Chapter 07 Horrors of the Lab 70

Chen stood outside Lab 67, her hand resting on the door handle.

Locked.

She pressed her ear against the cold metal. Listened.

Nothing.

No voices. No arguments. No muffled words.

Just silence.

She knocked.

"Security. Anyone in there?"

No answer.

She tried the intercom. "Hello, this is Chen from security. Is anyone present?"

No response, intercom camera showing empty lab.

She keyed her radio. "Sandra, this is Chen. You at the monitors?"

A moment of static. Then a warm, playful voice came through.

"Sandra here~ Hey there, fitness pretty girl~ What's up~?"

Chen almost smiled. Almost.

"I need you to check Levels 1 and 2. Tell me if you see anything unusual."

"Unusual how? Like, monsters unusual? Or just regular weird?"

"Anything. Voices. Movement. People where they shouldn't be."

Another pause. The sound of Sandra scrolling through feeds.

"Level 1 is clear. Lobby's empty except for Mara. She's on her phone. Level 2 is clear. Cafeteria's empty. The only person in there is Maka, making something in the kitchen. Hallways are empty."

"No arguments? No locked doors with voices inside?"

"Nothing, babe. Same old boring day. Just started, and I'm already counting down until lunch."

"You're sure."

"I'm sure. Hey, speaking of counting down..." Sandra become more intimate. "You should drop by later. We could find a few minutes. Do some fitness in the back room. You know. Cardio~"

Chen closed her eyes.

Sandra was beautiful. Confident. Funny. And she had made her interest very clear, very often. The "fitness" thing was a joke between them, a euphemism that wasn't really a euphemism because they both knew exactly what it meant.

But right now, Chen wasn't in the mood.

"Not today, Sandra."

"Not today? You said that yesterday but still come."

"Today I mean it."

"You always say that. And then you show up with that sad puppy look in your eyes, and we—"

"Sandra."

"Fine, fine. But you're killing me, you know that? Tempting, almost irresistible offer, and you're just... walking away."

"I'm working."

"You're always working. That's why you need the cardio."

Chen shook her head, but there was a tiny smile on her lips. "Just keep watching the monitors. Call me if you see anything."

"I'll call you if I see something worth seeing. Like you. In the back room. Doing fitness."

"Sandra."

"Okay, okay. I'm watching. Go do your security thing. Be a hero."

The radio clicked off.

Chen stood in the empty hallway, her hand on her sidearm.

No voices.
No movement.
Nothing.

But Aris had heard something. And Chen knew well, Aris wasn't the type to imagine things. She turned and walked back toward the security office.

Leo was already back; he pushed open the door and dropped into the chair beside Ben-san. He was in his early thirties, built like someone who had been athletic once and then discovered the quiet pleasures of sitting. 

"Well? What did Jeff say?"

Leo exhaled. Long. Loud. The kind of exhale that meant he got nothing.

"Jeff said damn rabbit didn't move."

"See? Told you it's nothing to worry about."

"He said doors were locked. Cart was where it always is. Happy was in his spot. Same as always."

 "So, Jeff says nothing happened."

"Yeah, Jeff says nothing happened."

"And Dr. Thorne says something happened."

"Dr. Thorne says she saw the cart in the hallway. The door open. Happy blocking the entrance."

"You know what I think? I think this place is old. I think the ventilation system is held together with duct tape and good intentions. I think the wiring hasn't been updated since the Carter administration. And I think there's a reason people start seeing things when they've been breathing recycled air for too long."

 "What? You think it's the building?"

"I think it's something. Not ghosts. Not monsters. Not rabbits that move on their own."

Leo leaned back in his chair. Ran a hand through his hair.

"You think Finch knows anything about this?"

"Same as everyone else. I know that Finch been in his lab for three nights straight. He has his hands full with whatever he is doing there. I don't think he would have time to go around asking if stuffed animal moved or not. So, what do we do, Leo?" 

"For now? We watch." Leo gestured at the screens. "We watch everything. Every hallway. Every door. Every lab. And if anything looks wrong, we call it in."

Leo opened his mouth to speak and then stopped.

His eyes were on the monitors.

On one screen in particular.

Lab 70.

The feed was from the corridor outside the lab. The image was grainy, the lighting poor. Emergency strips along the baseboards cast long, distorted shadows.

 "Ben-san. Look. When did that happen?" 

"I don't know. I was watching lobby feed. Storage room. Loading dock. I was watching Lab 70 like five minutes ago. It was fine. Let me pull up the playback. See when doors opened."

Leo's eyes stayed on the screen.

The corridor was empty. The door was open. The darkness inside was absolute.

And then—

Someone was standing in the doorway.

"Ben-san," Leo said quietly. "Stop pulling playback. Look at the live feed."

"Is that... Is it Finch?" Ben-san asked.

Leo leaned forward.

The camera feed from Lab 70 showed the corridor outside the lab door, not the interior, privacy for sensitive research. All Leo could see was the door, the emergency station beside it, and the stretch of hallway leading to the main junction.

But door was open.

That wasn't unusual. People left their doors open all the time. But the light inside Lab 70 was off. The corridor lights were off too, except for the emergency strips along the baseboards. And standing in the doorway, facing into the hallway, was Dr. Julian Finch.

"Yeah, I think it's Finch, Ben-san. Who else would it be."

He wasn't moving.

Leo watched for a full thirty seconds. Finch stood there, perfectly still, his back to the camera. His white lab coat hung loose. His hands were at his sides. He was facing the wall, the blank concrete wall, like he was reading something written there that nobody else could see.

"I think you should call him, Leo, ask if he's alright. He doesn't look too good right now." 

Leo keyed his mic. "Dr. Finch? This is Security. You okay in there? Come in."

No response.

"Dr. Finch, do you copy?"

Nothing. Finch didn't even twitch.

"Is he sleepwalking or something? He was up for 3 days. Maybe he fell asleep while standing."

Leo felt hairs on the back of his neck prickle. He grabbed his radio and switched to Aris's channel.

"Thorne, you there?"

A moment of static.

"I'm here, Leo. Perfect timing. I called Finch, he is not responding. Can you try calling him?"

"That is exactly why I'm calling you, Aris. Finch is outside his lab. Lab 70. He's just... standing there. Facing the wall. I called out on the PA, but he didn't respond. Didn't even flinch."

"Standing? What? What do you mean?"

"Like a mannequin. Like someone hit pause. It's weirding me out. Look, you're like one lab away from him. Can you just... walk down there? See what's going on? Tell him I said hi? Ask him if he's finally lost his mind or just got a stroke?"

"You're the security here and you want me to ask your question for you?"

"I want you to be my charming, disarming, impossible-to-say-no-to self. Remind him that humans need things like food, sleep and occasionally blinking. Also, tell him his posture is terrible. Standing like that is bad for the spine."

Aris laughed softly. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Be careful."

"It's just Finch, Leo."

"Yeah, I know." He watched the monitor. Finch moved, just a twitch. "Just... be careful."

"It's fine Leo, I'll radio you when I get there."

"Copy that."

Leo radio Chen.

"Listen close. We might have a situation. I need you at Lab 70 on a double. Put those strong legs of yours to good work and get there as fast as possible. Aris might need assistance. Finch is acting all weird."

"Weird?"

"No time to explain, just go."

"Copy that! I'm on my way."

---------------

Aris stepped out of Lab 69 and into the corridor.

Lights were fine here. Bright. Air was cool and dry, recycled from the building's central system. She could hear the distant hum of freezers, the soft beep of a centrifuge from one of the other labs, the whisper of Sarah's voice as she answered a phone call.

She walked past her lab. The corridor curved slightly to the left, and as she rounded the corner, she saw it.

Lights ahead were off. Only illumination came from emergency strips along the base of the walls, casting long, distorted shadows across the floor. The door to Lab 70 was open, a rectangle of absolute black.

And at the end of the hall, beneath a single flickering fluorescent that refused to die completely, stood Dr. Julian Finch.

His back was to her.

He was perfectly still, facing the darkness of his own lab. His white coat was rumpled. His hands hung at his sides. The flickering light caught the edges of his silhouette, making him seem to shift and warp with every pulse.

Aris stopped.

"Julian?"

No response.

She walked closer. Her footsteps echoed in the sudden silence.

"Julian, it's Aris. Leo called. He saw you on the cameras. Said you weren't answering. Are you okay?"

Still nothing.

She was ten feet away now. She could see the back of his lab coat. The slight tremor in his shoulders. The way his hands hung at his sides, fingers slightly curled.

"Hey." She tried to keep her voice light. Friendly. "You're freaking out the security guard. You know how Leo gets. He's probably already drafting a report about 'suspicious scientist behavior.'"

Finch's shoulders trembled. A small sound escaped him, not a word, not quite a sigh. Something in between.

"Julian?" Aris took another step. "What's going on? Your lab went dark. Your comms are down. Sarah said you've been here for three nights straight... Talk to me."

As she got closer, she began to hear him.