Screens Part 1

His eyes close themselves slowly over his slightly dried eyeballs, as the clicking of a wooden woodpecker dances as happily as ever upon the desk. His eyes dully and lifelessly graze the hazy black and white screens over and over, examining the everyday life of employees interacting with each other, computers and equipment. His mouth hangs slightly open, dry and cracked from the heat from the heat radiating off of the video screens. A man sits down next to him as the back door clicks loudly closed. He chuckles at the sight of the man and hands him a cold bottle of water. "Too loyal to this job to get a drink for yourself eh?" He asks in a raspy voice. With a quick glance at the screens, his face quickly turns from relaxed to worried in a matter of seconds. "Look, Luther, you can't get too attached to this job, alright? Just trust me."

This surprised Luther. The old man wasn't so prone to break the SCR codes so easily. He looked at the man, dismayed, and at a loss for words. "What are you talking about?" He asked with a slightly confused look on his face.

The old man reset his normal work attitude mask and looked back at Luther. "What are you talking about?" He repeated. "I haven't said anything since i walked in." And with that he turned back to the screens, watching soullessly, with black lifeless eyes.

Luther, confused, studied the man and pondered his reply. 'Haven't said anything since he came in? What was that all about?' He thought. Before turning back to to the screens, Luther saw that the old man's muscles were extremely tense, almost bulging out of his neck and face.

Finally, Luther broke his gaze, grabbed his water and got up, leaving the old man to his shift. He walked to the door and stopped, looking back at the old man. He looked past the screens, at the poster on the wall left of the light. A list of code sorting through everything a security man needs to know and do to do his job successfully. His eyes scanned them down and locked on the seventh code. "Never talk against the company".

He bid the man a farewell and headed out of the screen room into a smaller room with doors on each wall. On his left, the bunk room. The right, the kitchen. And straight in front of him, the steel bolted door that is never to be opened. 'Not if i could anyway.' He thought. The door locked automatically by someone above him, only opening in case of an emergency.

With a last thought, he headed towards the kitchen to eat his dinner and finally rest his eyes. The metal door opened with a creak and made a loud clicking noise as it closed. Luther walked into the dining hall and past the counter into the kitchen to find Rem making dinner. Intrigued as to what Rem was fixing up, Luther slithered over and stared intently at the food. Ham sandwiches. And interesting dinner for a Thursday night.

"What's the special occasion." Luther asked the boy. Tilting his head and breathing in the smell of fresh ham. He hadn't had ham in the past three months when they celebrated a coworkers promotion.

Rem flipped the last of the bread over and said, "It's the old man's birthday today, so i thought we should celebrate."

Surprised, Luther hissed, "What are you thinking?! Pack all of these right now before Sam gets here-" but before he could finish, Sam walked in, dropping her tray at the sight of the food.

Her wide dark green eyes passed from the food to Rem to Luther and back to the ham. "What are you doing, Rem? That food isn't supposed to be used until the next promotion. What are you thinking?" She asked in a surprised tone, amazed at the sight of useful food going to waste.

"Well, its the old man's birthday so i thought-" but he was caught off guard by Sam taking a step closer and slamming her hand on the table next to him.

"You thought?! What are you thinking?! Huh? You don't think here! You do what you are told no matter what, that's what we've always done!" She cried, astonished that anyone could choose to disobey the rules. She expected Rem to get sad and apologize with tears rolling down his pale face, but instead she got something she didn't expect.

Rem wiped his eyes and snapped, shouting, "Shut up! Do you hear yourself?! You're not even human anymore! Why can't i be at least a little humane to raise the spirit of being trapped down here?" Instantly his eyes opened wide and he froze, watching Sam with the fear for his life.

Luther, mouth agape, backed up slowly, looking from Rem to Sam, trying to escape as far as he could away from the kitchen. He hit the back wall and stood still, watching as the color escaped Rem's face and Sam grew the darkest of reds, before speaking in a hushed, enraged, tone. "Did you just say.....trapped?" She hissed.

Rem's face grew white and he backed up slowly, bringing his hands up in an easing tone, stumbling over his words, "S-S-Sam t-that's not, i-i mean i- uh. You know- i didn't, i-i, w-we're not, in here l-like that. I-i just, blew up, i-it wasn't m-my f-fault.

Sam just stared, the look in her eyes piercing a hole through Rem's heart. Tears flowing down his face, streaming from his eyes. Just then, as Sam was about to explode, the old man called from the screen room in a nervous tone. "Hey, you guys might wanna get in here! This is bad!" He yelled through the two muffled steel doors.

Sam whipped her head back, breaking the stand off, the color fading from her face back to a normal light pale. She looked back at us and nodded, "let's move." Not bothering to wait for Luther or Rem as she opened the door and headed for the screen room.

Luther looked at Rem and put an arm around his shoulder, helping him to move. "Come on, let's go." He said as they started toward the screen room. As the door clicked behind them, two people exited the bunk room across from them, Stintz and Olive, brother and sister put on this job three years ago.

They grouped together and headed to the screen room, opening the door and headed toward the desk. The old man, a big pale colored man, with a white receding hairline stands at the center of the desk typing frantically on the keyboard. Sam stands off to his right with her hands over her mouth and nose with a scared look on her face. Seeing this, everyone rushes over to them and looks at the screens.

"What's happening?" Stintz asks in a desperate like tone.

The old man breathes heavily for a moment before turning and saying, "There has been a containment breach in the experimentation room. Whatever they were testing on, got out. Level 6 is breached and some security is being transported down, but there have been casualties."

"Well, what was it?" Stintz asked.

"Im not sure. A virus of some kind. I was watching it earlier when it broke out. It.." He stopped, recollecting his memories. "It latched on to the scientist nearest to it. From what I've seen so far is that it looked like it took control of the guy. It...it slaughtered the other three men in there to the point where i can't even tell if they were human before." He stopped to wipe the sweat off his brow, and then continued to type on the keyboard. "Stintz, call security on floor 5 and warn them of what's headed their way." He said in a more confident like tone.

Stintz looked at Sam and then back to the old man. "Al-alright hold on" he walked to the left side of the desk and picked up a phone and started to dial in numbers. At that moment, all of the security guards went to work in the screen room. Olive walked over to Stintz and picked up another phone, typing in the number to floor 4. Rem walked to the end of the table, prepping the microphone for either the old man or Luther to talk through.

Finally, Luther walked over to Rem, looking him up and down. Rem was the youngest of the 6 guards there, only fifteen. He still retained the mindset of junior curiosity, and a small hint of creativity. He loved to ask questions and learn what he could about the people around him. That's why Sam hated Rem. He had once asked too many questions and triggered something that hurt her, causing her to strike back in harsh defense. Something that Luther learned when he came to the security room was that personality is not favored, and that Protocol requires all males and all females to have the same look as to not trigger any unwanted creativity or individuality.

After thinking his words over carefully, Luther turned to the mic and flipped the switch on. He set the target to all floors and took a deep relaxing breath. "Attention. Attention. This is the Security Screen Lab. There has been a containment breach on the sixth level and is deadly. Please evacuate immediately to the higher levels and out of the facility. Defense units have been notified and are working their way down to level six." As he ended, he took a deep breath closing his eyes, and turned off the mic.

"Nice job Luth, everyone's starting to get the picture." The old man said cheerfully. He stopped, and turned, examining the room. "Sam?" He asked into the open dark, but received no response. Sam had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. "Luther, go check where she is. We need her in here helping."

Luther glanced at the old man and nodded, looking towards the door. His legs finally moving as he received a reassuring pat on the shoulder by Rem. His shoes clacked on the tile floor , pausing for a short moment as he opened the door, and then continuing on into the hall.

He froze in the doorway, eyes wide with fear, the blue in his eyes screaming like a man lost at sea. His legs shook and shivered involuntarily and his fingers tapped against each other. 'How?' He thought. 'How is this possible?' His mind raced as he stared into the dark open hallway that lied behind the giant steel door. "Sam?" He called, letting it echo throughout the halls. He gulped down the stick in his throat and forced himself to step forward.

His feet coming to a stop inches away from the frame of the door. The trail of his eyes grazed the inside of the frame, gazing at the little infringements and the fine detail of the great door. At the edge, on the left side of the silver frame he placed his hand and traced the smooth metal. The skin of his hand scratching an indent in the frame. His brows furrowed as he found the indent and placed his nails under it, lifting and tugging, until the panel fell out and its contents spilling to the floor.

The sight of the contents startled him and he leapt backward, then, slowly began to creep forward toward the object on the floor. He bent down to his knees and looked closer, examining the black object. His eyes widened as he realized the object was a pistol. Loaded. Luther picked it up, running the cold black metal across his fingertips, and feeling the weight of it in his hands.

The darkness called back to him and he looked up, contemplating his next move, when he saw the slightest of movements in the light at the end of the hall. His mind scrambled and his breath became heavy. The blue of his eyes looked back down to the gun in his hands and then back up to the hallway as he decided what to do.

Instead of closing the door and saving the rest of the guards, he left it open, saving Sam if she was somehow able to get back, backing up and pointing the gun down the hall. With another catch of movement under the light, Luther's grip got tighter. His fingers clicked the safety off and he leaned forward with uneasiness in his eyes, preparing himself to shoot whatever was approaching him. A breath of hot air escaped his lungs soon to be replaced by the cold stuffy air of the security office.

Luther heard the thing breathing heavily as it scuffled across the floor, finally into the light. Luther took a deep breath and aimed at the thing, barely catching himself as Sam looked up at him with scared, pleading golden eyes. "Luther...please..help." She said with a soft tone. Luther looked down, and flinched as he saw a bloodied man in a lab coat lying unconscious in Sam's arms.

"How do we know he's not infected? The old man said-"

"Luther. I've seen the virus. Its...its an organism of some kind. It spreads by latching onto a host. This man is a victim. Please."

"The med kit is in the screen room. I'll go get Stintz." Luther said, placing the gun in his pants and watching as Sam opened the door to the bunks and headed inside. He turned, making one last check down the hall, before grabbing the edges of the steel door and pushing with all his might to close it. When he heard the heavy 'clunk' of the latch, he turned, making his way to the screen room.

"Stintz, i need your medical skills now." He demanded when he entered the room. Everyone turned, giving him their attention.

"Luther." The old man said in a darkened tone, pausing for a moment before continuing. "What happened to Sam?" He finally asked.

"Sam looked fine. Its the other guy we have to worry about."

The old man shot up in anger and astonishment. "You brought someone else in here?!" He demanded.

"No. When i left, the guard door was wide open. Sam came back with a bloodied man in her arms."

"The...door was open? What were you thinking?! Why didn't you close it?" The old man questioned.

"Sam was still out there. I closed the door once she was inside." Luther said. "Enough of this. Stintz, let's go."