This choice: Arrival at the institute • Go Back...Chapter #5Arrival at the institute by: Yote   The last thing you remember is the ambrite flowing into your eyes, nose and mouth. Then you're waking up on a cold hard floor, shaking, weak and totally naked, but alive.
You're in an empty box of a room, about 5m by 5m. Three of the walls are made up of grey panels. The fourth is a mirror from floor to ceiling. No sign of a door. Nor is there a bed, or a toilet. This must be a hospital, but even by NHS standards this treatment is grim.
"Hello?" Your voice echoes in the small space. "I'm awake. I feel fine. Can I have my clothes back please?" No reply. "Is there a nurse I can talk to? Anybody? I'll settle for a healthcare assistant."
You climb to your feet. You wobble over to the walls. The panels are slotted together so neatly that you can't even get your fingers between them, but there must be a door hidden somewhere. You skirt the walls of the room without finding anything, eventually stopping in front of the large mirror. Suddenly feeling rather self-conscious, you cover your crotch with your hands. The room is quiet, yet on the very edge of hearing is a muted cacophony, like a lot of distant voices arguing at once.
-|-|-
The observation room was chaos. The results of the scans were coming in thick and fast now, technicians running here and there with print-outs of the x-rays, MRIs, blood screens and genetic analysis for the senior scientists. They were all there - even those whose departments fell well outside the fields of archeology or the natural sciences. The Chair of Political Sciences was stood in front of the one-way mirror, seemingly transfixed by the sight of bizarre creature standing on the other side.
"Would somebody get me a carbon date on those furs it was wearing already!" barked one scientist.
"Where are the results of the brain scans? Does anybody have that?"
"'Sheet 2 of 3'? I'm missing a sheet!"
"Did any of you clowns happen to pump its stomach before we threw it in the cage! It could be digesting valuable finds even as we speak!"
"This staining is all wrong. You call that a chromosome?! Go do them again!"
The shrill voice of the Lecturer of Religious Studies cut briefly through the hubbub. "We should destroy it! It is the parasite! It has returned as was foretold, come to pollute our bodies and possess our minds! It should be destroyed! It harbors the doom of us all!"
The respectable scientists of the room gave her a wide birth, not wanting to be associated with her or her department. She stood alone, pointing a shaking finger at the one-way mirror and began to recite scripture from memory.
Layla sat quietly in the corner of the room. She didn't know what it was, but she knew she'd uncovered the find of the century. After today, she would have a new name in honour of her great discovery. They would no longer call her Layla Scrubber-1242. She would be Layla Monsterhunter the First.
"What's it doing now?"
The room went silent as the creature on the other side of the mirror pressed its face against the glass. It seemed to be trying to peer through. They held their breath.
"It can't see us, can it?" somebody whispered. The room turned to the Physics department for answers, who mumbled something vague under her breath about optics and refraction angles.
The creature removed one hand from between its legs and rapped gently on the mirror. The Chair of Political Science took a cautious step back. The creature balled its hand into a fist, banging against the glass with significantly more force. It began to talk again in its deep, alien tongue.
"It sounds angry. I think it's trying to get out."
"If it gets out, will it eat us?"
"If the parasite escapes, it will do far worse than eat us," Religious Studies utters darkly.
"We should..."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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