Braced for shock now, Neter dove deeper into the bowels of the Moha Lab in search of more understanding. Aside from the
very live horrors of Lab 6, the Moha Lab was virtually lifeless. There were
boxes and packing crates everywhere, as if the whole lab was moving. He
wandered into a somewhat functional looking laboratory to examine the work stations; there were tablets laying about, specimen jars sitting on the tables as if
lab technicians were still working… A work order from Gorias… He scanned the tablet for a clue but it was some modern
sort of code...
A storage cabinet with doors ajar was packed with glass jars,
many of them looked like preserved organs of some kind. He opened
another storage cabinet, in this one there were stacks of colored folders filed
in order. He pulled one of the blue folders out, it was full of hair samples.
Curly locks, blonde locks, ebony locks...
He
shook his head in wonder and slid the folder back and continued his search,
there were cabinets and shelves every way he looked, there wasn't time to explore
the entirety of this place. He turned to leave, but as he walked back
toward the Hub he noticed another light on, this time coming from an office at
the far end of the room...
The
office was a shambles, someone was packing up in a hurry. Bookcases were
partially emptied, the room was scattered with half-filled boxes, some were
stacked by the door, ready to go. Curious, he glanced at a shipping label on a
box by the door.
"Ebar…" Curiouser, he cut open the seal to look inside, releasing a ghastly odor. The box was full
of smaller black boxes, neatly packaged and labeled as if ready to sell. He
pulled one out to have a closer look. Inside the small box were half a dozen
strange, organic looking dried nuggets of sorts… There had to be hundreds of
them in the box, the stacked boxes were all labeled the same... They were all
being shipped to Ebar... He studied the nugget in his hand... Were it not dried
like this it would have had a rounder, pinecone shape... Fearing where his
thoughts were headed, he held it to his nose...
"UGH!"
He dropped the box, scattering the nuggets across the floor. The things Zara
had spoken of paled in comparison to the reality he was discovering upon
closer inspection. The secrets of Atlan were rapidly proving to be much worse than
he could ever have imagined!
Overwhelmed
and exhausted, Neter had to sit down for a moment. He stared at the pile of
boxes by the door, quantifying the volume, devastated by the elaborate
packaging, the cruelty of the Atlan enterprises. This all
just couldn't be true. He began ripping open the other boxes to prove
himself wrong, but to his horror, the more boxes he ripped open, the more right
he was proving to be. Box after box after box was filled with the same dried
pineal glands, packaged for sale!
...
Bell hurried up the Headquarters steps, through the lobby, down the hallway to
the Moha Lab Reception. He strode through the waiting room, walking straight
past Dr Seton’s holographic eyes, straight through the lab and down the stairs.
The Lower Lab was quiet… He glanced down the hall, in the distance he could see
a light still on in Doctor Seton's office.
He
hurried down the hall in search of the Doctor only to discover evidence of a
break-in! The floor was strewn with red folders, tablets were scattered and
broken, the file cabinet was wide open, the room had been completely ransacked!
Blade
drawn, Bell searched the lab for the intruder, and dashed out into the Hub,
when all of a sudden he caught a glimpse of shocking blonde hair, darting
across the wall by the TLS program!
Sensing
danger, Neter darted into the TLS reception just in time to duck behind a wall,
when Bell lunged from behind, wrenching his arm backward,
holding him firmly against the wall, blade raised to his throat.
Feeling
the blade pinch his neck, Neter couldn't compete. Bell bound his hands behind
his back, dragged him out into the Hub and threw him onto the train. He then
hopped into the front seat and drove the train out of the Hub, into a tunnel
marked with a faded sign above it that read HELLIAS.
They
arrived at a massive cave opening deep inside the depths of Mount Ekar. Bell
bound Neter to a post then stepped back and called out into the ominous darkness.
Almost instantly, a herd of savage beasts came screeching and bounding from the
cave, circling like rabid dogs.
Terrified,
Neter closed his eyes as the wild dogons stalked their prey, circling closer and closer, he could feel their warm moist breath, hear their low pitch growling and hissing as they drew near. He desperately tried to break free as they inched
closer and closer, fangs barred, when suddenly, one of them leapt towards
him....
"AAA-A-AGH!" Zara bolted up from her sleep and the tower tablet crashed onto the stone floor giving her an extra shock. "Oh my god!" She gasped, panting, her entire body was drenched with sweat. She scanned the room trying to remember where she was once again as her consciousness shifted to reality... She was in the Crystal Temple… It was just a dream… A horrible nightmare... But it was so real. Relieved to realize that Neter perhaps wasn't tethered to some post in Hellias, she picked the tablet up off the floor, slowly calming from the rude awakening. Was he really okay?
Then it dawned; perhaps everything she remembered to have happened, and all those things she had 'seen', had only been a really bad dream?
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