So, I’m a scientist, and I work for a drug discovery company. Something weird happened on Friday night.
I was staring blankly at the results on my computer screen - or lack thereof. My reaction hadn’t worked. I put my head in my hands and sighed. Just then, the door to the lab opened, and Josh stuck his head in.
“Hey, I’m heading out. I’ve checked and it looks like you’re the only one left, do you need me to stay until you’re done?”
“Nah, I’ve got no more experiments to do, just a bit of analysis. I’ll be safe. But… can I sign you out when I leave? So they won’t know I was lone working?”
“Sure, but don’t forget. They’re already on me about forgetting to sign out last week.”
I heard Josh’s footsteps echo down the short corridor, and heard the front door slam shut behind him. I typed up my findings, before getting up and heading to make up a few more samples for analysis. Hopefully this reaction at least had worked. Honestly, being a scientist is more about failed results than groundbreaking successes.
The instrument room is at the other end of the corridor to our lab, past the biology lab. The lights are on sensors everywhere, so they all began to turn on as I walked down the corridor, carrying my samples in both hands. I awkwardly fumbled to unlock the door, dropping my keys in the process.
“Bollocks.”
I bent down to get them, but just then, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The corridor seemed to drop about 10 degrees, and I felt an eerie presence behind me. I shot up and spun around just as the lights in the corridor behind me began to shut off again, one by one. I stood dead still in the darkness, hardly able to breathe. Then slowly, I stepped backwards into the spectrometry room, where the lights flickered on as I moved. The light shone out into the corridor, completely empty and still. I laughed to myself.
I hated being the last one in at night, I’m trying to finish up this big project. Officially, the company doesn’t allow lone working for safety reasons, but the bosses are constantly pushing me to stay later to get this done, so I’ve been alone in the department a lot lately. I was used to feeling a little uneasy, but this was the first time I’ve ever truly felt scared.
I loaded my samples into the machine and put the details into the computer. My heart was still racing when the machine hissed and the mechanical arm grabbed my first sample. I locked the door behind me on my way out, trying to shake the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. As I began to head back down the corridor, though, the lights didn’t flick back on. I waved my arms around to try to catch the sensors, but nothing happened. That’s when I first heard it.
The door to the biology lab stood slightly ajar. It had caught on a cardboard box just inside, and hadn’t closed properly. Through the crack in the door came a low moaning sound. It sounded almost human, but not quite.
I’m not what you’d call brave; every fibre of my being wanted to run away from the sound. However, some part of my brain forced my legs to move towards it. Again, the lights didn’t turn on. The only light came from the illuminated fire exit sign, tinting the room with a dim, green glow. Biology labs have loads of freezers at different temperatures, to store their samples; blood, tissue, that sort of stuff. Our biology lab has a big walk in freezer, like they have in restaurant kitchens. We share it, and this one is mostly filled with chemicals. That’s where the sound was coming from.
I pulled open the door, and in the dim light from the fire exit sign I could just about make out a woman sitting on the floor. She was naked and bloody. Her eyes seemed to shine in the dark, though her irises were the strangest I’d ever seen. They shimmered with numerous colours that seemed to change and move and swirl, like puddles of petrol caught in the sunlight. As I got closer, I could see she had wounds all over her body. They looked to be incisions that had been neatly sewed up. Surely they weren’t doing illegal testing on this woman? Had they left her there to die? Surely they couldn’t expect that anyone, nevermind someone in her condition, could have survived a weekend alone in a freezer?
I didn’t have long to ponder these questions before the woman launched at me. For someone who looked so frail, she had incredible strength and agility. She sank her teeth into my arm, before throwing me aside and darting out of the freezer, and out into the corridor beyond.
I felt strangely weak. I had fallen when she pushed me, and I think I hit my head, but the bite mark… The room began to swim and I drifted in and out of consciousness.
I couldn’t tell you how long I was there before Peter, the head of the biology team, brought me back to consciousness with a shout of anger.
“What have you done?” He screamed, shaking my limp body. “Where did she go?”
I could barely piece together a sentence.
“I- She- What? She’s gone.” I stammered.
“Christ almighty. When? When did she escape?”
I couldn’t think.
“It’s Saturday morning.” He sighed. “Did this happen last night?”
I nodded. I noticed beside him, on the floor, a bag of something he must have dropped in shock. I couldn’t quite make out the contents - meat, perhaps? He was bringing her food. Keeping her alive. He looked at the bite on my arm, and grimaced.
“Well, it’s maybe been 12 hours, so hopefully the infection won’t have spread too far. I can’t save the arm, though. We have to get you into surgery, immediately.”
I blacked out again, and when I regained consciousness I was in a room with bright lights shining down on me.
“… spreading quickly. I don’t know if the arm will be enough…”
I blacked out.
A man leaning over me, in a surgical mask and scrubs.
I blacked out.
A nurse rushing towards me with a bag of blood and inserting a needle into my good arm.
I blacked out.
Peter, anxiously pacing back and forth beside me, hurriedly talking on the phone with someone.
I blacked out.
When I awoke this time, things felt less hazy. I was in a hospital bed, on an otherwise empty ward. It took me a few moments to realize my left arm was completely gone. With an effort, I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
“She’s awake! Nurse!” My husband shouted from the chair beside my bed.
“What…” Was all I could get out, before the nurse hurried over and forced me to lie back down.
“You’ve been in a car accident” answered my husband. “You got fired from your job last night, for working alone after hours. They said it was a huge safety concern, they escorted you off the premises.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My face must have reflected my confusion, so my husband continued.
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head. I certainly didn’t recall this version of events.
“Apparently you got a hold of some booze from somewhere… I know this project was important to you, I guess getting fired must have really messed you up. You tried to drive home drunk…”
His voice trailed off. “You’ve lost an arm. You’re lucky it wasn’t worse. The woman you hit… She, uh.. she didn’t make it…”
He couldn’t look me in the eyes.
“What woman?” I asked, though deep down I knew the answer.
“I don’t know, some young woman, I don’t think they’ve been able to identify her yet.” came his reply. “All I overheard from the nurses was that she had funny coloured eyes.”