O U T | The Group Chat

CHAPTER 3

The city was a well established, large community of people. It was a house of many different species with humans dominating among them but not actively pushing anyone out of its safe walls. It was a mutually agreed on arrangement that suited everyone similarly and caused no hostility between anyone. It was a city of sky high buildings mixing with tiny one storey shops. One where improvement met traditionality in a slow dance of different styles, routines and views. They traded with each other. Worked with each other. Lived with each other and cared for each other. It was a peaceful place of compassion.

There was, however, a singular piece of uncertainty present among the safe streets. A weed that lived between the buildings, slipped inside the houses and troubled the people's minds. It wasn't big. It didn't grow. It didn't disturb everyday life. It just simply remained intertwined with the city. Since no one felt any visible discomfort from it, it was left alone. And so it stayed.

But like an untreated weed that destroys the crops, it slowly corrupted the people. No one spoke a single word and no one would blame any of them for it.

It was a strange commensalism the lab conceived with the city. Everyone seemed to know of its existence. Everyone knew that day after day different faces left, heading west to make their way through the woods, with some destined to never return. Everyone was aware of the evil that hid in the forest behind the shelter of protesting trees. However nobody knew what was really forming there. They could only sense the madness. And they feared it.

And there is no scarier thing than the unknown. Than the uncertainty of the unidentified risks, of the hidden truth and unspoken thoughts. It poisoned the minds of good people and made them weak in the face of evil.

So the lab was left to be. It continued existing, housing and giving work to new people who may never know what purpose their tasks would truly serve. People continued losing their loved ones, too afraid to complain or scream in anger. They'd mourn and move on. They all had to follow the same rules. In their eyes - that was the only way to avoid a tragedy.

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A tall block of flats reaching six floors stood shoved between others similar to it on Maple Street under the number 24. It was a simple brick building, painted light brown which complimented nicely the garden that was present on its top which greenery could be seen overflowing from the pavement below. In the old walls dozens of people played their part, contributing to the city life. Among them, behind the doors with a number 14 on them, a tall, well built brunette was sitting by his desk.

The apartment he owned was a rather tiny place. A bedroom, a kitchen joined with a living room and a bathroom. Not much but just enough for one guy who liked to spend a lot of his time outside. Still, the place was kept nice and cozy, with a lot of browns and whites making up the palette of it, though some a little more crazy colors from the many vintage neons that hung around the whole place lit it up slightly. In the living room between piles of unread books stuffed on the shelves with boxes of mechanical parts and a large tv with an extra set of speakers stood a giant desk, covered with random tools and computer parts. In the sea of them a poorly looking laptop was sitting patiently with its keyboard off. It was the entanglement of electrical parts and wires that earned Isaac's full attention as he held a lamp in his hand, trying to place it just right so it wouldn't be in the way but so he could see everything.

As boring as fixing electrical devices might sound it brought the man a weird sense of satisfaction and peace when done right. Granted, it still was tedious but at least tediously immersive enough so that he didn't have to worry about anything else each time he sat down by his desk.

Headphones on and a quiet hip-hop playlist filling up the space in his head, his little safe space was interrupted when he heard banging on the front door. He sighed and leaned back on his chair, raising his headphones off of his left ear so he could hear.