A Dark and Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night...

Everyone had been driven home in low spirits by the weather, and Gouaux Hall was empty. Well, almost empty. The only light left on in the building gleamed through the crack under the door of the Boopathy Lab where Kyle and Richard continued to work. They had been there all evening and by now had slipped into that silent pattern of wordlessly working that always comes about after casual conversation expires. Because of this silence, they were able to distinctly hear a quiet thump when it resonated from the direction of the incubator.

"Did you just put something in the oven?" Richard asked over his shoulder.

"No. That wasn't you?" Kyle said pulling the ear buds out that he'd been listening to. His music had not been loud enough to hide the sound. A second thump-thump sounded from the incubator and the tiny oven moved slightly on its countertop.

"I didn't think we had anything in here," Richard said, puzzled, moving towards the incubator.

"Maybe it's something of one of the undergrad's," Kyle shrugged, returning his earbuds to his ears. Richard pulled the incubator door open, then simultaneously yelled and ducked as a blob of green ooze shot out of the incubator and over his shoulder where his face had been the moment before. Kyle jumped and spun around with his loose earbuds swinging around his neck. The green blob hit the ceiling with a far reaching splatter above Kyle's head and started sentiently collecting itself into one glob.

"What is that??" Kyle said as he dodged out from under it.

"Beats me."

Kyle picked up a mechanical pencil and lobbed it at the massing goo. He would have missed but a tendril of slime dripped out and absorbed the flying pencil. Kyle and Richard were bewildered speechless. The whole green glob then dropped to the floor and squished towards Richard and Kyle's feet with surprising speed. Cursing in surprise, Richard jumped onto a counter and Kyle skirted farther backwards. The goo squelched and hissed as it chased Kyle across the lab. Kyle armed himself with a long tipped micropipetter and poked at the rushing slime dangerously. It slowed its attack long enough to pull the pipette from Kyle's hand and swallow it like it had done to the pencil. Kyle made it to the sink and the water deionizer so he grabbed the nozzle and sprayed the green blob. This did seem to stall the gloop as it could not move forward against the force of the water spray. Kyle looked around to see what had become of Richard, who suddenly appeared with the fire extinguisher and emptied the whole canister at the oozing blob. The blob stopped moving and frosted over into a hardened shell. Not daring to touch it directly, Kyle poked at it with the toe of his boot. It was dead. Richard heaved the empty fire extinguisher down on it and it shattered into a million green crystals. Fetching a broom, Richard swept all the pieces into the biohazard bin while Kyle mopped up all the water with paper towels.

"Well, I think I'm done for the night," Richard said.

"Yeah, me too. I'm going home," Kyle said. Then, grabbing their things, they clicked off the lights, locked the door behind them, and left without another word or even a glance back.