The Iso-Stasis Experiment (The Experiments) (46 page)

Cal nodded. “What is this Jake?”

“According to these notes,” Jake said and held up the folder, “a control center.”

Rickie had an echo sound to his voice as he called out, “Sarge?” He raced back in the room. “It’s a tunnel, a deep tunnel. It has to go out there. This has to be where he gets in.”

Jake moved to the doorway and looked down the long, dark and dirty corridor. He checked the archway up and down. “Using Rickie thinking . . .” His hands ran around the frame. “Yes . . . step back.” He pulled Rickie from the tunnel. With a smile Jake watched a thick steel door slide closed and pounded his fist on it. “He’s not getting in this way again.”

A look of panic hit Rickie as his head twisted about. “Shit, Sarge, what if he’s in here with us?”

Very calmly Cal answered him. “He’s not.” She stood looking at the monitors. “Look.” She pointed up waiting for Jake and Rickie to stand behind her. “He’s in the storage building. Is he sleeping?”

“It looks that way.” Jake checked out all of the monitors. “Look at the wolves. Look how many there are.” He shook his head. “OK, let’s load up all the files and papers we can. Grab everything. Rickie . . .” Jake pointed. “Start over there. Cal, grab what’s on this work station. I’ll hit that file cabinet.”

“Sarge?” Rickie walked to his area. “The bloody stuff, too?”

“Everything.”

“Cool.”
 
Rickie nodded.

“And, Rickie, don’t let me forget to grab that
Gin Blossoms
CD.”

Cal couldn’t believe the way Jake and Rickie were reacting. Her stomach still flipped around but unfortunately there was nothing left in it to bring back up. With disgust and using only two of her fingers, she began to pick up items from the table. She’d cringe, and then continue.

^^^^

Almost mesmerized, Cal lay on her bed next to Jake. A folder opened across her lap, she lifted one page at time. “There is so much information.”

“Dudes, this is weird.” Rickie stood from his Indian style seated position on the floor. “Was it just me or were we like all under the impression this was an experiment?” He handed Cal a folder. “Check out the title.”

Cal read the label. “Holding Event-Game status?” She slowly opened it. “Holy shit, it’s a participant status sheet. Look at this, Jake. Each one of us is ranked. An investor is listed next to us. It’s definitely a process of elimination.”

Jake peered to see what she showed him and then returned to his own folder. “Anything else is in there?”

“It’s mostly faxes and copies of correspondence.” She moved her legs over to make room for Rickie to sit on the edge of the bed. “Nothing . . . wait, here’s a sheet on the investors. Oh, wow . . . these guys are into the experiment for two million dollars each. Check this out.” She handed Jake the sheet of paper.

Jake looked at it and handed it back to Cal. “Their investment in . . . the game. There are eight investors, two million each. Half goes to the institute, the other half makes up an eight million dollar pot.”

Cal didn’t seem fazed. “No wonder they were doing all this shit to us. Someone has to win. One person wants that pot. It figures.”

Jake was surprised. “This doesn’t bother you.”

“No, why should it?” Cal shrugged. “All of us joined this project of our own free will. No one forced us into this, and if you recall, they were rather vague. They said it was an isolation experiment. Well, it is. So you have a few millionaires making some money off of it. I think it’s kind of cool.”

“Cool?” Jake asked.

“Sure. You should, too. I love the thrill of competition. It’s just so ironic that the whole entire time I’ve been here I’ve unknowingly been a player in a game. But now . . .” Cal laid her folder down. “I know. And, I’m not going to lose. None of us are.”

Jake rummaged through the folder. “It just makes me wonder. They want one just one of us to win. How much are they going to throw at us to ensure that?”

“Not enough,” Cal said. “I think this Griff thing slash Bigfoot is their ace in the hole. If we can bring it down, they’re going be
shit
out of luck.”

“We’ll be
shit
out of luck if we can’t figure out how to do it. It has to be . . .” Almost in excitement, Jake jumped from the bed. “Yes,” he said as he grinned and paced around while reading. “Yes.”

About the fourth or fifth ‘yes’ Cal had enough. “What!”

Jake smiled broadly and said very cockily, “It appears, Bigfoot, as Rickie calls it, the beast, as you refer to it, and the thing, as I hate calling it, is actually named, The Stasis. The one thing I have always taught my men is . . . to beat your enemy, you must know your enemy. Guess what?” He held up the folder. “We now know our enemy. He’s going down.”

He was ready to go home for the evening, especially after Dr. Jefferson, sitting rather slumped in his leather chair, watched the tape for the fourth time. It was time to call it quits for the day.

Stan was sick of the tape and was so upset when he was told to bring it up again and rightfully so. Dr. Jefferson expected the information that he reviewed on that tape, but he didn’t want to hear it. They hadn’t heard from the controllers in days and that told him something was wrong. But there wasn’t any way of knowing. How could there be?

Just one more time, he thought as he pressed rewind and waited until he heard the machine stop. One more time, pressing play, Dr. Jefferson sat up to watch the scene he had reviewed over and over again. It was that scene that finally gave him his answers. In it Jake was leaning over Cal’s desk writing something, occasionally holding up one finger to the camera as if to say ‘wait.’

Then Jake stood, walked slowly to the camera, closed his mouth and widened his eyes sadly and held up a note, letting the camera focus in on it. It was his message to those he knew were watching. His message that said:
Thought you’d like to know. Your people are dead.

Cal jumped from her seat as soon as Jake and Rickie walked into the room. “I take it you didn’t have any luck. You couldn’t find it?”

“Oh, we found it all right.” Jake threw his shotgun on the bed. “It was destroyed. So . . . the anti-regeneration serum is out.”

“What now?” Cal sat on the bed disappointed. “He’s been out for seventy-two hours. We’re at our window of opportunity with him. It’s now or never to destroy him, Jake.”

“I know this.” Jake, frustrated, rubbed his face. “We have a couple options. We can’t draw him in so he could have prolonged exposure to the indoors. We don’t have the ammo left to do that.”

“We don’t need the storage,” Cal suggested. “Why don’t we burn it down, the heat will . . .?”

“No.” Jake shook his head. “We know now he’s close to waking up because that shell is gone. If he wakes and gets out, we’re screwed. Rickie . . . Rickie has an idea . . .” Jake turned to Rickie. “Do the honors.”

“OK.” Rickie shifted his weight from one leg to another. “We found tranquilizers. The notes said that they can knock him out for two weeks.
 
Sarge and I were talking. We think that right now while he’s not shelled, we can hit his skin. We sneak into storage, inject him with a double dose of the shit, and then sever that brain stem.”

Cal liked the suggestion but had her doubts. “What if he wakes up while you’re trying it?”

“That could be a problem,” Jake answered. “I read over the controller’s notes. Our timing has to be impeccable, if not better. If the thing wakes up before the tranquilizer hits him, and if we cause any amount of damage to him without killing him, he’ll cocoon again.
 
And the problem then is that the sedation will prolong the cocooning. So we’ll have no idea . . . again, unless we watch day and night, when he will return.”

“There really isn’t a choice, is there?” Cal asked. “We don’t have enough defensively to sustain another attack with him. It really is now or never.”

“It’s now, Cal,” Jake said with a certain amount of apprehensiveness. “It’s now.”

^^^^

“Cal-babe, you look totally
bitchin
’ with that scarf.” Rickie gave her a thumbs up.

Cal smiled at him. She stood before the wall of monitors, a black scarf wrapped tightly around her nose and mouth. “Thanks, Rickie.” Her voice was muffled.

“She looks ridiculous.” Jake pulled down the scarf and kissed her, then placed it back around her nose. “You know the plan. Watch us. If by chance we run into trouble that we can’t get out of, disable the elevator lift to the storage building and that will stop him from coming down. Then you secure this steel door. When the Stasis goes out, you hit the homing device for those wolves. Got that? That’s the plan, if something happens to us. The Stasis will be out for a while, you’ll have enough time to go above, get what you need and barricade yourself down here for the rest of the project, dead bodies and all.” Jake saw that she wasn’t paying that much attention.

Cal faced him, pulling down the scarf. “You think I’m going to leave you up there in trouble. Fuck that. I’m coming up after you.”

“No, you won’t.” Jake grabbed her shoulders. “You have to finish this project. You know why you came here in the first place. If we’re trapped and there’s no way for us to get away, don’t try to be a hero. Be alive. Aside from that, nothing is going to happen. We’ll be back in a few minutes . . . with his head.” Checking his revolver, the only weapon he would bring, he kissed Cal, and then replaced her scarf.

“Jake . . . Rickie.” She called as they stepped into the tunnels. “Be careful.”

“Cal-babe, we rule. Sarge says this is step one to being the cool Ranger.”

“Sarge is going to ruin you, Rickie.”

With a grunting look, Jake tugged Rickie’s arm and they descended into the tunnel.

Voices were kept low and although they were not armed with much, they felt confident in their mission.

“Sarge.” Rickie checked out his tranquilizer injection gun. “Will he feel this?”

“Doubtful. It should just be a pinch.” Jake could see the elevator ahead. “Rickie.” He stopped walking and turned to him. “Remember what I told you. If I get into trouble, you get the hell out, right?”

“Right, Sarge.”

“Make me a promise. Promise that if something should happen to me, you’ll do everything you can to make sure Cal makes it through this experiment . . . and after. You watch out for her then, too.”

“I promise, Sarge, but only on one condition. You make me the same promise.”

“With everything I am.” Jake spoke with confidence, leading Rickie once again to the lift. “Ready?” he stepped on the lift.

“Aye, Aye, Sarge.”

Jake cringed. They began to rise and when the floor of the storage building came into view, they were hit by the stench of The Stasis. As they reached the top and stepped forward, they saw him, lying atop a table, arms crossed against his stomach. “He must know when he’s going to cocoon,” Jake said softly walking without making any noise toward The Stasis.

“Yeah, he finds a place to snooze.”

“He’s out.” Jake circled the body. “Get your injection gun ready. You do that thigh, I’ll do the other.”

“Right against his fur?” Rickie’s hand shook as he pointed.

“Push directly against it.” Jake took a firm hold of Rickie’s hand and lowered it to The Stasis. He gave Rickie a comforting look. “Let’s do it on three.” Jake pressed his injection gun to the skin. “One, two, three.” With a slight hissing noise, they simultaneously injected the beast. They both shifted their heads for signs of his waking up and saw nothing. “We’re in. Rickie, go by the elevator and wait.” He whispered his order and waited for Rickie to stand by the lift. “Do you see the button that raises it?”

“I’ve got it.” Rickie held his finger near it. “Press it now?”

Jake nodded to him and then reached behind his back. He pulled out the small ax. He knew his aim had to be right, his strength couldn’t be weak and he had to do it in one single movement. Lowering the ax to his destination point, Jake raised his arms readying himself to strike down.

With a growl the Stasis opened his eyes, reached up, knocked the ax to the floor and gripped Jake by the throat.

“Sarge!”

Jake felt his body lift as the beast began to rise from the table. “Rickie . . .” With Choking words he called to him as he used his strength to kick out his legs and flip over the table the Stasis was still on. It rolled to the floor and Jake ran to the lift, grabbing the ax from the floor as he did. “Get on.” He pulled Rickie to him, firing at the Stasis as it charged at them.

Just as the lift started to lower, The Stasis reached out grabbed hold of Rickie.

Rickie screamed loudly as it began to pull him from the elevator

Knowing the revolver was empty and the elevator went nowhere, Jake took the ax and swiftly swung down with force, taking off the arm that held Rickie by the throat. As if the Stasis had been holding the elevator back, the elevator lowered as soon as the forearm fell to the floor.

Watching the monitor, Cal let out a deep breath as she watched the beast as it stood alone.
 
It swung its arm about, blood shooting from it. It didn’t die, it didn’t go down from the sedation, but . . . it didn’t kill Jake or Rickie either.

“What’s it doing?” Jake called as he and Rickie ran in, securing the steel door.

“Being pissed off,” Cal said and indicated toward the monitor, “and destroying the elevator lift. Look at it.”

Like he was mad at the world, The Stasis stomped down over and over until sparks and smoke emerged. He raised his arms up and opened his mouth crying out.

“Why didn’t he follow you two?” Cal asked.

“He knows he’s going to cocoon,” Jake answered. “And the tunnels are warm, if he collapses down here, he’ll die.”

“Bigfoot’s got brains,” Rickie stated. “He’s making sure we can’t go up while he sleeps and knows we won’t go out with the wolves.”

Jake placed both his hands on Rickie’s shoulders and turned him to face him. “Are you all right? I didn’t ask you.”

“Fine, Sarge, thanks for asking. You?”

“Fine.” Jake laughed and rubbed his head. “Let’s go back up. We now have to figure a way out of this mess we created.”