Accidental Dimension Walker

Thinking it over, Yin decides to go with the vent. The door was rusty, and was therefore probably prone to creaking. If she were to open this door and try to escape that way, she would most certainly alert the hunter and she was not confident in being able to outrun her. 

Ducking down, Yin slowly begins to crawl her way towards the vent. Hearing the footsteps closing in, she picks up the pace, just barely being able to make it through the vent without alerting anyone.

 After completely clearing the vent, she hastily slides out of the line of sight of the vent, just as the hunter rounded the corner. Yin holds her breath as Esther walks by. She hears Esther begin to check each row of old computers slowly and meticulously, and was relieved that she had made the right choice to get out of there, as now it would have been impossible to escape how she did.

 Yin listened carefully for what felt like ages, as Esther was carefully checking the room for any signs of life. After some time she hears the sound of shuffling that indicated that Esther was leaving the room. Realizing that she was right next to the door, Yin had a choice to make.

The vent was next to the door, and so it would be really hard to get through the vent without being spotted, there was also the possibility that she could head around the corner to the broken window that Esther first came in to.

 If she were to go through the vent, she would have to time it perfectly since it was so close to the door Esther was about to leave through. On the other hand she could quickly shuffle around the corner and hope that Esther doesn't get through the door before she is out of sight. 

Yins mind raced, should she choose the vent or the window?

Her eyes darted back and forth, between the vent next to her and the hallway on her other side. Making a split second decision she moves closer to the vent, poised to move at the right moment. Her mind thinking quickly and her body completely still. Her ears picking up every slight sound.

As she hears the door open and the first footstep through that door frame, she makes her first move, slowly crawling through the vent. Yin was incredibly lucky, the door swung open in just the right spot that it completely blocked Esther's view of the vent. Timing it perfectly Yin and Esther managed to miss each other by just a split second. 

The moment her body was completely through the vent she tucks her legs, sliding them in so that they wouldn't be seen by esther. She does this right as Esther slams the door shut. 

Hearing this Yin collapsed in relief.

While laying there she listens to the sound of Esther's footsteps heading back roughly in the direction that she came. Making sure that she is indeed leaving.

Even after the footsteps had gone completely, Yin still sat on the ground, taking a while to let her heart calm down. It was only after about five minutes that she felt calm enough to be able to stand and think properly.

Slowly getting up, and while trying to stop her legs from shaking, she wobbles over to the computer. It had stopped flashing red which was a relief, but it had restarted the questions from scratch.

Yin sighs in annoyance seeing that she would have to start over again. A part of her was dreading starting over again because the questions were difficult and the consequences were dire. As she was standing there putting it off she suddenly came up with an idea. 

Maybe she could try to destroy the computer like how they had discussed earlier. Ren cautioned them to not destroy the computers unless they had to, but Yin felt that she probably could try to destroy just this one right?

She looks at the computer noticing that there was a wire coming from the monitor down the back of the desk, upon taking a closer look she found that it was connected to an outlet. Reaching down she pauses for a minute, having another thought.

The security system in place might trigger if she were to take this computer offline, and there was a good chance that it would. If Yin were to try to turn off the computer and destroy it, she would need a backup plan to get out. Looking around for anything heavy that she could use to smash the monitor, she finds an old metal rusty pipe sitting by one of the other old school computers. Walking over she picks it up. Deciding on the way back that if the alarm went off she would destroy the monitor as quickly as possible and then sprint out the broken window on the other side of the room. 

As she begins to try to take out the computer plug a strange feeling comes over her. The plug came out easily but looking at the screen the computer still looked to be on, but that was just for a moment. Yin straightens up and looks at the computer, prepared for the alarm. 

The strange feeling still persists as she watches the monitor once again begin to glitch. Noticing some movement in the corner of her eye she looks down to see that the glitching goes all the way up the cord and right into her hand, which now seems to be glitching as well.

Dropping the cord in shock, she stares at her hand. The glitching on her person doesn't go away, and she realizes that it's probably where the strange feeling was coming from. 

Her attention was entirely focused on her hand and so she didn't see the monitor display several error screens before shutting off. She took her attention off her hand when she heard the sound of a system notification

Ding!

Computers hacked0->1/3

Congratulations! 2 more to go!

She sighs in relief, looking back down at her hand, she saw that it was no longer being weird. 

Ren POV

Ren walks over to the computer, clicking the space bar on the keyboard. The screen lights up displaying a message: 

Question 1: 

How many racks of clothing are in this room? 

Ren quickly looks around the balcony, counting. She hopes that the computer was only referring to this floor. She turns back and types in 21, the timer having reached 10 seconds. The computer pauses, a spinning wheel in the center, before the screen lights up; 

Correct! 

Then the screen switches to the next question and answer box: 

Question 2: 

How many plants are in this mall? 

Ren freezes, considering that this is the only room she's seen. Going through different possibilities such as, there are probably 100 plants because greenery looks nice, and the mall would probably buy things in bulk. Did they even buy plants? Is there a real person who made the mall? Was the mall ever used? She shakes her head, focusing back on the question. The time is up to 27 seconds. Realizing she doesn't have the time she quickly types in zero.

She holds her breath while waiting for the computer to load. Finally the screen changes;

Correct!

She makes an audible sound of relief, and glances back at the computer. However, as she does that, she hears a creak from someone stepping on the spiral stairs. She freezes, glancing back at the stairs and debating if she should call out in case it was Yin or Zoe. As she's thinking, she sees a faint red light coming from the area. She can hear the person walking up the spiral stairs to her balcony. 

She immediately darts towards the metal railing on the edge of the balcony, vaulting over it as the footsteps speed up. She twists her shoulders as she falls, trying to turn her body. As her feet hit the ground first, she feels stabbing pain shoot up her left foot. Luckily, she still manages to roll out of it as her hip touches the ground, followed by the rest of her body. She groans in pain, standing up and taking a look above her. 

Esther is making her way back to the stairs, running as she does with a hammer in hand. Ren bolts for the first door she sees, being the double doors at the end of the food court. She hears the footsteps getting closer as she runs for her life. 

She barrels through the double doors, running into the wall of the hallway on the other side. She pushes off the wall and keeps running down the hallway, taking a left. From behind, she can hear the crash of Esther hitting the wall loudly, but quickly adjusting and pursuing her. The first door she sees, she turns as fast as she could, one of her feet sliding on the floor and dashing through it. She keeps running through what appears to be a clothing store, carrying the same racks as the ones on the balcony. She can still hear Esther's footsteps behind her, but she seems to have bought herself a little bit of time. She knocks racks of clothing down as she passes by, trying to trip Esther up. 

Realizing she was running out of room and quickly reaching the back of the store, she glances behind her, seeing Esther still chasing after her, about halfway through the store. She makes a quick plan to try and juke Esther out and get past her. 

Getting to the back wall of the store, she takes a sharp 180 and begins to head back to the exit of the store. Unfortunately, Esther realized what she was trying to do and hastily paused, blocking her path and wielding her hammer. 

This was the first time anyone had gotten a good look at Esther's face since the start of the game. Not much had changed in her appearance, she was still wearing the same dress that she had been, and her face looked relatively the same. The only difference was her eyes went from their normal light brown to a pitch black, and there was an unnatural expression on her face. She was eerily calm about the whole situation. Cold and calculating. Completely unusual compared to her normal carefree self. When Ren made eye contact with her, she felt her demeanor change. She felt that within those pitch black eyes there was a primal blood thirst. A small smile formed on Esther's face, but not her normal kind smile, the smile that a killer gets when their prey is falling right into their trap. 

Ren furrowed her eyes at this, and quickly came up with another plan. She realizes she has far too much momentum to stop, so she keeps running, trying to speed up. She notices that there's an upright rack a little bit in front of and to the left of Esther. Ren shifts her course, moving towards Esther and the rack. 

As Esther started swinging the hammer at her head, Ren ducks, colliding with the rack and pushing it into Esther. She feels Esther falling with the rack, from the momentum of the hammer knocking her off balance. 

She falls on top of the rack and Esther, both of them making eye contact, Esther, or whatever was in Esther, snarling, pinned beneath the rack. The inhuman strength showcased by Esther was seen again as she starts trying to lift the rack. Ren scrambles to her feet, pushing back down on the rack, but losing leverage as Esther keeps pushing up. 

Ren, panicking, leans down on the rack, angling her body so that the arm Esther was holding the hammer with, was now holding all the weight. Esther realized the attempt too late, so while she tried to push Ren to the side, her arm was crushed with Ren's body weight. 

Esther howls in pain, an ugly screech sounding like the chimeras that were rarely seen back in the world they lived in. Ren takes off towards the exit, slamming the door behind her, as Esther continues to howl. 

Ren slows down to a jog, panting as she keeps moving down the hallway. Once she feels like she's far enough away, she ducks into another abandoned store, trying to steady her breathing. As the adrenaline wears off, she winces at the pain in her foot and ankle, taking a seat behind the counter, relatively hidden, she takes a moment to rest.