Countermeasures. Janie Crouch

      She grabbed her stuff and headed toward the door without another word before she hyperventilated. She heard Sawyer chuckle as she brushed past him.

      “See you tomorrow, Dr. Fuller,” he called as she walked down the hall. Megan didn’t respond. What could she say anyway?

      Megan made her way down the hallway, reporting to Mark, the main security guard, that she was leaving for the day to work at home and would be back tomorrow.

      When Mark smiled at her it didn’t do anything to her stomach. She smiled back as he helped her with the front door.

      The crisp winter air felt good against Megan’s overheated skin. She walked slowly to her car enjoying—as always—the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding her. Here, outside and away from all the craziness inside Cyberdyne and her reaction to Sawyer, Megan realized she had made the right decision.

      She already felt clearer, steadier. Ready to work. What she was doing was important and she was racing against a very real clock, but she was up for the challenge. Working at home would be just what she needed.

      Megan opened her car door and threw her briefcase and lunch bag in the passenger seat beside her. Her house was only ten minutes away from Cyberdyne. She’d chosen it specifically for that reason. She cleared through the security gate and began her drive home.

      As she stopped at an intersection about halfway between her house and Cyberdyne, an idea for solving one of the problems with the countermeasure became clear to Megan. She reached into her purse to grab her phone so she could make a voice recording, to remember it later.

      A car behind her honked as Megan was getting her phone ready to record. The light had turned green. Megan waved to the car behind her and began to pull through the intersection.

      Just as an SUV flew through the intersection in the other direction and T-boned into the passenger side of Megan’s car.