Heather stood there for a good few more minutes, before sighing. She wasn’t sure if they would be able to save everyone after they escaped from this theme park, and the thought of leaving this person who had indirectly caused them much pain and suffering, but also gave them a chance to escape, be potentially locked away forever was too much to bear. No, she had to free her, especially after the heinous thing that she had done with her other body.
    She began examining the large stasis pod for any way to actually opening it, her eyes eventually glancing over the small screen set in the base near the bottom of the pod. She pressed on it with her one arm, the screen becoming active and displaying a thumb print. Heather smiled gently as she placed her thumb against the screen, the screen happily chirping as it turned green and continued to a new menu. She was thankful that she had the forethought to trade a thumb with her Sapphire clone, fearing that there might have been some extra tests to prove her identity (although, she was kicking herself slightly, since she also made sure to trade an eyeball with the bodiless Heather before leaving, leading to an interesting dichromatic look between her naturally hazel eye and Sapphire’s bright blue eye for both her and the poor girl who already was missing so much of her body).
   The menu that popped up contained options that Heather was certain were not checked by any overhead committee due to the possible implications. There were the options she expected to see, which were ‘Open Pod’ and ‘Exit Menu’, however there were the much more worrying options, such as ‘Destroy Contents’ and ‘Memory Access’. She briefly considered these options, before reasoning that these options would only be more useful in coercing her to their side against Eternity Cosmetics.

    She pressed down on the Open pod option, the screen changing to a confirmation screen, which she again, contemplated changing her decision once more before pressing the yes button. With little fanfare, the clear liquid began to drain out of the pod through some unseen pipes installed in the pod behind Sapphire’s real body (which caused her body to slightly begin drifting towards the back of the pod.
    When the liquid was about halfway drained, Sapphire began to stir awake, as her body was no longer being supported by the liquid. It began with the quivering of her head or a twitching of her fingers, but by the time there was only a quarter of the water left, her eyes fluttered open. She did a small stretch as the water finally finished draining, the glass panel sliding sideways into the wall of the Stasis pod. She removed her oxygen mask, stepping out of the pod and telling Heather, “Hello there! You must be the welcoming committee they told me about. So, have they figured out a cure?”
   “A- A cure?” Heather manage to stutter out.
   “Yeah, the cure,” Sapphire said, turning around and peeling off a panel in the side wall of the pod, pulling out a white jumpsuit (with the Eternity Cosmetic logo embroiled on the front), which she quickly put on as she continued, “you know. The whole reason the whole company had to go into stasis? Because of the containment breach?” Sapphire had turned around by this point, looking concerned as she spotted her missing arm, “Oh dear! What happened to your arm?”
   “W-what? Oh, that was because-“
   “Wait a second,” Her concerned eyes turned to critical ones, as she looked more closely at Heather’s outfit, “You don’t work for Eternity Cosmetics.”
   “Well, No. But you have to listen to me because-“
   “Wait. Did you just walk in here? How long have I been out? Is it still 2018? I thought they said they were going to make sure nobody else got exposed!”
    “It’s still 2018. But listen Sapphire-“
     “How do you know my name? Aggh. Screw this! I need to find the Committee head stat so I can lodge my complaint about the lax security of this facility and get put back under before the disease becomes terminal,” Sapphire said, running down the aisle, leaving Heather standing in front of the now empty pod looking confused and dejected. If she didn’t act fast, Sapphire would-

    “Heather! I found us!” Lindsay shouted from the aisle over. Heather sighed, she was just going to have to let Sapphire go. She hoped that her generosity wouldn’t end up coming to bite them in the butt later, but she had little choice but to continue with their plan. She quickly ran around to the other aisle, where Lindsay was standing expectantly. “How did it go with Sapphire?”
    “About as well as you predicted,” Heather said, quickly fingering her way through the menu of the first of the six pods (which held Spencer).
    “So, should I go about explaining the situation? Or should you,” Lindsay was once again playing with her arm, plugging it in and out.
     “Well, considering these are essentially us before we entered the park, it would probably be better if I explained it, since you were kind of a bitch back then,” Heather smiled at her, Lindsay reciprocated it by biting her lip, her fidgeting only intensifying.

    By the time Heather had finished pressing the ‘Open Pod’ button of the last pod (Echo’s pod), Spencer had fully exited his pod, clutching his head in one hand as he readjusted to consciousness, he spotted the completely red and plastic looking Lindsay and the one-armed Heather and commented, “Am I still dreaming?”
    “No, now put these on,” Lindsay said, reaching into the pod and removing the jumpsuit that Heather had informed her were stored in each of the pods, “and sit patiently, because we’ve got a hell of a story to tell you all.”

    Once everyone was successfully out of the pods and dressed and over the shock of the fact that a modified Lindsay and Heather were standing right in front of them, Heather gave a quick summary of events, skimming over most of the group’s trials and tribulations and instead focusing only on the important stuff, like how the park was owned by Eternity Cosmetics, how they had been drugged upon entering the park, how they had a plan to hopefully destroy the company’s stock of clones and escape, and how every moment they sat their explaining everything was a moment they were potentially caught. The group, for the most part, believed them whole-heartedly, it being a little difficult to disagree with a cloning plot when there are clearly two copies of your friends right in front of you (although not impossible, Lindsay in her classic fashion, thought there had to be some other possible explanation, like maybe androids replicas or something).

    It was as they were finally wrapping up their explanation that two bad things happened near simultaneously, the first was that Heather collapsed to the floor, the second was that a loud siren began to sound overhead. Lindsay reached down, happy to find that her friend had not passed out. As she helped her up, Heather said, “Lindsay, we have to go. They caught her. They did… Something to her. I don’t feel her anymore.”
    Lindsay turned towards the group, saying, “Okay team. It’s now or never. We have to get out of here. So stay close to one another, move quickly, and follow us.” The group followed her command, shuffling quickly out into the hallway and back into the labyrinth of tunnels.

    They ran for what felt like ages, the sirens making the already constrictive tunnels became even more oppressive. Each stray shadow instilled fear that a guard was just around the corner. Each unknown sound were immediately interpreted as footsteps. It also didn’t help that they were now in uncharted territory, the mental map that the elderly Sapphire had given to them forgotten in the stress caused by the situation.
    After several twists and turns, the group eventually found themselves in a large antechamber, the room appeared to be cylindrical, the walls extending high above them. As they filed into the room, the group was shocked as a door shot up from the floor, sealing the entrance they had just came in from. The group looked behind them worryingly, before their attention was drawn back to the center of the room, where an all too familiar face was sitting calmly in a chair, sipping a cup of coffee.

    “That’s one,” Sapphire said, placing her cup of coffee on a nearby table.

    Endgame <convergence point>

    Read one of the other Paths:
    1.) Heather’s clone of Sapphire (Infiltrate the enemy)
    2.) Susan and Echo (See if they can stop the cloning facility)
    3.) Veronica, Spencer, and old Sapphire (Cause a distraction)