Facility- Chapter 7
#7 of Facility
The lab looks completely devoid of all life and there's quite a bit of dust on everything. And what's even worse none of the equipment seems to be even plugged in. Not that I could see much in regards to power cords in the main lab anyway. But I can't get any of the equipment seems to be at all responsive. On top of that a lot of the equipment in this lab is completely unfamiliar. So that definitely rules out the notion of potentially using multiple labs to get the experiments to run more quickly. At least in regards to this particular lab. I have no way of knowing what all this lab was designed for so instead I go about seeing if I can find any hidden compartments throughout the room. And true to this place below every bit of equipment there is a hidden little drawer. But in every single one of these there's nothing inside the compartment. So whoever is handling this lab has cleared out everything that could be useful.
A quick cursory look of the other labs that I know of turned out very similar results. In every lab except the one we are using not only is there no power being supplied to the lab but there's no indication of what experiment was designed for them. They've been completely emptied of anything that would have pertained to that particular lab. Emptied of everything except the equipment, of course. I did find one lab that clearly had a space to hold chemicals but this space was empty, even the labels over it to say what went where was scratched off. So that's certainly a bust.
Feeling somewhat despondent I go over to the window to outside and just sit down and watch the rain fall. Just the gravity of the situation washes over me. The fate of this whole facility. It seems almost like some sort of cosmic joke or something. A facility designed to do great things. He wasn't trying to do something evil like take over the world or make a bio-weapon. The guy who got into this situation was merely trying to cure cancer. And what other things were here? What is the fate of all the other scientists? Clearly this is a facility designed for dozens of people, running quite a few different experiments all at once and instead has devolved into a sort of quarantine location. We're trapped here with no way to leave. And all the while some thing is going around making sure that we're fully stocked.
Yes the food in the cafeteria is designed to not go bad that quickly, but food that will last a while is very different from an endless supply of food. Meaning that there must periodically be something that is shipping food to these facilities. On top of that with so many moving parts, so many complicated systems, there would necessitate maintenance. It would be impossible to create equipment this complex with this many intricate parts and steps to work perfectly for all time, meaning there would have to be someone or something that is designed to repair the equipment or make sure it doesn't fall apart. And if it's a machine then there'd have to be something that would have to repair that machine when it breaks down. In any event clearly we aren't the only two people in this facility. We're just the only two that are in this wing that is being set up apart from the rest of the facility as we deal with this serum that's slowly turning me into a sort of dog-like thing. At the very least I can be sure that I won't be slowly turning into a complete animal. For as much as I have transformed myself, I have not noticed any real change in Bob.
I guess my only hope at this point is that I am able to get through everything with my old body intact. I've already lost all my old teeth and have long since bothered to keep track of them. Even though I know I still am far more human than I am dog thing but I don't really feel like I can call myself human anymore. There is nothing about my appearance that would lead anyone to calling me human. I'm not nearly as animalistic as Bob is, but still, there's little to call me human. The only really human like thing I still have are my hands, and thankfully looking at Bob as an example is not something that is going to change.
I half end up dozing off staring at the rain that it takes me a bit to realize that I still haven't heard any sign from Bob in a while and I'm starting to get hungry. Knowing this body does require a higher metabolism than normal I sigh and heave myself off the ground and start walking towards the cafeteria. I stop bothering trying to keep my heel on the ground. It was a noble effort to try and keep myself as close to human as possible, but it's just becoming increasingly difficult for an effect that is serving me less and less good. After all, it's not like my feet really look human at this point anyway. So I let them raise up and walk a little over an inch from the ground.
I'm half surprised to not see Bob in the cafeteria. If I'm hungry from just wandering around, I would have thought Bob would have been starving after having ran himself ragged. But since none of the things are already out I go over to the panel Bob had been messing with to get the food dispensers to come out before. I don't entirely remember what sequence of buttons he had pressed so I look closely at it to see if perhaps I can figure out what I need to press to get the food to come out. And half kick myself for how simply it ends up being. I had thought it was like a code someone had to learn but instead there is a small prompt next to the keypad. From a distance it doesn't look like much as it's probably polarized so that anyone not looking at it directly wouldn't see it as anything but a part of the wall.
Now that in itself seems to be a somewhat silly task to do but given how this whole place seems to operate I'm not at all surprised by that. But with the command prompt screen it's all a very simply process to get the food to come out. Just tell it you want the food and what meal it is. It technically even allows for me to specify day of the week which means theoretically I could have a different lunch each day, though that difference would be really subjective. Since I'm sure no matter what day of the week I'd select I'd still be eating squishy squares of protein and colored goops. The only difference would really be what the squares taste like.
But settling on the notion I go and just let it keep whatever default day it's set at and press the button for the food. There's another thing to notice, we eat off the plates and leave them here, but when we return the plates have all been cleaned and good to go again. Which I guess means there must be some sort of access point either in the kitchen or near it, probably using the distraction caused by us going through and setting up our next experiment to go and take care of things in the kitchen. And then possibly when we're eating or when we're sleeping would be when they go about taking care of other things. Which means there would have to be some sort of camera system in this place.
Once the dispensers have come out I fill up my plate with all the assorted squares and try to build them in such a way that I could try and eat them like a couple of square and goop sandwiches before sitting down. And taking the first bite of one of them I immediately regret that decision. When you don't have any idea to go on for what they are without sampling first there's no way to know that you aren't just stacking things on top of each other that really don't go well to be in your mouth at the same time. And so I stop trying to eat them in that manner and instead go about eating them like normal again while looking around the room to see if I can see any visible cameras. Not that I expect to. For a facility that has gone out of its way to disguise even ordinary objects that pose no reason to have it disguised, having something you do want disguised would be nearly impossible to see from a distance.
Eventually Bob does show up and I guess I have my answer for why it was that he didn't come back over to lunch as quickly as I did. Apparently after his own run he also had gone and taken a shower, though I'm not sure if it's me or not but he does seem to be favoring one of his hands and his eyes look a little redder than normal. When he looks in my direction I give a meek smile and put my hand up onto the top of my head in as disarming a manner as possible and note that when I bring my hand back down none of my original hair came with it. I imagine by this point all of my old hair has probably already fallen out. None of my original teeth remain, none of my original hair. Guess everything about who I was can be considered dead unless I can find the cure I need.
Bob chooses a different table to sit at, making another obvious sign that he's clearly avoiding me and is exceedingly distracted by something or other. Is it regret that he's feeling or is it something else? But can't really do anything about it here. Even if I did confront him it's not like he'd have any way of communicating with me at this point. Though that does bring something else to mind. Theoretically if I keep transforming more and more will my ability to speak start to degrade as well? Will what Bob is saying start making more and more sense as I transform more and more? Though that certainly would be nice to have someone to actually be able to talk to in a more meaningful way than just playing charades or having one sided conversations.
But hopefully I can find the cure to the condition sooner rather than later and be able to go back to being human, even if it would mean having to wear dentures or something the rest of my life. But eventually lunch is finished and I decide to go ahead and decide to walk the halls, seeing if maybe I can find other secrets this place has to store. Just because there is nothing in the labs doesn't mean there aren't other things to be discovered. Hell, it's entirely possible that there are secrets hidden from view in the bedroom and so I decide to check there first.
A really big sign that someone has been running around doing things while we're away presents itself to me immediately. Not only have the beds since been made, but all of the clothes we wore yesterday are already missing from where we put them in the hamper and when I check the dresser they're already fully stocked again with clothes, though grabbing a shirt from my side of the room it does look a bit smaller than I am currently, meaning they know about how far this condition is going to progress and are planning on that information. Though truth be told already these clothes I'm wearing today are feeling a bit big for my body. I've had to tighten the belt on my pants a few times, having lost a few inches over the course of the day already.
But oddly enough even with poking and prodding every part of the room I can't seem to find anything hidden in the bedroom. Nor can I find anything in any of the other rooms that I search, but before I can get to too many of the rooms the long beep sounds, indicating that the experiment's results are done. I walk over to the lab and find Bob just standing outside of it, waiting for me with a dejected look on his face, though again he avoids making any sort of eye contact with me. Finally I decide I've had enough.
"Okay, what?" I demand of him, creating a shocked and somewhat defensive stance from him. "You've been avoiding me all day. What the hell is wrong with you? Is there something I did that happened to offend you?"
Bob starts trying to bark a quick, stammering response before shaking his head and making his way over to the dry erase board. At first he starts writing out the word 'smell' or at least as far as I can tell for he erases it after writing the 'e'. He then forces himself to focus on it, even going so far as to slap himself a few times before writing in a somewhat sloppier than usual handwriting 'hard to think. Thoughts foggy. Can't help.' So somehow my smell is interrupting his ability to think? I guess that sort of makes sense for the distracted expression he's been having all this time. I'm sure the close proximity isn't helping but that does not immediately excuse all this avoiding he is doing.
"Well, distracted or not, you got me into this situation and trying to avoid me isn't going to make my situation any better, so stop it."
His ears fold back and he adopts a somewhat submissive posture. The results are definitely far more promising. Trying to reprogram the serum seems to be much better than trying to get rid of them. Not only does reprogramming them not include any chance of cell degradation but also is just a matter of fine tuning more than anything. The result of the first reprogramming, however, is itself still a failure. It did change what the end result would be. Unfortunately that end result is not human. Taking that particular serum would just turn me into something else other than a dog person and there's no guarantee about whether or not that form will end up being better or worse than what I'm turning into now.