Like an Acorn

Five's mind flashed as she saw Ivy's hand reach out towards her. Without hesitation she felt her own body move, yet it wasn't to distribute a friendly shake. Instead, Five's hands both quickly wrapped around the redheaded woman's forearm her fingers digging in roughly while she snapped it back with calculated precision. The sound of the murderous woman’s cracking bones permeated the silence, and Five felt pleased.

Her actions were slick, each with its own purpose as she shoved the howling woman violently away from the door. Her aim impeccable as the injured Ivy tumbled into the clown, knocking both of them to the floor. Five wasted no time before soaring through the now open terminal door.

The sound of gunshots ringing in her ears as she skated safely around a corner. Five's chest pounding up and down, as her shoulders shook, her agile legs flying over the tiled floor with each step. Cool sweat fell from the back of her neck as her long brown hair swept behind her haphazardly. Panic read in her eyes as she heard the sounds of the women trailing behind her. She’d hoped the injury would have given her more time to work with. Yet, within seconds their voices filled with chaotic anger bounced off the corridor walls, as they tried to catch up to Five. Obviously Ivy wasn’t detoured easily. This did not please the clone one bit.

Usually in simulations broken appendages gave her at least a minute heading. She expected that minute. Her mind raced with algorithms on which hallways would best increase the distance between the three of them. Her body moving naturally made her sloppy with paying attention to her surroundings. In the tests this was a mistake that she could easily control, but now that it was real things were different. She wanted that freaking minute.

Five's stomach jumped painfully to her throat as she lost her balance. A surprised gasp leaving her throat as she slid in more blood, the bodies of two G-Gnomes laid mutilated to her right, although they-themselves, were not familiar looking she felt a ping of loss deep in her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was for the G-Gnomes or that she lost more time.

Five felt anger pool in her chest as she thought about how stupid her actions were. She was acting like a child, like she didn’t know what she was doing. She was 16 weeks old, not some fresh formed cast. She hated the fact she was falling for tricks she’d bled for on the first day of practice. There were rules you just followed, she knew that, but then why was she failing each one? Wasting time thinking about time, and how things were supposed to be, when she needed to be evaluating the place as a completely new structure.

The clone had been taught that fear and panic would be a problematic component in real life, but besides the occasional fear of disappointing her teachers/doctors/scientists she’d never really experienced the feeling. Although simulations were very realistic and even painful at times, she never had to fear over the future or death. She had never felt the all-consuming panic of the failure she was faced with today. If she didn’t get her head into the game she would die. It was as simple as that. Life was a game and she was inches from losing.

Blinking back the rolling emotions Five concentrated on her surroundings, taking in her environment, noting the differences and using them to her benefit instead of trying to navigate on memory of what things used to be.

Her eyes scanned carefully the now dimmed and blinking lights of her once brightly lit subterranean level. The sterilization which once demanded special treatment by janitorial staff was now desecrated with the crimson liquid that coated the walls and floor. The blood was too thick for it to be human, Five reasoned that it was also G-Gnome even though no bodies were present.

A light flickered over her head threatening to go out before returning to its dull magnitude. Five shuttered, the bloodied walls span around her dizzyingly for a moment as understood what the blinking lights meant. They were running on generators, and she knew the power to the building couldn’t just be cut. The entire complex was run on the energy produced by a certain type of G-Gnome.

There was a floor somewhere in the building that she’d walked by once, which she knew was full of them. She’d only seen it once, when her own simulation room was broken and she was forced to use another. Five had only seen a glimpse of the room filled with rows of glowing sealed pods, each containing strange creatures who looked nothing like the one resting on her shoulder. When she’d asked the guard escorting her to her destination, he’d told her all about them. It had amazed her how such little creatures could have so much life that they could run the whole building. For the lights to be running on the generators… The room must have been a blood bath.

Each level was supposed to have two generators, but obviously Ivy and the clown had blown one when they’d rushed her awakening process. This meant that taking the elevator was not a viable option. It also meant that help, if it was even coming at all would take hours, if not days. No, she would have to change tactics. Although the situation was unusual she was not accustomed to waiting for someone to save her. It was her job to create her own escape.

Five swallowed back the desire to give up as she concentrated on creating a plan for escape, or at least waiting until the clown ran out of bullets. Determination started to settle into the clone. She could do this, all she needed to— A single gunshot rang through the encompassing sound of Five's fast beating heart.

Miss?No, Five's teeth ground tightly as she felt a sharp stinging in her shoulder. The white material of her suit ripped at the top, a large cut added her own blood to the hall. The bullet had only grazed her yet, with the proximity to her head, she wasted no time dashing around another twisting corner.

The level was blocks upon blocks of twists and turns. Although fear pounded in her chest, she knew that in games of hide and seek she was unbeatable. All she would need to do was loose them, and then find the emergency exit stairs on either side of the complex and then... The girl didn't know what she would do then, all that mattered was getting away from them. Or at least that's what she kept reminding herself.

The path Five was taking was familiar, and as her feet pumped against the awaiting ground her mind worked, the biting pain from her wound didn’t feel any different than those she’d gotten in the simulations, yet she kept in mind that she would need to address it eventually even if it was just a graze. Panicked fears were pushed aside roughly as she continued on. Her mind wrapped up on moving forward and keeping them behind. Keeping them one corner, one hallway behind was what would keep her alive. It would keep her from becoming one of the clown’s punchlines. So, Five ran, taking turning twists that caused her to backtrack and hopefully mix up the two trailing behind her.

Her objective so clear in her mind she forgot her rules of surroundings again. Taking a sharp turn down a hallway they’d traveled past twice before Five didn’t consider the fact that it could have changed in the short time she had left it, she hadn’t considered the idea of other people, which is why she didn’t see the now present group until it was too late.

The air burst from Five's lungs as she collided into a solid mass, her body scrambling dangerously as the force of her impact sent her body and object to the ground. It took only second for her to realize she hadn't collided with a what but a who.