Parasite Lost

Parasite Lost Chapter 9

Apate slumped against the door to the laboratory and sobbed into her trembling hands. Bren slowed to a walk as he approached her. There was a look of stunned recognition on the faces of the women inside the laboratory as they saw their former security officer. One of the scientists hit a switch next to the glass. A dark frost to spread over the windows and hid the women from view. Bren stared down at Apate trying to make sense of the situation.

"Umm... are you ok?" he asked as Dante and Alistair came up behind him, out of breath. After taking a moment to collect herself, Apate informed the rest of the team about her involvement with the facility, her fiancé, and her captive child.

"Is there a reason you didn't tell us this before?" Dante asked.

"What do you care? Was I really supposed to expect three mercenaries to be compassionate?" Apate replied.

No one argued.

"Look, regardless of my motives we are in this together because if we don't get into that lab you guys are all going to die from exposure to the parasite."

"According to everything we've been hearing, the three of us are already dead," Dante said.

"If we get inside this lab, there may be a way to fix that," Apate said.

"Are y'saying they have a cure?" Alistair asked.

"I don't know, but the only way to find out is to ask them," she replied.

"I never thought I'd see the day I wished I didn't have a dick," Bren said. A beep started up behind him. Everyone looked at him and stepped back. "Really?! I can't say dick? Are you kidding me?" he shouted as the beeping sped up. Everyone took another step back as Bren let out a frustrated groan.

"Can you use that digi-key you have?" Dante asked after the beeping ceased.

"Well, I could, but they can just stand there and hold the manual override. If we get to the security bay, I can maybe grant us access to the complex by writing new security codes," she said.

"Couldn't they just hold down the override from their side?" Bren asked.

"Not if I give us priority over the override," she said.

Exchanging wary glances, the three men conceded their fate with a mutual shrug.

"So where do we go?" Dante asked.

"The main security bay is toward the bottom of the facility. Luckily, we can just take the elevator to go most of the way, assuming it still works," she said.

"What about all them?" Dante asked, pointing a thumb toward the darkened window.

"They won't go far knowing we are here. If we can get down to the security bay fast enough, they might not even realize we've left."

"Then let's hurry the crap up," Bren said as he stomped toward the elevator.

Bren rounded a corner and was greeted with the iconic hum and crackle of an energy weapon readying to fire. He registered the drone's presence, and the meaning of the noise, just in time to shriek in fear and jump back. The immovable object that was Dante stopped his retreat and he fell to the ground as a bolt of energy whipped down the hallway and burst against the wall Bren attempted to hide behind. Melted slag dripped from the grav-ball sized chunk missing from the wall.

Bren scuttled on all fours like a terrified child and rushed to the other side of the intersection. They heard the low thrum of grav-plates as the drone moved toward the intersection the team used as cover. Dante pressed his back against the wall, heedless of the molten metal cooling next to him, and waited until the sound of the grav-plates was closer.