Chapter 3 – The lab
Warning: Strong language!
Many years ago Cameron and Stella used to be neighbours and were very good friends until one day he and his entire family simply vanished. It was a strange incident since they were always around chatting to everyone and just your typical nice neighbours. Back then (18 years ago) it made headlines in The Satchmo Newspaper. Stella never knew that Cameron’s dad was one of the top Private Investigators in the country and the rumours were that he had discovered something that wasn’t meant to be discovered. Nothing was ever confirmed though and the rumours eventually faded away into history. Not for Stella though. She always kept wondering what happened to her young friend. She just couldn’t find the closure she needed until Cameron finally came back!
“I need to show you something Cammy” Stella was on the phone with Cameron. “Yeah, it’s about that sample you brought me” Stella hung the phone up. She was very blunt sometimes, especially where he was concerned. The sample he brought reminded her of something she’d seen previously, something that terrified her!
It was late afternoon when Cameron made it to the lab.
“What’s up Stella! How’s my favourite lab rat doing?”
Cameron always greeted Stella in the same joking manner. Stella was so lost in her thoughts she was a little startled.
“Oh hey Cammy, sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Are you alright Stella? You seem a little shaken up?” Cameron asked.
“I need to show you something.”
Stella took Cameron towards the microscope, “Have a look” she said.
Cameron was looking through the lenses and saw these microscopic particles moving around. It looked like little tentacles that were constantly expanding and contracting. He didn’t quite understand but before he could ask Stella called him over to her PC.
“I’m going to show you a video I came across about 10 years ago. It’s really disturbing and I think it has to do with the same organic material you gave me. Here, watch this.”
Cameron saw a low resolution video being played of a man that seemed to have several distortions all over his body. His hands seemed to be twice the size it should be, his rib bones looked as though they were going to explode out of his body and his neck and shoulders seemed unusually large.
There was no sound on the clip but you could see he was screaming at someone on the other side of what appeared to be a reinforced glass window. It seemed as though he was locked up in a small room of sorts. Cameron noticed some debris on the floors and the walls seemed to have been broken in some areas.
Then, this man, this creature, started hitting the walls. The camera started shaking a bit from the force and Cameron could see pieces of the wall breaking off.
“What the fuck is this?” Cameron thought out loud.
“Wait, did you see that?” Stella asked.
She zoomed in and went back on the video. Stella paused the video as this individuals hand was in clear sight of the camera.
“Do you see that?”
Cameron noticed what she was talking about.
“That black stuff on his hand,” he stated.
“It looks the same… but what-” Stella interrupted
“Come with me, I’ll show you.”
Stella showed Cameron the full sample he brought. It was submerged in some sort of liquid and it appeared to be moving.
“This substance bonds with DNA,” Stella said.
“It’s constantly moving around trying to evolve.”
Stella continued, “It seems like it has a root system of sorts. When I aggravate it by adding energy the roots start spreading. Watch this.”
Stella switched a small power source on and added two copper wires to the liquid. Suddenly the black matter started growing. The short roots, as Stella called them, grew!! She switched the energy source off again and it seemed to slowly return to ‘normal’.
“Cammy, do you know who the person in that video was?” she asked.
“No”
“That was a local boxer who disappeared, just like you and your family did back then. I think what this material does is it spreads towards where you exert most of your energy. Did you notice the roots creeping more towards the copper wires?” Stella asked
“Ummm, no, not really.”
“Wel, that is why his hands and shoulders seem so abnormally large. He’s a fighter so most of his energy goes into those parts of his body.”
Cameron seemed to follow what Stella was saying.
“But, how?” Cameron asked.
“Where did you get this from?” Stella responded.
“I can’t tell you Stella. It’s better that way,” he stated.
“You saw what it did to that poor man Cammy. It’s, it’s dangerous!”
At that moment, they heard someone banging loudly at the door, screaming for help.
“Please open up! Help!” two separate voices called out. It sounded like young men.
“They’re going to kill us! Please!” Cameron and Stella started hearing various other voices approaching.
“There they are!” “You’re trying to run away!”
“We’re going to get you!”
They started hearing more and more voices approaching.
“Yes, yes. That’s them!” “We're going to kill you today!”
The people were shouting and chanting. It sounded like a mob was after them! Cameron could hear the panic in one of potential victim's voices.
“It wasn’t us!” he shouted.
Cameron didn’t carry a firearm but decided to see what the ruckus was about.
“Stella, go lock yourself up in the office!” he shouted
“But-” Stella tried to intervene.
“Now!” Cameron demanded.
