Into The World

#4 - EVAC

         Anthony walks out of the room, contemplating the shaky footage he watched in the room.
The hawk led the boy here. He encloses the golden chip in his hand as the door slides shut behind him. He pictures the hawk as he heads toward the staircase, stowing the chip in a small pouch. The hawk had incredibly sharp talons. The boy's shoulder injury flashes in his mind.

He subsides to a halt when he reaches the staircase and stares at the pouch in his hand. Something was dangling from its neck.

       Anthony turns back and rushes back to the room, picturing the moment when the hawk was on the table, a shiny object dangling from its neck. He swipes his card on the card lock and enters the room.

Was it an amulet? He grabs his seat as he connects the chip to the monitor. He stares at the progressing loading bar, tapping his foot vigorously on the table leg.

The loading bar disappears, but the array of footages don't appear on the screen.
Anthony taps on the spacebar but the blue screen displayed doesn't change.

Suddenly, a message pops up on the screen.

CODE RED. PLEASE HEAD TO THE NEAREST EMERGENCY EXIT.

It must be another drill. He gets up as he hears alarm bells ring, tapping his wristband as he approaches the door.

"Oh, the chip."

He walks back to the system and takes the chip off the monitor.

Anthony exits the room when a holographic screen emerges before him.

THE GATES TO THE UNDERGROUND FACILITY WILL CLOSE IN: 00:09:47.

"She reduced the evacuation time," Anthony says, stowing the chip in his pocket as he heads downstairs.

"PLEASE HEAD TO THE NEAREST EMERGENCY EXIT,"  The voice announcing this instructs the evacuation guidelines, its echoes reverberating across the halls of Pearl Manor.

The picture of the hawk perched on the table pops up in Anthony's mind as he enters the atrium.
"I need the Player to examine the object closely," he realizes, taking a sharp turn.

Anthony enters the open Control Room.

"Where is it?" He scans the room and races to the lockers on the other end of the room. "I remember keeping it in one of these lockers." He says as he searches for the Player in each locker.

"Found it," He says, grabbing a small DVD player out of a locker.

Anthony hurtles to a table on the other side of the room and places the DVD player on the table. He taps his wristband a few times, causing a screen to materialize before him.

"Room 10." Anthony taps the room among an array of fifteen rooms presented on the screen before him, causing a glass tube to emerge from the desk, enclosing the DVD player. Anthony watches the DVD player gets sucked down the tube.

"T-minus five minutes," The voice outside announces.

Anthony rushes out of the control room, his hand in his pocket holding the chip.

Ping!

DELIVERY SUCCESSFUL.

Anthony strides through the holographic screen which disappears a moment later and enters the atrium.

He sees Alexa a few steps ahead, walking toward the foyer.

"I think it's just a drill," Anthony says, noticing his friend wearing a backpack. "You don't have to carry a backpack."