The door burst open, and the doorway was filled with approaching dangling flesh that looked familiar, composed of warped mutilations of one specific body part of different sizes conjoined upon each other. From the interior, cries of distress describing the ensuing disaster rang out:
“Ears! Ears! So many lobes!”
“Where’re they coming from?”
“The cell-splitting room.”“Who last used the Terminal?”
All eyes went to the Technicans.
“We’re unable to gain access to those records, since the wall of flesh is in the way.”
“Well then, does anybody remember who was around then?”
“Of course not! That’s what the records were for!”
While everyone was distracted by the spectacle, the Girl took this moment to covertly sneak out unnoticed before anybody recalled her. Though she stayed late the day before, she was nowhere close to the vicinity of those machines, but didn’t want to take any chances. The last thing she heard upon leaving from the gathered crowd was, “Does anyone have any advice for my son??”
The hallways were filled with absolute bedlam. Everyone was running around, carrying assorted instruments, such as gigantic pins, piercing needles, wax-cleansers, air horns and cotton swabs, presumably to use against whatever malignant life form she’d inadvertently created. Before going to the roof, she decided to make a quick detour. She already knew how sensitive the Patient was to the slightest noise, and the current conditions must’ve been overwhelming. It would be better to see him and reassure him to prepare him for any more nasty surprises.
Going around unnoticed amidst the wild panic, she made her way unobstructed, reaching the Patient’s room and opened the door to see how he was doing.
“Hello?!”
“I am... Kay.”
It was worse than she thought. Hardly half a day had passed, and he had already regressed back to his old speech patterns.
“Do you remember what we talked about yesterday?”
“Yester... day?”
“I talked about how I brought in some tools you really liked - the headphones, the straw and the net, remember? And there was someone outside who gave me these things, remember? And those things were taken away, remember? And you could see the person who gave those things. Remember???”
“...kinda...”
“If you don’t like being around here, I can help you leave.”
“Go... where?”
That was a good point. Where was the Scientist planning to go after this? The subject had never come up. “Look, just stay here, leave the door open. I’ll go get you some help.”
“Oh... Kay.”
It didn’t feel right leaving the Patient in that situation, but she still made a hasty exit towards the stairs. She climbed upwards, doing her best to ignore the disturbing cries from news of what was happening below, disavowing herself from all responsibility of her involvement.
The Girl opened the door to the roof of the 40th floor, wedging a doorstop to keep it unlocked. The air was stagnant, and there wasn’t anybody present. She wandered around, looking at the floor above, trying to see if she could look higher up, but the discoloured overhead rooftop extended beyond the balcony, past her sight of vision. Looking outwards, there wasn’t much to see. All around her were those dull grey metallic walls giving off a sheen that gave the unsettling sensation that she was being watched.
“Good, you’re here,” the Scientist’s voice called. She whirled around, and was surprised to see his sudden appearance. She looked over the edge. There was no sign of any climbing rappel, no flying apparatuses nor any hint of how he’d managed to propel himself this height.
“How’d you get up here?”
“I have my ways. Lead the way.”
As she made her way down the winding path, the Girl had dozens of questions to ask, but parsed her selections down to a single one:
“Ears?”
“That’ll teach ‘em not to listen to me.”
That was as good an answer as any, and the only explanation that seemed forthcoming. The two of them swiftly descended down the stairs down to the floor where the Patient was, and as they turned the corner, at the far end of the corridor, a reverberating query echoed throughout the hall, “I thought I heard something.”
She recognized the source of the voice belonging to the Assistant Mother who recounted her traumatic experience with the Weird Scientist. ‘If I ever saw him again, I’d probably scream.’ Whether she screamed or fainted, this reunion would be too interesting.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
What?? She didn’t recognize him? But then... who WAS he?
She turned to take a closer look, but the Scientist had already skittered over at rapid speed towards the Assistant Mother who was about to raise the alarm, knocked her out with a single blow to her face and raced back.
“Don’t worry, she’s fine. Probably!”
The Girl barely had time to comprehend what just happened. He just crouched down and reached the other side of the room and back. The whole affair took less time than it took to blink, but still wasn’t fast enough to prevent the alarms from going off. However, with the chaotic situation taking place with the growing ears on the lower floors, the hope was that this new alarm would take lower priority.
As the two of them raced towards the room, the Girl who was familiar with the route was looking at the Scientist in a new light. Who WAS this guy? Was he even a Scientist? His actions didn’t seem very scientific, but seemed more desperate than anything. There was a sudden edge to his actions that wasn’t there before, and the Girl decided to appease his mood, lest she suffer his wrath.
“Hurry! We don’t have much time!”
Soon, she reached the corridor where the Patient’s open door was waiting in front of them, and in a day full of unexpected things happening, something unexpected happened.
The Scientist’s face bisected down the middle, and the whole sides of his body spread wide, revealing an exterior exoskeleton hiding underneath. The illusion broken, his camouflaged lab coat trailing behind rose up to become gigantic opaque wings. Likewise, upon seeing the Scientist’s true form, the Patient’s body split in two and rushed out the door to meet his companion.
All of a sudden, she understood. The Patient was related to the Scientist. No wonder he was so adamant in saving his father figure from this restrictive place. It was a wonder he was as smart as he was, considering the infantile genes. She stayed back to see the family reunion take place.
And at the point of contact, the two of them were knocked back by some unseen force. Reeling, they were left flat on their backs, struggling to get back up. When they made it on their feet, they approached each other once again, more insistently this time.
From the Girl’s perspective, it looked like they were feeling each other out, but that was far from the truth. A protective barrier was preventing any touching between the two of them. This in itself wasn’t much of an obstacle, but the Scientist had spent so much time trying to reach his target, and now that the goal was clearly within his sight, he couldn’t leave until they made physical contact. If they’d taken advantage, they could’ve simply escaped during the confusion. But they lingered long enough for a security team to arrive and restrain the two, pulling them apart.
One of the security detail noticed the metallic protrusion behind the Scientist’s head. “Oh, here’s the problem”, and pulled it off with a squelching sound.
The response from the Scientist was extremely distressing. His speech which was once so eloquent suddenly took on a more primeval form and his words were all messed up. “Siren! Hexagon! Give it... Spine!”
It was only later that the Girl would realize that what he was trying to say was, “Help! Stop! Give it... Back!” But she was still reeling from the spectacle. She was ferried away from the scene and placed in a room to be alone with her thoughts.
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