A Protogen's Misadventures

The Facility - Part 2

I slowly opened my eyes. I felt a pain on my head. I looked around and saw that I was in a dark room with a single light in the middle where I was tied down into a chair. “God, what happened?” I said aloud. “I might have knocked you out,” said a feminine voice from the darkness. I jumped a little. I wasn’t expecting a response. “W-Who’s there?” I asked. I heard footsteps coming from behind me. It then walked around and stopped in front of me. It was another protogen. From what I could see with the single light, they had dark purple fur, with a short, fluffy tail. Their visor color also seemed to be a lighter purple color. ‘Another Protogen? What is this one doing all the way out here?’ “Who are you?” I said. “Who am I? I was going to ask the same question to you, but I will be nice and go first. My name is Celestial, and I’m a Protogen. I used to work in this facility, but now I just live here, considering they stopped production years ago,” Celestial said. “Production? Production of what?” I asked. She looked at me with a nervous expression. “I’m not sure if I can tell you. Anyways, who are you? How did you find this facility?” she questioned. “Wait, where is Evergreen?” I said concerned. I had noticed that he wasn’t in the room and started to get worried. “Evergreen? Who is-oh you mean your protogen friend?” she said. “Yes, where is he?” I said. “Don’t worry, he is safe and sound in another room, I believe the room adjacent to this one,” she responded. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Evergreen was safe. “Anyways, back to my questions, who are you?” she questioned. “My name is Jack, and i’m a human,” I answered. “A human? I don’t think I’ve ever met one that wasn’t being tested on,” she said. “Well, there is a first for ever-wait, tested on?” I stopped. “Uh, how did you get here?” she asked, a nervous expression on her face. Now she was avoiding my question, of course. “Well, me and Evergreen were wandering around in the forest and noticed a lever sticking out of the ground, and it led to a room with some elevators which brought us down here,” I finished. “Huh, I could’ve sworn that lever was covered enough,” she said. “Anyways, that's enough questions for now, let me come untie you,” she said. Celestial walked around behind me and undid the rope. I felt the rope come loose and I stood up. She then walked over and flicked more lights on. I left the room to go find Evergreen and Celestial followed behind me.

“So which room is he in?” I asked. “That one down there,” she said, pointing to a room down the hallway. “Thanks,” I said. I walked up to it and opened the door. There he was, lying in a bed. ‘Lucky, he got a bed to rest in,’ I thought. I walked over to the side and shook him a little to wake him up. “Nooo five more minutes,” he said sleepily. “Sorry, but you gotta get up,” I said. “Fine, but I'm only doing this because you asked,” he said. He got up and looked around groggily. “Where are we?” he said. “We are in that facility, remember?” I said. “Oh yeah, wait how did we get here though?” he said, a worried look on his face. “Someone knocked us out, but don’t worry, we’re fine,” I said, reassuring him. He still looked worried, but he relaxed a little. “Okay, let’s go and continue exploring,” he said. “We’ll do that, but first I need you to meet someone,” I said.

I led him out the door and to where Celestial was standing. Evergreen stood there with a surprised expression on his face. “Celestial, meet Evergreen. Evergreen, meet Celestial,” I said. “Are you the person that knocked us out?” Evergreen asked. “Yeah, sorry about that. I panicked a little and wanted to make sure you guys weren’t threats, I hope I didn’t cause any damage,” Celestial responded. “No, we’re alright,” I said. “Oh well, that’s good,” she said. We continued talking about each other and stuff, but one question lingered on my mind, what was that machine? And what was she doing here?

Once we finished talking, we made our way over to the break room/living room. “So, any of you guys hungry?” Celestial asked. “Yeah, I’m starving,” I said. “Me too,” added Evergreen. “Alrighty, I’m just gonna make some French toast, is that alright?” she said. “Yup” Me and Evergreen both said in usion. Celestial started working on the food. I turned to look at Evergreen, he wore a worried but nonetheless relaxed expression. “Hey Evergreen, do you trust Celestial?” I questioned. “I don’t know man, she seems kind of suspicious,” said Evergreen. “Yeah, apparently she used to work here, testing humans for something, but I’m not sure what,” I said. “Hmm, interesting. Maybe, once we eat, we can go and explore and see if we can uncover what they did,” he said. “You sure? Yeah I want to find out but also what if it’s bad or something?” I said. “Well, there can’t be any harm in finding out, right?” he said. “I hope you’re right,” I said.

“Food’s ready!” Celestial yelled from the kitchen. She walked over and placed some plates with food down on the table near the kitchen. We all sat down and began to eat our food. “Hey Celestial, do you mind if we continue exploring the facility?” I asked. “No, not at all. Let me give you a map.” She stopped eating and stood up and grabbed a map. “Here you go, a map of the entire facility. This should help you not get lost,” she said. “But, there are some areas you can’t go to, such as the area marked as testing. Do not go there, no matter what,” she said seriously. I looked over at Evergreen and he just rolled his eyes. “Alright, will do, thanks,” I said. “No problem,” she said.

We finished our food and got up. “Alright Evergreen, you ready?” I asked. “Yeah, let’s go,” he said. “Okay Celestial, we’ll be back soon,” I said. “Ok, I’ll be here or in my room,” she said. Me and Evergreen left the break room and started heading towards the west side of the facility. After a few minutes of exploring, we came across an odd looking door. It has markings all over it and said “DO NOT ENTER” written on it. I looked at Evergreen and saw him reaching for the door. I grabbed his paw. “What are you doing?” I said. “I’m just seeing if we can open the door,” he said. “Well, it says “DO NOT ENTER”, so I would assume we can’t,” I said. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. I let go of his paw and we continued exploring the facility. I looked at one of the cameras and saw that the red light was on. “Hey Evergreen, I think someone is watching us,” I asked worriedly. I pointed to the camera. “I think so, let’s go into this room here to avoid the camera,” he said. We ducked into a room and closed the door. I looked around the room and saw a bunch of weird looking devices. Most of them looked broken or not functional. There was also a hatch in the back of the room. I walked over to it. “Hey Evergreen, check this out,” I beckoned him over. “What’s up?” he asked. “Look at this hatch,” I said. “Wow, it’s a hatch, I wouldn’t stand over it though, what if it’s loose?” he said. “I doubt it,” I said. Suddenly, I heard the sound of something coming loose. “What was that?” I said. “Hey I would step off the hatch-” Evergreen started. The hatch suddenly gave way and I started to fall. “EVERGREEN!” I yelled. “JACK!” Evergreen yelled. He tried grabbing for me but it was too late. Evergreen’s screams faded away as I fell into the darkness...