The Sludge: Part 4
Abigail had been taken to a locker room of sorts, and under armed supervision, had been allowed to shower and change her clothes into a Cell Breach uniform. She looked at herself in the mirror and held back the tears. There had been too much of that lately, and she found it did no good anymore.
An armed guard leaned in to the room, her momentary privacy shattered.
"You done?" He said in a harsh tone. Abigail sighed and walked up to him.
"Let's go." She said, the defeat in her voice almost palpable. The guard nodded his head in a direction down the hall, and Abigail began walking that way.
They went lower into the facility, all the way to the ground floor. Abigail was brought past the giant vats of yellow liquid, and into a somewhat secured area that had been fenced off. The fence had warning signs plastered all over it for electric shock, and if it didn't already feel like prison, it could not be denied now.
Abigail was led inside and the fenced door was shut and chain locked behind her. The area she occupied had lots of space, and several bungalow like rooms set up for containment free work. The ominous centerpieces were four tanks, almost the exact same as the one from the concrete bunker. These ones had other, more significant labels on them.
Project Flood Gates: Subject 1.02
Project Flood Gates: Subject 2.07
Project Flood Gates: Subject 3.04
Project Flood Gates: Subject 4.09
Abigail shuddered at the thought of what, or even who, comprised the contents of each tank. There was no one else in the area but her, so Abigail turned to the armed guard who had just begun to walk away.
"What am I even supposed to be doing? Who else is coming?" She said as she ran to the fence, making sure to not touch it as she drew close. The guard rolled his eyes and took a few steps back to her before he spoke.
"There are some dossiers on the desk over there. They should get you going on whatever the hell it is they want you to do. You’re taking over the place of the last guy who worked here, I can't for the life of me remember his name, though. It's just you sweetheart." He said.
"What happened to the person before me?" Abigail asked, despite her conscious screaming at her not to.
"He's dead. Get to work or you will be to." The guard spun on his heels and walked away, leaving Abigail alone in her cage.
Abigail went back to the desk, and there were a few folders on top. She sifted through them for hours, and the information inside sent chills through her soul.
Project Flood Gates was an attempt to splice and fuse human functions into a sort of toxic slime mold, creating a deadly and controllable weapon. Human subjects were put into a toxic substance, which essentially dissolved them down to their DNA, and then mixed it with various slime molds and other single celled organisms. The experiments had yielded five successful subjects, each one a sentient sludge, with the ability to move as a viscous liquid or become humanoid in form. The cells and toxic components in the sludge could dissolve flesh as a way of sustenance, and as an attack.
The problem seemed to lie in control. They had been able to make these vile abominations, but could not get them to follow orders, so they had been restrained in the tanks for observation and research.
She could find no information on the tank that they had found in the bunker, but she could only assume it was a particularly unruly subject, and that they had not expected it to be able to escape.
Abigail then walked over to the tanks. She circled each one, thinking of the kind of existence that these sludge hybrids now lived in. Despite her efforts, Abigail quietly wept once more.
As she cried, she placed her head on the tank, and could hear the sludge inside sloshing about. An unexpected thud from right next to her head startled Abigail, and she retreated from the tank.
Can it sense me? How sentient is it? She thought to herself. Then, an idea crawled into her mind.
Abigail walked over and tapped on the tank three times. Then she waited. Three rhythmic knocks from within resonated in the room.
Abigail felt suddenly renewed. A scientific jolt had coursed through her, and she began working quickly.
Each of the tanks had valves with wheel-like cranks on them. The one the bunker must have had to keep everything inside, but the sludge had found a way. These ones just couldn't figure it out, that must be why they were here. The one on the loose was a sort of alpha, an apex. Abigail tapped on the valve. Almost immediately there was a loud crash and thundering reverberations from the tank.
It knew. It knew that was its key to escape, most likely from when it had been pumped into the tank and sealed away.
It was smarter than Abigail could imagine. The audible tantrum it threw was still ongoing, but Abigail looked around and found a large metal tool nearby. She took it and slammed it into the wall of the tank. The sludge inside went quiet.
Abigail tapped three times on the valve, and waited. Three more reversed knocks returned, and Abigail's mind began to whirl.
She had an idea, a plan, but it would take some time, and with all the guards and surveillance she would never be able to get it done. She frantically looked around, hoping there was something that could help. Abigail slammed the tool down in frustration and covered her face with her hands.
As she stood in anguish, a loud siren began to blare out through the entire facility. Her head whipped around, watching as each guard seemed to be in a stasis, waiting for a signal.
A voice roared over the intercom.
"Alert! Facility has been breached. Subject 5.13 is onsite, all available personnel to the loading dock. Code Red. Contain or destroy. Alert!"
Abigail watched all the guards within range of her run with purpose. The siren still rang out, but she was now more alone then ever.
Tears came once more, but this time, they were of hope.
Abigail moved quickly, repeating the tapping communication with all the tanks. Once she had all four in unison, they began to release the valves on each tank one by one.
Each one oozed out the same green sludge that pooled up and then began to writhe and sluggishly move. After all four had been released, Abigail now stood and watched each one rise up, a similar but different form standing up from the puddle of sludge it once was.
The four forms now stood, and Abigail felt fear run through her, but she had made this choice, and the fear did not break her. She waited, fully expecting them to turn on her now, but her hope was they could tear the whole facility apart, now that they were free.
They did not even acknowledge Abigail's presence, however.
The four sludge monsters all moved around one of the tanks, and worked together to lift it from its bolted position. Abigail retreated away, and watched the monsters rip the heavy tank from the ground, and then with immense force throw it through the electric fence that caged them all in.
The fence crackled and sparked, but it was no match. The four monsters left in awkward human like strides through the gaping hole in the fence.
Abigail waited until they had moved quite some distance away before she too exited the cage. She knew one thing now; she had to go up. The only way out she knew was through the helipad, and it was a long, complicated run, but it was now or never.
She went to run up a flight of stairs and the sudden eruption of heavy gunfire nearly had her falling back down in shock. Abigail continued up the stairs and finally got a view of the carnage in the facility.
The four sludge monsters were rampaging around the facility floor, attacking workers and guards alike. Near the top of the facility she could hear the visceral voice of Bridget Horn, screeching orders over a megaphone. She loomed over the operation, gunmen at her side.
Abigail was slightly impressed in the sheer audacity of Horn as the leader started to shoot smoking canisters from a breach-loading grenade launcher into the chaos below.
Somehow, through it all, Bridget locked eyes with Abigail. Both cold stares were laced with scorn and contempt. Bridget yanked a rifleman near her and pointed to Abigail. The rifleman nodded and then took aim.
Abigail looked at her chest as a red dot had appeared, and moved up towards her head.
Her end had come, but she had gone out swinging. She was ready to die.
As Abigail held her breath, waiting for the impact, she instead was hit by a wave of sound. A loud bang, the bending and breaking of metal, and thunderous explosion that was a helicopter crashing through the roof of the facility. She clung to the handrail on the staircase, watching the broken aircraft tumble in the air and explode, the force of the blast knocking the guard who had her in his sights off of the high platform he was on. His body cartwheeled in the air until it came to a fatal and sudden stop on the floor below.
Horn had managed to hold on to her platform, and stood up to look at the wreckage as it caught fire. As the mangled metal billowed smoke, something stood up. Parting like a macabre curtain, the smoke split opened up as a green menace strode out from the carnage.
The sludge had found its way home.
STAY TUNED FOR THE EPIC FINALE TOMORROW
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