Jeanie and The Tower City

"It's been a long time since we docked anywhere,"I said. "Now that I'm sixteen can I go explore?"

My mother nodded. "I guess this'll be my baby's first time going ashore," she said. "Listen, Nova York Tower may not be as...dangerous as its predecessor but I still want you to be careful ok?"

I rolled my eyes. "I've heard the old wives tales," I said. "I promise I won't lick any old postage stamps or befriend any alligators."

Mom put her hands on her hips and gave me a stare that made her eyes stand out from her dusky sockets. "Jeanie," she chided. "I'm serious! You may think you're all grown up but there's still stuff you don't know and I don't want you to learn the hard way."

Wrapping my hands around her, I sighed. "I have my Mobile and my ID chip," I said. "If anything happens you'll be the first call after emergency services. I love you."

She patted my back and pulled away. "Love you too baby girl," she said. "I better get back to our HAB unit before your brother and sister finally drive your dad insane."

We said our goodbyes and I rushed down the gangway into the Nova York docking bay. I knew that about a hundred years ago, this had been open to the elements. Through the glass windows, I could see the ruins of what was once New York City being slowly devoured by the forest that had once been Central Park.

I barely took in all the scaffolding welding and other materials as I rushed to the high-speed elevator banks. There was so much to see and we'd only be here for two days!

I ran into Simeon in the cue to board the cars. "Hey!" I said. "I haven't seen you since Practicum graduation. How have you been?"

He turned toward me and...proceeded to look at my shoes. Typical engineer. "Oh...hey Jeanie," he said. "I'm doing okay. How are you doing?"

It had been a few months since we completed Practicum training but Simeon was still the same shy, by the book guy I remembered. "I'm doing fine," I said. "I'm excited to go see Nova York! You made any plans Simeon?"

He moved closer to me and looked around conspiratorially. "I'm going into an abandoned warehouse thats supposed to be hiding some sort of dark secret," he said. "I wanna make a video for my podcast wanna come with? I could use some company to er, do some technical stuff. You in?"

Sounded creepy and kinda like something my mom wouldn't like. "I'm in," I said. "Just don't film me. I don't want my parents seeing me doing something they'll think is foolish."

Simeon grinned and pumped one fist down to his side. "Deal," he said. "I promise to leave you out of the shot. Just let me know when you see something cool."

We didn't have to wait much longer to get on the elevator. Simeon tapped the third icon on the floor menu.

Thankfully that didn't leave much time for older adults to ask us any questions. Hopefully they thought we were just techs going to fetch something for our jobs. The place we were going wasn't exactly zoned for residential or commercial use.

The doors slid open. Only other people to get off were a couple of men in hard hats. We waited till they had gone past. "Right so where's this warehouse?" I asked.

Simeon pulled out his mobile and scrolled through some site. "According to this blog," he said. "It's Nova York Tower, floor 3, lots 805 through 1408."

I checked the numbers on the nearest unit. "650," I read. "Thank gosh they're on a ring system... at least there's only one direction to check for addresses."

The warehouse was huge but didn't look like a storage area. "You're sure this is the right spot?" I wondered. "It looks like some sort of lab."

Simeon double checked. "Yep," he said. "Hang on I got to get the establishing shot...and break the lock. Keep an eye out for Order officers."

I watched as he held his mobile as far from his face as possible. It was kinda funny. "'Sup fellow urban adventurers," he said. "I'm here in Nova York's industrial district. Let me info dump some background. Back in 2098 a top secret government project used this site for experiments in biotechnology. What freaky things might be lurking? Your boy, Herrera is bringing you the scoop!"

Experiments? Biotechnology? "Dammit Simeon you lied to me!" I shouted.

Simeon flinched and backed away from my wrath. "Shh!" He begged. "Jeanie, we don't want to make a scene. Can't have Order officers breathing down our necks yet."

My nostrils flared as I took some steadying breaths. "Right," I said. "If whatever is in there is hazardous, Shields are going to be the least of our worries! Let's just hope it's not a flesh eating virus or whatever."

He sighed as he hooked up his mobile to the lock and ran an encryption breaker on it. "I read this guy's blog before I decided this was the place to come," he said. "He says that it was some sort of polymorph. If I remember from Secondary Bio class polymorphs are protozoans that mimic shapes. They aren't known to cause disease."

I remembered the unit where we'd learned about shape shifters. I knew that Simeon had used the more politically correct term. I didn't care about being polite. The idea of something that could look exactly like me creeped me out too much.

"Whatever," I said. "Lets just get this over with."

Simeon went in first careful to point his cameras away from me. I hoped he'd edit out our little tiff. That'd be a dead give away I'd been here. Maybe they'd ground me till I was forty. They couldn't do that, right?

It was hard to see even though Simeon and I both had the lights on our devices on. "As you can see," he monologued. "The power has been cut to these units. I'm going to go make sure though."

He walked over to a work terminal and tapped the display. "Nope," he said. "Thats a big nada. No mas electrons. I'm going to confirm that by checking the plug..."

I looked around some more while Simeon continued his narration. Now that I knew I wasn't going to catch some horrible disease, this place was kind of neat. There was some decent machine parts. Maybe some of the circuit boards and actuators were still functional. If I could salvage some maybe I could use them for a home brew robot.

I saw movement over to my left. It looked like someone was there. "Simeon," I called. "I thought you'd--oh my god!"

A misshapen thing lumbered towards my flashlight. Its face was hideous! A jumble of different features crowded what passed for a head.

"Simeon!" I yelled. I looked around for my buddy. "Simeon!" A gurgling, gloppy voice mimicked mine. The creature let out a blurpy howl.

I didn't care if I turned my back on this monstrosity. I was outa here. I found Simeon still monologging. "Run!" I shouted. "Polymorph chasing me!"

He put his device in his pocket and grabbed my hand pulling me along. All around us voices bubbled "Simeon! Run! Simeon! Run!" I realized something terrible.

"Black Jesus!" I blasphemed. "There's more of them." Equipment crashed around us as hundreds of polymorphs converged to join the chase.

We finally saw the flood lights outside the open door. Simeon hit the red panic button. The doors started coming down as a loud klaxon blared. It was worse when the creepy defective shape shifters started mimicking the siren.

I didn't care that Order officers probably heard the noise. I was too busy coaxing the wench. "Close close close," I begged. "C'mon.."

The heavy steel managed to sever some polymorph's digits. They dissolved into a puddle of amorphous goo. I thought I was going to be sick.

Before we could run, Order officers surrounded us on hover boards. "Don't move," one of them said. "You are under arrest by the Nova York Order Division."

I was so upset I couldn't say anything to Simeon. It wasn't until we were in holding that I managed to speak. "You gonna post that video?" I asked

He fidgeted with his crucifix and Magen David around his neck. "My finger slipped," he said. "I deleted everything. My mother is going to kill me."

My parents weren't too happy either. "You're grounded for a week," my mother said. "Except to go to your job!"

My father stepped forward. "You also have to help me with praise team for an entire month," he said. "Maybe that'll teach you to have respect for the laws of man."

Why didn't they just throw me in the brig for a month? This was almost worse than having shape shifters chasing me.