BonkRadiation: The Teenage Frankenstein

Breaking In. [WIP]

"And you're sure sure you wanna come?" Scooter asked Johnny, who was visibly fidgeting with his hoodie strings. They had set on an "undisclosed mission," according to Scooter, and Johnny had begged to join him, despite looking like he was about to throw up.

"Yeah! Yeah, yeah. Totally, yeah." Johnny blurted out, anxiously cracking his knuckles one by one. The weather outside was considerably cold; the thin hoodie carelessly tossed over himself did little to prevent the fog from chilling him to the core. Truth is, he was scared of many things; the dark, full of its slithering secrets; and the fog, riddled with creatures; were some of those things. He'd been wanting to spend more time with Scooter, given that only he and his brother knew he even had a voice, let alone how it sounded. The rest of the people in the base were friendlynice, they all treated him with kindness despite never taking off his mask, but he couldn't bring himself to open up to them like that. Despite the absolute and unwavering trust he'd placed in Scooter, Johnny couldn't shake off the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.

"Where are we going anyway?" Johnny looked around the path they'd been walking. It was a habit-made dirt road, crowded by trees at both sides. The sun had set a few hours ago; save for the dim ray of light Scooter's flashlight projected in front of them, they would've been wandering in total darkness. It felt almost like a cage to Johnny instead of whatever trail this was. A nightmarish place to be chased through, it was a thought he was guilty about having, given that he was the one wearing a worn hockey mask, but it was a bit of a comfort item.

"Oh, y'know. Places." Scooter avoided the question, instead focusing on looking up at the sky as if trying to find something. Johnny felt the urge to tell him to watch his step, but the skittering of something beyond the fog scared the thought right out of him. Scooter took a left turn at some point; Johnny knew that. He'd been following him carefully and attempting to memorize the route they were taking in case he needed to run back to the base, but the growing feeling that they shouldn't be there distracted him from his mental map-making.

The trees and their creeping branches gave way to an industrial horizon, dark buildings looming over each other like black blots in the night sky. Dark grey waste slowly erupted from various smokestacks atop the complex mass of structures, blending in with the fog coming down to earth. Johnny clung to Scooter's arm tightly, tilting the heavy backpack he carried with him.

"Dude, we're not gonna go in there, are we?" Johnny's raspy voice almost seemed to echo against the towering walls in front of them. Scooter patted his back reassuringly, smiling gently before beginning to walk towards the nearest building, adorned with letters Johnny couldn't make out and a prominent biohazard symbol on its side.

"Don't worry about it, I know someone who works here." Scooter held his hand as they made their way towards what seemed to be an entrance. The door was rusted at its joints and around the edges, and the handle was mildly worn after years of being semi-consistently used. The keyhole was slightly stained; dirt from the consistent storms and rain in the area had managed to lodge itself inside the mechanism. Scooter kneeled before the handle and pulled out a piece of curvy metal.

"What's that for?" Johnny questioned, watching Scooter slowly insert the wobbly pin into the top part of the mechanism. Scooter turned slightly to look at him before speaking.

"Lockpickin', it's called a wave rake!" He explained, giving a half-hearted attempt at staying quiet. "You can use it on a lotta things, actually." Scooter held the rake in place, using his spare hand to bring a second instrument, this time, a smooth metal rod. It was slowly inserted underneath the rake; as Scooter explained, it worked as a lever for turning the mechanism. He gave a quick couple of jabs at the lock before it gave way, earning a quiet victory chant from the soda drinker. The instruments were carelessly put back inside the backpack before Scooter stood up and pushed the door open, holding it there for Johnny to walk in.

"Let's go, we'll freeze out here."

The hallway inside the building was uncomfortably cold. The outside was much worse, but something about the cool air that seemed to flow through the ambient made Johnny feel like he wasn't safe. Scooter was gently rubbing his arms in hopes of building up body heat now that they had entered the facility. Johnny shuffled closer to him, taking a second to process their new environment.

The facility was dimly lit by a group of buzzing lights a few feet from each other, the separation allowing for the slightest shadows to form in between; it was almost like the hallway was segmented. The air smelled slightly stale, despite a noticeable current flowing through the large vents above them. A couple of steps further in allowed Johnny to realize the floor was tiled, dirt and wear making it look dull grey. There wasn't much adorning the sides of the hallway, a couple of air ducts were stationed at each end, and a few warning signs were plastered here and there alongside the wall. The ongoing motif of possible biohazards contained in the building made Johnny uneasy.

"Scooter? Where are we?" Scooter took a second to think, furrowing his eyebrows as he stopped in his tracks. He made a face before turning his attention back to the flashlight in his hand.

"I dunno actually," he admitted, turning to the right as he led Johnny through the maze-like facility. "Never asked the name, but I don't really need to know, ya'know?" Scooter shrugged, "It's sorta like a hospital, if you think about it." They turned a couple of times too many, and as Johnny lost track once more of when and where they'd been, they reached a set of stairs at the end of a hallway. A faded sign informed them one side went down into the lower levels, where they seemed to have a couple of storage spaces, and Johnny grew uneasy at the thought of god knows what else they kept underground. The other side of the staircase led to the upper floors, populated by different variations of employee lounges, offices, janitorial closets, and some small laboratories. Scooter gently nudged him as a sign they would take the stairs to the second floor, Johnny's anxiety reduced slightly with the relief that came with knowing they wouldn't be poking around the terrifying subterranean levels.

Said relief slowly faded as the hallways grew darker, the lights being busted now and then, giving large pools of shadows between their little adventure throughout the facility. Scooter had gently reminded him a couple of times now that there was nothing to be afraid of. Still, Johnny couldn't help thinking of all the reasons why the doors would have such heavy safety measures or why the corners where walls met sometimes had large, old-looking speakers and emergency lights waiting to engulf the place in red, accompanied by the sound of blaring sirens. A series of quick, uneven pats on the chest snapped him out of his thoughts, realizing Scooter was standing still a foot or so further ahead.

"Dude, okay, like, we're pretty close to where we're going." Scooter turned his head slightly in the general direction of Johnny, a gesture he often used when he was focused on something yet still wanted to address someone in the room. "Do you wanna tag along or wait here for me? I gotta warn you, though, it's pretty spooky in there." He dragged out his words in a teasing tone, attempting to lighten Johnny's mood and get his mind off all the worst-case scenarios he might be thinking up. Johnny looked both ways; behind them, there was some sort of employee lounge. A window outfitted with a couple of dark curtains on the inside allowed him to look at the furniture in the room. There were a couple of couches and a small coffee table in the middle, but the lights weren't on. Ahead of them, the hallway sported doors with nameplates on the wall next to them. Johnny couldn't make out what the plates said, but the doors seemed oddly threatening, much like everything in the facility, and Scooter's comment made his mind run wild with all sorts of horrible scenarios that could lay behind each of those doors.

"Uhm, I… Think I can wait for you here…" Johnny managed to mutter out, cracking his knuckles slowly in an attempt to calm down. As much as he hated staying behind in a place like this, he couldn't help but feel he shouldn't follow Scooter wherever he was going. It sounded like a personal matter, and he wouldn't want to intrude. As the soda drinker explained to him that it would only be a couple of minutes, Johnny attempted to convince himself that if he were to need anything, he would run out of the lounge room and help him. After a couple of curse words and careful rummaging through his backpack, Scooter handed Johnny a flashlight of his own, assuring him that in case anything happened, the flashlight should be able to give enough light for him to make his way around without falling. A few quick affirmations later, Scooter had left the room and made his way to one of the doors on the opposite side of the hallway, leaving Johnny completely alone.

Johnny looked around nervously, the stiff material covering the couch complaining under him as he shifted slightly. It had been around ten minutes since Scooter left, Johnny's anxiety slowly rose as the buzzing of the fluorescent bulbs resonated inside his head. His thoughts rushed from one horrible scenario to another, wondering what exactly would happen if he walked outside to search for his friend. He hadn't seen which door Scooter had gone into, the fright of having to enter every room and possibly finding his very nightmares incarnate seemed to chain him to the old couch, uncomfortably cracking his joints as he continued to wait.

Another five minutes. There was no sign of the horror fanatic and Johnny grew uneasy, distant metal clanking creating a dozen more scenarios of everything that could be going wrong. Johnny collected his things from the break room, and gently set down the paranormal magazine he'd found peeking out from underneath the couch cushions. He opened the door and poked his head out into the hallway, looking both ways for any sign of activity. The hallway was dead quiet, not even a fly roaming that area of the facility. Johnny swallowed his fear as he discreetly stepped out from the break room, holding the flashlight close to his chest. The hallway was sufficiently lit, giving him no need to use the flashlight at the moment, yet he clung to it for safety. Johnny peeked from the corner, fearfully staring at the line of doors he'd have to look through. Most of the rooms seemed to be empty, Johnny assuming the lack of light coming from under the door as a sign nobody was currently working inside. After a few rooms he found one that met the requirements, light and muffled conversation softly spilling out into the hallway. Johnny took a deep breath, reaching for the knob and closing his eyes as he carefully opened the door.

The scene before him filled him with a strange mixture of fright and confusion, his best friend sitting atop a gurney, a taller man clad in black clothes looming over him threateningly. Scooter stared at Johnny in surprise for a second, before cheerfully greeting him from his seat. The taller man scowled at him, looking him up and down as if analyzing his very existence.

"Hey! Glad ya made your way around" Scooter leaned back slightly, keeping himself up with him hands.