The entire facility was void of life.

Eerie.

Empty. 

A waste of effort.

All fifteen-hundred square feet was filled with nothing but the buzzing of fluorescent lights and the whoosh of a barely working air conditioning system. We had explored eleven rooms, and so far, nothing. No documents, no equipment, and no people. One room had yet to be explored, and it just so happened to be the only one obstructed by a locked door. A large man covered in curly, blonde fur was currently trying to kick the thing down, to no avail.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Impacts echoed throughout the lab as he continued his efforts. The door, however, remained shut tight, no matter how many times he kicked, hit, and pushed against it. I sighed deeply and leaned against a nearby wall, the cool steel helping to calm the headache I could feel creeping its way into my skull. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my nerves. You never know what you’ll find in an ancient lab like this, and the prospect of being shredded to bits by a hardly functioning security system isn’t appealing to me or my anxiety.

“Damn! Salvia, come help me with this door.”

I peeled my eyelids open lethargically and gazed at the man attacking the door. 

“You’re a lot stronger than me, Damien. If you can’t get it open, what am I supposed to do?”

My voice came out much more condescending than intended, but my half asleep brain couldn’t care less at the moment.

“Come on, two is better than one. Can you please come over here and help-” 

“LOOK WHAT I FOUND!”

Damien was abruptly cut off by the completely unnecessary yelling of a short, pink-skinned woman with a head of hair that resembled large zipline cables more than hair. I let out an amused huff as Damien jumped halfway out of his skin by the unexpected noise. My eyes were then drawn to the metallic object she was holding up proudly.

“Shit! Where did you come from, Dia? You scared the hell out of me.” Damien said, his hand clutched over his chest as if his heart were going to jump out of it. He seemingly forgot his fear as he saw what was in her grasp. “Is that a crowbar? Oh, thank the sun, Salvia wasn’t helping at all and I was about to just give up and leave.”

I muttered an offhand ‘fuck you’ as Damien snatched the crowbar from Dia’s hands and turned to the door, wedging the it between the door and the doorframe. He gave it an experimental pull to ensure it was secured, then flashed me and Dia a smile.

“We’re in business. Get ready, anything could be in there.”

We both responded with nods, Dia flashing him a thumbs up for good measure. I withdrew the knife holstered on my hip, a tinge of pleasure shooting through my body as my hand felt the familiar sensation of sanded wood being fitted in its grasp. If there’s something alive behind that door, there’s a good chance it can’t be hurt with a knife, but it provides me with a sense of security anyways. Damien looked back to the crowbar and took in a deep breath, then pulled with all of his might. Almost instantly, the door shot wide open and both the crowbar and Damien clattered to the ground with a clang and a thud respectively.

“Owww…”

The door was apparently pull, not push. Would’ve been nice to know earlier. For Damien, at least.

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I approached the room cautiously with Dia right behind me. From what I could see, there was nothing but a big, weirdly shaped metal box in the middle of the room, illuminated by a single overhead light. I took one step in, and swept my eyes across the left and right sides of the room. The room was unusually large, being maybe twenty five by twenty five feet. The right side was entirely bare, not a single thing in sight. The left, however, had a podium with what I could only describe as a blue holographic screen on it facing the box. Seeing no immediate threat, I fully entered the room and began approaching the box. Each of my steps echoed throughout the room, reverberating back into my ears with unusual intensity. As I grew closer to the box, a buzzing noise akin to a freezer became just barely audible. It grew louder and louder and I drew closer, eventually becoming just as prevalent as the buzzing of the lights overhead. I placed one hand on top of it, but quickly drew it back as I found it to be unusually cold. I gave it a look over, finding it to be much larger than it looked from far away. It seemed to be about seven feet tall, and just over three feet wide. Strangely enough, it reminded me of a large coffin.

“Huh… looks kinda like a coffin.” came the voice of Damien as he walked up next to me.

Took the words right out of my mind, Damien.

We must share the same instincts, because right after he said that he placed one hair-covered hand on top of it, only to jerk it back just as I did.

“It’s cold!”

I looked over at him with what I hoped to be humor clear in my eyes.

“Yes, Damien, it’s cold.”

Several seconds of silence rang out as we stared at the cold metal-coffin-box thing.

“What do you think it is?” he asked.

I merely shrugged in response and turned away, only to see Dia fiddling with the screen on the left side of the room.

“Dia, wait, we don’t know what that thing does.”

“Oh, come on, what’s the worst that could-”

“WARNING, CRYOGENIC POD IS NOW OPENING. PLEASE STAND BY.”

A monotone, robotic voice rang out.

…

I stared at Dia.

She stared at me.

I blinked

She blinked.

“...sorry?”

I whipped my head around, back to the box, and saw the top opening up like a set of double doors. White gas poured out of it, sinking down to the floor. Damien stumbled several steps back and almost lost his footing as it continued to open. I tightened my grip on my knife and stepped backwards until I was right next to Dia.

The lid fully opened. Damien, who had an unobstructed view of the contents of the box, gasped loudly.

“That’s a person!”

As if on cue, a figure slowly rose to a sitting position in the box. It was hard to tell what it looked like, considering half of its torso was blocked by the lid. From what I could see, it was definitely a person. They had long, dark hair and lightly colored skin. They seemed rather broad, not to the point of being burly like Damien, but big enough that I’d think them strong- compared to me, at least. The figure remained very still for a few moments, then let out a long groan.

They clumsily climbed out of the box, giving me a better view of their features. They were tall, being just a bit shorter than Damien. Their skin was a pale beige with a pinkish undertone, and their hair was shoulder length and dark brown. They stumbled for a second, obviously incredibly disoriented. Eventually, they managed to get their footing. Dia, Damien, the figure and I were all completely still. Several awkward seconds of silence filled only with the buzzing of the overhead light rang out. 

The figure opened its mouth as if to say something, but their stomach had other plans as they keeled over and vomited on the metal floor.

“Oh, god…” Damien groaned, taking a few steps backwards and covering his own mouth with his hand.

He’s always been a bit squeamish.

Soon, the person finished spilling their last meal all over the floor, and slowly straightened up, breathing heavily.

They began speaking, but it wasn’t in a language I could understand. Dia and Damien both looked confused too, and they’ve never mentioned speaking anything other than Common and their native languages, so I assumed neither of them couldn’t understand the figure either. They sounded distressed, however, and became even more so during their speech. Their head snapped around, taking in the room around them and locking eyes with all of us individually for a few seconds each. They stumbled again, this time collapsing against what I can assume to be the pod they were frozen in. Their chest rose up and down quickly in an erratic manner.

I felt pity.

I holstered my knife and walked up to them, squatting down to their level. They locked eyes with me, theirs being wide, bloodshot, and obviously filled with panic. They were hyperventilating. Now that I could get a good look at them, I noticed something I couldn’t be sure of before.

“They’re human.” I called to the others.

“Hey, like Lilith! I bet she’ll be happy!” Dia exclaimed. “We are taking them back with us, right?”

“Obviously.” I replied.

I placed one hand on their cheek and tried to speak in a calming voice. It felt kind of like trying to calm down a panicking animal. Even if they can’t understand you, it still helps to remain calm when speaking to them.

“We’re going to get you out of here, okay? I don’t know what’s happened to you, but you’re awake now. We won’t let anything hurt you.” I whispered.

Slowly, their breathing calmed down, and their eyes quit shaking. My tone of voice worked, apparently. I’m not exactly the prettiest or most welcoming looking person, but it worked nonetheless.

I removed my hand from their cheek and gently grabbed them by the arm. Slowly, we both stood up. They seemed steady on their feet at this point, so I let go of them and allowed them to stand on their own.

I looked at the other two and motioned for them to follow me as I began walking out of the room.

“Let’s go, we’ve got to get back to Lilith. Looks like we’ve got a new recruit.”