1 Chapter 1: The Lab

That night seemed no different that any other night I was on patrol. The sky was mostly clear and only a few clouds dotted the dark sky, but the moon refused to come out from behind them. It wouldn't have mattered if the moon came out or not. The light would have never made it past the dense forest surrounding the long, dead, dirt road. The only thing that offered any light was the headlights on my squad car, and even then the light only lit up a small portion of the road.

The same thing happened every night since the lab had shut down a few weeks prior. It became routine. I would take the long, hour and a half drive down to the lab in the middle of the woods, do a quick check of the building and the perimeter, to make sure that nobody had vandalized anything, then make a report and go home. This went on for about a week now and I was beginning to get tired of this 'assignment'. The lab had shut down after the founder died and his niece had inherited the company, but she quickly lost it due to her inexperience with technology. (In fact I think it used to be an asylum before it was bought by FORGE Tech.) Considering that this building had just recently closed and the location of said building had not yet made it to the media, it made sense that nobody had been out there yet. And...I'm not stupid. I know very well that the only reason I'm the one who has to go to check on this place is because I'm new to the force. This force in particular; I've actually been any officer for about three years now and am currently working on getting into the FBI. They've rejected me twice, because I'm too "inexperienced", but I'm going to keep trying. That much I can promise.

I pulled in front of the lab. My eyes trailed up the odd square shaped building. All of the windows on the three floors were boarded, like I had left them last night, and were drenched from the storm that morning. I shut the car door behind me as I adjusted the utility belt around my waist. I huffed, annoyed to see the same thing, but I didn't expect anything more from this place. After all, this place was just a testing ground for new phones or electronic toys for kids. Nothing odd as far as I knew. But then again I'm never told anything. I walked up to the doors and pressed a hand to the cold, fogged glass. I saw the receptions desk and the waiting room that was behind it. The plants in the room were all dead or were close to dying and you could see the thick layer of dust that covered everything. Same as yesterday.

I pulled out my flashlight and began to make my way around the building. Branches from some of the surrounding trees had fallen from the storm and now littered the unkept ground. I stepped over the large pieces of bark with little amusement, shining my light over anything that could be out of place, but nothing was. As I made my way around to the back, I noticed that the large oak tree that once covered the back wall of the lab was completely gone. I didn't know the storm hit that hard over there. The tree, which had been there since this lab was constructed, was ripped up from its roots and now laid on its side, at least ten feet away from the wall. I shined my light on the back wall, my eyes still wide from seeing the tree. In the few weeks that I have been over here, I've memorized almost every little detail about that building and I've never once seen these. Bullet holes riddled this wall in sporadic patterns, along with long, deep scratches. Too deep to be caused by tree branches or any type of animal, at least in these parts. The worst we get out here are wolves, and last I checked wolves can't jump high enough to put claw marks under a window on the second floor. The light of my flashlight trailed down slowly, my eyes following it, and the next thing I knew, I was staring at a door. A rusted metal door that was slightly dented, but the bulge from the dent was on the outside. As if something had hit or punched the door from the inside.

I don't scare easily so I didn't jump or anything, but my eyes narrowed and my short curls fell in my face as I tilted my head. The cold wind seem to feel even colder the longer I stared at this door. The worst part was...a small bit of light drifted from the inside.

As much as I wanted to listen to the small voice that was telling me to go back to the car and radio for back-up, I knew that no one would respond to a minor situation like this. It was almost 1:00 A.M. on a Saturday night and if this was a bunch of vandals or robbers, worse case scenario I would have to fire off a few warning shots. After all, Wellsboro isn't the most...active as far as crime goes. And I've worked in the SFPD before, so this shouldn't be a problem. A puff of smoke left my mouth as I sighed. This night just kept getting longer and longer.