Avery took a deep breath as he stared at the front door of the laboratory facility, trying to calm his nerves. He had spent the previous night mulling over what had happened the day before, his mind trying to get a grasp on this new reality. It all felt too sudden, as if he had been pushed down a deep hole with no rope.
Everything will be fine, he told himself with a shaky breath, it's just like any other day... except this time I am meeting with him...
He bit his lip and considered the possibility of turning around to head back to his apartment. But he quickly realized that if he did so, they would find him and do who-knows-what. He glanced down quickly and took a step forward to pull the door open.
The woman sitting at the reception desk looked up from her computer screen and greeted him with, "Good morning, Dr. Richard."
Avery gave her a shaky smile, finding new irony in that friendly phrase, and said, "Yes, yes, good morning..."
"Is something the matter?" she asked concerningly.
He shook his head, correcting his smile to a wider one as he replied, "No, nothing's the matter, I just had a long night is all."
"I'm assuming that has to do with your recent work?"
Avery glanced away for a moment and responded with, "You could say that."
"Well, I hope things get better for you," she said with a cheerful smile, returning her attention to her monitor.
He nodded slightly and moved to walk past her, but she stopped him by saying suddenly, "Oh, I almost forgot! Dr. Delmarz was looking for you. He said he needed you in Lab 3A."
What does Daniel need? Avery thought as he continued out of the reception room to go change into his laboratory clothing. As he was doing so he glanced at himself in the mirror, taking in that this could be the last time he would do this. It might be the last time he would be in this building. The last time he got to be with his co-workers.
There were a lot of "last times" that sprouted in his mind, which overgrew the possible "next times" to the point of suffocation.
Before he knew it he was walking down familiar halls. He had never felt the immeasurable amount of longing he was now experiencing before in his life. It felt as if the weight of his newfound situation was crushing his chest, and he had no way of escaping it.
He had just made it to his old laboratory's door when someone on the other side hastily pulled it open.
"There you are!" Daniel gasped with a red face.
"Why did—?" Avery started, but he was interrupted by the man grabbing him by the front of the shirt to yank him inside.
The room looked like a hurricane had swept through it: papers littered the floor, Petri dishes and microscopes were left out on workbenches in disarray, and test tubes filled with different substances were haphazardly thrown in racks.
Avery turned toward Daniel with a mortified look, but all he saw was a man who held a frantic gaze as he asked, "What have you done?"
The other scientist made a humming noise as he darted his eyes around, twiddling his fingers before he replied, "I had to make it look like I was working on something," he then walked toward one of the benches with a twitch, "yes, then Dr. Syphus would have to keep me here..."
Avery gave him a pitiful look, saying, "I don't think—"
"What were you working on, Avery?" Daniel demanded, turning to him with a crazed look, "I have to prove that I'm useful to him here! He can't send me away if I am working on something very important!"
"I can't—"
"Tell me, damn it!" the other man screamed, slamming his fist onto the table behind him, "do you want blood on your hands?!"
This startled Avery. He hadn't heard Daniel say something like that before, and he was unsure as to how to respond.
Before he could though, the door to the room was opened. Together he and Daniel looked in its direction as three men dressed in strangely black laboratory coats, paper masks covering half of their faces.
"Oh, no no no..." he heard Daniel whisper under his breath, the man taking a slight step back as the lead stranger approached him.
"Daniel Delmarz?" the person asked, eyeing him coldly.
"Can't you see that I am busy right now?" Daniel huffed as he gestured toward the mess around him.
"Come with us, Dr. Syphus wants you to begin working in a different location."
"No!" Daniel screamed, backing up against a table, "I have important work here! You can't just drag me away from it!"
"Dr. Syphus will find a replacement," the other man said calmly. Avery had a feeling that he had done this many times, and that he had gotten the same reaction.
"I'm not leaving! I know my rights, you can't do this to me!"
"You signed those away when you agreed to work here," the man then motioned to his companions with a sigh, "grab him."
"NO! You can't DO THIS!" Daniel howled as the other two strangers grabbed hold of his arms.
"I suggest you come quietly, lest you want to be punished for your further incorporation."
"I DON'T CARE!" Daniel screamed as he struggled against his captors, "I know I'm already dead!"
"Who's to say you are?"
This was met by a hard glare from Daniel, but instead of engaging further with the stranger, the captive man turned his head toward Avery. Daniel's eyes were soft, vulnerable even, as they locked with his own. It was jarring just how different they were from just a moment before.
With them Daniel begged, "Please, Avery, tell them... tell them I'm needed here," his voice cracked as his eyes began to water, "p-please. I don't want to die..."
"I-," Avery started, but an unconscious part of him made his mind respond by tightening his throat, catching him off guard. In the end, all he could do was shake his head with a helpless look.
Daniel's eyes widened, his breathing becoming heavy as he whispered, "Avery..."
"Start taking him to his new workspace," the stranger said to his companions, glancing at Daniel as he said, "Dr. Syphus is expecting him soon."
"Avery!" Daniel repeated, squirming as the men pushed him toward the door like a dog being taken to the back room, "Tell them! Avery, Avery!"
As he was escorted into the hallway he turned his attention to his captors and screamed, "No! Let me go! Hey, listen to me, damn it! I said: LET ME—"
He was suddenly cut short. Avery started forward to see what had happened, but the man who had stayed behind stopped him by demanding, "What were you doing here?"
A nervous sweat broke on Avery's brow as he opened and closed his mouth, stuttering, "I was, uh—"
"He's with me," a dreadfully familiar, raspy voice hissed.
The stranger turned to see that the Python was standing in the doorway, and addressed him with, "Really?"
"I sent him here to pick something up for me," the taller man huffed, pushing past both of them to pick up a closed vial, "this is it. He is new to being my Caretaker, so I apologize"
As he pocketed the tube, the other man gave him a glare and said, "You should have warned me about him. No one was supposed to witness what happened, Python," this last word was spat out like it was poison and he continued with a growl, "next time I will not be held responsible for what might happen to him."
"Yes," the Python snapped, turning to stare at the other man, who had to squint slightly at the red lights that were now focused on his face, "but keep in mind that Dr. Syphus wouldn't be pleased if he heard that my Caretaker was harmed in your presence, Dr. Ziklee."
This was met with a furrowed brow and scrunched up nose from Dr. Ziklee. With a huff the man brushed past him as he stormed out of the room.
The Python stared after the stranger for a moment. Then he turned his head to address who he was now left alone with, "I was waiting too long for you. I already should have left."
"I'm sorry," Avery said in a trance, "he called me in here before they..."
He felt as if the lights on his face were burning him as the man said firmly, "You should know that my word has higher priority," he then turned swiftly to walk out as he continued, "I've wasted too much time here today."
Avery jumped slightly to follow him, pausing briefly to look around his old workspace—now cluttered by Daniel's madness—one last time. He sighed through his nose and looked down the hall concerningly where he had heard Dr. Delmarz's screams.
"Hurry up," the sound of the raspy voice as it growled made him fall out of his thoughts. Avery quickly caught up to his new... coworker—as wrong as that word felt.
He hesitated for a moment, the silence filled with the Python's torn breaths, before asking, "Who were those men? I didn't recognize them."
"Yes, and you shouldn't have," the Python grunted, "they work at a different location that is kept classified to your former position."
"What do they do?"
As they entered less barren halls, the Python lowered his voice to an almost incoherent mumble, "They perform... experiments for Syphus. Some of the results are ones you have unknowingly examined before."
Uneasiness at what he said slithered coldly down Avery's spine, and he asked despite not wanting to know the answer, "What do they need Daniel for?"
The Python was silent as they walked past several people, whose faces became pale and suspicious at his presence, then he replied, "Syphus has use for the disobedient..."
"'Use'? What kind—?"
The man stopped, turning to raise a gloved finger as he snapped through gritted teeth, "I'm done playing Twenty Questions with you. Why must you be so irritating?" he took a shaky breath and continued in a restrained tone, "Let's just focus on my assignment."
He resumed walking, Avery following behind him in a now stunned silence, and said, "We have learned that about a week ago some rather... meddlesome people have found something important to our plans."
Upon reaching an exit leading outside the building, the Python pushed it open. The blazing sunlight made Avery squint and he had to blink a few times with a slight grimace. Once he had regained his sight he saw that the other man had reached a black car that was parked only a few feet away. Avery quickly went to it and got in, immediately smelling something that resembled a smell he knew all too well because of the nosebleeds he had as a child. Trash littered the backseat of the vehicle: paperwork, water bottles, and various other throw away items. On the floorboard he caught a glimpse of rags that were spotted with a red liquid.
The sound of the Python grunting as he sat down behind the wheel turned Avery's attention forward. The other man started the car, the radio turning on to a local rock music station.
The black clothed man reached over to turn it off and grumbled as he noticed Avery moving an empty bottle with his foot, "Apologies for the mess. I would have cleaned it up some if I weren't so preoccupied."
Avery nodded slightly in forgiveness, keeping silent as the Python drove the car through the parking lot and onto public roads.
He would have kept silent, however his curiosity overrode his logic and he asked, "What is your assignment?"
The Python cleared his throat with a slight, rickety cough before answering, "A group of people we have been observing for quite some time now has found a device that could aid me in my overall task."
Avery could sense that the man had given him a final tone that meant he was not going to answer further questions. However, this did not stop them from latching onto his mind like the fangs of a snake: Who were these people? Why did they need to be "observed"? What is his overall task? Avery thought as he glanced at the Python.
He had always been told that his curiosity was a blessing, but right then it felt like a curse...
They sat in an uncomfortable silence, Avery fumbling with the bottom hem of his shirt as the Python took shaky breaths in between dry coughs. At one point he reached up to press something on the side of his mask. The sound of decompressed air escaping the face covering reached Avery's ears, and the man beside him began to breathe clearly.
Before his curiosity of what the mask did broke from its chains, the Python rasped, "We're here."
Avery gazed out the window as the car made its way into a parking lot. The Python parked it in a spot that was on a wall that ran the length of a neighboring lot.
The other man then pointed to the building that occupied the lot while saying, "That is the building I will need to get into. I need you to get on the roof to chase out the people inside using a smoke bomb," as he said this he gestured to the back of the car, presumably where the item was located.
His accomplice nodded in understanding and he continued, "You will signal me when they exit the building. I will get inside to access the asset," he waited for Avery to nod once again before he ordered, "now, get started."
Avery gave him an unsure look, his mind slow to react to his command.
The Python grunted and made a shooing motion with his hand as he said almost condescendingly, "That means 'go'."
"Oh, sorry, sir," Avery mumbled as he shook the look off his face, scrambling to open his door and step out into the summer's heat. He quickly walked to the back of the van to open the back door, the smell from inside even worse than before. He spotted a black case that was half buried under used rags and dragged it out.
He glanced up at where the Python was sitting and asked hesitatingly, "Is this the case that has the smoke bombs, sir?"
The other man turned in his seat to face him, the red lights from his mask illuminating the back of the car as he growled, "Yes it is, now hurry up before someone sees what's happening."
Avery nodded vigorously as he flicked open the latches on the box, lifting the lid so that what was inside was visible. Two metal cylinders were nestled in the foam that lined the bottom of the container. Avery removed one, but as he did so he caught something in the corner of his eye. He glanced over and saw that a long needle was sticking out from under the pile of handkerchiefs. His face became pale and he quickly shut the trunk door, wishing he could erase the image of the needle that was now burned into his mind.
The blonde man then glanced around before he began to jog to the building, hopping down from the wall that the parking lot beside its own formed. Avery went up to the structure, glancing around the walls of it as he did so, and spotted a ladder that led to the roof. He stepped up onto the bottom rung and began to climb the side of the building, quickly reaching the top of it.
Walking along the edge of the roof he found a vent that was connected to the air conditioning unit. He opened the grate and pulled out the smoke bomb. As soon as he pulled the pin in it he tossed it down the vent, it making a clattering sound as it hit the sides of the metal tube.
Avery waited for several, dreadfully long moments, but he didn't see or hear anything. Did it not work? he asked himself as he tried to look down the vent, ...maybe the bomb didn't go—
The sound of multiple voices coming from the front of the building cut him off. He quickly jogged over to the other side of the roof, kneeling down so he wouldn't be as easily seen. He peeked over the edge and saw that several people were outside of the building. Good, they cleared out... he thought as he went back over to the side he had come up on.
He searched for the Python along the ground with his eyes. Movement from a bush near the building caught his attention, and he saw that the man was crouching down next to it. The Python noticed that Avery had returned to his original spot, and he was now looking up at him. Avery motioned that it was time to get into the building.
The Python nodded slightly and briskly walked into it like a stalking viper, using an already open door.
Avery climbed down from the roof and waited next to the door. Smoke was billowing out of it and when he looked inside he couldn't see an inch past his face.
He waited for several, breath holding minutes, growing more anxious as the time clawed pass. Should I go in after him? he wondered as he picked at the bottom of his shirt. His eyes darted around nervously, and he took a deep breath before he took a step into the doorway—
That was when the Python rushed out of the smoke, the lights on his goggles burning a way through it so he could see.
As he went through the doorway he pushed Avery aside as he grunted, "I got what I needed. Let's go."
Dazed, Avery followed him to the car, jumping up the ledge. He scrambled into it just as the Python started it, barely making it before the man put it in reverse to exit the parking lot.
Avery pulled his seatbelt over himself, looking over to see that the Python had nothing new with him, and he asked, "What was it that you got?"
The Python was breathing heavily, and it took him a moment before he said, "Coordinates. I would have taken the machine if one of those people weren't still inside."
His partner winced, "I'm sorry, sir."
The man beside him sighed, "It was easy to dispatch him. I got the coordinates, so that should be good for now. They will notice that I got them... now I have to beat them to it."
Avery nodded, looking straight as the Python drove down a desert road, thinking, What have I agreed to?