Kaleb spent the next ten minutes trying to find any documentation about the aliens in the tubes or even what had been done to them. But the only terminal he found was locked up and the protections on the device were way better than TekNik’s football loving CFO. The terminal had biometric and keypad locks, along with several others Kaleb couldn’t identify. So instead he took to examining the bodies and trying to discern what had been done to them.
In the first tube was a male alien with deep blue skin and a muscular torso. The alien’s arm and legs had been torn open and Kaleb could see muscle tissue and bone. Its tissue was shredded and floated loosely in the fluid the body was submerged in. The bones he could see had large marks on them, as if they had been scrapped and drilled into. But beyond that, Kaleb couldn’t see much else. Clearly TekNik, or whoever ran the lab, was taking samples from the aliens.
The female alien in the second tube had her eyes gouged out and much of her face scrapped and cut. The occupant of the third tube had been bisected at the hip and his legs were cut open from thigh to ankle. All six aliens had been treated like sample colonies for the scientist in this lab. There were spots on each of them where old wounds had been healed and then re-opened. Kaleb thumbed his Cybar as it sat in its holster. These people were dead, but somehow leaving them suspended in their test tubes just seemed wrong. He was about to start blasting when he spotted a penlight on top of a desk nearby.
He hurriedly picked up the light and tested it. The beam was narrow, but it would help him in the dark hallway beyond this room. Kaleb looked around for more helpful tools and, as he did, something else stood out to him.
“The generator still has power. So they are probably still using this lab. Did these scientists go on the company retreat too? Maybe that’s why this place is empty?”
He cast a glance at the six lonely test subjects floating in their liquid filled prisons.
“If they are gone, that means I have all the time in the world to search this place. No need to make a mess now. But don’t worry, I’ll be back to free all of you soon.”
Kaleb turned away from the horror of the room and opened the door. He left the lights on and the generator running as he flashed the penlight down both sides of the hall. To his right was a long hallway ending in the elevator he had stumbled past before. To his left was a V-junction with paths branching out from the main hall at diagonals. And directly opposite his door was the hallway he had come down originally. Which meant he only had one choice.
Turning left out the door, Kaleb cast his penlight ahead of him. The soft white glow it gave off didn’t completely illuminate his path, but he could see fine enough. Once he arrived at the junction, he kept left and traced his penlight up and down both walls. The gun-metal gray walls sat silent and cold as his white light cast eerie shadows across everything. His footsteps echoed in his ears and for a few seconds, he thought he heard more footsteps in the dark. But Kaleb was sure it was his own ears playing tricks on him. Just to be safe, though, he drew his gun.
He walked for another ten minutes before he finally came across a door. It was on his left-hand side and had a keypad outside. The hallway kept going into darkness, but Kaleb took a breath and scanned his penlight up and down the door. There was a plaque just above the door denoting the room as Lab #3A.
“Okay, let’s see what horrors you’re hiding, then.” Kaleb spoke out loud.
It took a few shots with his Cybar to melt the door’s hinges completely. But Kaleb was really thorough and he might have even shot more than he needed to. Once the deed was done, he kicked the door open and the stench of spoiled meat hit his nose. Kaleb retched as a wave of warm air wafted over him from inside the room. His eyes watered and he raised his arm over his nose as he marched forward. Gun held at the ready, Kaleb stepped into a large room with cages on either side. The cages were barely big enough to fit a large dog, and they were stacked to the ceiling on either side of the room.
Some of the cages were clearly empty, while others held the bodies of animals Kaleb had never seen before. None of the animals were moving, though, and the room stank of stale food and death. Kaleb pushed further into the room. But all he saw were more dead animals in cages. Some of the empty cages were open, their doors swinging idly as Kaleb scanned with his meager light. His senses were screaming at him that something was wrong with the room and Kaleb started edging for the door again when one of the cages rattled.
Sweeping his penlight to the offending cage, Kaleb was in time to see the small metal cage settling after something smashed into it. The cage was empty, but its door had slammed shut and was bouncing back the other way. A second rattle went off to his right and a sweep with his light showed the same phenomenon happening again. More cages started to rattle ominously, and Kaleb shook his head.
“Nope. Fuck this, I’m out!”
He dashed for the door as more of the empty and occupied cages started making noise. The entire room was a cacophony of sound that rang in his ears. The open door to the lab was his salvation, though, as Kaleb threw himself through it and slammed the door closed. A small part of his brain was extremely curious about what was going on in the room, but he squashed it down harshly. He was swallowing his fear and getting ready to turn down the hall again when an invisible force hit him in the side.
Kaleb went sailing down the corridor, back the way he came. He slammed into the metal-plated floor and grunted in pain as he slid another foot. He rose, gun pointed back down the hall as he shined the penlight ahead of him. But the entire hallway was empty. His breath sounded loud in his ears as he turned around to look down the other end of the hall. When his back was fully turned, a shiver of fear went up his back and Kaleb threw himself to the floor.
The metal walls screeched in protest as a shuddering blast of… something passed by them. Kaleb rolled onto his back and pointed his Cybar down the hall. Even so, nothing was there. He fanned a few shots across the hall at waist height, but all the blasts just sailed further down the corridor. But they did get some kind of reaction.
“GRRRRRR,”
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A deep-throated growl rumbled across the hall. Kaleb scanned for the source, but the metal walls made the noise echo around him. When the growling stop, Kaleb instinctively rolled across the floor. A blast of force bent the metal where he had been laying as he hit the far wall and stood. Venting his Cybar, Kaleb waited until his gun was ready and then sent another series of blasts at his unseen enemy. He fired until his weapon needed to vent again, but it wasn’t until the last shot that he hit something.
There was a dog-like yelp and his energy shot flashed bright blue. When the glow disappeared, a creature that looked like a mix between a dog and a raccoon crouched before him. It had blood-red eyes, and its dark coat of fur seemed to shine under his penlight. The energy from his Cybar sparked across the creature’s body a few times as it twitched and hissed angrily at him. Once the damage from his shot had run its course, the creature swiped its human-like hand at Kaleb.
The wall in front of him exploded, and Kaleb felt the same invisible power slap him across the face. His shoes skidded on the ground as he was pushed further back down the hall. Kaleb shook off the hit and started firing back at the tiny creature again. He had gone invisible again, but now that Kaleb knew its size, he knew to aim lower. His energy blast hit the small thing again, and it hissed even louder as it’s invisibility fell again.
This time Kaleb kept on firing as the creature twitched and hissed under his weapon’s sustained fire. It tried to throw another telekinetic blast at him, but Kaleb threw himself against the opposite wall to get away. The tiny creature seemed to need to rest before each shot. After the little dog-raccoon tried to hit for a third time, Kaleb rushed the thing and kicked out with his foot. There was a crunch of metal and Kaleb felt his toes in his shoes pop. The dog-raccoon skidded down the hall, yowling in pain as Kaleb did the same. Kicking the small creature had felt like kicking a metal shoe box.
“Robotics company, dumbass!” Kaleb berated himself. “Of course they would have robotic animals. Cause fucking why not!?”
After he made sure his toes weren’t broken, Kaleb limped over to the prone animal. The energy from his Cybar was still coursing over the thing’s dark fur, and Kaleb was sure it was twitching. He put a few more shots into the thing’s side as he crouched low over it. Bringing out his penlight, Kaleb examined the thing that had attacked him in more detail. What he found was surprising.
What he had taken for red eyes were, in fact, robotic lenses shining bright in the dark. The creature did have fur, but it was interspersed with metal filament. The wires and filament sparked from the Cybar’s energy shots. This close to the thing, Kaleb could hear the whirring of servos and pistons coming from inside the thing.
“Okay, that explains why you’re so tough. But how in the hell are you telekinetic, little guy?” Kaleb wondered aloud.
As he did, the sparks from his Cybar died down across the creature’s body. Kaleb braced himself, but nothing happened. The dog-raccoon’s body was still whirring, but apparently the kick and three rounds of sustained fire with the Cybar were enough to put the thing down. Kaleb holstered his gun and sighed as he cautiously rolled the creature over. That’s when the little critter went ape shit and leapt into his face.
“AHHHHHHH! SHIT! FUCK! LITT-GRPMH!”
Kaleb howled as the small creature’s human-like hands dug into his face. Each of the thing’s fingers had a tiny black claw on it that the creature used to dig into Kaleb’s skin. Even when he tried to pull the thing off, its hooked nails would drag his rough face skin with it. Kaleb flailed around for a bit, his feet carrying him further down the hallway as the thing stayed attached to his face. He even slammed his head into the wall a few times, but the stubborn bugger remained. Finally he thought about using his Spike Launcher and put two long railroad spikes into the things side.
The sounds of screeching metal echoed in his ears again, but finally, the creature stopped. Kaleb had to pry the damn thing’s claws out of his face one at a time, but he was finally free. Once he got the thing off, and he violently threw it to the floor, Kaleb rested his back against a wall and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yeah! Telekinetic raccoon-dogs! Cause that’s a fucking idea worth investigating!”
Kaleb kicked the broken robot again, being careful, this time, to avoid his toes. The broken robot clanked across the metal hallway with each blow. Once his anger was sated, Kaleb sat on the floor to let his passive regen deal with the tiny holes in his face. He dragged the raccoon-dog’s body into his lap and made sure it was dead this time.
Nothing inside the thing whirred anymore, and he was pretty sure he had conquered the little rodent. But something caught his eye where his two spikes had entered the thing’s side. Sparks were flashing from within the robot, but something was also leaking from inside. Kaleb moved the thing off his lap and turned it on its side. He was expecting to see a slow river of oil dripping from the open wound. But instead, a red river of blood practically flowed out.
Kaleb stared dumbstruck as the blood stained the hallway floor. The creature’s metal face, its weight, and the various electronic parts on its body made it pretty clear that this was a robot. So why in the hell was it bleeding?
“Cybernetic Raccoon-dog? With telekinetic powers?” Kaleb questioned the dark hallway.
The hall remained silent as Kaleb spun the creature in his hands. Most of the blood was gone now and the heavy creature hung limp in his hands. He glanced at his HP before getting to his feet. He tucked the small creature under his arm and looked around for his penlight. The small flashlight had gone flying during his… battle with the creature. He found the penlight laying on the floor a short distance away and picked it up. Once that was secured, Kaleb turned around and hurried back the way he had come. He wanted to investigate the Raccoon-dog in better setting and the only one he could think of was the alien tube room.
His face was hurting, and Kaleb felt lucky that no one had seen everything that occurred. But he was also excited. He had a new thing to take apart and examine. He only wished he had the proper tools. Once he arrived at the first room again, the plaque above it reading: Lab #1A, Kaleb tossed the dead creature onto a table and started searching for anything that would help him with disassembly.
“… or would this be considered an autopsy? I guess it depends on how much of the thing is biological versus mechanical?”
Kaleb found a few surgical tools in a cabinet on the other side of the lab. They still had the hermetically sealed sheet across them, so Kaleb figured they were good to go. Trying not to think about what the tools would’ve been used for. Had he not been here, Kaleb set the tools on the counter and broke the seal. His foot automatically reached for a stool and he dragged it over as his hands and mind went to work. Aside from the six dead guests and the lack of ambient conversation, Kaleb could almost pretend he was back at his own workshop. Almost.