Found it, thought Keri to herself, a knot in her chest that she hadn't known was there loosening at the sight.

The white of the Terminal complex shone in the late morning light, forcing them to squint when they looked towards it, the brightness so affecting her eyes that it seemed to move in waves. The illusion of undulating movement turned her empty stomach.

Best keep from looking at it too long, she said to herself.

UV rays were a vicious thing in this day and age, and having run out of the semi-temporary, UV-blocking contact lenses everyone took for granted in the city she could do some serious damage to her eyes if she wasn’t careful. She wished she had a pair of the strange, double pieces of darkened glass the others had on their faces. Keri thought maybe she’d seen something like them in early holos.

“Sunglasses,” Eu explained when Keri asked. “Getting contact lenses regularly was more hassle than it was worth for us.”

The Terminal stood in a wide clearing, looming over them, tall and wide and jutting out from the ground like a mountain of pure ivory.

“So, uh, how do we get in?” asked Andreas.

The building continued to loom over them; tall and wide and like a mountain of pure ivory.

Pure, featureless ivory.

Keri cursed.

The surface of the structure was completely smooth. There were no windows, no doors, no… anything. Its walls ran for tens of metres in either direction without blemish, inducing eye-ache with the strain of trying to find definition within the whiteness.

Keri turned away from building and its blinding glare.

“It's fine,” she said, calmer than she felt. “We’ll just follow it around until we find some way to get in.”

“And how are we going to get in, even if we find a door?” asked Anisa. “Are we going to knock and hope they understand, explain that we stole the plans to the new AI but we'd like to return it now?”

Keri was unsure of this herself.

“Let's go,” she said, hoisting her pack and hoping her lack of certainty wasn't as obvious as it felt.

They tramped around for an hour or more. It turned out that the initial structure they had come across was connected by corridors to numerous other structures, each standing at least a head higher than any of their group and some several stories tall. The trees had been cleared all around the structures, giving them a clear and easy path. What this did not offer, however, was any visible entrance.

“You get the feeling this is some kind of metaphor for everything we've been doing?” said Andreas suddenly.

“Huh?” snarled Cassandra. Eu chuckled softly beside her.

It was almost afternoon, and the temperature had spiked. Not a one of them was free from dripping sweat, and even smart-fabric couldn’t keep away the hideous heat that permeated everything. Heavy panting drowned out the sounds of birds, weaker now anyway as if the heat had rendered even the wildlife lethargic.

“I mean, we're wandering the outskirts of something huge without any idea how to actually get inside,” Andreas continued.

Anisa took this chance to slump against the side of the wall and draw out her water bottle, pouring it first over her head then gulping the remaining liquid as she slid down onto the grass beneath. No one protested, and each sat or lay down where they were.

“And your point is?” Anisa snapped.

“Well, don't you want to see it? To meet it? I know I do. After all this…”

“What I want is to get back to the Kingdom, get back to figuring out my own shit, and for this whole damn business to be behind me. Behind us,” said Anisa, looking from one to the other. She even included Keri in the look. “This whole fucking thing has been a disaster, and it'd be better if we just put everything back as it was.”

“You can't put the cat back in the bag once it's out,” said Eu. “Especially Schrodinger’s cat. I at least want to find out if this thing is truly alive.”

Keri wondered about this newfound philosophical air Eu had taken on. Even as things got more and more fraught with danger the older woman seemed to rejuvenate. The whole adventure-thing was agreeing with her, Cassandra had explained once to Keri when Eu was out of audible range.

“Whatever,” said Anisa, lying on her back and looking at the sky. She sighed. “It’s too griefing hot for any of this.”

“Shhh,” said Cassandra suddenly, sitting bolt upright.

“What? What is it?” asked Andreas, as everyone became alert again. There had been an edge to Cassandra’s voice.

“You hear that?” she asked, voice low.

“Hear what?” said Andreas, voice dropping to a whisper as well.

Eu was already pushing herself to her feet, looking off into the trees.

Keri heard it seconds later, a fast, rhythmical thudding accompanied by the sound of cracking branches and crushed foliage. Hurrying footsteps, if the feet were large and heavy and…

“The Butcher. It’s coming,” she said.

The others were already moving, sprinting back the way they had come, dropping what little they carried in their haste to be as far away as possible from the approaching sound. Keri sprinted along with them, mind racing and eyes darting this way and that for some sort of escape.

Should she run into the trees? Would that offer any kind of protection from a machine with enhanced visuals and who knew what other upgrades? Should she try to climb up a shallower part of the Terminal building, assuming it wasn’t too slick to do so anyway?

Panic flooded her mind, the animal panic of hunted prey that knows it has nowhere to hide. Her chest burned as it strained to pull in more oxygen, as behind her the sound of the Butcher erupting from the trees came to her ears. It could only be seconds before it was upon her…

Where had the others gone?

She suddenly realised no one was in front of her. Had they all darted into the undergrowth? When? The panic swelled as something grabbed her and…

…pulled her into cool darkness.

The light of the outside world faded. Keri could hear the others gasping and wheezing for air, though she could see nothing. Her eyes had not adjusted to the dim lighting within.

"What the hell?" came Andreas' voice. "There's no way there was an entrance here. And why isn't that damn thing bursting in after us?"

“It shouldn’t be able to scan through these walls, not well,” came an unknown man’s voice. “Hopefully won’t figure out what happened. For a while, at least.”

Her eyes gradually getting used to the gloom, Keri looked up through the sweat to see the owner of the voice, a young-looking man with long, dark blond hair and a concerned, no, confused look on his face.

“So, who the hell are you?” he said.