Progtech

Progtech
Progtech, the largest corporation in the underground sanctuary that was created after The Great Destruction.  Isaac City was home to Progtech, but it was also home to Progtech’s inhuman Human PLUS experiments.  More than once they had been forced to higher mercenaries called Ravens to destroy escaped PLUS experiments at great expense to themselves.
She was working in a Biological Technology laboratory.  Her work was highly confidential and looked down upon by many different human rights groups.  She worked in Human PLUS research.  She was alone in the lab, but she was waiting for someone to enter the lab and help her.  The door to the lab opened and she turned to greet her fellow employee, but he wasn’t happy to see her.
She staggered out of the building and into an alleyway.  Her right hand was coving a deep gash in her left arm.  There were tears in her steel-blue eyes and blood everywhere else.  She stopped short of the corner of the alleyway and looked out into the street.  It was empty save for a lone car, a police car no less; parked in front of a Dippy’s Doughnuts shop.  She staggered toward it, but fainted inches from the front bumper.

In the Dippy’s Doughnuts shop, a pair of police officers sat at the counter, laughing and joking over coffee and doughnuts.  One was rather thin and the other was very bulky; his fat stomach attempting to burst the buttons on his shirt.  The fat officer took a sip of his coffee and a bite of his doughnut before turning to his partner.
“You know, if we get caught slacking off while we’re on duty, we’ll be discharged,” the fat one said to the thin one.  The thin officer shook his head then jumped to his feet while staring out the front window.  “What’s wrong?”  the fat one asked, looking past his partner at their car.  Nothing was visibly wrong with it, but he looked to his partner for an explanation.
“A girl just collapsed in front of our car,” he answered nervously, rushing toward the door.  The fat officer’s dark eyes went wide and he too jumped to his feet and waddled toward the door.  Once outside, the fat officer squeezed his bulk into the car and radioed for help while the thin officer carefully checked the girl over.
“Tom, she’s bleeding!”  the thin one called, rolling the girl over and pressing his hands over the wound in her shoulder.  She had brown hair and a lab coat that used to be white, but it was mostly stained crimson with her blood.  There was a long gash running down her left arm from her shoulder her elbow, and it was bleeding profusely.
“10-4 Mike,” Tom answered from the car, radioing for assistance again.  “This is Echo-3 to Base-1, please copy.”
“This is Base-1, what’s your status?”
“Subject is wounded and bleeding very badly.  We need an ambulance right now!”
“10-4, sending an ambulance.”
“Roger, over and out.  Mike, an ambulance is on its way,” Tom said, climbing from the police car and opening the trunk to take out a medical kit.  He rushed toward the girl and Mike, setting down the medical kit as he crouched near them.
“I found a nametag; her name’s Naomi Cross, she works at Progtech.  I think she works in biotech, but there’s too much blood on it to tell for sure.”
“Who cares right now?  We have to try to save her!”
“Right!”
They began CPR and put a temporary patch on her shoulder to staunch the bleeding some.  The ambulance showed up shortly afterward; three paramedics jumped out and began to give better treatment to Naomi.  Two of them began cutting Naomi’s shirt and lab coat off partially and began to wrap her injured shoulder.
“How long has she been here?”  one paramedic asked, taking out a portable heart monitor and putting it on her chest.  It showed a very weak and irregular heartbeat.  He sighed and motioned the others to get a backboard and gurney.  They rushed back to the ambulance and collected the necessary items, then returned.
“We’ve been here about fifteen minutes, but we don’t know when or where she was stabbed,” Mike said, his eyes following a long, dark stain in the road.  “Tom, we’ll let the paramedics help Naomi, I think we should follow the trail of blood she left as she made her way here,” he added, getting to his feet and taking out a flashlight.  He left the paramedics to deal with Naomi, since it was their job.  Mike started walking down the sidewalk, using his flashlight to illuminate her blood.
“Geez, if she lost as much blood as I think she did, I’m surprised she’s still alive…” Tom said, as they reached the doors of Progtech.  They walked through the first set of doors, but found the second set locked.  There was an intercom attached to the wall with a flashing green button on it.  Mike pressed the button and the intercom crackled to life.
“You are intruders!  You are to leave immediately!”  it squawked.  The amount of static it was emitting was impressive.  Mike was taken slightly aback by the arrogant person on the other end of the intercom, but pressed the ‘talk’ button again.
“Hold on.  We just want to come in and ask you a few questions about Naomi Cross-” Mike started, but was cut off as the box crackled to life again.
“THERE IS NO ONE HERE BY THAT NAME!  LEAVE NOW OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!”  the intercom roared.  The amount of static made the intercom’s commands almost impossible to distinguish.
“I think we should go, Mike,” Tom said, turning to leave.  Mike had other things on his mind though.  He pressed the button on the intercom a third time, but only received static.  A group of guards in heavy body armor carrying both assault rifles and shotguns stepped from an unseen doorway on the inside of the building.
“I WANRED YOU!”  the intercom roared then the guards opened fire.  Tom and Mike were killed almost immediately, their bullet resistant vests doing little against the powerful firearms.

“Do you think she’s going to live?”  a woman with raven black hair said, looking down at Naomi.
“I think she will, but we have to keep an eye on her,” a male with brown hair answered, letting go of her wrist.
“Did you hear what happened at Progtech?”
“You mean the murders of those two police officers?”
“Yes, I was told there wasn’t enough of them left to ID except through DNA testing.  Apparently the guards at Progtech are really heavily armed.”
“I guess.  Hey, look, she’s coming around,” the male said, watching as her eyes and hands began to move.  Naomi’s steel-blue eyes slowly opened.
“Wh…where am I?”  she asked slowly, trying to sit up.  The man pushed her back down into the bed.  She summoned enough strength to glare at him, but allowed her body to rest.
“You’re in the hospital in Isaac City.  I’m Dr. Erik Cracker and this is Dr. Ami Yumi,” Dr. Cracker answered, looking at the wound Naomi had received.  “That’s quite a nasty wound, how did you get it?”  he asked, checking the amount of blood left in the infuser.
“I was attacked with a knife while I was working,” Naomi answered, looking down at the bandages covering her left bicep and shoulder.
“Where do you work and what’s your job there?”  Dr. Yumi asked, grabbing Naomi’s attention.
“I work at Progtech, I’m a Biotech lab worker,” she answered, her steely eyes locked on Ami’s violet ones.
“What do you do specifically?”
“I’m not allowed to say, company policy.”
“I see, but we need to know so we know who to ask for the antidote.”
“A…an…antidote?!”  Naomi stammered, sitting up quickly then flopping back into the bed as all the blood rushed away from her head.
“Yes, it would seem that the stab you received was a means to deliver some kind of nano-machine into your body.  However, you may want to keep it.  You’ll be stronger and heal much more quickly than a human without it.  In fact, we have reason to believe it was an experiment with Human PLUS,” Dr. Cracker said.  Naomi looked rather shocked; her mouth hung open and she stared blankly at them both.
“I can see this is quite a shock to you, Naomi.  We’ll leave you with some time to think,” Dr. Yumi said, walking toward the door.  Dr. Cracker followed quickly, shutting and locking the door behind him.
“I can’t believe it, I’m PLUS now… Why would they do this to me?  Unless they intend to use me as a soldier,” Naomi whispered, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest.  “I need to get back to the lab and get the antidote before it’s too late to reverse it.  I don’t want to be PLUS!”  she added, getting to her feet and pacing the room as she thought of a way to escape.  “Once I’m PLUS, I won’t really be my own person.  They’ll have control over me!”  she muttered, pacing the room.

“Well, I think Progtech will be happy to know their experiment is still alive despite the sloppy delivery of the PLUS nano-‘mechs,” Dr. Yumi said, looking in on Naomi as she stood and began to pace the room.
“I think so as well, but now that she knows, do you think she’ll try to reverse it?  Mind you, they did tell us if we hold her for twelve hours she can’t ever reverse it,” Dr. Cracker said, smiling slightly.
“I’m sure she will.  Now that she’s stronger, that makes her harder to contain, but we could get other PLUSers from Progtech to keep guard on her.”
“Do you know how much that’s going to cost!?”
“Yes, quite a bit, but it’ll be-Oh crap, she’s going out the window!”  Dr. Yumi cried, fumbling with her keys to unlock the door before Naomi escaped, but it was too late, Naomi had already jumped.

Down in the street, Naomi landed on the roof of a car and looked around quickly.  She started running away from the hospital, but paused around the corner to look up at the artificial sky over her head, mirroring the sky above the planet’s surface.  It looked the same as it always did, blue with a few clouds.  She started to run again, down Main Street and then toward the Progtech building she worked at.
“I have to get the antidote!”  she said to herself, weaving through a mob of people in the street, demonstrating against Progtech and their Human PLUS program.  “I guess some people still have a conscience,” she sighed, walking up to the guards that were blocking the door.
“Who are you?”  one asked, training his shotgun on her head.
“I’m Naomi Cross, I work here.”  The guard looked reluctant to let her in, but she smiled.  “I’m PLUS,” she said, looking into the guard’s face.  He stepped back and allowed her to enter.
The entryway was covered in congealed blood and the inner set of doors was completely obliterated.  There was a single janitor working to clean up the mess.  He continued to work, even as she called out to him.
“What happened here?”  she asked, looking at the stubs of the metal posts that had held plate glass panels the previous day.
“A couple of intruders were dealt with Miss Cross,” the janitor answered, not looking up from his work.
“How did you know it was me, Matt?”
“You and I have spoken so much that I’ve learned to recognize your beautiful voice.”
“You know flattery will get you nowhere.  Anyway, do you know if it’s safe to go up to level three?”
“Yes, it is, but you should be careful, PLUS escapees are usually shot on sight.”
“I’m only a danger to the ones who did this to me, not to anyone else.  Besides, I’m very valuable in the first place.  I’m one of the first PLUSers to not have my mind tampered with, only my body.”
“Good luck then, you’re going to need it,” Matt said, taking out a handgun that looked like a 20mm grenade-pistol.  “Here, this is currently the only weapon capable of penetrating the guard’s body armor.  It’s called a magnum eagle.”
“Perfect, thanks,” Naomi said evilly, running toward the stairs.  She encountered no one on the way up, but once on level three, she had to be more careful.  She spotted the Biotech that had stabbed her, but didn’t fire at him.
“I can’t kill him yet,” she whispered to herself.  “Antidote first, then revenge.”
She followed him down the hall to Lab 12C, the same lab she had been working in the previous day when she was stabbed.  There was still a trail of blood leading down the hall and toward the stairs.  She fired the magnum eagle and blew the lock out of the door; the force of the impact blasted the door open.  The volume of the magnum eagle’s discharge impressed her.
“Thompson, give me the antidote now or I’ll blow your empty head off!”  Naomi shouted, training the laser sight on the bridge of his nose.
“Naomi!?  No, don’t shoot!  I’ll give it to you!”  he cried, swiftly making his way to a refrigerated cabinet.  He pulled a syringe from it, then turned to face Naomi.
“This is the antidote, I swear!”  he cried, watching Naomi’s steel-blue eyes narrow dangerously.
“Give me the real antidote, NOW!”
“A…all…all right…” he said, his voice wavering.  He turned again and dug through the cabinet, but turned around holding a handgun.  He held it up; his hand was trembling, as was his gun.
“Fine then, I’ll get it myself,” Naomi growled, firing the magnum eagle and blowing off Thompson’s head.  His body was thrown backward due the impact and slammed into the open cabinet, breaking several of the glass shelves, and spilling their contents all over the floor.
“Hmpf!  Matt wasn’t kidding, but I’m surprised the magnum eagle didn’t destroy any of the samples here,” she said, setting the magnum eagle on a shelf then reading the various things in the cabinet.  There were different viruses and several syringes of PLUS nano-machines.  She smashed them on the wall opposite the cabinet and returned to looking for the antidote.
After she searched for a bit, she found what she was looking for.  There was timer and nametag attached to it that read:  Naomi Cross, 00:12:13, and the timer was falling rapidly.  She stuck the needle into her arm and the timer stopped counting down.
“I did it, I’m not PLUS anymore!”  she cried happily.  She took Thompson’s lab coat and carefully made her way to her locker where the rest of her things were, but before she left Lab 12C, she made sure to grab the magnum eagle that Matt had given her.
Security elements where swarming the hallway, searching for the source of the earth shaking firearm discharges.  Naomi had to be careful not to let the security guards see that she was carrying a gun, let alone a magnum eagle.  She managed to elude them and get to her locker to collect fresh cloths and her own lab coat.
“I guess I’m done working for Progtech…” she sighed, looking at the magnum eagle before holstering it.  She noticed a note was sitting on the top shelf of her locker.  She grabbed it and read it carefully.

Naomi-
You’ve been tricked, you’re still PLUS.  The entire supply of the antidote was removed prior to your return to the building.  There’s no way to reverse it now, you’re stuck like that.  You’ll have to be an escapee.  Meet me on the second level of the parking garage, space B-16.  I’ll help you escape.
-Matt

“I can’t believe it!”  she shouted, punching to door of her locker, and leaving a nasty dent in it.  Her hand didn’t hurt though, as a normal human’s would.  She grabbed her things then ran for the parking garage.  She slipped past the guards and found Matt’s spot quickly.
“I see you made it unhindered,” he said, taking one last puff on his cigarette before he tossed it aside.  “Get in, Naomi.  I’m going to help you,” he added, climbing into his truck.
“Thank you, Matt,” she said, her steel-blue eyes wide.  She jumped in, then Matt started the truck up and pulled out of the spot.
“This is going to get real messy real fast, be ready,” he said, putting the pedal to the floor and shattering the fiberglass arm that was meant to stop unauthorized vehicles from entering or exiting the parking garage.  Several guards dropped to the ground in front of them, and Matt slammed the brakes on.  All of them were carrying high-powered weapons, and a couple of them had lined up on the truck already.
“Matthew Marcus!  You are to hand over the Irregular right now!  Failure to do so will result in your execution!”  one of them shouted, cocking his assault rifle.
“They’re PLUS,” he said calmly, taking out a magnum eagle.  He stuck his arm out the window and fired, hitting one guard in his heart and killing him quickly.  Naomi leaned out her window and fired, taking the PLUS guard’s head.  The others stepped back, fearing the same fate.
“Too easy,” she said, looking back at Matt as he floored it past the remaining guards.  Several of the guards fired at them, but to little avail.  Their weapons weren’t accurate enough.
In almost no time at all, they were at Loop Line Junction.  They took the exit leading to the underground city of Amber Crown.  Naomi sighed as she looked back at the lights in the distance and gloom of the underground cavern.
“You know, maybe it’s better we’re leaving.  We can have a fresh start away from Progtech, and Isaac City,” she said, smiling softly.
“Yep.  I think Murakumo Millennium is searching for escaped PLUSers who haven’t had their minds altered too severely.  You should join up with them,” Matt said, his eyes flicking from the road to Naomi and back.
“I think I will,” she said, her gaze turning to face out the window.  The deep gloom of the cavern seemed the suck the truck’s lights in, and seemed to draw her soul from her body.