The trio did as they were told. The man with the gun had the upper hand. The engineer motioned for them to move over to the center of the room and to sit on the chairs adjacent to the table. His gaze shifted from Johnny to Katie and finally to Shawn. He stared piercingly through them as he appraised them.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked coldly.

Neither of them answered him, causing him to raise his voice, “Who are you?!” he demanded. He leveled his gun and placed his finger on the trigger, aiming it at Katie. She gulped. “I-I-I’m Katie, and these are my friends Johnny and Shawn.” She stammered.

“What are you doing here? And how did you manage to sneak in?” he questioned.

“We’ve answered one of your questions, now you need to answer one of ours. Who are you and what is this place?” Johnny asked.

The man laughed. “I don’t need to do anything. I’m afraid you all have misunderstood me, this is not a game, and if you don’t start doing what I tell you to do, well let’s just say that you’ll regret it.”

There was a moment of silence. He commanded Katie to get up and to get some ropes from a box lying on the ground at the far end of the room.

“Be quick and don’t try anything. Don’t forget that your friends are still here.” He said.

Katie walked over to the box, bent down and grabbed the coiled rope. She walked over to them. “Now tie them both tightly.” He said. But Katie was reluctant to do so. The engineer walked over to Shawn and struck him on his head. “Ow!” Shawn grunted in pain. “He sure didn’t hold back,” Johnny thought, “which means that he takes pleasure in hurting people weaker than him. He was a sadist, and it would be better not to push him.” The man was about to hit Shawn again when Katie cried out, “Stop, please! I’ll tie them up!”

After she had tied them up, he motioned for Katie to sit on a chair a few feet away from Johnny and Shawn. Then the man walked over to Katie and began questioning her.
“We have to do something. This might be our only chance of getting out of this mess.” whispered Johnny. Shawn struggled to reach his pocket as his hands were tied behind his back to the chair. He just had to reach for that pocket-knife. He wriggled his hand from the rope, but every time he did, the rope scrapped his skin and sunk deeper into it. He fought through the pain, and eventually he overcame it. He fished out his pocket knife and set to work on the rope.

Moments later, it snapped. He glanced at the engineer. The engineer was too busy quizzing Katie to realize that Shawn had freed himself. Shawn handed Johnny the pocket-knife and crept up carefully behind the engineer. He was about to pay him back for striking him earlier when the engineer glanced in Johnny’s direction. He noticed that Shawn had escaped and glanced around frantically. He removed his gun from the holster and got his guard up. Shawn was hiding behind a pile of chairs, waiting for the opportune moment. Seconds later, he rushed toward the engineer, about to land a flying tackle. But the engineer saw him from the corner of his eye and anticipated his move. He caught his leg and shoved him to the ground. Shawn stood up and got ready for another round. But the round was over before it had even begun. The engineer was aiming his gun at Katie.

“Well wasn’t that a blast. Now if you’re done playing hero, get your back on that chair and tie yourself up.” He ordered.

“Alright, as soon as you lower that gun.”

The engineer was furious. The rage showed in his eyes. He cocked his gun; the man would definitely not hesitate to fire. Shawn slowly retreated. He bumped into a table, causing a jug to spill water on some blue-coloured papers. “No! The blueprints! They’re the result of five years of hard work!” he shrieked. His feeling of disbelief slowly turned to rage. “You little…” He charged toward Shawn. “No wait, it was an accident, honest!” he said, his face was a portrait of guilt. The engineer ignored his plea as he advanced toward him. He was about to grab Shawn in a chokehold, when he heard a noise and whirled around.

But it was too late; Johnny had struck him with his gun. Their respite was short-lived, for they soon heard the door knob turning. “Quick, behind those chairs!” Johnny said.
The other engineer, who had left the room earlier, had now returned. He was pouring coffee into his cup as he approached his worktable. “Have you figured out the problem yet?” As if expected a reply that he never received, he looked up. “That’s no place to sleep.” He joked, but upon seeing that he was unconscious he ran to his co-worker. He cupped his hand and collected some of the spilt water that was dripping off the side of the table. He was about to splash the water onto his co-worker’s face when he was knocked out.

“That’s better. Now we can sit back and relax while Johnny hides the bodies.” Shawn joked.

“Haha, very funny Shawn. Anyway help me drag these bodies over there, to those pile of chairs,” Johnny said, pointing to a dark, messy corner of the room, “We’ll be able to keep them hidden. Or at least for a little while. And hopefully, that will give us all the time we need.”

After hiding the bodies and tying up their limbs, they ventured onwards. Soon, they entered a room in which there was nothing but two doors. The one that stood opposite to them would be close to impossible to enter. The door was protected by a retinal scanner, fingerprint scanner, and a keycard. This had to be one of the highest security doors that they had encountered so far. There was another door on the adjacent wall, but upon inspection, was found to be locked aswell.

“Tough luck.” Katie commented.
“Have we come all this way for nothing?” Johnny said, “To be unable to gather evidence because of a locked door. Seems rather absurd, doesn’t it?”

Katie began walking around the room, looking at every detail meticulously. Then, she began to tap the walls. “What is she doing?” Shawn whispered to Johnny. “Oh, I get it! She’s checking to see if there are fake walls.” Shawn realized what Katie was trying to do before Johnny could answer his question. They helped her search for any possible fake walls. And soon enough, they were rewarded.

“Here. It sounds hollow right over here.” Katie remarked.

They put their heads against the wall whilst Katie tapped on it.

“Hmm, I agree. Let’s try to push it out of the way.” Johnny said.

They heaved with all their might, and finally it began to give way. A hidden alcove was revealed. They stepped into the alcove and encountered a ladder. The ladder was fixed to a wall on the far end of the alcove. Peering up, they saw a metallic flooring. Shawn was the first to climb the ladder. “There’s a door over here,” he commented, “And it’s unlocked!”

The duo climbed the ladder, joining Shawn. Johnny peered through the keyhole. There was a similar metallic flooring that was probably raised above some room. He turned the knob and walked through, followed by Shawn and Katie.

The room was dimly lit. But there were able to see what kind of mysteries the room concealed every few seconds when sparks flew out from, what sounded like several metallic objects. There were short, whizzing noises that were heard seconds before the sparks were visible.

“That sounds like a silenced weapon being fired, doesn’t it?” Johnny inquired.
Shawn thought for a moment before replying, “Now that you mention it, it kind of does.”

They waited patiently for a while, hoping to see what was going on downstairs, but the room fell suspiciously quite. They wanted to keep moving forward, but they were reluctant to do so, especially since somebody was waving a gun around.

“So this is what a sitting duck feels like.” Shawn murmured.

Momentarily, the firing stopped. They began crawling along the flooring. Soon, they found a door. They turned the door knob, stood up, and walked through, encountering a flight of stairs. They walked down the stairwell and entered the dimly lit room that they had seen earlier.

“Hey, look over there, it’s a robot. Do you think it’s the same menace that tried to kill us not to long ago?” Johnny inquired.

“I doubt it. This one looks more sophisticated.” Shawn said.

“I agree with Shawn. But let’s not wait around to see if this one has the same evil intentions.” Katie said.

“Good thinking. We should probably disable it.” Johnny said.

Johnny walked over to its rear and found a similar covering on its back. He took out a pocket-knife and cut through all of the wires that lay inside the cover.
“There, that should do it.”

They continued walking forward, and discovered the cause of the whizzing noise that they had heard earlier. It was a firing range. The robot was apparently practising, but to do what, kill them? And was it really able to think? Walking closer to the firing range, Johnny could make out the accuracy of the shots. Mostly all of the bullets had pierced through the bullseye. Katie walked over to see what Johnny was rambling on about when she slipped. Shawn bent over to see what she had tripped over.

“Ouch, my behind hurts!” Katie said.

Shawn picked up something metallic in his hand. “These look like .50 caliber shell casings. That robot sure packs a punch.” He commented. Johnny fished around in his backpack and removed a latex glove and a small plastic bag. He then put a few of the shell casings in the plastic bag and stood up. Glancing around, they noticed that there was nothing else that was worth inspecting. They walked over to a large door that was located behind the firing range.

“Wow, this door is heavy! Guys, come lend me a hand.” Johnny said.

Despite being very cumbersome, the door was no match for all three of them. They walked through the door quietly and encountered a passageway. The first thing that was visible to the trio was a red-coloured door that read; “Authorized Personnel Only. Anyone caught within the premises beyond this door will be severely punished.”

“You know, I’m getting really tired of not being in places I shouldn’t be.” Shawn joked.
He tried the door knob, but it was locked.

“We won’t be able to pick this lock, specially since you need a keycard. But fear not, for I have just the gadget we need.” Johnny said. He ped his backpack and fished around in his bag for a big black-coloured box.

“Wow, it’s so messy in there. How could you possibly manage to find anything?” Katie quizzed.
And sure enough, Johnny had taken nearly sixty seconds to find the black box. “Yes! I’ve got it, our very own Pandora’s box!”

“Pandora’s box? How so?” Shawn asked.

“Well, I’m afraid I may have left out a detail or two earlier. This here is no ordinary laser. It’s called a carbon dioxide laser and can eat through metal, needless to say its extremely harmful to the human body. The problem is, I think it would trip an alarm.” Johnny replied.

“And how does that matter? They already know we’re in the laboratory.” Shawn said.

Johnny was about to reply when Shawn suddenly lost his balance. He was starting to look rather pale aswell. “Are you alright there Shawn?” he asked.

“Um, yeah. Just…err…dizzy.” Shawn replied.

“Good, then that means it’s time to fry through this door. Why don’t you both wait at the door behind? This will get precarious, especially since the door is metallic and the reflections could prove to be hazardous.” Johnny said.

He put on goggles while they walked back to the door. Johnny began to fry the door handle carefully, standing at an angle to avoid reflections.

“Hey, it’s not working.” Katie commented.

“What? Oh, it is, but the beam is invisible to the eye. Just wait a bit and this will start to eat right through it.” Johnny said.

And sure enough, it did start to eat right through it, although it did take about ninety seconds.

“I wonder where he gets all these gadgets from,” Katie whispered to Shawn, “And the strange part is, if you try to ask him about it, he’ll just evade the question. I mean look, I’ll show you.”

“Wow Johnny, that device of yours is really coming along. Say, where did you get it from? I would love to have one of my own, too.”

“It is, isn’t it? Err…I can’t remember where I brought it from, but don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell you if I remember.” Johnny said.

“Wow, you’re right Katie. It seems that he is hiding something from us, but what?”

Moments later, the door had opened and luckily, it hadn’t caused any alarms to go off either. The room wasn’t a very big one, for they could see all the way across the room. What caught their attention was a dozen of bottles filled with some kind of pills lying on a shelf. Walking over to it, they read the labels on the top of the bottles. It read, “Project XII”.

“Project XII?” Shawn asked, “What a bizarre name for a medicine!”

Before any of them had time to answer him, they heard a loud metallic sound clanking against the floor. There was no mistaking it, it was another robot, and it was headed right for them!

“Come on, we need to leave now! It won’t do if we’re cornered in a small room like this!” Johnny shouted, and led the way out the door. They ran out the door at breakneck speed, for they had already seen what these robots were capable of. But their speed was still not enough. By the time they exited the room, the robot was at the far end off the hall. A spray of bullets spewed out from the robot’s arm. Johnny ducked right on time. He signaled for them to wait in the room and crawled back inside.

He removed his gun from his backpack whilst Shawn and Katie did the same. “Would a normal handgun be enough to pierce through its armour?” Johnny thought worriedly. “Only one way to find out.” He muttered.

They had to shoot around the corner, it was the only way. Johnny and Katie were the first to try their luck. They stuck their hands out of the room and fired wildly in the direction of the robot. But they were unable to hit it. While they reloaded, Shawn tried his luck. He proved to be luckier than the both of them combined, since they could hear at least three bullets clanking against the only metallic object that stood in front of the passage; the robot. “Yes! I think I’ve got it!” Shawn exclaimed.

But this time it was the robot’s turn to get lucky. Another spray of bullets fired from its arm. Shawn shrieked in pain.

“Katie, you have to get the bullets out of his arm, before it gets infected!” Johnny commanded.

He took Katie’s gun and dove toward the heavy doors. At the same time, he fired several bullets to the robot’s plate and had managed to knock the robot over. Smoke was rising from its chest. Johnny had also taken a few shots to his side. But it didn’t matter now; the robot was destroyed and they had succeeded. Johnny walked over toward the robot to make sure that it was out of commission, and sure enough, smoke was still rising from its plate. He gave it a kick and walked back to his friends.

“Katie, your nose is bleeding.” Johnny said.

She wiped the blood of her face, only to allow room for more to replace it. It seemed serious. Seconds later, she coughed up blood and fainted. Shawn had passed out too, and now Johnny’s nose was started to bleed. “What’s happening to us?” he thought, helplessly waiting for the inevitable. He was feeling too weak to sit upright. He lay down next to his friends and glanced around. His vision was becoming blurry. And then, he could a hoarse voice speak to three other figures. He tried to make out their faces, but his vision was just too blurred.

“This hasn’t turned out quite as I expected. Bring them back to our primary laboratory. I think we need to conduct more tests.”

Johnny was too weak to hear any more. He closed his eyes and felt himself being carried roughly over somebody’s shoulders. Seconds later, he passed out.