The Cerberus Project

As above

Laura gently added to the ever-growing pile of paperwork on Hank's desk, It was backed up nearly three months now. She'd been doing most of his upstairs work since then, keeping the facade running just long enough to do what needed to be done. With every lie, with every half-truth, her heart grew even more weary. She took off her glasses and exhaled on the lenses, then wiped the condensation on her sweater. She didn't know for sure why they kept it so cold in here, she had a guess, but regardless it was inconvenient. The southern summer heat outside made her uncomfortable already, not that she'd been outside much recently. She'd been in the complex for six months, leading her small team through the ins and outs of Doctor Greene's morally ambiguous science.

"Doctor Mcallister," A gentle voice said, "Is everything okay?" 

She blinked, realizing she'd been lost in thought for some time now. "Yes, Theo, I'm fine." She said, "Just wondering if Hank is ever actually going to finish these smaller projects."

"You really think he would?" A voice from the corner called, "I mean, you're the only one who's actually seen what's down there, But I reckon it makes all this look like small potatoes." 

"Oh please," Theo said, "Whether he actually finishes any of this or not doesn't matter, My research is being funded. Who cares what goes on downstairs?"

Laura paused, carefully considering sharing what she'd seen. "You'd think differently," She finally said, "If you'd seen it, you'd know Robert's right. Hank's work makes everyone else's look archaic." 

Theo furrowed his brow, he knew she was right, he knew what he'd signed up for long ago. 

Suddenly, the lights flickered all at once. But that couldn't be, Laura thought, They shared a breaker with the lab downstairs, and the power was always stable down there. 

The ground beneath their feet shook, and the building groaned as if it was in tremendous pain. 

"What was that?" A woman asked from the main laboratory, Laura had forgotten Monica was still in there. 

"I'm not sure," Laura confessed, though a pit was growing deep in her stomach.

"It felt like an earthquake," Robert said, "But we ain't never had one here." 

Laura pulled out her radio calmly, "Hank, what's going on down there?" she said.

Static. 

She held down the button again, a panic was now building, welling up in her chest. "Hank, copy, What's going on downstairs?" 

More static. 

"Hm," Theo whispered, as if worried the world would end if he was too loud, "That's not good."

The lights flickered again. 

"It's probably just a malfunction," Robert suggested, "All big places like this got'em."

"I thought Clintax didn't make mistakes," Monica jested.

"They don't." Laura said. 

The room got quiet for a moment, tension filled the air. 

"Where are the kids?" Monica asked.

Laura hadn't even thought about the kids, They were supposed to be outside, weren't they? She ran to their rooms and pounded on the doors. No answer. She exhaled, maybe they were outside, with Hank, and Maybe this was all just a malfunction, a blip in the computer's coding. But something felt wrong, she whispered a prayer to herself as she walked back.

"Robert," Laura said, "Can you pull up the cameras for Hank's other lab?"

"Sure could," He said, "Never have, Ain't really supposed to." 

"Would you please?" Laura asked again.

"Sure, but," Robert paused as if considering letting his next question go unasked, "Are we in some type of trouble here?" He asked. 

"I'm not sure," Laura confessed, "Probably not, but, I'd just like to be sure." 

Robert nodded, and quickly clicked through several screens, "Huh," He said, "The camera's in the control room are out, must be the power. But say's here the emergency doors were just locked."

"How long ago?" Laura asked, the panic now spreading to her voice.

"Little more than two minutes ago," He answered, "Right about the time the ground shook." 

Laura's heart skipped a beat, this couldn't be happening. She wanted to run, she wanted to bury her head and wait for this storm to pass. Instead, she took a deep solemn breath.

Before she could give any sort of order, Blanch swung open the lab doors. His face was bright red, he was out of breath, he looked disheveled and unkept. This wasn't like Blanch at all. "Theodore, give me your badge." He demanded.

"M-my badge, sir?" Theo stammered.

"Yes!" Blanch demanded, "Give it to me now, or you're fired." 

Theodore handed over the badge carefully, "Are you alright, sir?" He asked.

Blanch grumbled, though it sounded more like a snarl. "I'm going to visit experiment one," He hissed.

As quickly as he'd appeared, Blanch vanished into the maze of employee tunnels on the other side of the doors. 

"That was freaky." Monica admitted.

"I've never seen him like that!" Theodore said through a shaky breath, "I thought he was going to fire me." 

"Something's not right." Monica said, "I'm going downstairs to check on everything. Maybe this is all nothing, in fact, it's probably just-" 

The lights disappeared, After a few seconds of inky black, the red emergency lights clicked on. Something was wrong, Laura had known earlier. She suddenly wished she'd listened to that lump in her stomach, she wished she'd gone home.

 "Okay," Theodore said, "That's a new one. I thought the generators kept the lights on all the time." 

"They're supposed to." Laura whispered.

Behind them, they heard a thick clunking, a sort of grinding. It was growing closer, and fast. It sounded like a deranged animal, no, too big to be an animal... but too ravenous to be a machine. Deep down, Laura knew exactly what it was, crawling up the elevator shaft, coming for her. 

"Everybody run!" She screamed, but it was too late. The elevator doors bent open slowly, spindly claws ripped them open. With no warning, she was face to face with it again, it's yellow eyes bore deep into her soul. 

Theodore stumbled backward, screaming in terror. Before he could hit the ground, the creature's claws had sunk into his calf and midsection, the creature slowly pulled at him, as if studying his form. The bones in his leg began to snap, the skin began to tear, and slowly his tendons popped and released. It was tearing him apart, devouring him piece by piece.

Laura swallowed, tears welling in her eyes, what could she do now? Nothing. Panic set in, she watched as blood gurgled from Theodore's mouth, dripping onto the floor. 

Monica turned to run, but the monster turned as she did, and snapped its jaws around her. Her legs collapsed and slid from the momentum, perfectly severed at the waist, still spurting blood.

The creature bellowed, its voice was so loud, it made Laura's ears bleed.

She couldn't help but quiver in fear, her body trembled, as slowly the creature's attention turned to her. Its eyes met hers as it slowly circled her, it looked at her almost as if it remembered, but she knew it couldn't. Laura shut her eyes tight, she knew there was no escape.

From the corner, she heard the pop and buzz of a stun gun. In all the commotion, she'd forgotten about Robert. The creature smacked the old man with the backside of its talons, flinging him through the air, and slamming him into the wall. He slid down, motionless. 

Laura knew now, truly, there was no escape. She shut her eyes and accepted it, She knew what was coming, because she'd helped make it. She felt almost vindicated, after everything, she felt she deserved this.