What Was Missing

Prologue

    Note: This prelude is based off of two sources. The first half: security footage recorded during Charles Issaben's last hour. The second half: A journal entry made by Lisa Youngblood, the black-haired woman described after the wait period. The reliability of the second part of this section is questionable. You may now begin.

    Charles Issaben, a famous archeologist, stands shivering at the darkened cave entrance, excited beyond belief. He's leading a low-depth dig, trying to find evidence of a species only he believes in. He doesn't end up finding a fossil. He ends up finding his death.

    "Come over here, guys," he exclaims, "I found something!"

    No reply. Looking back over his shoulder, he frowns. He has a mild accent, but it's easy enough to understand. They should be able to hear him. After waiting for a response, which he doesn't get, he shrugs and wipes his hand back across his sweaty forehead. They're probably taking a lunch break. Oh, well, at least he'll get all the credit for the find.

    It's burning at the level he's on, but his shivering continues. Like someone who's holding their breath, his face has begun to redden, and as he hiccups, he slowly frowns. Why...? He didn't feel like this earlier. His vision sways for a moment, the red-speckled orange walls blurring, but he holds his ground. Must've been something he ate.  Pressing his hand against the oddly flat rock, he makes an attempt to recover, but his sickened feeling only worsens. Suddenly, he doesn't want to go in there alone.

    "...Guys?"

    No response.

     A bit queasy, he doubles over, trying to stem his rising bile. Not now... He's almost at his discovery! His ears start ringing, and wiping his hand across his nose, he realizes it's starting to bleed. The world swirls again, and he cups a hand over his mouth. No... He tries to call out once more, but it comes out as a strangled gargle. Suddenly, he vomits through his hand. The smooth rock floor squelches as a four-tipped star of lost lunch sprays on it, and slowly, he falls to his knees. "Gg..uys?" he gasps on last time, and then collapses in his own waste.

    The thick yellow liquid ripples as his arms twitch, until finally, he goes still. The room was highly radioactive. He never stood a chance.

    His corpse wouldn't be found until the next day.

<> <> <>

    Three yellow-clad workers in bulky radioactive suits stand at Charles's body, attempting to make sense of the situation.

    A stench of rotting meat fills the room, but they can't smell it through their specialized outfits. One of the workers, red-haired and impulsive, nudges the limp form with his toe, and it sinks in. He makes a face. Retracting his foot, he kicks it. Squelch.

    "Don't do that, Frank," a feminine voice firmly reprimands.

    The red-haired man, labeled as Frank, glares at her. She's a skinny, pale woman, with pitch-black hair barely visible behind her mask. She isn't facing him, her gaze resting on the darkness in the cavern. "Why shouldn't I?" The woman doesn't even turn back. "Because I can get you fired before you can even blink." Frank sticks out his tongue, but stops nonetheless. An awkward silence follows, but the woman shatters it when she speaks.

    "We should go in."

    She waits for a moment. When nobody responds, she turns to stare at both of them in turn. "Come on! This is your job."

    Frank and the other worker glance at each other, and their eyes meet for half a second. Slowly, they walk backwards. "Sorry, dude," replies Frank in a flat tone. "I'm sitting this one out." The woman scowls, and turns to face the cave. At these times, she really does want to fire them. But she knows that they're worth it in the long run. Without another word, she takes a step in.

    The first thing she notices in that the floor is unnaturally smooth. Sliding her left foot from side to side, she meets no resistance. Slowly, she brushes the wall with a gloved hand. It too is slick. She frowns. This has never been observed before. She'd have to test the rock later.

    Taking a step forward, she notices the darkness is starting to fade. As she walks, she begins to squint. Is that a... no... She can't really make it out, and keeps walking towards it. The light continues to increase, and when it's bright enough to see properly, her eyes widen, and her mouth drops open.

    Floating in the middle of the room, glowing with the unnatural light she was guided by, is a beige sphere the height of a grown man. The light around it waxes and wanes at seemingly random intervals, but oddly, it always stays lit. The pulse quickens when she gets closer, as if it were sensing her, and she begins to see the smaller details- A multitude of pockmarks, sunk into a small square protrusion. The world would later discover that the holes were cord ports. On closer inspection, it wasn't actually floating; four dull metal cylinders sink into the ground, holding the sphere up high. She takes another tentative step forward. As she does, the sphere lowers, the rods sliding into it. Softly, she mutters to herself. "Now what have we here?"

    The sphere lowers soundlessly, strangely mesmerizing, but she's distracted as something crunches under her feet. Glancing down, she sees it's a mangled headset. It seems to have sat on a small rectangular prism of stone, but she'd crushed it accidentally. She guiltily pockets all of the smaller fragments, but decides to take a look at a larger part.

    It looks sort of like a pair of high-tech headphones. The piece that keeps the two ends together is ruptured, and on each side of the gap, tiny stray cords splay out like a paper fan. Small screens the size of her thumbnail adorn a few spots, and a cord with a needle at the end is plugged into one earpiece; It's very fragile-looking, and probably is, if her breakage was to be judged at all. Looking back up, she walks towards the sphere once more.

    It's lowered so far that the base is barely inches from the ground, and as she reaches a meter away, it touches the floor. The rods fully retract with a whooshing sound, leaving four two-inch holes in the floor, and as she slows down, the thing starts to roll towards her. It stops unnervingly close, and tilting to the left and right, makes a thin beep. Almost like it's pondering. Pondering what? Suddenly, it leaps onto her.

    Pushing her to the ground, it shoves with strength that she wouldn't have deemed possible. Squirming, she screams, but the only thing it seems to want is the headset. As soon as her hand holding the device gets free from under her, it rolls off of her and onto it like a magnet.

    With a flash, the two objects touch, and a green-white shockwave hurls her backwards. She slides on the slick floor until she hits the wall, and hearing a crunch, winces. Fortunately, no more harm is to come to her that day. The headset buzzes, the sphere makes a high-pitched bleeping noise, and the ominous white glow fades away. Only a red blinking light remains, and as her vision fades to black, she sees the sphere become immobile as the headset drops to the floor with a faint clink.

    Note: After hearing her scream, 'Frank' and the other worker rushed in and retrieved the unconscious woman, the sphere, and the headset. The woman and her husband later formed the Iss Exploration Foundation, to attempt to remake the headset and see what the sphere, now known as the Iss, can do.

--Thanks for reading so far! If you find any grammar issues, please comment so I can fix them up. If you like this so far, don't forget to Vote it :D

--Happy reading!