Ordering food to the office wasn't exactly ideal during work hours. But over the past few days here, I've learned that it doesn't seem to matter at all.
Order food or not. Know cares? This place's rules didn't seem that stringent.
Hence, I grew comfortable with things I never thought I would be comfortable with. Spending most of the workday reading through records and writing notes without any real tasks to handle… or, like this time, simply ordering food and sitting in the empty office, eating with Hero.
I somehow got used to the fact that I would never accept what was happening, but still acting on it anyway.
"Eat your vegetables, Hero. I won't allow you to skip it twice."
"Okay..." he did it so slowly like he's eating something disgusting. "I need more snacks today."
"Just if you finish your meal."
Somehow, he managed to finish it within two minutes. We cleaned after, then put the laptop and the books again on the table with the snack bag Johan sent a few days ago.
"Do you want to read a new story or to draw?"
"Draw!" He took the sketch book to his side. "The car I saw earlier was amazing. I'm going to draw it!"
"The black one?"
"The silver!"
"Really?" I handed him the colors. "I liked the black, although the silver was great— it's just too shiny."
"And you hate shiny things!" Hero laughed while sketching. "When will you buy one?"
Ah,
I'm broke with debt, son.
Broke with debt.
"When I need one, I'll buy it." I took a deep breath, then opened my tablet to continue reading the articles I was checking. Hero did his best to draw the car, which appeared like a new invention, then yawned as if he had reached his limits.
"When will we go home? I miss my room"
"Will go once this week, don't rush it."
"I'll wait five more nights then."
"Seven will do also."
"Five. It was seven two days ago."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"I don't really remember…"
He looked at me while frowning before losing himself to sleep. When he vanished I inhaled, then took the colors and the stories to put them in my belt's pocket before taking his sketch book to look at it.
Surprisingly, all his artworks were full of colors, childish but had some talent. No black and scary things were there, luckily.
I can't be too stressed every time I think about him...
"By the way, when will the team leader return?"
It was around 1 PM, and he said that the team's leaders' meeting will end at 12 PM. Of course, there was no problem in taking much longer, not as a concept.
The problem was that he had something to do with the research team and if he didn't come in time, I had to do it instead.
A cold sweat ran down my spine…
That team was full of mad people." Shivers covered my body when I remembered them. "I can't just go there of my own accord."
They appeared kind at first, but when they found out that I was that Nathan from the rumors? I became a prey— didn't just feel like one, I became one, they wanted me to act like a lab rat or something!
Thanks to my senior, she took me out the way she made me go in.
"And now I have to go there again?"
Second by second, the appointed hour was becoming on edge... and when it finally came, it took all my might to stand up and go.
"Just do it and escape..."
The research team was on the fourth floor, and as expected, it took all of the floor, along with three others.
I didn't see anyone on my way there, and when I reached it, a whole picture of chaos and madness was there.
Screaming, running, crying... red alert lights were flashing and some kind of strange sect filled the air.
First I thought that one of their experiments failed… so I decided to shut the elevator door and return.
Second, I saw the elevator buttons end at nine and nearly had a heart attack.
I didn't need anyone to tell me that I've got involved in another so-called Vessel, and I surely didn't make any steps out of the elevator.
"Crazy enough, I now know what their research objects are..."
These crazy human beings do experiments on Vessels. Out of every thing they could have worked in they choose to work here and to do that kind of research!
"You aren't any better, Nathan."
I took a deep breath then sat there on the elevator floor (that nobody seemed to notice), to watch them screaming and running... as a way of trying to understand what's going on.
After two minutes, the scene seemed to stay as it was. And I didn't understand a single thing.
"Team A or B will be here soon, righ—ha?"
Epic piano melodies started to play violently out of sudden. I did my best to close my ears with my hands so I couldn't hear anything but that didn't help much.
The music lasted three minutes...
And when it ended, all of that chaos was gone, as if nothing happened at all. No one said a thing about what happened, no one talked or discussed it, no one made a normal move. They just continue their work.
What was that supposed to mean? I couldn't figure it out.
What I figured out quickly though was that I was wearing a lab coat —identical to what they wore— above my shirt.
With a work card too...
Research team: Team leader.>
The moment I saw that unfamiliar name, I snapped my head up to look at the mirror, making sure that I'm still myself.
Fortunately, it was me. Same face, same black hair, same green eyes— icy green eyes.
My heart thudded all of a sudden when a thought came to my mind…
I'm not a fan of looking at the mirror, so why do I feel that I've seen my eyes quite a lot lately?
A crazy idea kicked in before I swiped it out immediately, focusing on whatever bad situation I was in.
"How crazy— From now on, I'm never using the elevator, ever."
But for now, I have to know how to get out.
I tried to look around again. The same faces I saw before were there, so it's not like I've entered this alone... that was a good point in some way and bad in another.
Good because at least they are not some scary creatures —which I knew today that they called anomalies—. On the other hand, it was bad because I knew that they are a bunch of crazy researchers.
Shall I just wait here until one team comes and contains it? Where is the system when I need it?
'No, no, no... I don't need a mission. No—'
It came, bright and shiny and full of bad omens... as always.
[Old company mission: SPT-H-12053
•State: ongoing.
The company's researchers have been working secretly on a project. That project led to the company's undoing.
•Condition for success: find the project's file and corrupt it.
•Rewards: 150 S.P.s, ■■■■■
•Penalty for failure: work as a researcher until someone corrupts the files.]
...
150 S.P.s? Is it exploited labor? There is an H on its name, yet 150 S.P.s?
And what's up with that encryption?
"I'm surely unlucky..."
The name was SPT-H-12053. If it follows the company's same naming system then it is a Spatial Vessel, High containment effort. Number 12053.
And I need to work on that, alone?
What a pleasure...
"I don't even know what the actual anomalies here are..."
To be fully honest with myself, I didn't even want to get out of that broken elevator... yet, the idea of being trapped there forever was more terrifying, so I decided to get out after a few steps.
First I took out the ring and the glove from my belt's pocket before wearing them. I also took off the company's watch.
Second, I searched for something that could be used as a weapon, but didn't find anything beside a knife.
Third I used the markers I bought for Hero to put marks at the elevator door and around it, just in case.
Lastly, I get out completely. Took a deep breath, then looked back at it... this time, it was still there and didn't disappear.
The structure of the floor was pretty similar to the one I've seen before. There were some differences but it wasn't that noticeable.
The only thing that made the major difference was the time.
It looked like a company from thirty or fifty years ago... with old computers, different lightning, and weird hair cuts... they definitely used to have crazy tastes.
"That's such a focus—"
Seeing everyone so focused on their work made my skin itch. This wasn't supposed to be a Mental Vessel that plays with minds. It's a Spatial Vessel. Spatial!
That meant that it was supposed to play with places not humans.
"So it's something else then?"
Rethink it, Nathan.
When things started to get weird? After the elevator door opened? or where I saw that chaos— Ah.
It was after that music finished... the one I've tried so hard to not listen to.
For now, I'll consider the music as a mental control element. That's the best I could do.
"And I need hints—"
I gave the place another look. A door on the left caught my attention, so I walked over to it, only to find it closed and requiring a work card for access.
Without much hesitation, I put my card there. The door opened.
What was inside was a lab instead of an office. Weird machines, large computers, and some kind of small glass vessels here and there.
I tried to turn the main computer on but it didn't give any response, so instead I gave the papers that were around it a look.
Mostly, it was about the Vessels, how to enter them, how to contain them, or random information about what they found on them.
Old informations.
Nothing was helpful or seemed extra important, so I walked past it... to the other door in the room.
The other room was the same. Same design, same equipment, and same atmosphere... The only difference was that the main computer was on. What was on the monitor was only: clearing process 46%.
It didn't change even if I stayed there waiting for five minutes. When I tried to do other things with it, it didn't respond.
The papers all over the place weren't that important either, but this time I took what seemed to be over-detailed and put them in my pocket.
"Same again?"
The next room was much similar so I stopped and instead of entering, I closed the door and decided to give the two rooms another look.
"First things first—"
I need information about this Vessel, because being here for more than fifteen minutes without facing anything when it is an H Vessel was weird.
"Weapons will do too."
After a while, I was again in the main office hall without having figured out much.
Everything was the same, they didn't move an inch, and the elevator was still there, opened, marked... and number nine was shining above it.
"So I have to find another way..."
I took a deep breath, then moved towards the other side of the floor, where the main research lab was.
My card did its job once again and opened the large door. What I saw there made me freeze in my place...
Same hall, same offices, same people… but something felt terribly wrong— so wrong that I hesitated to step inside, only to find myself already in, the lab from before now behind me.
Reality wavered at the edges of my vision.
Did I enter by myself, or the place itself swallowed me in?
And way before that... Why did I start looking for the files when I knew that the system itself wasn't on my side from the beginning?
I should have thought twice before doing anything.
Last time, the mission was to look for the key, when it was already in its place. Finding the key was what that anomaly needed, that's why it didn't hurt me when I was looking for it... as if it's helping.
"So, if this place was the same—"
Understanding settled in me like a cold ash.
If it was the same... then this place (or whatsoever on it), will keep me on the right path until I find the files.
What would happen after? The system never included 'return' as a consequence of doing what the mission needed.
"So..." I have to find a way out while searching for the files.
Nice—
That exactly seemed like a good way to spend time... Agh.
I'm so out of luck.