Following after the person, they thought they knew, Abigail and her group past by more trails of blood and the occasional splatter across the walls. Just like all the other locations, bodies were missing.

There were hallways splitting off from the one they were walking down, trails of blood and unusual prints heading away from them. It only led to Abigail to wonder what had occurred inside of PentaSoft. This was especially the case considering most of the security features seemed to be functional.

Timothy would occasionally have to place his hand on a screen and unlock numerous security doors as they made their way deeper into the company. Each time, he didn't bother opening the door, leaving it to the woman to follow the same procedure to let them in. It was as if Timothy didn't care if they followed him or not.

His actions spoke volumes, leaving behind the boy who they spent so much time inside of the community. The boy who had recently informed them of his desire to be a part of the guard unit.

"Are we just going to be following after him?" Sheila asked, a mixture of curiosity and fear in her voice.

It was the first words spoken since Abigail and the group began following after their friend, none of them wanting to discuss the oddity of their position.

The woman in front of them looked back, saying, "You don't have to." She then pointed at one of the trails of blood. "Just remember these trails are from the former employees of this place and something dragged them away."

Abigail sneered at the manner in which the woman implied the danger as if the two of them had all the cards.

"For someone who looked terrified of the world, she looks like as pleased as a cat with cream," Rodger growled.

Abigail looked back to see Liam and Michelle looking similarly pissed at the change in the attitude of the woman.

Michelle indicated with a hand at the woman, saying to Abigail, "Are we just going to follow this woman? I don't know about Timothy, but this place is crazy creepy. Something tells me we shouldn't be inside of this place."

Feeling frustrated by the situation, Abigail frowned before shaking her head. "I know this feels off, but we don't have a choice. Whether inside of here or out there, I don't think we're in a position to make our own decision."

"I agree. If going out there, into that forest with those creatures, I think it's better to figure out what Timothy is doing and get some answers." Helen agreed with Abigail.

Up ahead, they saw Timothy reach a door and repeat the process of placing a hand and waiting for it to turn green. Just like the rest of the building, there were no signs to indicate their destination. Abigail wondered whether there was a secret method for employees to navigate the building.

Just like before, Timothy entered the door without waiting for them. It was either due to apathy or the knowledge they would follow after him.

To allow them to follow, the woman began the procedure to unlock the door.

"This place is crazy, the amount of security PentaSoft installed on every door. I bet even using the restrooms require you to scan your hand." Liam muttered, not finding the constant verification appealing.

Helen snorted upon hearing Liam's complaints. "You should be happy this place has so much security. It's likely the reason why we haven't run into whatever killed all these people."

Michelle sucked in her breath, hearing Helen's words. Even though everyone had thought about this being the case, it was likely on the periphery of their minds.

Even Abigail unconsciously looked at the nearest gruesome splattering, her mind wandering to whatever was possibly lurking within the company. Not hearing sounds of footsteps, aside from their own, ramped up the tension they felt inside.

"This place is not indicative of what PentaSoft was working on," The woman coyly spoke out, as if enjoying their growing anxiety. She opened the door to reveal a stairwell. Motioning with a hand, the woman invited them to enter.

Abigail felt the hair on her neck rise upon seeing the stairway winding downwards. There wasn't even an option for them to go upwards. This was strange considering they were still on the first floor. Even seeing from the exterior, there was more than one floor for the building.

Noticing the confusion on their faces, the woman said, "As you all have stated, all the doors of this building have a security panel next to the doors. This security function allows certain employees to venture into areas denied to other employees without the clearance. Restricting the movements, like this, allows the company to remove many opportunities for espionage to occur."

"Wait! How does Timothy fit into this place? It feels like he has unrestricted access, opening doors whichever way." Rodger demanded.

"What's your connection to Timothy? Why do you seem to have the same clearance level as him?" Abigail asked, a realization upon slowly putting together some of the pieces to see a clear picture of a portion of a larger one.

Grinning from hearing Abigail's question, the woman tilted her head as if listening for something. After getting the information she needed, the woman looked at Abigail. "I'm not sure whether you need to know that yet." Her smile grew larger as she said, "But... Considering how obvious it is at this point, I will confirm something. Timothy and I do have a connection with one another and to PentaSoft. Our connection to the company is primarily to this building and not to the rest. This building is very special, none like it in the entire world. Not even Star and Moon is advanced or qualified to take a peek at what we've accomplished." Her eyelids lowered to make her eyes look like slits, giving the appearance of a fox. "Not even their special teams have been able to infiltrate this building, though they have tried numerous times."

"Special teams?" Sheila asked.

Nodding her head, the woman explained, "Yes. Most companies in the world, when they get to a size comparable to PentaSoft, tend to train their own security force to protect employees and look after the company's interest. They also infiltrate other companies to gain classified information in order to compete against them. Even PentaSoft has such special teams."

"Then... What you're saying is this building was important enough to draw Star and Moon's attention, where they would send out these teams with the attempt to gain access to what PentaSoft was developing?" Liam voiced, his voice becoming stronger as he understood the situation.

"W-what's in this place?" Michelle asked, as if not wanting to hear the answer.

The woman shook her head. "It seems like we took too long. I can tell our friend has made his way past several levels. Unless we want to lose sight of him, we should continue following him."

Abigail didn't want to look at the smug expression on the woman's face any longer, stepping into the stairwell and making her way down. She could only hear the sounds of her own footsteps on the concrete steps, unable to hear Timothy's movements.

A part of her wanted to quicken her steps and catch up with the person she was beginning to not recognize. She wanted to yell at him, asking him how he could deceive them and pretend to be some survivor of this new hellish world they lived in. But, deep inside, Abigail knew it would have been pointless. Judging by how Timothy was behaving, he wouldn't have informed any of them in the community of his secret connection to PentaSoft.

The deeper she went into the depths of the company, more pieces felt like they were falling into place inside of her mind. Whether it was something dangerous to her friends was still a mystery, though it felt like the clues were pointing to something obvious resting on the tip of her tongue.

"How in the world can a company, like PentaSoft, with all the security installed, have something moving inside of this building. Could it be as simple as the workers running away and letting whatever it is follow after them?" Abigail tried to think of a growing feeling inside of her. Flashes of images of the strange footsteps kept going off in her mind.

"What was PentaSoft up to?"