Chapter 6
Subtle hums and beeps filled the air as an array of complex machinery lined the walls, their blinking lights casting an eerie glow across the room. You stood, shifting in the corner after Anne had ordered you to ‘stay’ as one might an untrained dog before clumsily crawling onto the large table in the center of the room.
"You're huffing like you're in the middle of climbing a mountain, Anne!" Your shoulders shook, and you covered your mouth to hide a laugh.
"NO!" You jumped as her voice boomed, "Keep your hands away from your face and touch nothing!"
"Yes, ma'am." You grimaced at your knee-jerk response to authority, turning from Anne’s struggle to climb to take in the lab.
A maze of steel tables, their surfaces cluttered with various scientific instruments and glassware, created narrow pathways that snaked through the laboratory. The faint scent of chemicals permeated the air, a constant reminder of the room's purpose. Against one wall, an oversized screen displayed a complicated sequence of numbers and symbols, the data constantly updating and shifting like an ever-changing puzzle.
Despite the room's high-tech appearance, an air of disuse hung over the space. Dust particles danced in the dim light, and a thin layer of grime coated some of the equipment, suggesting that this laboratory had been all but forgotten—until now.
A sudden flurry of activity jerked your attention towards the center table as Anne plastered label stickers over the unblinking eye of a domed camera nestled in the ceiling. Her movements were swift, her breaths shallow from her climb, as she concealed the intrusive lens from view.
"Okay, almost good."
"I’m not sure I should be condoning you covering security cameras, what with my profession and all…" You huffed, "Mind informing the pleb on what’s happening?"
"A moment, please."
Satisfied with her handiwork, she stumbled off the table with a gasp and ushered you deeper into the lab. Her tense posture guided you through the lab up to a floor length drawn curtain which she jerked back to expose a spartan room made almost entirely of glass.
Your brows jerked up at the sight.
"Uhh, Anne?" The sterile atmosphere was a stark contrast to the turmoil you sensed within her, your trust in Anne the only thing keeping you from doing an about-face and leaving the lab altogether.
Your steps echoed her panic-laced strides, acutely aware that the air surrounding you was heavy with unspoken dread. She led you to the clear chamber, swiping her security card and fiddling with several heavy-duty automated locks before opening the door and stepping aside.
“I…You…” Her pleading eyes glistened as she looked to you, all of her intensity draining away to leave Anne a pale semblance of her spirited self. She gestured to the door, biting her trembling lip.
You forced a smile, a distant voice in your mind yelled at you to refuse. To grab her shoulders and shake until answers fell out of her mouth- but you were loyal… Clearly, loyal to a fault.
"Got it, no problem." You lifted a hand to pat her arm but stopped when she jerked back with a gasp. "Crap, sorry! No touchy. Got it." You pulled away, striding into the glass room with a smile and confidence you didn’t feel. "We will be laughing about this tomorrow, Anne…Maybe…It’s not leprosy is it? Do I have leprosy?"
"…"
Well, fuck.
Maybe you won't be laughing tomorrow.
You still hadn't the faintest fucking notion of what was transpiring—yet the situation palpably teetered on disaster's precipice.
Anne swiped her security card over the door, a resounding click echoed as the bolts clicked closed, locking you in. Crystalline walls revealed a stark interior devoid of warmth. The enclosure, likely a clean room, was punctuated by pass-through doors. Your privacy relied solely on the curtains lining the exterior—currently all drawn back.
"Cozy," you quipped, quickly taking in the room—or was it a chamber? Science dungeon? Whatever this stupid clear box was.
A padded gurney by the wall flaunted buckle restraints, as if daring you to imagine their purpose. Rising from the floor, a chemical shower loomed ominously, its red lever jutting out like a warning. The grated drain at the center of the polished concrete floor did little to quell the growing sense of foreboding that crept into your consciousness.
A solitary metal chair, cold and uninviting, occupied the far corner of your glass prison.
And if that weren't enough, a metal bedpan rested by the door, and you wondered with mounting horror if you would be here long enough to have to use it in front of Anne.
Do you just pop a squat if you have to go, then kick the poop-filled bedpan to a corner like a stray cat and hope nobody noticed?
'Hey, Anne, uh… So, I hate to prematurely bump our friendship to this level, but I just took a dump in this pan… Now what?'
You shuddered.
As you turned to Anne for solace, your breath caught at the sight of her hunched figure.
Her lab coat pooled around her crouched frame while she cupped her face with trembling hands. Her shoulders shook, each panicked breath she drew echoing the terror that seized her heart.
"Anne?"
Her bangs stuck to her sweat-sheened brow and her breaths turned into gasped sobs.
You recognized the signs, having seen many such instances during your training.
"Anne, I need you to listen to me. You're having a panic attack," you calmly intoned. "Can you hear me?" She nodded. "Sit on your butt and lean your back against the table… There ya go, you're getting it. Now, follow my breathing. Deep slow breath in through the nose and hold … Now, out through the mouth." As you coached her breaths with yours, her trembling subsided.
"Thanks, this has never… h-happened before…"
"No problem, I’ve had my fair share of them too… You just have to remember to sit down and breathe.” You needed to keep her focused. “Where are we?" you asked gently.
"An unused laboratory," she whispered, her voice quivering. Ragged gasps echoed in the room as you kept your breathing synced with Anne’s .
"Why are we here?" The question nearly sent her into another panic, but she managed to choke out a response between sobs.
"The dog... it's... it's part of Sebastian's project… Classified… You're... you might be infected now."
“With what?... Rabies? Syphilis?”
Blood drained from your face at the look she cast at you.
“Oh, god. It’s both, isn’t it?”
“This is serious!” she choked, honey-brown eyes bore into yours. Still wheezing, she valiantly worked to regain control of her emotions. "It's not rabies or syphilis," she began, her voice barely above a whisper. "It's something...else. Sebastian created it. It was meant as a way to improve upon the human body, and had excellent results- for a time. The side effects though- I can’t say much since I just don’t know everything. Just that it’s unpredictable. Dangerous."
She paused, glancing around the laboratory as if the very walls could be listening. "The research…It has so much potential, and could save so many lives...or turn them into monsters."
Your heart sank with the weight of her words. Monsters. Like that thing you'd fought, that used to be a dog. It could have been somebody's pet once. And now it was...what? A hybrid monster? A demon? Possibly a zombie?
"And you think I might be infected?" you croaked, your voice raw with thinly veiled terror.
Anne hesitated, her eyes brimming with tears. "I don't know. I’m sorry, but I just don’t know. I’ve kept my distance."
Peering down, you took in your appearance in a bid to look anywhere but at the devastation on Anne’s face.
Your body was battered from the morning's combatives, and the bandages Anne had meticulously applied earlier were drenched in the vile black blood of the creature whose head you kicked in.
Reflected in the glass wall, your eyes stared back at you, wide and framed by splatters of black.
The grotesque image of mottled fur and skin ripped from muscle haunted your thoughts as the dog's crimson gaze bored into your very soul. Panic tightened its grip on your throat, but you forced it back with a hard swallow.
"What's the standard procedure for contamination?" you demanded, your voice edged with authority that felt oddly distant. Procedure briefings and exercises weren't set to begin until the following week, leaving you woefully in the dark.
“I can’t. I can’t report you.” Anne’s brow pinched, her eyes averted. “Following protocol…There are consequences, even if you aren't infected…It's why we-”
“Fled the scene like a couple of criminals?... What consequences would there be, exactly?”
“I-I can’t…It is too much to even speak of. I never imagined something like this would happen. That someone I knew would be in this position.” Your chest tightened, and you took a deep breath, resisting the urge to press your sleeve to your nose, seeking that woodsy citrus scent that would soothe your frayed nerves.
“Anne...”
“Reporting your exposure is off the table, but the potential risk is too great to let you roam free.”
"If you think you're in danger, you need to report what’s happening. I know you told them to quarantine in the hall, but there was a lot going on, we didn't stay to see if your directions were followed or even acknowledged...There are other people besides me in this facility. The protocol is in place for a reason." Your tone was even as you ignored the instinct for self-preservation. “If I’m contagious, you—”
“You are safely contained; there's no longer a risk of you infecting someone else directly.”
"What are the symptoms of infection, and how long until we know for sure if I’m safe?" you pressed.
"I... I don't know," she admitted, her voice cracking.
“Sebastian?” You whispered, and Anne’s eyes widened, having forgotten her brother amid the chaos. With a sigh, your shoulders sagged. Sebastian was part of this top-secret project; he'd know what to do…Maybe. “ Fig!. Anne, you need to call Fig—”
“ No .” Her dark ponytail whipped her face as she shook her head vehemently.
“The area needs to be contained, and if that beast is as contagious as you say, it—and everyone who got close—needs to be isolated.” Unsure whether to appeal to her logic or compassion, you chose both. “There are already people who saw the whole thing go down, men who touched that animal, Anne. I appreciate the gesture, but you can’t just squirrel me away and ignore everyone else. You have a responsibility…”
“ Damn .” The glass squealed as she pressed a palm against it. “I don’t…I wouldn’t have been able to focus without you—”
“You can make me a thank-you card later.” You grinned despite your pounding heart. Calming Anne had been the goal, but who would calm you?
“Cheeky.” Anne huffed, a smile softening her strained features.
A sudden thought struck you, and you couldn't help but think of Ominis.
Even though you'd only known him for a few days, something about his commanding presence inspired trust.
His tall enigmatic figure stood in your mind, emanating an air of quiet authority like a beacon.
If he were here with you and Anne, this dire predicament would be well on its way to resolution. He didn't seem like the type to flail in confusion during a crisis. Even if he couldn’t help (as you had no idea what he actually did in the lab), he could keep Anne and Sebastian on task—and provide you with a rather pleasant sight to focus on.
“Could we, uh...?”
“Could we what?” Anne queried.
"Call Ominis too," you suggested, surprising yourself with the request. "You said he— well , he seems like he’s good at handling situations?"
Gosh , why did that come out as a question?
Anne's lips twitched into a faint smile, the first hint of genuine humor you'd seen from her since the ordeal began.
" Oh? Are you sure it's not just because you want him here to hold your hand?" she teased, her voice gentle but laced with a knowing undertone. Honestly, you would let Ominis Gaunt hold anything of yours he wanted, but Anne didn’t need to know that…“Why, of course I’ll call him. 'Twas always the plan, m’dear. I’m sure he will come rushing in here like a blind bull after I call him—it will certainly soften his mood when I recount how sweetly you pleaded for me to include him…”
“I didn’t plead!” You whined, “I might be dying, and you're over here picking on me! Rude, Anne. Rude. Keep it up and I’m going to fill that bedpan and stuff it in one of those pass-through windows.”
Anne glanced at the bedpan and grimaced.
“Please, no.”
“Should have thought about the consequences before forgetting to install a toilet in the glass cage that was clearly made to house a human...Would have thought that last bit would raise an eyebrow or two, but what do I know?”
“ Pfft! I didn’t design the building!” She snorted a laugh, but her smile faded into determination, muted by sadness.
“It’s gonna be okay, Anne.”
“I hope so…I really do.”