ARK

“Todd, how’s it going?” Sal clapped me on the back making my glasses slide slightly off of my nose. I shrugged off his touch and readjusted them as I went back to my microscope. “Same, same. No change yet.” I had a sample of the Canine Parvo Virus in my care, the strain I had showing promise of change a few days ago. “If I make this breakthrough, it’ll change everything.” “Yah? You’re lucky you get to work with wolves. Chad is stuck with coyotes and is having one heck of a time.” I rolled my eyes when he said it, Chad being my rival in almost every aspect. When I had came here as a head researcher for disease transmutation and prevention through canine carriers, my colleague Chad basically had his loaded father throw money at the program to get him accepted as well, the thought of a poor student who made it through on scholarships irking him to no end. “He’ll learn eventually.” I sighed as I pulled back all the way and took the glass containing the strain off of the stand. “I just can’t understand why something I was able to get to work a few days ago is now almost an entirely new sample.” Sal shrugged and went over to the corner of the room, running his hands down the fur of the wolf who I had taken samples from. The body had been kept preserved and I only wheeled it out of storage for short amounts of time. The beautiful brown and black fur was as plush as spring grass and the body was as big as a small car. “Maybe it’s just finicky. Change in atmospheric pressure or something?” He tried to say nonchalant, but I saw a slight tense in his demeanor. He had been here for years longer than I had and knew all the ins and outs of the research facility. “Still…” I stood up and stretched, the clock on the wall reading one in the morning. “There’s always tomorrow; well, later today.” I chuckled. “That there is.” He stretched along with me and pushed the wolf back to its holding chamber. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.” That was another thing about this place; new hires weren’t allowed to go anywhere alone. I had been here for three years and the initial trial period was ending tomorrow. “Thanks.” I nodded at him, grabbing my lab coat and not seeing my badge fall off and to the floor. He lead me down the halls as we got further to the front of the building, the fluorescent lights overhead buzzing as they illuminated our path. When we got to the first locked door, Sal pulled out his badge and showed it up to the security camera, stepping through and turning to me when the door closed again. I reached into my pocket and frowned, the smooth plastic not where I left it. “Fuck.” I mumbled as I patted my other pocket, Sal looking through the small window and mouthing something to me. “No badge!” I mouthed back, showing him my empty pockets. Sal flashed me a look of worry as he tapped his wrist indicating the time. “Where’s your badge?” I looked like he mouthed to me as I waived at him. “It’s probably back in the room, I’ll go get it and be right back.” I thought I heard rapid knocking on the door behind me, but I had already taken off down the hall. The lights flickered slightly and dimmed when I got closer to my assigned lab room, an eerie silence following me when I opened the door and stepped inside. “Where did you go?” I wondered out loud as I searched where my jacket had been, seeing the plastic badge shimmer slightly against the side corner of the lab table and the wall. “There’s where you went, ya bastard.” I leaned down to retrieve it, getting onto my knees and ducking low to reach for it. A turning of the door handle startled me for a second, but I figured it was Sal coming back for me after persuading the guards to let him back in after curfew. “… And maybe the sample is still viable. The one he harvested a few days ago turned out to be perfect. I don’t know how he does it, but the strain has the best sequence yet and shows the most promise.” A light and feminine voice spoke causing me to duck down further and my heart to rapidly beat inside my chest. Fuck… what’s Doctor Jessi doing here?! She was the lead scientist for this whole project, her higher than thou attitude making even the most seasoned of staff here fidget when she came near. “That’s what they’re hoping for. We move onto human testing tonight.” Doctor Daniel, her right hand man and the one who oversaw all lab operations was with her, both of them spelling bad news for me if I was caught after hours, even if it was only a few minutes past. “Poor Chad. But; he’s the one who chose that animal.” She snickered. “If he had only known what he was signing up for. But; he gets the glory of becoming the ninth recruit.” “Here, here.” Doctor Daniel agreed as they rounded the corner and stopped, both of them staring at me with the Petri dish of the Parvo Virus type A-2 held in Doctor Jessi’s hands. “Oh. This is unexpected.” Doctor Daniel quickly clicked something on a radio clipped to his belt, the light flashing for a second as all three of us stared each other down. “I was just getting my badge…” I offered up, my heart in my throat at the danger I could sense I was in. I wasn’t supposed to hear any of this. The sinking feeling fell deeper when I saw Sal enter the door, his eyes taking in the sight and then letting out a disappointed sigh. “Sal… my badge…” I tried to get him to say something, but his face turned away from me and to the doctors. “Can we still keep him on? His research has been the most promising yet.” “… I think he’s beyond that now.” Doctor Jessi’s eyes were calculating when she took me in, her eyes darting to the storage area for my wolf and then to me. “But it just so happens that we have a tenth spot lined up for testing. Doctor Daniel?” She asked as he nodded next to her, pulling out a gun and then firing at me. I was expecting pain and death to hit me all at once, but really it was a sharp sting followed by something cold. “Welcome to the real reason we’re here.” Doctor Daniel smiled at me as I looked down to the dart in my thigh, the room starting to melt around us. “You’ve just got a first class ticket to Project Ark.”