Frostbite

Nine

Every time she woke up from a deep sleep it was always the same, she was confused, didn't know where she was, and her vision was fuzzy, but this time she also couldn't breathe. She opened her eyes to find her vision rippling, she was underwater, caught beneath bright blue liquid, drowning. She saw the surface of the water with wherever she was just past it, like she was in a pool in the middle of the room. She tried to swim to the top, if she could just reach the surface she could climb out into the room. But as her arms pulled against whatever it was that was holding her down something continued to push her back, keeping her under. She was quickly running out of air, not sure if she'd be able to hold on much longer, so her attempts became more frantic, her body writhing in the fluid cage. After a few seconds she started to feel that fading in and out again and she panicked, thrashing around until finally she started to nod out. Just as she was about to black out her body jolted and her eyes opened wide, she was lying on the floor of the room she had seen through the ripples, she could breathe, and there was no water. 

She had to catch her breath before she did anything, so she looked around the room as she did. From what she could tell so far it was clearly a lab, everything seemed metallic and sterile, and there was the strong smell of chemicals. It wasn't as bright in this room as it was in the rest of the building, it was dimly lit, and the atmosphere was more scientific than medical. With her breathing finally even she stood, clutching onto the edge of a countertop. Now she had a better view of everything and was immediately taken by surprise. The first thing she noticed was that there were dozens of circular tanks, big enough to hold a human body, scattered throughout the room filled with glowing liquid, some glowing purple, some glowing green, and some glowing blue. It was actually pretty to look at despite the alarming situation of waking up somewhere you didn't know in a 'hospital' run by an insane man. But she knew it was nothing that should be seen as pretty, it was clearly color coordinated for the different drug types; she'd never look at the color combination the same again.

Looking down at the counter she was clutching she saw more files like the ones she found in the office on the middle floor, only these weren't patient files, they were experiment files; just like the other ones they had 'Mantelbourne Inc.' written on the front of the folder. She reached for one and opened it; it was for experiment #0319. It stated that it was a reptilian amphibian hybrid, and listed characteristics such as scaled wings and gills. It was envisioned by a patient that was put on the drug Tremor, and, according to the file, it didn't survive the creation process.

After reading that one file she knew one thing for sure, not everything survived the mutations; they were creating things and they were dying, it was cruel, perhaps even crueler than what they were doing upstairs. She looked around the room again, glancing at each tank, she was now curious what the creatures looked like. She moved from the desk and looked mainly at the purple ones, trying to find #0319. Like she had figured the tanks were numbered and soon she found it. The liquid, of which she could only guess was colored embalming fluid, was slightly hard to see through, but eventually she made out the image of the creature. It was exactly what it said it was, a scaled man with wings and gills. She couldn't stop looking at it; even though it was an awful abomination it was captivating. She was curious about the others but there were so many and she had to get out of there. Heading back to the elevator she came from she stopped by the number pad and entered Hal's code, but for some reason it didn't work. Now she was beginning to panic again.

Turning away, her gaze wandered around the room searching for another way out, and there was only one, through metallic double sliding doors across the room. It might have seemed crazy to enter into the next section, but she had no other choice. As she crept to it her heart began to beat a little faster, adrenaline preparing her for something bad. The door was cold as she placed a hand on it, trying to figure out how open it, there was no number pad. She went to slide one half open, and when she did, after a second, both sides began to slide open on their own. When the door opened it wasn't what she had expected at all. Stepping across the threshold she found that it was a huge round metallic room with an incredibly high, domed ceiling, florescent lights illuminating it. There was nothing in the room, it was just cold metal, metal plates for the floor and metal panels for the wall, the architecture done very artfully, and across the whole expanse was a steel throne sitting atop a staircase of only five steps. She walked further into it, looking up and around, marveling at it all.