Go For Stories

A groan escaped Nigel’s lips as his brain limped back into consciousness. His head felt ready to burst and his tongue rolled in his dry mouth like a worm in the hot sun, looking for even a drop of moisture to keep it alive. He flopped a hand up to his temple; partly to soothe his aching brain and partly to block out the light from his tortured eyes.

What’s going on? He thought. Where am I?

He recalled getting out of bed this morning. He recalled thinking that it would be a good day, an easy day. He smiled at that thought. Then he recalled…

“Oh, shit!” His eyes snapped open and he threw his arms in the air to defend himself against the creatures come to tear him to pieces. “Get off,” he shouted. “Get off.”

He flailed his arms, thrashing from side to side, beating at the air. His hands were a wild blur as his eyes came into focus and he saw where he was.
His office. His actual office. Alone. The light in his eyes was crisp and white, powered by a fully functional nuclear reactor, reflecting off clean, white walls and smooth desks. The floor beneath him was carpeted and soft, not mushy with mould and dank evil. He dropped his hands and breathed in the fresh air, filtered and cycled through the air vents.

“Thank god.” His relief was so thorough and overwhelming that he almost passed out again. “Thank god.”

He sat on the floor, shaking and trying to get his nerves under control. He wiped cold sweat from his brow and pushed himself off the floor. As he did, he noticed the torn sleeve and lines of blood across his arm.

“Nige,” Levi called to him through the door. “Nige, what’s going on in there?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I’m fine.”

“Can I …” Levi’s voice was hesitant, “can I come in?”

Nigel rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands and smoothed down his clothes, grabbing a spare jacket from the back of his chair and throwing it on over his ripped shirt.

“Sure.”

Levi opened the door and poked his head in.

“Everything decent?” he asked, unable to keep the concern from his voice.

“If you have to ask that,” Nigel said with a croaky voice, “then you don’t know me at all.”

Levi laughed and stepped into the office. He looked around as a parent does when stepping into their teenager’s bedroom. His eyes checked every visible surface for signs of misdeeds or evidence of god-knows-what.

“You want to check my computer for porn while you’re at it?” asked Nigel.

“What?” Levi’s head snapped towards Nigel. “Shit, sorry. I was just … what was all that racket earlier?”

Nigel shrugged. “I was coughing, choking on something.”

He brushed a hand through his matted hair, hoping he didn’t look as awful as he felt. Levi narrowed his eyes and stared at Nigel, assessing whether or not he was telling the truth. Unfortunately for Nigel, Levi was incredibly good at interrogation. He could spot a liar a mile away. Through Fog. On a moonless night.

Nigel sighed. “I was just having a rest. Still trying to clear my head about what’s going on. Must’ve dozed off and had a dream or something.”

Levi nodded his head. He seemed satisfied with Nigel’s ‘honesty’.

“At least you got some sleep then. I was worried about you when you didn’t come back yesterday. I figured you must’ve gone for a walk to think or something. Thought I’d give you some space, but when I heard you shouting … Still annoyed you didn’t check in with me, though.” He pointed a finger at Nigel and gave him a stern look. Nigel gave an apologetic frown. “Anyway, there’s a memorial for Doctor Peterson at one. I’m heading down to the plaza now to make sure everything’s going alright. You coming?”

“What?” Nigel did his best to hide his surprise that he had been gone overnight. He must’ve stayed passed out on the floor for hours. He glanced at the clock display on the window to see that it was almost noon. He didn’t feel like he’d rested, let alone slept for an entire night and half the next day.

“Will you be at the memorial?”

Nigel shook his head. “I’ve got too much to do. I still haven’t had a chance to look through the security footage from the lab.”

“Figured you wouldn’t,” said Levi, “so a few of us had a scan over the files. Nothing stood out. No suspicious looking characters or weird objects went in over the course of the day before.”

“All the same, I’d like to go over them as well. Maybe go a bit further back even.”

“Look, it’s up to you, Nige, but I reckon it’d be good if you were seen at the memorial. I know it doesn’t feel like the most important job here sometimes, but people trust you. It’d be good to see that you care about the staff here. I gotta go.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later. If I feel up to it, I’ll pop in.”

“If you do,” Levi pulled a face, “make sure you have a shower first.”

“What?”

Levi waved a hand through the air. “It’s ripe in here. Wash up. Or at least light a candle.”

Nigel frowned and lifted an arm to smell his armpit. The smell sent him reeling, but it wasn’t the smell of a sweaty man. This was the smell of decay. He nodded at Levi, who was already on his way out the door. Nigel didn’t blame him; he wished he could shut himself away from the smell too.

* * *

He sat at the window, furiously devouring the security footage from outside the lab that was projected onto the glass. He watched it from every available angle over and over and over. Nothing new stood out each time. Nobody suspicious came or went. He sipped at his first fresh coffee in days and ran his hand through his damp, clean hair. He felt a little better now that he was clean, but there were still the events of the day before looming over him. It had become difficult to sort out the real from the unreal and his head still swam as he recalled his trip into the other world. Maybe he had actually snapped. Maybe the stress and the isolation from the outside world had finally gotten to him.

He reached up and swiped his arm through the air, minimising the images on the window and allowing the light to filter back into the office. Leaning forward, he stared down the two dozen levels to the plaza on the bottom floor. As the main social meeting place, the plaza took up the entire level, no balconies or yawning chasms to break up the space. The dining tables had all been moved to the side and rows of seating had been faced towards the removable dais that had been set up. From so high, Nigel could see no individual faces, but he could see the crowd gathering far beneath him. He had a moment of doubt; perhaps he should have gone to the memorial. It didn’t last long. With the way he felt, he would surely make a fool of himself if he did make his way down.

He shook his head and dragged both arms through the air before him, bringing up the projection once more. The blurred faces and hurried strides of time-lapsed images returned. Again, he saw Allen appear at the door the afternoon before the fatal accident. The first time he saw it, he thought it odd, but people were known to pull all-nighters when on the cusp of a great discovery. Assuming Allen was murdered, it was likely due to his research. Allen had never rubbed anyone the wrong way in his life, which explained the turn-out at the memorial.

Nigel reached the part of the footage where the camera shook, heralding the explosion, and rewound it to the start of the previous day again. He slouched back in his chair, letting his mind grow quiet. It was numb to the various movements and flickering bodies and he gave up trying to find anything suspicious. To entertain himself, he slowed the footage and tried to see if he could recognise people from the way they walked, or the way they turned their head. It surprised him how easy he found it, recalling their names as he recognised their gait. Various scientists came and went, Milly made an appearance before heading out again, Allen entered and more staff left, including Doctor Reynolds, looking pleased with another successful day, no doubt. Not too long before the end of the afternoon shift, a tall man entered, wearing a light grey suit and dark tie. While he seemed familiar, it wasn’t until now that Nigel recalled his name. He slammed his hand down on the keyboard, pausing the image.

Mr Anthony Murchison!

This was the owner of the building. The man with the money that made it all possible. Nigel gazed at the man’s wide eyes and pale skin. While he hadn’t even seen him in person, Nigel had seen enough photos of him around to have automatically filtered out any unfamiliarity towards his image. Mr Murchison was not meant to be in the lab. He had a corporation to run up-top. There was no way he had been down here the entire time without being seen. What could he possibly be doing here? How did he even get down here? The lab was effectively shut off from the world on a time-lock system.

Nigel leaned close to the glass and watched the footage at normal speed. Anthony Murchison was only in the lab for five minutes before he stepped out. There was no hint of suspicious doings or guilt on his face as he closed the door casually behind him and walked away without looking back. He moved to the doors of the outer lab and stepped out into the atrium. Not one person looked his way as he strolled around a corner and disappeared from view.

Nigel shut off the recording. Mr Murchison’s presence could mean only one thing: they were close. Whatever they were looking for down here, they had either found it, or they were not far away. He wondered if Mr Murchison would dare to show his face at the memorial. Standing, Nigel leaned his hands on the desk to peer down at the crowd. Someone stood at the podium talking. He tapped the glass twice and his vision blurred for a moment before the image enlarged on the glass before him. Milly stood before the crowd, holding a tissue in one hand and a fellow scientist’s hand in the other. Whatever she was saying, it was heartfelt and a tear ran down her face. Levi stood, not too far away, watching over the crowd with hands clasped in front of him and a serious expression on his face.

A shadow moved over Milly, but she didn’t notice. Neither did anyone else. Nigel looked around for the source of the darkness. There was nothing. Passing it off as a trick of the light, Nigel looked over the crowd, seeing if he could find the boss man. As he did, another shadow passed over the podium. Again there was nothing to cause it, but it had Nigel’s attention. He focussed on the area around Milly and the podium. Movement behind Milly caught his eye. He leaned further forward and tapped the screen again, zooming in once more.

Close-up to the dais now, Nigel could see it looming in the background. Another creature like the spook he had met last night hung off the underside of the floor above, creeping towards the crowd like an insect. This one wasn’t quite as human-like as the one he had already met, it had a long, scorpion-like tail and dark, ragged wings. Its gaze focussed on only one person; Milly.

Nigel didn’t miss a beat. He scooped up his taser and sprinted for the exit. Within a matter of seconds, he was in the elevator dropping to the plaza level. He squeezed and released the grip of his weapon as he waited for the lift to open. He practically fell out at it stopped and opened the doors. He blazed down the hall and screamed as he surged into the crowd.

“GET DOWN! EVERYBODY!”

Hundreds of pairs of eyes turned his way, but everybody stayed where they were. The only real motion came from the beast, as it tensed at the sound of his voice. Hunkering into the ceiling.

“GET DOWN,” Nigel shouted again.

At this command, everybody finally reacted. They squatted as far as they could and some lay down on their bellies, covering their heads with their hands. Levi and the scattered security personnel stayed on their feet and drew their tasers, looking around for the threat. Nigel ran towards the podium, halting as he neared the bottom step.

Levi stepped forward.

“Nigel? What is-”

“DON’T MOVE,” Nigel yelled as the beast dropped to the floor behind Milly. He fired a shot at it, missing it by less than an inch. It froze as another set of taser-probes clicked into place in Nigel’s hand.

Levi grabbed Nigel by the arm.

“Nigel, what the hell? Stop it.”

“Can’t you see it?” Nigel flung out his free hand in the direction of the hell-beast. “Can’t you see it?”

Levi kept his suspicious eyes on his friend. “See what? There’s nothing there.”

“Right there, Levi. It’s right fucking there. I SAID, DON’T MOVE.” He wrenched his arm free of Levi’s grip and fired another shot, barely missing Milly’s crouched form, who screamed and fell to the floor. The creature reared and unfurled its great wings. Sharp talons extended out of the ends of the leathery folds and venom dripped from the end of its tail, now poised over Milly’s defenceless back.
Nigel made to shoot again and Levi punched him in the jaw.

His brain rattled in his skull and he dropped the taser. He rounded on Levi.

“You fucking moron. You’ll get her killed.” He scrambled to retrieve his taser.

“No!” Levi grabbed Nigel from behind and held him tight, curling an arm under his shoulder and up behind his head. “You need to check yourself right now. There is nothing there. You’re embarrassing yourself.” Nigel saw two more of his team move in to flank him and struggled to free himself. “Calm down, Nige. Whatever you think you see, you don’t.”

He stomped on Levi’s foot and twisted out of his arms, rolling to the side and collecting his taser. One of his team, Anne, kicked it from his grip. The creature was almost on top of Milly. Its claws extended, reaching for the back of her head. Drool slid down its chin and it bared endless rows of razor- sharp teeth. Nigel lashed out at Anne with one hand, his other was grabbed by someone unseen.

“No, it’ll kill her,” he pleaded. “It’ll kill us all.”

He thrashed his free fist around, connecting with someone, somewhere. He hardly registered anybody around him now. All he knew was that he had to save Milly. The creature’s tail curled over its back and between its wings, tracing a line from Milly’s head and down her spine, looking for the sweet spot that would end her quick.

Nigel kicked and lunged, freeing himself and dropping to the ground.

“Nigel, NO!” Levi shouted as Nigel grabbed his taser and fired blind over the crowd.

He didn’t get to see where it hit before he was stung in the back and lost control over his body. He spasmed and bucked as electricity coursed through him. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the disappointment on Levi’s face, leaning over Nigel with his own taser in hand. It didn’t matter now, they were all dead anyway.