The Strange Physics of the Heidelberg Laboratory (Ultimate Ending Book 6)

by David Kristoph

  You move the mouse to click on it, but Kessler grabs your arm, jerking the cursor away. "You little pest," he growls, "how dare you--"

  The glass shatters.

  67

  The glass explodes inward, and the sound is as loud as a gunshot. The glass tumbles through the air, almost in slow motion, to be sucked into the blue orb. Your hair blows forward, as if the orb is pulling on every atom in the room at once.

  The physicists begin shouting all at once.

  The sphere is rotating chaotically fast now, with jagged spikes marring its previously smooth surface. It's like staring into the center of a tornado, or a lightning storm, or a blizzard where the wind blows so strong that it falls sideways.

  You rip your gaze away from it. The room is mayhem, with papers and debris taking flight and shooting toward the sphere. Men and women in labcoats are shouting and screaming, arguing over what to do. Kessler's screen still shows the program display.

  A new alarm begins sounding, high-pitch and fervent. It sounds like you are out of time.

  Gripping the desk with one hand for support, you take the mouse with the other hand and move the cursor. You click on the big "ABORT" button, and a new window appears:

  PRESS ENTER KEY TO CONFIRM TEST ABORT

  You lift your hand off the mouse. It takes an incredible amount of effort, such is the strength of the wind pulling you toward the sphere. But before you can press the key, the entire keyboard floats into the air and shoots toward the orb. The cord snaps and whips across your right arm. The sting causes you to let go of the desk and tumble backwards, where you fall against another computer desk.

  The rush of wind in your ears makes it difficult to hear. The orb is as bright as the sun now, painfully so, with jagged pieces of light extending away from it like tears in the fabric of space. You see Doctor Almer tumble into the air, do a somersault, and fall into the orb. He disappears.

  In front of you, hanging onto a computer desk for dear life, is Doctor Kessler. His face is plastered with pure terror. He blinks as if he can't believe what's happening.

  The orb brightens, expanding on all sides. You cry out, but the wind is too loud to hear your own voice.

  With a final, sudden flash, everything goes white.

  TURN TO PAGE 108

  68

  The Sleeping Quarters are like a military barracks. There's an aisle down the center of the room, with rows of bunk beds on either side. Personal lockers are mounted on the wall between the bunks. Long rugs cover the floor.

  "Those lockers contain personal information," you tell Penny. "But, there might be technical info as well."

  You split up to each cover one side of the room. The lockers have a small key-lock on them, but they're weak enough that you can just pull it open with a little force.

  The first locker belongs to a woman: there's a box of makeup, a contact lens case, and a photo of a family of three smiling at a camera. It's a sad reminder that many of the people from the facility are still stuck in time.

  But there's no sequence. You move on to the next locker: this one has a chocolate protein bar, a stack of postcards, and a box of cue-tips.

  "JEREMY!" Penny suddenly shouts.

  You whirl to see a Phase Being striding across the room. It doesn't see you--it's too focused on Penny, who is now trapped between two bunks as the Phase Being approaches.

  Moving with instinct instead of thought, you unsling the CS Rifle and fire. The solid beam of white travels the distance instantaneously, striking the Phase Being square in the back.

  It halts its advance on Penny. There's a flashing like camera bulbs as it morphs and twists, gaining color and shape. You see the outline of a young woman with short red hair, wearing a lab coat, and then she blinks out of existence. The sheets on the beds nearby blow back from the energy release, and then everything is still.

  You rush to where she just was, but it doesn't look like she dropped anything. Penny meets you there and smiles sheepishly. "Thank you for saving me."

  Before you can respond, the PA in the ceiling cuts on. "TIME IS UP, I repeat, time is up. Have you two found the missing sequence?"

  You and Penny share a disappointed look. "No, we haven't," you tell the ceiling.

  "Then there's nothing for you to do but get back here. Better run, you don't have much time to get to the surface!"

  To listen to Jay, TURN TO PAGE 84

  To keep searching, STUBBORNLY STICK TO PAGE 69

  69

  "No!" you say. "We're not done searching. We can find the sequence, I know it!"

  The PA crackles. "Young mister Heller, no! You have to get out!"

  But you're not listening to him. You've already gone to the next locker and are searching inside. A pair of reading glasses. A bottle of designer shampoo. A flip phone that looks like it's over a decade old. You toss all the items over your shoulder, then move on to the next locker.

  Penny is still standing in the same place as before. "I don't know if we should be staying. Jay said..."

  "We can't let the reactor core meltdown," you insist. "We have to keep trying!"

  She gives you a skeptical look and then continues her search.

  The next locker has a personal notepad. Your heart leaps and you rifle through the pages. There's notes on worker morale, with a list of employees and their total overtime worked. The next page has a diagram of two Hydrogen atoms fusing together to form Helium. You skim forward a bunch to a page of Christmas present ideas.

  You throw it down angrily. "Not here!"

  The door at the end of the room opens and Jay bursts inside. He looks furious. "What are you doing? I told you, we have to leave now! The core is close to--"

  The ground and walls rumble like an earthquake. You grab one of the bunk beds to keep yourself steady. A few lockers burst open and spill their contents onto the floor. Eventually it stops.

  Jay moans. "It's too late. The meltdown is beginning. We'll never escape in time now!"

  Remembering what you saw on the bulletin board, you run to the middle of the room. A long rug runs along the aisle, and you pull it aside. There's an outline of a door on the steel floor, with a wheel recessed inside.

  Jay smacks his forehead. "The blast shelter! I forgot all about it." He bends to the hatch and pulls the wheel until it sticks out half a foot. He tries to twist it, but it won't budge. You fall on your knees and help him, and together it groans and turns.

  Jay pulls open the hatch. There's a ladder leading down into darkness. "Get inside, quickly!"

  Take shelter ON PAGE 27

  70

  You head into the Supply Closet. It's a small room with wire shelves from floor to ceiling, holding every manner of supply the facility could need: toilet paper and paper towels, spare linens for the Sleeping Quarters, pallets full of canned food and dehydrated milk and bottles of soda. Hanging from each shelf is a clipboard attached to a wire; inventory lists of all the supplies, with notes to indicate when replacements would need to be bought.

  "I am hungry," Penny admits, "but I don't think what we need is in here."

  You browse one of the clipboards just for curiosity's sake. As you do so, you realize there's ink on the back side of each page. They've printed the inventory spreadsheets on re-used paper. That's interesting.

  You idly flip through a few pages, and freeze when you see one important part, highlighted in yellow:

  ...NECESSARY TO POWER UP THE BACKUP SYSTEM AS THE SECOND STEP OF THE ABORT SEQUENCE, SO THAT POWER IS NOT LOST WHEN THE CORE REACTOR...

  You rip the page out and show Penny. "We found it! This is it!"

  "I thought for sure we wouldn't find it!" She wraps you in a big hug.

  When she lets go, you feel your cheeks redden. "Come on, let's hurry!"

  You rush back through the living quarters until you reach the Control Room. Jay is bent over the computer. An red alarm is quietly pulsing in the background.

  "Jay, we found it! We have the sequence!"

 
He looks up. "That's fantastic!"

  You pull the other piece of paper from your pocket. "We also found this. It says there's a sixth step in the sequence. Is that true?"

  Jay squints at the paper. He looks uncomfortable. "I... err, I don't know anything about this, young mister Heller."

  "But do you think--"

  "I'm afraid that decision will have to be yours," he says. "I must focus on the main sequence. Are you ready to save the facility?"

  You now have PART TWO of the shutdown sequence! Be sure to write it down.

  It's time to be a hero. TURN TO PAGE 41

  71

  Thinking quickly, you grab Penny's arm and pull her towards you. The Phase Being lunges into the open space she had just occupied, and then falls to the floor. It leaves a trail of glowing material where it touches.

  However, Penny still lets out a yelp. "It touched me!" She holds out her arm and there's a long, finger-wide groove where the skin is burned. There's a strange smell in the air.

  You whirl to face Jay. "Did it... is she... going to be okay?"

  "It looks like it barely grazed her. But we've gotta get out of here. Come on, let's go!" Jay says. He opens the door and leads you and Penny through while the Phase Being is still on the ground.

  You run down the corridor, turning right to pass into the Particle Beam staging room. Not slowing, you turn down the next door toward the Engineering Bay.

  Penny's arm was injured. You'll need to remember this for later!

  Hopefully you'll be safe OVER ON PAGE 83

  72

  You head back the way you came, one slow shuffle at a time. It takes ten minutes just to get halfway across the laboratory, and by then your back is killing you.

  Instead of turning into the vent by the Control Room, you turn left, heading toward the south side of the laboratory.

  You pass a vent that shows the inside of the Physics Room. There's a four-way intersection ahead. You picture the map of the laboratory in your head, imagining where the Maintenance Room is. "It's this way," you say.

  Penny says nothing as she follows you. It feels good to be trusted. Who's just an intern now?

  The shaft veers to the right at an angle before continuing straight again. Any minute you should be above the Maintenance Room.

  There: a grate up ahead, with a diagonal beam of light illuminating the air vent. You bang your way toward it, excited.

  "Is that it?" Penny asks.

  You squint into the room. It's dark, and you can't see much of anything. "I can't tell. We need to get down in there and hope the lights work."

  The grate flies away under your heel. You swing your legs into open air, then slide off the edge, twisting and grabbing the vent with your fingertips. You're hanging in the air. It's difficult to tell in the dark but you think you're not far above the ground.

  You let go. There's a agonizingly long drop through the air--which is probably only half a second--before your feet strike the ground. You bend your knees, softening the landing. There's a weird smell in the air. "Come on down, it's not that far! Don't be afraid."

  Before you can finish the sentence, there's a rush of air in front of you as Penny lands. It feels like she's grinning in the darkness.

  You feel your way until you reach a wall, and then what seems like a door. You touch the wall along the frame until you find the light switch. The main overhead lights don't come on, but thankfully the emergency lights set in the wall do, bathing the room in red.

  Rows of cages line the wall, none of them larger than a television set. You realize what the smell before was: animal droppings. "We went too far. We're in the Animal Enclosure."

  Look around by TURNING TO PAGE 35

  73

  You click on the word RACKET. A new line appears, then another, tapping out one letter at a time:

  INCORRECT INPUT

  CORRECT CHARACTER MATCH: 0

  SYSTEM LOCKDOWN IN: ONE ATTEMPT

  "Aww man," you say. "And look--zero characters in common. This is terrible!"

  Penny has a considering look in her eye. "Not necessarily. The fact that zero characters are in common with the correct password might still help us!"

  "Yeah, but look," you say. "All three of the remaining options have no characters in common with RACKET."

  "Oh."

  You close your eyes. "Man, how could I have screwed this up?"

  "It's okay, let's just focus." Penny sighs. "Maybe we'll get lucky on this guess?"

  The screen now shows three options:

  BEHEAD THREAD SHREWD

  Which is it? This is your last attempt!

  To guess BEHEAD, GO TO PAGE 78

  To guess THREAD, HEAD TO PAGE 33

  To guess SHREWD, TRY PAGE 107

  74

  "It's not moving," you say. "Let's try to slip past it."

  "So long as we don't touch it!" Jay says.

  "I know, I know..."

  You approach slowly, preparing to jump backward at the sudden sign of movement from the Phase Being. It continues its low noise, sad and electronic. As you get closer you feel the hairs on your arm stand up. The air is charged.

  The Phase Being stands in place, watching.

  Feeling confident, you quickly move to dart past it. But just as you do, the Phase Being reaches out his hand. You change your stride mid-jump and press back against the wall, but there's not enough room to avoid--

  The Phase Being touches you with glistening, shimmering fingers.

  Jay yells, "No!"

  A shock goes through your body. Now everything is shimmering, not just the Phase Being. You feel dizzy, and can't feel your feet, as if you're no longer standing on them. The surrounding Engineering Bay distorts and becomes pure white, and the Phase Being is doing the opposite: it's becoming more clear, more focused. It's changing into something else.

  There's a strange pop, the light blinks out all at once, and suddenly you're in darkness.

  You cannot see anything, not even your hand in front of your face. The air is cool and damp, and you hear the distant sound of trickling water.

  Without warning a light comes on, blinding you. You shield your eyes, and as things come into focus...

  There's a man standing in front of you holding up his cell phone as a flashlight. He's wearing a white lab coat. A physicist from the lab, but it's not Jay.

  75

  "Who are you?" you ask the man.

  "I'm Bruce. One of the electrical engineers," he says. "You... you're human? You were this strange shimmering light, all angular and shifting. It sounded like you were calling out for help, so I grabbed your hand..."

  "That's what you looked like! Jay called you a Phase Being."

  "Phase Being? Jay?"

  He must not have seen the results of the test. "The Causality Neutrino," you explain. "The test worked. We were able to find it, but it was unstable."

  Bruce looks at you like you're crazy. "What are you talking about? That test isn't for another six months!"

  Six months? This guy isn't making any sense. He's probably disoriented, the way Jay was. Instead of answering him, you look around. From the soft glow of the cell phone screen you see the walls are made of rock, along with the ceiling and floor. You're in a cave. There's a narrow passageway extending away from you, but in the dark you can't see more than a few feet.

  Bruce looks around. His eyes stop on the wall behind you. "Oh no."

  You spin around. On the wall behind you are strange markings. No, wait. They're not markings. They're pictures, drawn in red and brown paint.

  There's a picture of what looks like a large cat, surrounded by three men with long spears. The drawing is crude and child-like.

  "Wow," you say, "these must be thousands of years old! Do you think anyone has ever discovered them before?"

  Bruce leans close to the wall, holding out his phone. He touches the wall with a fingertip, rubbing at the picture of the cat. The paint comes off at his touch.

  "I don't think a
nyone has discovered these before," Bruce says, "because these paintings are brand new."

  It takes you a moment to figure out what he means. "The Causality Neutrino," you say. "Did it... move us? Are we in prehistoric times?"

  Bruce doesn't answer. He sits on the ground and puts his head in his hands. "If we're... that means you came from... oh no. Oh no."

  Maybe it's not so bad. Someone with your modern knowledge would do well in prehistoric times, right? And maybe Jay will find a way to rescue you, somehow. Who knows. But in either case, for now your adventure has reached...

  THE END

  76

  "We've already been in the Engineering Bay," you decide, "so we know what to expect on the way to Maintenance Room One."

  "Good idea," Penny agrees. "Plus it's the closest to the Control Room."

  Still cradling his aching head, Jay says, "I'll hold down the fort from here. Hopefully I'm feeling better by the time you're done."

  You share a look with Penny and then stride through the door.

  The Engineering Bay is less exciting than before, with no Phase Beings to speak of. You cradle your CS Rifle and pretend not to be relieved.

  "Are you sure Jay is alright?" Penny asks.

  "I don't know. He seems shaken up, but he's not too bad."

  Penny shakes her head. "No, not that. I mean... do you think he's telling us the truth?"

  That takes you aback. "What do you mean? You think he's lying? What would he lie about?"