The flashing lights of warning signals swirl around casting its yellow glow in the narrow corridor I pace in. Heavy combat boots thud on the tiles approaching from the west in rapid succession. I bite my nail and peer inside the security office. Alex is talking to a man donned in combat gear with a thick cigar jutting from his lips. A prominent scar runs down his face and his grizzled features were the most defining point on him. He is intimidating to say the least.

I can't hear what's going being said but by both of their postures things are not going as planned. Alex looks over at me and shakes his head in annoyance. I frown and sigh. I try to keep my anger in check when the man turns and looks over at me with disdain. He says nothing but his blackened eyes beckon me in to the office. He points dead at me and fingers me towards him. I cock my head and walk in.

"You're the one Tiedemann told me about." The man growls. His jaw clenches the stalk of wrapped tabacco tightly.

"Uh-huh." I respond. "I guess. What did he say?"

The man turns to his computer and presses a key. The door slides shut behind me and I rapidly turn around and back at him with a glare.

"He says, you and this little pipsqueak aren't to leave the premise." The man blurts out his insult with a snort. "You know procedures, Doctor. We are in a lock down situation. No one is going in or out."

"We've got family out there." Alex argues as he falls in line beside me. "We're willing to risk it, if need be."

"That's not my problem." The man snaps aggressively. His lips disappearing as he frowned. "I'm not going to risk my men for it. And I'm not going against orders." He looks over at me with a smirk and winks casually. "Our orders are simple. Stay and shoot on sight anyone who attempts to leave or enter."

"I-" I start. I fold my arms across my chest waiting for a standoff.

"Get out." The man orders as he opens the door and gestures us to leave.

I stare at him. Our eyes locking in a battle of wills. If only I could snap him in half, manipulate him to my will, but too many witnesses even the one standing beside me made me unable to do anything about it.

"Ondrea?" Alex mutters softly. He grabs my arm and starts me towards the door. I break the threshold with Alex behind me, his hand against my back.

"Doctor Grant." The burly man's thick voice calls from behind us. We turn to see what final insult he has to play. "Can I see you for a minute?"

Alex shoots me a concerned look and I nod for him to go. "I'll see you in a minute."

"Damn it," I mutter with a cigarette jutting from my lips. I tap a button on the console at the security desk and look at footage of the residential district. Necromorphs prowl the hallways and what few survivors were left appeared to be setting up barricades to slow the creatures down. The slashers would stare into the camera and look up at me. They knew I was watching. It is a feeling that both of us shared. We know of each other's presence, which can be good or bad. If only I can get the hell out of here. "Fucking Tiedemann." I type in my security code and a warning screen pops up. Access denied. "What the hell?" I type it in again and the same message appears. "Figures." I exhale.

"Ondrea." Alex snaps from my left. "We need to talk."

I ignore him and continue trying to hack the system. My eyes dart from right to left looking for root commands to break in when Alex slams a pad down on the desk in front of me. I glance at it and up at him. "What about?" I ask sheepishly. Alex looks at the screen and shudders. "If you are worried about what I'm doing, don't be."

"No, Ondrea. This isn't about that." Alex growls. He picks up the pad and slams it into my chest. The force of the impact expels the cigarette from my mouth and it drops to the floor. "What the fuck is this?"

I look at the pad and sigh. My eyebrow perks at it in amusement. "So you found it." I put it down and lean against the desk with a smirk. "It was only a matter time."

"You were there, weren't you?" Alex questions distressed by his discovery. "You aren't going to deny it or say it was someone else?"

I shake my head and chuckle softly. "No. What would be the point?" I look at him and roll my eyes. He glares at me hard. His fists ball up and the quick exchange of thoughts goes through both of us. "Yes, I was there. Yes, I got away. So?"

"I don't get it, Ondrea." Alex spoke harshly. "You couldn't tell me?"

I snort disapprovingly and turn back to the computer. I type for a little bit, waiting for the finale of our conversation. I finish my search and hit a button and the computer chimes approvingly. I look at the security feed and see the psyche ward torn to shreds. Gurneys are overturned and more prowling necromorphs came into view. "What so I could end up like those fools down in psych?" I snicker and a flash of light on the screen catches my attention. My eyes strain through the grainy feed with little gained.

"Still. You could have helped us make great strides towards understanding-" Alex explains.

"Shut up." I order as I keep watching the flash move around. "Someone's in Isaac's cell." I point at the screen. Alex leans down to see and gasps.

"Who is that?" He questions dismayed by the person with his back to us. "Does he know what the hell is going on?"

"Yeah he does." I respond. In the corner of the screen I see movement. The flapping of an infector causes Alex's hand to fall on to my shoulder. "But he doesn't know what's coming up behind him."

"We have to warn him." Alex stammers. He starts to leave and I grab his hand.

"No. This is on him." I hiss with sickening glee. "His job is done. He's got Isaac awake. That's all I care about." I push off the desk and start down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Alex yells as he tries to keep up with my pace. "We can't just leave." I head back to the security office where the brooding soldier was and smash the panel to the door. Sparks fly and the door slowly squeaks open.

"I'm going, Alex." I snap as I round the desk and rummage through the drawer. I throw files to the floor and my hand hits the grip of a pistol. I pick it up and aim it at Alex. "Give it to me." I order. His eyes grow wide with fear as he violently shakes his head.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He grimaces. I pull the hammer back on the gun. The loud clicking of it locking into place makes him jump fearfully.

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Alex." I bark. "Where is it?" I round the desk, never taking my eyes off of him. "I know he gave it to you? What deal did you make, huh?"

"There was no deal, Ondrea." He pleas sadly.

"Bullshit." I growl. I point the gun over his shoulder and fire. He looks behind him at the bullet impact in the wall and turns back to me. My eyes start to go blurry and my head begins to throb; the all too familiar kind that should have been anticipated given the circumstances. "You have one last chance." I warn him as I pull the hammer back again. "You read my file, Alex. What did it say? Huh?" I press. "What kinda wonderful shit is in there?"

"Fuck." Alex mutters in exasperation. "Alright, Ondrea." He pulls a small chip out of his pocket and hands it to me. "Tiedemann has been keeping tabs on you since you joined."
"And?" I question. I slowly start to lower the gun. I nod for the door and he steps out with me following him.

"He knows all about your stint on the Ishimura. The fact you survived with Isaac. Your child. Everything." Alex explains as we walk down the hallway.

"Michaela wasn't a secret to anyone." I interject as we round a corner to Security R&D. "Was that why you were supposed to kill me today?"

"It is." Alex answers softly. "With you out of the way, Michaela could have been used for testing as well. There are trials going on right now that even I didn't know about when it came to the after effects of the Marker."

"So what's your part in this?" I ask sliding a pass key into the slot. The door swishes open and the nearly empty room's emergency lighting flickers on. We walk to the far side of the room and I insert the chip into the receiver.

"I was going to be made lead researcher for it." Alex remarks. I glare at him and push him aside. "Michaela would have been well taken care of. I think I owe you that much."

"No. Alex." I start as I step into the cylindrical machine. "You owe me much more than that." I fire a round into his leg. He screams and grabs his thigh in pain. Within seconds the machine engulfs me in white light. The muffled screams resonate within the confined space and before he can get out the words "you bitch" I walk back out decked in combat armor.

"You can't take that. They don't even know if it works." Alex snaps.

"It doesn't really matter now, does it?" I ask plaintively. "I need to find Michaela and get Isaac the hell out of here. And you are going to help me." I walk up to one of the tables and grab a rifle off the table and five clips of prototype explosive rounds. "There's one thing I learned in my time aboard the Ishimura that you should take well to heart." Alex looks at me confused. The blood slowly streams down his pant leg and he hobbles up to me. "I can and will kill you if you don't listen to me."

"That's not possible." Alex argues through clenched teeth.

"Oh, Alex." I chortle. I stop abruptly when a strong pressure to my chest emerges. I close my eyes and can see myself looking down at Isaac. He's thrashing around with a slasher clawing at him. He scoots on his back through a door and it slams shut on the monsters head. I sneer approvingly and open my eyes. I look at Alex and his mouth gapes open.

"Your-" Alex stutters. "You-"

"Yes, yes, I know." I walk up to a monitor hanging on the wall and bring it to life. On the screen stands Isaac scrambling to his feet. "Watch." Alex watches as a man grabs him.

"Hey, man- take it easy." Isaac gasps. He struggles under the familiar man's death grip. I turn my back to the screen and listen to the goings on behind me.

"It's you, Isaac." The man states. "This is all going to hell."

"Don't. Think about this." Isaac argues. The man quickly moves and Isaac gasps again as the insane and desperate person releases his bound arms with a scalpel.

"What is this?" Alex asks as he looks from me to the screen and back again. I thumb back to the TV and sigh.

"We're all going to pay for what we did to you, Isaac." I state. My heart sinks with the truth, that in fact we all were going to get it even I in the end. At the same time the man on the screen says the same thing in unison. I raise my hand to my throat and swiftly bring it across. Alex watches in horror as the man slits his throat and falls to the floor.

"You killed him?" Alex asks. "Why?"

"Two reasons." I start as I make my way to the door. "An example." Alex hobbles with me down the hall and I look over at him with a smirk as I place a cigarette in my mouth. "And I didn't like the way he held his interrogations." We walk back to the elevators in the foyer and stop. The small contingent of troops looks over at me and I smile and wave. I glare at Alex and harshly whisper to him, "I don't care if Tiedemann knows who or what I am, but he isn't going to stop me and for all of his knowledge he best knows to stay out of my way."

"He doesn't know about what you can do, Ondrea." Alex hisses. He looks at the armed men and then side to side. "What kind of monster have you become yourself?"

I turn to the panel for the elevator and press the button. The guards start to approach with their weapons raised. "I don't know what I am or how I ended up this way, nor do I care really at this point. I care about that child lost among the dead and Isaac." I take step backwards on to the elevator and sneer. "And by the way," I start as I load a clip into the rifle and pull the slide back to cock it. "You won't be able to use the elevator. The virus will have wiped away any trace of me from the system and you can tell Tiedemann and EarthGov to go fuck themselves." I look over Alex's shoulder and frown. "You should also move." The door starts to slide shut and Alex steps out of the way. I slam into the wall and a hail storm of bullets fly into the car at blinding speed. The door shuts and I give a sigh of relief. I close my eyes and my head falls back.

"So back at it again?" Chris's voice speaks beside me. "I thought you were all grown up."

"I was wondering when you were going to show up again." I mutter with a groan.

"Thought you could get rid of me that easily huh?" Chris laughs heartily. "So-"
I look over at him and smile. He still looks the same. Still in his engineer's suit still carrying that heavy after shave and still having that boyish charm that would have swept me off of my feet if times were different. "It's been too long, Chris." I throw my arms around him and squeeze. "Where's Nicole?"

Chris frowns and sighs. "She's not too happy with the way you two parted."

"Figures." I snort as I light my cigarette.

"You aren't supposed to smoke in here." Chris protests as he points at a sign on the wall.

"Fuck it." I mumble as I light my cigarette and take a long hard drag off of it. "Where have you been? It's been three years."

"Around." Chris answers. "I was never too far off and whatever is going on here seems to of unlocked that part of your brain again."

"Well, for what it's worth, it's good to have you back." I respond with a smile. "In some form anyway."

"Yeah, I'm so delighted. Thanks for pulling me back into this shitty situation." His tone dripping in sarcasm.

"Hey I'm still doing my job, ain't I?" I ask slugging him in the shoulder playfully.

"Protecting Isaac?" Chris questions. I nod. "Yeah, you are but be forewarned this happy ending your planning isn't going to end the way you think it is."

"Oh yea; more cryptic gibberish." I remark with a sigh. "Can't get enough of that."

The door slides open to a black hallway. A wall of rank death hits me dead in the face. The smell of blood, death and entrails was like a flashback to my day in hell. I take my first step out and Chris grabs my arm abruptly. "I'm serious, Drea. What are you going to tell him when you see him?"

"I don't know." I snap as I wrench my arm out of his grasp. "I'll think of something. For fuck sakes, I doubt he remembers me because of the cocktail of drugs I've had ordered on him and the block I've put in place."

"You can't hide it from him forever." Chris states as he steps up beside me and looks into the darkness. "Seems so familiar, doesn't it?"

"Shhh." I whisper as I listen to the sounds around me. The clanging of talons in the ducts above me ring all too familiar in the deep corridor. "There's more here in the dark than on the Ishimura and I need to get to Isaac." I look at Chris and shake my head in discontent. "How in the hell am I going to get to him?" I pull up the schematics for the suit and look it over.

"Any interesting goodies installed on the prototype?" Chris asks.

"Yeah." I press a three button sequence and I hear Isaac's breathing ragged and straining for breath.

"I'm trying." He presses to the man screaming in the background. I hold my breath as I listen in to the chaos going on around him.

"I know where he's at." I state as I start to walk. "And I know what's coming for him and who's helping him."

"That's an awful lot knowledge for someone like you." Chris jabs as we walk. "What are you going to do about the woman?"

"I already have it set up." I answer as I open a door at the end of the hall onto a veranda. "Alex should know better by now to not cross me."

"Yeah that little show you put on really hit the spot." Alex agrees with a chuckle. "I thought he was going to shit himself."

I walk to the railing and look down. The floor below is empty. There is no movement and the last chime of the tram starts to ring. "I'm pretty sure he did." I leap over the railing and hit the ground below and jog to the tram car. Chris is already within it with a grin beaming across his face.

"Quite nimble when necessary?" Chris asks with amusement.

"Shut up, Chris." I snap as I press the button to the residential section of the Sprawl. "This was all your doing in the first place." The door slides shut and jolts to life.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Chris denies waving me off. I glare at him accusingly and he shrugs. "Even if I had something to do with it, you seemed to manage fairly well."

I look out the window and watch the various areas flash by in rapid succession. They blur together as one befuddled mess of dimming light and encroaching darkness. The door swishes open and I walk onto the platform. Bodies are strewn wall to wall as the scene is laid out before me. To the left of me I hear the thudding clawed footsteps of a necromorph. I turn to point and fire at it when from out of nowhere I hear a shot being squeezed off. The necromorph rears its head back and yowls as it topples to the ground. I take a step back ready to fire when a second shot is discharged and the necromorph grows still.

I look questioningly in the direction of the fire and I smile. Looking over the guardrail, directly at me is Isaac. He slowly lowers his gun and stares. I start towards him when the door to the tram slams shut.

"Sorry, Doctor Markum, you shouldn't have left. I was willing to forgive the lies of omission, but disregarded a direct order." Tiedemann snaps over the comm. "I'm initiating a lock down immediately on all tram systems. There is no way for you or Isaac to get out."

"Fuck you, Tiedemann." I growl as I start walking. I look back at Isaac and he's walking around towards the entrance to the Church of Unitology. "Where the hell is he going?"

"I don't know." Chris answers. He places my hand on my shoulder. "He looks fucked up enough as it is without our help."

"I can't just let him go in there alone." I state as I start towards the church. I hear a soft giggling and I turn around and my head begins to be wracked by pain. I run to the entrance of the church and the door slides shut. I feverishly bang on the door in frustration. My hands begin to throb and I can feel the small cracks and injuries start to form on them.

"Doctor Markum?" The woman from before's voice comes over my comm link. A small red light flashes on my wrist and I press it. Staring back at me is the blonde woman from before clear as day. She smiles and nods when she notices that I am alive.

"Yeah?" I question looking at Chris.

"You will have realized by now that we have locked you out. Our apologies." She grins. "We will no longer need your services. Isaac will be safe with us and will lead us to our transcendence."

"Unitology, huh?" I snap. "Cram your apologies." I nod to Chris and we start walking towards a door that is ajar. "You think I didn't know you weren't one?"

"It doesn't matter what you think." She remarks. "You've helped us greatly and we hope that you find peace in your evolution." The comm goes dead and I shudder.

"It can't possibly be that bad." Chris interjects with a smirk. I pry open the door and start into the narrow hallway. "Where are you going?"

I look back at Chris with my own smart ass smile and state, "After Isaac."