Extraction

Hour Twenty One

    Walking into the office, the lights were a bright, soothing white-yellow. The scent was cleaner than most places in this facility, regardless there was still a musk that loomed within the air. I looked down towards the sleek linoleum floors as bloody footsteps littered my path. I looked down at my hands to see the ware they've endured over the past twenty or so hours. I lost two fingers on my left hand, and a hole gaped on my right hand. I felt liquid running down my neck and back, more blood than sweat. At this point, I should've passed out from blood loss, but whatever is within me is keeping me alive. "Give yourself to me", the voice resonated through my thoughts again as a burning sensation began rising in my right arm. I clenched my teeth and looked at my forearm as a large mass of black substance was slowly being pulled through my bulging veins. With all the debris floating through my blood system, I should've already died of clogged veins and arteries, but never the less I am still walking.

    I pushed down on the clogged vein in an attempt to break up the mass trudging through my blood system. As soon as I began pressing I felt pure ecstasy. My body went numb and felt as if a warm velvet blanket covered my body, dopamine rushed through my system as my eyes rolled back and I felt as if I were floating. I could only describe this feeling as truly, physically and spiritually orgasmic. My wounds produced ticklish feelings of joy as my breathing stuttered and I swayed from side to side on my broken ankle, which too produced a heavenly feeling. "I can give you this for all of eternity, I will be your merciful god", the voice spoke in a soft tone as my body vibrated with pleasures beyond comprehension. "Or, I can give you what you want", she whispered as I collapsed to the ground feeling fire spread throughout my body. I began to scream, feeling the polar opposite of what I just experienced. Feeling pain come from everywhere in my body, absolute suffering. My guys churned with pain, my teeth clenched as if they were falling out, and my eyes felt like they were about to split open and ooze the viscous fluid that filled them. After a small eternity of pain, it ceased as I laid on the cool floor running my hands across it. The feeling of pain I felt before was minuscule compared to what I had just felt. I didn't know how I am supposed to escape from this place if whatever controls my senses can effect me in such a way.

    "Have you made your decision?", the voice asked as I slowly picked myself off of the ground. I wasn't able to bear the psychological torment this thing was inflicting on me. "As soon as I find you I'll give myself over", I replied stumbling around the office looking for the principal investigator's office to get some information on how destroy this thing. "What are you?", I asked aloud hoping the voice would respond. A few seconds later I heard it reply, "I am the first, the epicenter, Prometheus, the new god." I limped foreword, thinking of what they meant by their wording. They had to have been the first patient of the successful concoction, but I needed to know whether they are a collective or separate minds. I lumbered through the office looking at each cubical and seeing personalized stalls as I passed by cat calendars, family photos, and coffee mugs. One of the strangest parts is the lack of corruption, despite being one of the most crowded places in a research facility, it was rather bare. I saw a doorway at the back right of the large room, so I turned right down another row of cubicles and peered into each one as I passed. I stopped when one of the small offices caught my eye. A large, roughly one foot, square framed picture of a man and his family hung there. I grabbed ahold of the picture and lifted it off of the wall and held it in my hands. "This could have been us", I said as a sinking pain pulled on my heart realizing I would never be able to have a family. No kids, no wife, no simple life, and no suburban house to sleep in. I was going to waste away to some doomsday infection during the prime of my life.

    There are no happily ever afters, no end of the game victories, we all die we either have a smile on our face or fear in our heart. If this corruption practices what it preaches, my consciousness can be transferred to a nearly invincible form. I wish I could've talked to Carr before I was thrown down the shaft, he would've been able to tell me. Hell, he was already half way into transforming. Although judging how he threw me down the shaft rather than forcing me into the corrosion, it's most likely not a good experience. I turned back around with the picture in my hands. I stared at it as walked. Smiling I said out loud, "you sorry son of a bitch. You really shit the bed on this one." I shook my head and threw the portrait behind me hearing it hit the ground. I neared the doorway to the principal investigator's office. It was a large set of metal doors with a desk beside it. I observed the hand scanner that locked the doors and pulled out the severed hand from my belt. I rubbed it against my shirt creating friction to warm the hand. I spread the fingers and laid it upon the scanner and I heard the doors hiss as they began to slide open, revealing a decontamination chamber. I stepped in as a beeping began. I didn't know what to expect from this, but I braced myself in case it senses the corrosion within me. I covered my left knuckle with my right hand so my wounds of my severed fingers weren't exposed.