Through the Looking Glass Ch. 05

The equipment throughout the laboratory looked out of date, and judging from the dust that covered practically everything, not used in years. Computers sitting on desks and work benches were twice the size of the ones Mitch and Lisa (and almost everyone in their time) used, especially in scientific work, and there wasn't a single laptop to be seen. Everything had an obsolete look about it, as if this dimension was fifteen or twenty years behind the times.

Mitch glanced over to where their fusion prototype should be standing, but the only thing in that space was empty floor. Food wrappers and cups were on the desks, with jugs of water piled in the corner of the lab, most of them empty.

And scattered here and there among the work stations were more skeletons, all on the floor and some half decayed to dust.

"I see only four people in here," Mitch said, perusing the tables and benches, "and it looks like they all held up in here, away from... whatever it was killing everyone."

"Mitch, over here."

He moved over to where Lisa was standing, the remains of another person near her feet. She still had a nervous look in her eye, but she kept herself calm around the dead body.

"Find something?"

Lisa answered him by pointing to the table next to them. On the surface sat a strongbox, about as big as a computer tower and made of heavy duty metal and hard ceramic. Written on the lid was a message that read: 'All you need to know is in here.'

Mitch quickly reached for the latches, a rush of success leaping through him as he smiled at Lisa, "Good eyes, baby," and started to open the container.

"Hey, wait a minute."

Mitch stopped when the lid was halfway open at her remark, "What's the matter?"

"Look," Lisa knelt down and fingered the long white lab coat the skeleton was wearing. It was dirty and dust covered, but still intact. "We haven't seen any clothes around, anywhere. Even the... remains aren't wearing clothes. Why is this still here?"

Not having an explanation, Mitch shook his head and went back to the strongbox. Opening it, he smiled at the contents.

"Jackpot."

Lisa stood up and peered inside the box with Mitch.

The heavy containment safe was full of files and folders, their tabs marked with report numbers and code letters. A few computer floppy discs were lying on top of the paperwork and a CD that looked old and a bit clunky was next to them. Mitch gingerly picked up the CD and examined it for any defects.

"This should be able to tell us something... if we can get one of these computers working."

Lisa agreed, "There's got to be a way to get some power in here," she looked around the laboratory, noting that every single light and computer control panel was dark, "They wouldn't have left these here if there wasn't a way to generate some electricity."

"Let's check the main breaker room," Mitch placed the disc back into the case and headed for the breaker area, with Lisa beside him. Once he opened the door, Lisa gasped upon seeing another skeleton lying on the floor and wearing another lab coat.

"Lisa," Mitch said quietly, seeing she was nervous, "I saw a couple of lab coats on the far wall. Grab 'em for me, okay?"

She nodded and backed away, quickly getting away from the remains. But Mitch wasn't deterred by them; he saw what the body was lying next to.

A small, gas powered generator, with a can of fuel sitting on top. The power cables were hastily affixed to the breaker board, Mitch knowing that Lisa was right in her assumption. The can was almost full, and Mitch carefully filled the tank to the generator and flipped the starter switch. Giving the rip cord a hard tug, the machine sputtered. He tried again, and this time the generator roared to life and then idled to a more tolerable level of noise.

Out in the lab, Lisa stopped with a start as a few of the lights flickered and two of the computer towers clicked on.

"Mitch, it worked; we've got power."

Closing the breaker room door to cut off the noise from the generator, Mitch went back to Lisa and the work bench, taking one of the lab coats she handed him.

"I don't know," she said, slipping on the other coat, "I kind of like you better naked."

Mitch smirked at her, "These will protect us a little better in here; you behave yourself."

She snickered at him, and he took it as a good sign that she wasn't as nervous about their situation as before; she was starting to feel better. He also approved of her curvaceous body wrapped in laboratory white, especially the abundant cleavage she was showing off since the coat didn't quite button all the way up.

Removing the disc from the case again, Mitch inserted it into the machine's reader, then clicked the icon on the screen. A video window expanded, and Mitch and Lisa were surprised to see Darrin's face. But he looked different than how he normally did, at least in their dimension. For starters, he looked younger, his short gray hair was now a wave of light brown and thinning at the hairline. He didn't have as many wrinkles, but he still looked gaunt and thin, pale, almost sickly. Second, he was wearing a lab coat as if he was still working as a technician instead of the facility's director.

"Mitch," Lisa said, pointing at the lower corner of the video; the date flashed: 08/09/93.

"'1993'? That's almost twenty years ago." Mitch clicked the 'play' arrow under the image, and the video started...

'August 9- post-war log, day 14. This will be my final entry.'

'My name is Darrin Zane; I'm the chief lab technician here at Ener-Dyne Technologies. If you're watching this now, that means I'm dead. I'm hoping this record survives long enough for someone to find, because it is a testament to those who initially survived the attack.'

'There is a full record of what transpired on this disc, plus previous log entries as well as personal observation from myself and the remaining staff. This last entry is a summation of what happened, just in case the rest of the recording on this disc and the floppy discs doesn't survive.'

'On July 25, 1993, an extremist group from the Middle East declared war on the world, demanding that the governments of the nations surrender and convert to their religion and law. They aimed their hateful rhetoric mainly at the United States, but decreed that the whole world would suffer if their demands weren't met within 24 hours and said that God was on their side and would protect them. Because of previous attacks by this group, the world powers took them seriously and began an all-out assault on their territory.'

'In retaliation, their organization released a terrible weapon, one that involved biochemical agents that turned into deadly corrosive compounds when mixed with oxygen. Once the agents hit the atmosphere, it quickly spread over their target areas like wildfire and then across the globe. It dissolves and destroys any living organic matter it comes into contact with and, within a week, had destroyed most every living thing on the planet, including the people who used this weapon in the first place.'

'In the week that followed, a scant few survivors managed to contact one another, including ourselves, and discovered that the elements in the deadly agent would become inert within a month's time and be rendered harmless. The chemicals would release the oxygen it used back into the atmosphere and water but the damage has already been done, and there are no more survivors that we knew of as of three days ago when there were five of us left here.'

'We sealed off the laboratory, but the agent found its way inside somehow and we were all infected by the end of the week. Save myself, Amanda held out the longest and managed to help me put these discs together before she finally died. I will set up a generator in the breaker room if and when the power finally goes out before I'm unable to function anymore.'

'This will be my final message: to whomever is watching this recording, and if you can understand me, stay alive no matter what. Do whatever it takes to ensure your survival, because you just might be humankind's last hope. Don't make the same mistakes we made; don't let yourselves be destroyed as we have. This is your world now; don't waste it the way we did... please.'

'Stay alive, good luck... and farewell.'

The recording ended, the video window went blank.

Lisa just stood beside Mitch and cried, her tears running down her face and were clinging on her bottom lip as her mouth hung open in utter disbelief.

All Mitch could do for those moments was stare at the blank video square on the screen, then he turned his head towards the breaker room and whispered, "Darrin...", saying goodbye to his friend.

The two scientists stood there for a while, trying to wrap their minds around the fact that every living person... every living thing on Earth was dead. As far as they knew, they were the only living organisms on the entire planet.

Bringing himself back the here and now, Mitch shook off the shock as best he could and started digging through the files and folders in the case. Lisa reached in and took the floppy discs, loading them into a computer and clicking on the 'run' cycle.

Formulas and schematics of molecule combinations appeared, as well as diagrams and charts noting progression statuses. Lisa saw somewhat of the same when she glanced at a few of the papers in Mitch's hands, and then started reading the descriptive paragraphs next to the images on her screen.

"My God," she said, scanning the words carefully, "This stuff reads like 'acid'."

"Almost," Mitch nodded to her, perusing the forms in the files, "The agent that Middle Eastern group used apparently breaks down molecular cohesion in protein molecules, and another compound mixed with it retards the photosynthesis process and neutralizes chlorophyll. It literally lets plants whither away to nothing."

"And since most of our body parts are made up of protein, the agent dissolved the flesh and muscles right off of their bodies. Anything left over would..."

"...would decay and decompose like any dead body, leaving nothing but bones," Mitch finished. Then his eyes lit up in thought and mumbled, "The pews."

"What?"

He turned to Lisa, "The trees are gone, all the way down to the roots. The wood. That's why there were no pews in the chapel; they were made of wood and were dissolved along with the altar, and I'll bet the wooden cross on the back wall. And the pond in the park. The chemical agents reacted with the oxygen in the water and killed everything under the water line," he placed his hand on the pile of folders, "They must have gotten these files inside the case before the agent took hold, the sealed box protected them."

Then Lisa got a thought, "Of course; all the clothing. Most clothes are made of cotton or wool, natural organic fibers," she shimmied her lab coat around and looked at the tag, nodding, "Just as I thought: polyester, a synthetic fabric, man made. That's why they're still here; the agents couldn't destroy anything non-organic."

"How much you want to bet these are synthetic, too?" asked Mitch, holding up a foot to show off his shoe, then looked at the soles and mentally slapped his forehead, "Rubber. The car tires. That's why the only thing left is the coiled wire for the steel belts; the rubber dissolved, too."

"The houses. The wood frame work dissolved and let whatever was left collapse," then Lisa's scared look returned, "What about us? What if the chemicals are still in the air, and..."

Mitch grabbed her shoulders and eased her fears, "Whoa, hold on. Remember what Darrin said? The agents lose their potency about a month after being dispersed. All of this happened years ago; the chemical compounds those extremists used are inert, now. They're gone; they can't hurt anything, anymore."

Lisa sighed in relief and calmed down, but her face twisted in concern when she looked at Mitch. An angry sneer was painted on his face.

"No," he growled, "The agents can't hurt anything, anymore... there's nothing left to hurt!"

"Mitch..."

Ignoring her, he stalked about the laboratory with frustrated steps and continued his rant.

"They murdered everyone; they murdered every living thing... and all because their God told them to!" He found a ceramic cross knickknack on one of the desks and snatched it in his fist, "Their God wanted them to kill everyone around them, and they killed themselves in the process! What do you think of your God now, you fucking idiots?"

Mitch threw the cross away, the ceramic desk trinket shattering against the far wall, then stomped over to the computers.

"Mitch!" Lisa tried to calm him down, but he wasn't listening as he pounded on the keyboard and yelled at the screen.

"You were so sure you were safe from the very thing that killed you and everything around you, because you thought your God would protect you! You had no idea what you were dealing with! You killed yourselves and everyone else for nothing!" He slammed his fists down and cracked the keyboard, making a couple of the keys fly off and clatter to the floor, "You fucking maniacs! You slashed your own throats!"

He grabbed the keyboard and ripped it away from the computer, flinging it across the room where it landed in several pieces.

"Mitch, stop it!" Lisa yelled, grabbing his arm.

He stood there with her at his side, his fists balled up in anger and gritting his teeth, shaking in rage. The horrific image of bones littering the landscapes of the world flashed through his mind. Almost seven billion people, gone. Seven billion corpses...

"Mitch," Lisa faced him to make him look at her, tears welling up in her eyes, "Remember what you told me? We need to be focused and level headed. These people are dead in this world; there's nothing we can do to bring them back, and we're just going to have to accept that. There might be something else we can do to help, but not if we're going to lose control," her tears started rolling down her face, "Mitch, please; I can't deal with this by myself. I need you. Please... I'm really scared," she hugged him tight, her tears falling onto his shoulder, "please, don't leave me... please..."

Mitch, his own tears wetting his cheeks, hugged Lisa and held her tightly as she buried her face in his chest and started bawling. He cried with her, mourning the loss of life around them. The plant life, the animals, the people... gone, all of it. All of the killing unnecessary, all of it... for nothing. They held each other for a long time, the only sounds were of the generator humming in the breaker room and their combined sniffling.

Finally, Mitch pushed Lisa back to face her and wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

"I won't leave you," he said gently, "I promise; I won't ever leave you. I didn't mean to yell like that; I was just mad at the fools who caused all of this. I just had to get it out of my system; I'm alright, now." He took her face in his hands and said in a tender voice, "You are the love of my life... and I will never leave you."

Lisa smiled through her tears and wrapped her arms around his strong shoulders, bringing her lips to his and whispered, "I love you," before giving him a loving kiss. He returned it with passionate warmth.

"So... what do we do now?"

Mitch thought about her question for a minute or two, then answered, "I want to take another look around, maybe behind the lab. Most of the area behind us is fields and forests, or at least it use to be. I think there might be a couple of caves around the low lying parts by the river. Maybe something survived there."

Lisa pulled away to look at him, "You think so?"

"It's a possibility, and it's as good a place as any to start searching."

"And if we don't find anything?" she frowned.

Mitch shrugged, "If we don't... so be it. We'll just hold up until tomorrow and leave when the gateway appears."

"Okay," Lisa nodded, then looked around the lab, "If we're going, we should take some things with us; some food and water, just in case."

"Good idea. I'll see if I can find some more clothing or table cloths or something; it may get cold later."

The pair split up and searched the lab and the nearby rooms for anything they might be able to use during their trip into the wilderness. Lisa packed seven or eight granola and energy bars into her bag, their synthetic wrappers protecting the contents inside. She wasn't sure if they were still any good, but it was better than nothing.

Mitch returned from the storage rooms with a couple of tablecloths, both polyester, and also found a cheap plastic lighter, saying, "I don't know what we're going to set fire to out there, but you never know."

Lisa stuffed the sheets into her bag as best she could while Mitch picked up two small jugs still filled with water, ready to go searching.

"We'll come back here before we go through the gateway," he said, looking around and hefting the jugs, "Are you ready?"

Lisa nodded and asked, "What do you think we'll find?"

Mitch shrugged a shoulder, "We'll know when we see it; c'mon."

Turning off the generator before leaving, the pair left the lab and, once down the back hallway, found themselves outdoors again. The breeze blew over them in waves of heat as they walked across the back lot, going around rusted car hulks and reaching the edge of what was suppose to be an open field.

Tiny clouds of dirt and grit billowed up and drifted over their shoes as they made their way across the expanse of tan soil. The field resembled a desert, minus the cacti and tumbling sagebrush, and all that they could see after reaching the top of the hillock behind the building was shades of beige and ocher.

Lisa and Mitch walked for almost an hour, plodding across dirt and more dirt, and still saw nothing even remotely like a plant. Rocks and boulders were scattered over the terrain, any moss or undergrowth that was growing on them now gone. Coming near the top of another hill, Lisa had to stop.

"Mitch, we need to stop for a minute," she said, breathless, "We have to rest."

Though the clouds blocked the sun most of the time, Mitch peered up at the blue-tan sky seeing a few rays of light and heat streaming down on them, and agreed.

They sat down on a boulder half sunk into the ground and took a break from their trek. Mitch handed her one of the jugs, and she gratefully drank from it and splashed a little on her neck.

"I should have realized it would be hotter than normal," Mitch said after taking a swig of water, "All the trees are gone; no shade."

Lisa nodded, "And the light colored ground is reflecting the light and heat back at us; there are no dark green colors to absorb any of it."

Mitch nodded back in agreement, then looked around him at the perpetual, seemingly endless acres of dust and bare soil.

Slipping off her bag, Lisa tugged at the lab coat she wore and pulled it off. She poured a little more water on herself, the rivulets of liquid running down over and in between her boobs. Mitch decided to do the same, baring his body and sitting on the coat while sprinkling water on himself as well.

"Oh, that's better," Lisa said, setting her water jug down. Then she looked at him with a sad, serious expression, "Mitch..." She really wasn't sure how to say what she wanted without discouraging his quest for some sign of life.

But she didn't need to; Mitch already knew what was on her mind.

"I know," he sighed, setting his jug down, then rubbed at his forehead, "I know." He then tapped his lips with his thumb as he gazed across the vast tracts of... nothing. Not one tree, not a single bush, not even one miserable weed. "There's nothing left, is there? It's gone... all of it. I was hoping there would be something, just one God damn blade of grass; something. I thought for sure that..." He trailed off in his thought, feeling utterly defeated.