Try turning It off, and back on again.
“I can’t figure out how this happened. I was here just a few days ago. I don’t undersand how these slugs could trap our staff with such short notice!” Anders pined.
“Maybe there was some sort of poison gas released? You know… maybe it didn’t smell bad at first?”
“Perhaps, Tom. This growth could have happened shortly after the demise of our friends, here.” I tried to console Anders by entertaining his proposition, however, It didn’t seem to me that a toxic gas was the culprit. The place seemed ransacked. It seemed to me that they fought for their lives in surprise. That begs the question, “If they didn’t win, who did, or what…?”
“Hey, man, you said you knew where the exit is, right? I don’t know about y’all, but something isn’t right, here.”
“Yes. Our maintenance and Shipping/Receiving dock is accessible via a large cargo elevator on the floor just below us, its full of storage and multipurpose rooms. You know, meetings and so on…” Anders cleared his throat, “it is right this way.” Down the hallway from the main elevator, taking a right, down a short corridor an open stairwell and elevator bank sat. I was hesitant to use the elevator, though we tried to call it. The button was unresponsive.
“Hmm… I suppose the stairwell would be preferable, considering the circumstances. The smell took on color as they peered down the atrium stairwell, into the dim lit descent through the blanket of green haze. We looked at each other, our path ahead was unappealing.
“So, you were saying that Eugene has not answered your calls, recently? Do you suppose he was caught up in all of this?” I questioned. I hoped not.
“His Office is just down here.” We tried to hurry, though I didn’t want to leave behind Michelle, who didn’t seem to be taking the exertion too well.
“You know, She’s been acting strange ever since you gave her this stuff, Anders… you need to take us to Eugene. I do not believe he told you the truth…”
“If he’s in his office, I’m not sure we will get the truth.” Anders grew irritated. “I can’t believe he would hide this work from me… though it’s my fault. I was too excited to have a win.” We came upon the second floor. It was very plain, a generic off-white patterned tile floor, door after door along the walls of the stretching hallway, fading into a blinded haze. ‘Conference Room A 201’, ‘Storage 1 203’, ‘Storage 2 205’. ‘Cryogenic Containment 208’, ‘Multipurpose 210’… then to the left, a small nook revealed office rooms and a break room, filled to the brim with biomass, of course. “Here,” he coughed. We came to an unassuming door, Anders opening it slowly. ‘Dr. Eugene Burnseid’ was printed on the window.
“Hey this ain’t a cargo elevator.”
“Were just checking it out, Shay. Keep a look out?” She nodded, hanging back.
His office was dreadfully chaotic. Chemical formulae covered wall to wall whiteboards, filing cabinets ajar, jammed with documentation of every kind. His desk drawers were all open, but one that was cleared out. “He must have left…”
“Why is that?”
“His desk is littered with research… his desk drawers filled to the top, but for that one. He took something and left. I hope he didn’t anticipate the following events.” What would be the point of destroying the laboratory and taking everyone down with it, I wondered, if that was the case.
“You don’t mean to imply HE was the cause of all this?” Anders barked.
“Well, as a matter of fact I DID imply that, though intentionally or not. If you haven’t put it together yet, your laboratory is now the mired nest of a virulent and sprawling lifeform that YOUR friend brought here. Not to mention that excessively large creature seemingly hellbent on seeing my associate to an early grave.” I gestured to Tom.
“Wait, you think he is after ME?” Tom’s face paled.
“Yes. I do.” Michelle sits down in a side chair, focused on breathing. “Are you alright?”
“I’m… Okay… I just… need.. a breath.” She labored. “I’m a little dizzy.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I had no idea. I don’t want anymore people getting hurt.” He calmed down.
“We needn’t waste any more time here, Anders. Take us to the Cargo Lift, and then you can take us directly to Eugene’s house.” I don’t think this pungent air was helping with Michelle’s asthma. We shuffled out of the office and further down to a large industrial room. Before us sat a large platform, perhaps 30 feet wide, 15 feet deep. There was a fork truck staged on the side, by the control panel. I inspected the panel, quickly understanding the operation. “Alright, folks. Hop on.” A moment passed, and I was ready to send it up.
BEEP
The panel sounded, and silence for a moment.
GRRROOAAANNNNNN. RREEEEEEEEE.
The lift rattled and scrapped, lifting up from the ground. “Hey, Alright!” Tom cheered!
…
The groaning returned… The lights flickered, and extinguished. Our victory was short lived, ending in a bang as the whole platform slammed back into the ground, quaking the room. It billowed up dust, drawing debris from some cracks in the ceiling.
“I don’t suppose you know how to fix this, Anders? It appears we have a shortage of power!”
“Do you think I am the Engineer who designed this facility?! There must be some sort of breaker!”
“Well, I could have figured as much. I don’t suppose you know WHERE such a breaker resides?” I grew annoyed.
“The Maintenance Shop is downstairs. It’s a sort of the “guts” of our facility… CryoTanks, Bulk Storage, Emergency generators…” He pointed back where we came. “We can take the stairs down a flight, and make our way to the Maintenance Manager’s office.”
“Boy, am I relieved this isn’t a giant sprawling facility, heh.”
We descended upon the third floor and the smell changed. It was almost like it was supposed to smell. Beyond the stairwell, a door opened up to a large Tank Bay full of various material, and utility CryoTanks such as Argon and Nitrogen. along the right hand side, a steel catwalk lead to a pair of doors, a light glowing from inside. The Biomass covered almost every surface, now. The room seemed… Alien. Below in the bay, a cloudy haze filled the spill pit as if it could be a hundred feet deep, though it wasn’t but fifteen. We stepped over pods and biomass, though there were some different creatures among it. The were ambulatory, milling around like the slugs, but sniffing and chewing.
“What are those?” Tom whispered.
“Not to cause concern, but It looks like they may be related to those slugs.”
Michelle piped up from behind, “Those are what the Blood Maggots grow into. They are peaceful little things…” I stopped to listen, “That’s how I propagated the colony. The Blood Maggot undergoes a change, and they become these things. I call them Pugs. You know, like that silly smushed-faced dog?”
“Alright, yeah, I can see dat.”
“The pugs are the ones that plant new pods. I didn’t have much use for them after they filled my basement. So I would only keep one to make more pods, while I euthanized the rest.”
“Then what?” I pressed.
“Well, I don’t know.” She threw her hands up, exasperated. “I have recipes to develop. I’m sorry I wasn’t born a dog trainer.”
I peered into the window, it was surprisingly Biomass Free. I turned the handle, pushing slowly into the door. It wasn’t a particularly tidy room, though the tools were organized. The far end of the room kept a desk basking in the 2600K glow of a small desk lamp. I figured that was the boss’s desk, I noticed a bay of electrical breaker boxes on the wall just behind the desk. “Hey, That’s probably it.”
Approaching the desk, I focus in on a bottle of Woodford Reserve sitting opened beside a dry lowball. I was interested. I could see leaving the cup but the bottle wasn’t corked. There were a stack of work orders. “This work order was from last week.” I suppose that would make sense… I browsed for a manual, shortly after Anders called from by the breakers.
“There’s a series of lights here indicating a ground fault,” He leaned closer, “ACCESS LIFT AREA.” He read aloud. “The light is red for a Ground Fault.
“I guess flip the switch?” I shrugged. Usually that’s all that is required.
CLICK - SNAP
“Did it work?” Anders shrugged, “Wait, here it says if a fault occurs, reset breakers individually, then throw the breaker switch, to ‘OFF’ and then ‘ON’, to restart systems.” He looked at me, and I looked back.
CLICK - SNAP - CLICK
Shuddering and whirring filled the room, and the lights came on. Heavy banging called from the tank bay and beyond. I have a unique fondness of old technology. “I think it worked, guys.” I declared, as the clanging ceased, to an uneasy silence.
Rising from the silence, chittering and clamoring begun. Cacophonic screeches tore though the musty air. We stood still, looking at each other.
“I think we just rattled the cage…” I looked toward Shalaly’qua. She nodded, gripping her rifle.
“Wait… Where’s Michelle?!”