Chapter 10: Tar

But, of course, when I arrived at Todd's house, it was empty.

The entire house was as silent as a grave, not even the low hum of electronics was present. Derrick's beer was left on the kitchen table, half-finished, and the phone was left off the hook. On the table were a bunch of sheets of some sort of date. I flipped through them but too much of it was damaged to fully understand what it was about. The few things I did understand were that something was activated today and that they had been planning this for a long time, more than ten years at least. The only other thing that kept appearing on the sheets was a stamp that said "Property of A.G. Industries". I realized that if I wanted to get my answers, I would have to go find Rockwell. I took what I needed from the house and left. The outside was less hospitable. The creatures were all over the streets, although they seemed a bit different. They seemed more solid, and less liquid, to the point that the black substance on them looked more like tar. However, they didn't seem to see me, and walked to their destinations with deathly purpose. It was as if being in that world made them stronger, causing me to wonder if that was where they were from. The rest of the city was quiet, not even the tremors or gunshots I heard before could be heard. Though as I went on, the number of tar creatures increased until I had to weave my way through them. At one point, I even accidentally touched one, but it didn't even flinch, just kept walking on. After a while, even the creatures seemed to disappear, as once again I was the only one on the street. I kept walking. On my way to the middle of the city, I found some of Rockwell's soldiers. They were huddled in the middle of a street, some of them ripped apart, others inexplicably free of scars. I couldn't tell how many they were fighting as there were no remains of the other creatures, some of the soldiers hadn't even fired their guns. Either way, they were all dead. In the middle of them though, was a woman in a lab coat. I had to push a soldier off of her to see her. Her death was a suicide, as she held the gun that made the bullet hole in her head. Her lab coat had her name on it, Dr. Sarah Meissner. Something told me I had seen this woman before. Immediately my head began to hurt, as my mind once again struggled to remember what was forgotten. As I began to lose consciousness, I stumbled into a nearby alley, only to pass out in the corner.

"Everything is going to be fine, just do as we told you, and everything will work perfectly." That was the voice of Sarah Meissner. Soothing, calm, and kind. She must have been used to talking to children. I was in a lab somewhere, wearing some kind of protective suit. Nearby were Derrick Todd, Rockwell, and a few other people I didn't recognize. All except Rockwell, the people in the room were working furiously, analyzing readings, imputing data into large machines. "Now listen to me," Sarah's voice made me turn back to her. You might see things that look like people, but they are not. You've seen one before though, when you were with your Father -" Someone across from the room told Sarah that they were running out of time, that the structure would not last much longer. Sarah nodded. She gave me a small device, and told me to go as far as I can, and place the object down, and press the button on top of it. I nodded, and looked back at the rest of the scientists, none of them looked back at me. Some even looked away. Sarah had tears in her eyes that she quickly brushed away. I realized that no one wanted this. Except for Rockwell. His eyes didn't leave me once. And as Sarah led me to the black hole in the wall, he smiled.

I woke up vomiting. I wondered if I had just vomited blood, but it was too dark to see. That's when I realized that it was dark. No longer was the world bathed in red, instead, when I looked up the sky was a dark blue. I checked my watch. 12:01. Midnight was over. There was still no one on the streets, but the bodies of the soldiers were gone. I began to wonder if I had dreamed the whole thing, but I refused to believe that. I made my way down the street. Every now and then I would see proof that what I saw had happened, the occasional black smear on the wall, broken window, and even once I saw large claw marks. After a few minutes of walking, I heard sirens. The police were stationed outside a nearby building, handcuffing a man, telling him they would find him help but he needed to come with them. The man was stark white, sweat pouring down his face. Screaming, "They took it. They took it!" Then he caught my eye. Then I realized what he was talking about. He was a Seeker, and now his Object was gone. I wondered when A.G. would pick him up. Then I remembered where I was going, and started jogging toward the hospital that Rockwell's building was built in. The rest of the way there I saw nothing out of the ordinary, not even a drop of oil on the street. Rockwell had done well to keep the creatures far away from his building. I walked in through the main doors and walked toward the reception. Oddly enough it was a quiet night at the hospital, but when I approached the receptionist and asked for "The Seeker of Holders" she simply said that we "sure were busy tonight" and unblocked a nearby elevator for me.

Inside the elevator, there were only two buttons, one for the hospital, and another named "Lab". That one needed a key, but luckily a key was left inside the keyhole. I turned it and pressed the button. The elevator shot down. Nothing told me how far down we were going, but I could guess that it was a long way down. A few minutes later the door opened. The place looked like a corporate office at first. I wondered how A.G. Industries worked out of this place, but then I understood why it was so small. On the wall, it was written that this was the Eastern A.G. Industries Lab. Knowing this, I concluded there were many, many more of those places, all over the world. But the place was empty. No one at the reception desk, the hallways led to empty rooms, even the recreational rooms were empty. However, the place was a maze, and I wandered around for a while before finding an informational booth of sorts. I checked a map and followed it to the "Main Lab", where I walked down another corridor, filled with machines and doors with hazardous material symbols all over them. According to the map, each of those rooms branched out to other sections of the lab. I couldn't tell how large the building could become. At the end of the corridor was another elevator. I took it further down, until I finally was back at the lab. It had changed a bit from my memory, but it was still the same room, and just like before, in the middle of the opposite wall was a large black hole leading to nothingness.

A figure walked out of the shadows. It was Derrick Todd. Before I could say anything, he pulled out a revolver and pointed it at me.

-S