Bio Enhanced

      The dust storm had fiercely swept through the red planet, not letting up for even a second. The enormous station known as station 1010Red, was the only other station on Mars other than station 1011Red. A large dark green military helicopter approached the station, hovering over a large air tight dome. The dome slowly opened, making a loud scraping noise, since the dome was so old. The helicopter settled in to the dome and landed on the helipad as the dome closed behind it. For years scientists have tried to make space a livable environment, but have failed. Thirty years ago a famous and respected scientist named Harold Quinn developed a liquid that can enable the human body to make their own cells that produce a certain amount of oxygen in their bodies, enough to breath in space. The liquid proved effective, but there was only to be a certain amount injected in to the human blood stream. The liquid was called Life Blood. This discovery made Harold famous, leading him to his next project. The less successful Black Gas. Black Gas was a nerve gas that was to be used in war with other planets. Breathing in small amounts is harmless, but too much will kill anybody. The nerve gas enters in through the nostrils or mouth and turns your insides in to a hard black crust. This nerve gas was developed on Mars, but unfortunately there was a containment breech. The station has no choice but to vent out the whole station. The gas spread out over a large area of Mars. If anyone is out on the surface for too long without protective gear, they will die. Now exiting the helicopter were four men. One of them was Sergeant Douglas. A tall muscular man with the most bulging muscles and the darkest eyes a person could ever look in to. The second was Charley Mitchell, a handsome and talented soldier. Despite his curly blond hair and kind blue eyes giving him the most boyish face in the universe, he was quite the bad ass. The third man to get out was the lowest in rank, yet the biggest in spirit. No matter what task lay ahead of him, no matter how big, he managed to make himself seem bigger. He trounced on any objective like a vicious colossus stomping on the knights who opposed it. He was ready for life, ready for anything. But the next task would offer him the challenge of a life time. Brian Hero was the last man to step out of the helicopter, ready for his next orders. He had been transferred from Earth after being there for three years, to Mars. He was excited because he heard it was an interesting place to be stationed. Brian was only twenty one years old, but had the experience of a veteran. As he looked around, Charley put his hand on Brian’s shoulder.

“First time on Mars right?” He asked, as if this were a vacation spot.

Brian nodded. “Yeah.”

Charley chuckled then removed his hand. “You’re in for a hellava time dude!”

Brian smirked.

Sergeant Douglas addressed the two soldiers, who stood side by side. “You two are bunk mates. You’ll be in room eight twenty one in sub level two.”

“Aw man. Way the hell down there?” Charley complained.

“I can put you down further, all the way to hell boy!” He barked. “Would you prefer that?”

“No sir.” He responded, holding back a smirk.

“Then get your asses to your bunks and unpack! You two are gonna be here for a long ass time.”

Brian had just finished unpacking his things. Charley had already finished, and he was lying down on the top bunk staring at the ceiling. Brian took the last of his cloths off the bed, folded them, and put them neatly in the built in drawers under the bed. He closed his empty bag and put it in another drawer.

He sat on the bed. “When is the Bio enhancing?” He asked.

“At seven thirty mañana.” Charley responded. “Don’t tell me you’re Bio enhanced dude.”

“Yeah. Don’t tell me you’re not.”

“Hell no.”

         Bio enhancing is a procedure that can enhance or add certain human attributes such as speed, vision, and strength. Bio enhancing is only optional if you are a highly talented soldier. You couldn’t just be skilled. Your skills have to surpass some of the strongest of men. If you were not one of these men, then it was mandated for you to get Bio enhanced.

“You must be pretty damn good then. I mean, I know a guy who took out fifty men on his own and he didn’t qualify to skip Bio enhancement.”

“Well, I hate to brag but….” He grinned and jumped off the top bunk. “…I am…slightly above your average man.” He said with a grin. The two soldiers spoke a little more, getting to know each other before they finally went to sleep. Because of the windowless room, Brian could not tell if the sun had set or not, but he knew it was around nine at night. He had awaken in a sweat a couple of times, due to a weird dream. He had a dream that Charley had crawled off his bunk like a lazy corpse and attacked Brian. He woke up pretty freaked out, but then relaxed when  he heard Charley snoring above him. He was unable to drift back in to sleep since he was awaken so suddenly. He thought about the bio enhancement procedures that were to take place the next day. He also thought about how he was not qualified to skip bio enhancement, but Charley was. Brain  had gotten medals of honor, and had been advanced in ranks within weeks due to his skills and bravery, yet he could not skip bio enhancement, and Charley could. This made Brian wonder how talented Charley must have been. Maybe he fought an entire army of dysfunctional droids all by himself, or maybe he lasted more than two hours out on the surface of Mars without getting killed by the Black Gas. Maybe he didn’t need bio enhancers because he was already super human.

Brian smirked at the thought of all this. He never let his imagination run away from him, but the atmosphere sort of made his mind wonder a bit.

I’m never going to get to sleep like this. Especially if I keep thinking, why am I always thinking? I wonder what bio enhancement they are going to give me…a speed? That’s the only one I didn’t get I think. Well the only main one. I wonder how many there are out there. Are they making more?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of two people talking right outside the door. For a moment, he heard Charley speak. Brian cocked his head to hear what he was saying, but then he realized that he was talking in his sleep.

He was saying, “Come and get me…”

He’s probably dreaming about the time he took down the entire Black Duren unit. Some great adventure he was on.

He thought so, but Charley then spoke of blonds and brunettes in silky dresses and glasses. No adventure, just women. Brian turned his attention back to the two men talking in front of the door. One of them sounded annoyed and angry. He was about to turn to try and sleep, when he heard one of the men raise his voice loud enough for him to hear the words “Bio enhancement failure” being shouted.

         Brain shot up, but then slowly got out of the bed. Charley had stopped talking in his sleep, but he wasn’t snoring anymore either. He quietly moved to the door and put his ear to it. He could hear a lot clearer now.

The angry man spoke. “This has to be the most moronic thing anybody has ever done!”

The second man spoke. “Listen, I can fix this. Just give me time.”

“No…tomorrow I’m having you escorted off the base and back to Earth.”

“But…”

“You have any idea what you did? You know how many soldiers are bio enhanced on this damned planet?”

“I know, but I think the gas…”

“You think? Get out of my sight maggot!”

He heard the sound of footsteps, then nothing. He was about to pull away from the door when he heard the second man whisper something, but he could not understand what he was saying. He waited a few moments, but did not hear the man walk away. Is he still out there? What was that all about? He sounded scared. He heard the man speak again.

“You hear me? You listening to me?”

Startled, Brian inched his head away from the door. Did he hear me? Was he talking to me?

He waited to hear if someone else would respond to him, but no one did. “Well? I know your listening.”

Brian froze, that voice sounded so familiar.

“This isn’t going to work I know…it’s a fools dream…this will be the end of Mars if I don’t pull this off…”

He knew the voice. It was Craig Newborn, one of the top scientists on 1010Red. He was young, only twenty one years old, but he was very intelligent and ambitious. His main goal in life was to surpass Harold Quinn. In fact, his current project was an improvement on bio enhancements. A liquid agent injected directly in to the blood stream of a person who is bio enhanced, in order to make him or her ten times more powerful and even smarter. Could this be the “bio enhancement failure” that they were talking about?

He listened carefully for the man, but heard nothing. He felt a hand land heavily on his shoulder. “Brian what the hell?”

Startled, Brian turned around to see charley’s figure standing there. He turned on the light. “What the hell are ya doin bro?”

Brian quickly shut off the light and whispered in a hoarse voice. “Quiet!”

Charley stepped back and whispered back to Brian. “Dude, it’s our first night here and your already givin me the creeps man.”                       

“Listen…”

They both listened, but heard nothing.

Charley turned the light back on. “Dude, what’s goin on?”

Brian walked over to his bed and sat down. “There were…two people talking out there.”

“So?” Charley climbed back on to his bed. “What’s wrong with that?”

“One of them was Craig Newborn, that scientist. And the other was one of the sergeants. They were talking about some bio enhancement failure…and how it could mean the end of Mars.”

Charley leaned over the top bunk and looked at Brian. When Brian looked up at him, he found himself looking directly in to his eyes. Charley was one of the few people who could actually look someone directly in the eyes for a whole conversation.

Brian looked away. “I think something is terribly wrong…”

“Well…we could talk to old man Douglas tomorrow morinin.” He said cheerfully. “I’m sure it’s nothing big.”

Brian laid back down on his bed. “He heard me…”

Still peeking over the bunk, Charley arched an eyebrow. “Wha?”

“After the sergeant left, he started to speak to me.”

“Through the…door?”

“Yeah. It’s like he knew I was listening.” He closed his eyes.

“Creepy…”

“Yeah.”

“so…lets talk to him manana…kay?”

“I guess…maybe we shouldn’t”

Charley sighed and laid back on his bed. “Well…in the morning you tell me what ya wanna do bro.”

Brian sighed and closed his eyes. He heard Charley snoring again, and talking in his sleep. But this time it didn’t sound like he was dreaming about hot babes or beach chicks. He heard him muttering, “He’s changing…” over and over again. Brian closed his eyes, drifting steadily in to sleep.

        Brian woke up at around three o’clock in the morning, sweating profusely. He had had a horrible nightmare, but by the time he was fully awake it had slipped from his mind, and he couldn’t remember what it was. He got up out of bed and stood in the dark for several minutes. His mouth was very dry. He needed water. He turned towards Charley, and heard him snoring softly. He turned back around and put his hand on the doorknob. For a second he thought he heard someone in the hall, but then he realized it was just the sound of the door opening. He slowly pulled the door open a little more, sliding through the door so he didn’t have to open it all the way. He was standing in the hall, which was very dark, illuminated only by the few cheep lights on the ceiling. He looked to his left, which was shrouded in darkness. That’s where the labs are.

Why is it so dark down there? I thought the lights in the labs were to be kept on at all times. This was liable to cause safety hazards, since some of the experiments required light. He remembered his sergeant stressing the importance of the safety codes. If the lights in the labs are ever off and you’re the first one to notice, it was your obligation to turn those lights back on. Brian did NOT want to go down there though. Maybe the lights are already on. He knew that was bull, because if the lights were on he would see it illuminating from down the stairs all the way up in to the hallway. He had done many things in his past, but he never dared to venture in to the depths of the labs of any planet. He didn’t know what they did down there, and frankly he didn’t care to know. He slowly made his way down the hall, holding the sides of the walls as he moved along. It got darker and darker. If anything threatening is down there, I could take him out with my CQC skills. So long as it’s normal. He reassured himself. Brian froze at that thought. Normal? They experimented on a lot of animals, so who knew what was down there. He made his way further down the hall, but stopped when he heard a noise. It was the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around to see a bright light blinding him, causing him to stumble back from the shock. He rubbed his eyes and looked ahead of him. Charley stood before him with a flashlight, harboring a totally clueless look on his face.

Brian rubbed his eyes, seeing blue and red dots in his vision. “What the hell?” He muttered.

“Next time bring a light dumbass. I didn’t see ya there.” He said as he walked toward him. “What the hell are ya doin up so damn late?”

“I couldn’t sleep and I wanted to go the bathroom for some water. How bout you?”

Charley scratched his nose lightly. “I heard a noise in the hall that woke me up, and noticed you were gone.”

“So?”

“So…the flashlight was still here so I figured I’d find you and give it to you so something like this wouldn’t happen.”

“Well it did.” He leaned against the wall, his mouth still dry.

“The bathroom is this way”, he pointed to the opposite direction, “why are you going this way.” He pointed in the direction of the lab.

“Lights are off in the labs…you know the rule.”

“Yea.” He handed Brian the flashlight. “I’ll go with you.”

“Don’t you want to get back to bed?”

“No. I’m wide awake now.”

Brian shrugged his shoulders. “Fine.”

They both walked down the hall, Brian lighting the way with his flashlight, and Charley trailing behind him. Charley tapped Brian’s shoulder and whispered. “I heard they’re experimenting on humans now. For bio enhancement.”

Brian whispered back. “On humans? That’s crazy talk.”

“Na man, it’s true. They take all the soldiers that died in battle and bring them back to the labs.”

“Sure.”

“No really, I was on this mission a month ago to deliver this MO-Disk to Earth. All I was told is that it contained info on a soldier that died four days earlier from the black gas.”

“So?”

“So? You know once a soldier dies their info is to be deleted from the main server here on Mars. But instead they send it out? And they had about twelve of us go on this simple delivery? Makes no sense. I asked this friend of mine, and he said he heard screams coming from the labs…monstrous screams.”

“That’s bull.” Brian scoffed.

“Well, it’s a theory.”

         They reached the top of the stairwell, which was pitch black. Brian shone the light ahead, revealing the bottom of the stairwell. The lab door was right at the bottom, and it was open. Charley moved next to Brian, leaning forward to get a better look. Brian turned to him and noticed the look of surprise on his face. Brian shared the same look.

“Who’s the dill weed that left the lab door open?” Charley asked in amusement. “Oh he is so fired…what an idiot.”

Brian began to walk down the stairs. It got noticeably colder around him, as if he were walking in to a freezer. Charley followed him. When they reached the bottom, Charley put his hand on Brian’s shoulder to stop him from moving forward.

“We should be careful. For all we know we could be dealing with a containment breech here.” He cautioned.

Brian looked back at the open door, wondering if that were the case. “If that’s true then we breathed it in already.”

“Man…well we need to turn the lights on anyways.”

“Yea.” Brian nodded.

They both cautiously entered the lab. It was dark, but from what they could see the lab was clean and in good shape. There was no odor in the air, no strange liquids on the floor, or gas in the air. None that he could see anyway. The air was even cooler in here then it was in the hallway, and Charley noticed it right away. He was rubbing his hands together to generate heat. Brian prodded the beam of light over a few very large glass tubes, which contained a green liquid in them. No one appeared to be in the lab. He walked deeper in to the room, Charley not too far behind him. Not cause he was scared of someone dangerous being in here, but because he needed light to see. Brain moved the light over to the back of the lab, where a large metal door was closed shut with three metal bars barricading it. A small number pad was next to the door on the wall. Brian felt uneasy. What if they really did experiment on people?

As if reading Brian’s mind, Charley finished his thought. “Imagine we stumble on to some secret conspiracy and the conspirators try to kill us because we saw too much.” Charley’s imagination was starting to work itself now. “What if they use us in the experiments?”

Brian looked at him. “Stop being ridiculous.”

“Anything’s possible in this station.”

Brian walked to the back of the room. “Where is the light box?”

Charley looked around. “I dunno man.”

Brian probed the flashlight around the room, until he finally found the light box. It was behind the set of large tubes, on the wall. He walked over to them. Charley followed, but his attention was on the large door. Even though the light was not on it, he knew it was there and he was mesmerized by the door. He was probably thinking the same thing Brian was thinking. There’s something messed up behind that door. He reached between the two large tubes, to open the box so he could turn on the light, but he could barely reach it. Charley noticed a flashlight on the floor, and picked it up.

“Why is this on the floor? Running a sloppy operation here.”

“Give me some light.” Brian said.

Charley flashed the beam of light on the box as Brian reached further to the back. He flipped the switch to turn the lights on, but only a few came on.

“Damn…” Brian muttered.

Charley laughed. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Brain turned to him. “A lot.”

“So what do we do?” Charley turned off the flashlight. “Would it be enough?”

“No,” Brian said as he turned off his flashlight, “the labs need to be provided with intense light all day and all night. This is pretty ridiculous. How can the lights not work? They should be changed every week.”

“Stop getting all bent, it’ll be fine dude. Let’s go back to the room, you gotta get up early for the bio treatment right?” He began to walk towards the exit.

Brian looked back to the back of the room where the giant metal door stood. Almost as if he were in a daze, he made his way over to the door. It was like there was something behind the door that pulled him towards it. Charley noticed that he wasn’t behind him.

“Umm, where are you going?” He asked.

“Nothing…” He wasn’t listening.

“What?”

         Brian turned to Charley. He knew that Charley wanted to know what was behind that door as much as he did. “That door…see that light above it?”

Charley looked up. There was a red light above the door.

“What about it?”

“Don’t you know? That means that whatever is in there is being harmed by the environment around it. That room is probably pitch black.”

“So?” He asked.

“You know…we are obligated to do something.”

Charley shook his head. “Dude, we tried to turn on the lights, what else can we do?”

“In section 346 in the handbook…”

“Oh God!” Charley groaned.

Brian continued. “…section 346, ‘it is the duty of every soldier to ensure the safety of  everyone else in the facility at all costs. This includes staying in the labs all night to tend to any experiments or test subjects until they are considered safe’ so yea.”

Charley threw his head back. “Ah man…fine…lets go in.”

Brian nodded, turning back to the door. He notcied that the lack of power had prevented the doors from being electrically locked, since the key pad was not lit up. So almost all the power in the lab is cut off. He concluded to himself. Brian moved to the door, his hand on one of the metal bars.

"Help me pull this open."

"Kay." Charley made his way next to Brian and put his hands on the bar. "Lemme know when to push."

"Now...I don't think they're that secure without the electricity on."

Charley nodded. They both counted to three, then began to push the bars to the left, sliding it off to the side. They repeated the process two more times with the other bars until they were all off. Brian turned to Charley, who already had been giving him a look of worry. He turned his attention back to the metal door.

"Ready...?" He asked, his voice a little softer than usual.

"Let's do it, dude." Charley responded in a serious tone.

Together, they both pushed the doors open.