As the doors slid open a mist of decontamination fog filtered out of the room and moved across the dark biochem hallway, like a shot from a horror movie. If anyone had been watching they probably would have said it looked like that final shot from Star Wars: Rogue One when Darth Vader emerges into the hallway with emergency lights flashing around him, his heavy breathing echoing amongst the dead bodies as he twirled his lightsaber. I mean without the dead bodies that is, and a plastic stick instead of a lightsaber, I thought as I looked to Callum who was gripping the broom handle as he glanced nervously into the dark.

We both stood there for a moment, watching the endless black that had enveloped the biochem hall, waiting for movement, a noise or anything to grab our attention. After a moment I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and tentatively stuck my head out of the airlock.

“Aren’t there supposed to be lights?” He asked as I stepped forward, leaving behind the safety of the airlock. 

“No. All the backup power here goes to keeping their experiments from deteriorating.” I answered as I fumbled with the flashlight built into my helmet.

I turned back to Callum, who held a hand up to his eyes in an attempt to shield them from the light of my flashlight. 

“You coming?” I ask, Callum nodding in response. “Okay cool. Stay close behind me.”

I turned my back to Callum and made my way to the hallway, peering into every other doorway in case there were zombies lurking there. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if there were zombies, but at least they wouldn’t be able to sneak up on me. 

It was at that thought that a hand gripped my shoulder causing me to jump. I spun around ready to fight whoever had grabbed me, when I noticed Callum had come up close behind me and was trying to get my attention.

“Don’t scare me like that!” I exclaimed, as I inwardly sighed with relief at the fact he was not a zombie.

“Sorry.” He apologized, as he looked down at his feet. “I was just going to ask how much farther till we reach surveillance.”

“Just a few more feet.” I answered, sighing as I turned away from him. 

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my overactive imagination, when I saw the door to surveillance. It was at the end of the hall, standing forebodingly like a giant gravestone. Why a gravestone you ask? Well for one thing it was about seven feet tall, was a dark silver grey, and the words security had been etched into it with a chisel or blade of some sort, instead of being painted like the rest of the labels in the building. It usually wasn’t as dark and horror movie esc, but without only the lighting from the flashlight on my helmet, it definitely felt like we were going to be entering a tomb.

My stomach did a flip as we approached the iron door. Obviously that was just me feeling  nervous and anxious, and not actually my stomach flipping as that was physically impossible, but I used that metaphor nonetheless. Not actually acknowledging my fears and feelings as what they were definitely helped me ignore the sinking feeling in me, which was again another metaphor as my insides couldn’t sink, that told me something would go wrong and urged the flight or fight part of my brain to make the decision to turn around and head back through the biochem hall and into the safety of the airlock.

“Is that it?” Callum asked, as I approached the door and began the process to open it.

“Yep.” I replied as I struggled to turn the wheel. “This is it.”

“You sure there’s not some horrible creature behind the door?” Callum inquired as he took a step back. “Cause this looks like the kind of door used on vaults and to keep monsters from escaping.”

“Don’t say that!” I huffed, as I managed to rotate the mechanism half a turn. “Now I’m not going to be able to stop thinking about monsters waiting to eat us.”

“You weren’t already?” Callum questioned, as the final part of the mechanism clicked and the door began to open.

I stepped back as it swung open enough for me and Callum to be able to slip inside. Once we were through, I pulled the door back close, with Callums help of course because it was incredibly heavy.

Once I was sure that it wasn’t going to open again without us turning the wheel again, I turned around and looked over the rails that edged the balcony we were standing on. It was about 10 feet off of the main floor, give or take, and there was a pair of stairs to the right that led down to the large computers that controlled all of the cameras and other security measures in the building.

“Oh, so this is how the rooms are connected.” Callum said as he took in the view.

“Yep.” I answered as I walked over to the stairs.

“Do you want me to carry you again?” Callum inquired as he came to stand beside me.

“I’ll be fine.” I answered, though I wasn’t actually entirely certain.

“If you say so.” Callum replied, before he walked past me and began to descend the stairs.

I waited till he reached the bottom before I made my way down after him, clutching the railing the whole way down. 

Thankfully I made it to the bottom without any accidents or injuries. Once I had both feet planted firmly on the ground Callum asked what it was I was looking for.

“Well I’m looking for the surveillance tapes from yesterday.” I answered as I began making my way toward a door at the side of the room.

“Wouldn’t those be on the computer?” Callum frowned, confused.

“No, the system is cleared everyday at midnight.” I said, shaking my head. “They are however recorded onto actually tapes which are stored in the archives.”

“The archives?” Callum asked, as I opened the door at the side of the room where long rows of filing cabinets were lined up from wall to wall. Callum’s eyes grew wide as I grinned and stepped inside to begin my search.