Event 2

PDF file of Event 2
I'm in an infinite array of wide giant pillars that stretch into the black sky as far as the eye can see.
Nothing is going on.
Not a sound is being emitted by these monstrosities.
What is even up with them?
Who made these things?
And why are they so neatly ordered?
Before I could finish my train of thought a weird noise starts its chant.
Where is it coming from?
As I focus in more and more I realise that it's coming from the far reaches of my left ear
Ah, I recognize this sound.
It's my damn phone.
The scene that I was just in fades away into nothing as I have to open up my eyes to check on my phone.
As I open my eyes I can feel a slight tingle coming from them.
It's like I have interrupted them while they were doing something important.
Well sleep is important I suppose, so that would be quite right.
I get increasingly frustrated with the sound of my phone buzzing right next to my ear.
But I don't have the energy to pull myself together and throw it against the wall.
It will just have to buzz for now.
With my life force drained away by the buzzing my will to pick up the phone decreases by the second.
I'll just let it die off.
After a while the buzzing stops and I'm granted a few moments of peace.
But right as that thought crosses my mind it starts buzzing.
Louder than ever before.
 (RICHARD)(grunts) "Alright who the fuck is it?"
My left arm reaches out to the nightstand.
As I grip onto the phone tightly the light of the screen starts blinding me.
It eventually comes into my field of view.
The contact's name is "Hiroki Work".
Gods be fucking damned.
I do not want to deal with this.
Not now.
Not ever.
Ahhhhh......
Alright fine I'll pick up.
 (RICHARD)(sighs) "What is it Hiroki?"
 (HIROKI) "Richard this is INCREDIBLE you have to come in the lab. Right now!!"
What's up with that weird hyperbolic tone he's got?
I don't think I've ever heard him being this excited over something work related.
 (RICHARD) "Can't you just give me a basic rundown of the situation?"
 (HIROKI) "Now why would I do THAT when you can just come in and see for yourself!"
Ugh why is he being so roundabout about it?
 (RICHARD)(annoyed) "Just fucking tell me what's it about? Maybe? Perhaps?"
 (HIROKI) "Oooh okay okay alright."
Hiroki takes a small pause.
 (HIROKI) "A big development just-just happened, but it's way too much to explain over the phone so I REALLY need you to come in here."
Is this guy fucking serious?
I just ASKED him to give me a run down and he gives me this?
 (RICHARD) "Okay Okay fine. I'll be there in 30."
I hang up the call.
Ugh...
What has this fucking guy gotten himself into?
Some time later I find myself right in front of the company's building.
The neon sign with the words "High Oceans Corporation" lights up my whole field of view.
I fucking hate this god damned place.
I don't think I've ever woken up this early for my job.
Fucking hell.
After finishing that train of thought I make my way over to the large door that leads inside.
The huge sliding doors grind and creak and they swing wide open.
I head inside.
Oh there's Jim.
 (RICHARD) "Hey Jim."
 (GUARD #1) "Hey Richard. I don't really see you around this early. Somethin's up?"
 (RICHARD) "I'll find out shortly. See ya later."
 (GUARD #2) "Later."
I scan my company ID on the scanner and the gates for the metal detector open up.
It scans me without a hitch and I'm free to press on as I please.
Walking up to the receptionist desk I see Rebecca.
 (RICHARD) "Hey Reb."
 (REBECCA) "Oh Richard, Hi."
 (RICHARD) "Have you seen Hiroki?"
 (REBECCA) "Yeah he's been running around like a maniac all night."
 (RICHARD) "Where's he at right now?"
 (REBECCA) "He should be on level -16."
 (RICHARD) "You're a life saver. Catch ya later."
Picking up my coffee can from the vending machine i decide to head down to level -16.
The elevator doors open up wide and I step into the hallway.
I walk up to the guard booth right next to the elevator.
Huh I don't know who this guy is. Is he new?
Ah no matter.
 (RICHARD) "Hello. Could you tell me which room Dr. Yamakawa is in?"
The guard reaches over the keyboard on the desk.
After a few strokes on the keyboard and a few other mouse clicks he says:
 (GUARD #2) "He's in cell 107."
 (RICHARD) "Thank you."
As I turn away from the guard booth I can see the end of the corridor.
Which is so incredibly far that I don't even want to think about the implications of having to walk from one end to another.
Fortunately enough the cell I have to go to isn't too far.
It's about a fifth of the whole corridor.
I start to make my way there slowly.
My footsteps echo throughout the empty hallway.
I always thought of this corridor as very hostile towards anything or anyone that isn't a draconian prince of old times.
Like don't get me wrong.
I very much enjoy the various accents of marble being scattered throughout the whole of it.
But something about the insanely tall ceilings, the floor lights and the overall feel of the place just always spooks me out a little.
I'll need to have a chat with the architect of this damn building and give him a notion or two on "human design".
As I wrap up my internal monologue I reach my destination.
Cell 107.
Test Subject: Sam Kreb.
Serial Number: SK9752310.
Status: Idle.
Hmm the status says that she's idle.
I wonder what this is about..
I extend my thumb to the Fleeting Linker and I visualize the thought of opening the door.
The sliding door opens and I find Hiroki inside.
He's sitting on the monitoring station. He doesn't notice me coming in.
 (RICHARD) "Hey Hiroki."
 (HIROKI) "Oh Richard, hello."
 (RICHARD)(sighs) "So what's the score?"
 (HIROKI) "See for yourself!"
Hiroki gets up from his chair and removes his mask and green plastic gloves.
 (HIROKI) "I hate these damn things"
I sit on the chair that he was previously sitting on and i put down my unopened can of coffee.
 (HIROKI) "Y'see... That gal over there caused a whole lot of trouble a few hours ago."
He's pointing at the test subject in the room.
This is a surprise.
I didn't think that people in Stasis could give us much trouble to begin with so what's going on here?
 (RICHARD) "So? What happened?"
I take a look at the set of monitors in front of me.
Graphs are plastered along every one of the monitors.
Most of them visualize brain activity, active heartbeat monitoring, hormone monitoring, percentages of coherent and incoherent thoughts, levels of bone and muscle fiber integrity and so on.
In particular it seems like brain activity together with a large hormone release occurred a couple of hours ago.
I zoom in on the graph.
These numbers should not be as high as they are.
What the fuck happened here?
 (RICHARD) "Well... This is intriguing to say the least but what does it mean?"
 (HIROKI) "I took a look at the Stasis footage and..."
 (RICHARD) "And?"
 (HIROKI) "Well that new tech from R&D we installed on her a week ago caused a rather unexpected response."
 (RICHARD) "Ah."
 (HIROKI) "Y'see where I'm going with this?"
I switch over to another monitor which tracks the integrity of the Stasis simulation as well as the integrity of the specialized Dreamulator used to keep it active.
The temperatures peaked at 200° Celsius across multiple components such as the Logic drive and the main processor, with the back up one reaching the high 100s. For around 10 minutes.
Why is he so excited to show me this?
Usually I'm the one excited to be breaking company property, not him.
 (RICHARD) "How the fuck is this possible?!"
 (HIROKI) "Well her brain would've probably melted if I wasn't pouring liquid nitrogen all over the cooling system."
I turn towards him with a shocked gaze.
 (RICHARD) "You did WHAT now?"
 (HIROKI) "Don't look at me like that! It was that or losing another test subject."
 (RICHARD) "Ah forget it." I turn back towards the monitors.
 (RICHARD) "So what was the 'unexpected response'? "
 (HIROKI) "She had a big 'ol panic attack, pretty good one too."
 (RICHARD) "Are-are you serious?"
 (HIROKI) "Totally."
 (RICHARD) "How many times did you reset it?"
 (HIROKI) "Three times."
 (RICHARD) "Three gods damned times??!"
I put my hands on my head and I clutch it tightly.
 (RICHARD) "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Me."
 (HIROKI) "Yup."
 (RICHARD) "Let's get R&D on this asap."
 (HIROKI) "Definitely"
This is not how I expected my morning to go.