An Average Day at Laminax

Chapter 17

I awoke in a dark van, my hands tied and an electric collar around my neck. We were driving somewhere... I looked around for a window, but there was none. Two security guards were in the back, glocks visibly hanging from their belts. Eventually, the van came to a stop, and the back doors were opened by the guards. I was practically pushed out by a guard, and could hear him say "C'mon, kitty, hurry up", causing the other security guard to laugh. It was still nighttime and judging by the outline of the mountain in the distance, I assumed that we were still in Albuquerque. We were parked in what looked to be an airports airfield, in a small part of it. Planes landed and took off as we walked towards a small jet plane. We was forced on board, along with two security guards. As I looked around the relatively small plane, I could feel the prick of a needle in my neck again, and I blacked out.

I was awoken by the bumping of a car running over a speedbump. I was in the back of a black van again, along with two security guards, tough their uniforms were significantly different to the American ones, and they appeared to not be carrying weapons. One even smiled at me. Where was I? "Sorry about the early wake there." One guard said. I nodded but didn't say anything. The van continued its journey, until if finally came to a stop. I could hear the distinct conversation between the person driving the van and the person at the gate. The van continued again, and then finally came to a stop. Soon enough, the vans back doors were opened by the van driver, and I was escorted out of the van by the two guards. I stepped out and looked at the environment around me. In front of me was a wide, grey and white building. There was a large parking lot to either side of the laboratory, and in the middle was a small circle of grass and flowers. In the grass circle was two flagpoles. One flying the Canadian flag, and the other flying what I assumed to be a Canadian state flag. Next to the parking lots on the ground were multi story parking lots as well, bigger than the one in Houston, and there were multiple of them. In the distance were towering, jagged snow-capped mountains, and surrounding the laboratory were snow-capped trees, a forest. "W-Where am I?" I asked one of the guards. "Calgary, Alberta. Welcome to Canada." He replied. Alberta? Wow. Why am I here, though? Why couldn't they just kill me? I thought to myself. A man soon walked out of the building, dressed in dark winter clothes. His hair was black and greying in some parts, and he also had a black goatee. He had pale white skin and greyish-blue eyes. He offered his glove covered hand out to me, and said "Richard Lessard, Administrator of the Calgary branch. So glad to have you here." I shook his hand, and he told me to follow him. I walked inside the building and was immediately shocked at how vastly different the Canadian branches were to the American ones. Instead of a small room with a desk to one side and some chairs to the other side, it was a large area, a hall almost. It was almost like an airport, and there were multiple receptionists desks.

Workers in different uniforms walked up and down the hall, most not taking notice of me. Those who did notice me either said hello, waved or smiled at me. The whole place had a very friendly vibe to it, and I liked it. However, I still had several questions. "How did I get here?" I asked Example as we walked down the hall, towards a very large set of escalators that led downwards. "Well, I'm not exactly sure, I wasn't given much information, but I think I could still explain it to you. After you were captured in Albuquerque, you were taken to Albuquerque International Airport, where you were then flown to Los Angeles International Airport, where you got on another private plane to Calgary, all while you were... unconscious, I was informed?" I nodded my head. "Yes. The reason that why you are here, is because we are glad to take in anyone who had been infected and still retained their human mindset. That's why most of them are taken here. The conditions are much more favourable than that of the branches in America. Anyway, some of them still get contained in the American branches. Now, this place is a safe haven for you. We hold the unofficial award of 'Friendliest Canadian Laminax branch', with our friends at the Vancouver branch taking second place." Example began to talk more about the laboratories history, work, achievements and other things as we made our way underground. "Since our laboratory is an hour drive away from Calgary, we give our workers a choice: either continue to drive from and to work for an hour, or live here within our many dormitories within here. As you can imagine, many workers choose to stay in the dormitories. It is cleaned very often and has facilities to meet the needs of everyone. It contains my personnel facilities as well, such as laundromats, small recreation and sports areas both outside and inside, lounge areas, break rooms, a library, food courts, cafeterias and numerous vending machines scattered across the laboratory." He talked some more, and we walked down the very clean and well maintained halls. "We are also proud to say that we have one of the highest amounts of ethnic workers here, with Toronto and Vancouver taking the top spots. Let's see, we have plenty of European workers, some Americans here... we've got some Lebanese, Syrians, a couple of Sudanese engineers, some Filipino and Indian medical workers and researchers, plenty of Chinese workers, Israeli scientists and mechanics, Turkish workers, a few Thai workers underground, a few Sri Lankans, the list goes on, and on...anyway, I'm sure you know what I mean."