The Break In

On an evening seemingly like every other, near a factory on the border of the small town of Slumbers Down, a man camouflaged in all black stealthily made his way through dense, obscure forest as he reminded himself repeatedly, "You can do this. You can do this. You are Daniel Sarfs--government agent--and you will make it in and out of this damn factory no problem."

With every footfall, his heart picked up its pace--as though there were a race going on between the frequency of his steps and his heartbeats, and his heartbeats were winning.

The woods were dead quiet as he anxiously trekked over the unpredictable pathway created by the forest floor, occasionally hearing the sound of a cricket's lament, or an owl's melancholy howl.

Although his path was dark, the full moon looming ominously above him shone with such brightness that he could distinguish enough out of the gloom to avoid hitting, and tripping on, too many things.

Eventually he spotted lights in the distance, silhouetting the trees in front of him and making him pause mid-step. There it is, he thought to himself, the factory from Hell. He recalled the rumors he had heard about the goings on of this particular factory...Experiments, mutations, wrong, twisted...Rumors he wasn't exactly keen on finding out were true first hand.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel began jogging towards the imposing factory, whose evil presence was manifested by the darkness swathing it. The only lights visible emanated from two dull bulbs secured above an inconspicuous door that was at the top of a small flight of stairs lining the building. There were no windows to be seen on its solid, cement walls, and the only thing that seemed to be capable of escaping it was a cloud of steam--barely visible in the moonlight--dissipating into the night from two tall cement pillars on the roof of the factory.

As he crept towards the only visible entrance, Daniel's eyes incessantly scanned his surroundings for any signs of danger, senses heightened and on the alert.

All of a sudden, he heard the sound of the door opening, and glanced up to see a flustered man in a white lab coat emerging from the illuminated doorway. The man was obviously afraid, and glanced back into the factory one last time before swinging the door shut silently and scanning the silent night around him. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, and the man jumped, startled--on edge. He took another look around, and, finally satisfied that he was alone, paced quickly down the stairs, occasionally taking two at a time as if he were running away from a ticking time bomb.

Once he reached the ground, the man took off sprinting into the darkness in the opposite direction of the woods, lab coat flapping behind him like a poor imitation of a superhero's cape. Probably heading to his car or something, Daniel thought, then with another deep breath to calm himself, he proceeded to the stairs, one hand on the railing to his right and the other grazing the smooth stone wall of the building on his left.

When he arrived at the door, he shut his eyes and let the fear wash over him. There was no question that the scientist had been extremely afraid, but of what? Daniel wondered, placing his shaky hand hesitantly on the doorknob in front of him, flying rats and man eating men?

With an internal groan he twisted and pushed--relieved and disappointed to find the door unlocked. Opening his eyes, Daniel saw by another dim light immediately inside the building that he was entering a stairwell, and as soon as he stepped inside he sensed there was something wrong.

With a wriggling worm of anxiety in his gut, Daniel walked to the base of the stairs and looked up, observing that there were four stories above him. Where to begin? he asked himself with a sense of dread.

Though he knew there were inevitably secrets to be uncovered behind every door, the last one--on the fourth floor--caught his eye with a bright, conspicuous yellow sign that was posted in its center.

As he made his way up the winding staircase, Daniel glanced in each of the little windows on each door--only to find that vacant, white-walled hallways were all he could see. Upon reaching the fourth floor, however, he discovered that where the windows had been on every other door there was a sign reading: "Enter at your own risk. Authorized Personnel Only." So this must be where the secret stuff goes down? he thought to himself. Directly underneath the sign, by the door's handle, was a keypad and an ID card scanner. How am I going to break into this one? he wondered. Then, figuring he might as well try, Daniel grasped the handle and twisted. The door was unlocked.

He stood there in utter disbelief--what could possibly have gone wrong here that would enable a high security door to go unlocked unnoticed?

Beyond the door, the silence was deafening. Daniel could hear his pulse in his ears, and the rushing whoosh of his ever pumping blood.

He stepped lithely down a mundane, white hallway, turning sharply left into a big, laboratory room after about ten feet. Beakers and mysterious chemical bottles were resting on lab counters that enveloped the room, as well as multiple monitors, including a computer screen displaying what appeared to be a blue and red double helix. Another screen showed several feeds from surveillance cameras present in the factory, all of which appeared to be devoid of movement. Except...

Daniel had just begun to walk towards the sole patch of screen which showed some signs of life, when all of a sudden he heard the sounds of footsteps in the hallway. Frantically searching for a place to hide, Daniel ran and crouched behind a nearby counter. He knew that being caught braking into a place like this would not be easy to worm his way out of.

From his slightly obscured view behind the counter, Daniel made out the figures of two men--also in white lab coats. The first man appeared to be coming to this room despite his fellow scientist's wishes, which was evident when the second man grabbed the first's arm and forced him to turn around. "The bell gave us the signal to disperse," he told the first man roughly.

"I know that Gene," said the first man, "But I can't leave. Not now. Not when there might be a way to stop utter chaos from happening."

Gene looked at the man with a sympathetic look in his eyes, "There's nothing you can do Robert. Face it. Someone betrayed the company and let the goblins loose, and now no one on Earth can get them all back into their cages."

Robert returned Gene's hard gaze, then said stubbornly, "NO. There has to be SOMETHING. Some drug we've overlooked that can reverse the effects of the mutation...or..."

"Or...?"

"Or kill them."

The men looked at each other solemnly. "Even if you could find a miracle drug to kill them all quickly, you wouldn't live long enough to create the amount necessary to take down an army of them as big as there is."

"I still have to try," said Robert reservedly. "You go, Gene, get as far away from this death trap as you can."

"I'll miss you," said Gene, embracing Robert in a bone crushing hug. "Don't do anything stupid, please."

"And by stupid you mean...?"

"Don't do anything I would do," Gene responded with a chuckle, and the men were both laughing as they turned and went their separate ways. Robert walking farther into the lab and Gene leaving it.

Daniel watched as Robert walked over to a stool near the surveillance monitors and sat down with a sigh, as though he were just realizing the crushing weight of what he had just committed himself to.

Daniel was debating whether he should make a run for it or just remain where he was when his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a man's yell and gunshots being fired from the stairwell. Robert immediately jumped to his feet, yelling "Gene!" as he rushed into the hallway.

Daniel followed close behind, fearing that the foul rumors he had heard might be about to come true.

Rushing through the doorway and into the stairwell, Daniel reached the railing of the stairs and looked down to see where the yell had come from. Directly below him a scuffle was going on. He could see Gene, fighting for his life, as Robert ran fast as the wind to reach his friend.

Forgetting his fear of discovery for the moment, Daniel took off down the stairs to assist the two men--only to discover to his horror the sight of a two-headed goat with giant horns protruding from its head and sharp, elongated teeth from its mouth. It let out a cry of outrage as Gene managed to get a good kick in and Robert pulled a knife out of his pocket and aimed for one of the goat's two throats.

What have I gotten myself into? Daniel asked himself, and then, with a battle cry, ran to face the goblin, the certainty of discovery by the men, and most of all--his fears.

Inspirational Quote of the Day:
"'The bell gave us the signal to disperse," Night by Elie Wiesel