Isolation Face

Duncan had climbed up the fence, tumbling from the top into the long moist grass below. "Shit-" he exclaimed, feeling a sharp pain in his back. This was all he needed. Now he had nobody to help him out, a lousy back and was in a miserable mood. He clawed into the ground and lifted himself up. Somehow he hadn't managed to activate any alarms or be heard by any security patrols. Carefully he entered the Department building. He was crouching down, if his knees were any closer to his chin he'd pretty much be kicking himself in the face. He came to a sliding door, it was painted orange and seemed to be constructed from a thick metal. He turned his head left, then right in quick succession to make sure nobody was nearby. With as much strength as he could muster he managed to pull the door open.

Inside it was a maze of neatly furnished corridors leading to different laboratories and offices. "Where are you?" Duncan whispered to himself, he couldn't bear the thought of losing the Veteran. He wasn't made for trespassing on his own. As he went around a corner he was stunned, he had bumped right into one of them. One of the Department lot. She was in her twenties, red hair and innocent looking. She held a clipboard tightly against her chest. He expected her to scream, panic, do something - but she just stood there. "Hello?" Duncan said quietly. For all he knew she might just be an invention of the zone.

"How did you get in here?" Finally, she replied. Still didn't mean she wasn't some kind of vision.

"I came over the fence," Duncan replied bluntly, he quickly glanced over his shoulder to show the direction he had come. "Are you with them?"

"The Department? Yes, I am." She started to theorize that the reason this man had not triggered any alarms was because they ran off the same system as all the communications. That whole network that was down. "I really should report you to a senior or to our security."

"I just want to know if you have my friend."

"We're scientists, we don't have prisoners here," she brushed some hair from her face. "I would reccomend that you head back out, we are having enough problems here at the moment. We don't need anymore."

Duncan shook his head. "I don't want to cause trouble, what's your name?"

"What?" Why should she tell this intruder her name? Why did that kind of information even matter to him? "Isobel. I'm Isobel," Why did it just come out like that, she didn't understand but if she had to guess it was because she actually had the opportunity to talk to someone new. Not the same old crowd that she spoke to everyday. "Look you better go."

"Come with me Isobel!" Duncan moved closer towards her, naturally she moved back slightly. "I need all the help I can get out there, be that help."

"I don't even know who you are? Why would I just drop everything and go with you?"

"I've seen that face on a few people over the years, that's the look that only isolation can create. You yearn to feel the wind on your face, the moisture in the air. Now's your opportunity, nobody will know."

"You're mental. What are you trying to achieve?" Isobel asked, she worried this man had a touch of the zone madness. Begging a woman half his age to run away with him, moments after they met. "Are you okay?"