Unknown Specimen

Katie lifted an arm weighed down by a shopping bag, rapping her knuckles against the wood door. “Noah? Are you in there?” After standing in silence for a heartbeat, she plopped the bags onto the ground and fished in her pocket for her apartment keys. 

The high-pitched creak of the door split through the air as she picked up the bags again and entered the apartment room, closing the door behind her with her foot. 

The bags landed on the floor with a loud thump. Cans rolled out on their sides and the deep green leaves of plants splayed out as they scattered on the floor. Sunlight streamed through the broken window in front of Katie, the pieces of shattered glass glistening on the floor like tears. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. 

The path of destruction - displaced furniture, claw marks through the floor and walls - led straight to the bedroom. 

That meant one of two things: either Noah was cheating on her with an animal, or The Thing had found her. 

Unfortunately, it was most likely the latter. 

The door was discarded to the side, ripped right off of its hinges. She turned towards the doorway, padding forwards.

The room was as silent as a tomb. The walls loomed over her, shadows covering every inch of the space through the absence of light there. She turned to the desk, paling as she saw the claw marks scoring the wood and half of the drawers flung to different parts of the room. Shredded paper littered the ground like snow. 

Katie cursed. “No- no, it didn’t- no-,” she dropped to her knees, ripping the drawer right from the desk. If by chance it had been left untouched-

Empty. It was empty. Which meant that the documents were gone. 

Katie turned around just in time to see the thing before its fangs sunk into her neck. 

***

Noah shifted in the plastic hospital chair. There were too many eyes. The eyes of Katie’s family, sitting outside of the hospital room with him. The eyes of the doctors passing by, most likely informed of the situation already. Even the eyes of the people in the paintings seemed to follow him. But every time he tried to close his own eyes to block it all out, all he could see was Katie’s body. 

It was from an animal. That’s all that he knew. Her throat had been pierced by what seemed like a pair of fangs, and her clothes were shredded, revealing the deep gashes underneath. Noah doubted that she was still alive. The only reason why the doctors were still in there was probably that they were thinking the same thing as everyone else gathered here: what had killed Katie? 

He supposed that he should be mourning. 

Noah just felt numb. He was planning to break up with Katie as soon as he stepped into their shared apartment, gathering up his courage. Gathering up his courage for nothing. His stomach had dropped to the floor when he had seen the body, bloody and marred as it was. 

Katie’s mother glanced at him. 

Noah closed his eyes in response, breathing in and out, in and out, in-

Katie’s blank eyes stared at him as her mouth started to move, to form words despite her throat bathed in blood- 

He needed to get out of here. His chest rose and fell as he staggered to his feet, gazing around. His breath quickened.

He needed to get out of here. 

He pushed through the doors before anyone could ask where he was going. Nobody cared, anyways. They probably just assumed that he was a grieving boyfriend. Was he? He should’ve been, but instead, he found his feet pounding against the pavement, towards the bland-colored building surrounded by a small garden. 

He needed answers. What killed Katie? Was it going to attack again? There was so much unknown, and he was floating around in the dark void of questions. He needed something to hold onto, the stable stone of facts. 

He faced the building, the one place that might hold his answer to everything: the library. 

He might be able to find out what kind of creature attacked Katie and how it got into their apartment. He didn’t have the faintest idea of what it could be, but he didn’t know. Maybe this sort of thing was more common than he thought. 

Perhaps a bear, he thought while his shoes smacked against the tiled floor, although did bears live in this area? Maybe a hawk crashed into the window and attacked Katie in its frenzy to get out, but that was unlikely considering the fangs in her neck. He shuddered as the image was conjured up again. 

“Are you looking for anything specific?” asked the librarian at the counter, peering over the top of a book. 

“Uh- n-not really, just lookin’ to use the computers, if that’s alright,” Noah responded. He brushed past, making a beeline for the first computer that he saw. He didn’t even bother pulling out the chair to sit down before opening the web browser and typing in his search. 

Nothing. 

No information at all. 

He tried typing in every single animal that he had ever seen around their apartment, even some that he hadn’t, but he got nothing. Nobody close to the area where they lived had ever experienced any attack like Katie’s. 

Finally, after typing in, “hippo apartment attack Ohio,” and still finding nothing of the type of information that he was looking for, he sank into the chair, cradling his head in his hands. This was hopeless. He was just trying to avoid his grief, trying to avoid anything that might tell him that Katie’s death was real. And in some way, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was his fault. He should’ve broken up with her sooner, and then she would’ve moved out of the apartment. 

A shaky sob forced its way out of his throat, and before he knew it, his were wet from tears. 

“‘Hippo apartment attack Ohio’? Jesus Christ. I was going to ask what’s wrong, but now I don’t want to.” Noah glanced up, opening his mouth to respond, but the person he saw made him pause. Dark brown eyes and even darker frizzy hair, with her mouth set in a smirk. His old girlfriend before Katie who had come out as a lesbian and then moved away. She and Katie had been close friends, but there was no way she could’ve gotten here so fast. 

“Trina? What’re you doing here?” 

“What do you mean? I never left.” She crossed her arms as he stood up, wiping away tears with his sleeve. “You’re looking for The Thing.” Not a question; a statement. 

The confusion on his face must’ve asked his question before he even opened his mouth to voice it. “The thing that killed Katie,” Trina explained. “We just call it The Thing, though.” 

“‘We?’ What’re you talking about? Why are you here?” 

“Come with me. There’s a lot to explain.” 

He followed Trina to the back of the library, where people were replaced by dozens of old, cobweb-covered bookshelves. 

“Katie was…not the person you thought that you were dating. She had a lot of secrets that led to her death. I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t find out a lot earlier.” Trina put her hand up to the wall and a muffled beep rang out from- from inside of the wall? Noah leaned closer. 

A door swung open from the wall, perfectly concealed within the brick. “Very creative entrance,” he commented. “Totally hasn’t been done before.” 

Trina scoffed but didn’t reply. Instead, she led him into the dark hallway. Once the door closed behind them, they were shrouded in blinding darkness. He stumbled forwards a few steps before her voice echoed through the shadows: “Lights.” 

The walls flashed and then lines of lights on the sides glowed a bright green. A computer voice droned overhead, “Welcome back, Trina Lockley.” 

“You don’t think the green lights are a little much?” he gestured towards the walls. 

“Don’t burst my bubble. I think that they look cool.” 

The walls slowly grew further and further apart until they eventually broke into a large room. The room was spacious and lit up by normal lights, thank god. Random papers were scattered around the floor. Half-finished lab tests were abandoned on their tables. Some of the bookshelves lining the walls were missing half of their books, and the other books could be easily located in front of them on the ground. 

“Usually, this place is a lot busier, but we had to send out most of our team to deal with The Thing.” 

“What is this place? How does it relate to Katie?” 

“Noah, we work for a- a group, I guess, called the Society of Unknown Specimen. We’re experimenting with single-celled organisms and animals, trying to make them stronger.” 

“Stronger?” he squinted, looking around. “Trina, why would you wanna do that?” 

“To see if a species can compete with humans.” 

He was speechless for a moment, the words sinking in. A species to compete with humans. 

“Trina- what the- what the hell? You wanna try to wipe out humanity and replace it with these…these things? Do you know how messed-up that is?” It exploded out of his mouth as he raised his arms. “And Katie worked here? So she-,” his voice died. So she really was lying to me this entire time. 

“I assume whatever killed Katie was your creation? You’re creating things that kill humans?” 

Trina stepped forwards as Noah stepped back. “Don’t you see how necessary it is? We humans are going to destroy the world unless someone- something - gets rid of us. Our society is just bringing about the apocalypse that is already bound to come.” 

He turned and ran. This was insane. This was so, so, so, insane. 

“Katie was a part of our society. She believed what we did. Well- until she got her hands on a few documents concerning top-secret information about The Thing. She decided then and there that it was her sole mission to stop us, just because some of our creations got a little too powerful! I guess the reality of humanity being destroyed sunk in for her. Lock all exits,” Trina called as he was about to bust through the doors. 

“Your girlfriend decided to take the documents home with her so that she could reveal our mission to the world. We couldn’t just let her get away with that, now could we?” 

Noah’s back was against the door, his shirt sticky with sweat. Trina reached into her coat and pulled out a small, round remote. “At least Katie died realizing how sick you guys are.” 

“Hm. Yes, so sweet. Too bad you won’t be able to remember how much of a valiant hero your Katie was.” Trina stalked forwards, holding out the remote. 

“Wh- what- why-?” It took a moment to register what Trina was about to do, and then he pressed himself against the door, trying to push against the lock. He heard screaming, not knowing if it was coming from his own lungs, and then there was a quiet nothingness that sucked him into its black void. 

***

“Hand me the microscope, please,” Trina requested. The microscope was set on the table. “Thank you, 6048.” They referred to the Others by designated numbers- any mention of their names might trigger their old memories.

She peered into the microscope. “6048, do you have the notepad and pencil ready? I need you to write down notes.” 

“Yes, Trina, I do.” the monotonous voice took a little getting used to, but otherwise, they acted like normal humans. Of course, some of their brain functions had to be tweaked - lest they realize what they were being used for - so they acted somewhat like a little sibling. Very loyal and easy to manipulate. It was also nice having a personal assistant, and someone to live with as her house was empty after her girlfriend found out about the Society of Uknown Specimen. 

Don’t misunderstand this- the Others were treated very well. They didn’t get starved or tortured, they simply acted as personal lab assistants. 

For the greater good. It made Trina’s heart swell with pride at all of the work that they had done. She looked up into the eyes of 6048, remembering who he had been before the Society of Uknown Specimen had recreated him. 

She beamed at Noah, and he grinned back.