Factory Reset

Chapter Five: Reworked, Clockwork

The stark white hydraulic door opened with a sharp hiss, stinging Nathans sensitive ears. He tightened his grip on the gurney, pushing it through the doors. He flinched as the heavy doors slammed shut once more, and Nathan sighed in relief.

He got more relaxed as he walked away from the testing chamber, sliding his keycard against the reader chip to access the elevator to the morgue level. He was one of the few with a medics card, and as such, he had access to the med bay and the morgue.

He pushed the body into the elevator with him, pushing on the grey button to send both of them further down. The body hadn't started to decay yet, but it would quickly. If anything, Nathan was surprised it hadn't, knowing how dead organic matter was affected by the creature.

It had been a few days since he had been called into the Hack-0s testing room, and he was getting anxious. Did something happen? Did they, somehow, know about how he felt about the experiments, and more soundly, how much he liked the creature?

He held no one in The Foundation particularly close besides the Morgue technician, whom he was going down to see and never left the area, so nobody should know about how he felt. But then, why else wasn't he important to be signed on? He was one of the few that Hack-0 voluntarily let touch him.

The elevator chimed once it reached the morgues ground level, where the incinerator, and mincer, were located. The air down there was musty, dust seemingly coated every surface. Nathan plugged his nose and he pushed the body down the dark hallway.

The morgue, at least on the ground level, looked like a complete horror show. The hallway was darkly lit, perfect for moths like Doctor Condraki, but not necessarily good for most others venturing into the belly of the beast.

The ground was constantly coated in a fine layer of dust, courtesy of the resident doctor and morgue technician . It was cold to the touch, being mostly made out of concrete and metal. The walls were mostly made of glass, allowing people to peer into the separate rooms and watch dissections if they wish.

The once mildly annoying sound of the wheels of the gurney clacking against one another soon turned moderately creepy, resounding against the glass walls and making them beat along with every step he took. Needless to say, Nathan did not like it down there very much.

He soon approached the main dissection and autopsy room. The door was also coated in a fine layer of dust, the white now a dull grey. He put his hand on the doorknob, easing it open and hoping to God that Condraki was doing something that would scar him. Not like he wasn't already scarred, but that's besides the point.

He swiped his crimson keycard against the scanner to the office door. Doctor Condraki was too paranoid about anyone he didn't know, or anything he didn't know, getting into his area, so he asked the resident O-5 member for the keycard, which was granted.

The door slid open with a harsh hiss, a sold three five inches of reinforced door perfectly and seamlessly sliding into the wall. Nathan tugged at the body, pushing the gurney inside before himself.

The office was massive, as many would find out. The floor was a dark concrete splattered with blood, mucus, and viscous liquids that shouldn't, and by all means couldn't, exist. The putrid smell of decay, rotting flesh, and moldy food perforated the area so heavily, it was like a fog.

Both he and Condraki had been given a special dose of Compound 500, a compound that made certain people, if they had the right blood type and their organs didn't fail, invulnerable to diseases and viruses, handy when Condraki dealt with those that died by anomalous diseases.

In the corner of the room stood Condraki. He was skinny and tall, though his dusty wings were large, barely fitting through the hole in his lab coat. His face was scarred to multiple encounters with reanimated victims, but he always survived. Moths were like that.