A Dark Trail - Chapter 3

Clever Adolescent Panda and Pollock closed the lab door firmly behind them as they entered. They two scanned with their flashlights for a light switch. Finding one, Pollock flipped it experimentally. Nothing.

They stood silently, scanning the scene in front of them. There were two rows of work stations. Some of the stations housed computers, others various tools and other equipment. At station was a person, either slumped over the desk or collapsed on the floor.

CAP covered their nose with one paw, the smell almost overpowering. "I'm glad we didn't let the others see this."

Pollock stepped forward carefully, avoiding the pools of dried blood. "I'm fairly certain the fool noticed your reaction, and I wouldn't doubt Deadpool knows something as well."

CAP climbed two stairs to a raised section of the floor to the left. It had several long tables, most of them toppled or pushed up against the walls, more equipment and people strewn everywhere. On the floor, among the victims, were some familiar looking transmitters. The panda picked one up gingerly and tossed it to their companion, who caught it easily.

"I think the ones at the computers were probably the ones who programmed commands into these things. Do you have anything that will work as a power source?"

"A few small batteries. They might work for a little while. Do you think there's anything left on the drives?"

Pollock didn't look optimistic. "I doubt it, but it would be best to confirm it. The transmitters we collected in the woods weren't in any state I could determine what else might have been built into them."

The two found an undamaged terminal, and fed it some power. After a gentle hum, the screen lit up, showing a login page.

The panda glanced over. "You think we found someone who uses "password" for their password?"

"Unlikely." It wasn't the password, nor was it any of the other common choices.

CAP patted Pollock on the shoulder. "We can take one with us if we want. Let's keep looking." They approached a set of double doors on the wall opposite the entrance. Pushing the doors open revealed a narrow corridor that immediately turned left. It was pitch black, their lights revealing featureless stone walls, which led to a single steel door.

The door was ajar, blood stains visible on the inside. Two more people lay on the floor. As the two approached, they could tell both of the deceased had been hit repeatedly with great strength or at high speed. Or both. The door showed several dents from the impacts, to the extent it was concave, bulging towards them.

Clever Adolescent Panda moved carefully, avoiding the two people. Pollock, on the other hand, hefted the larger one until it was half-in, half-out of the doorway. At the panda's questioning gaze, she replied flatly, "I'm not getting trapped in here because the door rolls shut. It has an autolock system on it. You want to chance it still functions?"

CAP narrowed their eyes, but didn't argue. The room they entered was also in total darkness, no sound other than the crunch of glass beneath their boots and paws. Panning their lights across the room, the found a row of large tubes along the walls on either side. Each tube had a glass cover in the front. Or they used to, as each cover appeared to have been broken from the inside.

Pollock crouched a picked up a piece of glass with some familiar-looking hair on it. Thin, stiff, a metallic sheen to it. She passed it to CAP, who took a deep inhale.

"Amilgar?" Pollock still thought it was a dumb name, but her suggestions had been roundly ignored.

"Uh-huh. So they escaped, then rampaged through the lab?"

"It looks that way, although that doesn't match their being transported halfway across the country."

"Or being able to kill them with a command," CAP settled on their haunches, passing their light over the room. "How would they attach the control unit once they were loose?"

"Perhaps they pumped a sedative into this section of the building."

The panda shook their head firmly. "But the first door we went through wouldn't have held long enough."

"What do you think then?"

CAP turned to face Pollock, an unsettled look in their eye. "It would be easier to attach the control unit while they were still under control in the tubes. Calvin told me when he and Cassanee were watching them, a few of them that didn't wake up when the others did suddenly startled awake, like they were shocked, without any of the others touching them. Maybe the control unit could be used for that, and maybe someone used it to send them into a frenzy and kill anyone here who could talk."

"That's certainly. . . grisly. I've found a strongly worded non-disclosure agreement usually does the trick."

Before the panda could respond to what they assumed was an attempt at a joke, the lights above them abruptly flickered to life. Not all of them leaving the room starkly divided between pools of light and shadow. CAP cocked their ears and angled their head towards the ceiling.

"What do you hear?"

"Gunfire, maybe."

"Deadpool may simply be messing with one of the others, or bor - "

Before Pollock finished the sentence, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A flash of green at the edge of the shadows in the corner. CAP noticed how she trailed off and followed her gaze. There was the muted tremor of an explosion from somewhere above, causing the light fixtures to shake slightly. Just enough to push the shadows in that corner back a bit. Enough to show the green was part of a suit, worn by an otherwise nondescript man.

The suit was a deep emerald green, and covered in clock face designs. Each face appeared set to a different time. His hands were clasped behind his back, head cocked to one side. His closed-lip smile made the fur on the panda's neck and scalp rise. Pollock tensed as well, and the man spoke.

"Time's up."

His hands swung into view and each held a grenade. The one in his right hand, he immediately hurled at the two of them.