0:01 (One Past Midnight)

6. Patient Zero?

"I... euh... wow... I haven't seen another human in..."

He tried to remember, visible struggling to do the maths, not coming up with any viable answer.

"In too long," he then continued "I have no idea how long it's been. I wasn't sure there still were people."

"Are you the only one here?" Melissa asked, still surprised.

"In a manner of speaking, I suppose." the man replied.

DrOS stepped in front of Melissa and brandished the weapon in his direction.

"Who are you? What happened here? And how are you even here?" DrOS demanded.

"I am Frederick Robina, I used to work here back when this was still an active lab."

Frederick felt in the pocket of his lab coat and found a pack of cigarettes, he opened it but he was disappointed to see it was empty. He crumpled it and shoved it back in the lab coat with a sigh as if it was something he had simply forgotten.

"You wouldn't happen to have any cigarettes would you?" he inquired.

Melissa had no idea what he was talking about and tilted her head slightly in confusion.

"Tobacco hasn't been produced in over 150 years." DrOS replied in a slightly too monotonous manner.

"150... what?!" Frederick replied while he finally took notice of the manner of weapon aimed at him, "Wait, are you... a robot?"

"Yes I am, now explain yourself." DrOS exclaimed in a rather threatening demeanour, "This facility was presumed destroyed for almost 200 years, how are you even here?"

"200 years..." Frederick sighed, "Has it really been that long?"

He walked over to the chair on which his lab coat had hung and sat on it, plopping himself heavily and slumped.

"When this was an active lab we were on the verge of a great discovery. A new dimension of science that would help us reshape our understanding, our fundamental understanding, of the world around us. Based on the preliminary work of someone dear to me, we thought we could find an answer to everything."

He went silent, reminiscing, after which his face turned sour.

"I went too far, I went too fast, we didn't understand what we were doing. Perhaps looking back now, it wasn't in our hands to begin with."

He started squirming slightly, holding his abdomen tightly. He was clearly in pain.

"Then what happened?" DrOS demanded to know.

"You'll have to excuse me," Frederick managed to speak in a soft and pained way through gritted teeth, "I'll be right back."

Frederick's body started to heat up and his skin was visibly reddening. Something alerted DrOS, its sensors were picking up a burst Davidson-Robina radiation.

"Quickly, get behind me" DrOS ordered Melissa, "Radiation is increasing."

The robot went into full battle mode, both arms now revealing a serious arsenal of weaponry as did many other parts of the body such as the shoulders, breasts, abdomen and knees.

Frederick's skin started to catch fire. As he burned, he screamed loudly and fell from the chair onto the floor. Light radiated from his core while his entire body was engulfed in a colourless flame that visibly distorted the air around him. The light emitted eventually blinded the entire room into a single white solid. From his burning body emerged a shadow, which would have been visible against the background of white, had it been possible to see anything. The shadow was thick, solid, black and three dimensional, yet not of any recognisable shape.