Factory Reset

Chapter Four: Like Clockwork

When one begins working for The Foundation, they would start to find that ethics and morals, no matter how strongly one feels for them, are completely subjective. When someone knows even a fraction of what the higher ups, known as the O-5 Council know, they will know nihilism

Nathan knew this. He had been part of this 'Foundation' for years, but unlike many others, he had not lost hope. Yet.

Hack-0, as they call him, was something of a mystery to the foundation. They knew of many other species in deep space, communicated with a few, but once they brought up the basic description of Hack-0, dead silence.

Something wasn't right, and The Foundation, along with the governments that support it, were worried that they had committed some intergalactic treason, or something to that effect. But, since nothing seemed to have happened to the earth, they continued on with their research, if only a little worried.

Nathan was a good researcher. He did his tasks well and efficiently, but due to his knowledge in neuroscience and into quantum physics, he was put with the more safe, or more weird, skips. Skips being the general term for anything out of the norm.

The Foundation was a secretive organization of the compiled minds of nearly fifty sovereign nations and had the simple mission goal to conceal and protect the people of the world from anything that is deemed to unsavory, or unsafe, for the public to know.

The Foundation had many sites around the world, each placed deep under the ground or in the bowles of mountains. Site Twenty-Three was the one that Nathan was situated at, and was deep underground.

Most mornings for him consisted of waking up, walking to the cafeteria to eat breakfast, and then begin working. The entire thing was draining, but to protect normalcy and secrecy, no single person was allowed to leave the site unless given permission by O-5 approval.

Nathan was a scientist above most things, but he was still himself at heart, and knew that what they were doing, what he was doing, to B-64, or hack-0, was unethical, inmoral, and above all else, evil.

And that's why he wanted to help B-64 escape the facility. He couldn't just allow the creature to suffer for years upon years to just die in a single cell, when it's life before was quite obviously free and unimpeded.

But he could never do anything himself. The only way to free B-64, was to utilize other items, or creatures, of interest. And that's what Nathan was doing that moment, trying to volunteer himself to work with Clockwork-0, a virus.

His heart rate quickly as soon as he saw his name appear on the list of researchers assigned to the project. He knew what he was planning on was wrong, and could get more than a few people killed, but...

No, he thought, he shouldn't be doing this. He had worked hard to gain a shred of credibility and respect in The Foundation, and to just throw it away for something that may not be as innocent as it seems? He had to be losing his mind.

But his mind quickly brought up a problem. It was wrong, what he was doing, but it was also wrong what his co-workers were doing. They deserved something to happen. He quickly debated with himself on what to do.

As the harsh ringing of the bell tolled, Nathan found himself walking towards the containment door, brandishing his keycard. There was nothing he could do now, he had to go through with it. He had to release the Clockwork virus if he wanetd B-64, and himself, to be let free, and to not die.

The Clockwork Virus was something that, for one reason or another existed. It might've come up due to the rise of machines or due to some extraterrestrial being, no one could exactly place it. But what they did know, what Nathan knew, was that it was immensely painful, and horrible.

The Clockwork virus was a dense network of viral infection, incurable by any means and has a hundred percent mortality rate. It had an incubation period from anywhere between a few seconds, to a few years, and had a hundred percent infectivity rate during that period.

During the 'changing' period, the host of the virus' flesh and inner organs slowly teer and rip, before morphing into a form of organic metal, glass, and wood. These parts still held the host's DNA, but were like clockwork.

Soon, after a couple of months of tearing and ripping, the host is completely converted into a sort of machine, barely clinging onto conscience and not being able to move due to random assortment of gears and levers. Effectively turning someone into a machine.

Nathan held his breath as he entered the testing grounds, knowing this. It was steril, clean. White walls, white tiled floor, white ceilings. Several long tubes of liquid were suspended in mid-air.

What took up the bulk of the room was a massive, air-locked stable with a single horse, two pugs, and a dog. The scientists, a wolf, two cats, and a panther, stood ominously by, looking at the ferals with some sort of apprehension.

Then the clockwork took its effect. The pig fidgets nervously, flicking it's legs every now and then. Nathan could see the pigs eye slowly start to move around in a circle, turning upside down in its socket.

No blood leaked from the empty eye socket as the eye popped out, landing with a wet splat against the terf floor. Nathan cringed along with the rest of the scientists, carefully making his way around the table.

With the scientists attention drawn to the pigs, Nathan carefully lifted up a syringe filled with what looked like rusting water. The virus contaminated the water, turning it into some sort of oil-like substance.

Nathan carefully extracted the virus into a small vial, then put the vial into his lab coats back pocket. He then let the syringe back onto the table, placing it alongside the already used ones to affect the ferals.

He sighed, now down with what he was planning on doing.

He planned on releasing the virus into the cafeteria during the later hours where it wouldn't effect that many, but would cause some harm to the occupants and occupy the residing O-5 council member there, and make his way out of the building via quarantine zone trucks that left from the lower grounds to the higher.

He planned on smuggling B-64, who was scheduled for an hour of running in the coming days, out with a stretcher and blanket covering. Everyone would be too occupied with exiting the building, or simply rushing newly infected people away, to notice something like that.

It could work, it will work, Nathan chanted in his head, fingering the small vial in his coat pocket as he said one of the pigs limbs slowly started to slide itself off of the newly mechanical bone. It will work.

__________________________________________________________________________

Extremely short chapter for today, but I needed to get something out there.

Maybe the reasons why Nathan wanted B-64 to get out there need a little work beyond the fact that he really (REALLY) likes B-64 and that he is sick of acting like a drone, but that's just me. 

Personally, going all virus-y like that on a whim is immensely dumb and shouldn't be the way that I'm going with his, but it looks and sounds cool, and I wanted to include some SCP's from the SCP Foundation into this because it was my main inspiration for writing the original book.

But, uhh, yeah. Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think about this chapter in the comments!~

~ Candle