Jack and Elicia were running at the streets. Joe and Marcus followed with them for some reason.

- Turn left now!

That reason being that Joe liked Elicia, while Marcus happened to be a good friend of his. He liked Marcus’s live streams quite a bit, indeed.

As a dev, Joe knew some places and passages other employees weren’t aware off. After all, the Devs would act as the IT rescue team sometimes, and to do that they had to know their way past the servers and the optics backbone.

Soon, the small team found their way to the backside of the Another World Employees’ building.

At the same time, a huge explosion shook the entire city.

At the gates, tanks blasted the walls and wave after wave of soldiers went in.

Ironically, most of them were novices who had been extensively trained on Another World - Reality Simulation servers.

Of course, things weren’t so simple. The Reality Simulation servers were settled on the Squeam Headquarters and neighboring cities, but, of course, the true layout of the city was nothing like the simulations.

In fact, many of the soldiers, even though having directions given by satellite mapping, got easily confused and ended up in “unsuspecting” alleys, were “unsuspecting” employees soon took to arms and begun fighting back.

Had Elicia known of that, and she would probably have had chosen to stay put at the employees’ lounge, waiting for rescue.

But she didn’t.

Joe kept guiding the group, and soon they arrived at a small garage. There, he opened the door by inputting a password, and a few transport cars and motorcycles revealed themselves to be ready to use.

[- Wow man, whatts’ this?]

Joe weared a deprecating grin on his face while answering Jack. He hated this mans’ every single word.

- This is one of the transportation vehicle deposits. I was in charge of programming it, so I know a few backdoors.

Before being allowed to work on Another World, one had to have been through a lot of channels inside Squeam.

Jack, however, still felt a bit lost.

[- But why are we…]

Another huge blast.

[- I don’t care ! Leeets’ go!]

Joe entered an easy to rob pickup truck while Marcus hotwired it. They may have access to the cars, but they didn’t have the keys!

As for Jack and Elicia, since the car was an old type one, with only two front seats, both found themselves a place in the open rear.

[- Babe…]

Jack was concerned. Something huge must have happened. With a tight hug, he calmed Elicia - who finally let some of her emotions surface and hugged him back, her head on his chest.