Project 196

June 10, 2002

“Sir.” A small clear voice said from the doorway. Sir looked up from his papers and at the doorway. Standing there was his new assistant Melanie. She was a spunky little thing and carried out orders to the max.

“Yes Melanie?” said Sir his deep, husky voice reverberating off of the bare, empty walls.

“Wells there’s been a problem, Sir.” She said tapping her heels on the hardwood floor, nervously looking at the floor.

“With which project?” he said looking at her dead on now. It can’t be one of the important projects, he thought, that would just ruin everything especially now that we have a strict time frame.

“196.” She said quietly knowing that this would make him angry and boy you do not want an angry Sir. So much as look at him the wrong way and he’s angry, bang, there goes your job.

“No!” he said furiously. “How…Why…What?” he screamed. This cannot be happening. Just yesterday he had spoken to Dr. Petrel and everything was fine.

“Subjects 1 2 and 3 have perished.” Melanie said quietly.

“Why did they die, just yesterday when I saw them they looked perfectly healthy.” Sir said fuming.

“They were too far away in DNA for the serum to work.” She said tapping her foot on the hardwood floor. “Oh, Sir Dr. Petrel requests your presence in lab 15. He has revived the project only with different subjects; he would like you to see his progress.” Sir stood up from his desk muttering words underneath his breath and walked along with her. They strolled down the hallway in a comfortable silence.

The Melanie stopped abruptly at a silver water fountain, causing Sir to bump into her.

“Err…sorry.” He said gruffly under his breath, for he wasn’t very good at apologies. Either she didn’t hear him or she just ignored him, but either way she continued fiddling with the button on the water fountain. Soon a small click resounded softly throughout the empty hallway. Melanie pushed against the fountain and the whole wall turned 90 degrees revealing a stairway. She strolled down the stairs with Sir following close behind. The door closed promptly and they were submerged in darkness for a moment. Soon the lights came on and Sir breathed out a sigh of relief, you see Sir wasn’t afraid of the dark he just preferred the light a lot more. Melanie once again stopped and keyed in another code which opened another door. Two bright, yellow hazmat suits fell down on top of them.

“Here put this on.” Melanie said tossing him one. She easily slid hers on over her clothes not hesitating at all, while Sir looked at his detestably.

“Have these been cleaned at all?” he asked holding it out at an arm’s length. Not only did Sir have anger management problems he was also a bit of a germaphobe.

“Yes, Sir. Daily washed, pressed, and dried.” Melanie told him impatiently. Sir slowly slid his foot in the leg and began to pull it over the rest of his body. Melanie handed him the head part and they walked through the second door which lead to the labs. Each door was a bright, sterile white with black numbers on them. Some even had clear glass windows, so you could see the subjects without going inside. For instance in lab 4 there was a little girl that kept turning invisible making it impossible for Dr. Strum to catch her.

“Keep trying Dr. Strum!” Sir yelled to him as they walked by.

 Each lab was pretty much the same except for number 15. Number 15 was the largest one of all, about double the size of a normal lab. There were three 10 foot tall glass cylinders which were filled with water and two of the three subjects were in their tanks. Dr. Petrel had the third on the table and was injecting something into her arm. As Sir watched the third girl fascinatedly, Melanie slid her keycard into the card reader and the door swung open. Sir tore his eyes away from the girl long enough to enter the lab. Dr. Petrel turned to them happily.