Chapter 7 - Cogs and Gears

The man in the black lab coat walked around the lab, it was small and brown with windows illuminating the outside with an overwhelming glow. The beige tiles had paint that never seemed to settle no matter how much time it was given and all the scientists would get it all over their shoes. This sparked a program where free lab shoes would be given out before you entered the facility as not to constantly ruin the shoes. This man was completely human no developments, no exposure to the toxin, the world really had become a testing ground and he was one of the puppet masters. This man’s name was Francis and he had been working on the transformation toxin for the past 3 years although it had felt like centuries. Of course, he had people helping him but he was always the most passionate about it. What he hadn’t realised is that it would be exposed to more than the botanist’s club.

“All government officials and those who signed up for the serum creation program please report to meeting room 3A,” the speaker sparked up with a calming blue light and breathed through into Francis’ ears. What amazing news, a chance to discuss how the experiment is going with the rest of his peers. He had gone to the 3A meeting room more times than he could count but he couldn’t recall being passionate or interested in any of the past meetings, until now of course. He jolted off and out of his private laboratory down the hallways and accidentally bumped into Jasmine one of the advisors for the city’s chief.

“Heading to the meeting too Francis,” she hissed at him in a likely unintentionally demeaning way. He wasn’t deaf but he often pretended not to hear people because he wasn’t sure what they wanted to hear from him so she had fabricated the idea that he had a hearing problem. Getting all these facts wrong and leading other employees to believe those same facts really hurt their relationship as coworkers.

“Of course,” Francis whimpered quickly and efficiently. Yet to Jasmine it was almost a surprise he said anything at all. Francis and Jasmine reached the end of the hallway and collectively opened the red doors in front of them. The doors had always had a certain metallic glaze on them that made them heavier so they had to push together to open them. Jasmine’s much more comfortable red dress and light T-shirt made Francis always long to take off his lab coat. Deep down he felt like nobody would even recognize him without his lab coat or ginger hair.

Meeting room 3A was a long room with a table nearly as long. At either head of the table was the chief or at least that’s how it appeared from how the mirrors projected his appearance. Francis and Jasmine each got a seat but let one person divide them to avoid any more awkward conversation. That dividing person was one of Francis’s best friends and a fellow scientist for the government. Although that scientist had also made one of the dumbest choices, the likes of Francis had never heard of to this point. That scientist had injected the serum into himself as he felt like he was the only truly reliable one to report the results of the experiment. Luckily enough though the serum was far enough along that he survived and became a grey creature with numerous tentacles and nigh unmatched strength. But, even that wasn’t enough for him he had to go into the field and observe the lab rats with his new transformation.

“As chief I would now like to commence this meeting,” chief yelled. It didn’t need to yell for everybody to pay attention but it seemed to enjoy yelling more than anything. Chief was a creature certainly unfamiliar to the above grounders it had it’s spine in the front and 6 arms, even calling chief a monster underplayed monsters. It was truly an evolution above the likes of anything else on Earth. Although in truth chief’s most formidable power was intimidation and manipulation. If not for chief this whole experiment would’ve never happened.

“As an advisor I forward this motion,” Jasmine commented too afraid to even look at chief. She simply stared ahead and slipped a piece of blue paper onto the middle of the table so that everyone could see it. Working around chief had desensitized the whole workforce to the idea of monsterizing the city. Yet Francis still felt reluctant to ever even touch the serum or gas whichever state it was in.

“So, what is this meeting about exact-” Francis began

“You are all most likely wondering what this meeting I called you to is all about. Well, to answer your question it is a way for us to analyze the data gathered by stage 2 of the transformation gas,” Chief interrupted while staring directly at Francis, not with anger but with neutrality. Deep down Francis was a mere speck to it.

“Yes, the data was quite surprising, society seems to have already fallen,” a coworker near the back corner of the room explained in a completely monotone voice. It felt louder than it logically could’ve been as if it was coming from the back of your head and seeping into your ears as a surprise attack. Francis had never spent the effort to figure out what that coworkers name was or even their gender but it always felt like they were right next to him when they talked.

“Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to talk about the metaphorical elephant in the room,” Chief continued as if the coworker had all been an extension of it. The coworker seemed to slouch down further into their chair after realizing this and continued listening to chief but with less interest. “That is the fact that we had one of our scientists who created the gas consume some, sparking a sort of in-house transformation.”

Hearing this sparked Francis’s friend to look directly at chief with one of his many eyes. He was clearly above most of the monster transformations found from the gas, but braving up enough to look directly at chief was still inspirational to Francis. Francis tried it for a second but wimped out and looked away again. Now, you may have noticed that I never gave this monsterized scientist a name, that is because they are simply known as The Unknown by their peers. That seemed like it would’ve been a lot more difficult to explain in my head but writing it down, it actually just seems like a strange name and nothing more; carry on.

“What about him,” The Unknown replied. What The Unknown had not noticed was that when they bent over to look at chief more closely and directly he had activated the speaker system for the room. This system would send out anything that anybody said in the room to the botanist’s club and many of the public alert systems around town. Immediately turning the meeting into a public spectacle. Well, I say spectacle but it was really more of a podcast as you weren’t seeing anything.

Chapter 8 - Voting For Answers

Martin and Marissa looked around but neither of them could remember how they ended up here. They were both in The Botanist’s Club deep underground in front of the basement with the black elevator. But, unlike Plum and her group they had never travelled here. Martin felt the muddy ground below him and it seemed as if he was in some kind of large hut make from logs and hay. It wasn’t much but there was a calming simplicity to it. After being out and about above ground seeing such a simple home and an outside clearing filled with nature and greenery was a welcoming site. What wasn’t quite as welcoming was the burning of some kind of copper statue in the clearing that Plum and Timothy was watching.

“We burn this statue to signify the start of the new world, down in these caves and specifically with this town,” A blue thin nymph with short stubby horns sang. The statue was specifically made for this occasion, this occasion in fact was quite important to the below ground residents. This is because it was the first tree that they managed to grow underground and almost all artificially by using the power source the botanist’s club originally was gifted. A generator sat in a tiny blue and gray box with etchings and scratchings across it near the tree to power it’s growth. Plum and Timothy looked incredibly out of place amongst the crowd of monsters and mythical creatures.

“What is this town called anyways?” Martin interrupted holding up his flame hand in a way to signal the crowd to silence. Everyone was a bit rowdy; they went from normal humans, to becoming incredible new creatures and then they all had to settle down in this new town. You can’t truly blame them. Marissa and Martin had stepped out of the hut to join the festivities but didn’t really understand why they were happening, neither of them even saw the tree. “And who brought me and my friend here?”

“Well, that’s what this whole meeting was brought together for!” The blue nymph responded angrily. Her horns seemed to almost grow twice in size and she started to jump up and down with her stubby legs on the stone pedestals that the tree was growing in. Next to her a 4 eyes druid woman who had been playing a quiet tune on her flute stopped playing to give her a tired look signifying that Martin had actually raised a good point. “Oh, the meeting wasn’t about who brought you here. Just ask whoever lives in that house you just came out of.”

“The town is currently called ‘The Botanist’s Club’ after the government’s original experiment that brought us here. But, we are going to rename it since people are starting to set up maps and subsections for the town,” the druid explained in a deep calming voice. She smiled as the said it and had relaxingly slow blinks with each of her four eyes. Once she finished talking she walked off the stone pedestals to let the blue nymph continue and to finish her flute song. Geoffrey returned to Plum and Timothy with 3 ice cream sundaes he offered to the group and they continued watching the nymph with ice cream dripping down messily.

“Yes, um. We were planning on conducting a vote to see what we should rename the town so just put in your ballets into one of those barrels and check off the name you would like,” the blue thin and now nervous nymph elaborated and gestured to series of barrels. Beside the barrels was a handful of papers on a birch table. They each had a list of names along with a box for each. Some of the creatures went to vote didn’t even use the pens they had received with their citizenship but instead used talons or claws they had grown. At the time this seemed much more convenient but later on they all figured out that made their votes not count.

After all the voting was concluded and the copper statue was burned until it became molten, the festivities ended. Geoffrey went with Plum and Timothy to their cabin that they pitched together and bought. Meanwhile, Martin and Marissa went back to the hut that they woke up in to see if the owner had returned yet. So, in case they missed the owner in future they went and put a note in the mailbox out in front. The note read as follows:

Dear homeowner

Thank you for bringing us down to this underground cityscape to sleep for the night. That was awfully nice of you. Could we stay at your place for the time being and if not how could we get back aboveground?

From Martin and Marissa

P.S on second thought just tell us how to get out of here no matter what -Martin

Martin and Marissa went around town to get some groceries as it seemed the town had prioritized supermarkets and power before intricate houses. Well, it didn’t really matter because now Marissa finally got her way and she got to pay for what they bought. When they were brought down many of their belongings seem to have disappeared besides phone wallet and a certificate of residence in The Botanist’s Club which they didn’t remember having before. But, all of their keys and school supplies were no longer on them, which overall seemed quite reasonable as in this new world they were practically worthless items. The real question was who took them and were they the same person who brought them down?

“Do you think this will ever become normal?” Marissa asked Martin.

“Do I think what will become normal?” Martin responded.

“You know exactly what I mean, this whole place. The new world underground and the terraformed destroyed one above us. Do you think we will ever get used to it?” Marissa explained with an unnecessary degree of sass.

“Get used to it? I doubt it. But, I think we might eventually accept it,” Martin responded with a pit growing in his chest as he said those last words. He knew that one day he would have to wake up and accept this world around him. Although, he wasn’t even sure if he had ever had that moment for the old world. Marissa put some more tomatoes in her paper grocery bag.

When Martin and Marissa returned home with the groceries they found a response note to their note posted on the door. It was much shorter than they expected.

I am The Unknown and if you wish to contact me I’ll be waiting for you in the deep caves behind the tree.

The note was written incredibly messily and hastily as if somebody had written it while they were walking and it was written in black slushy and gooey ink. The ink itself seemed to drip off the paper as if it was still trying to return from whatever squid it came from. The smell itself was toxifying to Marissa’s nose compared to the calming and serene scent that the rest of the town seemed to have. The duo was utterly unsettled and that was before they opened the door.