The Laboratory of Dr. Grey - Chapter Four
Chapter Four
As she was speaking the wall began to rotate back into place. Damian jumped forward and slipped into the hall with her just as the cement wall ground back into place.
They were trapped.
Roxanne stared with her mouth open. She stuttered her apology, “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
Sighing Damian leaned against the wall, then said, “That’s alright, I guess it saved us from having to choose. Come on, let’s see what’s on the other side of that door.”
Their foot steps echoed as they clanked on the metallic floor. There were no light bulbs in the hall, the very walls seemed to glow from an unknown source. The door was about twenty yards from the opening in the wall and they soon covered the distance. They stopped before the door and looked at each other for a second. Damian broke the small silence by saying, “I don’t know what lays on the other side of this door, but I promise to do everything in my power to see us beyond the walls of this laboratory. Do I have you word that you’ll stay with me, no matter the danger?”
Roxanne looked him directly in the eye and replied solemnly, “I promise to be with you through thick and thin. I mean, we’re kinda’ in this thing together.”
Damian nodded and turned back to the door. He took a deep breath and reached out, grasping the handle. Roxanne watched his slow actions and held her breath. Pushing down gently, Damian’s hand tensed and pushed down harder, but nothing moved. The door was locked.
They both exhaled heavily, and flopped against the luminous walls. Damian mutter under his breath, “Great, now what?”
Sliding further down the wall, Roxanne sat down with her knees folded up to her chest. She glanced up at him and asked, “I don’t suppose you can just move anything again, can you?”
“I’m not sure, it’s worth a shot,” he replied glancing around at the walls, then his eyes resting on the closed door. Positioning himself before the door, he place his hands against the door and pressed, his hands turning white. He exhaled in one gush of air, stepping back saying dismayed, “That didn’t work, this one just won’t do it. Maybe it’s a one time thing, you know, use it once and its used up.”
“Maybe,” Roxanne responded, thinking harder. Damian sat down as well and they both sat in silence for a while.
Damian sighed saying, “If only I hadn’t let you dash in here so quickly, I could have prevented it.”
“No, it was my fault. I’m hasty with things. I guess that’s a side affect of not really being afraid of anything.”
“But I still could have prevented all this—”
Roxanne quickly cut him short, “Stop putting all the blame on yourself and think about how to get out of this mess. It’s my fault and you had better believe that.”
They both fell silent and thought for a while. Roxanne was racking her brain for any solution that might help, even in the slightest way. All she could think of was everything they didn’t have. Like a picklock, or a key of some sorts, or a code. There was nothing, not even the tools in the other room. This time, they were really stuck. She glanced exasperatedly at the door and sighed. Suddenly she caught her breath when she saw something. Jumping up she scrambled in front of the door and fingered three digits that had appeared on the door; 123.
Damian stood beside her and asked, slightly concerned, “What is it, Roxanne?”
She stammered in reply, “I’ve, I’ve seen this number before. But it seems like such a long time ago, that I can’t remember exactly where.”
“Think,” Damian implored, “this might be our only chance of getting out of here.”
“I know but it’s so hard. It’s like I saw it in another dream... That’s it! I saw it before I met you in the dark room. I had a key, and a note! The key I found in Melissa’s hand, just before she disappeared. Inscribed in the key was the numbers 123! And the note was on the door, it had something to do with meeting me in room fifty-seven, it was signed Darkness. That’s why I was in the room with the moneys and no lights! But then something happened, it’s only a blur, then I was back in the dark room.”
With only a sliver of hope, Damian asked, “Do you still have the key?”
Frowning with that thought, Roxanne said slowly, “I don’t know.” She reached into her pocket and felt around, then she searched the second. She flashed a hasty smile and pulled out the small brass key, holding it before him in triumph. Quickly turning towards the door, Roxanne fit the key into the lock and gave it a twist. The lock clicked open and she tried the door handle. It went down with ease. They exchanged glances and Damian placed his hand over hers, pressing down gently, opening the door.
They both gasped at the sight before them, and then braced themselves for what came next. Beyond the door there was swirling misty mass of sparkling gel. It hindered their sight, so they couldn’t see three feet into the blob. This jelly-like liquid filled the whole room and resembled something like a mix of chewed gum and jello. The substance stayed from gushing into the hall, and it jiggled occasionally. From what they could tell the stuff was from floor to about one foot from the ceiling. The gel stopped right at the door jam.
“Well,” started Damian, “it seems like we have to go through that mess of goop.” Then catching Roxanne’s disgusted look, he added, “Or stay here if you prefer.”
Wrinkling her nose at the thought, Roxanne responded unenthusiastically, “I suppose so...”
“I thought that you didn’t have any fears, except moneys of course,” he stated.
“I’m not afraid of it,” she retorted defiantly. “It just doesn’t look appealing to go into. But I will, if you insist.”
“I do,” he replied, sticking his hand into the glop. His hand penetrated the wall quite easily and the goop surrounded his hand immediately. Pulling it out with no resistance, Damian commented, “It seems safe enough.”
Roxanne nodded and noted that his hand was dry, the swirling mixture didn’t leave any residue. Shrugging his shoulders Damian plunged into the gel and it swallowed him completely up. Roxanne’s eyes widen out of surprise as she saw his feet quickly disappearing in the glittering swirls. After taking a deep breath, she dove in after him and felt the cool gel envelop her entire body. Moving was quite easy, and she could open her eyes without them stinging. It was a lot like swimming, and when she took a few strokes in, she was captured by the breath taking beauty of the gently moving, shimmering bits that were floating in the gel. They seemed to be rotating in a spiral that revolved around the middle of the room. The haunting shadow of a feeling crept into the far corner of her mind; something wasn’t completely right. Dismissing the dreading feeling, she wondered what lay in the center, but her thoughts were interrupted by running into Damian. He had stopped most abruptly and whirled around to her his eyes wide open with fear. He relaxed a little then motioned to something that was just to their right. Then he wildly shook his head as if to signify that was whatever it was should not be touched.
Curious to what he was so frantic about, she looked to where he was pointing and saw a dark thick thread in the substance. It ran perpendicular to the floor and reached above to the ceiling. At segmented intervals round balls of dark metal hung off the thick thread.
She glanced back at Damian with a questioning look. Damian put his hands together, bringing all his finger tips touching one another. Then he drew them away from each other, spreading his fingers apart. Roxanne raised her eyebrows with a small smile hinting around the corners of her mouth. But Damian was dead serious about it. They were explosives. If anything touched them, they would blow.
They continued, and noticed that these explosives were all through the gel, about five or eight feet apart from each other. It one of them blew up, that meant that everything would as well. Tension rose as they neared the center, dodging the deadly threads. As they got closer and closer, the explosives got more and more dense. Soon they saw the very center of the room. Both instantly wished they hadn’t. It was black with the dark threads that filled the entire room. Without talking about it they both decided to go around the daunting mass. While swimming about, Roxanne thought it strange that she hadn’t run out of breath yet. But as soon as she thought of it, she suddenly, desperately, needed air.
Swimming on either side of it, they met up again, motioning that they couldn’t hold their breath for much longer. Or didn’t think they could. Roxanne pointed up frenetically. Nodding Damian pushed up from the floor. They both surfaced, just bellow the ceiling, gasping for air. Glancing at the ceiling, Roxanne gasped as she shrank from it. Damian looked up as well then sank a bit lower. Hanging from the ceiling, were iron spikes, all different sizes and lengths.
Damian commented, “Glad we didn’t come up under one of those long ones. This place is really interesting down there, I wonder how this goo stuff got here in the first place. Boy, I bet Dr. Grey sure had a fun time creating this.”
Shrugging, Roxanne’s eyes roved around and she noted, “It’s a round room. And I don’t see any door ways either, except the one we can in through.”
Damian swept the room and nodded. He also saw that there were buoy-like round things floating on the surface. “Those must be where the explosives are... If we stay up here, we can see where the bombs are. And perhaps a pattern.”
“That seems reasonable.” Roxanne said, staring at the black floating objects dotting the glittering surface. “Maybe, just maybe, there’s a trap door on the ceiling that leads out of here.”
“Why don’t you look for that, and I’ll look for a pattern?” Damian suggested thoughtfully.
She agreed and they started swimming again. They were circling around the room, both studying; one the ceiling, the other the surface. As they wound closer and closer to the center, Damian became discouraged at their lack of success in finding any exit. He knew that it would be hopeless to go back into the hall, it was just a dead end.
Roxanne could sense his mood and she tried to encourage him, “Don’t worry, Damian. We’ll figure out how to get out. Nothing’s seemed to hold us in for very long. Something will turn up.”
“Why are you so positive about everything?” he spat back exasperatedly.
“Why are you so negative about everything?” she retorted, with a small smile threatening to shine through. “Someone has to keep up hopes, and since you don’t, I have to.”
He seemed dissatisfied with her answer, but didn’t say anything further. They both went back to looking. Roxanne couldn’t help but notice something strange about the middle of the room. Damian saw it as well and they ventured closer. There, in the center, seemed to be a hole in the middle of the black mass. There were several black floating balls that were outlining the empty hole. They came closer and found that their guess was right. Surrounded by the black balls was a dark, leering pit. No sparkling glittering specks floated in the gel.
Damian muttered, “Here’s our way out. But how to get there without being blown to bits?”
“Take a leap of faith?” Roxanne suggested.
“Would you like to go first? No, I think that we have to be sure that it’s actually the way out. I’ll go down a take a look. You stay here.” Before she had a chance to protest, he plunged back beneath the jelly surface. Slithering down he carefully maneuvered through the threads. Eventually he touched the floor. He stared hard through the threads, to see what was at the bottom. Sure enough, there was a round hole, blocked by a metal covering. The cover had holes in it a small streams of light penetrated the dark substance. Seeing enough to satisfy his guess, Damian rose back to the surface and explained to Roxanne, “There is a round opening down there with a metal covering, but it’s surrounded pretty good. What do you suggest?”
After a moment of thought, Roxanne replied. “I think if we go down and penetrate the threads closer to the opening, we have a better chance at escaping before the whole thing blows. ‘Cause it’s not an option to try to jump over it, only one of us would make it, maybe.”
Damian stared at her in a way that she hadn’t seen before and she said firmly, catching the message, “No, I’m not going to jump over. We said we’d stick together, now it’s both or none of us. As I said, we have a good chance at making it if we go through the threads closer to the hole. Are you with me?”
“Yeah,” he said, almost reluctantly, “But let me hold the threads back, you go first.”
“I’m not sure if I can pull the cover up. It’d be better if you went first, that way it guarantees that we’ll get through and much faster too. I’m not afraid.”
Damian nodded and then wordlessly dove back into glittering goop. They both swam down till the bottom was in sight. Roxanne approached the wall of dark threads, then she parted them and swam between, forcing an opening for Damian. Darting under Roxanne, he swiftly tugged open the hatch. He grabbed Roxanne’s hand just as he felt a rush of hot air from above him. Frantically he pushed down through the opening.
Back in the dim room, Dr. Mendaf watched the screen intently. Things were going smoothly, for adding a second person, that is. They had lost complete control over the entire system, but it was worth it to watch what the pair were doing together. It was incredible, they created and solved problems that would have taken much longer for anyone to come up with. It was amazing what their minds were capable of. And both subjects were holding up under it. In his hand he held a note pad and was writing down notes on what they were doing and their responses.
One of the doctors, who was monitoring both subjects, informed Dr. Mendaf, “The serum is about two-thirds gone, sir.”
He nodded his acknowledgment, then muttered to himself with a grim smile upon his features, “At the rate they’re going, that leaves them another four or five hours. What else can you show me?”
Damian gasped for air as he came up clutching at the floor of the new surroundings. He crawled up, still holding onto Roxanne’s hand. He pulled hard on Roxanne’s forearm, straining to get her up onto the floor with him. Eventually he had laid her on the cold tile, face up. From what he could tell, she was unconscious. There was a black smudge along the right side of her face. Falling to her side, he looked her up and down once, then started to shake her shoulders and gently slap her face. His brow was knit with anxiety, he muttered under his breath, “Come on, Roxanne.”
Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she was surprisingly alert, asking, “You all right? Where did the tunnel lead to?”
Damian leaned back with relief and replied, “That was too close. For a second there, I thought I had lost you. I’m fine, and this is where it led to.” He motioned to the room.
Roxanne propped herself up and looked around. They were siting on the floor in the middle of a very large room. It was yet, another round room. All in the walls were doorways with a glass-like sheet over them. There were several of these “doors” and they could see clearly through them all. Each of the doors led to a different scene. They both stood up and turned in a circle, looking through each of the doors. Finally they turned to each other and Roxanne asked, “Where do you want to go?”
Damian stared at her and replied, “I want to get out of the laboratory. This place or something in it, is trying to get us. It’s rather obvious, so I choose the one that leads out. The only question is, which one is it?”
Roxanne glanced about saying, “I’m not sure, but I thought I saw one with another door on the other side of it, and I thought that there was a sign above it stating exit. But I’m not sure.”
They split and searched the doors Damian halted in front of one and called to Roxanne, “Come over here, we have to do something!”
Roxanne ran over and gazed beyond the glassy glaze. On the other side was three people. Two were nasty looking men, and they were cornering a young woman against a massive, moss covered, stone wall. Both men had big sticks and were advancing upon her with smirks upon their crooked faces.
With sheer determination the pair dashed through the clear door, feeling a liquid-y gel cling to them as they landed on the springy turf. Yelling, Roxanne and Damian tore towards the two men and they tackled the surprised rogues. Taken completely off their guard, the two men were easily defeated. Both were piled by each other, unconscious. The young woman, was extremely grateful and she thanked them both many times.
Damian replied that it was what anyone would have done. After a few minutes of thanking them, the woman began to fade. At first she her entire body turned into a pixel-like, glittering form, then the pieces began to float up in a spirally whirl. It started at her face and slowly swept down the rest of her body. Damian and Roxanne stared at her seemingly unmoved, like it was natural. Once the young woman was a complete mass of floating small squares, they turned to find that the men had done the same thing. The glittering squares floated through the air, eventually vanishing into nothingness.
Damian and Roxanne both glanced at the sight then turned to go back into the round room. But then the familiar lurking feeling crept back into Damian’s mind and he thought of what he had just seen. It wasn’t quite right. He frowned, looking very puzzled and noticed that Roxanne looked the same. He voiced his thoughts in a hushed tone, as if someone might over hear, “That wasn’t right. Something felt...”
“...Felt unreal and almost fake,” Roxanne finished for him, also in a quiet voice. “I’ve had the same feeling. I first noticed it when you opened that wall, then again in the gel. What do you think it means?”
“I’m not sure, it just wasn’t right, that’s not what happens to people when they die. Is it? I don’t get it, I’m positive that that doesn’t happen in real life,” he concluded firmly.
“I’m not sure what real life looks like anymore. If this is real life then why does it feel so different?”
Thinking for a moment Damian mused, a realization dawning on him, “This isn’t real...”
Roxanne stared about her and replied, “No, it’s not real. If this isn’t real, then where are we?”
As she was saying this a loud sound like the whistling of the wind swept about them and the small dell with the big boulders and spongy turf began to swirl. The ground beneath them began to give away. Just before falling with the cracking, crumbling ground, they grabbed each other’s hands. Then everything went dark.
They were trapped.
Roxanne stared with her mouth open. She stuttered her apology, “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
Sighing Damian leaned against the wall, then said, “That’s alright, I guess it saved us from having to choose. Come on, let’s see what’s on the other side of that door.”
Their foot steps echoed as they clanked on the metallic floor. There were no light bulbs in the hall, the very walls seemed to glow from an unknown source. The door was about twenty yards from the opening in the wall and they soon covered the distance. They stopped before the door and looked at each other for a second. Damian broke the small silence by saying, “I don’t know what lays on the other side of this door, but I promise to do everything in my power to see us beyond the walls of this laboratory. Do I have you word that you’ll stay with me, no matter the danger?”
Roxanne looked him directly in the eye and replied solemnly, “I promise to be with you through thick and thin. I mean, we’re kinda’ in this thing together.”
Damian nodded and turned back to the door. He took a deep breath and reached out, grasping the handle. Roxanne watched his slow actions and held her breath. Pushing down gently, Damian’s hand tensed and pushed down harder, but nothing moved. The door was locked.
They both exhaled heavily, and flopped against the luminous walls. Damian mutter under his breath, “Great, now what?”
Sliding further down the wall, Roxanne sat down with her knees folded up to her chest. She glanced up at him and asked, “I don’t suppose you can just move anything again, can you?”
“I’m not sure, it’s worth a shot,” he replied glancing around at the walls, then his eyes resting on the closed door. Positioning himself before the door, he place his hands against the door and pressed, his hands turning white. He exhaled in one gush of air, stepping back saying dismayed, “That didn’t work, this one just won’t do it. Maybe it’s a one time thing, you know, use it once and its used up.”
“Maybe,” Roxanne responded, thinking harder. Damian sat down as well and they both sat in silence for a while.
Damian sighed saying, “If only I hadn’t let you dash in here so quickly, I could have prevented it.”
“No, it was my fault. I’m hasty with things. I guess that’s a side affect of not really being afraid of anything.”
“But I still could have prevented all this—”
Roxanne quickly cut him short, “Stop putting all the blame on yourself and think about how to get out of this mess. It’s my fault and you had better believe that.”
They both fell silent and thought for a while. Roxanne was racking her brain for any solution that might help, even in the slightest way. All she could think of was everything they didn’t have. Like a picklock, or a key of some sorts, or a code. There was nothing, not even the tools in the other room. This time, they were really stuck. She glanced exasperatedly at the door and sighed. Suddenly she caught her breath when she saw something. Jumping up she scrambled in front of the door and fingered three digits that had appeared on the door; 123.
Damian stood beside her and asked, slightly concerned, “What is it, Roxanne?”
She stammered in reply, “I’ve, I’ve seen this number before. But it seems like such a long time ago, that I can’t remember exactly where.”
“Think,” Damian implored, “this might be our only chance of getting out of here.”
“I know but it’s so hard. It’s like I saw it in another dream... That’s it! I saw it before I met you in the dark room. I had a key, and a note! The key I found in Melissa’s hand, just before she disappeared. Inscribed in the key was the numbers 123! And the note was on the door, it had something to do with meeting me in room fifty-seven, it was signed Darkness. That’s why I was in the room with the moneys and no lights! But then something happened, it’s only a blur, then I was back in the dark room.”
With only a sliver of hope, Damian asked, “Do you still have the key?”
Frowning with that thought, Roxanne said slowly, “I don’t know.” She reached into her pocket and felt around, then she searched the second. She flashed a hasty smile and pulled out the small brass key, holding it before him in triumph. Quickly turning towards the door, Roxanne fit the key into the lock and gave it a twist. The lock clicked open and she tried the door handle. It went down with ease. They exchanged glances and Damian placed his hand over hers, pressing down gently, opening the door.
They both gasped at the sight before them, and then braced themselves for what came next. Beyond the door there was swirling misty mass of sparkling gel. It hindered their sight, so they couldn’t see three feet into the blob. This jelly-like liquid filled the whole room and resembled something like a mix of chewed gum and jello. The substance stayed from gushing into the hall, and it jiggled occasionally. From what they could tell the stuff was from floor to about one foot from the ceiling. The gel stopped right at the door jam.
“Well,” started Damian, “it seems like we have to go through that mess of goop.” Then catching Roxanne’s disgusted look, he added, “Or stay here if you prefer.”
Wrinkling her nose at the thought, Roxanne responded unenthusiastically, “I suppose so...”
“I thought that you didn’t have any fears, except moneys of course,” he stated.
“I’m not afraid of it,” she retorted defiantly. “It just doesn’t look appealing to go into. But I will, if you insist.”
“I do,” he replied, sticking his hand into the glop. His hand penetrated the wall quite easily and the goop surrounded his hand immediately. Pulling it out with no resistance, Damian commented, “It seems safe enough.”
Roxanne nodded and noted that his hand was dry, the swirling mixture didn’t leave any residue. Shrugging his shoulders Damian plunged into the gel and it swallowed him completely up. Roxanne’s eyes widen out of surprise as she saw his feet quickly disappearing in the glittering swirls. After taking a deep breath, she dove in after him and felt the cool gel envelop her entire body. Moving was quite easy, and she could open her eyes without them stinging. It was a lot like swimming, and when she took a few strokes in, she was captured by the breath taking beauty of the gently moving, shimmering bits that were floating in the gel. They seemed to be rotating in a spiral that revolved around the middle of the room. The haunting shadow of a feeling crept into the far corner of her mind; something wasn’t completely right. Dismissing the dreading feeling, she wondered what lay in the center, but her thoughts were interrupted by running into Damian. He had stopped most abruptly and whirled around to her his eyes wide open with fear. He relaxed a little then motioned to something that was just to their right. Then he wildly shook his head as if to signify that was whatever it was should not be touched.
Curious to what he was so frantic about, she looked to where he was pointing and saw a dark thick thread in the substance. It ran perpendicular to the floor and reached above to the ceiling. At segmented intervals round balls of dark metal hung off the thick thread.
She glanced back at Damian with a questioning look. Damian put his hands together, bringing all his finger tips touching one another. Then he drew them away from each other, spreading his fingers apart. Roxanne raised her eyebrows with a small smile hinting around the corners of her mouth. But Damian was dead serious about it. They were explosives. If anything touched them, they would blow.
They continued, and noticed that these explosives were all through the gel, about five or eight feet apart from each other. It one of them blew up, that meant that everything would as well. Tension rose as they neared the center, dodging the deadly threads. As they got closer and closer, the explosives got more and more dense. Soon they saw the very center of the room. Both instantly wished they hadn’t. It was black with the dark threads that filled the entire room. Without talking about it they both decided to go around the daunting mass. While swimming about, Roxanne thought it strange that she hadn’t run out of breath yet. But as soon as she thought of it, she suddenly, desperately, needed air.
Swimming on either side of it, they met up again, motioning that they couldn’t hold their breath for much longer. Or didn’t think they could. Roxanne pointed up frenetically. Nodding Damian pushed up from the floor. They both surfaced, just bellow the ceiling, gasping for air. Glancing at the ceiling, Roxanne gasped as she shrank from it. Damian looked up as well then sank a bit lower. Hanging from the ceiling, were iron spikes, all different sizes and lengths.
Damian commented, “Glad we didn’t come up under one of those long ones. This place is really interesting down there, I wonder how this goo stuff got here in the first place. Boy, I bet Dr. Grey sure had a fun time creating this.”
Shrugging, Roxanne’s eyes roved around and she noted, “It’s a round room. And I don’t see any door ways either, except the one we can in through.”
Damian swept the room and nodded. He also saw that there were buoy-like round things floating on the surface. “Those must be where the explosives are... If we stay up here, we can see where the bombs are. And perhaps a pattern.”
“That seems reasonable.” Roxanne said, staring at the black floating objects dotting the glittering surface. “Maybe, just maybe, there’s a trap door on the ceiling that leads out of here.”
“Why don’t you look for that, and I’ll look for a pattern?” Damian suggested thoughtfully.
She agreed and they started swimming again. They were circling around the room, both studying; one the ceiling, the other the surface. As they wound closer and closer to the center, Damian became discouraged at their lack of success in finding any exit. He knew that it would be hopeless to go back into the hall, it was just a dead end.
Roxanne could sense his mood and she tried to encourage him, “Don’t worry, Damian. We’ll figure out how to get out. Nothing’s seemed to hold us in for very long. Something will turn up.”
“Why are you so positive about everything?” he spat back exasperatedly.
“Why are you so negative about everything?” she retorted, with a small smile threatening to shine through. “Someone has to keep up hopes, and since you don’t, I have to.”
He seemed dissatisfied with her answer, but didn’t say anything further. They both went back to looking. Roxanne couldn’t help but notice something strange about the middle of the room. Damian saw it as well and they ventured closer. There, in the center, seemed to be a hole in the middle of the black mass. There were several black floating balls that were outlining the empty hole. They came closer and found that their guess was right. Surrounded by the black balls was a dark, leering pit. No sparkling glittering specks floated in the gel.
Damian muttered, “Here’s our way out. But how to get there without being blown to bits?”
“Take a leap of faith?” Roxanne suggested.
“Would you like to go first? No, I think that we have to be sure that it’s actually the way out. I’ll go down a take a look. You stay here.” Before she had a chance to protest, he plunged back beneath the jelly surface. Slithering down he carefully maneuvered through the threads. Eventually he touched the floor. He stared hard through the threads, to see what was at the bottom. Sure enough, there was a round hole, blocked by a metal covering. The cover had holes in it a small streams of light penetrated the dark substance. Seeing enough to satisfy his guess, Damian rose back to the surface and explained to Roxanne, “There is a round opening down there with a metal covering, but it’s surrounded pretty good. What do you suggest?”
After a moment of thought, Roxanne replied. “I think if we go down and penetrate the threads closer to the opening, we have a better chance at escaping before the whole thing blows. ‘Cause it’s not an option to try to jump over it, only one of us would make it, maybe.”
Damian stared at her in a way that she hadn’t seen before and she said firmly, catching the message, “No, I’m not going to jump over. We said we’d stick together, now it’s both or none of us. As I said, we have a good chance at making it if we go through the threads closer to the hole. Are you with me?”
“Yeah,” he said, almost reluctantly, “But let me hold the threads back, you go first.”
“I’m not sure if I can pull the cover up. It’d be better if you went first, that way it guarantees that we’ll get through and much faster too. I’m not afraid.”
Damian nodded and then wordlessly dove back into glittering goop. They both swam down till the bottom was in sight. Roxanne approached the wall of dark threads, then she parted them and swam between, forcing an opening for Damian. Darting under Roxanne, he swiftly tugged open the hatch. He grabbed Roxanne’s hand just as he felt a rush of hot air from above him. Frantically he pushed down through the opening.
Back in the dim room, Dr. Mendaf watched the screen intently. Things were going smoothly, for adding a second person, that is. They had lost complete control over the entire system, but it was worth it to watch what the pair were doing together. It was incredible, they created and solved problems that would have taken much longer for anyone to come up with. It was amazing what their minds were capable of. And both subjects were holding up under it. In his hand he held a note pad and was writing down notes on what they were doing and their responses.
One of the doctors, who was monitoring both subjects, informed Dr. Mendaf, “The serum is about two-thirds gone, sir.”
He nodded his acknowledgment, then muttered to himself with a grim smile upon his features, “At the rate they’re going, that leaves them another four or five hours. What else can you show me?”
Damian gasped for air as he came up clutching at the floor of the new surroundings. He crawled up, still holding onto Roxanne’s hand. He pulled hard on Roxanne’s forearm, straining to get her up onto the floor with him. Eventually he had laid her on the cold tile, face up. From what he could tell, she was unconscious. There was a black smudge along the right side of her face. Falling to her side, he looked her up and down once, then started to shake her shoulders and gently slap her face. His brow was knit with anxiety, he muttered under his breath, “Come on, Roxanne.”
Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she was surprisingly alert, asking, “You all right? Where did the tunnel lead to?”
Damian leaned back with relief and replied, “That was too close. For a second there, I thought I had lost you. I’m fine, and this is where it led to.” He motioned to the room.
Roxanne propped herself up and looked around. They were siting on the floor in the middle of a very large room. It was yet, another round room. All in the walls were doorways with a glass-like sheet over them. There were several of these “doors” and they could see clearly through them all. Each of the doors led to a different scene. They both stood up and turned in a circle, looking through each of the doors. Finally they turned to each other and Roxanne asked, “Where do you want to go?”
Damian stared at her and replied, “I want to get out of the laboratory. This place or something in it, is trying to get us. It’s rather obvious, so I choose the one that leads out. The only question is, which one is it?”
Roxanne glanced about saying, “I’m not sure, but I thought I saw one with another door on the other side of it, and I thought that there was a sign above it stating exit. But I’m not sure.”
They split and searched the doors Damian halted in front of one and called to Roxanne, “Come over here, we have to do something!”
Roxanne ran over and gazed beyond the glassy glaze. On the other side was three people. Two were nasty looking men, and they were cornering a young woman against a massive, moss covered, stone wall. Both men had big sticks and were advancing upon her with smirks upon their crooked faces.
With sheer determination the pair dashed through the clear door, feeling a liquid-y gel cling to them as they landed on the springy turf. Yelling, Roxanne and Damian tore towards the two men and they tackled the surprised rogues. Taken completely off their guard, the two men were easily defeated. Both were piled by each other, unconscious. The young woman, was extremely grateful and she thanked them both many times.
Damian replied that it was what anyone would have done. After a few minutes of thanking them, the woman began to fade. At first she her entire body turned into a pixel-like, glittering form, then the pieces began to float up in a spirally whirl. It started at her face and slowly swept down the rest of her body. Damian and Roxanne stared at her seemingly unmoved, like it was natural. Once the young woman was a complete mass of floating small squares, they turned to find that the men had done the same thing. The glittering squares floated through the air, eventually vanishing into nothingness.
Damian and Roxanne both glanced at the sight then turned to go back into the round room. But then the familiar lurking feeling crept back into Damian’s mind and he thought of what he had just seen. It wasn’t quite right. He frowned, looking very puzzled and noticed that Roxanne looked the same. He voiced his thoughts in a hushed tone, as if someone might over hear, “That wasn’t right. Something felt...”
“...Felt unreal and almost fake,” Roxanne finished for him, also in a quiet voice. “I’ve had the same feeling. I first noticed it when you opened that wall, then again in the gel. What do you think it means?”
“I’m not sure, it just wasn’t right, that’s not what happens to people when they die. Is it? I don’t get it, I’m positive that that doesn’t happen in real life,” he concluded firmly.
“I’m not sure what real life looks like anymore. If this is real life then why does it feel so different?”
Thinking for a moment Damian mused, a realization dawning on him, “This isn’t real...”
Roxanne stared about her and replied, “No, it’s not real. If this isn’t real, then where are we?”
As she was saying this a loud sound like the whistling of the wind swept about them and the small dell with the big boulders and spongy turf began to swirl. The ground beneath them began to give away. Just before falling with the cracking, crumbling ground, they grabbed each other’s hands. Then everything went dark.
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