Maximum Area

Seeing life spark in Mat's tired eyes brought a grin on what should be my face. In a flash my body ascended into the vent where I originally came in through. Mat called out to me before I was out of earshot, "Are we done Z?" Dipping back into the room one last time I said, "For now".

Once fully inside the vent I went down the same path as last time. My body naturally stopped at the vent where I saw the thing from the pit to find the room empty. Slithering further ahead I caught the scent of cigarettes', following my nose I stopped at the first vent below to see her.

Looking down at the woman I knew as Aunt Patty growing up until the night of the car crash. She was the first person to call me a monster when she saw what I could do being the sole survivor of that night. This woman who I refuse to call 'Director' in this prison, doing paperwork with a cigarette in hand. Taking my chance to hide under her desk when the sound of a knock at the door started her into an upright position.

Hearing her say 'Come in' I kept my eyes pointed to the door with what little space I had under her desk. The sound of heavy boots followed by an even heavier smell of Aqua Velva told me who had entered Aunt Patty's office just now. "Director, have you made any progress?", Armstrong asked. Aunt Patty responded with, "Nothing so far, all the subjects we've treated have been failures. Even if they're under the age of 25 their bodies react negatively to the alien substance when it tries to bond with them."

Armstrong signed heavily, "How has progress been for the ones in Maximum security?" Hearing that question stunned me in place, did he mean the solitary unit or is there another area me and the rest don't know about. Aunt Patty responded with, "Those subjects are still highly hostile and would rather die than take orders. The most we can do is keep them sedated and away from the rest."

Hearing them talk so casually about us as if we were just rats for a science project made my blood boil. Armstrong got closer to say, "It's been over a decade and still no progress with any of these mutants or how to use them in the field?" I could only imagine Aunt Patty giving him a stern look as a reply. "The government has funded millions of dollars to this site and your research. We want results!" The subtle sound of a cigarette being put out is followed by Aunt Patty replying with, "Do you have any idea what this institution has done with the millions of dollars that you let the government supply it with?" Hearing what I could only understand to be a growl deep inside Armstrong's throat as a reply. Aunt Patty slapped her hands on the desk to push herself backward. I took the chance to hide inside her shadow to avoid exposure.

Keeping my eyes open to see Aunt Patty use a black key card to open her office door I followed her every step as she walked down the hall. Her and Armstrong walked for about a minute or so until the key card was used again. On the other side of this door I could see rooms that looked similar to the ones in the solitary area. Pushing down the urge to kill this woman and Armstrong made me shiver. After seeing Aunt Patty flinch I made a mental note not to do that again. Armstrong asked, "Something wrong?" She responded with, "Felt like someone walked over my grave". I thought to myself more like I'm going to dance then take a shit on your grave you stupid backstabbing fucking bitch!

Aunt Patty stopped at what I could only assume to be one last door here, she used the same key card followed by a code 13201093. Once inside I saw that it was another surveillance room with a different face on each of the eight monitors above. My eyes finally landed and stayed on one that looked exactly like Ed. They could be twins for all I know. Seeing his eyes rise to the monitor I could almost feel him staring back at me. I held my ground as he stared back at me, eventually he looked away which only confirmed my suspicion. He could see me.