Don’t talk about what happens at Unit 0

Chapter 1

So this is what happened. In many ways, Michael was like a dog. He was loyal and compassionate but my God was he stupid. I’ll give him credit where credit is due, he knew a lot about cars. He called himself practical smart. What that meant exactly, I don’t know. He had worked at the same god damn mechanic shop since he was 14. He only got the job because his dad worked there, but it became his whole life, that and camping. He said that I could read all the books I want, but in a survival situation I’d be dead in a minute and he’d be riding a grizzly like a horse by sun down.

“You know, I driven you to work every day for the past 8 weeks, I think it’s time for me and you to go camping.”

“I’m busy with a thing.” I said.

“A thing? You mean work.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You’re always busy with work, man. You need to learn when to take a break. I’ve never known someone so caught up in work.”

“I know.”

“I still haven’t the slightest idea it is what you do.”

“I told you, I’m a chemist.”

“And there’s a million and one different things that could mean. Are you mixing red and blue to make purple, or are you making an atomic bomb?” I could hear the frustration in his voice but we had had this conversation too many times before.

“You know I’m not allowed to say, I’ve signed a contract.”

“There we go again with the contract. I swear to God, there’s some dodgy shit going on in that building.”

The truth was, my job was very boring. I spent hours putting numbers into spread sheets and doing small experiments. I was very good at my job and to be honest I was a little over qualified. The lab I worked at was called ‘Unit 0’ and was a part of a network of labs across America. Unit 0 was in the middle of nowhere. The closest place was Michaels mechanic shop. That’s why he had been driving me to work. Work kept me busy and stopped me from having panic attacks.

“If I go camping with you, will you drop it?”

“Yes it will.”

“Okay. Does the weekend sound good?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“I’m kidding, man. Yeah.”

Chapter 2

Once I had gotten to the lab, I said hello to Robert. Robert was an odd. He didn’t speak to me often but when he did, it was usually some conspiracy. Not the moon landing was faked or anything, he’s not incompetent. He talked about government control or something. When he wasn’t annoying me, he’d listen to music on his cassette player and I’d actually get some work done. That day he seemed very strange and that’s saying something.

“Jake?”

“Yes Rob.”

“Don’t call me Rob.”

“Okay, Rob.”

“Jake, do you ever get a strange feeling about this place.”

Oh God I thought, here we go.

“Only when I’m around you.”

“That’s a fair statement, but I’ve noticed something.”

“And that would be?”

“For being such a small facility, the number of shipments we get seem unproportionally large.”

“Well I can’t imagine the equipment they use down stairs is small.”

“That’s another thing! Why are we not allowed down stairs?”

“You always think too much about these things. Can’t you just do your job? Or at least let me get on with mine?”

I didn’t want to admit it but I did find it strange we weren’t allowed in the basement. They said it’s where all the maintenance stuff was but there seemed to be an awful lot of people going there. I just continued with my work and didn’t really speak to Robert.

“Don’t come crawling to me when something here goes wrong.”

“Okay.”

When I wasn’t working, at home I struggled to sleep. I’ve suffered with anxiety for a long time but done little to help it. I usually just go head deep into my work but that day was difficult. I can’t explain why, but I lived with the feeling that everything around me is about to come crashing to the ground. The next day I decided that I was going to stay late at work before going camping with Michael the day after.

Chapter 3

Michael had took me to work and handed me a walkie talkie. He said that it was going to be my best friend and that I should get familiar with it before going camping with him. He talked to me constantly on it and was distracting me from my work, so I turned it off. The day went by fast after that. Robert had continued to spiral.

“What is it now?” I said annoyed.

“Jake I told you. I told you and you didn’t listen to me!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I knew something wasn’t right. I went to investigate what was going on in the basement.”

“And?”

“The door was locked but I did hear something. Someone said ‘One is on the run’.”

“So a lab animal got out? I’m sure it happens all the time.”

“I heard a woman screaming.”

“A lab animal got out and it startled a worker. Honestly, your conspiracies are getting easier to debun-“

“For help.”

“What?”

“She was screaming for help.”

At this point, both of our shifts had ended. Because I had finished all my work and needed something to distract me, I agreed to go with him to investigate it further. I was sure he was just making it up but I really needed a distraction.

Chapter 4

We discussed how we would enter through the locked door. We settled on creating a controlled fire that would eventually trigger the fire alarm. We did it in the lab so it would look like an experiment went wrong. If we got into trouble, Robert would take the blame. The plan worked perfectly, the fire alarm went off and gave us enough time to leave and make it to the door. Because it was so late we never saw a single person. When the fire alarm was set off, all the doors automatically unlock which allowed us to walk straight through. We were greeted with a long corridor that lead to some stairs. As we were walking Robert began to gloat.

“I feel like 007 right now.”

“I’m sure we’ve just committed several crimes, so more like Bonnie and Clyde.” I said.

“I’ll tell you what though, this place doesn’t seem like a dirty old basement.”

“Don’t get too excited. We’ve not gone down those stairs yet. Lower your voice, we’re not supposed to be here.”

The stairs were long and where we entered was dark.

“Where’s the light switch?” Asked Robert.

“How am I supposed to know? Find it.” We were on some sort of viewing platform and our voices were very echoey.

“Found it.” Said Robert.

“My God!”

What we saw next made me sick to my stomach. We were in some sort of warehouse. There were large cages, hundreds of them, aligned in rows. It was Robert who noticed it first.

“Jake, those aren’t animals.”

“Run.”

“They’re people.”

Chapter 5

I originally thought we managed to leave unnoticed until I saw the security camera. Everything around me felt different. Once this was a place I came to distract myself from my problems. Now it was my problem. We hid behind some boxes not too far away from the door leading to the basement. It took a while until Robert was able to speak.

“What the hell was that? I mean I thought something was up but not that!” Robert said out of breath.

“There are hundreds of them.”

“Illegal human experimentation. Oh God. I knew there was something up with this place. We need to help them.”

“We need to get out of here first.”

That’s when we saw them. Armed guards in yellow and white hazmat suits. Luckily we were hidden enough to not be noticed. They were exiting the basement. Sirens started to shriek and some sort of lockdown had started.

“We’re being hunted.” I said.

“How are we going to get out of here, there’s like 50 armed guards looking for us?”

“If we could get to floor two, we could grab our own Hazmat suits.”

“That might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

“Have you got anything better? Because we’re currently sitting ducks.”

“Okay, fine.”

“There’s just one problem.”

I pointed to the security camera. It’s blinking red light pierced through me. If they could see us on the camera, why hadn’t they found us? I couldn’t work it out but I knew we had to do something about it.

“We need to split up.” I said.

“What!”

“One of us will have to shut off the cameras, whilst the other grabs the suits.”

“Have you never seen any movie ever? Splitting up is never a good idea…” He looked at the camera. “…but fine.”

I called Michael on the Walkie Talkie for help. If we were to escape, we’d need a get away driver. He was sceptical about the severity of the situation but the sirens convinced him that we were in some sort of emergency.

“Jake, are you high right now? Or have the funky chemicals finally got to your head?” Michael said.

“Michael, you need to listen to me. You need to be outside the Lab for when we get out and you need to start driving immediately.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll be there soon.”

Chapter 6

Robert had left about a minute before I did. The security room was near the front entrance and I had to be careful not to get noticed. Each corridor I went through greeted me with a new camera. Each time I thought I was dead. The sirens had been going long enough that they sounded like white noise to me. I didn’t know how I’d get into the room but it turned out I didn’t have to. When I got to the room I was shocked to see the door swing open for me. That’s when I met her.

“Quickly, get inside.”

“Who are you?”

“Dian.”

“Well hello there Dian. I hope you’re doing great. Do you mind explaining to me what the fuck is happening.”

“Firstly, no need for the sarcasm. Secondly, we’re in lockdown.”

“Lockdown?”

“Since you and you’re friend have found what the real purpose of Unit 0 is, everybody’s been looking for you.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I’ve tried to help you on the cameras but there is only so much I can do.”

“Why are you helping us?”

“It’s been killing me holding this secret for so long, I’ve been so scared of what they do to me if I told anyone.”

“Well if they find us, we’re dead.”

“Do you really think that they’d kill us?

Behind Dian was a large number of CCTV screens that could see every angle of each room. I saw Robert entering the room where the hazmat suits were.

“Why is he grabbing hazmat suits?”

“So we can blend in and walk through the front door.”

“A disguise?”

“Yes.”

“That’s stupid.”

“He didn’t have a better idea.”

“Being apart of security grants me accesses to all doors in the building. If we move quick enough we could leave through the side exit.”

“You’re kidding m-“

“What?”

“Robert.”

I saw it happen on the CCTV. Robert was face to face with one of the guards. It looked painless when he was shot. Straight in the head. I was speechless.

“We need to go.”

Chapter 7

Me and Dian ran for the side exit. I don’t remember much, I had to slow down to make sure she was okay. I was a faster runner than her. I remember it was dark outside. Peaceful. Not like how it was on the inside. Faintly in the distance, I saw a tinge of what appeared to be Michael’s headlights. I had never been so glad to see that idiot in my life. We saw the guards exiting through the main entrance. That’s when they started to open fire. We started running towards the headlights as fast as we could, with darkness being our only cover. I called Michael on the walkie talkie.

“Open your passenger door Michael now! Start driving as soon as we’re in.”

“Who’s we?”

“Michael I don’t have time for this. Do it now!”

“Damn man, I will. I’m almost there.”

“What do you mean your almost here?”

Two armed guards got out of the shipment truck we were running towards. I felt defeated. None of it seemed real. They grabbed me and tackled me to the ground. I don’t know what they did to Dian but I can’t imagine it was any good. Everything went dark after that.

When I woke up in this cage, this all too familiar cage, I felt like my whole world had come crashing down.