by Ramy Vance
The entire room hummed with the sound of electricity. Whatever Chip was doing was sucking up all the power. Suddenly, Chip’s cables withdrew, and she fell on her ass. She handed Suzuki the datapad and said, “You’re not going to like this. Not one fucking bit.”
Chip waved her hand as her eyes went white and the room went dark.
Suzuki grabbed Chip, fearing she had been taken over by the Dark One’s system. “Chip, what the hell are you doing?” Suzuki shouted.
“Don’t worry, it’s still me, but there’s a lot of bases we got to cover. Way too much for words. Just tune into Chip-o-vision, boys and girls.”
Chip turned away from Suzuki and projected a blank screen. After a couple of seconds, images started to crop up on the screen. Soon, it was obvious they were watching security footage. The footage was from all over the facility and wasn’t in any particular order. The whole thing was chaotic, but Suzuki could see what Chip was doing. Slowly, the images started to make more sense. Chip was working backward, trying to organize all the videos into a cohesive story.
“Got it.”
There were men climbing up and down the caverns of the volcano. They scraped the black sprouts the Mundanes had grown tired of seeing into small buckets or bags. Once they had gathered enough, they would leave.
Next, Chip showed the inside of the lab. Scientists were crouched over the sprouts. There was something different about these. They weren’t like the ones Suzuki had inhaled too much of.
But they were close.
Next to the sprouts was a vial of a black liquid. The liquid swirled violently, as if someone had stirred it a few seconds earlier. Then the liquid ceased being a liquid. It sucked up into itself and grew hard but still somewhat sticky. It attacked its glass prison repeatedly until one of the doctors picked up the vial. They poured the contents of the vial onto the sprout. Instantly, the sprout changed colors to deep black and purple.
The footage jumped again. Scientists were back in the caverns, but this time, instead of taking sprouts, they were replanting their own in the rocky walls.
Again, the footage jumped ahead. Now the scientists were tending the garden of massive sprouts. They were cutting them down and moving them into the laboratory. The scientists brought the sprouts to what looked like a containment area. T-rexes were chained to what looked like feeding troughs in this area. It suddenly dawned on Suzuki why it seemed like the facility had continued to grow as they were walking toward it. A magically accommodating facility would have been necessary when working with dinosaurs of any size.
A scientist placed a large sprout in front of a dinosaur’s face. The sprout began to blossom, its petals moving outward as a tube with a large spike on the end danced toward the dinosaur’s mouth. The petals latched onto the sides of the T-rex’s face and forced the creature’s mouth open. The tube slipped into the dinosaur’s mouth as it roared with pain.
Next, the Mundanes were watching a T-rex leaned against the wall, moaning in pain. Its body was contorted, and there were black spots of decay growing all over it. The bones in its back were beginning to protrude, looking as if they were ready to break out.
A scientist opened the door to the containment room and stepped inside. He approached the T-rex and started to install an implant into the dinosaur’s head. The video became a time-lapse of the decay on the dinosaur disappearing as the tech installed in the dinosaur’s head started to spread.
Suzuki was starting to pick up the pieces. “So, they were using some of the components in the sprouts as a catalyst for the tech they were using to modify the dinosaurs?” Suzuki asked aloud.
Diana nodded as she watched the images on the screen. “That is what it seems like,” Diana responded. “Whatever experiments the Dark One was up to, he obviously needed more of a biological component. The dinosaurs probably just escaped and ate the scientists here.”
Chip raised her hand and pointed at the screen. “There’s more,” she said.
The scientist were celebrating.
They were in the kitchen, opening bottles of wine, singing with each other. They were ecstatic about what they had accomplished. Two of the scientists near the door were doubled over laughing. One of them pointed to something off-screen, and the other one smiled and laughed. They left together. They walked down the halls of the facility, finally stopping at a door.
One of them pulled out their ID card, and the door slid open.
The scientists stumbled into the room, falling into each other’s arms, kissing each other passionately. They sort of waltzed around the room, wrapped in up in each other, until they bumped into one of the feeding troughs in front of the dinosaurs.
Both the feeding trough and the scientist went down on the floor.
As the scientist tried to get to her feet, the sprouts of the petal stretched out and clasped her face. She screamed as the tube forced itself into her mouth. The other scientist tried to pull his friend away from the tube, but he couldn’t until the sprout released her.
Finally, the other scientist stood and tried to laugh the situation off.
Weeks later, the scientist who had been attacked was sitting at her computer working. A peer came over and stood by the desk, talking. The scientist looked up. Even from the vantage point of the security camera, the scientist looked sick. Suddenly, the sick scientist leaned forward and grasped the sides of the desk. She started coughing as her back bulged outward. The scientist convulsed and bit through her tongue as the bones in her back burst out of her skin, and her back splitting down the middle, her spine flying onto the ground as her body spasmed.
A creature that looked vaguely human but with elongated arms and legs and liquid black skin rose out of the scientist’s back. The creature had no face, only a mouth that appeared like a slit that ran from its forehead to its chin. It stretched open and showed row upon row of teeth, and a tube that rolled out of its mouth like some kind of pollinating agent. Its chest was concave, and the bones of its back were pronounced. Immediately upon exiting the scientist’s body, it crouched over the corpse and pulled out intestines, biting into them with a savage hunger.
The other scientist screamed and ran out of the room.
Beth scoffed loudly as the images disappeared. “Okay, so, Mr. Theory of the Day,” Beth said to Suzuki, “what the fuck is that?”
Suzuki looked closely at the creature as it stood and hunched over the scientist’s face, biting into it with a disgusting crunch. “I have no fucking clue,” Suzuki murmured.
The video cut off, and the lights flickered back on. Chip passed Suzuki the datapad. “There’s tons of information in there,” Chip said. “And an explanation. So, this is the Dark One’s jam. We already know that, but it gets freakier. Those sprout things we keep seeing are plants made out of the Dark One’s genetic material. He seeded the planet with them years ago. No one knows how long, not even the scientists. But these guys were working on culturing the plants so they could infect creatures with the Dark One’s genetic material. Only problem was the shit was too out of control. That’s why they were using implants on the dinosaurs, and you just saw what happens when you don’t do anything to stop the Dark One’s genetic code from rewriting your own.”
Stew whistled as he sat down in one of the chairs. “Shit! That’s much more extreme than using tech to make everyone listen to you. This guy wants to rewrite all of life with his genetic material?”
Suzuki tapped his knee as he thought about everything Chip had just said. “It makes sense, though,” Suzuki finally mused. “You know, this place looking so much like all those Cameron movies. This is all that ancient aliens shit, aliens creating or doctoring creation with their genetic material. Just so happens in our case, the person doing the genetic manipulation is from another dimension. It’s really not that far off. I feel like I’m living in a fucking conspiracy theory. So, what’s the next step?”
Diana and Chip looked at each other awkwardly. Diana was the one to speak up. “Neither of us knew how to tel
l you about this earlier,” Diana started. “They were mostly just theories, and we wanted to be certain before we said anything, but we’re pretty sure you’re infected with the Dark One’s genetic material from the sprouts.”
Stew burst out laughing, slapping his knees. “Uh, dude, you totally would be the one to get the Dark One’s jizz down your throat,” he screeched.
Diana looked at Stew, and her face was more serious than Suzuki had seen before. “This is not a joke, Stew,” Diana chastised. “Did you see what happened in the video? I highly doubt that scientist was the only person to get infected. You have seen what’s happened to this facility, so please behave as if you have a shred of decency because Suzuki’s life is at risk.”
Suzuki felt like the world had just been turned upside-down. There was something growing in him, some kind of monster, and it wanted to rip him open from the inside. If he hadn’t already been sitting down, he would have needed to. “Okay, okay,” he murmured half to himself, half to the rest of the Mundanes. “One of those…things is in me. We gotta get it out, but how are we going to do that? I don’t want to end up like one of those angels.”
Chip stepped forward and grabbed the datapad out of Suzuki’s hand. “Real easy,” Chip said. “The nerds had all sorts of protocols for this type of shit. Even pulled it off a couple of times. We just gotta find the operating and containment room, and I’ll cut open your back and pull your little Dark One baby out.”
“Are you fucking serious? When the hell did you learn how to do surgery?”
“One of the perks of being powered by a computer. I’ve already downloaded all their manuals on the surgeries. Also, I doubt cutting you up is going to be any more complicated than a HUD.”
“Please stop referring to it as ‘cutting me up?’”
“How’d you prefer it?”
“Let’s just not talk about it. Where’s the containment area?”
Chip pulled up a map and pointed to a blinking light. “Shouldn’t take too long before we get there,” Chip said. “And the incubation period for these fuckers is nigh eternal, so you’ll be good. It’s only been a handful of hours. Your back shouldn’t pop open for another ten to twelve hours.”
Suzuki stood and headed toward the door. He didn’t want to waste any more time talking about what was inside him. The faster they got to the operating table, the better he was going to feel. He knew it was in his head, but he could already feel his back itching, could feel something crawling around in him. Thank god it wasn’t going to be popping out of his chest. He couldn’t imagine the pain of his chest exploding out around him, although it couldn’t be that much worse than his back bursting outward. Yeah, the most important thing at the moment was to keep moving and not worry about what was growing within him. “All right, so are you guys ready to get going?” Suzuki asked. “Like, now instead of later?”
Chip ran over to the table where the SD cards were laying and scooped them all up. “Yeah, we should probably get going. But we don’t want to forget any of these little guys. They could be a lot of fun later.”
The Mundanes exited the room and headed down the hallway. They were silent. It had become a theme of this quest. It seemed like everything they had gotten themselves into was much bigger than they thought it would have been. And it wasn’t even what they had gotten themselves into. This was José’s big mission. It had become very obvious why José had called their attention to this place.
Even though the facility had been abandoned, it still posed a huge threat. The entire facility, no, the entire volcano, was filled with parasitic plants that were just waiting to inject a host with the Dark One’s genetic material. Suzuki didn’t even know what that would mean in the long term. Did the new creature have to follow the Dark One’s will? Were they an extension of that will? Suzuki didn’t want to find out firsthand. He thought this would be something better to observe from afar.
As the Mundanes were walking, Beth came up to Suzuki’s side and took his hand in hers. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t look at him, just squeezed his hand softly and walked closer to him.
That was all Suzuki needed. He knew whatever was coming, he was going to get through it. Beth was here for him. The Mundanes were here for him. This was going to work out. They were going to cut that bit of the Dark One out of him and send it back to hell where it belonged.
15
The Mundanes arrived in the operating room. Much like the rest of the facility, the lights were flickering, and the room had been left in a state of disarray. Scalpels were flung to the ground, there were scrubs resting on overturned chairs, and a computer screen had been left on, its screen staticky and emitting a haunting buzz.
Chip crossed the length of the room and pointed to the operating table. Suzuki did not need to be told twice. He hopped on top of the table and pulled off his shirt. “Let’s get this over with,” Suzuki said as Chip looked around the room for the tools she needed.
Suzuki hadn’t felt anything slightly troubling for most of the time he had been in the facility. That had changed about ten minutes ago while he was on the way to the operating table. His breathing had become constricted. He gasped for breath, trying his best to keep it from being noticed by the rest of the Mundanes. As far as they were concerned, he was in great health and just wanted to get the whole situation over with. That was not the case. His back felt like it was on fire, and he had an intense desire to scratch his shoulders. Every time he reached to scratch, his mind flashed back to the corpses of the scientist, their backs cracked open, their spines laying on the floor next to their slumped bodies.
Beth walked over and pulled a chair up to the operating table. She sat down and took Suzuki’s hand in hers. “You keep finding your way into these things,” she joked.
Suzuki laughed as he watched Chip busy herself around the operating room. “Yeah, it is becoming a theme,” he agreed. “I’m just glad it hasn’t been for any actual surgeries, except for this one. But Chip said it’s hardly going to be anything.”
Beth smiled at Suzuki. Her eyes looked tired and heavy, and the wrinkles in the side of her face were more pronounced. Suzuki suddenly realized just how old Beth looked. Whatever had happened in the prisons of the defense rings had taken a couple of years off Beth’s life. Usually, it wasn’t noticeable, but when Beth was worried, the stress was evident. The pain in her eyes could not easily be ignored.
Chip returned to the operating table as Stew paced, only stopping when Diana gave him a harsh glare and cleared her throat. Chip pulled up a seat next to Suzuki. She was holding a laser scalpel and wore hospital scrubs and a face mask. “All right, Suz, I’m going to need to you flip over,” Chip explained. “I’m going to make a couple of small incisions along your spine, and then we’re going to drain the genetic material out. You understand?”
“You know, I had a suspicion you could talk normally.”
Chip laughed and pointed the scalpel at Suzuki. “It’s called having a bedside manner, ya daft ass. Would you prefer me to have told you I’m gonna slice up your backside all proper and pull out all the nasty Dark One gunk?”
“Actually, you were right. The first one was much better.”
“Exactly. Now turn your smart ass over. I got some vivisecting to do.”
Suzuki did as he was told and tried to relax as he felt Chip’s cold hands on his back, feeling down his spine to his ass crack. It didn’t help that the burning sensation in the back of his shoulders was growing more intense. “All right,” he heard Chip say, “gonna numb your back and then we’re going to get started. You ready?”
Suzuki sucked in his breath and tried not to let his mind wander to the worst possible scenario. Everything was going to be okay. All he had to do was trust Chip was going to do what needed to be done. And that was that. Chip was right. He had only been infected with the Dark One’s genetic materials a few hours ago. He had time. “Go for it,” Suzuki said.
Then there was the sound of the laser scalpel turning on. It was
a mix between a whistle and an electronic hum. Suzuki felt his body instantly tensing up. He hoped he would be able to relax.
All hopes of relaxing disappeared. There was a loud crashing sound outside of the operating room. Then the lights went black. Suzuki jumped up from the table and grabbed his shirt. “What the hell is going on?” he asked.
In the darkness, Stew stumbled over a couple of metal containers, sending them scattering into the dark, making nearly as much noise as whatever had caused the commotion outside. “Sorry,” Stew muttered. “I have pretty bad night vision.”
Diana flipped down her HUD and accessed her recently received SD upgrade. “Luckily, I don’t,” she said as she scanned the room. “Looks like everyone here is all accounted for. Let me see what I can find.” She went out to the door, forced it open, and poked her head out. “Goddamn it.” She sighed. “You know how you’ve all been wondering quietly where those angels are?”
“Angels? You mean the things that broke out of those guys’ backs?”
“Yeah. If we’re calling the hosts angels, why not the actual creatures?”
Stew’s voice grew a little frantic as he started to pace again. “Wait, are you saying there are actual creatures?”
Beth scoffed as she fingered the switch to her lightsaber daggers. “Are you serious, Stew? Did you really think this was going to be as easy? We found the abandoned station, and Suzuki’s DNA is being rewritten by the Dark One’s genetic code. Of course, there are going to be monsters we must kill. Isn’t that usually your thing?”