Horror in the name of science.

I was buzzing in ecstacy. Suffice it to say, today was the highlight of my entire career. All those nights of staying up in that dingy, dusty office and sleeping on document ridden desks would finally be worth it. I sighed in delight, brushing back my glossy shoulder length black hair that had been swept to the side due to the wind and got off the train that departed. The sun set in an amalgamation of colors. I left the station and got into the designated cab given to me. The ivory door snapped shut. I thought happily - the best day of my miserable life: the lab had finally agreed to let me write a story about their top secret happenings. You see, I was a junior journalist just earning a minimum wage, I believed that this story would be my breakthrough.

We were slowly nearing the outskirts of town; the rundown buildings, industrialization and aged road signs said it all. The taxi driver looked at me sceptical before asking:

"Are you sure lad? Nobody ever goes in there."

It took some time for me to reply due to the heavy Scottish accent that the driver possessed but I checked my phone and nodded.

"It says that this is the location. Please take me there."

I said politely and we set off. Looking out the window, I noted how the moonbeams flitted through the thick canopy of trees, painting a soft luminescence on the mossy ground . We drove on. Now we were so far away from the main city that there was no signal. I tapped my phone uselessly on my knee. No luck. Google Maps had stopped working. The driver started muttering something darkly and the next thing I knew, I was stranded in the middle of nowhere with no signal. . Gathering my writing satchel, I took off on foot.

The walk was draining but after a while, the lush green cleared up to make way to a tunnel. It had the lab's logo on it so I was sure that this was the place that I was sent on Google Maps, thanks to my photographic memory. With the thought of my breakthrough story to keep me going, I strode into the tunnel. It was a typical tunnel, elongated structure with crystalline stalagmites and stalactites to match the temperature outside but as it neared the exit, it started getting more modern and what could I say, more lab-like. Sorry, that was a terrible description, let me try again. The previously pitch black and damp tunnel was tiled now with ivory white ceramics and the linoleum floor sparkled as if it was freshly cleaned. There was a strong smell of disinfectant as if to mask the smell of something else, I thought nothing of it at the time but looking back now, maybe I should have.

Finally, I arrived at a doorway adorned with nothing and I pressed on the steel knob and the door opened automatically with a clean swish which told me that the premises were probably new. Typical deductive reasoning of a typical journalist.

The room was an organised chaos of precision and meticulousness. Stainless steel countertops gleam under the sterile glow of fluorescent lights, offering a pristine canvas for the pursuit of scientific exploration.

The walls were adorned with charts, diagrams, and inspirational quotes from the scientific luminaries of the past—a constant reminder of the intellectual heritage that has paved the way for the present. Little bottles squatted on shelves holding various contents- reagents, chemicals and other scientific things, don't ask me, I'm just a journalist. Journalism and science are worlds apart.

All this aside, the room just looked like a garage with spaces for about ten cars. Due to the scientific instruments, it looked more like a lab though which was my initial thought.Right then, the computerised end atrium door opened with a shudder and masked scientists strode in with their right hands out. I simultaneously raised my left and we shook hands in turn.

"Mr Chaoxiang, it is indeed a pleasure to meet you."

The first man removed his mask and too of his lab coat and typical of scientists, just tossed it on the coat hook so it landed on the floor with a soft floof sound. He lifted his head and I was taken aback, he was quite good looking but there was something sinister concealed in his gaze. As he said my name, bright white teeth flashed like they were artificial and I noticed a deep scar stretching from his neck to shoulder as he took off his jacket and straightened his black t-shirt. He tied up his shoulder length jet black hair into a half ponytail.

The other man had a scar too though it looked decidedly fresh, an angry splash of red that ran under his right eye. He made little effort to hide it; it was just under a lock of chocolate hair. His hand felt scarred as I shook it. Due to my epic intuition, I realized that their names were Proffessor Seo and Dr. Walters. Just kidding, it said so on their lab logo adorned name tags.

"My name is Professor Seo though you can call me Jeon and my colleague here is Dr Walters."

I regained my composure and my viridian eyes rounded on his sapphire ones.

"Pleasure to meet you too Professor Seo and Dr Walters. Thank you so much for granting me this wonderful opportunity." I smiled warmly to release the tension in the room.

"You're welcome, please follow me so we can start the tour."

He turned and beckoned me to follow, striding ahead with perfect posture, Mr Walters and I following in close pursuit. The decidedly Icelandic doctor still had not spoken to me despite shaking my hand and when our eyes had met, he had looked away.

The tour was extremely informative but when the Lab had completely refused visitors and press interviews I had expected something a bit more interesting. From what Professor Seo was explaining, they were apparently developing some kind of botanic invention, a new plant. I had completed my notes although it wasn't interesting enough to be the break through of my career. The story I'd written about a missing kid had been more intriguing and mysterious. Oh well, I could always make something up. A voice interrupted my train of thought. I turned annoyed and Professor Seo just smiled and wrung his hands to get the dust from the door off.

"If there are no questions, I will now take you to dinner Mr Chaoxiang."

His passive tone suggested that I shouldn't ask any questions so I didn't. Mr Walters hand left an hour earlier claiming that he had urgent business to attend to. I hadn't realized earlier but the mention of dinner made me realize my hunger.

"Dinner sounds great, let's go."

I followed Professor Seo via endless hallways. It gave off a sort of mixed medieval and modern vibe. I thought it was worthy to write about so added it to my notes. We finally turned into a dining room.

"Please sit down and browse through the menu and select what you want."

I did as he asked and we ordered a pizza to share. While taking a slice, I accidently dropped a plate that seemed intentionally placed very close next too me. This was way above my pay grade, those plates looked expensive. To avoid paying for it, I didn't think and just ran put of there, quickly grabbing my leather writing satchel and notebook and hastily stashing it in there as I ran.

"Hey stop!"

A scientist coming from a lab exclaimed but Professor Seo was no where to be seen although he had chased me too at first. When I didn't stop, the scientist that had yelled at me pulled some sort of lever and I fell into darkness. Looking back on it now, there must have been a trap door.

The darkness I was falling through seemed so eternal that I felt like I was in Alice in Wonderland. I fell onto a surface, surprisingly intact due to the foam mattresses that had cushioned my fall. After regaining my composure and scanning the area with the corner of my eye, I decided to try and escape on my own. I hadn't been taken here on the tour. It was a hexagonal room with six doors on each side. The ceiling was speckled with stars like it was open to the night sky but I knew that this couldn't be the case as I was underground somewhere, I decided that it wad computerised or some sort of illusion. Standing up and swivelling around, I couldn't really differentiate between the six doorways; all of them looked the same. There were strange drawings, plans and blueprints of something on the wall and disturbingly, ew, red streaks on the floor that had to be bloodstains. Just as I was about to try escaping, the hatch that I had fell through opened and someone stood up, brushing down his clothes like I had.

"Mr Chaoxiang, I see that you have discovered our, what can I say, special unit. This way is more convenient."

Professor Seo didn't seem fazed and didn't bring up the broken glassware so I was relieved but there was something calculating and terrifying in his sapphire gaze.

"Do follow me as I explain what the operations are ."

I did as instructed and he opened the first door with a code on a tap device that I hadn't noticed before and we entered the place. Yuck, more bloodstains. It was everywhere. The area itself was interesting enough, a forest like area with a river in the middle and dark rows of trees that seemed to stretch on forever. There were buildings like a normal city, a library here, a hospital there and so on. It seemed familiar, I remembered seeing it on the news some time ago. Professor Seo tilted his head in a "keep up" sort of motion and I walked faster.

"Unbelivable as it may sound to you, Mr Chaoxiang, this is a city in Korea . All the people have been taken out for special care. Our laboratory, after careful research and calculations has managed to create a link between places, you may say teleportation for lack of a better word. From here, we can extract people for our more interesting experiments. The Covid 19 Pandemic? Surely, you would have heard. That was us. We did that to extract people without any suspicion. The government concluded that they had not survived the fire but that wasn't the case was it?"

A manic light danced in his eyes as he spoke of the horror. Only a psychopath could generate happiness from something like starting a fire for selfish purposes. He continued, closing the first door and going though the place we had started and going into the second door labelled Door 2. Creative.

This room was mainly composed of plans and research papers and what looked like government hacked data on computers with substantial screens and matching keyboards and mouses to go with it. Scrawled on a traditional style blackboard in the corner of the room in pasty white chalk were the words "population's constantly recurring. Professor Seo saw that had piqued my interest and started explaining, the manic light still not leaving his eyes.

"Over population, such an issue nowadays don't you agree Mr Chaoxiang? Especially here in the United States."

He shut down some of the computers rolling his eyes in annoyance as he did so.

"Incompetent idiots, don't they know to shut down a computer after usage, someone could see.. " He started muttering but soon stopped as he noticed my confused stare.

"Anyways, the Lab has been asked to come up with something to stop the problem of overpopulation. The government promised us a generous fee.'

He continued, sitting on a swivel chair and encouraging me to do the same which I did.

"Complications with the economy, education, health care, everything. What if there was a way to control the human population with easily accessible resources? You see, Mr. Chaoxiang, this is when I came up with the idea. Next room, let's go."

Room three was even stranger. It was again a laboratory, walls, ceilings and floor painted a whote so suffocating that I was finding it difficult to breathe. The thick masking disinfectant didn't help matters.

I couldn't quite put my finger on what the smell was but it was gross and something j had smelt earlier. What was strange in this room though were the dark boxes that lined the walls and piled up all the way up to the ceiling. The boxes seemed half burnt and decayed, all different shapes and sizes.

"Come along now Chaoxiang."

I noticed that he didn't use 'Mr' which exemplified impatientness. Nevertheless, I followed him into Room 4 and was stopped in my tracks. It was an operating room with various operation and surgical items. On the walls were substantial posters depicting human anatomy and grotesque images.

There were more scientists in this room wearing labcoats and assembling into a line as Professor Seo and I entered the room. They seemed to be restless and one of them, the lady that had pulled the lever to bring me here was holding something cylindrical. Professor Seo was the one to break the silence.

"As I'm sure you've realized already Mr Chaoxiang,' the honorific were back 'we are running quite a large scale and important operation here. We've found a way to reduce human population in a way never done before. It will expand itself like the Covid-19 Pandemic, we will not have to do anything. What do you think?"

He walked over to me, picking up a sharp scalpel in the process, it's tip dipped in what looked like dried blood. I instinctively inched backwards but he didn't make any move towards me. Instead, he put the scalpel down and continued.

"Let me cut to the chase. We are taking dead human bodies and replacing them with living human ones. This will then start a chain reaction for when the contaminated specimen touches another living creature, they instantly die. Therefore, the problem of overpopulation is solved and we get a generous sum from the government."

The manic light still hadn't left his eyes, instead it had grown into a flame that was about to combust at any given moment. I could feel myself getting a bit scared although I had a high fear tolerance.

"The reason that we call this a top secret operation is that no one can know. It is illegal obviously and we could get a court case. We were planning to do this another way but you walked right into our trap Chaoxiang."

He picked up another scalpel, new this time thankfully, and ran it along the edge of my neck as he spoke. I could feel the gears turning in my head but the last puzzle piece was still missing. He put the scalpel back into the tray and turned to me, sapphire eyes locked on mine.

"So then those boxes were coffins?" I asked not wanting to believe it but every sign pointed to that conclusion.

"And," my hear skipped a beat, " the Covid-19 Pandemic that wiped out millions was created by you?"

"Bingo my dear Chaoxiang, we got there in the end. Now that you know all this, we can't let you go, it has happened exactly as we had planned. You will be the first ever test subject for this wonderful experiment-"

The words had barely left his rose tinted lips when the final puzzle piece fit into place and a single word resounded in my head. Run. I was too late however because as soon as I made a move quick as a flash Professor Seo clicked his fingers and in response to that, the scientist holding the cylindrical object drive the syringe into my neck. Before I could finish crying out in pain, my eyes grew heavy and I collapsed onto the tile.

When I finally came to, I realized with a start where I was. The dim light from a flickering bulb overhead casts eerie shadows on the decaying wallpaper, peeling away from the walls like the skin of a long-forgotten corpse. The room was shrouded in darkness, with only patches of light escaping through the dusty, cracked windows.

The floor was covered in a layer of dust and debris I could feel the coldness seep through my shoes, sending shivers down my spine. Oj the floor was a sharp knife that I felt would come in handy. The air is thick and heavy, suffocating and I finally realized the smell that the disinfectant had been masking: blood.

"I hope you undertake what's about to happen now."

A voice spoke put of the darkness and Professor Seo emerged wielding a knife. Even though I wad tied up in a chair with rope I decided to use logistics. Summoning all my energy I fell forward and moved around so that the rope would be cut by the knife I'd seen and it worked. Ain't no way a psychopath by the name of Seo was gonna kill me today.

I pushed back the debris, cupboards and tables rather were blocking the way and trapped Seo in them so that he fell back. I ran back the way I had come to the hatch room and found a retractable ladder and climbed up Thankfully, I remembered where the entrance was. I didn't think, I just ran.

I could finally breathe when I came to the outskirts of town, my brown coat was dusty and a couple of my shirt buttons had come off as well. I caught a taxi and went back to my office and started writing. I buzzed in ecstacy: this was going to be the highlight of my career.