The Field Trip

Our hero goes on a field trip.

It was everything she had ever dreamed of.

Granted, she hadn’t really dreamed of Zhao-Kreuger much, or even a little, really. There was that one dream she had when she drank too much cough syrup that one time, but that was just their theme song, not really the company itself…

J pondered this and more as she trailed behind the rest of her tour group down a seemingly-endless hallway-each student paying the same, or similar, amounts of attention to their tour guide’s rapid sales pitch.

“-so that was the last time the U.N bugged us about that little hiccup! So, how about some audience participation-I say ‘Zhao-Kreuger’, you say?”

J didn’t know if silence had a flavor, but you could definitely taste it. Scanning the group behind her like a hawk searching for prey, Ms. Denson’s merciless gaze landed on J’s vacant stare and locked in.

“June, how about you?”

“Gh-c-cold medicine?” J replied, blinking at her name. Ms. Denson furrowed her bushy brow, dissatisfaction practically written on her face.

“D****t, June, pay atten-“

“Now now, Miss, it’s merely a point I’m trying to make!” said the guide, grinning like a fox.

“You see, kids, our company has its metaphorical ‘claws’ in every aspect of human society! Pharmaceuticals, IT, transportation, confectionery-“

“Those black helicopters in Iraq!”

The guide nodded, “Yea, great example, Percy!” The boy beamed, pumping his fist in victory.

“Construction, development, aerospace, the list is endless! You want it? We’ve got it! That’s exactly what Zhao-Kreuger is all about!” The guide smiled, then paused.

“But actually… No, we don’t make cold medicine. Not anymore… Uh, let’s continue!”

J scratched the back of her head, hair still green from her hasty dye job last week. How long had they been on this tour anyway? Thirst tickled the back of her mouth as the group continued down the blindingly-white corridor. Clearing her throat, J glanced at the classmate next to her-a girl perpetually-swaddled in a baggy winter parka. Masha, right? Making sure Denson wasn’t looking, J lightly tapped the girl on her padded shoulder.

“Hey… Got any water?”

No response. J tapped her again, causing the girl to drunkenly lean to the side, then correct herself. Peeking into the parka’s hood, J came face to face with Masha, eyes closed and mouth cracked slightly open. Sleepwalking as usual. Wishing she could pull that off, J picked up the pace a bit, overtaking Masha’s zombie-like shamble and approaching the next closest set of classmates.

“That’s my point though-he puts all of his time and money towards that goal, and even when it hurts him he keeps at it.”

Tammy nodded, twisting her long red scarf in between her hands.

“But that’s not love, that’s just obsession. Even if it was, it’s not like they’d be able to-“

“You can’t commodify love, especially when it comes to a relationship like that.” Trevor interrupted, adjusting his glasses. “They need each other-without the chase what other purpose do they have in life?”

“That’s pretty pessimistic.” Tammy whispered back. Trevor shrugged, not noticing the ghostly form approaching from behind.

“Yo, Trevor. Got any water?”

Trevor spun, careful not to alert Ms. Denson.

“Christ, J!”

“Dude, give me some of your water.”

“Why didn’t you bring your own?” Quipped Tammy as J slunk in between them.

“Drank it on the bus. Come onnnnnn.” J begged, raising a hand from her jacket pocket.

“No way! You’ll just drink all of mine too!” Trevor glanced at Denson, then back to J.

“Yea, get your own, dick!” snapped Tammy.

“Tammy.”

“What?”

“Can I have some of your water?”

“JUNE, PAY ATTENTION OR I SWEAR TO CHRIST-“ Squawked Denson.

Snapping to attention, J glided away from the duo and shoved her hands back into her blue Letterman's pockets. Bullshit, she thought, her gaze drifting around the corridor. Turning a corner, the tour guide slammed against an open door, his Cheshire smile replaced with a look somewhere between confusion and rage.

“My bad.” Muttered a janitor, tugging a mop and its bucket through the open door. His face burning beet red, the tour guide stood like a statue until the janitor retreated down the hallway, then resumed his speech.

“Just another fine employee of Zhao-Kreuger Heavy Industries! Now if you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you some of our other fantastic team players: ROBOTS!”

With a cheer, the group continued down the corridor. Eager at the prospect of meeting a real robot, J started after them, but paused. The door from which the janitor emerged was still open, leading into the inky darkness of the rest of the facility. Her throat still itching, J glanced once at the tour group, then back at the door. Maybe there’s a drinking fountain? She thought, watching the group quickly disappear down the hall. Eeh. Now or never… Shutting the door behind her, J scurried down the dimly-lit hallway guided by the prospect of a cold drink.

“Pause. Switch to Monitor 54. Rewind to fourteen hours, twenty minutes, forty two seconds,” growled the man, his grim facade shrouded by cigar smoke. The collection of monitors flickered in acknowledgment, then replayed the scene-a green-haired girl wearing a blue Letterman jacket and black skirt sidestepping into an open door, face locked in a nonchalant whistle.

“My god.” Growled the man, puffing another cloud from his cigar. “High Schoolers. The perfect cover…”

“SECURITY SECTOR ROOK BREACHED BY UNIDENTIFIED PERSONNEL,” parsed the monitors in a mechanical chorus. “NO IDENTIFICATION DETECTED. THREAT LEVEL RAISED TO ORANGE. AUTONOMOUS SECURITY COUNTERMEASURES ON STANDBY. BIOLOGICAL COUNTERMEASURES PRIMING. DEFENSE PROTOCOL HIEROPHANT ARMED. MEDIA BLA-"

“Wait.” Croaked the man. “Let’s see what she does…” Taking another puff from the cigar, the man’s mouth twisted into a sadistic smirk. “Why settle for a minnow when you can catch the whole school?” Leaning back in his massive leather armchair, the man nibbled the end of the cigar and laughed, the monitors chittering as code raced across their surfaces.

“Hey. HEY!” J grumbled, pounding on the steel door in front of her. She had tried every other door in the hallway now and boredom was beginning to grip her. For a moment she considered turning back, but quickly reconsidered. Denson probably already noticed her absence-she might as well go for the gold. Plus, the door leading to the hallway was like, five minutes back. Forget it. Gritting her teeth in frustration, J slumped against the door and pouted. Megacorporation. Big deal, she thought, Not so mega if it can’t even make a freakin’ drinking fountain. Frustrated, J barely registered the faint touch of a breeze on her leg. Looking to her left she found a grille embedded in the wall barely wider than a small dog. With a tug, the grille came off of its hinges revealing a vent trailing into pitch blackness. Shrugging, J lowered herself onto the ground and began squeezing her head inside, praising her decision to wear spats today. Barely managing her head and her left arm, she pushed off of the floor with her feet, slowly but surely shoving the rest of her body into the vent. Hidden in a shadowy corner above the steel door, a tiny camera buzzed with activity.

Hours later, J was still in the dark. At least, that’s how long it felt. It’s not like she had a watch, after all-who the hell wore a watch anymore? “No one, that’s who.” She mused to no one in particular. Inching through the passage like a worm, J wondered if she could have taken a better approach in her recent endeavor. Should have led with my arms, then head. She thought, lamenting the growing cramp in her left arm. Despite the lack of light and sense of direction, J was certain she was on the right track. Where that track would lead, however, remained to be seen. At any rate, the breeze from before had intensified into a chill-stinging her eyes and irritating the crap out of her nose. Water wouldn’t suffice now, she decided. She’d need some SportzAid or some juice, at least. She deserved that much. J’s train of thought screeched to a halt as the metal below her groaned in protest. Freezing in place, she began to consider how to turn herself around when the vent collapsed under her, sending the girl tumbling downward towards a reservoir of glowing, soupy liquid, trails of frosty vapor escaping from the top. Flailing like a squirrel falling from a power line, her hand gripped the lip of a catwalk mere feet above the liquid. Wincing at the shock in her arm, which was now no longer cramped, thank god, J scrambled onto the catwalk and sighed with relief. She found herself in a massive room lit solely by a sparse collection of industrial red lights embedded in the concrete walls, their dull hue just barely illuminating the ocean of glowing, turquoise liquid below. Standing up, J brushed the soot off of her skirt and breathed. Briefly considering taking a sip of the glowing liquid below, her mind instead shifted to the possibility of a way out of the room and to greener, and more drink-laden, pastures. Her sneakers clanking along the catwalk, she soon came to a rusted, albeit serviceable ladder leading upwards. With no other choices, she levered herself onto the ladder and climbed, careful to avoid the rustier bits.

Benji hated what he had become. Staring into the microscope lens through the visor of his cleansuit, he wondered how he could ever forgive himself for his actions-the years of gene manipulation, the libraries of NDAs he had signed. How could he return to his family and live a normal life? Indeed, would he be able to return at all? He had almost forgotten the face of his baby daughter-the sound of her voice. He had missed her birthday again, all so he could look at cell tissue samples under a microscope and spit in God’s eye-that is, if he was still watching him. What cruel creator would look upon his subjects now, especially he, a coward and a fool-

Benji’s internal monologue was interrupted by the screeching of the metal door in the dustier corner of his lab. The rusted door etched with a barely legible Hazardous Waste symbol in an ancient yellow and black stencil. The door to the primary coolant dump. The one that, in his seven years of employment, he had rarely seen open-especially from the inside. Stumbling backwards towards the wall of his lab, Benji looked for something, anything he could use as a weapon. Grabbing a stool, Benji’s breathing hastened, condensation forming on his visor. A hand emerged from behind the door-surprisingly human, given the radioactive properties of the spent coolant. But what could it-

J shoved the door open with a dry cough. Emerging into a lab area, she came face to face with a gaunt man in a cleansuit shuddering near a bulletproof glass door, a stool shaking in his grasp. S**t, now I’m really in a pickle, J thought, mind racing for an excuse. “Uh…. Hey… Is there a vending machine around here? I’m a bit lost.” The scientist froze, registering her words for a moment, then slammed a red panel on the wall with a girlish shriek. The lab, and the labs around it, burst to life with klaxons and flashing red lights as metal shutters clamped over their windows. “CONTAMINATION DETECTED IN LAB X-23. ASSUME ACTION STATIONS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS. THIS IS NOT A TEST.” Before she could repeat her question, the man in the cleansuit had already retreated through the door, flailing his arms as he went. Shrugging, J pushed aside the piles of data sheets and microscope slides searching for anything vaguely drinkable, eventually coming across a sealed container resembling a thermos. Unscrewing the top, J’s senses were assaulted with a sterile, stinging scent, like that of industrial bleach or a carbonated energy drink. Feeling another coughing fit coming on, J lifted the thermos to her lips and guzzled the contents, the syrupy mixture bubbling and burning all the way down. Replacing the thermos where she had found it, J scratched her stomach and wiped her mouth. Must be some of that vitamin supplement crap, she thought, wincing at the aftertaste. Still thirsty, J shook the flavor from her head and made for the exit, the alarms still screeching as she went. Surprisingly enough the door was still unlocked, allowing J to emerge into a cluster of large cube-shaped rooms, each one identical to the one she had just left. Following a blinking trail of red lights on the floor, she came to a corridor similar to the one her tour group had been using. At the end was an elevator, its doors open as if inviting her inside.

The button panel extended from her waist to the top of the elevator, each labeled with an appropriate color and designation. Spying a button marked LOU, J grinned in recognition. Lounge! Now we’re talkin’! Pressing the button in triumph, J leaned against the elevator wall, barely noticing the clanking of metal against the corridor’s floor. A squad of humanoids clad in cybernetic armor froze outside of the elevator, their glowing red eyes trained on the doors. The leader waved a hand gesture at his squad, prompting the group to retrieve the high-tech rifles slung on their backs. With a click they came to life, a quintet of green lasers extending from the weapon barrels to the back wall of the elevator. Raising a palm to his squad, the leader made a tossing gesture towards the open elevator doors. Echo-3, being closest, retrieved a gas grenade from his belt. Messy stuff when inhaled, but nonlethal. Nodding almost imperceptibly, the leader gave him the signal to throw.

Guess no one else is getting on… J thought, tapping the ‘close door’ button. She didn’t know why she was still trying to be polite, especially after how that guy treated her. Old habits die hard, I guess, she thought as the doors slid closed. She barely perceived the tap of an object bouncing off of the doors as the elevator rapidly descended deeper into the facility. “Odd place for a lounge, though,” J yawned, hopping a few times out of boredom.

The man slammed his fist onto the console sending flakes of cigar ash tumbling onto the keyboard. J hopped up and down on the monitors, causing the camera feed to jolt along with the elevator. Grating his teeth in frustration, he took another puff from the cigar and leaned forward, the glow of alarms blinking in between clouds of smoke.

“Lock down all elevator subsystems and activate biological security countermeasures.” He paused, leaning back in his chair. “Detain the tour group, lock down all elevators, entrances, and exits.” A 3D map of the facility appeared on the monitors, entire sections glowing red with animated locks. Shaking his head, the man growled in disbelief. “The Lazarus Operational Unit… You crazy son of a b***h…”

“BIOLOGICAL COUNTERMEASURES ARMED AND ACTIVATED.” The man grinned as the elevator in the monitor filled with wisps of nigh-transparent gas.

J stood up as the elevator stopped, doors opening into a lush garden of neon plants and a starry night sky. Stepping through the doors, she took a deep breath as the gentle night breeze blew through her hair and caressed her face. Smiling, she skipped forward through the forest letting the plants brush her as she went-each leaf dying her clothes and skin a different hue. Her skin pulsed between shades of neon purple, blue, and gold, her pores laughing at her between every transition. Opening her mouth, J could taste the colors too! Purple, Green, Pink, Red! There were all the others, of course-maroon, indigo, honey, lemon, chocolate, grass, blood, disappointment, space, Rocky Road,

How rude! Too busy tasting, J had completely ignored the teddy bears at her feet, their eyes burning with the light of the stars above, each one giving her a reassuring smile. “You can do it!” squeaked one. “You can do anything” screeched another! What fun! J buzzed, lifting off the ground on her way to the smiling face of the moon above. With a wink, the lunar body sent kisses spiraling down to her, brushing her cheeks and causing her to blush. The teddy bears giggled, their bodies bursting into flame as they fell off of her and back to Earth. What a swell guy, she thought, pointing her fingers like conductor’s batons. Streams of light sped from her fingertips towards the stars and the moon, exploding like fireworks as they collided. J couldn’t feel anything anymore-her body had become a cloud of rainbows, butterflies with polka dot wings, spiders gnashing their teeth and drinking up the world around her. She didn’t care. J was exactly where she wanted to be and she was ecstatic. She had finally become what she wanted to be and she was ecstatic. She was finally where she wanted to wanted and she wanted to be and was ecstatic to be wanted to to to to

Hours later, J was still in the dark. At least, that’s how long it felt. This seemed like a new dark, though-much smokier and louder than the cramped darkness of the vent. Shaking the disorientation from her face, J stumbled to her feet and examined her surroundings. The room appeared to be some sort of a server farm, but this one was dark and warm. Ignoring the growing ache in her head, J aimlessly hobbled forward, doing her best to avoid the piles of sap-like material on the dimly-lit ground. Fishing in her pocket for her phone, J cursed in realization-she’d forgot it at home today! Be nice to have a flashlight right now… She thought. …Or a freakin' drink... Leaning against a broken server bank, J caught the faint buzz of an electrical circuit a few servers to her left. Her foot caught on a few bits of debris, but before long she came across the source of the noise-a writhing mass of active electrical conduits until recently connected to… Something. J blinked. In the place of what looked like the center of the server farm was a metal container peeled open like a banana, its prior contents nowhere to be found. Above the conduits were a series of holes tunneled through rows of metal shields, like some sort of animal just burrowed through. Scratching her head, J took a deep breath and leaped onto one of the cables, shimmying towards the passage above her.

She couldn’t remember how many floors she had passed, but by the time J reached the floor marked with one of those Greek numerals, she was pooped. Dismounting from the power conduit and emerging from its place in the wall, J found herself in another sterile corridor, this one leading to a massive steel double door at the end. Ignoring the rumbling below her feet, J walked towards the door, whistling to dispel the silence. Flanked by two keypads on the walls, the door seemed a bit more intimidating up close. Pondering, J fiddled with the buttons on the wall at random, wondering if she’d have better luck a few floors down. Nope, she thought, no more climbing for me. Not today, at least. As her mind wandered towards what she would have for dinner, the keypad buzzed in irritation. The word ‘INCORRECT’ appeared in dull green lettering, followed by ‘ERROR’, and then ‘ERFG55&4667-‘ Another tremor shook the hall. As J regained her balance, a series of sparks flew from one keypad, then the other. With a groan the door creaked open leading into an even larger room dominated by pipes, pumps, and machines. J’s eyes lit up at what she saw ahead-bathed in the glow of a fluorescent light was a device resembling a vending machine, complete with buttons and canisters filled with a multitude of colored liquids. Jackpot, J thought as she crossed the threshold into the room.

She had made it halfway to the machine when she heard a loud clang on the floor behind her. Spinning in surprise, J came face to face with a man-well, sort of a man. A cigar-smoking 8 foot giant stood before her clad in a half-worn, half-built-in cybernetic chassis rippling with synthetic muscle and protected by a cruel-looking exoskeleton. Focusing a glowing cyborg eye on J, the man twitched his shoulder, causing a mechanical appendage to extend from his neck and snatch the still-smoking cigar from his lips. With a puff, the man looked down at J and grinned.

“I don’t have a name. Not anymore. Official records say Lt. Donnel Van Bluth died in a military prison eight years ago, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth.”

The appendage lifted the cigar back to the man’s mouth. Not wanting to interrupt his introduction, J politely let him continue.

“Some say he escaped from a remote island prison with nothing more than a sharpened toothbrush and a wristwatch. Others say he was never even born-he was built.”

He took another puff. J glanced at the machine behind her and wondered if it took nickels.

“The truth is…” He paused for effect, “Stranger than fiction. I didn’t die, I was reborn. I wasn’t built, I was IMPROVED!” The man shouted, raising his arms dramatically. J coughed.

“My new name is CEREBERUS-the gatekeeper to this hell you know as Zhao-Kreuger Heavy Industries Branch #3345, 233 Thorp Street, Oakley, California!”

CEREBERUS’s voice echoed to every corner of the room.

“I’ve seen the best of mankind. I’ve seen the worst of mankind. I’ve seen the best of mankind and the worst of mankind fight and leave behind the middle of mankind. I have seen the Alphas! I have seen Hell and Death themselves with my own eyes!”

     J took a step towards the machine, but stopped when the man kept going.

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know where you’re from,” “I’m from Oakley Hig-“ “I don’t know what you want or what the company has done to you. I don’t know what philosophy or what morals guided you on this suicidal, roll the dice, do or die, all or nothing quest for ‘justice’,” Donnel said, moving his fingers like quotation marks, “But I hate to admit it-I like what I see.”

     With a booming laugh, CEREBERUS stooped lower towards J’s face.

“Security systems? Bypassed. Biological countermeasures? Piece of cake. Hell, you eluded and embarrassed the best of the best-security and military veterans hand-picked by me from around the globe and vetted only by the top echelon of the Zhao-Kreuger corporation. You disrupted our operations, cost us billions of dollars, and ruined countless amounts of company property. You even took out the finest marriage of human-cybernetic intelligence on the western seaboard-the Lazarus Operational Unit. Most importantly, you did it all with the cold calculation of a professional AND without any cybernetics stitched into ya.”

     CEREBERUS clapped, the sound ringing against the walls of the chamber. J would be lying if she said she wasn’t beginning to get annoyed by that.

“Long story short, I haven’t had this much fun in ages, BUT I can’t let you or anyone else leave alive. So here’s what I’m gonna do:”

CEREBERUS stepped back a few steps, his arms spread in challenge.

“I’ll give you the first hit. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get me. Maybe you won’t.”

CEREBERUS grinned.

“Go ahead, give me your best shot.”

J blinked. To be honest she was kinda blanking out on that whole thing, but not wanting to offend the guy she nodded her head.

“You uh… You got it! Just gimme a moment.”

Before he could answer, J scampered over to the machine behind her. Sampling her options, J elected to try the liquid in the upper right corner-an emerald green liquid kept in a steel-lined beaker. Must be gimmick packaging, She thought, not wanting to waste the man’s time. Failing to locate a place to insert change, J thumbed the button and was pleasantly surprised when a mechanical claw reached into the machine’s innards, retrieving the liquid of her choice. Emerging from the machine with a hiss, the claw deposited the beaker in J’s outstretched hands and quickly retracted. J could barely contain her excitement-It had been a wild ride, yea, but any punishment doled out by Ms. Denson would totally be worth it. Turning around, J took a few steps towards the man in front of her when time slowed to a crawl.

Her right foot froze in midair as its untied lace snapped taut underneath her left sneaker. Panicked, J flailed her arms in an attempt to right herself, causing the beaker to fly from her grasp into the air towards the cyborg’s confused mug. It happened almost instantaneously-J faceplanting with a thud, the beaker splashing on the cyborg’s face.

“THE MUTAGEN! NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

The mixture, bubbling and hissing, warped the cyborg’s flesh upon impact and with a bestial roar he toppled backwards, landing with a hollow clang onto the floor. Springing to her feet, J rapidly tied her shoe and glanced at the man in front of her still writhing on the ground in agony. Not wanting to get into any more trouble, J quickly sidestepped him and made for the exit offering a quick “SHITSORRY” as she passed. Wrestling with the painful rearrangement of his face and DNA structure, the cyborg flipped open a console on his wrist and pressed a combination of buttons on the console below the clock readout. “ATTENTION. ATTENTION. STERILIZATION PROTOCOL HAS COMMENCED. ATTENTION. ATTENTION. STERILIZATION PROTOCOL HAS COMMENCED.” CEREBERUS chuckled as his face twisted, the mixture working its cruel magic. “Guess….Ngh… Guess someone finally punched myRRNGH..TICKet….” He continued to laugh as the facility shook around him, the air growing hotter by the second.

“Let me once again profusely apologize for the inconvenience-“ said the tour guide, his hair slightly more frazzled than it had began. Ms. Denson and her class were outside at their previously-decided meeting point: the bus turnout next to the company building. Flustered, Ms. Denson tapped her toe on the pavement.

“It’s no trouble, really-but we can’t leave without a full roster. It’s in my contract.”

Doing his best to smile, the tour guide motioned towards the waiting school bus.

“Tell you what-I’ll go back inside and look for her, you can wait on the bus until she comes back. Sound good?”

Answering with a noncommital ‘eeh’, Ms. Denson ushered the class onto the bus. Waiting until the class was out of sight the guide made his way towards the entrance of the building. Reaching into his coat, the tour guide pulled out a silenced handgun and racked the slide, disappearing into the building one last time. Moments later, a J-shaped form came crashing out of a third-story window, landing with a thump on the grass below. Spitting a clump of dirt out of her mouth, J nonchalantly picked herself off of the ground and meandered towards the bus-trying and failing to avoid Ms. Denson’s death glare.

As the bus departed from the Zhao-Kreuger Heavy Industries parking lot, J couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Slumped in the seat next to the pseudo-lifeless form of Masha, she wondered if she had missed out on grabbing something neat at the gift shop by going on her little adventure.

“Well class, I hope you all had a great time today. Especially you, June.” Ms. Denson said, hanging on to the last bit.

“When we get back to school I’d like everyone to think of topics for a report on what you learned today and how it can be applied to daily life. And June-I hope you like detention, because guess what-“

Denson froze as the bus shook with the force of an earthquake followed by the sound of an explosion behind them. Peeking through the window, J and the rest of the class watched as a massive mushroom cloud rose from where they had left, ripping through the cloudline and blocking out the sun. With a yawn, Masha peeked out from her parka and uttered a muffled ‘oh, cool’ before drifting back off to sleep. J shrugged. She was still thirsty, damn it. Worst day ever.