No Title - Chapter 5 Scene 3
The next part of my online series. It's short again, but I felt updating a little bit was better than not updating at all. Sorry I'm a lazy ass.
Nic slid down when seemed like an old laundry chute, but may have been an air duct. She landed hard on her knees and fell onto her hands with a grunt. She whined as she got up and dusted herself off tenderly. She looked around to find herself in some sort of laboratory. There were carts and long tables filling the entire room all littered with vials and beakers, and large, winding glass contraptions with liquids of all colors boiling, gurgling, flowing, dripping, or sitting idly, interrupted by an occasional small stack of papers. It was an eerie place. That was all she'd been exposed to recently though. She thought she ought to be used to it by now. However, this wasn't the same as the feeling she got from the factory.
The factory felt more abandoned and lonely, even though it truly wasn't. However, she thought, maybe it normally was. Maybe the true mystery of the factory lay below, in the areas that she and her friends were also undoubtedly in. Maybe the factory was just the first layer where the inhabitants of this place hope for you to be lost and eliminated. Perhaps Nic's friends and she had all gotten too close once they entered that hall with the statue, and the inhabitants felt the group should be separated and dealt with. Maybe those screams they heard when they first entered the factory were an alert: an intruder alert. Looking more intensely and analytically at her surroundings, Nic asked herself, What is the real mystery to this place?
Nic began to move. She glared intently at the vials and their inner workings, but those did not do her any good. Her real targets were the stacks of papers. What could they tell her? As she sauntered about she would stop and skim through the stacks quickly to try to gather information. As she did she quickly realized that the stacks among the chemistry sets were about the chemistry sets, which was just a bunch of babble that she didn't understand and didn't care to understand. She wanted information on the building. After glancing through her third stack of papers she lifted her head up in the murky, dimly lit room and looked for an area that would seem more appropriate.
After scanning for a bit she found a few desks scattered at various areas in the room, all by the walls. During this scanning she noticed that the set up of the area with all the vials had been set up to accentuate two areas. One area was a single desk in the middle of the room filled with nothing but tubes and beakers that surrounded a huge tank in the middle. Nic walked over to it and looked into the murky liquid of the tank. She could see it held something but she couldn't make out what it was. The liquid was too cloudy. She could only see a vague shadow in the middle.
Nic stood up and looked around the room to the other accentuated desk. It was a large L-shaped desk with nothing but paper on it. This is what she needed. She worked her way over to it and began rifling through the stacks.
"Physical enhancement... Animal testing... Weapons development... Artificial intelligence... What the hell is going on here?"
Creak. Nic stopped. She stopped moving, stopped paying attention to the items in her hand, she even stopped breathing. Finally, after what felt like ages but was only a few seconds she looked around. At first she only moved her eyes. They darted quickly around the dank and dim room. Her head began to move with her eyes. She searched vigorously for the source of that noise but found nothing. As she was about to return to the papers...
Creak. The sound seemed to come from the nearest door. It was on her right on the other side of the desk. It was a plain door, nothing special about it. There were no intricate designs or schemes, no keypads or anything special. She set down the papers in her hand without looking. She was too anxious. She slowly began moving towards the door. She crept around the desk, sliding her hand by it as she walked. The door just sat there, undisturbed. There were no more signs of movement or life. She grew closer and closer. The door was just out of reach and she extended her hand out towards it. Her fingertips were almost on it when...
Crack!
Nic shot around. This came from the table in the middle of the room. She walked quickly to the table. As she rounded a desk she saw a vial shattered on the floor. Her steps immediately slowed and she stopped a few paces later. Her head tilted in curiosity as she regarded the mess. How did it fall? This relit the spark of curiosity Nic had for the table and its contents. She glanced back to the murky tank and her face scrunched in confusion. Something was off. Something didn't feel right. She moved closer and examined it again.
Nothing really seemed to have changed. It was the same murky liquid with the same vague shadow. Nic glared intently at the shadow. Again, she couldn't help but feel that something was off. Suddenly, something interrupted her gaze. It was a bit of dust floating around, disturbed out of its resting place. Nic glanced away and contemplated this wayward dust. What moved it and made it float about. She looked down and the desk again and saw slide marks in the dust at the base of the tank. This must be what caused the vial to fall and the dust to take flight, but it also led to an even more disturbing question. What made the tank move?
Click. Damn it. Now what? Nic turned around again and surveyed the room. She found herself glaring at the door she'd already tangoed with. There was just something about it that she couldn't explain. An aura, maybe? She wasn't sure. All Nic knew was that the door seemed to be watching her, so in turn she had been watching it. It was time to figure out why. Nic strode towards the door, slowing down about five yards away. She stepped silently, with purpose, towards the door; landing on her heels and rolling calmly to her toes. The door sat still. If it, or something behind it rather, was watching her then it was being quite casual about the ordeal. The door had patience, it seemed, and the more undisturbed the door appeared the more it disturbed Nic. Was there even something there? Was this feeling all in her head? It was time to find out. Nic extended her fingers to the door again, grabbed the handle and pushed it open.
The factory felt more abandoned and lonely, even though it truly wasn't. However, she thought, maybe it normally was. Maybe the true mystery of the factory lay below, in the areas that she and her friends were also undoubtedly in. Maybe the factory was just the first layer where the inhabitants of this place hope for you to be lost and eliminated. Perhaps Nic's friends and she had all gotten too close once they entered that hall with the statue, and the inhabitants felt the group should be separated and dealt with. Maybe those screams they heard when they first entered the factory were an alert: an intruder alert. Looking more intensely and analytically at her surroundings, Nic asked herself, What is the real mystery to this place?
Nic began to move. She glared intently at the vials and their inner workings, but those did not do her any good. Her real targets were the stacks of papers. What could they tell her? As she sauntered about she would stop and skim through the stacks quickly to try to gather information. As she did she quickly realized that the stacks among the chemistry sets were about the chemistry sets, which was just a bunch of babble that she didn't understand and didn't care to understand. She wanted information on the building. After glancing through her third stack of papers she lifted her head up in the murky, dimly lit room and looked for an area that would seem more appropriate.
After scanning for a bit she found a few desks scattered at various areas in the room, all by the walls. During this scanning she noticed that the set up of the area with all the vials had been set up to accentuate two areas. One area was a single desk in the middle of the room filled with nothing but tubes and beakers that surrounded a huge tank in the middle. Nic walked over to it and looked into the murky liquid of the tank. She could see it held something but she couldn't make out what it was. The liquid was too cloudy. She could only see a vague shadow in the middle.
Nic stood up and looked around the room to the other accentuated desk. It was a large L-shaped desk with nothing but paper on it. This is what she needed. She worked her way over to it and began rifling through the stacks.
"Physical enhancement... Animal testing... Weapons development... Artificial intelligence... What the hell is going on here?"
Creak. Nic stopped. She stopped moving, stopped paying attention to the items in her hand, she even stopped breathing. Finally, after what felt like ages but was only a few seconds she looked around. At first she only moved her eyes. They darted quickly around the dank and dim room. Her head began to move with her eyes. She searched vigorously for the source of that noise but found nothing. As she was about to return to the papers...
Creak. The sound seemed to come from the nearest door. It was on her right on the other side of the desk. It was a plain door, nothing special about it. There were no intricate designs or schemes, no keypads or anything special. She set down the papers in her hand without looking. She was too anxious. She slowly began moving towards the door. She crept around the desk, sliding her hand by it as she walked. The door just sat there, undisturbed. There were no more signs of movement or life. She grew closer and closer. The door was just out of reach and she extended her hand out towards it. Her fingertips were almost on it when...
Crack!
Nic shot around. This came from the table in the middle of the room. She walked quickly to the table. As she rounded a desk she saw a vial shattered on the floor. Her steps immediately slowed and she stopped a few paces later. Her head tilted in curiosity as she regarded the mess. How did it fall? This relit the spark of curiosity Nic had for the table and its contents. She glanced back to the murky tank and her face scrunched in confusion. Something was off. Something didn't feel right. She moved closer and examined it again.
Nothing really seemed to have changed. It was the same murky liquid with the same vague shadow. Nic glared intently at the shadow. Again, she couldn't help but feel that something was off. Suddenly, something interrupted her gaze. It was a bit of dust floating around, disturbed out of its resting place. Nic glanced away and contemplated this wayward dust. What moved it and made it float about. She looked down and the desk again and saw slide marks in the dust at the base of the tank. This must be what caused the vial to fall and the dust to take flight, but it also led to an even more disturbing question. What made the tank move?
Click. Damn it. Now what? Nic turned around again and surveyed the room. She found herself glaring at the door she'd already tangoed with. There was just something about it that she couldn't explain. An aura, maybe? She wasn't sure. All Nic knew was that the door seemed to be watching her, so in turn she had been watching it. It was time to figure out why. Nic strode towards the door, slowing down about five yards away. She stepped silently, with purpose, towards the door; landing on her heels and rolling calmly to her toes. The door sat still. If it, or something behind it rather, was watching her then it was being quite casual about the ordeal. The door had patience, it seemed, and the more undisturbed the door appeared the more it disturbed Nic. Was there even something there? Was this feeling all in her head? It was time to find out. Nic extended her fingers to the door again, grabbed the handle and pushed it open.
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