The resolute duo hack their way through the foliage of the dense jungle. They’d been traveling for weeks now, in search of this one singular locale by which their research could be advanced tenfold. They’re scientists, currently explorers, and have been close friends for years. Their current labor comes from a responsibility they have taken upon themselves to cure a mutation that is arising in the human genome. A vital extract of research, the possible solution, comes from this location. Years ago, the scientist Dr. Jeremy Brush was situated in this remote location, examining the local fauna, and had had some astonishing finds before a terrible tropical storm hit. Neither he, nor the nearby town has been heard from since, assumed destroyed and not worth the rebuilding according to the local government.
Finally, they see it off in the distance through the trees, from the darkness an old and desolate hospital emerges into light in the depths of the jungle. The decrepit building stood, once towering, now under a canopy of trees. The glass entryway and all the windows had now become tinted an aged shade of green by the moisture and humidity of the wilderness. As they made it to the entrance, they manually pulled open the once automatic sliding doors. A cool, dead breeze moves over their bodies.
They walk down the derelict corridor towards the elevators. Mostly out of habit, Thom pushes the ‘up’ button. Dee gives him a quick yet playful cynical glare.
“Eh, no harm in trying,” he says.
Dee shakes her head, rolling her eyes.
“Let’s check ‘em out,” she says enthusiastically.
They go first to the elevator on the left, with its thick steel door busted in from the outside. There sits a woman in a wheel chair, long since dead. The floor is broken underneath her, leaving her decomposing remains tilted, though the stench of her rot has long since left this now dried up mummified husk of what once was. Her long white hair and floral dress do little to conceal her sunken in face, and only serve to accentuate her white teeth, lined by dried and shrivelled lips. She holds a package tight in her bony arms. It is wrapped in a thick, light canvas cloth.
“How about we check the other one?”
The elevator on the right is untouched, they pry it open together.
“Hmm, nothing.”
Thom steps in first, and examining to control panel, shrugs and pushes the button for the top floor.
“Really?” she sighs, entering the lift.
“It never hurts to try.”
She prepares to walk out of the elevator when the lights suddenly turn on, and the doors close. It begins to rise. He embraces her, and kisses her passionately.
“Just in case,” he says.
The doors open to a large room; through the repeated walls of glass they can see an outdoor aviary courtyard. A murder of crows take to the air as one in a cacophony of squawks and caws. They take a left, and continue walking into the further rooms. Sheets of plastic hang from the ceiling, and they take out their flashlights as the ambient sun seeping through the trees cannot make it as far as they are going. In the distance, they hear a pane of glass shattering. Continuing forward, they find a laboratory, this is what they’ve been searching for. Immediately, they begin going through the drawers, desks, and shelves for anything that may help, and clues on advancing their research to save humanity. They know of the danger of their enterprise, however, the reverse side of any cure rest the disease, or, worse, in brilliant minds, a mutation, a manipulation of the cure beyond what any rational mind could have ever imagined.
