The World Of Steam

8

It had struck five in the evening when we finally made it to the abandoned laboratory. Our nine hour journey was complete. The city had darkened drastically, but the street lights still provided some sort of path that we could follow. I walked over to the front double doors and saw that they were bolted shut and chained up, denying us entry.

"I don't suppose that you have some bolt cutters under your suit?" My companion asked me sarcastically. I quickly spotted a pair of hatches next to the door. Walking over to them, I grabbed the handles, lifting them. They both easily opened up and I found a stairway, leading into a dark abyss. I took out a flashlight from my coat and switched it on, proceeded with walking down the steps, into what I supposed was the basement of the laboratory. My companion followed after me. "You don't talk much, do you?" She asked me as we walked down the steps.

"Would it help?" I answered her sarcastically.

"Can I ask a question?"

"Shoot."

"When was the last time you took your gas mask off?"

"Never."

"So how do you change your filters? How do you keep yourself clean?"

"It's the year 2068, darling. This thing is self-cleaning, absorbs any moisture, keeps my skin clean and prevents hair growth. Cost me a fortune to get a hold of, but it was worth every pound."

"Right."

We found a corridor ahead of us with a single door at the end. We walked up to it and I opened it, seeing some stairs. I walked up them, my companion behind my back, and opened the door, finding a brightly lit corridor. I turned off my flashlight and put it back into my coat. I stepped into one room and saw what was inside. There were tables everywhere, all crowded with beakers and test tubes, filled with unknown substances. There were microscopes and petri dishes, just starting the list of the assortment of laboratory equipment that was scattered everywhere. Everything was clean, almost sanitised. We walked back into the corridor and took a flight of stairs, seeing another identical corridor. I stepped into another room of the laboratory, almost exactly the same as the one that we had been in. Beakers, test tubes, scrawled chemical equations. We kept walking through the corridors of the abandoned complex. Jennix suddenly took a light sniff and frowned a tiny bit. She then shook her head to herself, dismissing the thought. I suddenly heard something faint skitter across what I deduced to be a table or the floor. A pencil, probably. I took my gun out and silently made my way towards the source of the sound, my companion also trying to be as quiet as possible. Taking another flight of stairs, I saw a room with a light shining out of it. I slowly crept up to it and looked inside, aiming my gun at whoever was there. An old man looked up at us both, sitting in a chair. He was dressed in a dusty, moth-eaten lab coat that may have once been white. His grey hair was thick, matted and puffed out. He reached over to a small table that stood next to him with a little effort and took the spectacles that laid there. He put them on and then his eyes widened in surprise, his wrinkled brow furrowed. I put my gun away.

"People." He said with a wonder and realisation in his voice. "How did you get here? What are you even doing here?"

"I was told that someone here may have the cure for London." I told him. He frowned slightly at me.

"The cure for London? What do you mean by – oh...you mean the gas? No, there is no cure."

Jennix shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that's that then." She went to turn around, but I grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to stay in place. She looked at me and I released her.

"So what are you doing here then?" I asked him. "Why stay in this place on your own? Why waste time disinfecting this place?"

Jennix's eyes widened in realisation. "That's what the smell is."