that time – got to work, putting the small vial on the ground as she procured a small syringe she had previously grabbed from the medbay. Half the vial was empty once Jieqiong finished

“Hold on a sec doc, are you sure you have to inject her with that?”- Julia’s voice, despite its usual mischievousness, sounded somewhat concerned about the procedure.

“Remind me again, who is the one here that knows about this sort of things?”- Jieqiong answered, not bothering to look back at Julia, his voice now full of a eccentricism she certainly lacked before.

“Fair point babe… Just making sure…”- More relaxed by her answer, Julia stretched on her own chair, allowing herself to rest for a few seconds, her hand still clutching her own right leg tightly.

Now undisturbed, Jieqiong allowed herself to continue, holding Kyla’s right arm tightly as she aimed the syringe with a steady hold. Pushing slightly, she saw the tip piercing the skin, hitting the vein after a few seconds of slow . Pressing the back of the syringe, she saw the liquids vacating the small plastic utensil as they entered Kyla’s system through her bloodstream.

Once done, she pushed the needle out with the same caution as she had before, releasing a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.

They were now in the computers room, a room that had, of course, lots of computers. Unlike those in the offices, this one possessed highly advanced technology, as they were often used both for events simulations, data storing and most importantly, third energy effects emulations.

So it wasn’t really a surprise that the entire room was a square full of computers. The rows of super computers used to simulate the energy efficiency of the Third Energy were placed on the walls and could be handled by the different terminals at one edge of the room. The rest of the room simply consisted of circuitry inside metal protectors.

It was near those terminals that they were standing now, with Kyla sitting in one of the many chairs.

 “We need to hurry”- Jieqiong finally declared, prompting Julia to raise her head again.

“What now…?”- The guard questioned, confused.

“We are supposed to rendezvous at the control room before the clock hits twenty past one…”- Jieqiong realized Julia had no idea of what she was doing inside the labs in the first place, so she quickly explained. - “The people we were with have found a way to call for a rescue helicopter.”

“They did? I mean, I’m glad and all, should we go to them then?”- Maybe it was just her, but Julia didn’t sound that enthusiastic about the idea at all, quite the contrary, her question had a small trace of wariness in it, one that Jieqiong detected very well.

She didn’t know what to make out of the guard, her behavior, albeit nigh imperceptible, was usually suspicious and the circumstances in which she had found her were even more so. She had saved Kyla nonetheless so she should be grateful, but Jieqiong’s gut feeling told her to remain guarded.

“We can’t, not yet”- She clarified - “The leader of the expedition disappeared while entering the labs, and doctor Yebin is still here, we need to find them both before we leave.”

“Well, sweetheart, I don’t know if you noticed… but there’s a mortal gas leak happening right as we speak…”- Getting up from her position in one of the office chairs, Julia made her way towards Jieqiong.

“Exactly, and that’s why we have to find them quickly and get out of here. The gas will start propagating at an alarming rate now that it is uncontained.”- Jieqiong stopped her exposition when she saw Julia clutching her leg unexpectedly, her face contorted and her teeth clenched in pain. She felt a pang of regret right in the middle of her heart, having forced Julia to both get Kyla out of the gas chamber and to move her there without as much as a thank you or a proper treatment. - “How… how is your leg…?”

She didn’t exactly have any bandages there to treat Julia’s injuries, but the least she could do is ask.

“It’s fine, I’m fine, don’t worry about it… been through worse”- As if to prove her point, Julia gave her leg a quick but soft slap, something she regretted instantly, judging by her expression.

“You inhaled the gas too…”- Jieqiong pointed out, growing even more concerned.

“I kept my mouth shut and didn’t breathe as much as I could, I’m sure it’s not that bad…”- Julia set aside Jieqiong’s concerns, shaking her head amusingly with a smile on her lips. She was about to continue, probably taking another chance to flirt with Jieqiong, when the door on the other extreme of the room slid open. - “Oh lookie here who decided to join us!”

“Nayoung…?”- Jieqiong muttered, watching the disheveled soldier enter the room.

Frankly, there was no other way of describing her, Nayoung looked like . Her suit was torn on various parts, chunks of her Kevlar protection were gone and her entire leg was now exposed with a gash the size of a hand. Her right arm, however, was in a more serious condition, coated with both fresh and dry blood.

Her assault rifle was loosely hanging from her left shoulder, bumping on her back as the woman took her steps inside the room. Her eyes, half-lidded and cloudy, scanned the entirety of it slowly until she made eye contact with Jieqiong.

“Are you okay?”- The scientist asked her former partner, but her instinct kicked in again, telling her to remain at a distance. Nayoung didn’t seem like the one she had encountered an hour ago in the office.

“Girly was looking for you, chief! Where did you get yourself-”- Julia walked up to Nayoung, a small roguish smile plastered on her lips, as she extended her hand. However, her cheery mood died instantly when Nayoung started charging, her speed not matching her injured appearance.

“Ack!”- In just a few seconds, Nayoung had reached the blonde guard, her uninjured hand gripping Julia’s throat violently as she dived towards the ground, moving chairs aside and choke slamming her into it.

“It’s your fault… it’s your fault!”- What started as a growl turned into a frenetic, rabid yell as Nayoung fell above Julia, her hand still clasping the girl’s throat, preventing her from breathing properly.

Jieqiong, incapable of coherent speech after witnessing such a scene, acted out of impulse. Her eyes landed on Kyla, who was still out cold despite the ruckus. She saw the gun, Siyeon’s gun, in Kyla’s holster and leapt for it. All the while Julia had started fighting back, clawing at Nayoung’s head and arms, but despite her attempts, the towering soldier did not budge an inch from her position.

“Nayoung! Back off and let her go! I’m warning you!”- Jieqiong, having taken the gun from Kyla, pointed at Nayoung and tried to mimic what she had seen in movies. Truth was, she admittedly did not know how to fire one of those things, but she hoped that the presence of such an object of death was enough to dissuade Nayoung from continuing her attack. - “What the has gotten into you?!”

Accurately enough, Nayoung raised her head once she heard Jieqiong calling her name and the sight of the gun made her otherwise unreadable expression turn into a frown. Her grip must’ve lessened by then, because Julia used the chance to aim a quick punch to Nayoung’s cheek, sending her tumbling back and finally freeing herself from her attacker.

“ing psycho, try to land another hit on me you son of a , I’ll send you flying back home!”- Julia screamed, taunting Nayoung with her hands as the soldier struggled to regain her footing.

“Sowon is dead because of you… You left them unprotected!”

“Who the is… oh, the other soldier”- Julia seemed confused for a moment, then an incomprehensible mixture of emotions took its place – “And what the did you expect me to do?!”

“Enough! Nayoung! There is a gas leak inside this place, we need to find Yebin and get out of here as soon as possible! Your companions have found a way to call for the helicopter.”- Jieqiong explained but Nayoung’s expression remained impassive, as if she knew already. - “We don’t have time for this!”

“The way I came through is infested with dinosaurs now, going through there is a death sentence…”- She said silently, acting as if the recent altercation had never happened in the first place. Nayoung was now back to being the same person Jieqiong knew in a moment.

Although, the dullness in her eyes never left.

“Wait a minute, that’s the way towards the main hall and the library, where were you all this time, how come we didn’t see you?”- Julia pointed out, crossing her arms and looking at Nayoung with accusing eyes, her left eyebrow raised in suspicion.

“Such details are insignificant right now; we must find the doctor.”- Nayoung deadpanned.

The pain was apparently catching up to her, since she winced for a second, making her way to one of the chairs in the opposite side from the ones Kyla and Julia were seated, like an old lion going to its wounds far away from the pack.

Julia followed her entire trip closely, turning to Jieqiong only when Nayoung had finally taken a seat, shaking her head with a clear message. Nayoung was never a person to lash out like that and, as much as Jieqiong didn’t fully trust Julia, it was apparent Nayoung wasn’t in her control of her faculties either, she had to agree with Julia on that particular point.

“But how are we getting away from here? We have dinosaurs on one side and toxic gas on the other”- Jieqiong questioned.

The fragments of the journal she had read back in the research meeting room flashed through her mind. Yebin had been meeting colonel clay in this same room at night. Jieqiong knew for a fact that she had a secret lab somewhere… if those meetings meant something, it was that she had it located here.

But where?

The room was full of computers and terminals, barring the circuit cables, desks and a few file cabinets, there was nothing else that could point to a secret entrance of sorts.

But, just as her thought process was starting to search for an accurate answer, she was interrupted by a couple of flaring red lights.

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION”- A robotic voice came through the multiple speakers that were installed in the room – “A GAS LEAKED WAS DETECTED IN THIS SECTOR, EMERGENCY DOOR LOCKDOWN WILL BE IN ACTION TO PREVENT EXPANSION”

The moment the announcement finished, a security metal layer slid down on both doors, effectively sealing them inside the room. The metal protection certainly wouldn’t impede the gas from going through it, but it would hinder its process by a wide margin… even if that came at the cost of trapping people inside.

“Fan-ing-tastic…”- Jieqiong heard Julia muttering behind her. – “Don’t suppose you are a IT tech that can get us out of this pickle, right doc?”

“Now is not the time to be joking around! We are locked inside here and nobody will ever remove the gas so the lockdown will never be lifted!”- Jieqiong, now struggling to adhere to her rationality and composure, started panicking.

“Think about it for a second doc, there has to be a way to lift this mechanism, how else would they contain the gas if they can’t enter the rooms?”- Julia retorted, her logic wasn’t flawed and that could certainly be a source of hope for them, if it weren’t for a small reason.

“It’s remotely controlled but… but we don’t have a way to reach the control room.”

“I have blondie’s radio, here...”- As if refusing to let hope die, Julia insisted, showing the radio on her wrist to Jieqiong – and Nayoung, whose ears were perked up by the conversation they were having, causing her to move ever so slowly towards their position -.

“Communication devices don’t work here in the lab, or during lockdown for that matter, as the signal is blocked by automated devices… we can’t contact anyone… and they can’t contact us…”

“There’s no need for that… there’s a third door in this room we can go through”- Nayoung pointed out abruptly.

“And how are you sure of that?”- Julia inquired, unconvinced but still hopeful.

“Here, look at this…”- Walking closer to one of the super computers that were adhered to the wall, Nayoung pointed at a small protuberance the machine had on its right side. It was small and didn’t stick out too much, blending in with the rest of the computer’s add-ons. – “Why would a computer need such a specific complement…?”

Even as mysterious as Nayoung made it sound, Jieqiong could actually think a million reasons for a computer to need one, security checks for instance, but she didn’t voice those thoughts out loud.

“It’s a small ID reader… Hmmm, there has to be another one”- She looked at it with curiosity while her hand entered the right pocket of her ragged labcoat, feeling the small chip-like keycards. The ones she had received both from Siyeon and Lance

“Hidden in plain sight… I see…”- Julia commented before she pointed towards something - “There, I see it! It’s a similar reader on the other side of the machine!”

“We got it! Julia, here, take this, we’ll do it on the count of three!”- Jieqiong rapidly passed one of the small keycards to Julia before position herself in front of one of the readers, waiting for the guard to do the same.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three!”

There was a click and the super computer started ascending into a spot that had opened in the ceiling, revealing a door behind it.

They did it, they had found Yebin’s secret lab.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Passageway to the communication area, Facility 3F, Ibis Island.

01:12am

Grrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

The dinosaurs’ king roar shook the very foundation of the building, making Siyeon fall helplessly against the door. She had turned around to face the giant ancient carnivore after her attempt at opening it, to welcome death with open arms.

Unlike before, the ancient creature now took its time with her, growling and adjusting its position so its massive head could reach the corner she was standing on without trouble.

“ing do it! You giant scaled !”- Siyeon screamed at the carnivore with a mix of fury, impotence and fear.

She couldn’t control her trembling hands, the flight or fight response still in effect yet her legs felt devoid of any strength at all. Her courage, or lack thereof, had abandoned long ago. She didn’t have the will to run away anymore.

With a growl, the Rex decided to make the move on its prey at long last, with its jaws open and making some sort of gurgling sound, the fetid smell of blood and decay hit Siyeon square on the face once more, causing her to gag.

The creature moved closer, the dark insides of its mouth enveloping more and more of Siyeon’s sight as the end drew near.

She sighed, she wasn’t prepared to die like that, hell, she wasn’t prepared to die at all. Tears of frustration started streaming down her face without her realizing, blurring her vision. It was unfair, she had been that close to making it, to getting both her and her people out of that island.

Almost… but not quite.

*Click*

Siyeon’s eyes snapped open as she felt the door she was supporting herself against disappear. With the lockdown lifted, the door had abruptly opened, causing her to fall back into the room seconds before the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s jaws closed shut, biting nothing but air in the place where Siyeon was a mere moment ago.

Realizing its prey had escaped, the t-rex let out another powerful roar the moment Siyeon kicked the door with all her might, closing her with force uncharacteristic of her. That did little to muffle the king’s roar nevertheless.

Still, notwithstanding the fact that she was almost eaten alive, Siyeon’s soul returned to her body as she struggled to contain her shaky breath. She looked around, she was in the communication room, and she had no idea what the hell had happened for the lockdown to be lifted all of a sudden.

 “You are not the only one with a few tricks up her sleeve kid.”- Her radio came to life, shocking her as she recognized the voice that came from the other side.

“You’re ting me, was it you?”- She heard Minkyung chuckle faintly at her surprise before she broke down again, sobbing as she still laid unmoving on the floor - “Oh my god… I’m… thank you… thank you so much…”

“Hey, don’t cry kid… it’s alright, this is far from over”- Minkyung tried, and failed, to comfort her with some ambiguous words - “Now that the antenna is up you can contact the helicopter that is overflying the island”

“I know, I plan on doing that and then using the elevator here to reach the control room”- Finally gathering her breath, Siyeon got up, setting her eyes on the communication equipment in front of her.

The entire room was one small square, half of it full of machinery and radios of long range communication.

“By the way, where is Kyungwon? I didn’t see her with you through the cameras, did she get away before you did?”- Minkyung, sounding a little bit hesitant, asked, making Siyeon gulp in anticipation. How exactly was she supposed to answer that?

“I… I don’t know, she was supposed to be waiting for