Chapter 2: The Internship
The car pulled up to a large building that was a façade for what was all underground. It was to be a place where meetings could take place when customers came to Black Mesa to learn about or bargain on services. As the two girls got out of the vehicle they couldn't help but look up at the building in awe and also distaste. They noticed that the building was entirely white and cube-like with the Black Mesa title and logo in bold black text. It was completely out of place amongst all the sand, cacti, giant rock formations and tumble weeds. The air was dry, hot and stuffy. The girls almost instantly felt as though they wanted to get back to the sanctity of a well air conditioned car. They felt as though they were now literally in hell.
"Well this is bleak. This building lacks personality. It's too friggin' hot and it better be nicer inside than it is outside." Anita complained.
"Yeah, I agree." Monique concurred.
"Oh, don't worry. It's a hell of a lot nicer on the inside. In fact the entire facility is a lot nicer as far as temperature goes. I certainly hope you two enjoy your stay here." The young chauffeur said as he pulled their things out of the trunk.
The girls slowly walked to the front of the building with the driver following suit with their things. They felt that there was almost an ominous vibe to the building as they drew ever near the entrance. Once they opened the glass door a rush of cool air greeted them from inside the lobby of the building, making them feel a lot better for at least a little while.
Once they were inside they noticed a woman with sharp features in a nice suit underneath a green lab-coat waiting patiently for what they presumed was for their arrival. Once she spotted the girls trudging towards her she smiled smartly. She strode the rest of the way toward them in an effort to show them that she was the one they were to talk to once they were here.
"Hello ladies, welcome to Black Mesa. I am Nelle Clamince and I am the one who wrote you ladies to inquire about your interest in becoming interns here at Black Mesa. I do hope that you will enjoy your stay here and learn a great deal as you're working for us." Nelle stated while her green eyes darted back and forth between Anita and Monique.
"Thank you very much for the offer; we too hope that we enjoy it here and learn many things as you all do as well." Monique replied smartly, as she went forth to shake Nelle's hand.
Nelle pulled away subtly, "let me show you where the intern's dorms are and then I can show you around the part of the facility that you will be working in. The rest of the facility is not necessary to see as of right now, so there is no point in showing you." Nelle said sharply.
Just as Nelle turned away Anita whispers, "wow, what a bitch. I mean the least she could've done was shake your hand. I mean fuck I know we're pee-ons, but still."
They followed Nelle to their dorms. Anita and Monique both got their own rooms which on one level were nice, but at the same time Monique felt as though it was going to be quite lonely. Monique was sure that Anita was going to be enjoying herself in that aspect fore she knew her friend was quite the recluse and didn't often like to share rooms. It was amazing that they shared their dorm in college as long as they did without too many problems.
When showing the girls their dorm Anita thought that her room was boring and too structured, there was too much white with too little splashes of color. She thought that the room would actually make her feel more stressed out than calmed and clear thinking. It greatly lacked the personality that Anita desperately needed to display. Whereas Monique felt that her room greatly represented the structure that she loved to implement in her life. She felt that the white with the slight peaks of color where the perfect combination that created what she thought would be a perfectly zenful atmosphere. She felt that the room was perfectly honed as a calming place to relax after a long day of working on a plethora of enlightening experiments.
"Place your things on your beds, and freshen up. Then follow me to the labs. There are a lot of sectors here and if you aren't paying attention you could easily get lost." Nelle pointed out.
Once the girls were done freshening up they came out of their dorms to find that Nelle had been patiently waiting for them outside their doors. They indicated that they were ready to commence at which Nelle took the opportunity to turn the other way and start walking towards the direction of the elevator to get to the underground tram. As she walked it was almost as if she were leading the girls as if they were small dogs, her sharp heels click-clacking on the concrete floors of the facility.
We were to be in the advanced biotechnology research lab near the hydro-electric dam in sector G. That meant that Anita and Monique had to deal with riding the underground tram for a long time, sitting in awkward silence as Nelle studied them with her piercing emerald eyes. At least it was only just this one time…hopefully. The entire trip took about fifteen minutes to get there from the station where their dorms were at to Sector G, which as they expected, the entire trip was increasingly awkward. Both Anita and Monique attempted to engage Nelle in conversation that was appropriate but, didn't pertain to work. To those questions she just responded, "Seeing as how I am your Internal Associate, and therefore your boss…I would like to remain strictly professional. I'm sure you two understand seeing as how I suspected you were intelligent enough for me to think that you could survive here." With that Anita and Monique stayed quiet and gave each other a look to signify that neither of them were too terribly happy.
When the tram finally pulled into the station at Sector G the two girls gave a huge sigh of relief. Once they stepped out from the car, Nelle gave them the formalities. Her posture became very rigid and highly militant. Her already sharp, wolf-like features became even sharper, and her already piercing eyes pierced through their souls to ensure that the message would only need to be said once to get it through to them.
"You Monique shall be working in this lab over here doing experiments pertaining to Biotechnology," She said this as she pointed to a heavy rusted looking door to Monique's right. "You will need a numerical password in which to enter this facility, here. Hide it someplace so that no one else ever sees it." She hands Monique the slip of paper with a six digit code.
"Thank you, Ma'am." Monique responded out of sheer formality.
Nelle sharply nods her head once and then turns her attention to Anita to give her the specific set of instructions set out for her as well.
"You Anita however, will be working in this lab over here; on the left. Your work will coincide with robotic technology." She directs Anita's attention to the equally disheveled looking heavy door on the left. "You will also need a numerical password. Now, they are both different so don't think one code will get you into the opposite lab; and vice-versa."
Anita nods her head to signify that she has understood her orders.
"So, we don't get to work together?" Monique questioned.
Nelle gives her a look that tells Monique that she is obviously slightly irritated.
"I assure you that there will be plenty of cooperative projects in the future that will enable you to work together if given the opportunity. But I must say, I would think that you two got plenty of that in college, did you not? So I would guess that it wouldn't kill you to work on your own for once, now will it Ms. Blaster?" Nelle sneers.
Monique looks down at the dirty concrete floor and lowers her head, admitting defeat and gently repairing what little was left of her pride. She did this as Ms. Clamince was getting ready to give the girls their official orientation.
"Now, I will expect you to be here every morning except Sundays at 8 am, No excuses! I have shown you the way here so I expect that you will use your intellect to find your way back. Breakfast will be served at 6:30 am and then it is up to you what you do with the rest of the time left before your shift. Obviously any rule breaking of any kind is punishable by any means, and just know that the longer the rule goes broken without my knowledge the more severe the repercussions. Obviously by law we cannot kill you, but, we can swipe your memory and put you somewhere very ghastly and I don't think you want that. Also, we don't expect you to guess at what we find as an offense, so, to aid you in not making a mistake we have put in every intern, employee and staff members' dorm a book of rules and regulations. I suggest that you treat as a light read, but take its information as gospel. Your required end of shift time is 5 pm, but if you want to work late that is up to your discretion. Any work and findings you have shall be reported to me. Now, do you have any questions, or have I made myself clear." Nelle dictated in a very stern tone; her posture very straight and demanding and her face very intense and serious.
For some reason Monique felt a little off put by the way that Nelle was telling them all of these things, she almost felt as if her life was threatened in some way. She did however try to brush away some of the eerie vibes that she was getting from Nelle because really, they only intended to stay for a year and that was all. So what was the reason for worrying when there were credentials to attain, not the fear of what may come for what hasn't happened yet.
Anita and Monique went back to their dorms to settle in. Monique was happily putting her clothes in the dresser and getting her room in a livable situation. Anita however, was doing everything in her power to cover the walls with posters and anything else that she could possibly cover the walls with.
It was a month within the girls' internship and everything was going fine, until there was an intense event that happened that changed everything for them. They each heard a huge explosion from outside their labs that caused the entire facility to shake. All of the interns and the facility staff in both labs as well as the rest of the facility had no idea what had happened and what caused the entire facility to shake. Everyone looked around at one another and kept asking each other if they were okay which in return the other person responded 'yes' in an utterly confused tone. It wasn't until five minutes later the girls heard an unfamiliar voice on the intercom.
"Hello everyone, I am afraid to inform you that there has been an accident in one of the other sectors. It happened when one unit tried to conduct an experiment opening a gigantic portal that to our misfortune connected to another planet teeming with extraterrestrial life-forms. Unfortunately these creatures are not benign and great care must be taken; in essence you must kill them before they kill you or cause you to mutate. If you see one of your cohorts who has mutated you must capture them and bring them in for experimentation. We shall do our best to ensure everyone's safety but unfortunately right now we can't promise anything so for the time being you are on your own. That is all."
Monique instantaneously thought of Anita and whether her best friend was safe or not. Just then as she was about to run out of the lab to see if she couldn't hack into the other chamber a creature so vicious and vile tore through the metal wall that connected her lab to the next. It looked like a mutated crab with large spines on its back and massive fangs and made ghastly noises as it stabbed an unfortunate bystander before they could get away from the creature. Blood gushed from the unfortunate intern's torso as the creature flung its frontal arm that the intern was impaled on. Monique began to feel that the chance of her friend's survival looked very bleak, she felt that her friend was already dead because she could see through the hole in the wall behind the creature and see that there were more that were tromping through the other room doing unspeakable things to its inhabitants.
However, Monique felt that her friend's life couldn't be taken in vain, and she knew that she had to survive this and get out of here. She had to run towards the large door that sealed them with their fate to be the sole survivor of the two girls. As she ran to the chamber door a different creature with a leech-like body and sharp teeth with shortened mal-formed limbs chased her. She desperately searched for some kind of implement to use as a weapon to fend the creature off. She managed to see an electrical pipe that had been broken from its fixture in the wall, she grabbed the pipe that dangled awkwardly in her grip due to its weight and swung it at the creature. It screamed with pain and frustration as it again tried to advance on her. This time she would not play nice. One thrust through the creature's mouth, past its teeth and it would die instantaneously. She gave the pipe a quick thrust and impaled the creature with it. Green goo oozed out of the creature's wound as it screamed, flailed and finally squirmed in agony Monique returned her attention to the door. She booked it as fast as she could to reach the door; her breath was coming hard from her chest, her heartbeat pounded like the drums of war in her ears and adrenaline pumped through her veins as she ran. She finally reached the door and opened it when another creature saw her leave and skittered across the room as fast as it could before she managed to escape. The creature was just about to grab her leg when she slammed to metal door on its limb causing the exoskeleton to CRACK!
Once she was out the only thing she could think to do was to calm her nerves before she figured out where she should go next. She felt destitute at the fact that she would possibly have to go at it alone, but these creatures were ruthless, she barely got out of there alive but there were only maybe four in her lab, whereas it looked like there were ten or more of these ungodly creatures in the other lab. It would be a miracle if anyone ever survived. She thought about Nelle, even though she was not entirely likeable, she was her boss and she did care because at the end of the day Nelle was still a person; a stone cold person, but none the less a person. She noticed that Nelle had an office that resided in the middle of the two labs located near the ceiling that way she could look down and oversee everything that was being done. Perhaps she hid so that way the creatures wouldn't see her up there so she could eventually escape. She shook those thoughts from her mind as she then began to look around, desperate for some other person to team up with. Due to the amount of trauma that the facility went through, only some of the lights worked, and the one that did most of them flickered erratically. Thus making it very difficult to see anything let alone find a person or even one's way. After what felt like forever she saw a shadow over in the distance.
"Hello?" She called out, her voice quivered.
"Who's there?" The shadow demanded. The voice sounded very close to Anita's.
"If you recognize me, and if you are who I think you are, say something that only you would know about me." Monique called out. She wanted to take precautions in case these creatures could sound like a loved one.
"Monique, is that you? Well, for instance you feel the need to iron everything in your closet more than once. Also YOU would get on my case if I waited even one day after something was assigned to do it." The shadow answered.
"Oka-"
"AND you incessantly complained when I would sit on your bed and I would leave it slightly wrinkled, I mean how annoying can that be." The shadow complained.
"Okay, clearly it is you. I'm so relieved and happy that you're alive. What did you do, spend all the time that you thought I might be dead to brood over the things that annoyed you instead of what brought you joy. Wow, I'd hate to think of what would be thought of me if I were really dead." Monique huffed.
"I am happy that you are okay. How did you survive?" Anita asked as she slowly walked into the remaining light.
"I have some skills, you know. I can survive on my own; I just prefer to have someone at my side." Monique sighs, "I killed one of those…whatever those things are. I impaled it by sharply thrusting a pipe through its mouth." She said as she scoped their surroundings.
"A pipe? How in the hell did you manage that?" Anita yelled.
"The end of it was crushed causing it to be sharp enough for me to shove it through." Monique muttered.
"Well, we may want to head to our dorms just to wait it out, so that way we know that at least we will be alive." Anita stated.
At that Monique nodded her head, and they started to leave for their dorms…