A Protogen's Misadventures

Reunite

Before we start today's chapter, I just wanna thank yall for all of the reads and votes! You guys have been super supportive and I can’t thank you guys enough. Secondly, if you didn’t see my announcement, I will be trying to move back into every wednesday updates. Anyways, with that out of the way, let us begin!

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I whip my head around to find the source of the voice and see that it is just a speaker playing an audio recording. “Who put that there? Gave me a freaking heart attack,” I said. After calming myself down, I continued through the deserted hallways. After walking around for a while, I see an exit. “Finally, I get to get out of here,” I said. I grab onto the ladder and climb up. I get to the top and stand up. Looking around, I noticed I’m in some sort of back room. The room looked almost identical to the one I fell into. ‘Hopefully I’m near Evergreen,’ I thought. I open the door and proceed through the hallway.

“Wait, what’s this?” I said. It looked like there were broken containment modules lining the wall, with some screens next to them. The screens still seemed to be operational. I tapped the first one and an audio started to play.

“Test #1, Subject: Human. Test subject is exhibiting signs of fear and nervousness. Expected. Note, the subject is expendable. Audio End.” I recognized that voice, it was Celestial. What were these experiments? Who was this person? I walked over to the next screen and tapped it. The next audio clip started to play. “Test #2, Subject: Human. Beginning installation of enhancements. Subject showing signs of distress and pain. Expected. Hopefully this goes well, we’ve already gone through multiple iterations, we don’t need another termination. Audio End.” Termination? Other iterations? Enhancements? I had so many questions but not enough answers. I continued onto the next screen. “They’ve decided to give this whole experiment a new codename. They call it “Protogen”, or at least the subjects being tested. Not sure why they decided to go with that, but hey, I’m not complaining. Audio End.” Wait, they were making protogens? How did the protogens get to another planet? I moved onto the next screen. “Test #3, Subject: [REDACTED]. During the installation process, the subject started mutating. Definitely not expected. Subject terminated. Audio End.” I noticed there was another audio log. This one seemed to be a video recording of the incident. I clicked it.

“Vitals?” said Celestial. “Doing good,” said a scientist. “Good, hopefully nothing happens,” said Celestial. “Hey, I heard that once we successfully convert someone, you were going to convert yourself?” asked the scientist. “Yes, the enhancements will prove beneficial to me,” answers Celestial. “I see, anyways once we are done-” the scientist gets cut off by the announcement system. “Danger, mutation detected,” said the announcer. “What the hell?” says the scientist. “Oh god dammit, not again,” said Celestial. “Alright, I’ll go deal with it,” says the scientist. “Hey I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Celestial. “Why? What’s the worst that can happen?” said the scientist. The door is opened and a loud crash could be heard. The subject jumps onto the voice. “OH SH-” The subject impales the scientist. “Uh oh,” said Celestial. The video cuts out but three gunshots can be heard.

“Well, that is unfortunate,” I said. There were a lot more logs, but there wasn’t enough time to listen to all of them. I had to get this information to Evergreen. I started back down the hallway until I reached a 4 way junction. ‘Oh crap, which way do I go?’ I thought. I looked around and saw that the ground is marked with colored arrows. ‘Right, I remember these. I believe it was the green arrow that we first saw when we came down. I follow the green arrow and make my way back to Evergreen.

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I pace around, worrying about Jack. “Hey Evergreen, you doing okay buddy?” asked Celestial. “Yeah, just worrying about Jack,” I responded. ‘I’m sure he’s doing alright. He seemed pretty capable,” said Celestial. “I agree,” I said. We continued talking for a little while until I noticed someone walking towards us. “Hey, is that-” starts Celestial. I look up to where she is looking and see him. “JACK!” I yell. I run towards him and practically jump onto him. “Happy to see me?” said Jack. “Very,” I said. I pull him tighter into my hug. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” I said. “Yeah, sorry about that, will do,” he said. I release him out of the hug. Celestial walks over. “You two seem happy to see each other, you lot are very close,” she said. I blushed a little. “Yes, we’re very excited to see each other,” I said. I look over at Jack and see him blushing too. So adorable. “Hey Evergreen,” said Jack. “Yeah?” I said. “I gotta tell you something…”