ic Happiness in Slavery

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"Everyone wants progress, in their own way, I guess," Nicole said in lieu of asking more questions. No words were spoken between the two women as the elevator descended. Instead, Nicole went through some of the mental exercises she had learned from Marquez and Terrifica. How to make certain experiences stick less to your mind, to dissociate them from events and things and people that would otherwise be marred by mental proximity.

 

Finally, the doors opened and theymoved forward and when Rita asked again if she wanted to proceed, Nicole nodded her head vigorously.

 

"I appreciate the concern, Rita." Nicole gave the doctor a reassuring smile, which quickly turned into a grin. "But I think it's important. All this secrecy... kind of makes a girl want to look even more."

Edited June 23, 2019 by Zeitgeist Blue

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Yeah, that was really not my intention." Rita's response was short, as she led Nicole a bit further down the hall, before stopping by a door with the letters "n F" stamped on the door in white paint. Bringing her key up to card reader, Rita quickly entered her code, and then pushed the door open. No automatic door opening here, it seemed.

 

Inside, Nicole would be met with what appeared to be a large glass cage in the middle of the stark white room. It was maybe 3 by 3 by 3 meters in size, and empty, save for what at first sight appeared to be about 20 mice, all lying scattered around in the cage. Of course, they only appeared to be just regular mice at the first look. Metallic bits and pieces protruded from their bodies, which appeared to be patchworks of organic and metallic parts. Some had twisted bodies, barely looking like mice anymore, with extended jaws, spikes sticking out of their bodies, fused limbs and worse.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"What... happened here?"

 

Nicole resisted the urge to blanch as the room's only installment was revealed to her. Mice, yet made wrong. She paused by the doorway before pushing forward into the room, her brows furrowed in determination. Her journey to the middle of the room seemed longer to her than the several seconds it should have took her, but she reached the glass cage and placed a hand over it. There was disgust yes, a growing sense of anger, but pity washed over both.

 

"You poor things," she said. These unlucky mice were victims more than monsters, grotesque in such a way that she could not tear her eyes from the sight. She could see eyeballs stuck out in metallic snail-like contraptions. One mouse wriggled across the ground, legless, like a worm. Several mice were fused together, heads and limbs jutting out with no rhyme in a mass of flesh and steel, and they sat immobile.

 

Yet Nicole carved everything she saw into memory.

 

"I bet if there's anything you'd want right now it's to be fixed of this." Then a shiver ran up her spine and she could feel heat color her cheeks. She whirled on Rita. "And your colleagues want to go through with human subjects after this? There shouldn't be any chance of this happening! Not 1%, not half a percent. None." 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"My point exactly. This is bad enough, imagine if it happened to a human being." Rita had crossed her arms, having stayed back near the door while Nicole had approached the cage. She looked appropriately horrified at the grotesque mice that lay scattered inside the cage. "But it gets worse. Look." Rita raised her right hand, pointing at the glass cage. Most of the mice had started moving, dragging or pulling themselves towards Nicole. One reached the cage, and started slowly bumping against it, over and over. 

 

Rita shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. "They're still alive. I can't even imagine the pain that they're in, but they're still alive. We've tried to put them down, but everything short of a cremation? The nanomachines just keep repairing them and bringing them back." She made a short pause again. "To play the devil's advocate for a moment, it has been a long time since we've had something like this happen. We've improved the nanomachines a lot, gone through several generations since this one, but the main issue is, we still don't know why this happened. I would've burned them all, but we need something to study to figure out what happened."

 

More mice had reached the cage, all bumping against it over and over, trying to reach Nicole. "There's no way we can start on any higher life forms until we know just how to prevent this from happening."

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

Nicole's eyes grew wide in surprise and she quickly pulled her hand back as the mice began to move towards her, one mice bumping against the glass. Then more of them came, bumping against the glass, until Nicole could hear the thuds of hard bodies. No rhyme or rhythm, but unceasing, it filled Nicole's ears as close as she was.

 

She moved back and away from the glass, eyeing the mice warily.

 

She wasn't meant to see things like these. That was what Salvo was for, to put up a barrier between her and the outside world. Physically armored, but also mentally, psychologically. Outside of it, she was just a normal teenager. But she was a teenager who found a morbid sight, and like watching ants tear into a small animal's corpse she couldn't tear her eyes away from it now, not even if it made her feel like throwing up a little.

 

She had to see it through.

 

"Agreed," Nicole said in response to Rita's words. "I'd--" Her voice wavered and she paused, took a deep breathe, and continued more forcefully. "I'd like to see your documentation, especially on the testing and results of these... mice. Please. See what's changed between the iterations of the nanomachines used."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

There was a final bump, then the mice all seemed to stop at the same time. They all sat back, or at least as well as they could, staring up at Nicole. They moved in perfect unity, perfectly synchronized. Rita seemed to shudder at the sight. "They... do that. Let's get out of here, alright?" She obviously didn't seem like she wanted to stay in the room longer than she had too.

 

Once they were out in the hallway, she closed the door shut, and sighed heavily. "I'm really not supposed to show you things like that." She replied, showing a weak smile before starting walking. "But, let's go. I need all the backup I can get here, and having someone from the outside would be better than someone who had already decided, anyway."

 

Rita started quickly leading the way back to the elevator, starting to ascend, to get to her office. *bump*

Edited July 5, 2019 by RocketLord

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

Nicole let out a breathe she did not know she was holding as they left the room. The last image had shaken her especially so. Mice-- things moving so much in synch couldn't but churn her imagination. Were the mice even conscious of their surroundings or were the nanomachines in complete control, the mice only able to watch helplessly as a force they could not understand made them move there or look here?

 

She rubbed at her arms, suddenly cold though the hallway's temperature had not lowered from before.

 

"Yeah, but thanks anyway," Nicole said, returning Rita's look though not the smile. She took no time to bow her head down as the elevator ascended. She had made up her mind on Rita's research before the elevator doors had closed. Dangerous, so so dangerous, and until what went wrong could be isolated and eliminated thoroughly human testing shouldn't even be a consideration. That some in Rita's team did so anyway made her feel even colder, and so she retreated further into her thoughts.

 

Then she heard a bump.

 

Nicole almost jumped in her seat.

 

"What-- what was that?" She asked, looking around until her eyes landed on Rita. "Did you hear something or am I just jittery?"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Huh? I didn't hear anything." Rita seemed like she had been deep in thought. Whatever it was, Rita clearly hadn't heard it. The elevator continued up, further than the laboratory that Rita had previously shown Nicole. It stopped with a ding, leading out into a rather open area. There were work stations spread around, with offices placed in big cubes in seemingly random positions across the room. 

 

Rita led the way. She seemed uneasy about the whole situation, but still. "Remember, everything you see here is included in the NDA, alright? We can't risk any of it getting out." She turned to the right, then the left, then stopped in front of an office with Rita's name on the door and presented her keycard, opening the door.

 

The office itself was rather spartan. Rita obviously spent more time in the laboratory than here. There were a bookcase with a number of books on subjects related to Rita's research, quite a few of them written by herself, a couple of chairs, and a desk with a computer and a printer. Rita went to the computer. "I'll bring up the files, and let's see what you can find. Could you get the door?"

 

Once ready, she turned the screen around and placed the keyboard and mouse in front of Nicole. Now, the question was whether Nicole would notice anything out of the ordinary or not.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"Guess it was just nerves." Nicole sighed with relief. She spent the next couple of minutes to Rita's office composing herself until she was ready to tackle the next problem.

 

"I remember," Nicole replied to Rita's reminder.

 

Then they were in Rita's office and after Nicole had pushed the door shut she moved towards the computer, taking the mouse in her hand. Whatever had once happened was now in the past. Now Nicole was in her element once more.

 

Reams of information were as far from her as a few clicks of the mouse and soon the teenager had pushed everything from her mind save what was displayed on the computer screen.

 

First, she read the terminology Rita's team used, her eyes scanning for a few seconds many explanations which made no sense to her yet. They would soon but first she had to start from the very beginning of this scientific endeavor.

 

She learnt with Rita and the team. Took the first tepid steps into uncharted territory. Explored new boundaries. Experienced failures. She had soon reached the animal experimentation and the creation of the nanomachine mice. She pushed through, until the mice no longer became like abominations but were better all the more for the nanomachines. Still, the scientists could not figure out why the initial testings had gone horribly wrong. They scratched their heads and scratched some more and Nicole herself could see the frustration mounting there.

 

Finally, Nicole pushed herself back from the monitor, her fingers rubbing the strain from her eyes. A glance at the clock showed her the passage of time since she had took to reading. In some ways she had advanced her understanding of the Rita's research but in others she was still frustrstingly in the dark.

 

The horrible documentation obscured the cause and effect of... anything really. Too many versions and comments of one thing, some of them contradictory. It was a mess to say the least.

 

"Done," Nicole said, to Rita or an empty room it did not matter. "This would take some more time to unpack but I've got the basic gist."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Rita had not exactly been idle, while Nicole had spent time reading. She had been scrolling through something on her phone, though what, Nicole could not quite see. When Nicole announced that she was done, Rita looked up from her phone, locked and pocketed it. *bump* She mustered a tired smile at Nicole, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, that's the big issue with a lot of smart people. They just want to do the cool things, they don't want to spend all their times writing about what they've done." 

 

She moved over, closer to where Nicole was, and leaned over her. "Here, now that you got an overview... I'm guessing that whatever made the change is somewhere in these commits." She pointed out a helpful *bump* number of commits, reducing the number quite a bit, to just somewhere around 200 possibilities. Still a lot to look through, but nothing compared to *bump* what it had been before. There was a bit of a challenge in her eyes, as she sent Nicole a grin. "So, do you think you can find the needle in a slightly smaller haystack?" *bump*

Edited July 9, 2019 by RocketLord

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

She heard a bump as Rita approached and Nicole frowned slightly. She must be imagining things and so she pushed the sound out of her mind. Then Rita was beside her, ready to point out inconsistencies, help her navigate through the maze of documents.

 

Another bump. Nicole almost jumped out of her seat and she stole a glance around the room while Rita was not looking. Her mind must be playing tricks with her, replaying the sounds of the unlucky mice in her head. She had perfect memory, true, but still she had never known her mind to be so subtle as to blur the lines between the present and the past. Even she had been fooled.

 

She shook her head, focusing on Rita's instructions. She clicked here and there. She read through a quick summary then moved to where it suggested the possible commit would be. Rita seemed to be pleased with her progress and the doctor gave Nicole a challenge accompanied by a wide grin, teeth bared so close to the teenager.

 

Bump.

 

"I-- I think I've got it now. Just give me a few more minutes."

 

Nicole gave a weak smile back, barely glancing at Rita, before she turned her eyes to the monitor. A cold sweat broke across her back and she had the urge to reach back and scratch but she did not. Instead she glued her eyes to the monitor, hand clicking the mouse like her life depended on it. All the while Rita looked over her shoulder, the bumps continually getting more frequent and louder.

 

She had narrowed it down to 20 commits before she was stump and by then the bumps had gotten so close. Nicole pushed the keyboard away and she herself moved her wheelchair a bit from the desk and Rita.

 

With the sleeve of her wrist, she wiped sweat from her brow though the room was cold from the air conditioning.

 

"I need some help, but I'm so close. Can-- can you take a look for me?"

 

Her eyes flickered to Rita then towards the door of the room. If only she could get out and find some place alone. She could close her eyes and Bellios would be summoned from the unseen places.

 

"I've got to go to the washroom." Nicole said lamely, throwing her thumb to the door. "I'll be back in a bit."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

*bump*

 

The sounds were getting more frequent. Louder too. As much as Nicole might have doubted it at first, it was no mere imagination. 

 

*bump*

 

Close, so close. As she reached for the door, she could almost swear that the sound was right outside. 

 

"Did you hear that?" Rita looked around. She looked worried. "Like, a bump." However she might have missed the noise before, she could hear it now. 

 

As the door swung open, Nicole found herself staring at twelve little white mice, all sitting nicely arranged in three rows of four outside the door. They were looking up at her with their red eyes, as they all sat on their behinds, the feet of their frontlegs clasped in front of them. They were quiet, unmoving, but for all intents and purposes, they appeared to be completely ordinary mice.

 

*bump*

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"Rita," Nicole said in a whisper, her eyes wide with fright. She backed away from the doorway slowly for fear of prompting the mice into acting. One hand reached out for something to wield as a weapon and found a table lamp.

 

She felt the weight as she brought it close to her chest, hefting solid metal with both hands. Her fingers trembled but she only gripped the lamp harder, knuckles going white, to stop the trembling.

 

"Why the hell are they outside?" Her whispers were frantic as she whipped her head around the room to find another exit. There had to be something, a way out or to get everyone to shut their eyes for just one second, else... else she was going down to a pack of mice.

 

She'd have laughed if she wasn't so terrified.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Zeitgeist Blue

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"What is it?" Rita looked up, having been looking at the screen. her eyes widened, the look in them echoing the one that Nicole had displayed when she saw the mice. "Close the door! Now!"

 

She stormed over, and despite her order to Nicole, Rita did the work herself, shutting the door straight in the faces of the mice. Just before the door closed, Nicole saw that the mice hadn't moved at all. Her search for an escape route seemed rather fruitless. There was a small air duct, but much smaller than what a person could fit through. The door seemed to be the only escape route.

 

"We shut the door, right? I shut the door completely!" Rita's calm had completely disappeared, while she started wide eyed at Nicole. "They're not... They were dead. Completely dead. No life signs. It doesn't make any sense."

 

*bump*

 

The sounds were clearly coming from the door now. But there were something more. A sound, like *scritch scritch scritch*, continuously coming from all around them, though seeming to head towards the small air duct leading into the room.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

Nothing. Nicole's face turned white as she tried to find options but fell flat, and that made her squeeze the lamppost even tighter.

 

"I don't know. I don't know!" She was shaking her head vigorously.

 

Then the scratching in the walls started, a sound that seemed made to unnerve the teenager. But an idea came to her mind and she quickly discarded the lamppost, rushing up to Rita's terminal to message anyone and everyone in the laboratory's systems. Send help. Send security.

 

She hit Enter and then froze, scenarios running through her mind as the bumps and the scratches turned more intense. They were running out of time. In all likelyhood security wouldn't get to them in time and-- and--. The mice could do whatever it planned.

 

So she made a decision and, eyes still glued to the computer screen for replies, very calmly said, "Rita. I need you to trust me and close your eyes. Keep it close until I say so and we will get out of this alright. I promise you."

 

She turned to face Rita to show how serious she was.

 

They needed to summon Bellios.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

As Nicole started typing at the terminal, the scritches and scratches and bumps continued. Rita grabbed the discarded lamp, as the door now began to shake with each bump that came from it. Whatever was happening on the other side of the door, the mice were slowly starting to get through. 

 

It had been easy enough to find a mailing list, a group that seemed to cover most of the building, and to send the message. Rita looked at Nicole, her eyes scrutinizing the intern. "Alright, I guess. Just be quick with whatever you need to do." As the seconds ticked by and Nicole could do whatever she planned, the terminal suddenly shut down, the screen going black. Rita didn't even have time to shut her eyes before she screamed, swinging the lamp in her hand towards the small mouse that was in the room, chewing through the power cable to the terminal. "They're in here!" The panic was clear in her voice as she swung the lamp again and again, the mouse deftly moving out of the way from every swing.

 

And then... *bump* 

 

With a crash, the grate in front of the air duct fell out, mice starting to stream out and into the room. All seemed changed by the nanomachines, but there were so many more than what Rita had shown Nicole in the room.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

With a crash, the computer was sent tumbling to the floor as Nicole shoved the terminal at the mouse for all the good that did. She could only hope the message had been sent before the mouse shut the computer down.

 

Then the air duct exploded with mice streaming into the room, crawling across the wall to fill the space, and Nicole joined her screams with Rita's.

 

No no no no no no no.

 

Her eyes locked into the swarm then to the doorway to Rita's office. She realized it was their only exit and her heart started pumping faster as adrenaline surged through her blood.

 

She wasn't going to die here. She wasn't going to turn into food for things that looked like a deranged sculptor had created. She refused it.

 

Her wheels spun around and she sped to the door, grabbing Rita's labcoat as she passed by.

 

"We need to run like right now!"

Edited August 1, 2019 by Zeitgeist Blue

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Yes... Yes!" Rita shouted, turning and running after Nicole as she rolled past. The door opening before them, revealing much more than just the twelve mice that had been sitting outside moments before. Much like the continuing stream of mice that seemed to be rushing after them, almost like a wave of flesh, fur and metal, the mice seemed to appear from everywhere inside the office. Strangely, despite having been populated with people moments before, the entire office was now empty, save for the mice.

 

They had options of where to go, of course. The elevator. The stairs. Out the window. All had disadvantages and advantages, especially given they were at least a floors above ground. 

 

"Argh!" Rita had picked up a floor lamp and was using its rather wide foot to try and smash the mice that were catching up with them. "What the hell? We haven't even tested this many mice!"

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"Less talking! More running!"

 

Nicole zoomed past Rita, pulling her by the tail of her labcoat towards the elevators. She'd souped up her wheelchair to be as fast as a segway or a running person when pushed and, now more than ever, she was thankful that she'd showered that much love to her belongings as she had.

 

So she kept up with Rita easily. One hand gripped her wheelchair's joystick, navigating the desks and chairs whileshe focused intently on the path to the elevator. Even if her wheelchair was as fast as Rita, it wasn't as maneuverable, and one wrong turn or crash could leave her unable to escape the mice.

 

She hit the elevator button pointing down, and for some miracle the doors opened immediately for them. She rammed her chair inside and rapidly tapped on the button to shut the doors.

 

"Get in Rita! We're getting the hell out!"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Rita struggled to keep up. She was clearly not used to running, and even the adrenaline could only keep her going for so long. If Nicole wasn't pulling her along, she would probably have fallen behind. 

 

The mice in their path jumped at them, several falling under Nicole's wheels and being squashed, though it didn't stop their movements. No, it seemed like it would take something much more to get rid of these mice. 

 

Rita threw herself into the elevator after Nicole, the stream of mice following as the doors slowly closed. Three mice managed to spill inside, one having its tail caught in the door. It made no sound and simply pulled until the tip of its tail came loose, then launched itself at Nicole and Rita along with its companions. 

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

"Move move MOVE!"

 

She ducked as the lead mouse flew right for her, its claws and mouth scratching at air, only for it to miss and crash against the wall behind her. There was no time to think as the other two mice scampered to them but Nicole rammed her joystick forward, her body jolting back from the sudden movement.

 

Nicole handled her wheelchair like a madwoman. Five feet by five feet. Her wheels scrapped the sides as she performed wheelies in the enclosed space, avoiding Rita and the mouse and its mice friends round in circles, until she wasn't sure whether the mice were chasing them or them the mice.

 

She caught up to the rear mouse, the one missing a tail, and wedged it under one of her wheels.

 

"Gotcha," she said before driving her elbow down on the wheelchair's arm, crushing the mouse. "You. Little. Crap."

 

Each word was punctuated by another elbow down. The mouse wasn't struggling anymore but she didn't have time to check if it was still alive as Rita crashed against her from behind, pushing her forward by the wheelchair's handles as two other mice chased them in a circle.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Zeitgeist Blue

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Rita screamed, ducking to the side as the mice came in, while Nicole moved around at the rather confined space in the elevator, attempting to squeeze the mice. She only just managed to stay out of the way to give Nicole room to work as the mice moved through the elevator. Brilliant scientist or not, she seemed to be completely out of her element here.

 

The mouse made a weird crunching noise as Nicole smashed it under her wheels. It was soft, and yet metallic. Like it was something harder than what it was supposed to be, something not quite metal, and yet not quite flesh. The crushed mouse left a silver smear on the floor, while the other two kept moving about. With a loud squeak, one of them changed direction from Nicole, heading straight for Rita's leg, quickly running up her body. "Getitoff!" Rita did her best, but the mouse dodged any attempt she made, until, finally, it reached the back of her neck, where it bit into her.

 

She screamed in pain, then fell silent. Though still standing, she slumped forward, with the mouse, its eyes now glowing yellow, still attached to her neck.

 

The last mouse headed for Nicole, attempting to run up her leg.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

She swiped at the mouse with the back of her hand as it reached her knee, sending it across the elevator to smack against the wall. It slid to the floor on its back and before it could jump to its legs, Nicole was jolting her wheelchair forward.

 

"You aren't going anywhere!" Light glintef off her glasses, obscuring the killing intent in her eyes.

 

Brrrrrrr.

 

Her tires dug into the floor and she grabbed the lamppost Rita had dropped. With one hand she swung down, squishing it against the floor. Silver smears stuck to the lamppost as she raised her weapon high above and brought it down again. More smears splattered around the mouse's body.

 

Nicole looked back at Rita, only noticing the eerily still stance of the scientist and the mouse hanging behind her neck.

 

"Rita?" Nicole said, turning her wheelchair so she could hold the lamppost between them. Warily, she moved towards Rita. "You there?"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Another metallic and brown smear was left against the elevator and stuck to the lamppost. When the mouse had been brought in for testing, it had been old and half blind. Parts of it left ear was missing, and it only had three legs. Several toes had been missing from its three remaining feet. The nanomachines had repaired all that, before their effect had hit at full power, and the mouse had to be deemed a failure. Now, it was but a silver smear.

 

Rita stood motionless. The mouse held on to her neck, its teeth embedded in her flesh, its claws drawing blood from where it held on. Rita stared ahead, an empty expression in her eyes. It was like she didn't even see Nicole before her. Small silver lines that looked almost like circuitry were spreading from the points where the mouse held on to her.

 

The moment of silence was broken by numerous bumps from outside the elevator. It sounded like the mice were launching themselves against the door, over and over again.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole

 

The bumping beyond the confines of the elevator jolted Nicole into action and she drove her wheelchair forward, swinging the lamppost wildly. She missed the mouse and hit Rita instead. The second swing dislodged the mouse from the scientist's neck and it splayed on the floor near Rita's feet.

 

Nicole made short work of it like she did its two companions before she turned to Rita, who was sti standing stock still. The bumping continued and Nicole grabbed Rita by the arms, shaking her violently.

 

"Rita," Nicole whispered, eyes with wide terror. She shook the scientist harder, adrenaline giving her a desperate strength. "Rita Rita Rita Rita!"

 

"We need to run." She noticed the silver circuirty spreading from the neck and it only made her fear the worst. "You hear me? Once the doors open the mice will come in and if they catch us inside we're dead women. Do you understand?"