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Petrified with fear, Tessia was pinned against the cool metallic wall of the elevator while watching the one and only person she considered a “friend” in the entirety of the facility bleed to death. Omar’s chest was riddled with bullets that had slipped just past the closing elevator doors with ease. But not as though that would have made much difference. They were designed to destroy virtually anything in their path as small clean holes could be seen in the thick steel door. The man’s thin frame convulsed on the ground as the last few breaths of air escaped his damaged lungs. It was as though he was trying to say something, but any semblance of a word were buried under blood that gushed from various penetrated arteries. The young girl stared in disbelief that any of this was happening. To her. To him. But it certainly was the case, and tears streamed down her face faster than she could wipe them with the sleeve of her black “Nine Inch Nails” hoodie. 

Seconds that felt like an eternity had passed, as the elevator car came to a halt on the sub-level, and the door opened to darkness. Tess didn’t dare move though, as she had no idea what was to come out of the depth of the server room. She knew of the men in black, the soldiers with assault rifles and cocky attitudes who kept her in check. She remembered faces but ever names. Except maybe one. [i]“Glenn”.[/i]  A flirtatious type who overstepped boundaries more than once with the girl, those few times they passed in the hallway as she went to and from the Habitat. He had wanted to know her more, but Tessia didn’t like him. She rarely liked anyone once finding out about them. Their life. Their past. It was all saved on a hard drive or cloud server [i]somewhere[/i]. Nothing was safe once she poked and prodded enough. The girl knew her shit, knew how to circumvent security protocols, firewalls, hidden folders, and the like. It was the thrill of the digital chase that got her heart pumping; that made her feel more alive than any human ever could. 

Glenn was an asshole as they all were. But not Omar. Tess really liked him, yet he was gone and she was alone with thoughts that never stopped. She watched as a bony arm reached out with the last bit of life that it had, and pointed toward the direction that had been mentioned to her only moments earlier during their conversation. 

“Fuck Tess, move your ass.” She muttered under trembling lips. Standing around wasn’t going to help her. She wanted to be the “good guy” Omar hoped for. He was so optimistic sometimes that it made her sick. 

[i]Why did you have to die?...[/i] She thought, kneeling down to pick up his keycard, marked with the guys own bloodied fingerprints.

Without another second wasted, Tessia slipped through the door and into the darkness, hugging the wall and row of servers, feeling the vibrations and pulses of the machines as though a cacophony of song were taking place within the large room. She still had a hard time tuning out certain frequencies, and the stronger the machine’s processing, the more likely she would hear it, as undecipherable and digitized whispers. There were days that it just became downright annoying. Sleep was lost most of the time, and it seemed the only rest was under an administered sleep aid. But the girl was definitely awake, as there’s nothing like the possibility of death to keep one alert and on their toes. 

[i]”Server Farm Water Cooling Flow 2”[/i] continued to echo in her mind though, which was a good thing considering that was her objective. Or, at least one of them. Staying alive long enough to talk about it was probably the main goal. She followed the seemingly endless racks of servers and backup battery stations for at least a few minutes, every-so-often staring at the strobing red alarm lights along the walls and ceiling that were obviously just for her. A bit of a smirk crossed her lips as she continued to walk at a hurried pace though, thinking about how on more than one occasion she had been able to disarm the security system to the entire east wing of the building just for shits and giggles. Anything to piss off the top brass for treating the girl like she was nothing but livestock. Tess discovered more about the place and its staff than they ever expected her to be able to gather, but it was the layers upon layers of firewalls she had peeled back like an onion to uncover the one known as “Sentry”. And, perhaps coincidentally, the name “Rachel” continued to surface within those same folders and sub-folders. 

Who were they and why were there so many who wanted to kill to keep it secret? Part of her didn’t care, but the other more inquisitive mind still had these questions considering “Rachel” was the name Omar had mentioned. She needed to find her. But why?

In her reverie, Tessia hadn’t noticed that she was standing near a small room which housed the controls for the water cooling systems, an elaborate setup to ensure that all server temperatures were properly regulated for peak performance. This was the place. [i]”Override the controls and get the hell out.”[/i] She knew what had to be done, but it was a matter of jacking into the mainframe, and that meant finding a terminal that could act as a gateway in a sense. She quickly surveyed the room until a small console near the corner was spotted, where she took a seat at the rolling office chair and looked over the many buttons and switches that covered the face of the control panel. She didn’t know what anything meant on the outside, but once she could meld with the system itself, causing her mind to be intertwined with the network, then it was a different ballgame.

However, in her rush with Omar to get out of the Habitat, she had forgotten the cranial interface device that allowed her to more easily connect to these types of systems while maintaining control and a way out. Without it, sure, Tess could still connect via a USB simply by holding the other end to her temple, but the results were erratic and the telepathic transfer of her mind into the digital mainframe was exceptionally more painful. But she didn’t have time to think about it, and quickly plugged in a coiled up data transfer cable to the computer and held up the other end to the side of her head, and closed her eyes, allowing her thoughts to focus, as difficult as it was considering the amount of external noise and looming danger not far. But before long, the outside world disappeared momentarily, making way for a binary highway of sorts, as her mind’s eye searched through the streams of information before landing on what was needed. Thankfully, the control protocols were not hidden, in fact, they were plainly seen, most likely due to the fact that she had already been in a fairly secure area of the facility. But either way, the triggers were there, and one by one, she switched them off, unsure of what would actually happen, but knowing that at least by doing so, would override the coolant flow and cause a flood inside the server farm. 

The disconnect was painful, and Tess hadn’t noticed the blood slowly running out of a nostril, which wasn’t unusual for such a mental endeavor, especially one which was unprotected and chaotic. 

Things began to set in motion, and at the blaring of the alarms, Tess knew something was about to happen. Something big even.  [i]Get the hell out.[/i]  Her mind urged her, hearing the dying voice of Omar echoing once again in her thoughts. Tess stood from the chair, her vision a bit blurred, and balance, all but steady. She had to hug the walls to keep herself steady as she made her way out of the small control room and down the corridor that headed for the access tunnel. Every server in that place seemed to ramp up its processing in alert status, and the girl could feel it, as though they were all crying out to her to end their miserable lives. But they were only computers, right? 
The door to the access tunnels was locked, and it took a few tries for Omar’s key card to even work before the magnetic locks released, and Tess could slip through and make her way down the long corridor. Her head was beginning to clear once again, but it helped to be away from the tireless servers. Thousands of them. All working to appease their masters until their watery demise. Why the girl had such empathy for a computer was even beyond her sometimes. Perhaps they were no different than she. A tool to be used and abused until no longer needed or relevant. 

“Where is this place?” She whispered to herself, as she continued to hurry, trying to keep her wits up as the darkness of the tunnel made it that much more difficult to traverse. Rushing water could be heard, through a myriad of pipes that ran parallel with the tunnel, and the blaring of additional alarms, strobing lights, and a recorded voice stating “EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ARE IN EFFECT. PLEASE EVACUATE WATER COOLING FLOW 2” which was on an endless loop.  The noise drove the young woman mad, she needed out and her legs were tired. Legs that would hopefully get her to freedom, or die trying at least. The tunnel’s vibrations became more prominent as water began its journey through the tunnels on its way toward the server room. Tessia’s heart raced and the level of anxiety was becoming more than she could handle. She was going to die in this place and no one would ever know or care. What about her parents? Would they ever be informed of anything regarding their daughter? Or would she simply be another statistic? Lost to the chaos engulfing the world already. 

“Shit.” She exclaimed, as the water could be heard but not seen. It was close. Where the hell was the exit? As she ran she continued to frantically survey, her eyes darted from one side to the other, looking for a sign or something. And then there it was, an “Emergency Hatch” which had been her only recourse, and could be the difference between living another day and drowning. The hatch was all mechanical, and manually driven by a single lever that Tess used all her might to lift and flip over to the opposite side as it released the sealing clamps. And as she opened the hatch that led into a dark abyss, the rush of water from behind caught her unawares, hitting her like a ton of bricks which caused the girl’s head to slam into the open hatch and blackout, as her unconscious body fell downward into the void.