25/03/3583 10:00 Dralkin Research Institute Front Entry

Researchers are still coming in to do the day's work. They present their ID card to be scanned.

Everyone was trying hard to be normal. But there was a note of fear underlying every action.

This Monday every Research Institute was the same. Everyone was afraid that they would be next. That their Institute would be targeted for the Attacks and Disappearances.

25/03/3583 10:30 Dralkin Research Institute Lab 467

Res. Mareenar is working on a cure for the new virus, Branclamad. Around her working at different stations are her team. She has been sending down a member every 10 minutes for some more equipment. It’s strange that she only gets them to get one thing when it’s clear she needs more.

Every Res. comes back looking strange though. Slightly different to how they were when they entered. They walked differently, their build and colouring were off. Their hands were the most noticeably changed though. Under their gloves—which were already on before they entered the lab again—their fingers appeared jointed strangely and much longer, while at the end was a slight point, straining to poke through the special fabric.

Res. Mareenar didn’t appear to notice. Either that or she just didn't care. While the ones who hadn’t left the room were too engrossed in their work to notice.

25/03/3583 11:00 Dralkin Research Institute Storage Room 019

Hiding behind a shelf of spare equipment were two individuals and an open window. The sunlight that should have been shining through was blocked by what appeared to be a large delivery truck, doors were thrown open and black boots and pants running about.

The packed room was almost nighttime, lights turned off and sunlight blocked, but the people hiding behind the shelf didn’t seem bothered.

The door opened and the motion sensors on the door turned the lights on. A Researcher came in and wandered around the room, looking for whatever it was that they were sent for.

The duo wriggled around, preparing to jump up and knock out the Res. Once they came up to the shelf she collapsed on the ground. A slight fog was hanging around their body, slowly dissipating. The strange people came out from the cover of the shelf, revealing faces covered with black masks. They grabbed the Res.’s body and lifted her behind the shelf and then hoisted her out the window. Two of the black boots outside picked her back up and appeared to carry her into the truck.

Another black boot crawled through the window, revealing a similar-looking woman dressed in the Dralkin Institute lab coat. She was of similar colouring and build but had some irregularities. She walked out the door with a case of syringes.

The two jumpers went back behind the shelf, lying in wait for their next victim.

25/03/3583 12:30 Dralkin Research Institute First Floor Hallway

One of the Researchers dropped a spherical object. Smoke started pouring out. Researchers started to collapse from inhaling the smoke that had risen to cover everything.

25/03/3583 12:30 Dralkin Research Institute Fifth Floor Hallway

The smoke from the first floor rapidly spread throughout the floor. It had barely been a minute but every available airspace had been covered with smoke already.

It became so thick that even the researchers barely a metre in front of the camera couldn't be seen almost instantly. Not even the vague outlines could be seen after a minute.

Many dull thuds were only just perceptible not long after.

25/03/3583 12:35 Dralkin Research Institute First Floor Hallway

The smoke started to clear. Most Researchers were unconscious on the ground. Those that weren't had thick black masks covering their mouths and noses.

The masked people started binding the unconscious Researchers' wrists and ankles together, lining them up against the walls.

Researchers were brought in from other rooms. The last Researcher was taken into the Security Head Office.

25/03/3583 12:50 Dralkin Research Institute Security Head Office Interrogation Room

A man in black clothes and a mask came in. The four men stood up straighter and saluted him. A Researcher was tied down to a bolted chair in the middle of the room.

The man in black brandished a dagger and a syringe. He stabbed the syringe into the Researcher's bicep. He pushed the yellowish liquid into the man and pulled the needle back out while going around so that he is behind the man. In a few seconds, the unconscious Researcher had been brought back into the cruel real world from the comforts of the dreamscape.

As soon as he woke and discovered his predicament he started to struggle, trying his best to free himself, completely unaware of the others in the room.

The man behind him pressed a knife to his throat. No blood was drawn as the flat side of the knife was pressed to Researcher's neck, but the cold metal biting into skin froze him in an instant.

"I believe you have something squirrelled away in this building that I'm after. Do you know what I've been searching for these past years?" His voice matched his outfit and the sense of foreboding that accompanied him.

"What do you want? I know nothing. Check my ID. My position means that I don’t know anything. I just follow orders."

"Ugh. Of course the first person we take in knows nothing." He turned around to a table with a duffel bag resting on top. Ever so slowly he unzipped the bag, making a horrible grating sound that caused the Researcher to wince. "But perhaps I could jog your memory." He pulled the opening apart and started rummaging around.

"Maybe you heard something and thought nothing of it." He pulled out an object that looked like a laser beam. "Maybe you listened in on conversations that you weren't meant to hear." He slowly started turning around, inspecting the device. "Maybe you will tell me everything that I need to know. If I only push you just right." He started walking towards the Researcher slowly, finding pleasure in how they squirmed. And when the Researcher saw the glee gleaming in his eyes he started sobbing, making the man's eyes brighten even more.

"Please! Don't do this. I'll tell you everything I know! Please!" He was hysterical. Tears were trickling down his cheeks, over his chin and disappearing underneath his clothes. The anticipation of what was awaiting him, of knowing what would happen to him, created something so afraid in this man that he wouldn't have a care what the man in front of him would do later. He only cared that nothing would happen to him.

The man had now reached the Researcher. "Do you have something you would like to tell me? I'm inclined to listen to anything you may have to say. Whatever the subject. So, speak now...or I will have no other choice than to force everything you have to say out of your mouth." He was standing in front of the ever-paling Researcher waiting for him to speak. Or as it seemed to be more likely, waiting for him to close up and not sound a single word so he could inflict as much pain as possible in the time he had left.

A minute passed where the Researcher was fighting with himself about whether he should speak up and save himself from pain and death at the hands of the stranger before him who had killed and taken many before him. Or if he should remain silent and endure whatever pain was planned for him and meet his demise. The first one could endanger everyone around him while the second would be his end and would likely spare his colleagues. He knew that this was one of the Attacks and Disappearances which meant that only one person would die while the others would Disappear.

At the end of the minute the man in black merrily sung "times up!" The Researcher jolted out of his silent argument and into the real world. His expression once again became terrified. However, this time he schooled his features and became determined. He set his jaw, raised his chin, shoved his shoulders back, sat straight and stared at the man in the eyes, daring him to do his worst. The man just laughed.

"You won't hold out for very long. You can try but you will soon break." The Researchers front faltered for a second at his confident words. "Well then. I guess it's time to put your strength to the test. Time to begin!" He pressed a button on his laser, turning it on. "Do you know what this is? No? Well, this here is very special. It looks like any normal laser that you could use on a cat, correct? Well, this here isn't as harmless as I'm sure you've realised. You must be at least that smart to have your job. This burns the skin. So, for example, I could bring it onto your hand and look at that, it's burning your skin so very nicely! I bet that hurts now doesn't it? Yes, I can see you're in pain. You're holding back from me quite nicely. What happens if I bring it to your face?" The Researcher let out a tiny scream of pain. "I could do all sorts of lovely stuff to you with this. How about I set your clothes on fire? Oh, wait. I forgot for a second that you Researchers are smart enough to not wear fabric that can be set on fire. What a shame. I guess I'm going to have to find different ways to get what I want out of you."

He walked back over to the bag. Riffled through it and came up with a scalpel. He was still holding the laser. This time when he stopped in front of the Researcher again, instead of starting right away like what was expected, he touched the laser to the scalpel and turned it on. "This is going to hurt a tad more than my little laser." When the scalpel started to turn red, he turned the laser off and moved it away from the blade and into a pouch on his belt.

"Now. Where to start? Maybe I could do your hands again. Or maybe your arms or legs. How about your stomach? Yes, I quite like the idea of starting on your stomach." He sounded as though he was barely restraining himself from tearing the Researcher apart.

He thrust his arm forward and stabbed him in the stomach. The Researcher gasped in surprise which soon turned into a scream as the pain hit him. The black man then twisted the blade around before tearing it out and jabbing the blade back into him in a different place, creating an agonised scream.

"PLEASE! STOP!" The man started to cry out when the blade was twisted around again.

"Do you have something to say? I will stop if you tell me something useful." He used a taunting voice that told the Researcher that he would do no such thing. The Researcher however only heard the words, not the tone.

"I don't know anything! Please! Just stop!" He was struggling to speak. It was a miracle that he could even talk with how painful it is having blades jammed into your stomach.

"You must know something. What is it that you've been working on in here?"

"Are you looking for a cure for Branclamad? That's all we've been doing here! Well, that's all I'm aware we are doing since you seem so sure that we know something." His stab wounds had now started dripping his blood onto the pristine black floor, creating an expanding puddle underneath him.

"Must I tell you this again." He was becoming exasperated with the Researcher. Even his happiness at getting to torture him has dimmed slightly. "I don't care that you don't think you know anything. You have to know something about what I'm searching for. You must have heard something. Surely you eavesdrop on conversations sometimes. You know something! I know you do! You have to."

The Researcher flinched when he had started shouting. However, the soft words at the end of his outburst softened him, making the Researcher pity him.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't help you. At least I can't right now. If you allow me to live, I will do everything possible to find some shred of information for you. I will serve you."

The man laughed. "You think you could find out anything I haven't. You think you have a chance of living. You're even dumber than I first thought! But I'll tell you what. I have a special treat planned for you. If you live, I'll let you do as you said. Maybe you could find out more for me. How about that? Deal?"

"Deal." As soon as the word was out the man in black lunged. The scalpel went back into the man's chest, not that far from his heart, and the laser came back into view, angled towards the Researchers' head and turned on. He squealed in pain. He now had another stab wound which would be fatal if it was just a little further up. His hair also started to smoke and soon a flame had appeared atop his head.

25/03/3583 13:00 Dralkin Research Institute First Floor Hallway

The door to the Security Office opened and five men dressed in black with masks covering their faces came out. Two of them pulled a body between them and dropped it on the ground at their feet where they stood in front of all of the Researchers who were in the Institute. They had all now been woken up with a syringe full of yellowish liquid jabbed into their upper arms. There were gasps around the room from the Researchers when they realised he was dead.

"We will leave now. Gather everyone and get into the truck in ten minutes," the man in the fine black clothes said. Everyone scrambled to do as he'd said.

25/03/3583 13:27 Dralkin Research Institute Supply Alley

Everyone loaded into a large truck and within a minute it was driving down the alleyway and into the peak hour traffic as everyone went to lunch. It would be a long time until they were found and brought to justice.

The cameras went black. They were cut. No one would view the past day.