Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 27: Dead Inside?

Richie pedals towards the edge of town in a rage of confusion, hatred, resentment, and sadness. It was pretty clear that he no longer had any friends. He felt as though they'd turned against him in every way. Why couldn't they just leave him alone and let him sort out this bullshit on his own?

It was a question that rolled around in his brain as he approached the same area where he'd almost been mowed down by that mullet-wearing asshole the week before. He pulls over and looks around. To his utter delight, there are still some remains of the glass window scattered along the unpaved shoulder of the road. He smiles in great satisfaction at his handiwork, but the guy had it coming, without a doubt.

The trash mouth decides to go back to the weird building he'd seen while fleeing from the guy after he tried to give chase. Hawkins Laboratory, if he remembered correctly.

He continues riding the route he'd taken until he reaches the end of the street. He'd been so eager to come back and investigate that he'd planted two sticks in the dirt in the shape of an X at the bottom of the ditch next to the road. He walks his bike down the slope and then tosses it into the bushes so if a person drives by, they wouldn't see it or give it a second glance. Fighting the overgrown branches and brush, Richie finally reaches the fence where the metal signs rattle in the wind, creating an unsettling sound in the otherwise deathly silent area.

Hawkins National Laboratory

U.S. Department of Energy

And

Restricted Area

No Trespassing

U.S. Government Property

Richie mutters to himself in delight. "U.S. Energy my ass,"

He goes along the fence, so lost in his own thoughts that he is not able to notice the contrast of trees and other vegetation between the two areas, a red flag that would indicate that something is not right. While the trees surrounding the bespectacled nerd were lush and full of leaves, which were slowly starting to change with autumn approaching, the trees around the laboratory were bare and empty. Not a single sign of life, and it seemed to be decaying from the inside out. The grass near the building was parched and a dull shade of gray... not even weeds could live without becoming choked and dying. It was as if colour could no longer exist and the place was rotting...

However, the teen is blissfully unaware as he finds a spot where he can see the lab more clearly.

Curiosity blazes within him; there had to be some kind of cool shit in there. Maybe a laser or nuclear weapons or a mutant zoo of animals... and things had gone awry, and the place had been shut down... perhaps even quarantined.

He has to get closer. The problem was, there was rusted barbed wire atop the fence, and the last thing he needed was to be in the hospital getting tetanus shots for trying to climb through it. Richie adopts a new strategy, looking for loose areas of the fence. No doubt animals had dug their way under to look for food, or time had done its magic and loosened some of the chain-link fences. Someplace lower to the ground would be his best bet for getting in.

...

It takes about two hours to walk the perimeter until Richie finally finds what he needs. A small corner of the fence was loosened just enough that he could peel it up and wriggle inside.

Satisfied and relieved that his patience had paid off, the kid from Derry begins racing across the dead grass towards the facility, never once pausing to think about the reasons why the place was closed.

The building looms ever closer, and Richie has slowed to a walk. Perhaps the eeriness of it all had made him second-guess getting too close. No birds sang, and there was no sign of any other kind of life. The black and gray building was a serious eyesore when viewed up close... in fact, the whole area was a hideous blot on the landscape. The parking lots were crumbling; trees, leaves, and debris were blowing everywhere in the late summer breeze, and the whole plot was desiccated, withered and oddly dark. The laboratory was shaped oddly from where he was standing; only from up high could a person see that it was shaped like an X... as if God had marked the place for damnation itself. The place even seemed to have slithered up from beneath the earth and was a parasite draining the life force from Hawkins.

The teen swallows nervously as all the darkened, and sometimes shattered, windows look at him, watching his every move. The caution tape billowed in the wind; some of it had come loose from its positions and reached out like tentacles. His stomach twists violently as if the facility made him physically ill.

Turn around, you moron! Richie's mind was telling him. Get the fuck out of here!

However, his curiosity persisted and overtook his common sense.

He walks through the parking lot and approaches the front entrance. It was also weird to note that even if the place was abandoned and likely condemned, very few people had taken it upon themselves to vandalize the place with spray paint. Granted, there were a few tags of graffiti here and there for the brave souls who ventured out this far, but the place remained untouched, frozen in time... and Richie can tell immediately that it was a fucked up time.

The glass was shattered and scattered everywhere, mostly through the bottom panes of glass, as if something small had been trying to break through. As he stepped through the front doors, the so-called "lobby" was completely torn apart with light fixtures dangling, wires drooping down from the ceiling and hanging, deep scratches on the floor, almost like claw marks and... Richie gasps.

Blood! Tons of blood.

Streaks, splatters, and pools of liquid are everywhere. While it was far from fresh, everything now brown in colour, this alone made the kid plant his feet and not go any further. The facility was also musty and had a putrid smell that lingered in the air, which caused Richie to place his shirt over his nose. The darkness was also off-putting; it was like staring into the bowels of a monster. A dead monster.

Suddenly, at the end of the hall in front of him, a light flickered, causing Richie to step back and try not to scream out. It was a pathetic flare-up, but there was a buzzing noise that accompanied it. Too much like a horror movie for the kid to stand.

However, as the light flickered, for a split second, he saw something within it.

His body froze into a rigid position. His breathing stopped, his jaw clenched tightly, his heart went into overdrive, his ears rang, his eyes widened, his legs felt weak yet heavy, and he was certain that he was seconds from wetting his pants.

Some kind of tall figure with gangly arms that nearly dragged on the ground, and a lumpy face. There was no colour to be seen... that is, until this... thing opened its face, revealing strips of flesh with teeth, barely resembling the petals of a flower, which was likely a mouth.

Instead of roaring, a sinister voice calls out to him, from the creature...

"Beep beep, Richie!"

Those words and that voice finally reset his mind, and he took off like a shot. Richie bolts through the door, nearly slipping on broken glass several times. He exerts every muscle in his body to get across the parking lot and back through the trees.

He scrambles to find the loosened piece of fence. Swearing like a sailor, the kid is manic and screaming in panic. His heart is going to break his rib cage as he shook the metal in a frantic attempt to find the gap... his only escape.

When he does, he claws at the brush, trying to pull himself through, ripping his clothes and digging his knees in the dirt as he goes. He battles the branches and roots, nearly tripping a few more times and scratching his face and glasses, too. When he reaches his bike, he kicks the x that he'd made with the sticks before hauling ass down the highway back to town. He doesn't stop until he reaches a gas station and collapses in the grass from exhaustion.

...

Meanwhile, back at the facility, the strange being Richie had encountered flickers in the light like the bad signal on a TV screen before vanishing and the hallways are thrown into darkness again. It was never really there, but the intent was to test what reality could be breached and how far the influence of two unearthly beings could go...

A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Please follow and review.