For her part, Juniper enjoyed the ride. She stumbled back as the car started to move down, pressing her back against the cold metallic paneling and taking the cigarette from her lips as she shuddered in relief. That . . . had been way too close. But she hadn't had a single clue what she'd have done if it hadn't worked. That vaporous thing might not have had the substance to hold her, but it's very presence had chilled her to the bone. Who knew what would happen if she tried to pass through it . . . or, worse yet, inhaled part of it. Things were, at the very least, gradually warming up as she moved deeper and deeper into the earth.

"Fortune favors the brave." Juniper muttered. It seemed like a good day for Virgil, she'd have to see if the library had a copy of the Aeneid when she was finished. Her subconscious was clearly trying to let her in on something. She straightened up and took a deep breath, smoothing out the coat and shaking out her hands as she shifted weight from one foot to the other. As the elevator began to slow, she crossed herself and put on a dull expression, placing the cigarette back in her lips as she stuffed her hands in her pockets.

What awaited her when the doors opened was not at all what she'd expected. More students (more clones?) placed on cold metallic tables as they stared raptly at screens placed before them, headgear probably holding their heads level while piping more programming into their heads. Everywhere she looked, another white coat was milling about the room, moving with purpose as they checked vitals or progress, some of them moving out of the thoroughfares to discuss some salient point of science far beyond her comprehension. Juniper did the only thing she did . . . adopted a purposeful stride and moved her way into the ride, winding her way towards the office. She paused at the food of the bed of a blue-haired girl and reached down to check her chart, rubbing her chin as she mused about the numbers in front of her.

And then Gus stepped out into the room.

CRAP she thought, turning a bit further away from the bathroom and trying to appear absorbed in her work. This was a bit of a double-edged sword . . . she'd last seen the big man back at the dorm. She might've been slowed down by her little dalliance with security, but she figured she'd have seen him if he'd come here the same way she had. That meant that there was another exit, one closer to the school, and she just had to find it. Of course, it also meant that someone who had a chance to actually recognize her and call her on her bullshit was on the premises. Or, that the universe had played a particularly cruel joke on some poor woman and the man had a twin . . . she couldn't imagine anyone would be desperate enough to clone him.

It was unlikely that anyone would buy or need a Gus clone! Thus it was probably the real Mc Coy so to speak and her descent into the depths of the island had been so relaxing. She actually bluffed her way down here and as such wouldn't have a list of facts on a new creature, a rather karge victory considering …

There had been minor victories today. She had made some progress and while she determined that this place wasn't ideal for a show down the inhibitor extended it's effect for a good distance and it would be possible just to lure her into the vacinity of this point and Rena would probably be nonethewiser unless for some strange reason she followed the ten year maintence cycles of every inhibitor on the island.

Some how she doubted that. She had even made a good job of blending in and checking charts as if she had belonged there but when she saw Gus she had little recourse but to look away and hope he had not noticed.

But he had, his brown eyes casually flickering in the direction that she was in, another doctor doing doctor stuff she guess he thought as her heart beat heavily in her chest. He paid her little attention for now as his eyes found more interesting things to watch flickering his gaze to one of the clone? Students who looked like a frail girl she had know … Patricia she thought, it was hard to tell at this range and it was probably the sole reason that she had not been recognized yet …

To further c0mlicate matters Gus was standing near the room that was probaly and office on this level but he was still focused on the student, his eyes flickered away to another, far more althetic one altering his gaze between the two as if comparing the two.

Godammit, move, Fatass! Juniper growled in her head, barely keeping an eye on the man's blurry reflection in a piece of medical equipment. She expelled a breath through her nose and patted her pocket . . . then another pocket, and another before rolling her eyes and scoffing, pretending that she'd forgotten to bring a pen with her to the floor. She set the clipboard back at the foot of the bed, keeping her hands free of her pockets this time as she started going the other way around the room, changing targets to the blue double-doors for the time being.

She wasn't quite as focused on her route this time around though. She looked at the other doctors as she moved, looking at their ID badges as they moved by, looking for a bar code or the hint of a magnetic strip, trying to determine if their badges might double as an access card for the red door, though she didn't particularly expect it. It occurred to her that, as a security guard, Gus might have access . . . she might have been able to slip the key off of him without being detected, but with so many people around it was more than a little risky in here.

Changing gears she made her way to the blue doors though examination of the badges didn't yeld her much success as she was unable to see the reverse side.

That was until she saw at the red doors one of the doctors remove his ID badge, swipe it and move off into the hall behind as he clipped the badged back into place and closed the door behind him heading off to who knows where.

No one seemed to be paying her much attention. Gus was too busy sight seeing to notice and the doctors much to busy it seemed.

Thus she got to the blue blue doors though beyond it was a long corridor leading to a single elevator. The corridor seemed impossibly long, much longer than it had to be in fact and other than the small hum of the light fixtures that provided the corridor with the warm fluroscent light that bathed the corridor there was nothing to be heard though the disinfectants were within her nostrils, faint but there.

Bingo, alternative exit detected. Juniper thought with a little smile. She paused in the long white hallway for a moment, shifting the position of the things she'd grabbed out of the storage room to make certain they were a little more completely hidden. She kind of wished that she'd worn the button-up shirt from her uniform, it would seem to have fit her disguise a little more accurately.

Idly, she took off the ID she'd clipped to the lab coat to scrutinize in greater detail. She felt a little bad that she hadn't done so when she'd first picked it up, but then she'd thought of it only as a flimsy addition to a laughable bluff. Now it was looking like a key to greater things. She was looking for the tell-tale black strip of a magnetic reader, as well as any marks that she might be able to interpret as how deeply he far his security was cleared . . . even a red tag along the border might mean she could use this card to get through the secure door behind her.

She was out of sight now in that hallway just beyond the blue doors, an elevator rested at the end of a n inanely long corridor and it was almost the sort of long wallway you found in airport termininals.

Out of sight she was able to insoect the badge more thoroughly. Name, age …. 42 … organ donor … wait, why was that on the ID? It also noted his height and weight and even mentioned it was for Shokushu campus.

On the back there was a magnetic strip but there was no clue as to the security access of the card itself. It might not even work on the red door though it was likely that it did unless it gave access only to something in the unchecked room upstairs and beyond if that room branched off but with no clue it was going to be a risk to use it on the doors and would she be lucky enough to cross that room again to get to the elevator again? To further complicate matters she would have to with that creature again ...

Juniper fussed with the ID badge for a few moments, making certain that the picture and first name were hidden behind the lapel of the coat. She took a final puff of the cigarette in her lips, drawing the smoke down into her throat before she curled her tongue and blew the air out with a puff, smiling a bit at the thin ring of smoke that spun lazily through the air. They never seemed to be quite as perfect as they were in her mind, never as thick or round, but it was still a neat little party trick and it made her feel like she wasn't just getting her fix when she practiced. Feeling a bit vindictive, she ground the butt of the cigarette out on the white wall and let the filter fall to the floor, petty vandalism having to stand in for actually striking back at this clinical nightmare for the time being.

She looked down the long walkway, no doors to investigate, no visual cover, she'd have to cross it at a sprint if she were detected, and then she was risking another half-minute wait until the car got back to her level. It beckoned to her with the whispered promise of escape, and it was tempting. Who knew what other creatures roamed the halls? What other foul experiments she'd encounter? What they'd do to her to protect their secrets? She swallowed a bit as she considered, the few concrete answers she had only feeding her overactive imagination to further heights.

Then, she turned on her heel and regarded the double doors again, steeling herself. She still didn't have what she came for. And escape? What would she be escaping to exactly, the island? Rena's tender mercies? Another rendevous with Ortix, or that asshole triclops, or God knew what else? Time only moves forward, and for all her regrets Juniper tried to do the same, believing it didn't matter how often or far she fell as long as she could climb to her feet again.

She bustled back onto the open floor, pausing just a moment to ensure she wasn't going to walk into anyone before she stepped into the walkway. She tried not to turn her head too far, letting her eyes glance to the sides and trying to determine if Gus had moved or if there was anyone in the small office while she walked with a veneer of purpose towards the red door. As she made her approach, she reached up and pulled the ID card from her breast, covering the front with her hand as she approached the card reader. She took a deep breath as she reached out with the card, pressed into place and swiped it.

Then cursed under her breath, turned the card the other way around, and swiped it again.

Gus was more or less in the same spot though one of the girls looked fa,olar. A brown haired girl that had brown hair spilling beyond her shoulders. She had never known the student's name but could have sworn that she had seen her before.

But the girl, like the other's, had been busy watching the sceen before her as images cycled though.

She swiped the ID as she got to the red door. Nothing but she realized that she was holding the card the right way, turned it over and heard a soft beap as a red light on the key pad wemt from red to green.

The door opened revealing a a shorter clinical white hall way.

There were two doors some distance apart on the left and one half way down, double doors on her right.

Juniper felt a knot clenching in her gut just before she opened the door. She hadn't been here long, four days now, so when the twinge of familiarity hung in her mind she couldn't help but look a bit longer and try to place it. The clones gestated in months . . . if this was another freshman, she could be certain that these were not clones. And she was likely going to end up jeopardizing everything in a foolish bid before she was done down here. Mercifully, the door unlocked and she pushed through before she could give it too much more thought. She had other priorities . . . but this place was definitely going on her List for the near future.

Her sneakers squeaked on the clean white tiles as she made her way down the short hallway, letting her upper body sway one way and then the other as she considered the door before her. The double doors were tempting, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was to blunder into an operating amphitheater or the like. Instead, she stopped at the first door on the left, pressing her shoulder to it and listening closely before she tried to turn the knob and slip inside.

The first door on the left … she listened though heard nothing out of the ordinary bhind, whell nothing at all. She opened the room and found that the light was on. There were shadowy shapes here but nothing s ominious as the shadows upstairs.

A little light showed that the room a televion. This was some sort of recreational room. There was a fozz table, an icy hockey table, shelves with various board games. There were a few tables scattered throughtout the room and a bunch of chairs near the corner of the room that faced the TV. It was empty here at the time though she considered the notes that she read. Twenty-five clones … there were a ton of them active out in the other room assuming they were clones and at least tweny-four upstairs … perhaps the numbers reflected on the number that had been active at one time, sold or shipped off perhaps even being sent to the labs for refining …

She considered that maybe this was the case, there was no other matter behind it that seemed to make as much sense after all. So this was a recretaional room for the clones? Play being as important as learning she guessed.

For her part, Juniper actually believed that there were twenty five genetic templates that they were using. With the nature of cloning what it was, it would be simple enough to get multiple dolls from one template, maybe sell a few of them together. Twins were a kink, right? And unlike real twins, these could be programmed to react identically, playing off of each other in a fashion she was sure someone would find alluring. Sell one batch while you're teaching the next, program that batch while you're gestating the next. An assembly line of sex slaves . . . or self-warming toys, she supposed, doubting they did much to instill knowledge beyond the carnal in their products.

She shrugged a bit as she glanced around the room, taking a moment to look at the boardgames on the shelf. Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, games that didn't require much in the way of rules knowledge but whose emergent strategies could be fairly complex. A surreptitious way to track their playthings' developing cogniscience, even as they relaxed. Still, there was nothing of value to her there. She did pause for a moment, she couldn't recall the last time she saw a television on the island, and she wondered what exactly they'd managed to get reception for this far out.

Then, she took a step back and let the door closed, shrugging a bit. She moved over to the other door on the left, leaning in to listen before she tested the knob.

The TV was probably set into a VCR or DVD player and played something rather than being a traditional TV … or maybe it was a TV in the traditional sense given that she was not aware that she wasn't in Kansas any more.

She spent some time looking over the games and considering. She was probably right, there were probably twenty-five emplates. She had discovered the shorter life spans of the clones being a mere ten years so regardless of how good the clone was an original was going to provide you with far more entertainment over a given length of fime.

Perhaps they were looking on expanding that life span to make clones a viable option, who was to say?

Going back into the hall she listened as usual but heard voices. Actual voices … male and female, the male beginning first.

“... has it been that long already?”

“Yes, the First has woken, it won't be long now. Already I feel weak and the others will follow.” She sighed. “I don't want you to be sad Father. I will live on here.”

“It's not too late! We've made some breakthroughs with the cells taken from Aegir -”

“It is not enough to stop the cellular decay father. You know this. The others will fade soon within the week. I'm afraid that your efforts this time are for naught … you will get it right next time. Thank you for distracting the others. They think that they will actually be around long enough to use what they learn, they think the cells have worked but soon they will fade too ...”

Juniper sighed a bit and leaned against the door. Another office, this one holding human drama at it's finest, but once again not what she'd been looking for. It sounded like one of the scientists was indulging in a little personalized selection with the genetic templates. A lost daughter, perhaps? Or a resurrected wife? Those had the proper tinge of mad science to them. But, as she pushed herself away from the wall with a deep sigh she had to admit an unpleasant truth. It was just as likely she was just his favorite slut, a girl who fit his predilections who he'd taken under his wing to enjoy as a good little pet. It sounded like ten years was a bit of an optimistic value.

So, she squared up in front of the double doors on the right. She punched one fist into an open palm and squeezed 'til her knuckles popped, reversing the grip to crack the other knuckles. Then, she reached out and pressed one hand to each door, pushing them in and striding forward.

There was probably some kind of office beyond the doors here though there were no reveals that she hadn't really know. Just the question of who the student-doctor was and their relationship to each other. Was this and actual daughter or wife? Was it merely a doctor-student relation ship of lust or was there even as bizarre of a concept to contemplate on this island a concept of love?

But she left the two behind as she prepared to enter the room across the hall and found that it was a large cafeterria. There were bathrooms here and a supply closet that had several of the disinfectants that she smelled here and at the infirmary. So if this was a cafeteria and the first room she checked a recreational room then the room across the hall might have been some sort of dorm for the clones, the red doors making it so that only the scientists had access back her after hours for whatever reasons.

And unless their was a way out of the “dorm” then there had been no way out of this section of the lab.

If there was a way out in the “dorms” it was likely to dead end eventually that way the clones weren't wandering about and there was some point to having the car reader in the first place.

A slightly dark expression crossed her face as the possibility to real, genuine love crossed her mind. Frankly, she hoped not. The notion that someone could love another, really cherish them, and still align themselves with this hellhole twisted in her guts. It would probably tarnish her opinion of love in an irreparable way. A happily married member of the scientific staff here would be bad enough, but it started her brain on the notion of girls far gone enough to become infatuated with the inhuman creatures here. She shuddered a bit as she took a step onto the tile of the large cafeteria.

"Tch, another bust . . ." she groused her herself, casting her eyes around. None of the rooms she'd passed behind seemed like the sort to hold her prize . . . she supposed it was possible that the elevator didn't go where she'd assumed it did, but she was still going to save that one for last. She didn't feel confident crossing through the gestation chamber again to check the room she'd passed on the top floor, so that left her only the office on this level to search next. Maybe she'd luck out and there'd at least be a directory she could check. Of course, if it was an office, it was entirely possible that it was in use . . . and she'd still have to get by Gus.

She ran her fingers through her hair and let out a deep breath. She'd have preferred not to risk it, but it was still too early to leave by her estimation. She took a step back, turning on her heel and reentering the hallway, shaking her head a bit as she walked passed the door to what she supposed were dorms. She slid the card through the reader again, clipping it back into place and glancing around one more time before heading for the office, hoping that the security guard would be too caught up in looking at the mostly naked chicks to notice a lowly intern scurrying about as she made her way for the office.