While the general and his drones looked for the target the group crawled their way in the maze like vent system for a way to safety. Varian saw a light coming from a vent below him and saw an empty hallway that looked similar to the ones that reside in hospitals.

“Hey I think I found a way out,” Varian said as he pressed his face against the vent grate in order to have a better look of the hallway below.

“Great but how are we going to get it open? The screws are on the other side,” inquired Piers about their plan to exit the vent. After Hoku finally caught up to the rest he noticed the vent shaking and making squeaking noise that were definitely not a good sign.

“Uh guys I think we’re too heavy. This thing is about to-,” before he could finish his sentence, Hoku was interrupted by the vents carrying the group suddenly collapsing. The teens fell to the floor with a loud thud.

The team groaned in pain on the floor for a minute besides the siblings who quickly stood up. Except for Varian who still lay on the floor as he stared up to the ceiling lights like he was contemplating his life.

“You do know this isn’t in real life right?,” Carmen reminded Varian who was still on the floor.

“I know. I just want to lay here for a moment. I’ll think about my place in the universe for a moment,” Varian responded as he continued to stare at the ceiling with a far off gaze. He seemed to be rethinking all of his life choices at the moment since the fall still scared the shit out of him despite it not causing him pain in the real world.

Unfortunately their friends could not say the same as they lay on the floor for a bit out of pain before a few of them weakly standing up on wobbly knees.

“That was not fun. At all,” groaned Laren as he rubbed his arm in pain.

Hoku was still on the floor next to Varian as he struggled to find the strength to get up.

“I don’t know about you guys but this floor feels pretty comfy right now. Maybe we should stop all this running for a moment and just chill for a bit,” suggested Hoku as he regained his breath.

“That’s what I’m saying. Rather the floor than on my feet at this point,” Varian agreed with him.

“But you can’t even feel pain in- you know what? Nevermind,” said Carmen as she threw her arms up in defeat. matteo just laughed at the scene since he also knew what the feeling was since he also acted like Varian towards Piers. Like right now since he was currently leaning on Piers like he was a wall despite him being mostly okay after the fall. Piers just looked far away with a defeated look.

After a minute of Carmen trying to drag Varian off the floor she finally gave up and let him be. Sometimes she wonders if bringing her siblings with her on this mission was really worth it.

She soon turned to her left only to spot Inez who was on her knees patting the ground like she was a boxing referee next to an exhausted Laren who was trying to get up. Right beside Laren was Keito who was one of the first to stand up and was looking over him to make sure he was okay.

“Threes! Dos! Uno! Fuerra! Fuerra!,” yelled Inez as she stood up to make an ‘x’ sign with both her arms. She soon went to help Laren stand up.

Enola soon went up to Keito and grabbed his arm to raise it up.

“Keito es el ganador!,” exclaimed Enola with a wide grin while Keito just smiled along despite him not knowing what he had done to win anything.

‘Okay maybe this was worth it,’ thought Carmen to herself as she chuckled in amusement at the scene.

The group just milled around for a moment to regain their strength when they realize matteo has been oddly quiet as he glances around the sterile hallway like a headless chicken.

“Uh matteo? You good dude?,” Piers asked worried at his brothers strange behavior. matteo shook his head as if he was trying to get out of a dream.

“No this hallway shouldn’t exist. It’s impossible,” matteo muttered disturbed by the existence of the white sterile hallway.

“What do you mean it shouldn’t exist? Carmen, you built this building model. So you must know were we’re at…right?,” Inez asked before Carmen looked around the hallway to try and memorize where they were on the map. For some weird reason she doesn’t seem to remember modeling this part of the building.

“I..actually don’t know. I don’t remember making this part of the building,” Carmen responded as she scratched her head in confusion.

“I have been in this building for years, at least in virtual simulation terms I guess, and not once had there ever been a hallway like this around. I don’t even remember seeing a doorway leading to this place,” matteo said as he walked over to a map on the wall which showed were they current location. The map showed their position with a yellow star and the hallway they were in was drawn with a red line that contrasted with the black lines of the building design. The legend of the map showed that the red line meant the place was labeled as “Classified Area”.

“It says this place is classified. But I never seen a map like this around the academy. It never showed a hallway there.”

“Maybe you’ve just forgotten you put this here? You did make this entire universe after all. Keeping track of everything would be difficult,” suggested Piers as they turned to Carmen who was shaking their head in disagreement.

In real life Carmen was checking all the finished 3d model of the space academy in her asset inventory on her laptop and did not see the hallway they were in now.

“Nope. I just checked the 3d model for the building in my asset folder and I definitely did not create this hallway when I made it. So this might be either a glitch which seems down rght impossible or something else entirely,” stated Carmen as they pulled a hologram from their glass tablet.

“Must be a secret place for the academy the drones built to due the usual shady government stuff. Since Cybrim does seem like a company to do stuff like that. Especially here since you do have research for NASA placed here,” suggested Varian with a matter of fact tone.

Tech companies now a days hold a lot of economic and political power ever since the technological potential of UI’s, or uploaded intelligence of deceased people, first came to light a few years ago. It was pretty obvious that these companies would try to compete with one another with less than ideal methods such as assassination or data theft. The only reason NASA and other government agencies cooperated with Cybrim was due to their clean image of data safety and history of anti corruption. Yet that could change at any moment at the drop of the hat due to the competitive nature of the tech market these days.

“That’s why they didn’t put it on the map. They must have been making it behind your back to steal your research from NASA! There must be a hidden door behind a book shelf or something that could lead us to more clues!,” exclaimed Enola, excited. She started to feel for any hidden entryways behind the wallpaper on the hallway walls.

“But that doesn’t explain much since drones are like cameras. They just record and track stuff. I never heard of a drone actually being able to change a virtual word physically,” reminded Inez which caused Carmen to pause in thought for a moment.

Her sister was right about the drones. Their used as a surveillance mechanism in Hologlobe and she never came across any instance of them suddenly gaining the ability to do more than that. And the most alarming part was that they are said to be AI’s and aren’t as intelligent as her characters in this world.

“Maybe the company recently updated their drones. Or worse case scenario, they sent a user here to steal some of my research like Varian suggested,” Carmen said as she tried to piece together an explanation for all of this.

“Well if they have tried this hard to conceal its existence that means there must be some serious important stuff in here. We have to look around,” Laren said excited at the idea of sneaking around the place. He proceeded to press close to a wall and tip toe his way across one of its many corridors like a spies. The rest looked amused at his antics and Keith just chuckled at his boyfriends dumb yet endearing behavior.

The rest followed Larens lead with their own version of being “sneaky”. Carmen, Keito, and matteo slowly crouched there way across the long corridors and looked around the corners carefully. Enola, Inez, and Laren appeared to be trying to see who can tip toe there way to the end of the hallway the fastest without landing on their ass.

“International super spies,” Inez sung the sentence off key.

“You should say virtual instead of International since this is a simulation,” Enola suggested.

“Oh yeah that makes more sense.”

Inez coughed a bit in order to sing softly again.

“Virtual super spies.”

Laren chuckled at the siblings antics before suddenly he fell on his face after slipping on the smooth floor. The girls to laugh before falling on their butts causing the trio to erupt in laughter. matteo shushed them since they had to be quiet because at any moment a drone can walk in and catch them. Varian and Piers army crawled their way through the wall way since it was a much slower tactic and they didn’t want to crouch and cause their knees to start aching. Hoku was busy trying to follow them by moving across the corridor like a huge caterpillar.

“You good over there Hoku?,” Piers asked.

“Yeah. Just bugging around,” Hoku responded with a smile.

“Bugging around I can’t even-,” Varian said as he tried to control his laughter at the pun and the sight of Hoku just moving in such a comical manner.

The group ended in front of large metal double doors that seemed to lead a place titled “Hospital Room Corridor B17”. matteo peeked his head into the corner of one of the doors windows and saw that nobody was home at the moment.

“The coast is clear. Now all we need to do is get inside. Who has the-?,” matteo said before being cut off by Keito kicking the door open with all his strength.

“Screwdriver….Or we can just do that. Yeah that works.”

“How did you know that would work?,” Laren asked surprised that his boyfriends managed to open the door despite them having trouble opening any of the others.

“I was getting impatient so I decided to do it on a whim,” Keito confessed as he opened the door to let the others in the lab room.

The rooms were similar to the ones that Carmen saw in the hospital when she was admitted there for a day when she was little. It looked similar to the ones The walls were white and appeared sterile like the hallways they just came from. Almost nothing decorated the walls beside exit route maps and the occasional informational health poster. No decorated walls or kid oriented health posters were in sight.

“This place reeks of too much hand sanitizer and bleach. It’s so strong it’s hurting my nose,” Laren complained as he pinched his nose to avoid smelling the place any longer.

“Looks like this is were the patients stay. Which is weird since this is a space academy and not a hospital. There’s not even people here. All the rooms are empty. Why the hell would Cybrim build a hospital wing here anyways?,” said Carmen confused as she peered into the windows of the hospital rooms to see them all empty.

“Well looks like this place is a let down. Why don’t we just go and leave now. I see an exit door right over there!,” Hoku happily suggested as he gestured to a red exit door that was near the end of the right side of the corridor.

As the group contemplated their decision to leave or to stay for a bit longer they could hear the faint sound of shuffling coming from one of the hospital rooms at the end of the hallway.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The crew slowly turned towards with wide eyes full of fear as the sound grew louder and louder and louder and…