Steel Virus (2017)

5

Catherine was on her way to the elevator. Thankfully, as she had ordered, no one was trying to use it to escape. They'd be caught, anyway. There were men already looking for how to open the entrance. She wanted to willingly help them instead of sit around and wait.

The elevator was a large semi-open platform with a fence around three edges. She opened the gate and pressed the button on the small console attached to the back wall that held the platform up with many heavy cables. The entire platform shook as the lifting mechanism turned on.

Catherine opened her black jacket in preparation for the hot weather. There would be no rain to calm her nerves today.

Outside, a hidden speaker suddenly alerted three nearby soldiers. "Attention! We are surrendering to the forces outside. Our manager is being sent up to meet with you all. Clear the nearby area until the entrance has opened! Again, we are surrendering. Clear the area until the door has opened!"

Rodger panicked for a moment as he heard a rumbling sound from the ground after the message. He jumped and rolled away as the sound grew stronger, dropping a knife on accident. Where the knife lay, the ground opened up. By coincidence, it was lifted a short way as two large panels split apart before falling down and hitting the metal platform just a dozen meters below.

"What the fuck?" Catherine jumped after hearing the clang of the knife.

Rodger heard her voice. "Sorry..." he whispered.

The panels held onto most of the dirt and leaves for a few more degrees before losing it all down below. Only a few branches stayed, caught in the gap on the edges where the panels were lifted from.

***

At the same time, while a battalion of soldiers fanned out and gathered everyone, Emry was locked in the furthest lab.

He was clutching a large silver case, sitting in a corner.

Only a room away, John was busy reading a dropped report. He wasn't supposed to be this far into the labs, but all the doors were opened for the incoming soldiers. At first, John was looking for Catherine. But, while failing to find her, he found his way into where the things that killed Carl were made. And to papers describing the project and the sponsor's wishes.

"...the silica based machine reacts to proteins and water to reduce complex chains into simple pieces for reuse. Then, the proteins can be filtered out using the process as shown..."

John didn't quite understand the entire point of the project, but he knew the real danger of it all.

"...Recent versions were lightened to reduce the mass." John read the small note written in pen. "Too light; prone to being lifted airborne."

He shook his head and set the report down.

"This is some really bad shit. If what happened to Carl can spread..."

He stopped and thought about it all. For the last year, things slowly changed. Protocol, deadlines, security staff...and then Carl.
Maybe that wasn't an accident, after all. Maybe he was a perfect excuse to see the product previously intended to recycle refuse work a new job.

Someone changed the "Project" into a weapon.

John decided to go out and talk to the soldiers coming in. They had to know just how dangerous it was.

But before he took a step to the door, he heard crying. John ran in to see who had been left behind.

Further into the lab, past the central room and in the opposite direction of the exit, John crept as the sobs grew louder.

Around a large desk full of equipment, there was a case with further smaller wrappings of the sample of "Project Conversion" lying on the floor. John looked further and caught Emry in the corner, behind tables and more large, plastic machines.

There was a button to open the heavy steel jar Emry held. The same jar that Carl had dropped.

"Emry! What the hell are you doing!?"

Emry didn't look up at first. He sniffed a little, set the jar down, then looked at John.

"Hi. You're John, right?"

"Yes! And you shouldn't touch that jar!"

"It doesn't matter...I'd rather take some of them with me if I'm to die," he whimpered.

John took a step closer. "Emry, please. Don't open that. All the doors are open right now. There's no telling how far that stuff might make it."

John thought for a moment, then looked right at Emry. "Forget the lab; that stuff could spread around the world!" He gesticulated with broad strokes.

"Just leave, John. Maybe it won't make it that far. There's been no test to confirm how far it might travel on its own. If we're lucky, it can't. It killed that one worker too fast for it to be all that spreadable..."

John clenched his fists and held back his anger. Hearing Carl's death spoken in such a matter-of-fact manner was tough to ignore.

"Emry, you're right. We don't know, yet. It could be okay." he said in a calm, kind voice. "But, it might not be okay. Let's just calm down and get back up. We don't have to end things that way."

"Calm? How? I'm screwed!" Emry grabbed the jar and bent further into the corner, turning away from John.

John took the chance to walk closer to him as quietly as he could. "Catherine is going to take responsibility for this all, I'm sure. We were just following our orders. We might not have it so bad. They wouldn't imprison a hundred people, would they?"

"You don't understand! I was going to leave here in a month; now, I'm as dead as the rest of you!"

"We won't die in jail. We haven't done anything to warrant it." John stopped moving as Emry turned to face him again.

A few tears stumbled down Emry's panicked face. "I didn't even want to work with them..."

"With who? Our sponsor?"

"No," he trembled. "Someone much worse..."

Loud thumps of metal rang on the granite floor.

John backed up near Emry. Emry pressed his back into the cold wall.

From the doorway to the lab came several men wearing metal exoskeletons and army uniforms. They all had rifles in their hands. The leader held his aimed at John and Emry.

"Don't move! Put that jar down!"

Emry inched his left hand right next to the button. "You're all dead...could you at least let me leave?" he asked.

"Don't..." John whispered.

The lead soldier dipped his head and the point of his rifle down. "Set that down, please. You won't be hurt."

"I don't care about being hurt! I need to leave here and beg to be saved before they let the rest go!" Emry yelled.

He then gave up. "It's pointless. I'm already dead."

"It's not pointless," John whispered.

"Why couldn't you wait a month?!" Emry cried.

"PUT. THE. JAR. DOWN," the soldier firmly demanded.

John looked at Emry and shook his head.

Emry slid his hand an inch closer, a breath away from the button.

There was a ringing in John's ear. He saw Emry crumble. He saw the jar fall with him.

"NO!" John screamed as he dove to catch the jar, but it was too late.

It hit the ground as Emry's arm fell onto the button.