Disrepair

Chapter 2

The girl happily walks down the hallway towards the conference room, where her boss is meeting with the head of production, along with several other high clearance members of the company. An attendant stands outside to keep anyone out, and upon seeing the girl he comes over to stop her, motioning for her to keep quieter when she talks.

"I'm here to see Dr Satola," the girl says.

"I'm sorry...Miss Enderson, is it? He's currently unavailable, you'll have to wait until the meeting is finished" he tells her.

"This is important to his work on the new compound" the girl informs him.

"May I see it?" he asks.

"Why? You're not on the team, at least not that I know of" she replies.

"You can leave it with me, and I'll hand it to him when I can. If you would like to instead, you can leave it in his office and I'll tell him you left it there for him" the man offers.

"I'll leave it in his office, thank you" the girl says, turning to leave.

She eventually finds his office and knocks on the door. His secretary opens the door for her, and she comes in. She sets the small folder on his desk, then waves the secretary goodbye as she leaves. Returning to her own working room, a small office that used to be a filing closet, the girl sits down in her chair to relax. She turns to her computer monitor, opening one of the few games her boss allows her to have. Since she's not needed for anything, why not have some fun?

It's not long before she notices a terrible smell coming from somewhere nearby. She wants to check to see if it's her, in case she forgot to shower that morning, but the smell is too rancid for it to be coming from herself. She closes her game and leaves her office, returning towards the lab. As she walks down the halls the smell only gets worse. She also notices a faint dark cloud moving down the hall ahead of her, making her stop in her tracks. She considers going in to check the lab, thinking she forgot to turn something off. But before she can move, she feels a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't pay you to stand there and do nothing Miss Enderson, get back to work" her boss says.

"Oh, Dr Satola, your meeting is over now, right? I left something for you in your office, did you get it?" she asks, following by his side down the hall.

"Yes, I saw it. What exactly did you leave for me?" he asks, having been too busy to look through it.

"Sir, wait" Miss Enderson says, holding onto his sleeve to keep him from moving.

"What are you doing-" he replies, but before he could say more he too notices the smell in the room. Taking a look down the hall towards the lab, he sees the trace amounts of gas on the floor. "What was in those papers?"

"You see, the gas we made, well I did some testing of my own with it. I changed it up a little to make it more deadly, and it also acts a lot faster than before. The time until death was under half a minute!" the girl says, somewhat happily.

"What did you change?" he asks sternly.

"Well, I added a lot more arsenic, mercury, and a few other acidic elements. Why?" she asks curiously.

"It escaped the lab thanks to you" he replies, taking out his phone. "Get a containment team down here immediately, we have a breach. As for you Miss Enderson, you're fired."

"Fired, why?" she asks, a little frantically.

"You were left to finish the tests that I set out, this toxic gas has now escaped. Under your watch. You're responsible for any deaths it causes. Not to mention you adjusted the values within it, without my permission. Now get out of my building" he tells her.

She hangs her head down slightly, "yes sir" she replies quietly. She walks down the hall back to her office, cleaning out her things into a large box. Then she leaves the building to her car. Dr Satola eventually meets with the containment team, and they set up heavy barriers that the gas cannot pass through. However, Satola was not fully aware of how corrosive the gas is, and it eats right through their barriers.

With the fans still running, and the gas still in the ventilation system, it soon starts to seep out of the vents all around them. Quickly eating through their protective clothes and suits, it quickly leaves a trail of bodies through the halls. Unsuspecting researchers, their assistants, and the higher-ups, are all soon dead in their offices. With no one to stop the spread of the gas, it eventually starts to eat through the building. As the building slowly collapses, the electricity becomes more unstable, sparks are sent out randomly, and some reach the storage area containing the rest of the compound. And soon after, a deadly cloud of gas begins to form around the facility, now under the weather's control to be spread.

Miss Enderson arrives back at her home, a small home she shares with a few others. She brings her box inside and sets it on the floor next to her bed, the loud thud gets the attention of her neighbor.

"How was your day at work?" the other girl asks curiously. "Was that project of yours successful?"

"Oh, hey Olivia" she replies in a sadder tone, sitting down on her bed. "It was successful."

"You don't sound too happy about it, did something go wrong?" Olivia asks.

"You could say that I guess. I got fired" she answers.

"Fired? Why? You've only been there for a short time" Olivia replies.

"The gas we were working with, well let's just say it can be deadly. I made a mistake, and it spread through the facility. I guess I'm now a murderer, aren't I?" she asks, laying down onto her back.

Olivia comes over to her and sits down. "Everyone makes mistakes. Now, I do admit that what you did was wrong, but it was an accident. Look, if the police ever get involved in this and come after you, I won't sell you out. You're a good friend, and I know you don't make mistakes often enough to be seen as unreliable or irresponsible. Try not to think about it too much, okay?"

"Okay, thanks Liv" she responds.

"Oh, also, I'm going out with Terry for dinner tonight. We're meeting up with some others, want to come along?" Olivia asks.

"No thanks, I'll pass," she answers.

"Alright, suit yourself. Have a good evening" Olivia says before leaving.

With nothing else to do, and no work available for her, her day quickly turns to a lazy one, staying home and watching movies. She tries to dismiss negative thoughts of what she's done, but those are the only things she can think of.