Death Is Legion - The Facility

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Kyle begins his trip into the unknown. It doesn't help no-one's giving him any information.



The door opened under the code that Huxley had given him. The old keypad looked like the face of a pushbutton phone his parents had back when he was a kid, and it was antique even then. In his left ear, the slight electronic hum of the bluetooth earpiece he'd been given to wear. As Kyle stepped through the door, Cornelius' voice came through clearly.

"This lab is under a level three lockdown. I have activated what's called a 'plumber's protocol' - an access process designed to allow only a limited number of people through to avoid contagion. You'll see what looked like part of a revolving door somewhere up ahead. Enter it."

Kyle rolled his eyes, but resisted the urge to say that he thought he might stick around outside with his thumb up his ass and get his parents killed. "Lemee guess, level three is "Shit might kill you." He muttered, before continuing down the hallway to the door and pushing through it with some effort.

"Level three involves any bio-agent which is powerful enough that containment once released is considered a limited possibility. This are weapons designed for mass depopulation, Mr. Gibney." The door hissed open, and as he entered it, slid shut again. The small room was bathed in ultraviolet light, so bright that he had to cover his eyes with his hands to avoid being blinded. The room shifted, and was filled with a hot chemical scented steam. There was then a second intense bath of light before it finally opened on the other side.

"I'm not ... " Kyle uncovered his yes, and sneezed violently several times. "I'm not trying to be... flippant or whatever you want to call it. I'm trying to find out what I'm gonna go up against. You say level 3, or bio-agent, I really don't know what that means, there's no... scale. Is that like, mass depopulation because it's super-deadly smallpox, or like, the superflu like in the Stand? Or like, all of the above? If I know what I'm gonna get infected by, then I... you know, kinda have a heads up and can be prepared."

"You have a way to be prepared against infection of a mutagenic virus? Mr Gibney, there's almost nothing that this virus might do to you. And it will infect you." He could hear a buzzing sound in the ear piece as he got deeper into the facility. "If you're lucky, your healing factor will hold long enough for you to clear the factory where there is an antidote so long as infection is within 24 hours."

"I talked my healing factor into ignoring a broken leg and re-growing six feet of my intestines once." Kyle explained. Badly, and more than a little nervously. "but I meant more, like, if this is gonna eat my liver, or start making my eyeballs bleed, then I'd like to know so I can not wonder if I'm gonna start going blind or something." He wasn't even sure if they cared, on the other end of the connection, but if he talked, and they answered, then he was still connected and still doing what they wanted and it wasn't really something - more like a fraction of something to grip onto to avoid thinking about the fact that outside the facility, somewhere, Omega Red had his parents.

"It could to anything, Mr Gibney. Anything. Whining about it won't change that." There was an abrupt sound, as if the line was disconnected, and he heard only silence from the earpiece. Kyle huffed in annoyance at the accusation of whining - this asshole didn't know from whining, he'd never lived with John Henry Forge or Laurie Collins- and kept following the line of amber lights down a long hallway, pausing at an intersection to tap at the earpiece, mutter, and then look around futilely. It wasn't like he expected to see signs for "Horrible virus that will kill everyone" or "Terrifying bio-weapons" but the lack of anything informative was worrisome.

"It's a bit of a maze, innit it?"

To Kyle's credit, he turned the surprised leap backwards into a turn to face the voice, and did not squeak or yelp, even if he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. "Holy shit where did you come from?"

"Always been here. As long as I remember." His face was hidden behind mask shaped to look like an old school gasmask. His body was wrapped in a leather and plastic suit, tightly wound around his thin body. "Welcome to bloody Wonderland, this is."

"Okay. Um." Kyle really hoped that the backing away slowly wasn't going to come across as rude and this wasn't just like, Omega Red's hitman to come play off with his head. "Try this again. Who are you? Nobody told me I was supposed to meet with a guy in a gas mask."

"Figure they all think me long dead. I was Subject Zero, years ago I guess. Daddy Thetagen-24 himself."

"Years? You've been here years." Fuuuuuuuck. He was so incredibly totally fucked, and so were his parents. "Why are you even still here, man. If they think you're a dead lab rat, then just..." Kyle had kept backing away, until he leaned against a wall, and his head swam. "Fuck, and now I'm dizzy. Fucking virus."

"It's a nasty one. Doesn't take long."

"To do what? Kyle asked - snapped out, really. And then caught himself, and shook his head. "Sorry, man. Sorry. I'm having the worst day, and my mouth and my brain aren't talking. How sick is this going to make me? Because they wouldn't tell me anything up there." He pointed up towards where he vaguely thought the surface was.

The man just shrugged. "If you're lucky, it will kill you. If not, you'll be absorbed. It's not just a disease, mate. It's a community. I can hear it, just behind my eyes. All those people, eaten alive and turned into versions of the virus, now all communities of that same freak culture that want just one thing; more."

The shock of what the man was saying, and what it might mean hit Kyle. He wasn't sure if the rolling in his gut was fear, or the virus or both. He stood silently against the wall for more time than was wise, and then pulled himself up straight. "Well, that's fucked, and not making my day suck less. I need to find some files, I think they're hoping I won't die from the hippie commie mega virus, and uh.." He pointed at the man. "How are you not eaten alive and turned into the virus?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I used to have this Thing. A sense, I guess, of being able to tell what someone was thinking at the moment. Won a lot of poker, you know. Maybe it stopped it. All I know is that after they grabbed me and sprayed that shit on me, this whole place went nuts. All those fancy plastic suits weren't worth dick keeping it out. Only thing they could do was seal us all in here together, and hope we died. Just my luck."

"Telepathy? My, uh.. Well, lets call it my boss, he can do that." For a moment, he thought about trying to get a closer look at the man in the suit, try to see what his face looked like, or his eyes, or something. To make the guy seem realer. But it could be anything he could be a zombie in there, Kyle realized - he'd seen weirder shit - and decided that, no, he really didn't need to know. "You know your way around here, right? Could you get me to where ever they'd have computers? A server room, or mainframe, whatever the fuck they'd call it."

"Might know that. This way." He started down a hallway, moving past a phosphorous wall of mould that was pulsating and shivering. "That used to be security. Never liked him much."

"He smells like athlete's foot and stale fart." Kyle said, with a grimace. It used to be a person? That thing? He scrubbed at his face with a hand, and it came away sticky. Nosebleed. "I gotta get a file. I said that already. Fuck."

"Look, I'll make you a deal. You get your file, and then you follow me down to the power station. There's an old reactor down there that still has an awful lot of fuel in it. Enough to destroy this fucking place and everything in it. I help you get those files, you blow this slice of hell the fuck up. Deal?"

"As long as I get the fuck out alive, you got it." Kyle said. "Hell yes to blowing this place up." He didn't even think to ask if - or how - the strange man would get out. There was already too much on his mind - the files, this place, the virus - his parents. "Lead the way, man. It's your freakshow."

"You haven't seen anything yet, mate. Just-" He paused. "I've been trying to set off the reactor for years. The virus won't let me. It might try to stop you too."

Kyle held up a hand, asking for a moment to - well, it was unclear until he doubled over and vomited out bile and a few undigested bites of bad airport food. He stood up, cleared his throat, and then spat out another mouthful of vomit. "Might, but I won't know until we try and I got people up top that I gotta get this done for." He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Faster we get going, I bet the better odds we have."