Chapter 5: Chapter 3. Corporate Economics

The Night was full of tossing and turning. As Theodore lifted himself out of bed back into the slightly too bright lights of his bedroom, he didn't feel as bad as yesterday, he just felt trashed. The dream was utter nonsense. Some professors talk about speaking heads and the wonders of science. Lecture halls turned into space dust as it lasted. There was also something about Jello. At least there were no Vultures in this one. Those dreams were the worst.

Sitting on the edge of his bedside, Theodore overlooked his living quarters. The area given to him was sizable. Adjacent to the door was a side room slash workspace for whatever side project he assigned to (though those were rare), a singular bean bag (Astrid said it was for morale), and a can of Dr. Pepper labeled "Lime, Grape and Orange Stuff". Astrid said it was for "luck and memories" and not for drinking. He was always curious about what "orange stuff" was. Last day on the job, he was going to drink till the end. No matter how bad it tasted.

Theodore looked at the space given to him. A side room spaced out with a desk and a closet full of supplies and blocks, a singular bean bag next to his bed, a fridge, and several drawers. The personal bathroom was somewhere else. Even if it had been 5 months, it was kind of hard to get used to the abundance of space when he had spent most of his life rooming with someone, but it was...

Then it came back to him. Or at least mixed in with the teeth' dreams. Something about Astrid's head and Eli or something. Then the club teeth. The spinal column was still attached to the head as the eyes rolled back. Whatever dream he had last night must've gone into a nightmare down the line, somewhere past the Jello probably.

Whatever, it was a new day, his bones didn't feel like someone took a weed whacker to them, and he felt bright and set on the world in front of him, ready to change himself and it. First up that horrendous before bed routine, simply flopping down on the bed has done nothing but waste his resting hours with...

Ready. He was bright and ready. Or maybe he needed more sleep. Hard to tell at times but oh well.

As Theodore did the monotonous walk towards the main commons area, he heard the commotion familiar to him from the low points of his life. The sound of the impending office-wide meeting. He could feel his body slowly shutting down all-important brain functions as he entered the room. The smell of cheap food provided for the staff, the self-importance that Astrid stunk of as she prepared her PowerPoint. Even though those days were long gone, Theo could still feel the weight on his chest as though he still wore that tacky nameplate, like a phantom limb that has burned itself within his memory as an extension of him. Deep within his mind, he could feel his tongue reflexively uncoil to say whatever faux polite bullshit needed to get the torture over faster.

To rid himself of such societal pressures, he went the furthest possible distance away from the stage, who sat down by himself near the back, while the front of the stage was empty, lacking the intrigue and the odd intensity of which he had sat. Instead, Eli was nowhere to be found. He thought back to how... unhinged he was after they met. How he was hearing things. Even Theo could feel his body still needed some rest.  It was plausible and there was something in his heart that made him leave him to his work and allow himself to grow from there. Just needed to give him some time. The room slowly quieted down as the sound of construction stopped. Astrid ascended the makeshift steps as the projector was set up by the nameless handy workers in grey.  The new hires thought the whole thing unnecessary,it was an incident caused by a rookie and some has been.   The more experienced researchers however knew what this was as soon news of the incident came out. Eyes focused full of either disappointment for such an incident or some barely holding back their calls for more transparency, even if the contract they signed didn't give them a leg to stand on.  The room went silent with judgement. The company had an incident, it was time for damage control.

"Hello, dear co-workers, researchers, and associated staff. We are gathered here today to bring some news from the supervisors of the U.N.S.T.F!" She paused for suspense and applause that never came. The Board of Directors would like to send their apologies and well wishes over the incident in Area 7-B. We are glad that our Professional researcher and Researcher's incident didn't affect them too harshly. We all have dangers on the job, and it is fully acceptable that Elias Kelly would still need some time to recover and we are extra thankful that Theodore Andino was able to come to this meeting today. For that reason, we will require that all Professional researchers send all logs through me immediately after your session of experimentation is done.

Astrid continued forth with a tone that seemed like she was reading off an imaginary teleprompter.

"However, due to the unfortunate news of the said incident, Area 7-B and all materials inside it will be locked down until we can assure that both our professional staff has been secured and the area has been secured. We would also like to appreciate our staff, Our Grey Plecos, for their help in taking care of such hazardous material as well as our Euphau for their help in keeping us fed. You could say their food is to... Krill for!" The only genuine laugh in the room came from the sole Marine Zoologist in 8-A; in contrast to the rest of the room, it appeared that their sense of humor was as big as the krill they were picking on. Astrid however beamed as though she was in a reality where that joke killed. "From the bottom of our heart, we thank you for your time, and please: enjoy the off hours we've given you and remember that the final frontier doesn't exist until we all push the line."

"That phrase never made sense." As the words left from Theo's throat, the high-pitched bite of an alarm screamed throughout the building and the smell of smoke choked the throats of the conference. The fire alarms weren't like that or the earthquake ones. The wall was turning into a pulsed-up version of itself. It was a trick of the eye from staring at it too long or maybe because of the sound of the alarm howling within their ears. But he recognized the smell... many summers ago after scoring some from Leif's older sister. A night spent in the hospital for fortunately light burns. The memories rushed forth like the fire it fueled. Dear god, that was Napa-. Yet the final word never arose from the electric sparks in Theo's brain. All power was overtaken by a brace for impact as the wall next to them blew open. The ever-shattering chunks of drywall flew with the force of bullets as the power blew through the heads of workers in grey. Nails turned into sniper fire as it burrowed through the cranium of a man in grey, pushing through brain tissue as it blew through the hippocampus, leaving the being's final moments empty as the man's final moments were burned away in front of him.

The scene lasted for around 3 minutes before all that was left was the blazing inferno in the hole where the wall was. As Theodore was splayed on the cold linoleum floor, his brain first raced with the thoughts of what his family would think if the Grecian Kid died out in an underground lab like he was some henchman. But those thoughts were replaced by the regret of not being able to see the faces of those who raised him. And even those thoughts were then replaced with ones of a man screaming to get up. As Theo felt the true meaning of "constant pain", in the back of his mind he labeled this as "some messed up version of survivor's guilt". "God this sucks, fucking nail in my thigh, I'm either gonna die from blood loss or the fire in some underground bunk... fire extinguisher. The thought came by some miracle of focus through the fire and flames as the man forced himself onto his feet, the people reaching out for his aid were ignored as he moved towards the fire extinguisher, currently surrounded by what was still burning off the body.

The cupcake tray is flipped over, as the hole was left blasted open on the right side of the room. Several workers laid to waste in the process of burning from the initial blast as the death rattles sounded throughout the Seventh Level. The conference room was filled with inferno and things that we're lucky to receive a swift death. Their faces were left with the eerie calm of sudden death on their faces. There were others however who left the world in contorted shapes, necks bending to the point where the skin could peel off and the looks in their eyes as though their corpses would scream if they could force the air out of their body as their eyes called for mercy. The echo in the halls of burning flesh, popping and bubbling as the eyes melted in their sockets, the cries of help from those in 7-A were insufficient over the screams of those whose skin was being burned to the bone in 7-C. They called for a warm heart, only to be greeted by the coldness to come on the other side. Theodore had no time to grieve, only to get to the fire extinguisher and minimize the damage until some sort of fire team came. He approached the fire extinguisher and reached out to it, breaking open its case as it was hanging off its hinges. He struggled to reattach the tool to his back as he went to work, suffocating the flames, and holding back his nausea as they revealed the same charred sight.

It seemed like the others had gotten the same idea. A wordless glance exchanged between newly equipped people in gray as they handed him a fire ax. They pushed through the source of the explosion into the decimated area only to find one man overlooking another hole going deeper underground. Eli stood in his lab coat and holding what appeared to be a fragment of the device. Theodore could only look in concern. "Eli, man. I was worried about you. I get it, it's an interesting thing but there are times to observe from a safe distance. The place is still-

"

"It was a decision."

Theo wasn't surprised at the cut-off but was more shocked at the dead tone in his voice.

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"What?"

Crack.

"It was a few years ago. They approached me with this." Eli spread his hands out to the hole. "They were corporate, morally dubious punks but they offered me the chance of looking at this but.. they still found a way to lie to me. I thought there was knowledge here in this rock and it turned out we were sitting on this. These hypocrites say they have pursuits to improve and explore for us and they're waiting to scatter us for building our Babel. You said it yourself, it isn't like me to be kept in the dark like this. None of us should. I, no We can change that. As long as you can hear it.

Cracking. Run.

"Eli, I'm gonna assume that you're kinda rattled cause of the whole blue light thing and also the fact that this place is coming down around us but I'm gonna need you to just step away from the large pit-"

"How? How can you not constantly hear it? Telling you that you can give something to make this world better. You saw it and I know you can see the same thing as me, flashes of each flawed detail in this world that can be fixed by m/ Us. Just please, make this change with...

With that word the men in grey charged at Elias.

The floor cracked.

Crack

Crack

Cracking

Cracking.

Breaking.

Broken.

The floor simply couldn't handle the weight of two men, much less 5 beings. It fell apart under their feet, gravity increasing their rapid descent into the depths of the building. They fell and as they fell, it moved into catastrophe, flailing in the air as the air rushed past their ears, until one by one, they all hit something.

Then the movement stopped. Replaced only, by the lightest hum in the air, as something on the deepest level glowed blue.

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