Dark Fables: Whispers of the Abyss

Ominous Experiment (part 6)

Keeping in mind the text he saw on the wall Rylan slid his ID card but the door gave a red beep. “Of course...” He rolled his eyes and searched the surrounding area. He saw the same kind of map they had on their floor lab, F6-F10 were listed. The floors for herbology, toxicology, botany labs, storeroom, and horticulture genetics. So that made the F9 floor they were on the "horticulture area." 

Tapping on the F9, Rylan looked closely at the map. It showed five working rooms on this floor and several testing areas in the hallways. The rooms were separately managed, the main horticulture room and mycology room were blinking yellow while the chemistry lab and a security room were enlightened and circled.  

There was a room in the middle that was reddened and a danger sign was beeping on it. Its name was glitching badly on the screen. ‘Did something happen in the room?’ Rylan shook his head and focused on finding something that was useful. He searched around again.

On the center table, he found a crate that was carrying some items. Examining the crate, he found a lighter, some glass bottles, wrappers of candies, and a card. It was a female worker which he didn't recognize but surely, she must be working there. 

Rylan c****d his eyebrow, “Maybe my luck isn’t that bad.” and gave a small laugh. 

He swiped the newly found ID card and with a green beep, the door clicked open.

Rylan’s sight was hindered by the sudden fall of some smooth silky projections. He swatted those vines away from his face by grabbing them and throwing them in panic. But he soon calmed down when he focused on the room’s interior.  

It was filled with many plant specimens and a huge crystal dome as the ceiling. A dim violet light was brimming all over the place. What was the use of crystal ceilings when there was no sunlight coming through them? Reflection of UV rays? His thoughts were all over the place while examining the small room.  

---------------------------- 

Part 6  

Pain and Struggle 

---------------------------- 

“A green room?” Rylan raised one of his brows. “With UV rays? What even...?” as he traced his fingers along the shelves, there were many specimens in glass jars placed on them. Above them were many cabins, storing even more plants. The whole ceiling was covered with vines and shoots of various plants intertwined across the room. There was a table in the center of the room with four chairs. Two on each side.   

Rylan tried to read the specimens by picking them up, “Ivy...Winston... Miscanthus...Caleb...Salvia coccinea...Adrian...Aconite...Jennifer.” The more he read, the more he got confused if they were plants or humans. There were more like Iris hybrids, grass pink, lilacs, or Pansy hybrids that Rylan could identify by looking. But even they had human names which creeped him out. Were the people alive or dead? Are these the ones who are not forgotten?  

It seemed like the person who worked on these had a weird hobby with naming. A shiver went through Rylan's spine and he refused to think further about this topic. 

'What kind of maniacs worked here?' The room wasn’t dusty or musty but was very well-ventilated. Rylan’s wandering eyes fell upon a big glass tank in which something was slowly moving. He went towards it to take a closer look.  

His mouth slightly opened as his eyes widened in amazement, there were some leaf slugs in the tank! And they were still alive! The slugs were really cute to look at with their tiny dotted eyes and covered with leaf-like bodies.  

They were rare species because they are the only animals known widely for photosynthesis. “No wonder this maniac wanted a plant-like pet.” Rylan talked to himself while staring and poking at the slugs softly. He lifted his gaze from them and saw a glass jar on top of the shelf near the tank, it had some slithering small snakes, or probably were they worms? He couldn't tell due to the dull lightning.  

He found a messed-up drawer beneath the tank holder; it was like a separate narrow table for the tank. When Rylan opened it, he thought he might need another password or key for it but the drawer was easily opened with just a pull. It had papers and files and a USB holder. Reading the titles and some of the words with great effort he could tell it was all about poison! Various kinds of potential plants had for making poisons and the antidote for each one.   

Ding!  

A strange sound came, it was too close to him and made his heart jump a mile. “Ahh! What? Where?” he looked around but he couldn’t find a machine that would make a sound like that.

But then he looked at his wrist, the band was blinking green. Scrunching his nose, he tapped on it then a small holographic window opened in front of him. That was new.  

It was a text message from Owen; ‘I can’t seem to find the proper code and it will take longer, where are you?’ 

“Woah, we can message on this thing?” tapping for a bit more Rylan could access the various function it held. It was like an electronic health watch but in holographic mode. Knowing it wasn’t something dangerous he wiped the sweat that formed on his forehead.

Sighing he was going to leave the room to message back when suddenly he heard a loud crash that made him twirl around in surprise. “What the hell...!” Rylan yelled. His heart started racing faster thinking up scenarios of who knows what. He held his wavering breath and leaned to the side to take a glimpse at the other side of the table. “Geez, don’t scare me like-” a small growling sound came from beneath the table which made Rylan jump back and stumble. Without any other question in his blank mind, he rushed towards the door but the slithering and hissing noises started coming from all directions.  

“Oh, f**k my luck...” he hissed back.  

With small shrieks and hisses all around him, he made a run for it. He was for once glad that he passed the physical test in his college. Never in his life did Rylan think that he'll have to run for his life so many times. However, unfortunately, with this kind of strange upside-down luck of his, a few snakes managed to bite him behind his back and on his left leg. He grabbed them in a panic and threw them far away.  Accidentally squishing a few under his feet his heart jumped at the sounds.

The wristband dinged again with a bright red light this time. It read; 'potentially harmful venom detected in the bloodstream, caution...caution.’ Rylan let out a groan and yelled, “Seriously? Those tiny brats have harmful poison in them?”  

What the actual f**k was this maniac doing? Carelessly putting them in the glass jars? Why were they everywhere now? He quickly closed the door behind him and clutched his head which was throbbing with pain. Cursing no one but his dizziness he searched for the chemistry room that was shown on the map.  

'There must be an antidote for this!'  

Rylan was sweating profusely and the throbbing blurred his vision. He was in big trouble. He tried to calm his nerves so the circulation would slow but being alone in this ominous situation he felt extremely sick. He quickly opened the text window and threw some haphazard words at Owen.

'caution, slow the circulation by taking deep breaths, caution it is advised to...' the watch continued.

Sitting on the couch outside he waited for his partner to arrive. At this moment the venom was slowly spreading and numbing his senses.  

Before his mind got stuck in a spiral, one thought crossed his mind.  

‘Where's Loren?’  

He stumbled across Owen on the F0th floor but other than those dead bodies, he couldn't find any other living person. Were Owen and himself the only ones on that floor? Where did everyone go then? As he was slowly losing his mind a loud thunderous voice sent a sharp pain to his head and made him flinch.  

It was Owen’s worried voice when he saw Rylan slumped on the couch. “Oi...what do you mean you got poisoned? What the heck did you do this time?” Owen struggled with his own questioning and said, “Never mind, where’s the antidote?”  

“We need to...go to the chemistry lab,” Rylan spoke between broken breaths.  

Opening the door with the same ID card, they entered a bright white room with a long center table. The table was made of marble and had many cabins beneath it. All the equipment and tools were placed on the table in line, test tube, Petri dishes, watch glasses, and flasks filled with God knows which liquid. Soft fumes blowing from some fallen flasks on the end side of the table. Some broken dishes on the floor and parts of algae, plants, and mushrooms scattered everywhere.

On the side of a microscope was another list of files and a tab that was still open. “It seems like they abandoned the lab in hurry...” Owen scrolled through the tab and Rylan read the files again. Wiping drops of cold sweat from his face, Rylan furrowed his brows.  

“Is this person crazy?” Owen suddenly blurted out.  

Rubbing his temples, Rylan simply nodded. “I know, just find the snake’s name and the kind of venom they produce.”  

Owen opened the snakes' list and opened the document showing details. Asking every time, he swiped the slides. “Is it this one?”  

Every time Rylan shook his head, getting nervous. A few pictures later Rylan spoke again, “Wait! Back up!”  

There was a similar picture of a snake that he grabbed from his back and leg. “It's this one!” Rylan pointed at the lavender skin small snake. 

“I have never seen a species like this!” seeing this both were bewildered.

“Look at the description...” Owen said.  

‘The glorious Raspberry Larry, they are precious snakes that I made from tiring experiments between lovely white water hemlock's sap and the beautiful red garter snake cells. When the cells of the snake got injected with the sap of hemlock, it grew deadlier for humans. The hybrid of these two parent cells produced a rare raspberry-colored small snake! Appearance can be a huge misunderstanding for these hybrids. They are capable of sensing heat, craving the enemy's blood they can move fast and are extremely naughty. While I was studying the toxic traits of its poison it suddenly slid through the dish and caused a big commotion.

Two of my assistants got bitten, but through that, I found some initial symptoms caused by the poison. They included; cold sweating, dizziness, and pain in the head. My assistants experienced a harsh chill after 20 minutes of the bite, nausea, and headache, after half-hour they experienced hallucinations with slight manic episodes, it was a short period and they were difficult to handle. Then they suddenly froze from pain in the chest and complained about breathlessness.  

Until the report came back from the toxicology department, my assistants already passed away from seizures and lastly neurogenic shock. All it took was 1 hour. A terrible and painful death indeed. I concluded that the poison was mild to severe if left for a prolonged time in the blood system. But I won’t let their death be in vain. I got the trial venom to make an antidote from Larry's tiny fangs. With the reports and support of the toxicology team, I found an amazing discovery! Along with hemlock sap, the main ingredient for the anti-dote was none other than...’ 

Both Rylan and Owen looked at each other in despair.  

“The main ingredient is the blood of the parent snake that is being nurtured in his gardenia of snakes...” Owen mumbled.

Owen looked at the map and it was the middle room that was fiercely blinking red lights and a glitched name. "Herpetology department."    

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

-Information Available-

Floor F6-F10: status: Quarantined

Current Floor F9 10th floor: status: In progress

Special ward HerpetToxicology department

The life that was found on F9:

Raspberry Larry: species: Venomous: Rare (genetically engineered)

Leaf Slugs: species: Costasiella kuroshimae (harmless, pets)

Plants of known and unknown origin

The task at hand: Survive cellular toxin