When a City Falls
Copyright© 2008 by Miss Tango
Prologue
A woman sat shivering on the cold floor of the lab. There was silence, but that was grossly unnerving with the preceding events. She leaned her head back against the white tiles of the wall, closing her eyes cautiously, as though she wasn't sure if it was safe.
Behind her eyelids, life rewinded itself.
Heather heard screams, horrible screams, and then the wet sound of flesh torn from flesh. The sound of flesh bending, then giving to cold, hard, groping fingers. Slurps and incomprehensible groans from those horrible creatures that ... that she had a part in creating.
She felt like Dr. Frankenstein, setting out with such a clear, crystal-clear, perfect diamond of a goal. And invariably creating a monster, because nothing turns out perfect, right. Oh god.
The screams of her coworkers, god, she could recognise some of them! That slightly nasally high-pitched one, that was Mary, oh god. Heather crouched down, covering her head with her hands and leaning her forehead against her knees. She hid in a little lab, all white-tiled perfection with just one perfect white table in the centre. There were glass windows, and she'd bolted the door when the news had been announced ... oh god, that was a severed foot bouncing off the tough glass. Heather stared in horror at the trail of blood it left on the clear surface, tainting it...
Rewind further. The experiments. The announcements. Even further back, two years ago. She'd been offered this great government job, though the details had been scarce until she'd accepted. But she had no misgivings at first: after all, it was a great job, she would get free accommodation, the hours were perfect and it was something she loved. Hell, when she'd met the scrumptious boss of the Mechanics sector, she'd sported a grin to rival the Cheshire cat's and been almost ready to accept just from the idea of working with him.
Heather was a scientist, specialising in biotechnology. Specifically, she worked at the cellular level, and this would be her first job out of uni. It was an amazing opportunity, and even with what had happened ... even knowing about all this, she still would have taken the job now.
Once she was settled in her lovely two stories of architectural pleasure, the briefing came. Heather was a little shocked at first realisation of what she'd signed up for, but that was okay, she had flexible moral standards. She accepted it quickly.