All Chapters of After Three Years: She Wakes Up: Chapter 191 - Chapter 200

Swallowing hard, I took a shaking step back. And another. “Dear god,” I hissed under my breath, my fists clenching. “No.”The monster on the other side of the door roared in response, the sound growing closer.I didn't want to believe it, but even then I knew in my gut that what I was hearing was Jose Barraca.Or at least, what was left of him.Which means he must have gotten past Connor somehow.Connor isn’t the type of man to give up easily or give in to defeat–He’s one of the most stubborn and determined people that I knowAnd yet somehow, the beast made it past him out of that room…I couldn’t let myself think about the reality that thought represented. I needed to believe that somewhere, out there, Connor was still fighting. That I was wrong about what was coming down that corridor straight towards us. Because if he were gone, truly gone…“Ariana!” Gerald snapped me out of my daze for the second time that day, tugging on the sleeve of my jacket. “We need to run.” Words failing

[Connor's POV--20 minutes earlier]There was something wrong with Mr. Barraca.He was calm and cooperative–too cooperative for someone who was gone for almost a week on an unplanned “vacation” in the back of a white van. He had gone through a deeply traumatic experience, one that would make most individuals at least a little wary of uniformed authority figures. Yet here he was, drinking coffee and eating cookies, his shoulders relaxed, his spirits high.Personally, if I were him, with everything else going on I’d have grabbed my family and run rather than risk potential deportation not just for him, but to everyone he loves.Sighing, I nervously checked my pockets, fidgeting with a small device I brought with me from Ouroboros Biotech. It’s a frequency scrambler, a failsafe device we developed to stop the nanobots in case they got out of control. Ever since I realized we may have a mole in HMG, I have been carrying this piece of tech around "just in case." Maybe it's paranoia, but I

[Connor]The automatic response features of my personal devices kicked into place, overriding my commands, forcing me into a tight energy shield as a failsafe. It's a precaution directly tied to my protective gear that only activates when ASP detects an immediate threat of death.Unfortunately, none of the guards assisting me have similar protections. As I lay there, I heard them gasping on their own lungs as the nanobots entered their bodies through their eyes, nose, mouths–even their pores. It wasn’t intentional–just a side effect of Barraca’s determination to complete his programming by eliminating every possible threat.Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do for the fallen. Coming to a kneeling position, I saw a few lucky people who had been out of range when my shield popped like an electromagnetic bubble. Their useless guns hung limp and empty in their hands, as they lay there, stunned, processing the horror of their team member's lifeless, twitching bodies. Bullet shells

[Ariana]Connor's location flashed on the console map. He was just south of the trailhead between the rest facility and main campus. As far as I knew, there was no road that led to that exact spot, and no way that this car could make it down the trail. “Autopilot initiated,” ASP announced through the car radio system, "seatbelts recommended." “Override Gerald beta 2,” Gerald commanded, his hands gripping the wheel. “Disengage autopilot.” “Compliance,” ASP responded as the engine roared to life. “Manual drive initiated.” “ASP means well,” Gerald explained as he shifted gears, “but the damn computer only looks at the most direct path, not the most creative one.” “The most…”“Hold on tight,” Gerald warned about a second before he veered off the road, heading up and over the curb, the engines revving as the tires hit the sidewalk, and then mud. Leaning in, he controlled the direction of our spin as the tires struggled to find traction.“Arrival in approximately 1.5 minutes,” ASP spok

[Ariana]We tried our best to save everyone. Only two of the guards made it. Everyone else, on the surface and underground, were either killed by Jose Barraca's rampage, or slain by the black-ops soldiers that tried to kill Connor. It was a huge mess. Blood and nanobots scattered between buildings and underground. It took the Ouroboros Biotech cleaning crew 5 hours to remove every trace. By the time they were done, the facility was so thoroughly scrubbed that a forensic team could go through and not find a single trace of either Barraca's nanobots, nor the injured and dead guards. And it felt wrong. That much death should leave a mark. A stain. A way to remember. "I won't forget you," I promised on the drive back to OB headquarters. "I'll remember." It was nearly midnight when we arrived, none of us could sleep. There was still too much to do before we could rest. So the three of us went straight to work. For hours, Connor and I stood side by side, working on our individual pr