Project I.R.I.S.

Chapter Six: Remember

Closing his eyes, Jack could almost see the yellow light flashing in from a distant memory. The blaring sound of the alarm triggered an anxious feeling within him. Forcing himself to open his eyes, he strained to hear the doctor's voice over the recording ask frantically. "What just happened? What's that alarm?" Jack's own voice from the recording came out strained and a bit strangled when he answered. "I don't know..." However, the doctor wasn't talking to him. Dr. Josephia groaned like he was groggy and in pain, before answering absently. "Doctor, there has been a disconnection in Quarantine Lab 15. What did you do?" Doctor Alexander's voice dismissed his question by simply retorting. "Find out what's going on!" Getting up from the chair, Jack moved to stand behind it. His fingers gripping the metal in a death grip as his own voice on the tape uttered aloud. "Oh...no. Is this creature reacting to what I'm doing right now? Stop. I can't do this anymore! Let me out, guys!"

His voice on the recording let out a pained groan, before droning off into a wheezy distorted voice again. "The locks of the container make a loud clanking sound. Followed by a loud hiss as fresh air brakes the seal. This sets off alarms, echoing loudly along the corridors outside where I'm kept. I scream in pain as the rush of static electricity fills my veins. For too long I have felt disconnected from the world. Too long have I felt drained and starved. I welcome the static energy I feel in the air. I drink it in like fresh water to a dehydrated man. It's time to leave this horrible place. Thank you... Jack. I'm coming for you." Dr. Josephia's voice suddenly blurted out over the blaring alarm of the recording. "Doctor, specimen 1-14-20-09 has left Lab 15. It's on the move!" Dr. Alexander's voice quivered now when he stated aloud in a panic over the comms. "My god. It's not a memory; it's happening right now! How is that possible?! How did it...? Mr. McLoughlin, I need you to stop what you are doing. Please!"

Jack felt his hands start to shake on the back of the chair as flashes of hospital double doors appeared with a red light illuminated in them. Along with bits of a crashed car against a tree as snow fell in the night. The flashing of eerie blue and red lights mixing and blurring it all to a blinding white light. He was brought back out of his thoughts as his own voice snapped over the recording in a startled panic. "Jesus Christ! What is this place?! What did you make me do?! What's happening?! What have you done to him?!" Jack's voice over the recording suddenly shook as something entered the room, prompting him to say wearily. "Oh my god... You're here... You're... real. How?" The door closed heavy and the locks bolting the door, before a distorted voice sneered out. "It's all your fault. You can't get rid of me! You could have stopped them... but you just watched as this happened!" Jack's strangled voice whimpered out, barely audible over the recorder and alarm. "Don't kill me... I helped... I'll help you."

There was sudden rapid typing of computer keys, when Dr. Alexander belted out frantically. "What is that? We haven't seen that before. What is it doing?" Dr. Josephia began to type just as quickly, while informing the doctor in a breathless voice. "It's accessing the tablet we recovered in quarantine Lab 1. It's in our systems! It's using Jack to send something across our network. It's... broadcasting." Dr. Alexander huffed out sharply. "Broadcasting what? Record it! Contain this!" Dr. Alexander then rushed out over the comms. "Mr. McLoughlin, please! We deeply regret what we have put you through, but please understand it was the greater good. We had to know more. Rebelling now could catastrophic! You don't know what this might do to you in the long run." Goosebumps shot down Jack's arms, a distorted chuckle rippled over the recording before Dr. Josephia stopped typing and uttered aloud in disbelief. "They are all free... The timelines are converging... It's... It's over."

Dr. Alexander's voice told the other doctor to shut up, before rushing out in a hopeful tone. "There is still time! Mr. McLoughlin! Please... Don't do this. We mean you... We mean them... no harm. Please don't do something you'll regret." For a moment only the sound of the blaring alarm could be heard. Then a glass shattered over the recorder, prompting Jack to jump away from the recorder. The metal chair he'd been gripping, clattered to the ground as Dr. Aleander suddenly screamed out. "No! WAIT! You don't understand! We were only trying to-" The doctor was cut off as sickening squelching sounds filled the recorder, followed by another doctors screams. Then the alarm stopped blaring and for a moment there was silence, until the soft scuffling of something touched the mic. Within the eerie silence, Dr. Alexander's strained and gasping breaths weakly uttered into the mic accusingly. "One day, Mr. McLoughlin. This will haunt you... It's all your fault that Anti is free. He will find them. He will replace you..."