"OVER HERE!!! YOU HURT?!?!?" Vic could hear someone calling out to him. "Nah, I'm straight," he said in reply, probably too low to be heard. He really didn't care either way. "Gimme a minute." He was crawling on his hands and knees in search of his lost herb. He found it; bluish leaves tightly wrapped in thin white paper. It was still lit. Thanks to some friends in the biology labs, he was hooked up with a batch of experimental plants every week. His room was filled with all manner of plants, dried and preserved for future use. Red ones, blue ones, purple ones, yellow ones; he had a different high for every day of the year. It was the only thing keeping him at this lousy job. "Vic, what the f*ck?" He quickly put the joint between his lips and looked up. Who the hell is this? Marcellus... or that other guy... umm... something with a "w"... Walter? He thought about it for a moment, but drew a blank. Man, whatever. It's one of them dudes, he concluded, standing up. "What's up... uhh... Walter?" he guessed, approaching the man.
He saw Vic look up with the most beautiful thing he ever saw on his lips. Mind out the gutter, folks, it's the blunt. Anyway, Vic called him by the other guy's name. Ouch! What an insult. "Walter?! Hell naw it ain't that nerd! Marcellus, bruh... the one who wouldn't give you a lecture about that." He made a gesture towards the recreational drug. So that's what the Hell his ass was doing on the ground. "So uhhh, what's good wit' that bud?"
"Maris, damn it, answer me!" Reese had heard someone call out once, but that message wasn't clear to him. Though the second time rung in his head, much more coherent and clearly. He walked over to were the voice was. "Lift yourself up, I'll give you ten seconds if you aren't up by then I'm leaving you and presuming you dead," Reese said, "One...two..." Reese stared at the body on the floor. He really was going to murder Edgar if he ever saw him. * * * Stewart's arm was grabbed it scared him at first. He wasn't sure what was going, he wasn't sure if it were human or alien. Then he heard the figure speak like Anna. "Anna?" he asked, "Anna is that you?" He had to make sure before he truly trusted her. He only hoped that none of the military men were dead because they didn't understand what may have leaked out of the labs. They didn't know what were in those labs of theirs. He hoped no one was harmed. "My head is bleeding and I don't know about Isay," he said, "Anna is that really you?"
Donovan came to slowly. He hurt everywhere, but there was an especially sharp pain in his chest. He pushed himself into a sitting position slowly. His eyes were having trouble focusing. He looked to his side and saw Edgar rolling around in pain. It took him a moment to realize that Edgar's mouth was moving but he was not hearing anything. He cursed at himself and there was still no sound. This was not going to be a good day. He stood shakily and walked over to Edgar. The man's lips continued to move and his face was scrunched in pain. Donovan reached down and grabbed Edgar to help him to his feet. The wreckage told him all he needed to know. The generator had blown and they might be the only two left alive. Searching for the scientist and missing Soldiers under his command was top priority. He and Edgar had to move and fast.
Anna breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, yes, it's me. Let me..." She swallowed, fighting away the dizziness. "Here... let me help." She forced herself up on one arm, which buckled painfully under her and she yelped, shifting her weight and yanking herself into a sitting positon. "Damn..." she mumbled, glowering at her arm. It didn't seem broken, but she was nearly sure her wrist was sprained. "Whatever... Here." She slipped a knife from her pocket and cut a piece from the bottom of her shirt, carefully folding it so only the clean part would show. Then she pressed it firmly to Stewart's head, slipping the knife back up her sleeve. "He alive?" she asked, gesturing at Isay's hand as she kept pressure on Stewart's bleeding head.
"Walter?! Hell naw it ain't that nerd! Marcellus, bruh... the one who wouldn't give you a lecture about that," the guy said. "So uhhh, what's good wit' that bud?" "Man, don't f*** wit' me right now," Vic said, taking in a deep breath of sweet mother nature. "I jus' met you and you already tryin' to move in on my s*** like you know me? You lucky I don't drop you right now for that s***, homie. Back the f*** up." He'd met him a dozen or more times, actually, but that was all a haze to him now. Either way, he didn't like it when these scientists tried to talk his language and act like they were 'down with it, bro.' He wanted to punch 'em between the eyes everytime they tried that s***. He walked past Marcellous -- if thats even his real name -- and headed off down the hall, leaving him behind. "Keep up, b****. I'm callin' you Marci from here on. Don't f*** wit' me, Marci. And don't ask to smoke my s***."
"He alive?" Stewart hadn't realized how much stopping or catching the bleeding of his head was going to sting, but it didn't stop his thinking. "Yes, I felt a pulse, but he hasn't woken up...look we need to pick him up or something it's not safe here," Stewart said, "We will get killed if we stay in one place to long, especially with blood around and everything...it isn't safe here any more now that the generator blew up." Stewart stared at her. He needed to tell her now or they were going to die. He knew that all to well. He had seen doctors being grabbed into the cages and being eaten. The people here in front of him needed to know what they faced.
Marcellus shook his head and smirked at Vic's paranoia. He wasn't being paid enough to deal with that kinda bullsh*t. He knew why the man smoked, which was exactly why he asked for a hit. But he understood that he didn't put in on it. "Whatever on the herbals, bruh. But if you finna shortcut my name, go wit' M. The sh*t's simple as Hell, ya dig? Even yo' high ass can remember that." He was all for sparking, but he took a second to run through the possibility this mothaf*cka might be a pothead. "GOD, I hope not," he thought. He shrugged it off and followed Vic with both barrels in front of him.
Anna made a face. She could tell Stewart wasn't telling her something, but never one to overthink, and always one to throw herself in harms way, she shrugged. Stewart still hadn't moved, so she lifted his hand to the cloth on his forehead, replacing her hand with his. She stumbled to her feet, blinking as the world spun, but forcing herself to start moving the rubble away from Isay's body. Her sprained wrist screamed and throbbed, but she couldn't move the rubble with one arm. As she moved it she threw it haphazardly away from them, her whole body tingling with anxiety. Something was wrong; very, very wrong. She could tell, but she didn't know what was going on. What wasn't Stewart telling her...?
Stewart hand was now on his own forehead, but he quickly walked over to where Anna was. He was going to help her get Isay out. No one should die. No one he wasn't going to let people die. Maybe it was the wound on his head or maybe his panicked state, but he could swear he heard them. The creatures wanted to get back at them, the aliens. "We have to go, we have to hurry...we can't Isay be taken," he was muttering.
"Whatever on the herbals, bruh. But if you finna shortcut my name, go wit' M. The sh*t's simple as Hell, ya dig? Even yo' high ass can remember that." "Nah, son. I got yo' name. I already told you what I'm gon' be callin' you from here on," Vic said, getting more than a little pissed off at this guy. "'Simple' would be keeping a f***** generator running. Even my high ass can do that." For all his bad habits, Vic was no fool. He knew the only thing that could possibly make this much smoke was the generator. "F***** scientists can't do their f***** job for ten seconds without f***** somethin' up. Blazed or not, I get s*** done. I think you need to stop smokin' on the job, Marci, 'fore you get us all kill'd. Stupid mutha f****."
Anna paused, mulling over what she thought Stewart had just said in her head. As quickly as she had stopped, she began to dig again. "What?" she asked, her fingers beginning to bleed as she caught the edges of the fallen rubble and tossed it aside as fast as she could. Her arms burned and her sprained wrist yelled, but still she moved things. Something about Stewart's panic made adrenaline rush through her veins, making it easier to focus through the pain. "What's going on?" she demanded, glancing sideways at the man as she unearthed Isay's head; his nose was clearly smashed, and blood coated his face, but it appeared to have all flown from his nose, though she couldn't be sure.
"No arguments bout the doctors. But how long you been working here? And every time... you be actin' surprised that them mothaf*ckas drop the ball. Like it's news or somethin'." Funny the man talks about getting sh*t done, when he nearly got fired last month because his egghead was left alone and almost got cracked by a soldier. Marcellus is usually a peaceful man that sticks with his trees and bottle before he passes out, but this man is f*cking up his harmony. "I'll tell you right now, if I'm finna be a broad's name, you finna be a broad's name. Bad attitudes I can handle, but I ain't no bitch."
Jena kicked aside another piece of rubble from the ceiling. So far she hadn't found anyone yet, much less Ara. Not that she was particularly close with the girl-Ara was way to quiet-but there was safety in numbers; especially when you didn't know what you were dealing with, and goddamnit she was going to stay alive. And anyways, Ara was another time guard, so she would know what to do if they ran into trouble. Jena walked few steps forward scanning the rubble for a sigh of a hand or a face or just a sign of life. "Hey!! Anybody hear me?!?! HEY!!" her shout echoed around the ruined cafeteria. Suddenly she heard a faint noise, like someone trying to move debris. "HEY!! SOMEONE THERE?! ARA!?" This time she could definately hear noise coming from her left. Spinning on her heel she ran in the direction of the noise, her hand clenched around her gun.
She asked him what was going, she wanted to know. If Stewart told her he would get yelled at by Reese, maybe even fired. Even in a situation like this he would still be upset. Everything, every situation was a secret, but he didn't want people dead. "We were experimenting on alien races," Stewart said quickly he didn't want to delve deeper he didn't. He was already worried about Isay and everyone else. He didn't know what was making him so afraid.
Anna stared at Isay's damaged face for a moment, the gears of her brain clicking into place. Anyone else probably would have asked if Stewart was mad, or said that he was kidding, or that he'd gone insane from the pressure, but Anna didn't. Instead she turned to face him, studying his face with a critical eye and a somewhat glazed look on her face. At last she said, "So that's the story behind all the secrecy? Experimentation on aliens?"
She didn't believe him. Or at least she thought it was ridiculous, but they were having a war on another planet. A war with aliens, why would experimentations be out of the question? Stewart stared at her. "Yes we have been holding alien experimentations," Stewart stared, "I'm sorry...so sorry." She had protected him for these years, not knowing what she was protecting him from. He felt as if he betrayed her trust in a way. He continued digging Isay out of the rubble. There was enough clear rubble to pull Isay out, but he felt a pang in his heart. Would they make it?
"No arguments bout the doctors. But how long you been working here? And every time... you be actin' surprised that them mothaf*ckas drop the ball. Like it's news or somethin'." "Longer than you, mutha f****," Vic said, taking the blunt out of his mouth. He'd heard enough of this. "I ain't down wit' this SPO bulls***. They ask me to shoot something, I shoot it. That's what I do. But don't ask me to babysit some bitch-ass scientist. That ain't me, man." "I'll tell you right now, if I'm finna be a broad's name, you finna be a broad's name. Bad attitudes I can handle, but I ain't no bitch." "Sounds like alotta bitchin' to me. Lemme know when ya balls drop, Marci, then we'll talk." Before he could say another word, a strange, hulking creature came around the corner, fifty feet away, at the other end of the hall. It was slow-moving and covered in smooth brown skin, with a body and face that made it look as if it stepped straight from the bowels of hell. "What the f***!" Vic said, raising his sniper rifle. Without even checking the scope, he put a bullet right between its eyes, nearly ripping the creature in half. "That mutha f***** had a gun," he said. Sure enough, the monster had what appeared to be a weapon of some sort protruding from its chest. "Go check it out, Mr Scientist," he said. "I ain't touchin' that s***. Not my job."
She reached out to touch his shoulder, to reassure him, but withdrew her hand at the last moment, curling her hand into a fist. With a sigh she shook her head, grabbing a large piece of the fallen rubble atop Isay's legs, and lifting. Her back, arm, and especially her wrist shrieked as she dragged it away from him, finally unearthing the man. Anna grabbed his shoulders, trying to keep him as still as possible and lifting him partway from the ground. "Can you grab his feet?" she asked Stewart, adjusting Isay's weight.
Stewart nodded his head and grabbed the feet of Isay. Stewart wasn't use to carrying people, folders yes, people no. There was a distinct difference between paper and person. But it didn't bother Stewart. But with all this blood it would surely attract them to come. "All this blood isn't good,"
"Stewart..." Anna paused, glancing over her shoulder into the darkness, unsure of where to go. She had meant to ask something entirely different, but instead she said, "Where are we going?" She lifted Isay's body, holding him close to her in an attempt to take as much of the strain off of Stewart as possible, who was clearly uncomfortable with the weight of a person.
"I ain't no mothaf*ckin' scientist, Vicki. As for the SPO, I can dig it... that's why I'm a facility officer. We get these." He waved the shotgun in Vic's face and laughed as he stepped up to the half-blown critter. The ugly being made a screeching noise as it attempting to get back up in vain. M caught the thing in its moment of weakness, stepping on its neck and dismissing a shotgun round to make sure the creature was out of its misery. "And all that complainin' you doin',you the last one to be accusin' anybody of bitchin'."
"I ain't no mothaf*ckin' scientist, Vicki. As for the SPO, I can dig it... that's why I'm a facility officer. We get these." Facility officer... ohhhhh. "My bad," Vic mumbled. But he look like a nerd... they all look alike... I bet I could take him, he ain't got s*** on me... whatever... Viki is a dude name in some countries ain't it... I think so... whatever, that's cool. He glanced down at the blunt in his hand. I gotta stop smokin' this s***, he thought, taking another puff and passing it on to What's-His-Name. "And all that complainin' you doin',you the last one to be accusin' anybody of bitchin'." Vic retracted his hand, taking back his bud. "Man, you was this close, then you f***** up," he said, taking another puff. He thought about it for a minute. I got s*** ten times better than this in my pocket. He handed it over, for good this time. "You need to chill the f*** out, man. Ain't even nothin' to be trippin' over like that, ya feel me?" He stepped over the dead creature, continuing down the hall as if nothing had happened.
He snickered as he took the blunt. He took his first hit. "That's what I been tellin' ya, bruh. I don't get paid paid enough to be hostile wit' cats, ya dig? I ain't excited bout none of this sh*t they makin', feel me?" He took his second hit and exhaled it, giving a nod of approval. It was one of the higher ranking plants he had sampled. He's had better, but you never diss somebody else sh*t. He passed it back to Vic. "I see why you seem so on edge all the time now."
Son of a… Everything hurt, it felt as if someone had pushed him of a cliff, and then decided to start throwing rocks at him. He heard some distant voices, but couldn’t manage to open his eyes. Son of a… What had happened? A blackout. An explosion. Rubble falling. Damned, he had to get to Marris. His only freaking job in this place was to keep the Chief Scientist. Open your eyes man. Open them. “Son of a…” Isay gasped as he finally managed to pry his eyes open. There were two other people there, a man and a woman. Hughes and his SPO. Captain Maron, or Heron, or something like that. All that really mattered here was her rank. He was the second highest military official in this complex, even if it was only because he was Marris’ SPO. “What the hell is going on here captain?” Either they had been attacked, or Glaze had really f*cked things up this time.
