A Protogen's Misadventures

The Basement

“Arrival at Earth in 5 hours,” said the ship’s computer. “Alright, we are almost there. Can I get an update on EG-7351’s position?” said The Boss. “Error. Could not locate specified target,” said the ship’s computer. “What? Where is the last known location of EG-7351?” asked The Boss. “Last known location was the Green Apartment complex located in South Dakota,” responded the ship’s computer. The Boss got up and walked over to Germia. “Can you look into the area surrounding the Green Apartment complex in South Dakota, because apparently that is where our prisoner went,” said The Boss. “What, did he rent an apartment or something?” joked Germia. The Boss gave a cold stare. “Uh, r-right on it sir,” said Germia. The Boss walked back to the middle of the ship where the main control table was located. He sat down and gazed out at the planet they were passing. This planet was a red color, with two large ice caps at each of the polls. It also seemed to have a relatively thin atmosphere, at least compared to Earth.

Germia called The Boss over to the computer. “This is the location of where EG-7351’s escape pod landed, and where that anomaly is,” said Germia. “Yes, I know that,” said The Boss. “Right, but something interesting I noticed is that their signal never seemed to leave the relative area, it always stayed within the same 50 kilometer radius,” said Germia. “That is interesting indeed,” said The Boss. “This leads me to believe that they are with someone or a collaborator,” finished Germia. “That would make sense,” replied The Boss. “But this doesn’t explain why their signal just vanished, like that,” said The Boss, snapping his fingers. “Well it may have something to do with the anomaly, or the facility itself,” said Germia. “I guess we will find out soon enough, won’t we?” said The Boss.

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“Celestial!” “Celestial” I yelled, running towards her room. “What? What’s wrong?” said Celestial, coming out of her room, a worried expression on her face. “Jack fell through a hatch! We were just exploring and we noticed that this camera was on and we ducked into this room and he stood on this hatch and-” I exclaimed. “Woah Woah Woah, slow down there bud, one at a time,” she said. “Right, sorry, Jack fell down into this sort of shaft in this storage room and I’m worried about him. Do you happen to know where it goes?” I asked, worried. “There are a lot of shafts and hatches and storage rooms, which one specifically?” she asked. “This room had a bunch of seemingly broken tech in it, I think it was named like “Storage Room 2B” or something,” I responded. “Oh that one, I believe that shaft leads to the basement of the fac-Oh no,” she stopped. “Why did you stop when you said basement?” I questioned, the worry building up. “When this place was being used, the basement was used as a sort of holding facility for our test subjects. Eventually, it was deemed unsafe and boarded up. It seems not all of the entrances were boarded up though,” she said. “Is there still a way out then?” I asked. “I hope so, for Jack’s sake,” she said. “Sometimes, I still feel like I can hear the cries of help from the abandoned test subjects,” she mumbled. “What was that?” I asked. “Nothing,” she said.

Great. This was just great. I have the GMC after me, Jack is missing in the basement, and we can’t do anything about it. I just hope he is okay.

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I landed on the ground with a hard “Bump!”. “Ow, that hurt,” I said aloud. Well, at least I’m not dead, that’s an upside. Downside is I’m now in some unknown part of the facility. I hope there is nothing down here.

I pulled out my phone, which thankfully, wasn’t damaged in the fall. I turned on the flashlight and looked around. It seemed like I was in some sort of abandoned lab room. The air was also very stale and moist. I got up and walked over to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. ‘Of course it’s locked. Well, better find a way to unlock it,’ I thought to myself. I tried kicking it but nothing happened. I tried several keys that were laid around the room but none opened the door. I then looked to the side of the door and saw a keycard slot. I slapped my forehead. How did I not see that? I scoured the room and found a keycard in one of the drawers. Lucky me. I swiped the keycard on the door and nothing happened. “Oh come o-” I stopped when I heard a click sound. I pulled open the door and revealed the hallway. “Damn, it is dark down here, and my phone won’t last for much longer, I wonder if there is a lightswitch?” I said. I looked around and found a lightswitch almost immediately. That’s convenient. I flipped it to the on side and slowly the lights flickered on. ‘Much better,’ I thought. I looked around the hallway. Down towards the end, it seemed to separate into two other rooms, and behind me was just a wall. The design looked almost identical to what it looked like above, but it seemed more outdated and abandoned. It also felt...strangely quiet. Way too quiet. Not even the fluorescent lights made sounds. My heart started to beat faster, and I began to get a pit in my stomach. I started walking through the hallways and noticed that there were more and more holding cells. ‘Was this some sort of holding area for people?’ I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of stone falling on concrete. I whipped my head around and saw the ceiling collapsing. I started making a mad dash for the end of the hall, not wanting to get crushed by this sudden collapse. I dived through the end of the hallway door. “Well, no going back through that way I suppose,” I said. I got up and dusted myself off and continued walking through the new hallway.

A few minutes later, my phone died. “Dang, that’s gonna be annoying,” I said. Suddenly, the lights went out. ‘Oh you’ve got to be sh-’ I froze when I heard a voice in my ear. “Ah, finally, a new test subject arrives…”