the killer and the child---

 The stairs wrapped around the radius of the maintenance tunnel out of sight both above and below, the yellow lights that clung to the bottom of the steps pulsed with an unknown rhythm. Looking behind me at Abigail i smiled to try and reassure her that everything would be alright, she didn't smile back, she knew too much, knew where we were heading and who our guide was.

 The robot floated from above and the speaker spat and crackled to sudden life,
"Mr. Ten you really must hurry, I am getting ever so impatient."

 I carried the girls suitcase in one hand and a burst rifle in the other, it was heavy but nothing I couldn't handle. My boots rang on the metal as we continued our ascent, my mind was clear, I had a job to do, an objective, save the girl, get her out of the facility and into the Ark. A few problems seemed to gnaw at my concentration, the A.I. that could turn on me any moment, the guards that could be waiting to ambush us, and the fact that the Ark wasn't set for travel for another 48 hours.

 Abigail struggled to keep up with me, she was still young and besides her life in the labs weren't a strenuous one, she realized the gravity of our situation but she was still tiring. I slowed myself so I wouldn't get to far ahead of her, if nothing else I would put her on my back.

 Minutes stretched to an hour and then finally we reached the round door that led into the tunnel above the barracks, risky move but the fastest way to the turbo-lift.
I looked at the metal of the door and the warning stickers that glowed a dull blue.
"Darling, is anyone outside the door?"

 She was tired I could hear it in her voice, but she didn't whine or ask for a rest instead she wiped the sweat from her brow, and shook her head no.
"No one through the door, but a lot underneath the tunnel they know we're here but not that we're so close."

I nodded and put my palm on the door, it spun silently and a blast of stale air made me cough.