Leaving The Nest

**Written By "EatSpanishMoss"**

Poor researcher Tiana Albrige just wanted to use the bathroom.

She often worked the night shift, though she was a bit late tonight and just clocked into the facility. Opening the door to the second floor woman's stall was how she usually started the night, though, tonight was anything but a usual evening.

She pushed open the polished wood door, and… oh boy. The Equinox Facility, bless them, had created a monster.

Not that Walter was actually a monster, even if he was, and also had the appearance of one.

Twice as tall as the average man, massively framed, milky white eyes and one or two other mouths with teeth quite literally designed to rip through things, sure, yeah. No, the problem was that he kept breaching his containment and raiding the soft drink machine downstairs for the cola, or, more often, helping himself to some of the weirdest places in the facility. Tonight, it just so happened to be the second floor women's bathroom.

There he stood, cola can in hand, pushing a small rubber duck across a clogged sink full of water. The walls themselves bended and bulged to accommodate the rest of him, usually you couldn’t see the rest of his mass inside, but it appeared he was taking a break at the moment. In the women's restroom of all places. At 10:00pm.

“Walter… Why are you in the bathroom.” She let out a deeply unimpressed sigh, watching her friend loaf around.

His whole hulking body straightened, and he leaned on the wall, obviously trying to act causally like he was the janitor or something. That was until he noticed who it was speaking to him. “TIANA! It’s you! I missed you! Oh my goodness I’ve been waiting since..” Walter looked at his wrist like he had a watch on. “I.. don’t.. Really know! But I thought you were out tonight, what are you doing in here?”

“I need to pee, Walter.”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry… You can still go, I'll give you privacy.” He turned, bringing the cola can to his human mouth. Walters' body was now hunched over the small sink, entranced with the rubber ducky floating over the sink water just as much as a not lab-grown man would look over a casino table or a television. Though, his gaze turned from the ducky to Tiana, who was still in the doorway.

He smiled with his lips still on the can, and made a gesture with his head for her to go into the stall. “I won't bother you, honest.”

“I.” Explaining to this dork why this would be a particularly weird piss was too much for her to handle right now. “Don’t worry, I'll just go later.”

Tiana gently shut the door behind her and made her way over to the sink to inspect the ducky. “You can’t keep breaching containment like this for a soft drink and time with the sink, do you feel ill?”

Tiana reached up to touch Walters forehead to check his temperature, though she was just a little too short to reach the full ten feet, so he lowered his head to reach her hand.

“I don’t get sick,” he said, taking a sip from his cola can. “My entire body is an immune system, and I'm like— the best immune system. Hey, do you want a cola?”

“No, Walter, I don’t want a cola”

“Have a cola!” The walls began to shake as he presumably dug around inside himself for another can.

“Walter.”

“Sorry.” The shaking stopped.

Unfortunately, he was right, he never got sick as… he wasn’t human. But, he was perhaps more human than most people from an emotional standpoint, at least from Tiana's perspective.

“It’s ok, big guy.” She brushed a bit of his hair out of his face— why was it always so soft? “Do you feel nervous about something, I mean?”

“N..oooooo?”

“Walter.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh,” He lied terribly. Walter stood back up to his full height again, taking a long sip of his soft drink. He let out a nervous laugh, and turned his eyes over to the mirror, where he looked at himself for a little bit, and then over to the wall.

“You’re avoiding eye contact again.” Tiana continued to push her friend on the subject.

An eye stock pushed its way out of the wall and stared at Tiana in replacement for the big man himself. “Walter!” She raised her voice, shoving the eye stock to the side, it making a frill squeak of sound as it was pushed, as well as Walter witnessing this offense.

“Hey, woah, woah, woah, Tiana, that's like my twenty seventh arm you’re pushing there!” he protested as the far shorter woman made her way over to him. Tiana gripped him by his coat sides, and his face grew red with embarrassment and blush, along with his arms and legs becoming stiff.

“You’re a terrible liar. Why are you so nervous? Tell me, what is the matter with you?”

Walter looked down at his feisty friend, his cheeks red and his eyes very wide. “Look! Look, hey, it’s not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that… well…. What, is being embarrassed a crime?”

“No. I just.. Well, I'm worried is all! You shouldn’t be out this much, I mean, what if someone else saw you, I mean, really?”

“I prefer not to think about that stuff,” Walters off hand went to fidget with his tie, his large hands gliding across his sewn on facility number. Tiana released his coat from her grip, watching as the tall monster man grew physically uncomfortable. “I mean, I’ve just been thinking about other stuff really. You know, the stuff I really shouldn’t be.”

She watched as he sat down on the floor, his head now eye level with the little plastic duck that was still floating on the sink water. He gave it a little push. “Fine.” Walter looked at Tiana, and patted a spot next to him on the floor.

Despite that area being damp and a bit icky, she sat next to Walter anyway, resting a part of herself on his really massive leg.

“Alright, ok fine,” He gave her a friendly pat on the head, “If you must know— and i’m only telling you this because you are my very best friend— See, I’m just a little worried about getting my face cleaved in.. is all”

“What?” It took her a few seconds to process his words. Walter was massive to say the least, why would he, out of all people, be worried about… unless it was.. “By whom? I thought you’ve been doing great during the day?”

“No, it’s not that.. I mean, those people made me, they’re my family, it’s not that at all.” He pushed the little rubber duck again with his hand, this time looking to Tiana for some form of comfort. “You don’t know what next week is, do you?”

Tiana did actually know what would happen next week, Walter was deemed more than ready to start the hunt for Subject One months ago, but for some reason his release got caught up being approved, so it meant that only now would it be the first time Walter would be… “let loose”, so to speak.

She never had to comfort a large flesh creature about hunting down a highly dangerous past subject before. This was a first.

“You mean Subject One?” Tiana swallowed, trying to think what to say— “Walter, look at you!” She placed a hand on his bicep and gave him a return friendly pat. “You’re the best, I mean, I think you’re the best, if that counts for anything. I doubt she’ll stand a chance against you, big guy.”

“Well, that's part of the issue, but not the full issue,” Walter pointed out, returning the bicep pat as he was perhaps just a little confused by the gesture. “Subject One is… well, I mean shes Subject One. how people who made me make her?” Walter shook his head and put up his hands— “Now that? I don’t know at all. They probably messed up the mitosis or something in the dish and I came out correct.” Walter groaned a bit, resting his forehead against the sink “why she would ever want to leave here I don’t know.”

Tiana let out an awkward cough into her fist, not wanting to ruin Walter's naive view of the world. “Oh I think you’re probably right about that, and I agree it’s very nice here,” She lied.

“I knew you’d get me” He took another sip of his cola can, “Anyway, it’s more a bit of general… uh..”

“Anxiety? You’re feeling anxious?”

“I think so.” Walter let out a long puff of air, his face somber and sleepy looking. “Have you ever heard of a thing called a car? They’re massive, bigger than me. What if I get hit by one of those? Or, I mean, really, the outside of this place isn't for someone like me, I much prefer being safe here. If they could bring Subject One to me here, then I could win and still be with my family..”

Tiana looked up at the massive wall of muscle that was Walter, her mind blank as to what she could say to persuade him he was going to be more than fine. “...everyone has to leave the nest eventually, even someone like you. But, I don’t think anything bad will happen to you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Walters' eyes seemed to be in between emotions, “Well.. I, do you really think so, Tiana?”

The researcher, and friend nodded her head in approval. “Something tells me you’re going to be more than fine.”

She gave a desperate attempt to wrap her arms around him in a hug, though his body was perhaps a little too large to fit herself around, Walter still understood her gesture.

“I trust you, then.” he said. His large form melted into her much, much smaller one, and he wrapped his arms around hers.

“I knew I could trust you, my very best friend.”