"Okay, what the hell was that just now?" Chris demanded, wincing as Ivy slammed the front door of the house into its frame. The bang echoed harshly through the quiet residential street, but Sarah pulled him along in her stead as if she hadn't heard a thing. Chris shook his head in disbelief; he'd never seen Sarah treat someone like she just did Ivy. Especially not a persocom - where they were concerned, Sarah was a model NEIS employee! She should appreciate and understand them better than anyone! He glared at back of the woman's head as she pulled him further down the street at a brisk pace. Her grip on his hand was vice-like, and... was it shaking? "Sarah! Answer me! Hey, Sarah-"

"Have I ever struck you as crazy?" Sarah interrupted, glancing anxiously over her shoulder. The late afternoon sunlight made it difficult to see back up the rows of houses, forcing her to squint a little.

"Frequently." Chris snapped grumpily, "Nor is this helping."

"I guess I deserve that." she managed a chuckle, but it was a forced and mirthless noise, "Well, this is going to be difficult then... But I need you to trust me regardless. Keep an eye out behind you, tell me if at any point you see her following us."

"Who, Ivy? What, you think it looked like she wanted to?" Chris growled, gesturing back at his home. "I didn't get that vibe, did you? What's gotten into you? What'd you kiss me for? I thought you and I were a failed experiment - your words, remember? Don't tell me that was-"

"That was me saving your life, you frigging idiot!" Sarah hissed, motioning for him to keep his voice down and glancing back up the street again. "If I thought there was another way to get you out of the house faster I would've done that instead. You should've been out of there days ago. You have no idea how lucky you are-" Her breath caught in her throat; behind them, the silhouette of a large male persocom was quietly heading in their direction, strolling at a leisurely pace through the afternoon sun's rays on their side of the road. "Shit! Is that one of the others? We need to get off this street."

"One of what?" Chris repeated, regarding the persocom quizzically. "Why off the street? What do you mean, saving my life? What the fuck are you talking about-"

"Don't stare at it! We don't have time to chat, just hurry." Sarah replied, veering aside and dragging him down a small passageway dividing a stretch of terraced houses. She moved like an animal that knew it was being hunted, darting her eyes around furtively and tugging at his arm to urge him to move faster.

"If this is another one of your games, it's not funny." Chris complained, but his irritation was half-hearted this time; something was clearly wrong. Sarah looked frightened now. But why? What did that have to do with Ivy, or the persocom in the street? Chris furrowed his brow in thought as they reached the end of the passageway. It opened onto a grassy, tree-lined path that ran behind the rows of houses and gardens, separating his residential street from the next one over. The late afternoon sun was hidden behind the rooftops here, and height and density of the trees made the space beneath them somewhat gloomy and unwelcoming.

"Oh shit. Shit shit shit!" Sarah cursed under her breath, looking down the path in the direction that led past his back garden and immediately hauling Chris the other way. He craned his neck to see another lone figure following them in the distance, difficult to pick out among the dappled shade of the trees.

"Who is that?" Chris murmured nervously. Sarah's fingers dug into his hand.

"For fuck's sake, don't stare! Just keep walking. Listen, the park's just up ahead." Sarah replied, her voice wavering with stress. "When we reach it, we walk out of sight, then start running."

"I'm not running anywhere until you give me some answers." Chris demanded. Sarah groaned in frustration as he continued. "Now spit it out! What's going on? Who are we running from?"

"Persocoms." Sarah said evasively.

"Right." Chris muttered. It would have been a ridiculous notion a year or two ago; now it seemed all too feasible. "Fine. But why?"

"You don't understand. They're not just any persocoms; they're the units our S-Dev team were given last week. It was a ploy. They're not... they're not what they seem. The others..." Sarah trailed into an unsettling silence. The path was about to end, opening up into the park, and so she began studying the layout, apparently deciding which way to go. Its open grassy plains were dotted with trees, their perimeter lined with the buildings and roads that enclosed the area, still busy from the commuters heading home for the day.

Chris found his mind racing with questions. What could Sarah have meant? Was the figure behind them one of those persocoms? The one on the street too? As far as he knew everyone on their team were given units... if they were compromised in some way, if they were unstable and dangerous somehow... Sarah was scared, did that mean something had happened to the other team members?

But if that were the case, then it wasn't anger that caused Sarah to treat Ivy the way she had.

It was fear.

An uncomfortable chill ran down his spine. "Sarah, those persocoms..."

Although he had hoped he was off the mark, the look in her eyes had already confirmed his conclusion. He barely heard her words: "They're military units, disguised as consumer models."

No... No, Ivy was harmless, wasn't she? Running from a crazy persocom or two was one thing... but the idea that NEIS would send its own employees persocoms equipped with military hardware seemed absurd. To say such hardware was very carefully controlled, their manufacturing and storage processes heavily monitored audited, would be massively understating things. Besides, Sarah had implied they were so unstable as to attack humans without provocation. Ivy was many things, but 'murderous' wasn't one of them. It didn't fit. Then again, he hadn't had any messages from anyone on the team all day... not even the supervisor...

Chris stopped and turned, ignoring Sarah's protests and peering into the gloom. His eyes widened - the figure approaching them was feminine. Could it be...?

"Chris!" Sarah shouted, abandoning all pretence and yanking his arm in an attempt to draw him away, "Don't! Please!" She scrunched her face up with the exertion, managing to heave him a few steps along the path in the process.

"But-"

"Please!"

Chris frowned in confusion. Ivy had been with him for days, it just didn't make any sense. He looked back down the path, and as his eyes landed on the shadowy figure behind them, it hunched into a purposeful sprint.

"Oh fuck! Fuck!" Sarah's voice jumped an octave. "Chris, we need to go now! Right fucking now!"

He watched the figure hurtling towards them, transfixed. It was still too far to see properly - was it Ivy? Perhaps she was just trying to catch up with then... She couldn't be dangerous, it was impossible...

Something struck him across the face so hard he stumbled. Sarah grabbed him by his shirt, drawing her hand back again. "Even if it is her, you'll still die! Understand?"

Chris nodded. Yes. Run.

"Then move!" Sarah yelled.

The two humans turned and launched themselves across the grass. Sarah seemed to be aiming for the junction in the streets on opposite side, where the crowds were busiest; she must have been thinking they could get lost in there before their pursuer cleared the park. But that plan would have relied on the persocom -whoever it was- remaining at a walk, providing time to put distance between them. If it were a mil-spec unit it would almost certainly have uprated servomotors or EME muscle fibres... many times more powerful than commercial hardware and lethal in close combat, but slower due to bigger gear ratios or sluggish activation rate of the thick active materials. Chris looked at the earth flying beneath his pumping legs. At best such a unit might slightly exceed a healthy human athlete's running speed. Sarah was a fast runner for her part - it was taking him enormous effort to keep up with her. They might make it on that basis alone, but if the persocom behind them was weaponised they could be gunned down before they were out of its line of sight. He gritted his teeth. They'd thrown away precious seconds because of his stupid hesitancy! Even if they somehow reached the crowds now, he doubted they could get lost within them. It would become a matter of stamina and then they were good as dead.

"This way!" Chris yelled, turning towards the rows of tall wooden fences. They lined the back gardens of houses adjacent to the park, obscuring their contents from view. Sarah seemed to understand, turning towards the fences in his wake; they were out of view from the path over here - if they could get to cover before the persocom reached the park, it would be forced to search for them. Agonisingly long seconds passed in the sprint up to the fences, leaving them almost no time to hide. They skidded to a stop, practically bouncing off the side of fence before scrambling over the top. Chris landed hard on wooden decking that encircled the back garden of someone's semi-detached home, almost knocking the wind from himself. The fences were tall on all sides here, affording much needed visual cover. He scrambled upright to peer through a knothole in the fence-wood, just in time to see the persocom burst from the cover of the trees.

It wasn't Ivy. It wasn't her! Chris sighed heavily, but the relief he felt was short-lived and bittersweet; without hesitation it veered towards them, changing direction so quickly that thick flurries of dirt and grass were kicked up from its heels.

"I don't think it saw us but it's heading this way." He panted, hurrying to help Sarah off the floor. If it wasn't Ivy, then he no longer had any doubt about its intentions.

"Of course it is!" Sarah gasped, as they hurried for the side of the house, "It estimated our trajectory from before we went out of sight, and it's obvious we'd never cross the park so quickly. It knows we're somewhere behind these fences." reading between the lines, Chris realised she was cursing their foolishness. They had made a mistake. If they'd only swerved in a more random direction, perhaps doubled back a little and aimed for the houses nearer the path entrance... no... if only he'd not stood there like a bloody statue before they reached the park!

Sarah bit back a yelp as a loud crash reverberated off the bricks of the nearby houses. Was that the persocom? It came from only a few doors down... by the sound it must have run straight through the bloody fence! As an estimation of their position, it was an alarmingly close guess. The two of them darted along the side of the house - there, a narrow path led from the back garden to the street out front - but to their dismay, the way was blocked by a tall wrought-iron gate. They flinched as another hollow smash announced the persocom's entry into the adjacent garden, splinters of wood flying into view over the lip of the fencing. At any moment it would be on top of them! Sarah scrabbled at the gate's stiff latching mechanism with shaking fingers, frantically trying to lever it open.

The telltale whoosh of a large object ripping through the air came to their ears. Chris gasped as a heavy wooden post blew apart the fence they had been cowering beside not moments before, rocketing across the garden and embedding itself two feet deep into the ground with a percussive thump that showered its surroundings in earth. With nothing in between them any more, he found himself face to face with their pursuer.

There the persocom stood, shorn-off remains of the thick wooden fence post still in hand. She appeared for all the world to be an ordinary commercial unit; blonde hair was left to fall unkempt on either side of her face, and her utilitarian clothes were scruffy and somewhat dirty, but there was nothing to indicate the incredible strength she possessed. Not until she moved; her sunset orange eyes regarded him dispassionately as her hand snapped shut, shattering the chunk of timber and sending shards of it flying over the decking. They crunched under her feet as she slowly strode towards them.

This was it. This was how they would die. The world seemed to decelerate, as if time were playing out in slow motion. Someone was shouting, tugging at him. He turned, dazed; Sarah, pulling his arm with all her might, begging him to run once more. The gate was open. He complied, almost dreamily, turning and making his feet pound the pavement, following the street in a direction that lead further into town. Their only chance now was the winding and twisting network of roads and alleyways that they could use to keep out of sight. Chris watched Sarah as she ran, her desperation completely at odds with the emptiness he felt within himself. It wasn't going to work. With no distance between them, they would have to run like they were possessed to have the slightest hope of escape. He could see from the despair on her face Sarah was thinking the same thing. Chris smiled in spite of himself - ah, if only Mika and Caz were here! He wondered if they could even get to the end of this street without them; the persocom behind them could be weaponised, and Chris was certain projectiles were going to plunge into his exposed back at any moment.

Sure enough, white hot pain lanced through his body as something solid slammed into his right shoulder, the force of it knocking him off his feet. There wasn't even time to cry out - Chris only had a moment to watch the ground rushing to meet him before his head hit the pavement, and the sound of Sarah screaming his name followed him into the darkness.