New Genesis

Chapter 8

“So I just grab it and it should power back up?”
“Yes.”

The group had returned to the base and crowded around Mark as he knelt near the battery. Josh and Zach helped Jake walk back after he had fallen twice. His body kept twitching and his legs had given out.  Chewy had suggested that the group stand back just in case if electrical discharge came off of Mark’s body. Mark reached out and grabbed the battery. It was cool to the touch. After five seconds nothing had happened. More time passed and Mark was getting bored.

“Try forcing it in…” Pham advised
“That’s what she said!” said Tyler
“Force what in?” Mark asked.
“Your d-“
“- electricity.” Pham cut in.
“Um….ok. Here goes nothing.”

Mark grabbed the box tighter and tried to force whatever electrical charge that his body had built up inside of him into the battery. Not even a second passed until Mark sure a surge of energy run the lengths of his arms and enter the battery box. The power kept coursing through Marks body. After a few seconds, the lights in the hallway came on and then the lights in the computer room turned on. The big screen in the room turned on and the hand print display turned into a computer keyboard. SYSTEM START UP? Y/N appeared on the screen. Mark kept his hands on the battery to make sure it didn’t suddenly die. No one moved to the keyboard so Chewy moved up to it and entered YES. The screen blinked off for a second and then base came to life. The sound of gears moving could be heard all around the room and the ground underneath the group shook. A picture came up on the screen. It was a large square with two parallel lines running to it and a dozen or so blinking dots on screen. 

“What’s on the screen?” asked Zach.

Zach began to walk forward but stopped when he saw that a dot on the screen began to move. As he moved around, the dot also moved. The group stared as they began to move around and made the dots move.

“The dots represent us. That means that the picture represents this room and the hallway is the two lines.” explained Chewy.

Blake started to walk towards the hallway and his dot moved along with him.

What are you doing Blake?”  asked Steven.
“I’m going to go see if the doors can be opened.”

Steven, Matt, and Jake ran after him. Mark stood in front of the screen looking at it. Something seemed off to him. Mark walked over to stand next to Jessica and her sisters. Mark looked at Jessica’s face and he instantly grew nervous. He did not say anything for a while and Jessica looked at him with a confused look. Mark quickly said the only thing that came to mind.

“What do you think of this?”
“I think it’s cool but I have a lot of questions.”
“I think it rocks!”, interjected Diana, “ I want to see what this thing can do.”
“Why is this here at all?” asked Katie.
“Jessica, what do you think we should do about it?”
“I have no idea. We should first figure out why it is here.”
“Yeah……” Mark couldn’t think what else to say so he said goodbye and walked over to Chewy as the group that went to the doors came back.

“None of them opened. We pushed against them, tried to find a handle or button to open it, but it doesn’t look like the doors can be opened.” explained Blake.
The rest of the group acknowledged what Blake said.

Mark looked at the screen and asked,

“Is this all then?”
“What do you mean?” asked Chewy.
“Well I mean this room doesn’t look like it has a lot going on in it. If someone built this thing for a reason, why would they only build this one room and a hall with doors that can’t be open? ”
“You think there is more to it?”
“There has to be. No one would create something like this unless it has some kind of value or use.”
The others voiced their opinions and agreed with Mark.
“Ok well let me check.”
Chewy began to mess with the keyboard and stared at the screen next to him as he went along. A couple of minutes later and the picture on the big screen changed from the single room to show the whole facility.  Mark let out a gasp along with the rest of the group. The facility was enormous. The facility extended downwards. Dozens of rooms could be seen. The facility was at least twelve floors in the facility but there was something wrong at the last few floors of the facility.

“Why are the last few floors red?” asked Michael.
“According to the computer the red signifies that the structural integrity of the room has been compromised.” replied Chewy.
“What can destroy that many floors?”
“Hmmm……. There appears to be a file attached to the explanation.”

A video began to play on the screen. A man with a torn shirt and blood running down his head appeared and began to speak franticly.

“We were able to close off floors 7 through 14 of the Crucible. The creature seems to be able to create constructs that are able to detach themselves from the main body.  It can also grow by absorbing organic matter.”

The man pulled up a video of some sort of creature dragging a bloody body across the ground.

“The creature has taken control of the floors we hope that it cannot get past the defenses. I am the last one left down here and I advise complete abandonment of the Crucible. If the creature gets out then it will spread into the surrounding neighborhoods killing everything. I am sending this message to the main console in hope that it has not been compromised also. If the facility is ever opened the creature will reawaken and begin to grow. However there is a way to kill it. My wife and I were able to create a cure before she was killed. We were never able to use it because in order to kill the creature the serum must be injected directly into the core. The antidote is located in room Twelve Thirteen. It should work.”

The group stared in fear as the man began to cry

“Oh God! My poor Amy. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I couldn’t save your body from those monsters.”

No one said anything while the man cried. After a few minutes, the man stopped crying and regained his composure.

“The core is located in room Fourteen Two. As far as we know the core cannot move on its own. This is the last log of John Bishop, head scientist of the Arch Angel project.”

The group stood in silence as the video turned off and the map of the Crucible returned.

“We need to get out of here!” Diana screamed. She and Katie looked terrified. They both wanted to leave and were already moving to the exit along with most of the group. Mark stood staring at the map scared of what was happening and what needed to be done. Jessica turned to Mark.

“Why aren’t you coming?”
Mark lowered his head.
“Because we can’t leave.”
“WHAT?! Why not?” asked Tyler.
“Because we need to stop the creature, whatever it is.” answered Pham.
Mark looked at him and nodded solemnly.
“Why it’s not our problem? The guy said that the creature was sealed in the lower levels.”
Chewy stepped forward.
“When I turned the Crucible back on, the system rebooted. Most likely all of the doors were unlocked or the safeguards were dropped.”
“We released that thing and now it is our duty to kill it. If we don’t, everyone will die.”
Mark put what the stakes were out on the table. “It’s our fault that the creature is loose. We didn’t know what would happen but we still have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t get out.”

“No. I will not. I can’t.” cried Katie.
Jessica gave Katie a hug and looked at her sisters.
“Diana and Katie, you guys go up to the house and calm yourselves down.”
“What?” they both asked.
“It’s the only way to protect you. If we don’t return in a few hours then tell mom and dad. Tell everyone you can.”
“But Jessica…” Jessica’s sister began to cry.
Jessica gave them hugs and walked them to the exit.

Mark looked at the group and began to speak.
“Alright now here’s the plan”. We need to find some way to get down to the lower levels.”

Chewy went to the computer and began to hit some buttons. Two rooms began to glow blue.
“These are the two rooms that the man mentioned in his video. The antidote is on the Twelfth floor and the core is on the Fourteenth floor, assuming that it can’t move around.”

“Um…. If anyone has forgotten, it’s not like we can even get to those floors.” Pointed out Matt.
“Give me a second.” Chewy hit a few more buttons and a panel opened up in the room.
In the panel, there were what appeared to be earpieces.
“Those should allow us to communicate and…. This should allow us to get to the lower levels.”

A sound was made as three of the doors in the hallway opened up.
“They are elevators that should take you down to the sixth floor.”
“How do you expect us to get to the lower levels? Asked Jake.
“There appears to be chutes the lead  to the other levels. The bad thing is that the chutes that lead to the next level are on the exact opposite side from the chute that drops you off on the level.”
“Why would someone build the base like this?”

No one had an answer. Jessica walked back. “My sisters are gone and they will do what they need to. So what’s the plan?”

Mark filled Jessica in on what they planned to do. “So you think this could work?”


“It’s the only thing we can do. So we have three elevators. We should split up into three teams. At least one person with a power per team.”

“How do the elevators take us down to different levels if they are next to each other.” Asked Jessica.
“They can move left and right along with moving up and down”, answered Chewy,” What the picture shows is a side view of the facility. Each floor is actually made up of four rows of rooms. The elevators I chose are right next to each other and the room with the antidote is connected to the three rows of rooms that I chose. So you should meet up in that room.

As the group split off into team. Chewy opted to stay in the main floor to coordinate movements.
As they were about to leave Chewy called their attention.
“Hey guys I think you should see this.”

The group ran up to see what was happening. One of the rooms on the seventh floor was blinking red.
“Wait a second.” Chewy brought up a top down view of the seventh floor. All of the four rows of rooms were red, and the rooms in the same column were all blinking red.
A second later the rooms turned red and the rooms next to them began to blink red. The group felt fear rise up in them but it was only Josh that could say what everyone was thinking.

“The creature is starting to spread.”