and pain, Korcheck’s legs kicked up into the air, and his head bounced against the metal floor. Two women running directly behind Korcheck crashed down on top of him when he fell. Not realizing her own grip on the man she followed, Rone found herself crashing down across the heap of fallen bodies. The only person to escape the pile was the large man who initially caused the collision. Without looking back, he raced further down the passage while the rest struggled to untangle themselves and stand up. "Son of a bitch," Korcheck swore quietly and spit a bubble of blood from a gash his teeth caused across his lip onto the floor. He then rolled over on his side and pulled himself up. "C'mon." He lowered his arm and helped haul her from the pile. Blood also trickled from a small cut above Korcheck’s eye, and Rone could feel a bruise already forming around her own. Paper and pieces of electronic equipment and gear littered the floor. Korcheck moved hurriedly through the two women still trying to get up. In a daze, they slowly stood while Rone and Korcheck hurried away. Another two hundred meters down, the passage snaked towards the left. Korcheck pulled her roughly against a wall to the side next to two smoking elevator doors. Larger throngs of people now sprinted in a panic through the halls. Sparks falling from exploding lights dropped across and ignited paper and other discarded items from the fleeing crowd. Small fires were scattered about the metal floor. "Security Alert! Repeat! Security Alert!" an electronic voice bellowed across the sea of the riotous throng. "Enemy personnel now entering the dome! Emergency evacuate! Execute! Repeat! Emergency evacuate! Execute! All Personnel!" "Oh my God," Rone said into her hands which were cupped across her mouth. Brilliant glowing filaments from the shattering lights lit the air as they fell in a flurry around her. A series of four explosions rocked the floor beneath their feet. A support beam crashed through the ceiling to their left and slammed into the ground. Its point pierced the solid metal of the floor. The sound of the metal tearing into more metal resembled a drawn out tortured scream. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been down here,” Korcheck said while pulling a security card from his pocket and jabbing it into a slot in the center of the wall. When he did, a panel opened slowly revealing a hidden elevator deep within the wall. Its cabin doors opened ominously. “For obvious reasons, the entrance is not always the easiest to find,” Korcheck said darting quickly inside the compartment and motioning her to follow. Rone hesitated for a second. She stood alone in the hallway in front of Korcheck waiting for her inside the elevator cabin. She turned her head and looked down the hallway. The heat from the small fires began to increase causing beads of sweat to slide from her forehead down her cheek. The flames danced higher in the corridors, and the crowds struggling to escape had finally thinned. Korcheck held his hand out to her. "Go!" he screamed over the roar of the chaos befalling the dome. "Go, if you have to! I have to go down! I can still wake up the ship from the lab!" "Can you really do it?!" she screamed at him. “What about the safeguards?!” "Alert! Alert! Soldiers within the compound!" the mechanized voice bellowed throughout the passages. "All personnel must evacuate. Repeat. All personnel must evacuate. Soldiers within the compound!" Rone saw him scream back to her but couldn’t hear what he said. She fought the urge to just lie down across the ground and throw her arms across her head. And then the sights and sounds of the turmoil around them suddenly softened as if someone had adjusted a volume switch. The smoke clogging the air cleared slightly, and the heat from the flames seemed to cool. Everything became calm around her. For an instant, Rone forgot why she was even there. She just stared at Korcheck’s outstretched