The Laboratory of Dr. Grey - Chapter Two

    Chapter Two

Deep in a dark, untouched forest, hidden in the middle of a wide valley, which was engulfed on either side by dense trees and undergrowth, was a stone laboratory. Most of the laboratory was sunken deep under the earth and only a wing showed above ground. No one had set foot in that daunting forest for nearly a hundred years. How is this possible you ask? I shall get to that later, and you will understand. The laboratory belonged to the mysterious Dr. Grey. No one knows when he started (or arrived at) the laboratory. The dark forest surrounding the cement building had a horrible reputation, and it was well earned too. Anyone who ever went into it, never came back out again. And I know why. There are maimed and strange creatures out there. They were said to be once just normal animals but then they were turned into monsters by a mad scientist. I personally believe that that mad scientist is the Dr. Grey. But enough about tall and unlikely tales. I have the true account of what goes on behind the stone walls of the Laboratory of Dr. Grey.
    As for the people in the laboratory, they aren’t half so strange as the things on the outside. There are only three humans in the laboratory; the mysterious Dr. Grey, myself, and a peculiar girl named Roxanne. I explained about Dr. Grey earlier, not many people know where he’s from, and he doesn’t talk much to other people when he’s working on his experiments, which is almost all the time. In fact, if he’s working he’ll lock himself in his lab room and refuse to see anyone or eat anything. Basically, no interruptions. Period.
    My name is Melissa Grey and I’ve been here for years, though there’s no real way to tell time down here. And no, I’m not related to Dr. Grey, he named all of us who came and joined him. That’s the other thing strange about this place; whoever comes, namely Roxanne and myself, can’t remember anything from before they came. Not even their own names. I used to do everything around here, then Roxanne arrived.
    Dr. Grey took a strange liking to Roxanne, it seemed that he had requested for her to come. But I’m not sure. The only thing I know is that she came and took my place. Now she sees more of Dr. Grey than I do. And the other thing that’s weird about her is that she hasn’t aged a day since she came and Dr. Grey swears he hasn’t touched her. She managed to keep her beautiful and spotless complexion. She has silky flowing blonde hair and sparking blue eyes. Over all, she’s lovely. I think that her uncanny beauty stayed Dr. Grey’s hand from experimenting on her. But that’s not the case with me.
    And then we have temporary residents. The temporary residents are all sorts of creatures that Dr. Grey does his experiments on. They consist of small animals and some larger ones. Once Dr. Grey has use the to their ‘full potential,' he releases them into the forest. Which explains the beastly animals in the forest.
    The laboratory is also home to several robots of all sorts, shapes and sizes. And not one does the same thing. Dr. Grey said that he programed and built every single one. In conclusion, Roxanne is the only untouched human being in the entire complex and the only one who seems to have Dr. Grey’s favor. But now I’ll get on with the story.


    Melissa walked down the corridor and turned into the main office of the Laboratory. Without much thought she glanced over at Roxanne, and mentally sneered at her. Roxanne looked up form her papers on the desk and greeted her in a cheery tone, “Hello, Melissa. What can I do for you?”
    Scowling, Melissa growled, “You can’t do anything. Any word from the doctor?”
    Roxanne replied with a pleasant smile playing on her scarlet lips, “Not besides he’s going to start some new testing, and that he might require you to try them on. He hopes that you won’t be so busy that you will be unable to meet with him in an hour.”
    “That should be fine.” Melissa said shortly. She was really wondering what the results would be, but her tone remained icily sarcastic. “If he calls sooner, I’ll be in the maintenance room. The one with the number fifty-seven on the door, in case you forgot.”
    “I didn’t, but thank you for the reminder. Oh, and he said not to touch anything electronic. Apparently he forgot to tell you after your last test, two weeks ago.” 
    Moving towards the door, she slipped out into the hall. Great, she had planned to work on a robot. Now what was she going to do? Pesky testing, they never seemed to do anything either. That was the one thing she never understood, every test that was done on her never seemed to have any noticeable effects. Though maybe the tests did something to her brain, and was changing things, but she was unable to notice them. How did she even get here anyway? That was another thing that would always linger in the back of her mind, how did she come here? Oh well, she decided suddenly that she would go up to her room.
    When she turned the corner to the hall to all the sleeping quarters, she suddenly remembered that it was cleaning day. A dozen robots were zipping in between the rooms with all sorts of cleaning things. They were stripping the beds, moping the floors and doing other general cleanings which had been programed into them. In the middle of the hall there was a large cart with all the cleaning supplies required. She scowled, could she never get any peace in this strange place? Approaching the door to her room, a large robot came towards her and said in a monotonously voice, “Do not enter. Cleaning is commencing. Do not enter—”
    Melissa glared furiously at the thing and shouted, “I know! Leave, I want to be alone!”
    “I do not understand. Please rephrase question.”
    “That wasn’t a question!” she flared dangerously, grabbing a spare mop handle. “Get out! All of you!”
    “I do not understand. Please rephrase question.”
    She raised the sturdy handle over her shoulder and shouted furiously, “I’ll rephrase the question!” She swung the mop handle downward but pulled up just a few inched from the head of the robot. She stared stunned at it. A thought whizzed through her head. What was she doing? Time seemed to slow down and all sounds faded out of her hearing as she thought, “This isn’t me.”


    Roxanne cheerily organized the papers that Dr. Grey left on the desk. She thought for a moment that she heard a scream from somewhere in the building. Frowning she listened harder, but she heard nothing else. Strange, maybe it was just one of the animals. But it sounded distinctly human, kind of like Melissa. Oh no, what if she touched an electronic? She could be hurt. She said that she was going to be in the maintenance room. Better check to make sure she’s all right. Roxanne stood up, flicked a bit of blonde hair from her face, and headed out the door and into the well lit corridor.


    A thin doctor, wearing a white lab coat, frantically dashed down a hallway and turned into a room. He puffed with excitement and wonder as he stood before a seated doctor, presumably the head of this operation. The thin man quickly explained in a frenzy, “Dr. Mendaf! Something remarkable has happened! One of the subjects is in the middle of a test, and she just changed from the given character to her own!” With that the grim man stood up, instantly interested. The lanky, eccentric doctor continued, “It just happened so fast. One minute everything as going perfectly normal then, bam! She figured out that Melissa wasn’t really her and she changed to her own self. She’s completely taken over the creating process. We have no control over what she does in there. Should we disengage the subject, sir?”
    The grim man seemed to be thinking while he walked toward the doorway. “Come show me which one, then I will decide what to do.”
    The excited doctor rushed out the door and began to lead his boss back to the room where they had her in the test. Dr. Mendaf plied his thin assistant with questions on the way, “How long has she been under for?”
    “Oh, fifteen minutes, maybe. She went through the introduction then started in on the part with Melissa after she encountered herself in the office. The girl has a sharp mind, I mean she found herself much quicker than the other boy did.”
    “Are her parents here?”
    “No, but they can be called in at any moment.”
    “Good, no one to get in the way and ask silly questions.”
    They turned into a small dim room and closed the door behind them. In the center of the square room, there was a raised bed with a white gowned girl, seemingly sleeping on it. In the crook of her elbow there was a tube. And there were several other medical things about her. On a screen, they had her heart beat, breathing and pulse all mapped out so they could track it easily. There were several personnel in the room, each with a different task, and the majority of them were watching a large screen on a wall. The screen showed a picture of what the subject was seeing. It wasn’t as clear as it was for her, but they could still see what she did and some things were more pronounced than others. Occasionally a few more distinct thoughts of the subject appeared as well. They also had a monitor that read how long the serum would last in their time, then in the subject’s world.
    Glancing first at the pretty subject, Dr. Mendaf’s eyes traveled next to the clip board hanging from the bed. They rested on the subject’s name and there it was scribbled, Roxanne Crembell. They moved on and gazed at the screen which showed what she was seeing. He noted that she was in the main corridor and asked, quickly looking back at her with a strange wonder in his gray eyes, “What is she doing?”
    One of the white coated personnel answered, he was the main monitoring scientist, “It would appear that she is concerned about Melissa, and is going to see if she’s okay. And, so far, we cannot gain control over any of her actions or what she’s seeing. It’s like she’s completely taken over the entire system. Needless to say, she has done what only one other has, and she did it ten times faster.”
    “Remarkable,” he muttered under his breath, still staring at the peaceful face. Then he announced, “Keep her in action and see what she does. This might be the one.”


    Roxanne stepped down the empty hall, her footsteps echoing and bouncing off the bleak walls. Her thoughts were filled with how Melissa was, and if she was okay. What would she find when she got to room fifty-seven? Just to her left was the stairs that led up to the sleeping quarters. On the bottom step, waiting for her, was a large mouse that cried out to get her attention.
    Roxanne approached it as its pathetic plea resounded through the hall, “Help, come quickly!” It dashed up the steps, expecting Roxanne to follow. She did, going up the stairs two at a time. She knew that this was one of the mice Dr. Grey had enlarged then given a talking device. But the device only lasted for so long, and then would have to be replaced.
    Reaching to top of the stairs, she followed the scurrying mouse around to the left. She gasped at the sight before her. All through the hall there were cleaning bottles and rags spilled, and all the cleaning robots were toppled over. None of them were in operating condition. It appeared that someone, or something, attacked them. She quickly searched each of the rooms looking for Melissa. When she came to Melissa’s she looked hastily in the bathroom then she saw, laying face down just beside the bed, was Melissa. Roxanne quickly rushed to her side and turned her over so that she was lying on her back.  Her face was pale and she eyes closed.
    Roxanne frantically checked for a pulse and breathing. They were both shallow and she whispered, her voice seemingly loud, “Melissa? Hey, what hurts?”
    Melissa’s eyelids fluttered open and she smiled faintly, saying under her breath, “I guess I should have listened to you...”
    “It’s okay, you’re going to be all right. Just tell me where it hurts the most.”
    “I...” she choked violently and continued after a pause, “This... room... go.” Melissa’s voice grew fainter and fainter then her eyes closed slowly. Roxanne watched, eyes big with concern and helplessness. Her heart wrenched inside her. She was too late. She bowed her head, trying to blink back the tears that came to her eyes. An indistinct murmur whispered past and she glanced up. Golden threads surrounded Melissa and she began to break into small pieces that looked like glass shards. The shards began on the right side of her face and spread slowly down, the glittering pieces were gently swirling up into the wall of her room and disappearing into nothingness.
    Roxanne quickly noticed, as the shards began at her shoulder, that her hand was clamped tightly around something. She gently reached down and opened Melissa’s hand. Resting in the palm of her pale hand, was a thick key with the numbers 123 inscribed on the handle. She quickly picked it up and the hand too turned into square bits of digital glass.
    A strong daft blew through the room (where it came from Roxanne never could say) and she heard a fluttering nearby. For the first time she noticed a sheet paper, hanging on the door. It was attached by a bit of tape and threatening to blow out into the hall. Standing up Roxanne moved over to the door and reached up, grasping the paper. She pulled it off the door and read it. This is was it said, scratched in a hasty hand.


Find me in room 57, where I await your arrival.

                                            ~Darkness



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