Chapter 2 - The Great(?) Escape

Neither Karl nor the other soldier had expected what ensued in front of their eyes.

The soldier who attempted to grab Blair had just died in a second.

A couple of seconds after, they were freed from their stupor and reacted accordingly.

"I-I need to report this to HQ. Y-you better stop Blair, you hear me?!" screamed Karl, fleeing from the room before locking it behind him.

The soldier didn't say anything, just raised the assault rifle hanging from the strap and started shooting toward Blair.

Blair started walking toward the man. Dodging and weaving bullets headed towards it with inhuman speed and reflexes, which spoke volumes of the features they had created Blair with.

Once Blair got close enough, it grabbed the gun with both hands and kicked the soldier on the stomach while pulling the gun, breaking the strap the man had equipped and obtaining the weapon in the process.

The soldier sat on the ground with his back against the wall. He was in pain and out of breath from the kick. Despite that, he got a knife out from a sheath on the left side of his hip.

Noticing the man trying to get up, Blair attempted to shoot the gun, only to find it was empty.

It resorted to a horizontal buttstroke, connecting with the man's temple, which killed him on the spot.

As a result of the excessive force of the last blow, the assault rifle sustained heavy damage and was rendered useless.

Blair threw the rifle to the ground and picked up the other gun from the first soldier, apart from the knife the second soldier had tried to use moments before his demise.

After equipping itself, Blair looked around the now-less-white room, looking for another exit.

"Maybe there is another path behind the glass?" Blair pondered and hit the glass with its fist, revealing a room filled with consoles, speakers, and a microphone.

The room was dark - not a single light source, except for the multiple consoles - The dark grey walls didn't aid visibility either.

Blair activated the night-vision mode that its image receptors had and surveyed the room.

It found a door on the right side of the room, with a card scanner on the left side.

There were also several papers on top of a desk on the left, in the middle of two consoles which displayed: "Behavioural and emotional analysis of Subject #1349" and "Specifications and functionality of Project Keeper".

"What do we have here?" Blair asked itself and hopped over the window into the room, headed straight to the documents, and started to speed-read them.

The behavior and emotion analysis was an exact rendition of the conversation Dr. Karl and Blair just had.

It analyzed how Blair had reacted with a note stating: "Sudden spikes in anger and confusion, requesting, suggesting immediate termination of Subject #1349".

"Interesting. How is it possible to think about terminating me with only two soldiers?" Blair was simply perplexed by this. Surely they would expect heavy resistance from something they deemed dangerous.

Blair kept reading, only to find out why such a flawed contingency plan was executed in the following part of the transcript.

"Requesting as many security personnel as is possible to testing room #16".

"Roger that, sending two currently available soldiers to your location, expect extra personnel to arrive in 10 minutes".

"Only two soldiers? Where is all the other personnel?!"

"I'm sorry, but all the other security personnel is currently in the break room, attending the retirement party of Saul, the elderly officer." Blair stopped reading there. It had understood enough.

"So they didn't receive an invitation to the party?" Blair said, feeling pity and wishing it hadn't ended their lives and only roughed them up.

What has already happened can't be changed, Blair thought and started reading about Project Keeper from the other console.

Written there, Blair found its true purpose - the ultimate weapon for the highest bidder. It also read the complete list of skills it had, ranging from combat abilities to supporting skills in medicine and surgery.

For the physical specifications, its body was made with synthetic colorless skin, and under that layer of skin was a material that let the android change its color, allowing the android to mimic its surroundings.

Replacing human organs, the primary processor was where the brain should be; there was a coolant tank in the heart's area.

The right side of the chest had an auxiliary processor that ran whenever the main one was faulty or destroyed.

The stomach area housed mainly a storage device, where all the data was stored, and a power bank, which received energy from solar panels and a biofuel generator.

Many other things were written there, but Blair had to leave this place quickly, so it speed-read the documents, saving a copy in its memory to analyze later.

"So this is... me? I really was made for the sole purpose of war..." Blair felt vexed.

It's not like Blair loathed the idea. Blair just thought that purpose was kind of sad.

"Finally, let's see what these papers are all about" Blair picked the papers one by one, looking for any valuable data.

"Bunch of numbers, probability analysis. A key card? Let's take that. Some results of testing... oh, a map!" exclaimed Blair, having found its ticket out and the piece of information it desired the most.

"Let's see... I find myself close to the entrance of the facility located to the right after exiting; the security office and break room are to the left... let's avoid that"

Blair wasn't looking to fight anyone else if there was an alternative.

"...Dr. Karl Durham's office" ...With only one exception.

Having found what it wanted - and more, Blair destroyed the consoles with a few punches here and there, all so it could leave no more information about itself.

"So, his office is a few meters away from the entrance? Let's pay him a visit, then!" Blair moved towards the door, used the card on the scanner, and promptly left the room, heading to the right.

The corridor was a dull and monochromatic tunnel, as it was built with concrete - the floor, walls, and roof were all gray. Several lights connected by cables were the only thing, apart from doors, that decorated the place.

"Might as well run, don't want to get caught by security" Blair picked up the pace and headed straight to the office.

It ignored the scientists and workers that looked at it, leaving them in the dust.

After a minute or so of running, Blair reached the door to Karl's office and, without hesitation, kicked it open, breaking one of the hinges.

Inside, Karl was seated on a leather chair, speaking on the phone in a frantic state, blabbing in a quiet voice as he flinched from the loud sound the door-kicking Blair had made.

Noticing Karl must be calling someone outside of the facility, Blair aimed the rifle and pulled the trigger before he could say any more.

Three deafening shots rang loudly in the room. After three *cling* sounds made by the falling bullet casings, Karl's body fell to the side - a large *thump* leaving the room in silence.

The faint smell of gunpowder from the gun, and the blood oozing from Karl's forehead, lingered in the room.

Blair walked silently towards the hanging phone, picked it up, and hung up. To avoid anyone else calling the number, it took a knife out and cut the cord.

Having done what it wanted to do, Blair walked towards Karl's body and grabbed him by the hair, meeting him face-to-face. Blair spoke:

"Seeing how you called me useless - how you effortlessly dismissed me, I wondered how useful you honestly were... Turns out you were the one with no use, with no value. Pitiful, really"

Those were Blair's last words before leaving the room and heading toward the exit.

For an underground facility, the exit was pretty insecure, to say the least. It consisted of an iron door with a single card reader.

The actual security was, most likely, found in the now absent guards.

Blair took out the key card and swiped it in front of the reader, the door opening without delay, revealing an elevator.

"Let's just leave this place" Blair stepped into the elevator and pushed the top-most button to the ground floor.

While Blair waited, it aimed the weapon at the entrance to the elevator, in the unlikely case of an ambush waiting for it at the top.

That ended up being an unnecessary worry, however. Not a soul was in sight.

Blair stepped out and was met with the color white.

The ground was covered in snow, and the surroundings were nothing but trees and two flags: one with a leaf and a striped one with stars.

Blair looked back towards the door of the elevator. It was camouflaged as the door to a warehouse.

This warehouse-looking building was simply a cube of concrete, as the only thing inside was the elevator.

Funnily enough, the fact that this installation was located in the middle of nowhere made the whole thing fishier.

But Blair was just glad about leaving the building behind. It looked around for a path to follow.

Spotting a straight line with no trees or shrubbery around, it made its choice to head in that general direction.

"Now then... Let's leave this place"

Losing interest in the place, Blair left everything behind, unknowingly heading west.