Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

The Steel Eye Files 1

The group didn't speak as the woman turned and led them inside leaving the two infantrymen, thankfully in the pop-up garage.

Inside, the facility smelled, the air thick with the scent of bleach barely managing to conceal and undertone of body fluid, and the coppery tang of blood.

What the mock medical facility had in smell in lacked in lighting. The usual bright luminescent light and tiled white floors associated with medical facilities were noticeably absent. The lights overhead were a dim, grimy yellow, and the grey metal of the temporary pop up shelter did nothing to diffuse the light. The floor was stained with ash, and as they walked down the hall, it was hard to block out the distant sound of weeping.

When that faded it was only to be replaced by the sound of plaintive pleading.

The ground transport grunt glanced around with a look of unease so profound he seemed ready to bolt back down the hallway and out the door. He glanced over to his superior and the nurse for confirmation of his unease, but to his dismay, the two appeared unphased by the atmosphere.

His unease blossomed inside him like one of the Anum Corpse Flowers, morphing from mild discomfort to barely controlled panic.

Something about this was very wrong.

He knew it on a primal level.

It could have been the lighting, interacting with the animal side of his brain telling him that this location was not safe. It could have been the underlying smell of rot that floated, ever present as an underlying current on air that SHOULD have been clean.

Or any number of other things.

All he knew is he desperately wanted out.

A short hallway came to an end just in front of them, and two orderlies stepped from the second door of a small DECOM unit. They flicked water from the tips of their fingers which were glistening with moisture up to the elbows, the front of their scrubs was stained with.... Unknown fluids, some of it blood.... Maybe.

The grunt stopped just shy of the door and the Admiral turned to look at him, his grey blue eyes flashing cold like ice I the yellow light.

"Sorry sir, my authorization doesn't allow me past this point." He lied

The man looked him over critically, "Authorization granted."

The man stammered, but a glare from the admiral shut him up, and he stepped into the DECOM chamber with the rest of them.

Warm moist air rolled around them as the DECOM spray was filtered into the unit, once done he heard the door lock click and open into a large white room.

Despite their attempts to make this room look more sterile, and like an actual hospital than the rest of the facility, they missed the mark by miles. The white tiled floor and walls, instead of conjuring up images of hospital suits and operating rooms, gave more the appearance of a gas station bathroom, impeded primarily by the dim yellow lighting, and the medical orderly using a hose to wash....

Fluid

Off the tile and down one of the drains.

He turned away stomach bubbling.

He placed a hand over his mouth thinking he was going to be sick.

The orderly gave him a scathing look, daring him to be sick on the floor he was already cleaning. He had to swallow the bile back down, but he managed not to vomit.

And that wasn't even the worst part

The worst part were the people that inhabited this room.

There were at least forty of them, maybe more, stripped down to naked skin and robotic parts displayed openly around the room like the world's most grotesque hanging decorations, their only privacy being what little was afforded by the metal exoskeletons that held them in place. Metal clamps on the back, shoulders arms hips and ankles held them hanging, upright against the walls.