August 16th, 2020. [Part I]

Savior of the world, is what they’d called it. If only I’d known what from.

A cool summer breeze rippled through the canopy above our heads, letting in just a glimmer of sunset. Four hours deep into the forest, and we were finally closing in on what we came here for—a rumor. A rumor which, if proven true, could change the world as we knew it.

I hacked out a path through some dense shrubs, machete blade reflecting the auburn sky. Sweat beaded on my forehead. “How much further?”

“GPS says we’re pretty much there,” Chloe replied between breaths. “You know, if it’s even real at all.”

“How far is ‘pretty much there’?”

“I don’t know. Two-hundred, three-hundred feet? You’d think you could see it from here.”

Disgruntled, I kept on swinging. My arm ached, my legs cried out in pain, and my stomach growled like a caged tiger. I questioned for a moment whether it was even worth the trouble—then gave in to the sunk-cost fallacy and kept pushing.

I wasn’t exactly a survivalist—rather, I was just very curious. If I could have avoided trekking through eight miles of forest, I would have in a heartbeat. The thrill of adventure, I’d learned, lasts only about thirty minutes before you realize you’ve got seven miles left and not long before nightfall.

“No way. Niko, look!” Chloe called out, snapping me out of my internal monologue. Through the verdant trees, I caught a glimpse of drab concrete. It’s real!

A rush of adrenaline sent me dashing through the remaining undergrowth, into the clearing which surrounded our elusive target. It looked unnatural in such an obscure location as this—like a fragment of reality showing up in a dream it had nothing to do with.

Urban legend goes, a huge laboratory just… appeared deep in the forest one day. The myth started as what people thought was a glitch on Google Maps: a large, grey rectangle, a little ways off the coast of Lake Erie, that quickly drew conspiracists’ eyes. I’d first heard of it in middle school, largely as a scary story to spook our elementary-age siblings. Looking further into it as an adult, I’d discovered it had gone unsolved all those years.

Hankering for an excursion and hoping to find something I could write a thesis on, it seemed like the perfect break from everything. So with a roughly-packed survival kit, an old hiking GPS, and high hopes for the lab’s existence, my cousin Chloe and I set out to learn the truth. And after four (four!) hours of searching, we’d finally found it.

I was speechless trying to take it all in. It seemed impossible, yet the ruined scientific complex intruded our peripherals, spanning a couple hundred feet in either direction. Its concrete base was beginning to crumble away—chunks and debris lined the entrance, ripped off by the cruel hands of time. If the building had had any sort of logo, it’d long since decayed.

“Sun’s going down, primo. You just gonna stand there and gawk at the place, or are we gonna go inside?” Chloe asked, twirling her hunting knife by its handle. Despite her sarcasm, she didn’t seem upset with me.

“My bad.” I caught my breath and clicked on my flashlight. “It’s gonna be dark in there. Did you bring a light?”

She held up her cellphone; the glittery case hurt my eyes, but she’d long insisted it was an improvement. “This’ll work, right?”

“Yeah.”

The revolving glass door at the laboratory’s entrance had shattered, its axle rusty and unmoving. I gave it a good shove—it spun just enough to let us through. I held up my flashlight and began scanning the lobby, as did Chloe behind me.

Nature had torn the foundation apart, seeping through cracks in the cement. The faintest sunset glow emanated from the crevices lining the walls, tinting the whole room a faint scarlet. Grass grew from the grout between each mottled floor tile; moss textured the caved-in ceiling. The reception desk was overgrown—vines crawled down from the ceiling and ensnared the countertop.

I settled my flashlight on a steel plate barely affixed to the back wall. The text engraved upon it, although rusted through and through, was somewhat legible.

“Chloe, come check this out,” I said. She carefully stepped over some debris and met me at the counter. “‘Nock Laboratories. Established in 1957. A better future starts with a deliberate present.’ And I think there’s other stuff, too, but I can’t read it.”

“I swear I’ve heard that name before,” Chloe replied. “Nock Laboratories. Hold on, I’m gonna look it up.”

“Is there service out here?”

She unlocked her phone and checked. “Ugh. Zero bars is crazy.”

“That’s why I had you bring the actual GPS. In case that happened.” I hopped over the desk and started rummaging through the drawers. “Now help me out here.”

“Help you with what?”

“I’m trying to find a map. Or, like, anything else. We’re here to figure this place out, not to sightsee.”

“¡Oh, vaya! ¡Qué naturaleza más hermosa!” Chloe mocked, cupping her hands to mimic binoculars. “But actually, watch out for any creepy-crawlies. With this kind of cell service, an ambulance is not gonna get here in time to save your ass.”

One drawer at a time, we searched the front desk. It seemed like they’d already been plundered before—the only remarkable findings were a few ballpoint pens. They still worked, somehow, which I only found out after Chloe used one to doodle on the back of her hand.

In one of the lower cabinets, I found a dusty, crinkly paper map of the facility. Spreading it out, I realized quickly it was actually several maps—one for each floor. “Hey, Chloe. Guess how many floors.”

“There’s probably some kind of basement, so… five?”

“It’s fourteen,” I said. “Eight up top—well, there were eight, anyways—and six down below. I wish it said what each floor was for, but we’re not that lucky.”

“Hey. Quick question,” Chloe said. She jutted her thumb towards a broken door adjacent to the lobby. “Is that where the fire stairs are supposed to be?”

I scanned over the map. “Uhh… yeah. How’d you know?”

“I used my eyes. One small problem.”

I tiptoed my way over and peered into the shattered windowpane. Unfortunately, I was immediately met with a fallen tree lodging the door shut—likely the ‘small problem’ Chloe had mentioned.

I turned back to face her. “There’s an elevator,” I said, pointing it out on the paper. The ink had faded over the three-halves of a decade it’d been here, but it was still clear enough to see. “How much are you willing to bet it’s broken?”

“Aaand Chloe Johnson is all in.”

I folded up the paper brashly, tucking it away. “No, yeah, a hundred percent. But we should check anyway.”

The hallway’s entrance was cloaked with vines—I brushed them away to investigate further. About fifteen feet wide and ten tall, the passage was quite unwelcoming; double-doors lined either side, rusted over and bolted shut. At the very end, just barely lit by our flashlights, was the elevator. The sliding doors, surprisingly stained for being ‘stainless’ steel, leaned ajar from their frame.

Holding my machete ahead to catch any stray webs, I approached tentatively. Upon closer inspection, the stains were a mix of water damage, mud, and some other black-ish substance in the form of a splatter. It probably wasn’t blood—but some part of me wanted to believe we were about to discover some morbid secret, so I pretended it was.

“Niko,” Chloe said, “I don’t think there’s any way we’re getting in there, dude.”

I put a hand on each door and engaged my whole body to push them apart; to my surprise, they slid as I’d wanted. A light scraping resounded on either side as they fell roughly into place.

I shot Chloe a quick smirk. “What’s that about– ack!”

Where I’d expected there to be an elevator, there was an empty shaft, a husk of itself—and I’d lost my balance opening the doors. Gravity gripped my vest and yanked me forward.

“Niko!” Chloe cried.

Stomach dropping, I shot my arms out for the rusty steel cable in the center of the shaft. My leather gloves scuffed against the wire; my fingertips tore as I came to a grinding halt, dangling above the abyss. I looked up at Chloe, her hands cupped over her mouth.

“Bitch, help me!” I cried out, legs trying to find a grip. My heart pounded in my chest so violently it nearly broke my ribs. I slipped a little further and prayed for my life as Chloe scrambled to her knees.

She stretched her hand out towards mine, and with a grunt, I clasped it. Given how strong she was, I quickly found myself standing back in the doorway, adrenaline coursing through my body. I threw off my backpack, dug out my first aid kit, and laid a couple sterilizing wipes over my bloody fingers.

We were silent for a minute while I recovered. I glanced up at her, about to apologize for what I’d said, and saw her staring at the open doors. Her eyes flicked over to mine.

“Hey, sorry for calling you a bitch. That was mean,” I said, still a little high on hormones. “You just saved my life.”

“It’s okay. That’s honestly on me.”

“Seriously, you’re good. No hard feelings?”

“Nunca,” she said, offering me a hand. “We’re both alive. That’s what matters.” My raw skin stung when I took it; after fully standing up, I shook off the pain.

Chloe seemed contemplative as we stood before the elevator shaft. I angled my flashlight down the chute to get an idea of how much height we were working with.

“We should try looking for another way down,” Chloe said. “Any ideas?”

“Uh… the fire stairs are blocked off. But that’s only on our floor, right? So if we can just get down one more floor, we’ll have full access to the lab.”

“You still have the map?”

“Yeah, hold on.”

We unfolded the map and laid it on the grimy tile. Scanning over the whole first floor, it did seem like there was another fire staircase, right next to the elevator—except it was behind one of the many bolted doors.

I wish that’d stopped us.

“The thing’s locked behind a card reader,” said Chloe. “Employees only.”

“Well, if it’s only one floor we have to drop… we might still have a way down,” I said. “But you’re not gonna like it.”

“What? Jumping back in again?”

“Actually, yeah.”

She narrowed her gaze. “I was kidding…”

“I’m not. That elevator cable is still connected to the box down there. So, ignoring how stupid and dangerous it is, we could climb down and look around…?”

“Are you really that curious?”

“This is the opportunity of a generation, Chloe. I’m not passing it up.”

“Even though your fingertips look like shredded cheese.”

“One, ew. Two, I have calluses, so I’ll be fine.”

“What, you play the guitar?” Chloe asked.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “You didn’t know that?”

She shrugged. “Never asked, I guess.”

Walking slowly towards the chasm, I felt my heart race again. Despite what I’d told Chloe, my hands did still hurt, and if I lost my grip too early, well…

I braced myself and slowly let my balance go, reaching out and taking the taut elevator cord in hand. My feet still lightly held the doorframe’s metal lip, placing me at a diagonal. I tried not to look down.

The descent was sloppy and scrappy. Chloe stayed only a few feet above me the whole time, uncannily nimbler than I—she called over and over to speed up, or she would lose her grip. By the time we reached the floor below, her voice was hoarse, and mine too from yelling back at her.

I swung off from the cord and landed in the surprisingly open doorway of floor B1. As Chloe did the same, I found an emergency panel had been ripped off the wall beside it, likely how the doors had been forced open. A gut feeling I’d had for a little while now began to eat away at me.

Something seems off, somehow. Other people have been here, haven’t they?

I wish I’d listened to my gut.

“Yo, Niko. You should put this on,” Chloe called. When I turned, I saw her holding up an old, moldy lab coat.

“That’s a fashion statement.”

“Yeah. I should bring this back to my studio. I’ll make millions.” She turned it around and shook it down—a keycard fell out. I watched her pick it up with intrigue, which turned to dismay.

“What’s wrong?”

She blinked. “I just remembered where I’d heard of Nock Labs before. That’s where Maya’s interning.”

Maya, Chloe’s little sister and my second favorite cousin, had started her degree a few years early. She was eighteen now, already working at a prestigious laboratory in downtown Serpho—apparently the very same one we were investigating. That made zero sense.

“Then… maybe this is an offshoot? Like a second location?” I threw together words in hopes they’d make some kind of coherent statement.

“Sure, but what about the four hours it took to get here?” Chloe said, pocketing the card. “No matter how you piece it together, it just doesn’t add up. I can’t shake the feeling something went… really wrong here.”

“That can be our mystery, then. And we’re pretty good at solving mysteries.”

“Hell yeah. Y’know, it’s definitely been a while– wait. That’s why you brought me out here?”

I pursed my lips and looked away. “Guilty as charged.”

“This sucks. I can’t even be mad at you for it. I’ve been itching for a new case. And this… well, it’s something new, that’s for sure.”

We spread out and started searching the new floor for anything particularly exciting. Lots of smudged papers in one room, an abomination of plant growth in the next—the whole level turned up empty. With one exception.

Chloe and I happened upon the room labeled ‘mortuary’ at the same time. It was pitch black and smelled like tar, but what intrigued me was a notice pinned to the wall, untouched by years of flooding.

“From Doctor White,” I read aloud, “we’ve taken some of the bodies for use in a high-clearance project on floor B7. I would list which ones, but you can use your eyes. Do not expect these subjects back at any time and seriously stop asking me about it. Thanks.”

I wish we’d never found that note.

“Floor B7,” Chloe echoed. “You said there were only six floors below the ground.”

“It says high-clearance, doesn’t it? They were probably hiding it.”

“That, and some kind of experiment involving dead bodies. Yeah, whatever this is, it’s juicy. Niko, we’re onto something here.” Chloe was genuinely smiling as she said it. That didn’t happen often.

I followed her out the door and down the hall until we approached the main stairwell—the one blocked off on ground level, and the only one accessible to us. Even having nabbed a keycard, the facility wasn’t powered, so it was pointless.

“What’s the plan? Are we gonna go through every floor until we get to the bottom of this, literally?” I asked.

“Be for real, Niko. If the floor’s on the map, there’s probably nothing there. Nothing interesting, anyways. We’re going down as far as we can.”