Subject R - ON HOLD

chapter 1

 Chapter 1...

"CECILY!"

Oh jeez... I slowly roll my rolly chair part way out of my cubicle, peeking my head out of it. Grace, my best friend here at the Facility, is running down the aisle of cubicles - wait, scratch that, sprinting - at me, her long hair a flurry of black behind her. Her eyes are wide, a smile spread across her lips, an expression of absolute excitement on her beautiful brown face.

I smile back at her. I knew it, that Charley guy from neuroscience asked her out. Why wouldn't he? Grace is drop dead- tap tap taptaptap THAM "OOF!!" ....impulsive.

Grace had launched herself at me, which had nearly knocked over me and the rolly chair. She sits on my lap (which sounds awkward, but the way Grace is, I've gotten used to it) and nearly shakes me to death. "G-G-Gr-Gra-c-cii-ee-ee!! St-st-o-p-p!!" I stammer. "PP-Pl-Please!! M-My head-d's g-g-gon-n-naaa b-b-bob-bob-bble off!"

"Ohhh Lee!!! Leee!! It happened!!! It happened!!!" She practically screams at me. I can feel everyone in the giant room of cubicles is staring at us, but this happens about every day anyway. No seriously.

"What?" I finally say when I grab her wrists to stop her from grabbing my shirt again. "What happened? Did Char-"

"They finally did it Lee!!! They pulled something living through the portal!!"

The entire room went dead silent. Through the shocked silence, a couple of muted pings! go off, the signal of someone recieving a message, and then voices permeated the quiet. "It's true!" "It's happened!" "They did it!"

And then everyone was running from their cubicles, sprinting down the hallways, yelling and laughing like a bunch of frigging kids on Christmas. It was hard to comprehend. They'd actually done it. Gotten something alive.

The Facility itself is known for its massive scientific discoveries, and is fully capable of doing so with its mass of people, equipment, and money. The discovery its been dying to crack? Dimensional travel. Though, so far, they've only recently (as in like six or so years ago) created a machine capable of even splitting open a wormhole, and the machine can't keep the tear open for more than a few seconds at a time anyways. The objects that have been spit back from whatever dimensions were all simple things like rocks and sticks and dirt. Of course, all each of these things were studied to the most minute degree, but there were few differences.

Our scientists wondered if the world they were splitting into was unhabited, until the hair of an animal was thrown into the chamber with a flashbang (I'd witnessed some portal openings, and that's exactly what it's like. Goggles and earplugs are provided). Everyone went crazy wondering when an animal would be tossed into our world.

That was three years ago.

And now suddenly, they did it. A living animal, alive had been passed through the portal. There was always debate on whether it would kill or injure anything alive that came through the opening. Some people feared we'd only get half of something if it wasn't sucked through the portal before it snapped back shut. Now that's a nasty thought.

Grace and I sprinted down the halls with the rest of the torrent of people, still stunned but excited now. When we reached room 384, which houses the machine that opens portals, (can't remember the name...) we all piled in. From all of the chatter around me, I learned that the actual event had happened over half an hour ago! Well what the hell!! We missed it all pretty much!

Grace and I muscled our way as best as we could to the front, closer and closer to the large containment chamber in the middle of the room. It was elevated, about two feet above everyone's heads, and covered with a white sheet.

Grace gripped my arm as I stared at the sheet, wondering what in the hell could be under it. "Ohhh my gosh Lee, I'm so scared! What if it's some ugly monster thing?"

I pat her hand, and noted that my own hand is shaking. "I know, Gracie, I know!"

Dr. Wenton,the man in charge of the whole Dimensional splitting stuff, stepped up on a chair in the front of the room, about shoulder level with the container. He placed his hand on the white sheet, as if he had to reassure himself that it was really there. He cleared his throat into the small microphone that he held a couple of times, and then said, "Well everybody, we did it!"

Everyone cheered, and there were a couple of 'Yeah! Go Geoffry!'s heard, cheering on Dr. Wenton.

Dr. Wenton cleared his throat into the small mircophone he had clenched in his hands. "Now, trust me everybody, he's a shocker. None of us were prepared for this...at all." His gaze returned to the sheathed container, a shocked smiled on his face.

"Now, I want you to all please, please," His voice became pleading as he stared the probably 100 something of us in the room, many others out in the hall way, "handle this in a calm, and professional manner. He isn't what any of us expected...and not what any of you will expect." He took his knuckles and wrapped them on the hard surface beneath sheet twice. "He can't get through this, and he can't hear anything in there either. But he can see you...so, again, please, try not to move around or get too crazy. We're not sure, how he'll...react to so many of you." He took a deep breath. "And also, everyone, he is the first living organism we have ever gotten through the Dimensional Splitter...so...we really don't want to loose him..."

We all were quiet, listening. I understood. He didn't want the thing ('him'!) to be so frightened he'd die. Heck, a dead oraganism from any other dimension would be worth billions to study, but a live one? In a scientist's mind: priceless.

I could see Dr. Wenton motion behind him, to the people running the gizmo that held the container above ground. There was a faint click, and then a whirrr as the cable hooked onto the top of the sheet began to recede back up into the ceiling. Excited murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Gracie squeezed my arm and I was so in tune to watching the cable lifted the damn sheet inch by fricking inch that I didn't even flinch.

The whiiring suddenly stopped, right before the edge of the bottom of the container showed, and we groaned. OK, NUH UH!! YOU CRAZY SON OF A--

 Dr. Wenton smiled at us, almost nervously, and then there was another click and a whoosh as the sheet was whipped out of our line of sight.

"Subject R," Dr. Wenton declared, his voice as reverent as if he was talking about his first born child.

My breath caught in the back of my throat, my eyes wide.The room was utterly silent, void of even breath because everyone was holding it.

It was a boy. A man, actually, staring back out as us, his expression more or less just as stunned. He was crouched on the far left side of the container, one hand pressed to the glass beside him. His hair was like fire on his head, the brightest hue of red I've ever seen on a person.

The man's face was strong-boned, full-lipped. He didn't move at all, like he was holding his breath too. His gaze swept over the sea of faces below him, and grazed past me and then went back. I gasped.

His eyes. So blue, so bright. The color of an iceberg. And then I was terrified. My brain couldn't understand the sudden feeling, couldn't even stop what my body did at the sudden onslaught of emotion that wasn't mine.

I screamed. The ground swirled up into my vision and then everything went black.

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