Chapter One

The giant steel doors buckled under the pressure contained within. The lab technicians all gathered in the dimly lit cavern that served as a natural bunker from the outside world. Two automated M2 machine guns were poised at the doors as they began to break apart. The M2’s housed a console directly below that allowed for manual control. At the sensitive controls, two former marines positioned themselves under the 50mm guns prepared to follow any order from the Doctor.  

Dr. Adkins had evacuated the lab moments before it was shut tight to protect them from what was within. The technicians cowered before the doors as little nuts and bolts whizzed past their heads. The screech was unnerving to most of the technicians causing them to whisper amongst themselves. Dr. Adkins raised his right hand as if halting the murmurs of the technicians, but stood ready to give an order to the gunners. 

He moved his left hand in a circular motion to signal for a spotlight. One of the technicians scrambled to a high perch in the cavern and swiveled the thin light toward the door. The extra light created more shadows from the bolts as they flew through the air, bouncing off the cavern walls.

In the next instant, like a cap on a pressurized soda, the doors burst open. The group stared into the unending darkness with only silence prevailing, besides the fury of sparks from the disheveled cords and wires that once powered the lab. They used the spotlight to search the wrecked laboratory. The thin beam didn’t reveal much besides broken containers of lab samples, smashed computers, and overturned tables. 

Giant monitors hanging by thin wires littered the ceiling. Gashes in the overhanging vent that provided cool air from the cavern’s natural pockets let bursts of freezing air rush into the dark laboratory. It mixed with the dense chemical smoke that poured from open containers and hid whatever sulked in the darkness while providing the technicians with a sense of dread. The spotlight then glazed over something bright and blue in the left corner of the dark lab. They quickly moved the light back to fixate on it, but there wasn’t anything left but a smashed containment unit. 

The container was eight feet tall, four feet wide, and looked like it came straight out of science fiction movie. Three giant hoses connected the top of it to a pump on the other side of the lab. They swayed faintly in the light with two of them holding the top from smashing into pieces on the ground. The base was a cluster of wires extending to a nearby monitor. The monitor showed three flat lines, among other vitals, all at zero. Bright green amniotic-like fluid oozed from the sides of the container, dripping onto the broken tiles. 

Something swiftly passed through the light like a shadow on a wall. Broken glass shifted upon the floor of the lab; a table flipped somewhere in the background. Dr. Adkins held his hand steady, his gaze glued to the darkness waiting for any more movement. He held his cool demeanor as the technicians behind him quaked at every noise emitted from the deserted laboratory; another case of beakers crashed to the floor. He found the source of the noise and signaled with his left hand for the spotlight to shift to the right.

Hunched over some of the laboratory equipment was a humanoid creature appearing six feet tall. Its shoulders folded into the darkness but the doctor noticed that strands of bicep muscle showed through the torn flesh. It was undeniable that the creature was physically superior to everyone there. Every muscle looked perfect, with each doing its part as it shifted around the wrecked beakers. Pieces of its neck were missing as it clawed at its body, dazed and confused from the toxic fumes in the air. Any human would have burned in the dense cloud of chemical smoke. It turned to leap across the lab as if looking for something, when it locked eyes with the doctor. 

Its bright blue eyes looked scared for a split second, only to be replaced by anger thereafter. It stood up to its full height as the spot light hit it, adding seven inches to the doctor’s previous estimate. Its body looked even more burnt with bits of its skin intact like small islands in a vast sea of red. The chemicals were taking their toll on its whole body. Half of its face was melted from exposure to the spilled chemicals in the lab, revealing muscle tissue and rows of teeth. The doctor watched in slight horror as skin cells regrew as fast as the chemicals burned them off. He could hear it snarl from across the room while it quickly crouched to leap towards the doctor. 

Dr. Adkins took two steps back as the monstrosity leaped to the far right of the lab, perching upon the vent to gather itself before a second leap. It jumped again, stretching its charred arms out to grab the doctor who was a mere three feet away. Right as the creature’s face hit the light from the rest of the tunnel, the doctor threw his right arm down yelling, “fire!” 

The quick hum of the M2’s filled the cavern as the gunners squeezed the triggers on the console as hard as they could. The doctor closed his eyes. The creature was no more than a foot away. Then the first bullet rang out, followed by another, and another until they could no longer distinguish between shots. The technicians ducked and covered their ears; the noise was overwhelming in the cramped cavern. The first bullet pierced its right shoulder twisting the creature in mid air as it tried to grab the doctor. Lowering his body to stabilize himself, the doctor grabbed the creature’s outstretched arm and flung it over the technicians using its momentum. As it flew through the air, hundreds of bullets, following the first’s suit, virtually left it a muddled mess of cells.

The guns left everyone deaf for a few moments. They composed themselves and looked around for any sign of the monster only finding a heap of cells. The doctor straightened his coat and pushed his way through the crowd to the motionless clump of cells. He grabbed an odd-looking tool from his coat pocket, fiddling with the settings on the side. The nozzle changed from red to green as he pointed it toward the mass on the cavern floor. A small ultraviolet light erupted from the nozzle. The clump of cells that once resembled a humanoid creature shook for a few moments then melted, covering the rocky surface with a bright red fluid. Grabbing a capsule from the other pocket, the doctor placed it in the center of the fluid. Within seconds the fluid rushed into the container as a hiss signaled the completion of the process.

The doctor grabbed the container that was no bigger than a bottle of water and tossed it to one of the technicians next to him. Grabbing his phone from his pants pocket, he opened two large ventilation shafts in the ceiling sucking all the dense chemicals into a container housed in the side of the right wall. He then turned to the dumbfounded crowd and clapped his hands in two short bursts. “Chop, chop people. Enough fun for one day. We have work to do.” 

They could do nothing but nod and walk into the destroyed lab. They cautiously took short breathes and walked slowly just in case there was some chemical residue left in the lab. When the coast was clear they started picking up tables and sweeping the floor. The doctor walked over to a back door marked with the word ‘Eugenix,’ pressing his hand to a scanner. It beeped twice and welcomed the doctor back. The technician with the sample followed behind the doctor and flipped a switch next to the door to turn on the florescent bulbs hanging twenty feet above the ground. Walking over to a freezer, he placed the sample marked ‘Patient 0’ on an empty sample rack. 

“That was a close one today,” proclaimed the technician. A stout man in a blue lab coat; he barely came up to the doctor’s shoulder.

“It’s expected this late in the game,” responded Dr. Adkins. “We’re close Daniel, I can feel it.”

Daniel walked over to a panel and flipped a few switches revealing endless rows of containment units all housing the same humanoid. They floated there in the fluid, bobbing up and down like a fisherman’s boat in rough waters. Daniel stood there, lost in the bobbing of a nearby creature, but shook his head to come out of it.

“Let’s get to work Doc,” Daniel said after a few minutes of thought while walking over to a nearby monitor. 

Dr. Adkins sighed, “Yeah, we need to clean up this mess. Henry’s coming by tomorrow and he’s going to love this.”