The stark white hydraulic door opened with a sharp hiss, stinging Nathans sensitive ears. He tightened his grip on the gurney, pushing it through the doors. He flinched as the heavy doors slammed shut once more, and Nathan sighed in relief.
He got more relaxed as he walked away from the testing chamber, sliding his keycard against the reader chip to access the elevator to the morgue level. He was one of the few with a medics card, and as such, he had access to the med bay and the morgue.
He pushed the body into the elevator with him, pushing on the grey button to send both of them further down. The body hadn't started to decay yet, but it would quickly. If anything, Nathan was surprised it hadn't, knowing how dead organic matter was affected by the creature.
It had been a few days since he had been called into the Hack-0s testing room, and he was getting anxious. Did something happen? Did they, somehow, know about how he felt about the experiments, and more soundly, how much he liked the creature?
He held no one in The Foundation particularly close besides the Morgue technician, whom he was going down to see and never left the area, so nobody should know about how he felt. But then, why else wasn't he important to be signed on? He was one of the few that Hack-0 voluntarily let touch him.
The elevator chimed once it reached the morgues ground level, where the incinerator, and mincer, were located. The air down there was musty, dust seemingly coated every surface. Nathan plugged his nose and he pushed the body down the dark hallway.
The morgue, at least on the ground level, looked like a complete horror show. The hallway was darkly lit, perfect for moths like Doctor Condraki, but not necessarily good for most others venturing into the belly of the beast.
The ground was constantly coated in a fine layer of dust, courtesy of the resident doctor and morgue technician . It was cold to the touch, being mostly made out of concrete and metal. The walls were mostly made of glass, allowing people to peer into the separate rooms and watch dissections if they wish.
The once mildly annoying sound of the wheels of the gurney clacking against one another soon turned moderately creepy, resounding against the glass walls and making them beat along with every step he took. Needless to say, Nathan did not like it down there very much.
He soon approached the main dissection and autopsy room. The door was also coated in a fine layer of dust, the white now a dull grey. He put his hand on the doorknob, easing it open and hoping to God that Condraki was doing something that would scar him. Not like he wasn't already scarred, but that's besides the point.
He swiped his crimson keycard against the scanner to the office door. Doctor Condraki was too paranoid about anyone he didn't know, or anything he didn't know, getting into his area, so he asked the resident O-5 member for the keycard, which was granted.
The door slid open with a harsh hiss, a sold three five inches of reinforced door perfectly and seamlessly sliding into the wall. Nathan tugged at the body, pushing the gurney inside before himself.
The office was massive, as many would find out. The floor was a dark concrete splattered with blood, mucus, and viscous liquids that shouldn't, and by all means couldn't, exist. The putrid smell of decay, rotting flesh, and moldy food perforated the area so heavily, it was like a fog.
Both he and Condraki had been given a special dose of Compound 500, a compound that made certain people, if they had the right blood type and their organs didn't fail, invulnerable to diseases and viruses, handy when Condraki dealt with those that died by anomalous diseases.
In the corner of the room stood Condraki. He was skinny and tall, though his dusty wings were large, barely fitting through the hole in his lab coat. His face was scarred to multiple encounters with reanimated victims, but he always survived. Moths were like that.
At the corner of his lab coat, it was also spotted with dried, and fresh, blood. Crimson splatted the walls around him, and he gripped the scalpel that he held in his hand like he had never held anything before.
He stared off into the distance, lost in his own thoughts and feelings. Nathan would be remiss if he said that he particularly liked the times that Condraki went into a sort of 'trance' state due to him bonding with the 500-Compound, but due to his rather loose friendship to the eccentric doctor, he didn't mind it all that much.
Nathan placed the convulsing body near the furnace inside the office, knowing that Condraki was just going to do it, and not care about the autopsy. D-class were like that. Hence the name, disposable.
Soon, Condraki actually noticed that another being was present inside the room, and waved at Nathan in a sort of dream-like way that Nathan couldn't properly pinpoint, "Hello Nathan... What brings you here this fine mid-day?" The doctor asked, shaking his head side to side in a rhythm.
"Another body from Jackel's room. The thing placed several eggs inside him, so I'd recommend incinerating it first and foremost." Nathan told him, snapping his fingers to allow the light to come one, nearly blinding the good doctor.
Condraki pulled his arms above his head, nearly producing a guttural hiss as the light invaded his eyes. Even though he was a moth, he heavily disliked any form of light, and as such, his office was like a miasmic puddle of ink.
"I can not simply destroy the life of another because they are from something else. It is simply not the way." Condraki noted, disregarding the countless times he's absolutely butchered creatures that dare threaten his darkness.
"Condraki-"
Condraki shushed him, twitching his head and wiggling his dusty ears, pointing a single claw towards the body, which was beginning to convulse rapidly. Nathan, not wanting to be coined as the one that allowed another outbreak, especially with the clockwork virus in his back pocket, quickly shoved the body into the furnace, slammed and locked the door shut, and quickly turned up the degrees.
Condraki stood by rocking his body to a tune that only he heard, a pleasant smile of abstruseness as he watched the fire start, and the many horned, charred creatures erupt from the carcass, crashing against the Tele-kil metel of the furnaces insides.
Nathan fiddled with the seam of his coat, fingering the lid of the vial that contained the clockwork virus. He couldn't release the strain at that moment: For one, it was not the time, nor would it be for two days, that B-64 had to do his bi-monthly run, and two, the strain wasn't concentrated in the vial. It had to be purified to something that can infect air, which he could only do with the help of someone else.
So Condraki was the one he planned on asking, and due to his near constant abstruseness, he was a prime candidate. He wouldn't ask many questions, and would take even the most vague answers as the truth, and if he fails, wouldn't be held accountable due to his easily suggestible nature.
Nathan sighed, walking to the southern wall and leaning up against it. He decided to get over it. He already got the virus, what was there to lose? Condraki looked at him questioningly as he began, "Can I ask you to do something for me?"
Condraki nodded eagerly like a child. If there was one thing that Condraki liked that wasn't darkness or the inner organs of those around him, it was pleasing other people, "Can you please make this virus-" Nathan tinkered with his coat, eventually producing the vial containing the clockwork virus, "an airborne strain?"
Condraki tilted his head to the side, producing a sound of intrigue that Nathan couldn't tell if it was in desire, in fear, or any emotion innbetween, "Can you please tell me what virus is that?" Condraki asked him in a surprising sense of Lucidity.
Nathan gulped, tapping his ring finger against the glass, "It is the clockwork virus-" He started plainly. Even if what he was doing was wrong, he wasn't going to lie to his closest friend. To that extreme,of course, "And I need it for something."
Condraki tilted his head in the other direction, tapping his three fingers against the gut filled countertop of his lab. He fiddled with a small machine, one that Nathan was aware the, somehow, could combine the likeness, or completely change the makeup of, viruses.
"I assume this is for some sort of test, hmm? May I ask why you can't go to your other researchers and ask them to produce your strain instead of asking your poor, little servant!" Condraki spoke with a harshness in his voice, clearly being tampered with by his current mental state. Nathan was suddenly very glad that he bonded with the compound a hundred percent, unlike Condraki's seventy.
A success in all aspects, if only mood swings weren't a major side effect if not bonded to completely. Natha walked to the examination table and plopped the vial onto the soft leather bindings, "This is for a project of mine regarding several other skips. I need this strain if I want to help someone. Top secret." He wouldn't lie, but he would tip-toe around the truth.
Condraki gave him a weary eye, but grabbed the vial and examined it closely. Determining something inside his brain, Condraki spun around in his seat and began to fiddle with the lid, "I'll have a working strain in two days. I expect you to give me the report of the success of your project after I have it done."
Nathan nodded, bringing his hands up in a thumbs up gesture, swiftly turning to leave, "Turn off the light!" Condraki asked him, pressing two smaller buttons. Nathan nodded again, swiping his hand across the light switch and turning the lights off.
Swiping his keycard again, Nathan exited the office. He sighed in relief, laying his head against the door. He could do this. And since he knew Condraki when he was in his more in-sound face, then the virus would have a lower incubation period, almost instantly, but due to the low period of time, the virus would have a next to zero mortality, and only small outer parts would turn to metal and gears.
That brought peace to Nathans soul.
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Hope ya enjoyed this! WIB's next chapter should be written soon to.
In another twist, the whole Foundation thing is based of the SCP foundation! Go a read SCP-500 if you wonder more about the 500-compound, because it was heavily influenced by it. In fact, this whole book is really influenced by the SCP Foundation.
Toodoloo!
~ Candle