April 13, 2025 9:30 AM

Investigate the supercomputer lab on B3. (99%)

Elliot had come this far, he wasn’t going to just run away now. “Ruby thought there was something in the supercomputer lab, maybe something to do with the disease. We should check it out.”

Sam grunted noncommittally. “Kinda feels like we’re running towards danger instead of away from it, Blue. I don’t want anything to do with whatever is doing this to me.”

He held up one hand, flexing his stiff fingers. Elliot looked away from that too: they almost seemed pointed, with fingernails hardening into claws.

Please don’t be turning into a monster. Something horrifying was happening at this school, something he didn’t fully understand. For their part, the police and military hadn’t done a better job. A few halfhearted checkpoints, some messages on the radio, and a communications blackout.

“Don’t have to go with me, I guess,” Elliot shrugged, and found something moving in his hoodie as he did it. The stupid tail, hanging limp in the baggy, oversized garment. “But I want to know. Maybe there’s a cure down there. I won’t be long.”

He set off, as fast as his imperfect balance would permit. It would be easier to use the elevator, but of course the power might go out at any moment. Small miracle it was still on.

The half-bird monster thing made another sound, shrill and unhappy. “And if I let you get hurt? Wouldn’t hear the end of it. I’m blaming you if we get shot.”

They took the stairs, even if it meant clutching to the rail with stiff fingers and taking it slow. Once they reached the bottom, Elliot waved them through the building. “There’s a little cafeteria and study area this way, stairs down to the basement are on the other side. Hopefully it’s unlocked.”

He lingered near the large windows on ground level, peering out through sculpted metal at the campus beyond. Almost nothing moved out there, be it wooden wolf monster or some other abomination of this impossible disease. “Might be safe to make a break for it when we’re done. Get back to the car and get away from here.”

“If we can even drive by the time we get there,” Sam muttered. “Or carry your girlfriend. Pretty sure I’m still strong enough, but I’d need a way to hold her. You–don’t even say it. Princess Blue isn’t built for manual labor.”

“Princess.” Elliot muttered. He looked back, intending to try a few sharp insults of his own. But Sam was just behind, looming well over his height, with broad shoulders and muscles visible under a thin growth of hair and feathers on his arms.

Instead of arguing, Elliot turned and shuffled meekly down the hall. He slowed as he approached the little cafeteria, with its vending machines and tiny cafe. Plenty of “fond” memories of this place, spending late nights staring down at textbooks until their contents magically made sense.

Except they never had. Yet there were sounds here, more than he would’ve expected. Low voices, moans, a few coughs.

He pulled his hood up by reflex, adjusting the hoodie to cover both shoulders. “Shit.”

“Another way?” Sam whispered, slowing beside him. The entrance was blocked with a set of heavy metal doors, one propped open by a few books.

He shook his head once. “Elevator, but it needs an ID for the lower levels.” He crouched, then advanced towards the door and peered inside. “They sound sick.”

Not a wolf monster, or something even stranger. It was people.

Very sick people. Some had backpacks, others were dressed like the teachers in polo shirts and slacks. A handful near the stairs wore black uniforms, with patches he didn’t recognize.

Not one person he saw was on their feet. Some had brought chairs together, others curled up near the bathroom, surrounded by dried fluids. Someone had opened one of the vending machines, and the various snacks inside had been removed. Someone with a key, since there was no broken glass.

None were as far gone as himself and Sam. At most, he caught strange colors in their hair, or clothes that didn’t fit quite right.

Sam pointed past him, ahead at the ones in uniform. “Guns.”

He shrugged, and continued forward through the room. He had to take a meandering route, dodging around the dozen or so people sheltering here. A few looked up as they passed, then went back to their miserable condition. Others tried to say things, but none of it came out as coherent words.

They reached the metal door, dodging carefully around the three figures in black. One man looked up as they approached, his face covered in sweat. “You can’t… down there,” he said, arm twitching. He flopped back to the table, head sideways.

“That’s what I thought,” Elliot held the door, and they hurried down. They took the steps as quick as they could, passing two upper basement levels before reaching the third. Another man in uniform lay here too, forcing them to ease his body away from the door before they could clamber through. He moaned and protested, but that was all.

Then they were inside, shuffling over concrete floors. A single hallway divided the entire floor, broken into two sections blocked by glass dividers. Machines hummed within, towering supercomputer hardware connected by thick cables and insulated ducts. Elliot shivered, feeling the sudden chill creeping up the jacket where pants ought to be.

New renovations did not make the cold any more pleasant. When we’re done I’m finding some clothes that fit.

“Booth is just ahead. Anything they did will be in there, we won’t have to go in with the machines.” He hoped. That was more than simple glass securing the priceless hardware within. A rock wouldn’t get them in.

The booth was already open. Elliot heard it before he saw it: someone was awake here, not just moaning as the disease ravaged them.

He slowed, peering around the corner.

The “booth” was a glorified computer lab, with a dozen identical stations for students or teachers to load programs into the supercomputer. Another half-dozen people lay scattered here, all wearing lab coats and professional clothing underneath. All except the little horse.

Elliot had seen photos of this creature before, in Dr. Zalenka’s stolen notebook. But no photo could prepare him to actually see the creature up close.

He wasn’t big enough to be a horse. But horses weren’t supposed to be green, either.

The horse was trapped in a device of some kind, Elliot couldn’t name what. Like a huge modified dog-kennel, with wires and cables running along its surface. Heavy machinery sat beside it, about the size of a desk. Several tanks of liquid churned, with condensers and spools and a steady hum of energy that filled the room with noise.

Something like noise, anyway. It stung directly into the growth on Elliot’s head, then vanished the instant he retreated around the corner again.

“Damnit.” He reached up, massaging the bony growth with two fingers. “That’s awful.” The discomfort faded almost the instant he retreated, leaving only faint pressure behind. “Like a toddler’s birthday party when they invited the whole class.”

Sam looked back at him, eyebrow raised. “What kind of birthday parties did you have as a kid? Your parents rented a pony? Guess they would, for a princess.”

“I saw you!” called a voice. Male, in obvious pain. “Please don’t go! If you think it hurts from out there–you’ve gotta get me out! The Resonator will kill me!”

They didn’t have to do anything. But Elliot’s head twitched in sympathy, reminding him of the awful pain that device inflicted.

“Why?” Sam glanced around the edge again, expression souring. “Doesn’t seem so bad from here.”

He doesn’t have a horn. Elliot winced, his back up against the wall. “Could you go in and switch it off? Yank it out of the wall, something. Then I’ll join you.”

He glanced back, and his expression softened. “Guess I’m not as far along as you. It doesn’t seem that bad.”

He approached cautiously, stepping over the fallen scientists and into the room. Elliot listened to a brief conversation between Sam and the prisoner–all simple things, about how to get the device off as quickly as possible.

Elliot couldn’t tell their success from the sound alone, not with the constant droning of the supercomputer cooling equipment through glass barriers. Fortunately, Sam was there to remove all doubt.

“Dear princess Blue, the accommodations have been prepared to your liking! Please grace us with your presence!”

He groaned, then hurried around the room. Sam had done what he said; the device was off. Bright red warning lights now covered it, flashing and vibrating every few seconds. Thick, metallic liquid condensed in clear tubes, dropped abruptly by powerful electromagnets. But it didn’t hurt unless Elliot pointed his horn at it, so he looked the other way.

The horse was even stranger up close. Shorter than he was, though no telling how long that would stay true. He stood on all fours, with a rich coat of impossible green all the way down to the roots. Those proportions weren’t right for any barnyard animal Elliot had ever seen, especially the eyes. No simple animal could be so aware. And no animal had a sharp horn protruding from his head, either.

The not-animal wore nothing except for a plastic collar stamped with a barcode, without even a single line of human-readable text. Lucky for Elliot, he didn’t have enough room to turn around in the cage. So long as he only looked at him from above…

“Guess you two are infected too,” the horse said. Unicorn–that felt better. He did have a horn. “Small girl is familiar. Big one–not sure what you are. Haven’t seen that variant before.”

He sat down, touching his horn against the side of the cage. “No point running the Resonator now, clearly. Didn’t stop from spreading to you two. Shit Creek, here we come.”

“You know what it’s called,” Elliot said. His face twitched once at ‘smaller girl’, but he ignored his discomfort for the moment. At least he still had his fingers! “You know what this disease is? You have a cure?”

Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Does he have a cure? Blue, look at him. Does someone look like that if they have the cure?”

The unicorn nodded in his direction. “He said it. Apparently we don’t even know how it spreads. Straight through PPE, sometimes through solid lead.” He took a step closer, resting one hoof on the metal in front of him. “You two are kids, right? Students up here. Get this thing open, while you’ve still got fingers. I need to find a bathroom before I’m standing in my own piss.”

A horse bathroom?

Sam caught Elliot’s arm. He’d been reaching for the mechanism, which only had a heavy latch. It wouldn’t take much to get it open. He lowered his voice, whispering into Elliot’s hood. “We have no idea who this guy is. Maybe they were experimenting on condemned prisoners or something. You sure about letting him out?”

“I can hear you,” the unicorn said. “I’m not gonna hurt you. Worst I could do to you is already happening. Bet you’d like to learn more about it from someone who’s been there? Forget security clearance, I can tell you the truth.”

Elliot had to decide:

1. Bring him some supplies, but leave the unicorn locked up. He doesn’t talk like a scientist…
2. Get his word, then set him free. Maybe he can explain why the military brought him to this supercomputer in the first place…