The Fall of the Society

Chapter 21: Discoveries in Darkness

The spherical lock fell away with a loud clunk, that echoed hollowly in the dark corridor. Sid was then able to slide the large and heavy steel beams out of their holders and let them fall to the floor with a loud and resounding clang, before they rolled off the platform and fell into the water below. He was not worried about the sound, he doubted it would carry far enough for anyone to hear. Soon, and with great effort, the beams were out of the way and the door was still not opening. Once again running his hands around the edge of the door, he found very slight indents placed behind where each of the beams had been located.

There were four indents along both the left and right side of the door, and after his first attempt he discovered they had to be pressed in a certain order to unlock the door. He examined the spots for what seemed like a very long time, but it was only about five minutes, before he began trying different combinations. After eight attempts he finally started with the indent second from the top on his right side, then crossed to the top left, before pressing the top right. He then followed his zig zag pattern to the bottom before moving back upward and ending where he started. A loud series of clicks and clangs sounded as a mechanism inside the door began unlatching all the different devices holding the heavily fortified door closed. With a slight creak the door swung inward and led to another dark hallway, which led to what appeared to be a black abyss.

Walking into the pitch blackness he closed his eyes and listened to the sound of his feet hitting the floor, reflected off the surfaces around him. The path ahead was clear, but it sounded as though it would begin to narrow. As he walked, he could feel the walls pressing in on him more and more as he plunged himself deeper into the cool and quiet darkness. He had left the smell of stagnant water and mildew behind, which was now replaced by the smell of a sterilized surgical room.

There was a low sound of electrical humming up ahead of him, which he hoped meant he was nearing the end of the corridor that was now barely wide and tall enough for him to walk unhindered. As he moved nearer to the sound of humming a low shuffling sound became audible, as well as what sounded like pained light breathing. The humming was closer than ever so he finally opened his eyes and could see a very dim light shining from behind a panel on the side of a computer tower. Feeling around he found a keyboard and pressed the enter key. The screen came on, blinding him temporarily in the complete darkness even though the brightness was at its minimum.

A cursor appeared on the screen, awaiting input. There were no folders, this was just an operation terminal and it wanted him to input a command. All around him the darkness seemed impenetrable, so he typed in "Lights" in the command line, but nothing happened. His eyes traveled along the console and to the side of the platform where he could see a railing. The sound of light shuffling and breathing was coming from lower than him. Thinking to himself, he decided to try another command and typed in "Lower Lights". This time the words illuminated on the screen for a couple seconds before disappearing. Once gone, dim lights started to warm up all around him. He was on a platform in the middle of what appeared to be a massive spherical room.

His station was about twenty yards from the tunnel he had walked through but the other side of the room had to be at least one hundred more yards away. Moving to the railing he could see a fog hiding the floor below him, swirling lightly as something moved within it in multiple places. Looking up, the darkness still had not surrendered and continued to hide whatever was above him. Returning to stand in front of the control terminal, he noticed a flat spot beside it and could barely see an outline that looked as though it was some sort of compartment. In the darkness it had been completely hidden, but now that there was low lighting creeping up from below it had become exposed.

Running his hand along the seam provided no information on how to open the compartment, so he moved his hands outward, looking for any kind of switch or button. The counter pressed directly up against the railing as he continued to examine it, when he leaned out over the railing to look at the side of it. Almost hidden by the shadows, a small shape behind the upper portion of the railing drew his attention. Sliding his hand into the dark space, he found a small round button and pressed it. A light hissing sound was emitted as the panel on top of the counter began to swing upward and away from him, a computer raising up from within the space.

A low growl echoed from above him, drawing his eyes upward. The darkness retained its secrets and he was unable to observe anything new, especially that could have made that kind of sound. Deciding to focus on the computer that had just emerged, he dropped his gaze and let his eyes adjust to the newly lit screen. He was happy to see it was not password protected, given the level of security he had dismantled to reach this point. The screen was filled with folders, none of which had labels on them. Picking one at random displayed a detailed feeding schedule for something labeled QGF. It also displayed what they had been feeding the QGF which was mostly a synthetic protein and fat supplement that was engineered in a section on the opposite side of the facility. Thinking back, he decided that the QGF must have been what was in the containment units he had found and began wondering if they were what was making the noise below him. Why in the world would they go through all this trouble to stash these creature's way down here behind all this security when they had them in laboratories directly inside the facility.

Finally finished scanning the details involved in the feeding of the QGF's he backed out of the folder and selected a new one. A lengthy word document appeared in front of him, titled "The Process of Genetic Failures." Not wanting to spend too much time on this right now he closed out of the folder and selected a new one. While it was loading, he pulled his devices from his pocket and placed them into the USB port on the side of the keyboard. A loading bar popped up on the screen and he minimized it so he could continue his search. The folder he had opened had multiple files within it, so he clicked the first one. A document explaining the tendencies of something labeled SGEPS appeared before him. There were quite a few points listed in the document, "Shows increasing intelligence and is becoming increasingly inquisitive of its surroundings." Apparently, their genetic engineering had gone beyond the creatures he had found previously, and it sounded like they had drastically made improvements. "No dermal diffusion," was listed among the creature's list of improvements, as well as "definitive limbs and body structure."

The growl he had heard above him echoed once more, causing him to look upwards again. His curiosity began to grow, what was above him? Was it this SGEPS he was reading about? Is that why this entire facility had been created? The shuffling below him had stopped. Looking over the railing the fog stood completely still as the sound of something moving above him became barely audible. A chill crossed the back of Sid's neck as the feeling of being watched flooded over him. Something had locked its gaze upon him, but for the moment it was clearly just observing. Turning back to the monitor, he exited the file and brought up his loading bar, which was not quite halfway finished. The growling had become more constant, sounding as though it was coming from every angle, and he could hear the slight whine of something large gripping onto metal.

He had a choice to make on which path to follow. There was the path of safety, which meant taking the data he had and calmly walking back down the corridor that had led him there, or he could follow the path of curiosity and work on turning the lights on above him. There was a chance that the SGEPS, if that is what was above him, would not attack when the lights flashed on. The choice was easy, he never took the safe path when it was his life on the line, and his ultimate goal was to dismantle the Society. That meant throwing caution to the wind in situations like this. The file he had read said that the creation was showing intelligence as well as an ability to learn, so maybe, just maybe he would be able to keep it from attacking him, at least right away.

Turning back to the monitor, he could still feel its gaze locked on him, watching his every move. His download had finished so he slowly removed the device and placed it back into his pocket. Changing to the command terminal he typed in "Upper Lights." All around the top of the room dim lights began to heat up, but all the ones on the side behind him were obscured by something very large. As it began to come into view, Sid's amazement overtook him. He had never seen anything like it before, and he had seen more than most.