Chương 28: Deconstruction

The exposed building, being where it was, wasn't actually that expensive at all. It was made of cheap prefab concrete walls and featured iron trusses to support its roof, leading to a minor discrepancy between the height of the building and how tall the inside of the building was. To compensate for this, the lobby was actually set into the ground a bit to give it a proper height that people felt comfortable underneath. The walls were simply covered with a thin plastic fabric that was glued into the walls. Inside, the designers took into consideration that this would mainly be an area that was passed through, not waited in or any other such business, and left a straight path from the door to the elevator.

The militarized police, most of whom were soldiers with nowhere to go after being tired of war, began swarming around the building attaching scaffolding directly to the walls. Imploding the building by setting charges was the coolest solution, but really, it's a one story building, that's overkill. Several cameras were placed facing the two entrances, one which was the elevator shaft and the other a rail system for lowering newly arrived samples since no men could be stationed in due to the deconstruction.

The roof was first pulled off from the top after it was circumcised with plasma cutters. Four men in bulky suits which if they raised their arms as high as they could, their wrists would reach the edge that was still red hot from being cut. Their hands, which were composed entirely out of mechanical parts while their actual hands rested inside the arm of their suit which meant the forearms were longer than their upper arms to accommodate the hands.

Their hands raised up and hooked onto the very edge while making sure their palms were flush against the wall. A truck behind them began turning a winch on its back as the men began to walk backwards to allow the wall to fall down. The moment the thick concrete wall reached an eighty degree incline, the cable to the truck fell limp and the men began counting.

"One! Two! Three! Step!"

These words rang out before each step, ensuring each man stepped backwards in unison. The wall slowly lowered as with each step the men bent their knees further down to keep their palms supporting the wall. Once their knees bent until their knees were touching the ground while their arms were still holding up the wall straight above, several supporting men came in with pillars to wedge under the walls. The suits backed off, straightened their legs and adjusted their hand position, this time with their palms up. The wall was lifted slightly with the arms of the suits as the pillars were taken away. Slowly the wall was lowered again until it barely touched the ground. Bricks were shoved underneath as the mechanical hands took themselves out.

One wall done, five more to go, all in the dead of night when all life was supposed to be sleeping.

--Leonard's Laboratory--

A shelled creature not unlike a centipede but without the legs shook awake as the metal door slammed down from above.

"Ah! What? Where are those creatures? Slacking off? If I remember correctly, I'm in the corner of this room and they should be in the corner of that room right? The rooms should be the same!"

"Do I escape or not? Well I mean… Nobody's here to stop me. That metal door means they can't get in if I break out of my cage either!"

The serpentine creature opened its jaws to reveal lips that split apart and folded backwards on themselves, such that the inside of its mouth was now flush against the plastic walls. The plates of metal dug into the plastic to provide footing for the worm to exert force.The head twisted back and forth around the center of its mouth to wear away a circle in the plastic. The plastic quickly popped out and against the concrete wall next to the door went the worm. Why would anyone go against the door even? It popped through another wall just to find a hallway in which dark brown fluids and dirt had dripped down the hallway to make a turn at the door of his friends.

"Nooo!"

The body of the worm stretched between both walls as the plates of armor folded themselves into the body of the worm when passing through the hole but immediately sprung back out the moment the final edge passed through the wall. The worm could obviously only go one way and that way was forward to his friends. Again began another session of boring as dust spilled around on the ground.

--Foxhole--

"Hahah! You thought you were rid of me weren't you!"

"Let me tell you something, I'm always here! Harder to kill than a cockroach!"

"Let me tell you a secret!"

"Awww don't make that face, I'll tell you it in a jiffy!"

"Here it is… I'm an oracle! Believe that?"

"I hear the words of god and they say you should give me your stones!"

"You know, your core of energy! That's it! The stone!"

"What do you mean stone! It's buried somewhere in your chest!"

"Too painful to get you say? Well these are the words of god! Believe in them or suffer his punishment!"

"What's the punishment you ask? Well you think I'm gonna tell you? No! Fear of the unknown is what takes power away from you and gives it to him! Why would I sabotage my own benefactor? I may be on an odd quest, but that doesn't mean that I'm a bad person!"

"Wait! I hear more words! Moles on a pilgrimage? Not to you my lord? What a shame! I must do something about this at once! I hope you will accept them by your side my lord! Off I go!"

"Hah did you actually think god spoke to me? Of course not! I saw the trail long before! I've gotta free the slaves under the tyrannous rule of the queen!"

"What's freedom you ask? Look, I know you might have some previous impressions on who I am, but I'm definitely not like that!"

"Freedom is the ability to pursue happiness without interference! And I'm gonna help them get rid of that interference!"

--Laboratory Surface--

Several long vehicles rolled up beside the building. The trucks had a long cylinder on its side and as they turned to park in the loading dock, a sloshing could be heard from within. Each of these vehicles was as long as the previous truck that had loaded in the cages. Tubes were connected to the underside of these vehicles that were led down the elevator shaft.

"You sure this will work captain?"

"Two things, first, you're my vice captain. Second, crude oil is basically thermite! Both will burn!"

"But one lights up the entire thing and the other only lights up the surface…" And was met with a glare from the captain. "Yep! You're the boss! Whatever you say boss!"