Fragment by Paul G Swanson (me reader .txt) 📕

time she saw it. Wires had been run out the front windows and up the side onto the roof. Vines had grown up the side of the building and had knocked out several windows. The parking lot they had yet to cross was littered with rusted vehicles and looked almost like a small contained war zone.
"Look," She pointed at a sign that was mostly overgrown with vines. Beneath the foliage they could still make out the Red Cross insignia. "This is definitely the place." She glanced at Tio who had been very silent almost the entire trip from the station. It was unsettling, as if he wasn't entirely there. "Are you ok?"
"I'm very ok." He spoke with a sullen voice. She could understand why. Everyday in and out he lived with the belief that his father was still alive, however looking at the ram shackled building in front of them it must be difficult to believe. He was clearly shaken. "Let's go in."

"I'll just wait out here." Somie told Moumoru. "So many new sounds," Tio ran and caught up to Sarah and Psylix after he studied the outside of the building.
"Come running to us if you hear anything disturbing."
"Ok, I'm going to scale the building and sit on the top. I'll use the vines."
"Crazy." Moumoru hollered back at him as he ran toward the group.
Sarah approached the entrance into the building. The glass doors were stuck in place. Easy fix. She glanced at Psylix and he kicked the glass. It spider webbed but didn't break, so he kicked it again and this time the entire door fell inward. The glass shattered when it fell. He sighed and started to step inside but Tio pushed him aside and ran down the hallway.
When he came to the elevator he pushed the button. It hadn't even occurred to him that having no power it wasn't about to work anytime soon. He angrily stomped and the floor below him creaked. The rest of the group walked down the hallway toward him.
The receptionist desk seemed completely out of place. Empty chairs and papers with various prescriptions littered the hallway.
"Dammit!" He hollered as he pushed the button again and again. He stomped again and six feet floor around him sunk first and then completely gave away. A plume of dust exploded upward as what sounded like several other floors collapsed beneath them.
"Tio! Are you all right?" Sarah cried out as she ran toward the hole. Psylix stopped her, and instead jumped himself into the gap.
He found himself two floors below the hole in the first floor. He didn't see Tio down here. Looking around he saw translucent blue ovals propped against the perimeter of the room. Several of the capsules had cracks in them and some had completely shattered. He had landed on a table in the center of the room.
"Sarah, I don't see him down here. He must have landed on the floor above me."
"I'm worried, he didn't seem like himself when he entered."
"Moumoru!" Psylix called up to them. "Hey, Moumoru!" This time he poked his head over the gap as well. "Take her outside. The structure is unstable. Then get your butt on the floor above me and try to find him. I can't get back up from here. It's a one way trip down here."
"Understood." less than a minute had passed before he saw Moumoru jump down as well.
"Ok.now." Psylix hopped off the table. Walking around he saw the floor was almost entirely covered with electrical wires and flexible piping. "This almost looks like our Stasis Pods back on Antalls."
He walked up to one of the undamaged pods. Pressing his hands against it chilled his fingertips. A cloud of gas swirled in the chamber. A console to the side was quietly beeping. A single button was blinking next to the words: Engaged
Before he even realized what he was doing he pushed the button and the display changed to: Disengaged
He looked back up at the pod and saw that the swirling blue cloud was being drained out with a hiss. Stepping back he managed to get his foot caught the tangled wires. The glass slid into the floor and a body of a naked man became visible. He slumped and then fell over. More out of habit than good nature Psylix caught him. The body was still warm.
"The hell is this?" While Psylix was wondering just what to down now he heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from the floor above him. He realized with alarm it was Tio's voice. The lights in the remaining tanks dimmed momentarily and resumed the normal luminosity. "Shit. That ain't good."
Moumoru found himself in a hallway that split in six different places. The lights were on as though someone had left in a rush and had just forgotten about them. He had only managed to find normal routine checkup offices and a flight of stairs in the first three sections.
As he was passing a window placed to show the atrium from above the lights dimmed and then he heard Tio screaming. It was coming from the last hallway on the left. He bolted to it and found that instead of another hallway that led to many offices he found a single door.
He kicked it open and saw Tio sitting in a chair that looked similar to something you might see at the dentist office rather than a something you would come across in a hospital. Tio's eyes were wide open as if he were staring at his worst fear. A button on the chair arm was pushed down, so he pushed it and it rose back up into the off position. He screaming ended as closed his eyes and went limp. The metal arm that was behind the head rest of the seat pulled away.
A monitor on the wall read:
Marionette System Activated
Subject 2 analysis complete.
DNA link was found severed.
Scanning... Fragment Data found.
Necessary repairs have been made.
Unknown implant detected. Disabling.
Implant destroyed.
Data up link activated.
Download: Completed.
Full system activation has been interrupted.
Possible data corruption.
E-Cell regeneration restarted via back end systems autonomous recovery sectors.
Attempting to contact Subjects 1, 3, and 4... Failed
Subject 1's whereabouts determined: Deceased
Subject 3 Unknown
Subject 4 Unknown

"Tio. What the?" Moumoru stood there wide eyed staring at Tio's unconscious form wondering just what the hell happened here. Trying to determine what to do here he stepped closer to the chair and discovered a long needle dripping with blood had been inserted into the back of his skull while the machine was active, yet there was no blood on the back of Tios' head. Stupefied he didn't bother trying to figure it all out he simply scooped the boy up in his arms and carried him back the way he came.
Another flicker in the buildings power system caused most of the hallway lights to flicker on and off at random intervals.
"Psylix! I found him!" He wasn't sure if he heard him or not, frankly he didn't care, he just wanted to get out of this creepy building. "I'm taking him up."
He hurried because he half expected at any moment to see a zombie physician wielding scalpels to jump out at him. He was relieved when he got to the top and no such thing happened.
Heading straight out he saw the hole in the floor. He ran back to get enough space to run and vault over the gap barely making it with Tio intact. Moumoru carefully laid Tio down in front of Sarah and then ran back inside before she could ask any difficult questions. He leaped down the hole and landed noisily on a table. Turning he saw Psylix examining what looked like stasis pods with a naked man in his arms. Moumoru approached quickly as the mans eyes flickered open as if he was waking up from a deep sleep. The mans breathing was labored. Noticing Psylix he grabbed his collar and pulled himself up so close Psylix could smell his skin.
"Where am I?" The man demanded as he shivered.
"In your laboratory, If I'm correct in assuming your identity." Psylix answered.
"Y-you've got to. got to kill him..." He gasped for breath again. As if realizing Psylix wasn't human he drew away. "Who are you? No, what are you?"
"I ought to be asking you that. My name is Psylix. What are those things and what were you doing in them? Your son seems to be under the impression that your trying to save the world from its own climate changes." Psylix asked pointing at the pods. "Also at the same time, Sarah seems to think your dead! We came here looking for you; and your hiding in those pods! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"T-those. things are incomplete." He seemed to be waking or at least making sense of what was happening. "We built them so that we might have slept through the second armageddon. But it seems some of them didn't work." He said when he noticed the shattered and cracked pods.
"Cryogenics?"
"Sort of. Instead of freezing us, they utilized the cosmos effect. By increasing the speed of particles they prolonged our lives while we slept in what would appear to be a coma."
"Sounds a lot like a stasis cell."
"Stasis.yes! Exactly.but what are you? Your eyes glow. Its not just an illusion." The stuttering had faded from his voice and had gradually become an accent that he couldn't identify but became stronger as time past.
"I'm what you call a--" He started but was interrupted by the clang of Moumoru landing down on the table. "Moumoru, how nice of you to join us."
"Who's the guy?" He asked staring at the human suspiciously. Psylix turned back toward the man.
"This man is Tio's father. This is the notorious Dr. Jason Rhimes. Or at least that what the name plate under the pod I found him in says." The man pushed himself out of Psylix arms and tried to stand on his own.
"Why are you here exactly?"
"You want to know why?"
"Yes."
"We are an escort service. Hired by the