Prototype

Hours passed since Paul’s departure, and yet a part of him didn’t really leave. Reggie pondered over what she learned; NexGen was responsible for the deaths of Paul’s parents, and she was at auction for sixty million dollars.

Family… she kept thinking about it. She couldn’t dislodge the notion that she knew Paul from somewhere; there was some type of unexplainable connection between her and him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a siren.

Another training mission. That would be the perfect distraction. She would force herself into her work and enjoy accomplishing something important. She got out of her bed quickly, feeling a rising adrenaline rush, and put her ear piece in.

“Activating,” Shelby’s voice confirmed. “Our mission would appear to be internal.”

“That’s different,” Reggie thought.

“Our situation appears to be a toxic gas leak.” Shelby continued, “Be advised to wear a gas mask until further notice. You are to search for survivors and stop the gas leak.”

“Protective suit?” Reggie inquired.

“Not necessary. It is an airborne toxin that cannot be absorbed through the skin.”

“Copy that,” Reggie said. She moved toward the door, picking up her handgun and preparing herself to focus on the mission at hand.

Reggie moved down the hallway slowly, listening to only the sound of her feet landing on the floors.

This was something she was comfortable with.

Cables dangled from the ceiling, producing small electrical discharges that spilled out from the exposed wires. The lights were flickering meekly before they finally lost power. While the power was out, Reggie’s eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light without the need for night-vision goggles.

The silence was unnerving, but it allowed Reggie’s senses to amplify. She could hear a pin drop from two rooms away. Then… she heard a noise. The noise distracted Reggie.

The noise was a soft moan.

Reggie turned to her left and opened the nearest door, firearm leading the way. She glanced quickly around the room. She could see no one, but she heard the sound again. It was farther away now; she doubled back searching for the sound’s origin.

“Give me a heat signature of this room; make a clear indication of my location,” Reggie said softly to Shelby.

The blueprints of the room filled the lens that covered Reggie’s left eye. There was a small X indicating her location in the room, and hidden behind the bookcase of this office was a very faint heat signature. Reggie moved to close the distance between her and the heat signature.

“Wait,” Shelby instructed, suddenly causing Reggie to come to a halt. She still was not in clear view of whoever was in the room with her. “You’re approaching the toxic gas.”

Reggie compiled by putting her mask on. Coming around the fallen book shelf, she found an individual sitting on the ground with his back resting on the wall. He was gasping slowly and staring vaguely forward. Reggie moved toward him at a quickened pace, stopping in her tracks when he jerked.

“Sir?” Reggie asked, trying to alert him to her presence.

“Who’s there?” the man asked, picking up a book to use as a weapon.

Reggie noticed his pupils were a pale blue, indicating blindness.

“My name’s Reggie,” Reggie started calmly. “I’m with Security; I’m going to get you out of here.”

He put the book down, “Help’s too late for me, Reggie.”

“What happened?” Reggie asked, crouching next to him.

“There was a gas leak, apparently a noxious gas. Why there’s a noxious gas in this building, I have no idea. As soon as it started leaking, the sirens went off. Everyone evacuated…” the man was saying. “You and I are the only ones left.”

Reggie was going to ask him why he failed to evacuate the premises with everyone else when she noticed a piece of metal protruding from just above his pelvis.

“I was too close to the leak; a piece of the pipe caught me when I was trying to take cover,” he added.

“The injury looks deep,” She supposed from the pool of blood underneath him the pipe struck an organ and he was slowly bleeding to death.

“The pipe is the only thing keeping me alive now, but it’s only postponing the inevitable by leaving it there. I’ve been bleeding internally for too long now. Just take it out and let me die.”

“I am not instructed to aid in anyone’s death,” Reggie said simply.

He touched her hand softly. His fingers were getting colder.

“You’re not going to be able to stop the gas leak, get help, and have it arrive no matter what you do. You’re putting yourself at risk arguing with me. The exposure to the gas caused my blindness too; you’ll have the same issue soon if you stay too much longer,” he told her with a cough.

“Evaluation,” Reggie commanded Shelby after a moment of considering her options.

“He is in severe pain,” Shelby started after having listened to the entire conversation. “He is a resident Medical Doctor; he is still in his correct state of mind. You have authorization to respect his wishes.”

Reggie nodded and positioned her weight to pull the metal out. She braced her weight and held onto the metal shard, “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” the man said.

Reggie started to pull on the metal shard, trying with all of her might to not accidently push it in further. With a few minutes and easing the metal, it finally became dislodged from its host. Blood started to pour out, and the man sighed in pain and relief.

Reggie put the piece of metal down and changed her position so she could leave. Before she completed the weight change, he grabbed her hand and held it tightly. She reached for her firearm out of instinct, realizing quickly she needed to suppress those initial instincts.

“Will you stay with me?” he asked. “Until the end?”

By the amount of blood, Reggie knew he wouldn’t have much more time on this planet. No matter how much time it took the gas to cause blindness, staying with him until the end wouldn’t have an adverse effect on her.

She was trained that casualties did happen, and her mission was keeping any incident as minimal as was possible. His question made her mind race with confusion; she faced death before, but he was first to seem to need comfort in the wake of death.

“Asking for company in his last few moments is a reasonable request,” Shelby interrupted for the man’s sake.

Was this what empathy felt like?

Reggie considered for a moment, and sat down next to the man and waited. She sat next to him in silence. Eventually, he touched her hand and gave it a light squeeze; she didn’t feel he was challenging her and squeezed as softly back.

“Tell me about you Reggie,” he requested after a few minutes.

“There’s nothing really to tell you,” Reggie told him. “I’m in Security, and I’m here to stop a gas leak.”

“Security for NexGen, right?” he asked.

“Yes,” Reggie answered.

“Right,” he chuckled humorlessly. “I can see your Omega symbol tattoo.”

She looked at her exposed shoulder. She would have to wear sleeved shirts if she continued to interact with humans.

“Yes,” Reggie answered after a brief hesitation.

“What symbol?”

“Omega,” Reggie said.

“Ah, so you’re Sample: Omega,” the man said with a light nod. “I hoped I would get to see you sometime.”

“Who are you?” Reggie asked, shifting her weight closer to him.

“My name’s Phil,” he responded. “Will you do something for me?”

“What do you want?” Reggie asked. Her voice was uneasy with a dialogue she was unfamiliar with.

“Will… you give this letter to my family?” he asked, pulling a blood-spotted, sealed envelope from his lab coat’s inner pocket.

He chuckled slightly, “I spent my life studying how close the human body can come to death, and still never acknowledged my own mortality. I have so many things I still need to tell my wife and son.”

Reggie hesitantly took the envelope from him. She tucked it away for safety, “Consider it done.”

“Thank you, Reggie,” Phil said kindly. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, his breathing stopped and his pulse ceased.

Reggie respectfully closed his eyes and folded his hands on his chest. If one took no notice of the blood, he almost looked as though he fell asleep on the floor. For some odd reason, this strange gesture that was so foreign to her felt like she was showing him the respect he deserved. She was doing what somehow felt right to her. In his final request, he asked her to pass a message to his family. Was that abnormal or did families traditionally unify? Was there a family somewhere that cared for her?

“Reggie,” Shelby said, interrupting Reggie’s thoughts. “Are you all right?”

“I’ve never witnessed a death before,” Reggie confessed. It was very different from what she expected. “But I have a job to do.”

Reggie took one last look at Phil’s body, resting how she positioned him and the great look of peace on his face. She continued down the hallway in search of the way to stop the gas. She was seeking a control panel.

“The gas is ammonia,” Shelby said once Reggie was beginning to move again.

“Toxicity?” Reggie asked, watching the map of the building on her glasses while she was moving toward the heaviest concentrations of the gas. She found it very strange that the highest concentration was not where Phil fell with the pipe on his side, but further in the building. The probability of Phil doing much traveling with such a large shard of metal in his side without leaving a single drop of blood was highly unlikely.

“Only high with prolonged exposure,” Shelby informed her.

“That complicates his death then,” Reggie said. She opened a door and moved to the door on the right labeled “Caution: Toxic Gas.”

“His amount of exposure would have to be sustained over days or even weeks, not hours. This accident may have been to cover someone’s tracks…”

“A highly probable scenario,” Shelby replied.

Reggie opened the door and entered with great caution. The sirens were loud in the room and the air seemed thick but remained seemingly normal. She could feel her skin burning; she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like without protection for her lungs. She appreciated her mask.

“The air is burning my skin. I feel my blood temperature rising from exposure,” Reggie told Shelby.

In bright orange paint was a valve to shut off the flow of the gas. Reggie hesitated for micro seconds before beginning to twist the valve. Rust fell from its junction as it turned, creaking loudly.

“Readings indicate the room’s toxicity level is decreasing,” Shelby said once Reggie finished turning the valve.

“Congratulations!” said a loud, masculine voice over an intercom system. Fans immediately turned on and cleared the remaining gas and returned the room’s stability. The air was cleared and the lights turned back on.

“You were exposed for an extended period of time, you’re going to need to be decontaminated,” the voice said.

“Of course,” Reggie responded. Reggie went to the nearest showering area and tossed her clothes in the trash on her way into the water. She rinsed until her skin stopped burning and then washed to ensure anything was gone.

She emerged from the shower, pulled a towel around her and returned to her room where she put on replacement clothes and waited for further instruction and an evaluation of her performance.

Granat stepped into her room, “Impressive; even down to sitting with that individual until his death.”

Reggie ignored his assessments, her focus remained on Phil.

“Do you have anything more for me today?” Reggie asked.

Granat was noticeably taken aback by the question. Something changed in Reggie’s mind, but there were an infinite amount of possibilities. He would re-review if the conversation between Phil Montgomery and Reggie was more in depth than the transcript read.

Reggie was already planning to have someone escort her, without Granat’s permission, to Phil Montgomery’s house. Reggie excused herself from Granat, ready to act on her plans.

Someone was going to be an asset to her, she just needed to figure out who.

“I have Phil’s address for you,” Shelby notified her as the only asset she found so far, a security officer, asked where Reggie needed to go.

“Do you know why he was selected for today’s training session?” Reggie asked Shelby outside of her help’s earshot.

“Not yet, his personnel file appears to be sealed,” Shelby replied. “I’ll continue to search for a way to open it.”

That was even more disturbing to Reggie. Not only was an employee used and killed in the name of training, but a sealed file too? NexGen was doing something they shouldn’t be doing; and now there was a real body count. Everything was suddenly real.