“Man….nightshift is killer.”
Walking through the door of the lab, Jack could already see the mountain of work waiting for the late night crew of GENTech Labs. It was always like this. Day shift couldn’t be bothered to push themselves to get the early evening orders started before leaving at exactly 5pm, so the technicians who came in after dark had to do it all.
Jack had only been with the company for a few weeks but he already knew that whatever the people who worked the daylight hours were doing all day, it wasn’t the work that he and the rest of the overnight crew got stuck with. The only other thing he knew was that the GEN in GENTech came from “Global Enterprise Network” and that they handled mostly routine blood work from doctors. It was pretty boring stuff.
After stopping by his locker to drop off his coat, Jack tried to gear himself up for another long night. He slid into the chair at his station, and wondered where Gino was. The old man was ALWAYS early, but there didn’t seem to be any sign on him at the station to Jack’s right.
“Hey, Danny. Where’s Gino?”
The senior tech glanced at the empty seat. He shrugged his shoulders, and kept walking along with his cart full of work, dropping some into the bin on each tech’s station.
“He got mad at something last night. Quit on the spot. You won’t be seeing him anymore.”
“What the hell happened?” Jack asked. “He hardly even talks to anybody. How could he get angry enough to quit?”
Danny shrugged his shoulders again and moved on down the row of seats, leaving Jack to wonder what had happened to his neighbor. He decided to ask Linda when he went up to lunch later.
***
Several hours later, Jack headed upstairs. After a quick sandwich, he went off to find Linda. She was the ultimate know-it-all and was in everybody’s business. It came in handy at times like these.
He found her hunched over a microscope, looking at blood slides. She neglected to look up when he walked in, so he cleared his throat and said hello. It took her another 20 seconds to finish with the slide she was gawking at, but eventually she turned around in her swivel chair.
“Is there something I can help you with?” Linda asked. “Or did you just want to waste my time?” Always the charmer, that one.
“I wanted to see if you knew what happened to Gino. Danny said he had some sort of freak out.” Jack felt the hair on his neck stand up. It caught him by surprise, and his right hand flew up to rub away the goosbumps. Something was clearly not right.
Linda didn’t seem to notice his discomfort. She got down off her stool, and straightened her labcoat. Pulling off her gloves, she started to walk towards the door, motioning for Jack to follow her.
“Where the hell are we going?”
Linda sighed, more for effect than from exasperation. She didn’t even bother turning around to look at him.
“I’m going to show you why Gino isn’t here anymore. It’s easier to understand in person. I can’t be sure you’ll believe me if I just tell you.”
Jack really didn’t like the sound of that, but he’d liked Gino, and he was becoming very curious about whatever this big secret was. He stayed on Linda’s heels as she weaved thru a maze of hallways. Finally, they arrived at a plain white door, that would have been nothing special, if not for the card swipe, palm reader, AND retinal scan.
“Isn’t this a little much? It’s not like this place is making bioweapons.” Jack laughed nervously. Linda ignored him, opened the locks, and pulled open the door. She stepped inside so quickly, Jack barely caught the door before it shut.
It was pitch black inside, but Linda seemed to know where she was going. Jack stopped in what he assumed to be the middle of the room, and waited for Linda to hit the lights, or tell him what to do. Suddenly, her voice cut through the darkness.
“I have a confession to make. Gino didn’t exactly quit. We decided that he would serve a better purpose for the company, but couldn’t go around spreading that news. Security and all that. We moved him up here last night.”
The lights came on, and Gino’s limp form, shackled to the far wall, came into view. Jack felt the bile rise up in the back of his throat. Plants, actual green, living, growing PLANTS were growing out of the man’s skin!
“What did you do him? How could you do this?” Jack spun wildly, trying to see where Linda was. There was no sign of her anywhere in the room, but she answered his question via an intercom.
“We’re genetic scientists, Jack. You don’t actually believe that Global Enterprise Nonsense, do you? GENTech is, and always has been, a research facility. Diagnostic testing makes for easy cover and decent money, but it’s not our purpose here. We’re trying to develop the next stage in humanity. See what the body is really capable of, with a little help. Gino started to mutate last night, so we had to move him up here. Unfortunately, his age was against him, and his body didn’t take to the plants well. They, however, are doing very well, as I’m sure you noticed.”
Jack couldn’t take it anymore. He threw up on the floor. Once he regained his composure, he asked the question that scared him more than anything.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Cruel laughter filled the room. Jack already knew the answer. He thought he was going to be sick again, and as he looked down to where he’d already throw up, he knew it was already too late.
—
©2009 Shannon Kentis
Shannon writes for fun, whenever she gets the chance. She used to work nightshift in a lab, but she got out before anyone tried any funny business.
Tags: Shannon Kentis
May 12th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Very creepy - nice story, Shannon!