The Disparate One

Sion got off with Ray behind him as usual. They arrived at a different area where it was surprisingly organized.

Walking through the path, Ray glanced around, eyeing each rollable board situated on the sides. Some had different maps stuck to them, all of which were unfamiliar ones. The rest of the boards looked identical to the one in the Manufacturing, covered with blueprints and other necessary documents. And as expected, everything on sight had a thin, or thick, layer of dust.

The path was straight, it led them to a circular space where three towering shelves pointed at the single flat table in the middle. It was made out of stainless steel, and strangely not a single speck of dust could be seen.

They approached it, Sion walked around it while placing his left hand on the smooth, reflective surface. The glass placed on top covered corner to corner.

“Have you played puzzles before?” Sion began when he stopped on the other side of the table, staring at Ray.

“I-I honestly don’t remember,” replied Ray, standing straight.

“Have you heard of Klotski?”

Ray shook his head No.

Sion pressed his hand flat on his side of the table and instantly holograms appeared feet above it. Sion’s profile popped up before getting replaced by an ant colony. Ray kept his undivided attention before him while Sion resumed talking.

“Klotski is a type of sliding puzzle game, a flat one. The goal of it is to remove a specific piece from the puzzle, to do so, you have to slide other pieces around,” Sion explained it clearly when next to the ant colony was a holographic Klotski.

Its blocks were moving about until the red block moved away from the group, ending the demo.

Ray understood everything he said, in fact, now that Sion mentioned it, he wanted to try one out for himself. But, what did that have to do with the ant colony?

The Klotski disintegrated into thin air, pulling their attention to the ant colony that was now getting bigger and clearer. Ray leaned forwards by a few inches, eyes narrowing. When the hologram got ten times bigger than its original, Ray could see tiny dots crawling through the tunnels which connected different large pockets of space. He still couldn’t figure out where this conversation was heading until the hologram was now right up to his face.

He got a clear vision of what those moving dots were, it had four limbs. Humans. Immediately, he pressed his face into the hologram where he could now see more details such as writings, catwalks, doors, smokes, and other liquids, and even moving structures.

Ray retracted and gave a jaw-dropping look at Sion who only replied with a tiny grin. It reminded him of his first time discovering the sheer size of this monstrosity, same as Ray’s.

“This is the entire structure of this facility; there are three parts, each part has numerous levels, each level has numerous districts, each district has numerous sections, each section has numerous floors, and each floor has numerous areas… so on and so on,” Sion stated from memory when he looked down at the digital dials in his reach, he kept his hand on one of them before reaching for another nearby.

He turned it with his left hand counterclockwise. The hologram rotated like a nebula around a black hole, stopping at a particular section which looked oddly familiar.

“This is where we are at currently,” said Sion, zooming in to the table in the middle of space, unfortunately, no pair of human bodies were near it.

“Decades ago, it had the same coverage of the land area of the State of New York but had the population size of Manhattan. Today…” Sion inhaled deeply, “... the management decided to expand. With that said, the facility is currently…”

Sion paused when he saw the date next to the details which told when it was last updated. Three months ago.

“Let’s just say it’s bigger than it’s supposed to be,” uttered Sion, flicking the details away, turning the hologram again.

Sion further explained that for the facility to accommodate more space, they had to dig, bore itself deeper into the earth, like a parasite, growing and consuming from inside-out. He showed Ray a hologram of how they did it, by using tons of boring machines to create tunnels which they then filled with explosives. Powerful enough to cause a man-made earthquake under the ocean bed.

“...this is where Klotski comes to play,” said Sion when he did something which made the hologram get sliced in half.

“Remember what I said about ’Each part has different levels...’? Well, all of it can be moved according to its state and population traffic…” Sion showed a demo to Ray where he explained that they can either add a new section or remove one by moving all pieces like the puzzle he mentioned. He even claimed that he, Oxford, and the rest of the team, were moved to different levels three times in their lifetime.

“Thankfully the management came to their senses and built a digital map for us to navigate around easily,” said Sion, shaking his head with mixed emotions.

Sion later explained that this facility was as old as the management itself. Cal was a few decades younger when he was recruited by no other than Micro, the founder of the facility. Rumors had it that he was older than anyone in the facility, older than the planet itself. Unfortunately, Micro died during his trip to Asia. That was decades ago. Ever since then, Cal took over and gradually got corrupted by the secrets of the facility.

Ray was sitting on a sturdy stack of books nearby as he listened to Sion’s stories as if they were camping with the holograms as campfires.

“That’s how far I can remember. I’m not the oldest in the team, Oxford is. If you want to know more, you have to ask him apparently,” said Sion, turning one of the dials, shrinking the holographic ant colony until it disappeared.

Ray slowly turned his head around, figuring what each scroll and book held. He even looked at the ones underneath himself. He also wanted to know why they were in this condition if they claimed these were priceless documents.

When they were now strolling around the area, Ray finally asked Sion.

“Each book and scroll you see contains secrets and other details that could potentially change how everyone views the world and life itself altogether. This would either result in genocide or new society,” said Sion when they passed a wooden chest covered with gold, its lid had decorations of two gold-casted cherubim.

“That’s the Ark of the Covenant,” Sion said nonchalantly, but it made Ray jump. He caught him staring at it and figured he was interested in opening its lid.

“The one next to it is Pandora’s box, or should I say Pandora’s jar,” he added, nodding in the direction of the large storage jar next to the chest.

“These aren’t real, right?” asked Ray, taking a step closer to the two objects.

Sion only replied with a grin. Ray stepped back without a word. They returned to their stroll while Sion told Ray that this section was one of the oldest pieces of the facility that was still in use. The rest were nowhere to be seen.

A few more meters, Ray began to hear some soft thuds in the distance, it was echoing from one of the paths around them.

Oxford was flipping the pages back and forth while keeping the penlight locked between his shoulder and neck. He was making sure he didn’t misread anything before he could borrow it and hand it to Chap and Ony, who just texted and wanted to join the mystery. Once his eyes reached the last word at the end of the page, he closed the folder, then the cabinet, and walked out of the darkness.

Stepping through the arc, Oxford brought out his phone and dialed Sion’s number. He remembered they left to go somewhere when he couldn’t find the buggy. Keeping his phone pressed to his ear, he searched for a stack to sit on while he waited. The call eventually dropped without getting answered. It sparked curiosity. Oxford redialed his number but to no avail.

Instead of going for another go, he texted Sion to come and pick him up as soon as possible. Half an hour later, Oxford was about to call for the third time when he heard some whirring from far away. He stood up and the stack where he sat collapsed. He didn’t bother fixing it. He stood at the nearby spot where he figured the buggy parked earlier. Finally, the buggy’s headlights appeared.

Sion calmly slowed to a stop in front of Oxford, nearly half an inch before squashing his toes.

“Sorry, I forgot to bring the phone with me when I and Ray left the buggy,” explained Sion, looking at Ray behind him who was avoiding their gazes.

Oxford didn’t question what they did nor where they had been, he boarded the vehicle and they drove back into the tight, dark path without exchanging gazes and words.

When they parked the buggy near Sion’s desk, Oxford talked to his colleague about borrowing this particular folder. Sion gladly understood his reasoning while he glanced at Ray who was still in silence. Oxford did notice his test subject’s sudden change in behavior while Sion processed the document of the folder. Once completed, he nodded at Oxford who then passed the nod to Ray.

“I’ll keep all of you updated,” said Oxford to Sion before he and Ray began walking up the tall staircase to the only entrance and exit of the section.

Oxford glanced at his wristwatch as he was walking Ray back to his quarter. When the metal door was unlocked and Ray stepped into his private space, Oxford suddenly shot a question.

“You looked odd all of the sudden, everything alright between you two?”

Ray slowly turned, he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head while avoiding eye contact.

“Well… something strange did happen between us,” said Ray.

Oxford straightened his posture before leaning in the doorway with arms crossed. Ray told Oxford his interaction with Sion moments ago before he called.

Ray looked at Sion who was staring directly at one of the paths around them. He faced the same direction where the thuds were clearer and pronounced.

“Follow me,” whispered Sion when he began moving towards the specific path.

Sion began to tell Ray about one of his investigations from years ago. They found a gold staff at the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It was glowing and warm to the touch, bubbles even formed on its surface.

“...and if you are going to say it belongs to Poseidon, well, you are wrong,” said Sion with confidence, keeping their pace.

The staff was extracted from the ocean floor and handed over to Sion’s predecessor who commenced an investigation, sadly, he didn’t have enough time to finish it. So the investigation was passed to Sion who was fourteen at the time. He spent years trying to figure out what it was for and to whom it belonged. He compared it to Poseidon’s trident but came up with nothing. Then, at one moment, he found out that the staff was made out of unknown material, it was unlike any other in existence. Ever since he laid his eyes on this mind-boggling staff, he never saw it do anything apart from glowing. As he grew older and received more responsibilities, he gradually lost interest in the staff and eventually had to be put away from his sight. He was eighteen when he last saw it.

Ten years later, he finally got to see the magnificent glow of his childhood memories again.

After making one last turn, Ray was greeted by the hovering staff within a glass cabinet placed in the middle of a tiny space. It glistened brightly, more bright than the white lights dangling above.

Sion stood behind Ray as he observed the object. His heart skipped a beat. It was hitting the locked glass door.

Ray got closer to the case when the staff began to produce thumps as if it was trying to shatter the nearly indestructible glass. The harsh glow began to die down when Ray was just inches away from it. Then, something switched On in Sion’s mind.

As Ray silently about to place his hand on the glass, he was shoved to one of the shelves with a loud bang. A few objects fell out of their places. Sion grasped the man’s face firmly while his other hand grabbed his pistol in its holster under his jacket behind.

“Who are you?!” demanded Sion, pressing Ray’s head into the books.

“I… don’t… know… what you are… talking about…” uttered Ray, gripping Sion’s forearm and wrist to set himself free. To spice the moment, his headaches returned.

Was this part of the test?! Ray thought when he suddenly had a flashback of the same moment when he got interrogated by Oxford out of nowhere.

Seconds later, Ray’s face was released when something rang from far away. Ray dropped down to the floor, coughing and shaking his head.

Sion stood straight nearby, concealing his weapon as he regained his composure. He turned back around to the test subject whose eyes were trembling in fear.

“It’s part of the test,” said Sion with a straight face before walking.

Oxford had his head tilted when Ray finished his quick storytelling. He glanced back at his wristwatch before lifting himself from the uncomfortable sofa with a grunt. He didn’t say anything when he walked over to the metal door, holding it. He looked at Ray who sat quietly on the armchair, opposite the sofa.

“I’ll see you again tomorrow. Dinner will be served in a few hours. Get some rest,” said Oxford before closing the door shut.

When the locks clicked, Oxford slid out his phone and contacted someone. Someone from outside of the facility. Someone who might know this would happen.