AJNotAMonster Hallway
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"You have an assignment"
That was what my mail app first told me. Well, technically a bot did, but it was the first mail I had received since joining the Foundation. I reached for my mouse, but I fumbled blindly for a bit before finally looking down and grabbing it consciously. I was still getting used to the desk and was secretly glad that nobody saw that. I opened the email with a sharp click and started reading.

3/25/19
To: pcs.94etiS|prahsi-rj#pcs.94etiS|prahsi-rj
From: pcs.toBnoitceriD|YLPER_TON_OD#pcs.toBnoitceriD|YLPER_TON_OD
You have an assignment

Junior Researcher Sharp, this is a message to inform you that your presence is requested in Ada county, Idaho by a research team. Report to: Researcher Tao Zhen as soon as possible. Enclosed are the precise co-ordinates.
+ Expand

Secure, Contain, Protect.

Well, that was awfully brief. I guessed it was just what you'd have to expect when you worked in a place like the foundation. I opened the coordinates tab, read them, deleted the mail, and packed my new grey day bag. Foundation issue, just like everything else here, I thought, leaving my cubicle. Walking through the bleak office halls, I passed a break room with the door ajar. Inside I heard a snippet of a droning dialogue.

"…ite breach the other day…"

I stopped mid-step, my eyes shifting along with my focus to what I just heard. Site breach? Interrupting my thoughts, A tired-sounding female voice replied to the first:

"How many dead this time?" She asked.

"Only four, they shut it down really fast."

The beep and hum of a microwave punctuated his sentence.

Another male voice chimed in. "Still, that's four individual casualty reports."

A spark of excitement ran from my heart out to my limbs, bouncing around my head on its path. People died in this site just the other day! A torrent of speculation rolled through my head, pushing the excitement back down. Was I going to work on hunting down this skip? If I do well, am I going to get a promotion? Maybe this is how I get noticed in the foundation! I started walking again, bag strung over my shoulder. This career is going to be great!

I walked over to the site transportation garage and hopped on a sleek, nondescript transport bus that was outbound for Ada county. The bus drove me for about an hour and eventually reached the coordinates in the e-mail. As the bus took off, I took in my surroundings. In front of me was a police station, between me and the station was a small gathering of cars. Included were some beige SUVs and a black sedan. There was also a massive moving van, with the back open and some men inside. I walked to the cars, and asked the nearest person for Tao Zhen. She pointed me to a tall, pale man with an obvious scowl conveying the sense of a someone who didn't want to be there.

Still floating on a bubble, I introduced myself.

"Mister Zhen, I am Junior researcher Sha-"

"Get in the car."

"Huh? Oh, yes. Of course boss."

His speech was curt, as if there was some dangerous secret looming among the higher researchers. I did as he told and got in the car. We rolled out one by one, in order to avoid detection.

I don't know where we went, but after a few turns and a short time on the highway, we reached another lot. It was bumpy and I heard the sound of gravel crunching under tires as we pulled in. Getting out, it was like a hot air balloon suddenly deflating. I took in the disappointment I had in front of my eyes. I joined the foundation hoping to work on alien spaceships, or big monsters, or impossible paradoxes. But no, instead, I got a run-down shopping complex in middle of nowhere, Idaho.

"Everyone gather round!" Tao shouted to us, breaking my focused disappointment.Some people hopped out of the van with guns on their hips and walked to the edges of the lot. The rest of us, about 20 in total, did as Tao said. "What we suspect is in this building," Tao gestured to the 3rd storefront to the right, "Is a new skip for the archives. We don't know how dangerous it is, so Skipper team here will figure it out first." He gestured to three armed men in hazmat suits.

After a briefing I am not allowed to disclose, the team moved in. A few minutes later, they came out at ease with their guns down.

"It poses no threat, sir. The building is safe to enter," Stated one of the men. "Take the kitchen door and then the first left, and you'll find it. We marked the point it begins."

"Good," replied Tao, "Dismissed".

"Yessir"

I was still bothered by his coldness, but I was staring to get used to it.

We piled into the building and went through a few hallways into the back room. We stopped at a little orange marker set in front of a hallway. Some orders were given and the rest of the day was a bunch of labor getting machines in place and clearing out the room. I chipped in, and helped lift some of the heavy things not related to research, like the coffee machine and some water coolers. A researcher pulled out a bunch of cots from the van and we settled down for the night.

That morning, I woke up to a buzz of activity. A few D-class had arrived, and they were placed in a small area separated from us by a divider. For the safety of the researchers, they had small anklets that would shock them if they tried anything.

Everyone was up and about. The researchers had donned some rad-suits and a clipboard was attached to nearly every hand. I grabbed my own and after a breakfast of reheated Mickey-D's hash browns, black coffee, and corn flakes, we began the tests.

+ Notes log

When I ran into the hallway, I was prepared to become dizzy momentarily, then lucid again once I reached the other side. As long as I kept my footing and knew where I was going I would be fine. But I ran in, and I woke up in this world, this bright, monochrome, beautiful world. I spent the last couple of days taking as many notes as I could make on my phone, since I left my clipboard in the hallway. Hopefully Tao doesn't report me as MIA, that could ruin me when I get back and show them all my notes.

+ Incident Report