I MADE A BIG MISTAKE

Pale blue door. It reminded me of something. William always talked about Carl Sagan when we were in college. He's a big fan. Even when we were on a date or went on a movie, he kept talking about him. The reason he studied astrophysics was because of Carl Sagan. If i wasn't mistaken, there's a book named Pale Blue Dot that written by Professor Carl Sagan one hundred years ago. I had the book in my library. William gave it to me as my nineteenth birthday present.

Was this pale blue door had something to do with the book?

"Mrs. Hope, it is time to unravel the secret behind this door."

I nodded and walked toward the door. A green laser bursting from a peephole-like dot in the middle of the door right after i stood on the designated circle. It scanned me from head to toe. When it done, a circular metallic tube erected slowly from the left side of the door. I peeped through it and the machine scanned my retina.

"Fingerprints verification needed," an AI woman voice echoed from the door.

I laid my right hand on the fingerprints sensor. A sudden puff sound burst from the door followed by a small amount of vapors before it slowly opened. For a second, my chest pumped at the speed of light. I was wondering what could be something that William left for me? My heart dropped. There's nothing inside, but an empty room emitted a purple ray colour without anything else resided in it. I noticed something. There's a polygonal door on the other side of the room.

Professor Ivan took two set of hazmat suits from the left side of the room near the entry door. There's a secret flat door attached to the wall where the hazmat suits were hanging.

"Mrs. Hope. This is an airlock room or you could say a decontamination room. I don't know what's in your head, but you look disappointed."

"I'm sorry, Doctor. My expectations were too high."

We put the hazmat suit on. As we walked inside, the door automatically closed. An AI voice once again reverbed in this room.

"Protocol C-1, activated."

A purple light went out followed by a yellowish-green gas burst from the corner of the ceiling. Couple minutes later the gas circulated through the vent and the polygonal door opened by itself.

"Well done, Mrs. Hope. I will handle everything from here by my self. You can leave now."

"But, Doctor. I want--"

"We have a potential code white in Sector-13. Requesting immediate respond," he talked to a walkie-talkie, "leave now Mrs. Hope. Before the security slammed you on the floor."

What? Why did Professor Ivan prevented me from entering the room? What's actually inside it?

Three massive armed guards came and dragged me out from the Sector-13. They left me locked outside. What should i do? I startled when a janitor touched my shoulder. Awkwardly, i walked around the facility tried to find where did they treated Leonora by asking whoever i met along the corridor. It's weird. Most of them didn't even know where did Leonora was bedded.

I went on the first floor and checked my cellphone. I was astounded by the amounts of missed calls from Linda. let alone the messages. Tons of it. I called her back. If it's not really important, she wouldn't left my phone with myriads of miss calls.

"Hope! Where are you? Why didn't you pick up my call?"

"Oh my, Linda. Calm down. What's happening?"

"Haven't you watched the news? You should get out of there!"

Why did she screaming on the phone?

"Linda, why'd you crying? I'm fine here."

She gasped like she's reached the summit of the Himalayan Mountain.

"Hope. I just heard a shocking news from BoD. Dr. Ivan officially ousted from the Pandora. He did a terrible scandals. Are you with him right now? Where is he?"

"Scandals? No, he just kicked me out from his detrimentally ugly secret room. I don't wanna talk about him, Linda."

"Hope, please, get out from there. There's something suspicious about Dr. Ivan. And the island, it's a chaos, Hope."

What did she mean? I went to the janitor's room and watched the TV. What's this? I didn't understand russian, but it seemed there's a riot in the city. Buildings were on fire, people were running on the street, and the traffic just awful.

I screamed out of my lung when someone touched my left shoulder.

"Leonora?"

She looked very pale and weak. I helped her to sit because she panted pretty bad.

"Haah, haah, Mrs. Hope, i don't know how long i can survive, but, haah, haah, please leave this island. Dr. Ivan lied to you."

"He lied to me? About what?"

"The Phalleo-4 was just a decoy to lure you into his trap. Haah, haah, his real intention is, haah, haah, to steal the secret of life that your husband left decade ago in this facility."

"The Secret of Life? What is that?"

"Haah, haah, to be honest, i don't know either, Mrs. Hope. Haah, haah."

"Leonora, you are his assistant, why did you tell me this?"

"No, no, haah, Mrs. Hope. I'm actually an undercover Apex. Haah, haah. My mission was to find out what's Dr. Ivan hiding from Pandora. We've put an eye on him for these two years. Haah, haah. Finally."

"It's okay Leonora, don't talk anymore. Let's get to the infirmary."

"Haah, haah, no, Mrs. Hope. It's because of you i finally understand what's his plan. Haah, haah, About my wound, i was attacked by one of his loose monsters. Haah."

"His monster? Is it tall and huge?"

"It doesn't matter about its size. Haah, haah, what's more important. Do not go the Sector-13, Mrs. Hope. If he asked you to do anything in there. Just don't. Haah."

"I, i, i'm sorry, Leonora. I just come from there. Dr. Ivan kicked me out after we opened some kind of secret room."

"Oh no. Haah, haah, this will be the end of the world, Mrs. Hope. Haah, haah,

"W, what? Is it that bad?"

"Yes, it's not just bad, but worse than bad. To be fair, it's part of my mistake too, Mrs. Hope. Haah, haah, i suppose to be always on your side when we arrived here and met Dr. Ivan. Haah, somehow he knew my plan and try to silent me. He's planning on something huge and evil. Haah, haah, Mrs. Hope, haah, haah, there is another secret facility on the north. You have to go there and meet Jerry. Haah, haah, he's an Apex, he'll take you home."

"What about you, Leonora?"

"I can't. The viruses inside my body should be contained in this island. Haah, haah, you have to leave now, Mrs. Hope. Here, take my phone. I've set the GPS to the facility. Haah, haah."

"Virus? What virus? Come with me, Leonora."

Leonora coughed pretty bad. She fell on the floor and the bloods streamed from her mouth like a river stream. This one even worse than the one when we were in the car.

"Mrs. Hope. Now! If you really care about me, don't let me die in vain. Haah, haah."

She coughed again. I felt pity of her. To be honest i wanna cry. She's lingering on the floor, writhing in pain on her own puddle of bloods, waiting for her time to die.

I ran outside and asked for the car key from the head security. It's almost 01.00 AM. I haven't sleep at all, but i had to meet Jerry. Beside, i didn't want to let Leonora just died in vain.

Once again i drove this car under the pale moonlight in the middle of nowhere. My head filled with questions. What's inside the secret room in Sector-13? What's behind that polygonal door? What's Professor Ivan's plan? Was he an evil person? Why did Leonora said the mistake i made will lead to the end of this world? What did she mean by the virus in her body should contained in this island? What actually happened in this island? Why there were riots in the city?

There were tons of questions in my head. However, there's one question that kept whirling like a typhoon in my brain.

"How do i stop Dr. Ivan and his evil plan?"