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Chapter 15

They looked down at the restructured cylindrical devices.

"Do you really think it will work?" Ulises asked.

"If not, our civilization is going byebye," Farah said.

"Which is exactly why we must try," Micah said.

BOOM.

"Uh oh," Farah said. "Sounds like we've been found."

More booms sounded, as if the structure had been hit with a bombardment of something. Something terribly big.

Then they heard the screams of their unit.

Micah quickly prepared the re-purposed bio-weapons for launch.

Two soldiers came running in, past the soldier stationed at the doorway.

"It's here, ma'am!" one of them told Farah. "The alpha-creature is attacking us! Aerial assault!"

"The evil thing has already turned some of its kills, but we put them down quickly," the other soldier said, inbetween his heavy breaths.

"Shit. Shit! Fall back! All of you!" Farah said. "This place's walls seem to be effectively shielding us from its attacks. Tell the rest to get in here, now!"

Ulises activated the shield for good measure.

"YOU FOOLS," they heard the alpha-creature screaming outside. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR HELL!" They heard more bombarding. The room remained calm and still.

Once every survivor was accounted for, Micah ran to the door and started to tap its control... but then had a thought.

He stopped time. He decided to have a better look around his late friend's lab.

He walked past Ulises, Farah and the soldiers, all of them stuck in place. There was another door in the back of the control room, opposite the exit, but sealed. He saw a glowing panel next to it. Its blue light was pulsating in brightness. The door's control panel was not stopped.

He placed his thumb on the panel, as he saw Oberon previously do at the exit. He didn't expect it to work.

"User: Micah. Accepted."

"Well I'll be," he said out loud as the door slid open before him. Oberon must have gotten Micah's fingerprints using his own time-stop device. Fascinating, he thought.

He walked inside the new room.

It was small, about a fourth of the size of the control room. It held what looked like an altar. A lone spotlight shown down upon the object laying on top of it.

It looked to be another time-stopping device. Its wires were all black and neatly folded into itself, in contrast to the tangley mess of his own device.

He walked up to the altar. He picked up the new device and traded it with his old device. His old cumbersome contraption now lay on the altar.

He looked at the sleek device that was now fastened to his wrist. Its top display lit up.

"User: Micah. Accepted." The device spoke to him. Its display turned white, then changed to show a photo of a smiling Dr. Oberon Fleishman in his labcoat, giving two enthusiastic "thumbs up".

"Analyzing current state," the device announced. "Status: time stopped." It then ejected a small white booklet of pages from a slot on its left side. The display went dark, going into standby mode, Micah figured. He pulled the booklet out with his right hand.

"Instruction Manual," he read. He felt an excited jump in his belly.

"So," Micah said, opening the mini manual. "What are you capable of, my new little friend?"

He had all the time in the world to find out.