They fled through halls that couldn't decide which dimension they belonged to. The corrupted humans had abandoned all pretense of form, existing as pure information fleeing through the facility's dying systems. Some screamed. Some sang. Some simply ceased, accepting oblivion after ten millennia of artificial life.
"Straight through," Ren directed, reading signs that kept shifting languages. "The main exit's ahead."
"That's not the way we came," Seylas protested.
"The way we came doesn't exist anymore. Reality's having a garage sale and everything must go."
Behind them, the Neither thing followed without urgency. It knew they couldn't escape. The countdown in Ren's head had taken on new meaning: 31:45
until the barriers failed completely. Ten minutes until this facility phases out. No pressure.
They burst into the main lab to find Dr. Yamazaki standing before a massive screen showing the dimensional cascade in real-time. She looked almost peaceful, watching reality tear itself apart.
"You didn't have to come this way," she said without turning.
"Shortest path to the exit," Ren panted. "Unless you've got a better suggestion?"
"I do, actually." She finally faced them, and her expression was heartbreakingly human. "Through the quantum tunnel. It leads directly to the canyon rim. Much faster than climbing."
"Quantum tunnel?" Elanil asked suspiciously.
"Experimental transport. We used it to move between facilities instantaneously." She gestured to a door marked with warnings in every language humans had ever invented. "It still functions. Mostly."
"Define mostly."
"Seventy percent chance of successful transport. Thirty percent chance of arriving as constituent atoms."
"Better odds than staying here," Mayfell decided. "How do we activate it?"
Dr. Yamazaki moved to the control panel, fingers flying over interfaces. "I'm sending you to the coordinates in Dr. Tanaka's notes. The true bunker. Not under your Great Tree—that's misdirection. The real Protocol Eight chamber is..." She frowned. "Hidden. The location keeps shifting in the data."
"Of course it does. Can't have a simple apocalypse."
"Wait," Tyrael stepped forward. "You're sending all of us? Even the human?"
"Especially the human. He's the key to everything." Dr. Yamazaki's fingers never stopped moving. "Your prejudice is noted and ignored, Elder. Your ancestors worked with humans to build the world you're so desperate to preserve. Perhaps remember that."
The Neither thing seeped through the wall, patience exhausted. "No more running. No more hiding. The pure one comes with us."
"No," Dr. Yamazaki said simply. "He doesn't."
She slammed her hand on a panel. The facility's remaining power surged into barriers, walls of pure energy that even the Neither thing recoiled from. But the effort cost her—her form flickered, revealing the quantum processors beneath synthetic skin.
"Go!" she shouted. "Thirty seconds until cascade completion!"
They ran for the tunnel—a sphere of twisted space that hurt to perceive. Mayfell went first, vanishing between one step and the next. The guards followed, then Tyrael's group, faces tight with terror.
"Elanil," Ren said as they reached the threshold. "If we don't make it—"
"We'll make it." She grabbed his hand. "Together."
They jumped.