We stand and ponder what may lurk on the other side of this door for a little while. It feels like ages, but soon enough I can head footsteps slowly approach. I turn to look back and can see the light of a headlamp heading our way. A small hint of relief washes over me as I know that Timerus is on his way back.


“There we go.” Timerus says as he approaches us and the door.


“Yeah, now you guys can rig the explosives.” I find myself smiling as I respond to Timerus.


“Then lets get to it, Timerus.” Mia says as she crouches and starts to set up the explosives.


“Those aren’t strong enough to make the building capsize, are they?” I ask.


“They shouldn’t be.” Timerus says.


“Shouldn’t? That’s not exactly comforting.” I chuckle as he starts to plug wires into the set up charges.


I watch them finish setting up the explosives. We all head back to the end of the hallway and stay clear of where the debris would likely travel. I take a deep breath to try and keep a level head.


“Here goes nothing.” Timerus says calmly.


Within a moment of Timerus finishing his sentence, he presses the button on the detonator. The whole floor shakes, dust flying from the hallway. We all look at one another for a few moments, as if a mutual prayer is being said that this place doesn’t just cave in on top of us.


“Is... Is that all?” Mia asks, her voice laced with uncertainty.


“Well, we should move on. The building still seems like it’s structurally sound.” Timerus responds.


We quietly gather into the hall, the dust still settling from the explosives. We slowly make our way back to where we were trying to get through. The doorway is open, the doors hardly hanging onto the hinges. As we approach the doorway, we are greeted by a familiar hiss.


“That sounds like the creature that led us into this lab.” Mia says quietly.


“That can be very good, or very bad...” Timerus says as he raises his blaster.


Timerus takes the lead and I follow Mia in. I keep my hand on a blaster, ready to defend myself if needed. Mia keeps sweeping left and right as we enter. Glowing vines crawl all throughout the room. It’s clear that somewhere in this section of the building was the experiment that led to us discovering the creatures I can only describe as abbysal.


A myriad of hissing comes from the room as the tendril covered creatures come rushing to leave through the very way we came in. I can only watch as they flood out in masses with no way for anyone to actually keep a count of them. We let the creatures rush past us, though I can’t help but feel like this was a bad idea.


“There’s so many...” Timerus says as he watches the creatures finish filing out of the room in haste.


“Apparently they want to get out of here about as badly as I do.” I laugh as I make my thoughts known.


“It seems so.” Mia says.


We slowly creep along this new room. The lights are still on, though they flicker intermittently. We all watch over one another as we explore the area.


Mia heads up to the far wall, Timerus heads for the left wall, while I head for the one on the right. I quickly realize this chamber in the building is a lot bigger than it looked based on the door we blew in. It takes a bit of time to figure out the exact size of the room. It becomes quite apparent this is just the start of the area, a few hallways seeming to lead deeper in this relic of a building.


“So, which way should we take?” I ask as I turn towards Mia and Timerus.


“Well, we should stick together, no matter which way we go first.” Mia says with caution intertwined in her tone.


“Right, so which hallway do we try first?” I ask.


“Lets start over there, odds are these halls are connected somewhere.” Timerus says.


We all make our way to the area Timerus had explored earlier. I try to keep a steady vigilance as we head along the corridor. We check the windows of the doors as we pass them. Most are just rooms that seem to have been private offices of the old world’s workers for Ark Tech.


Mia stops, lingering at a door. “Wait, guys you may wanna see this..” Mia says with her voice tense.


I approach her, Timerus closing in on the other side of her. The moment I look through the window, I realize we are in a facility that had definitely done more than just create Project Purity. Yellow tubes with weird shapes are all throughout the room we’re peering into.


“What... what would Ark Tech be doing with all of that?” I ask.


“It’s more than likely a genetic experiment of sorts.” Mia answers me.


“Genetic experiments?” I repeat as a question.


“My guess is the old world was trying to make advancements on humans as a whole. Perhaps make them into some kind of super-soldiers.” Mia explains.


Mia takes the handle of the door and gently tosses the door ajar. Timerus heads in first, taking the lead. Already my stomach feels like it's going to flip right up my throat. I follow them into the room. The smell of chemicals is strong in this room, even with the armour filtering the air we breathe.


“Whatever they were up to, I wouldn’t consider anything in here to be human.” Timerus says as he taps against one of the yellow tubes.


I walk up to a tube and see the shadow of some sort of arachnid. A larger spider, one that may be stronger than what spiders should be. Perhaps it’s faster. I can’t draw any conclusions on this, but it makes chills flow along my spine.


“They weren’t just experimenting with humans, it seems.” I mutter.


“Yeah, its like they were tampering with all kinds of stuff.” Mia nods as she comes to the same conclusion.


“Let’s move on... this place is giving me the creeps.” Timerus pipes up.


The three of us get back into the corridor and continue on our path. We came here for one thing and it seems that this place has a lot more to it than we had bargained for. I keep my hand ready by the blaster as we journey through the corridor.


The corridor reveals a hallway, at the end of the hallway, I can see the room we started in. This only proves that Timerus’ suspicion of the hallways all connecting seems to be true. We turn down the hallway so we can see what all is in the rooms off of it.


I check out my share of rooms, each one being mostly full of papers, desks, chairs and old computers. Mia enters an office room, it being labeled ‘Supervisor’s Office’. Timerus continues down the hall to check on the remaining rooms. I head for the doorway where Mia went inside of.


“Anything of interest?” I ask.


“Yeah, actually.” She replies as she turns to face me, holding up a key with a large plastic rectangle on it. “Looks like this key wasn’t something the staff didn’t want to have go missing.” She adds.


“Well I guess the key has to fit something.” I say as I step back for her to come back into the hallway.


“It’s a lead.” Timerus says as he gestures us to continue scouting out the rest of the floor.


Me and Mia walk along the corridor to catch up with Timerus. We regroup in the main room and start heading down the last hallway. Glowing vines have taken over a good section of the hallway towards the back ends of it. I can’t help but wonder what other crazy things we may find in this old Ark Tech laboratory.


“Those vines look similar to the tendrils on the Abyssal creatures we encountered earlier.” Mia announces.


“Freaky.” I say. “It may be an idea to keep our guard up.” I add.


“Good idea.” Timerus says as he takes the lead down the hallway.


We all start to peer through windows of the doors. Sure enough, I see another room full of yellow tubes. I raise my hand to get the attention of Mia and Timerus.


“We’ve got another room with those tubes.” I say.


“That can’t be good.” Mia says as she comes beside me to peer in for herself.


“Well, we’re going to want to check this out anyways.” Timerus says as he takes the other side of me to look in.


We exchange a momentary nod of agreement before I pop the door open and we all start scanning the room. Mia starts going through the computer files. I walk from tube to tube and start looking at what is inside of them. Some of the tubes contain flowers, others contain insects that are massive in comparison to the normal ways they would be.


“Holy shit. What were they doing in here?” I ask to myself, not expecting an actual answer.


“Well, from what I’m seeing in the files of the computers, some of these were experiments for pest control, where others were for some kind of food crisis solution.” Mia explains.


“Food crisis?” I repeat.


“Well, I guess there were a lot more people on the earth during those days.” Mia says, as if trying to figure the puzzle out herself.


“Maybe so, but then is that what led to Project Purity as well?” Timerus chimes in.


“Maybe. If they had a limited water supply, it would make sense to want to provide for the rest of their society before the bombs obliterated the mass majority of our population.” Mia sighs as she explains her thoughts.


I head up to a broken tube. I look around the ground and see nothing that screams to me what was once inside of the tube. Broken glass is scattered and whatever was there is gone now.


“Looks like something got out of this one.” I say quietly.