From the Factory

Waaaaaaaaah!

The sirens blared in the small lab, deep underground, as engineers and scientists scrambled around to stabilize the creature inside the medical tube.

“McMaster is counting on you to keep this thing alive! Fail, and you’ll be our fresh ingredient!”, exclaimed the seemingly old man pacing around the lab, making sure everything is running smoothly. He stops to look at the charred remains of what looks to be a humanoid bear floating in a red liquid. The wires and metal plates installed in its body peek through the holes.

Suddenly, the lights start flashing red. The siren, now blaring in a much more urgent rhythm. Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaah!

“Fresh meat! Fresh meat, I’m telling you! You’ll all be fresh meat!”, the old man kept repeating. “The system isn’t responding, doctor!” a scientist said as he kept trying every button, hoping for a response. Among the chaos, the doctor doesn’t keep his eyes off the creature.

Bzzzzzzzz…

The doctor could hear a faint buzz coming from the tube. As he approaches, the buzzing grows more noticeable, followed by a faint static. The old man presses his face against the tube, listening. He was sure now that it was coming from the bear. “It’s alive,” he says as he backs away, looking straight at its burnt, expressionless face. Bubbles appeared out of its mouth, and the doctor’s eyes widened. Everyone in the room noticed what the doctor already had, and now they, too, stood in awe. The bubbles stopped, and for a few seconds, everything seemed still. The sirens continued to blare, but the urgency was now gone. Until finally, the bear opened its red beady eyes and stared straight at the doctor. With the buzzing and static becoming more apparent.

“Hey! How much longer until my pizza is ready?”

You look at your crew members scrambling around trying to get the orders done. “Hmmmm, ten minutes give or take”, you say as the phone next to you starts ringing for the hundredth time today. “You said that twenty minutes ago!”

Another crew member swiftly picks up the phone, “I got it. You handle him.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but with the influx of orders coming due to the big game today, we’re short-staffed.” The stress of it all makes you want to just drop everything and walk out.

“Five and then I’m out. I expect at least half of my money back because of this,” the customer says as he takes a seat on the small red bench. His eyes throw daggers at you. You sigh and just try to get through the rest of your shift. Adult life hasn’t been kind to you. Stuck kneading pizza dough and having to deal with rude customers, only for it to amount to a small paycheck. The weekends aren’t any better. Stuck at home scrolling through mindless videos, hoping that someone from the past just randomly hits you up to connect. Life has been dull so far. The thrills and excitement you felt before all this have been something you wish had never left you.

You start adding the ingredients. A T.V plays in the background, broadcasting the news. “Now that’s what I call instant karma. On further news, more updates on the strange UFO sightings across the state. Could aliens be among us? Lila, if you would.” “Of course, Walter, more videos showing what can be UFOs are being spotted more and more. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s getting harder to write all this stuff off.” “I don’t blame you. Actually, after last night’s thunderstorm, I could have sworn I saw the silhouette of a UFO at the outskirts of the city.” “Ok, now you’re pulling my leg. Hahaha.”

Aliens, what a joke you thought. Still, you hope it was true. It’ll definitely liven things up. You glance at the customer. He’s visibly annoyed, arms crossed, looking up at the T.V. You had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well.

“Ok, that’s it! Money now!” the man slammed his fist on the counter. So tired. You were tired of it all. You promised your parents that you would make it big. But here you were. Being yelled at by nobody. Perhaps, you can change it all here. Start fresh.

Without thinking twice, you throw a ball of dough straight at the customer, hitting him straight on the noggin, causing him to topple over. You let out a laugh. “How about that? You wanna try slamming your fists again?” You look around to see your coworkers looking at you, shocked. You make a full rotation until you realize who was at the door.

“What the hell are you doing?! I came to check up on all of you and lend a hand, and see this!” your boss exclaims as he helps pick the man up.

You scramble towards the customer and sheepishly try to help him stand. “It just slipped out of my hand. He just caught me by surpr-”, but before you can finish, your boss cuts you off. “Clock out and go out to the back. I’ll talk with you there.” There was no point in fighting. He wasn’t going to listen -just your luck. You let your emotions get the better of you for a fantasy that wasn’t going to come true by lashing out. You clock out and wait out back. It was awfully cold that night. The thought of walking home seems torturous. But the reward of being in bed all cozied up makes you chuckle. You look up at the sky to see the vast emptiness of the sky. Not a single star out, but a few helicopters flying by. You stand in silence, shivering. When you hear a sudden booming sound off in the distance. You turn in the direction of the sound and wait to see if anything follows. Nothing for a while, until another boom came from a different direction. It took some time to conclude that this might be another dry thunderstorm.

The back door opens as your boss comes out. He had a disappointed expression as he looked at you. He closes the door and lets out a sigh. “What the hell happened?” You explain the events leading up to the conflict and lie about why you decided to throw the dough in the end. He stands there contemplating his next course of action. “Look, I’ll let you off with a warning. I’ll have you strictly only make the pizzas. You’ve haven’t had any previous problems, so I trust this was from stress.” He looks at you, still with disappointment. “Clock out. I’ll see you tomorrow.” A huge wave of relief goes over you. You felt like you were rewarded for your action. Now you don’t have to talk with the customers. “That dough and pizzas will be docked from your check.” Another boom is heard. “Must be another thunderstorm.” He reenters the pizzeria.

You clock out and head out. Walking through the quiet, cold, dark streets gives you a little peace of mind after what just happened. That’s what you get for wanting a little thrill at the worst place and time possible. Luckily, nothing came of it, but still, you wonder what your plan would have been after. Do it all over again, but at another dead-end job? What would be the point? What’s the point of all this? “Shut up. I just want to go home, lie on my bed, and eat some leftover alfredo,” you think to yourself. You continue walking towards the direction of your apartment.

As you walk, you hear once again a loud boom, followed by all the lights in the streets turning off for a second. I’d better hurry up and get home. Your pace quickens. Strangely, you haven’t seen a single person since you left the pizzeria. You were the only person walking the streets. You begin to feel uneasy now that you realize not even a single car has driven by. That is, until you hear the sound of tires squeaking. You turn around to see a red car barreling down the street at high speed. It passes by, leaving you once again alone in the street.

You think nothing of it. Could have been someone taking advantage of the empty roads, you thought. You continue forward. Nothing happens for a few minutes. Just the occasional booms here and there. That is, until the sound was replaced with distant screaming from behind. It catches your attention. You turn around to see in the distance groups of people running. Some were running towards your direction. You catch the expression on one of their faces -pure terror and confusion. You look further behind them to see what they were running from. Although hard to see due to the distance, you can make out what appears to be tall, skinny humanoid creatures coming from around the corner. Some were wearing different outfits. You could swear one was cosplaying Miku and another was wearing a chicken costume. You stand there, confused whether to be scared or amused by the sight of it. You try to find a filming crew, thinking they were filming a horror-comedy of some kind.

You look back at the people and see a man trip over himself and try to get back up, only for one of the creatures to step over him. You see, as he starts shaking uncontrollably, he finally lies limp and combusts out of nowhere. This happens to several other people. They shake on the ground and either lie limp, catch on fire, turn into pure bones, or even explode. You didn’t know what to make of it. You want to believe this was part of a movie, but the screams and bodies were too real. You see a nearby creature step off a body and turn towards you. Its head is an odd shape. Almost like a weird-looking bear. It grins and starts what you assume to be a walk towards you. This finally brings you back as you start running with the others. You take glances behind only to see that these monsters were catching up pretty easily. Slowly but surely, they will catch up to you.

You continue running, running as you hear people around you dying in various ways. You turn around a corner and watch as these creatures wreak havoc all around you. A large boom comes from up ahead as you see a large explosion coming from a nearby gas station. You stand frozen for a minute until another creature spots you. It starts heading towards you. You head towards another direction. Your breathing becomes unsteady, and you can feel your legs give up. After all, you’ve been standing for the last six hours. You begin to wonder whether you jinxed yourself.

Your pace begins to slow down. You desperately look all around you, trying to find a place to hide. You see an alley and head towards it. You glance behind and see the monster continue following behind. It was too late to head somewhere else. You enter the alley. Luckily, it was long and had different paths you could take to hopefully lose the monster. You turn around a corner before an arm grabs you by the face and arm, and pulls you into a building. You get tossed onto the floor with a sharp pain in your arm. You turn over expecting the monster to begin stepping on you, but instead you see two men slamming the door shut and barricading it. You try to sit up, but the pain still lingers from the fall. One of the men sees this and lends you a hand, “Sorry about that. It was just quicker that way.” You finally stand up and get a better view of who these people were.

Their clothing was identical. Black tactical uniforms with a star symbol on the elbows. One of them was wearing a helmet concealing their whole face, while the other wore a cloth mouth mask. Nothing about it seems to fit the standard city police uniform. The star was definitely not related to the city.

Both men start heading up a flight of stairs as you finally realize where exactly you are. In this dimly lit room were slabs of meat and cooking appliances. A kitchen for some kind of fancy restaurant. You quickly gather yourself and catch up with the others. As you do, you can hear them whispering to each other. It was hard to make out, but they were discussing what their next course of action was. “They’re now in the streets. We must take high ground to see our options.” “Should have come sooner. We could have gotten more with us.” Even with that, you couldn’t make out what their intentions were. All three of you finally reach the rooftop, and that’s when you can finally see all the chaos unfolding. Buildings all over the city are burning. You see, as the creatures continue their attack throughout the streets. Helicopters flying overhead, as you spot them dangling, trying to get on. It was pure madness.

Another boom off in the distance. You now realise they weren’t thunderclouds.

Your breathing starts to become uneven. The man with the cloth mask puts their hand on your shoulder, “I got you. Just calm down, we have a secure place where none of these things can find.” You give him a confused look but nod either way. “Malek, have you found a path yet?” Malek, the one with the helmet, points to the nearby rooftop. “Streets are too dangerous. The rooftops are our only safe choice. I already see a path back to base.” Without another word, Malek jumps to the next rooftop. “Alrighty, try to give yourself a good head start to make it across.” And with that, the other man follows Malek. You stand there, nervous as can be. You see, as they jump from each rooftop with ease, as if it were an everyday thing. You start to wonder whether this is a dream. Only one way to find out.

You begin to sprint towards the edge, only jumping when you believe you are going to make it. In that small moment in between both buildings, you can feel the cold air all around your face. You land on the next rooftop, almost tripping onto the floor. This wasn’t a dream you thought. This was really happening.

Both men look behind to see if you were stuck, only to see you jumping effortlessly across each rooftop. “Well, I’ll be damned. We got lucky with this one.” “Don’t fall behind!” Malek says as he continues showing the path to an unknown place they deemed safe. The thrill of it all makes you feel like you can do anything. You quickly catch up to the others. You can’t help but smile at your current situation. Although frightening, it was a nice change of pace from your boring life. You wonder as you jump from each rooftop. What does life have in store for you after all this?

You look around at the chaos. The creatures walk around with their outfits in a goofy manner. More people are caught and killed in place. Will there even be a life living after all this? You look back ahead to see both men disappear mid jump. You couldn’t stop your momentum and jump onwards. You brace yourself for what’s to come.

Expecting to be pulverized to dust, you instead land on the hard floor of the rooftop. You were sure now from the pain that you probably caused damage to your arm. You stay there, with your eyes closed, expecting the worst. “Hey, we’re good. We made it.” With that, you finally open your eyes to see them both standing in front of you. “Sorry, I should have warned you about that.” They help you stand up, and you notice everything is quiet once again. You look behind and still see the chaos unfolding, but you can’t hear a thing. The booming sounds or the screams were muted. The only thing that remained was what sounded like construction. Turning your attention below, opposite the chaos, you see groups of people sitting around campfires, waiting in lines for what seems to be food, and people in black similar to the men next to you helping those in need. You finally open your mouth to ask them the question that’s been on your mind the whole time, “Who are you?”

“Let’s join the others, and we’ll tell you.” They both start climbing down a ladder. You follow, keeping your eyes fixed on the view of it all. It looked peaceful. When you finally reach the bottom of the ladder, you hear someone approaching you really fast. “Another survivor! You two did well coming back alive with someone!” a woman in brown exclaims as she hands you a bag full of various supplies. You look at her, confused, still wondering what the heck is all this. “Apologies. Where are my manners? Welcome to the lobby, we are STARs.”