A man in a white lab coat, white shirt and tie, and black pants, awoke with a slight headache. As he rubbed his head, he looked around him, seeing blackness. He placed his hands up to his eyes and felt as if something was missing. Where are they? The man began searching the surface that he was on.
"Is this the guy?" A man with a coffee mug said, observing the terminals.
"Herbert West, yep." His co-worker replied.
"How did you guys get him? I thought he was missing."
"Exactly, he went missing, but we were responsible."
Herbert continued to crawl, searching for what he considered important. As he crawled a few more feet, he hit his head on a surface. He leaned back in pain, as he began to look at what he hit. His vision was blurred, he could barely see what it was. He crawled over to it and felt the surface. Glass? What kind of area am I in? Herbert felt the ground and felt it as glass as well. He continued to search around and came across an object. He felt them and knew what they were. He grabbed the glasses and put them on.
"What is your plan, exactly?" The man with the coffee mug muttered.
"We want to see if West is willing to work with us. If not, he's basically stuck here."
Unbeknownst to the workers, the remaining victims from the cabins began to make their way into another glass box. As the survivors entered, the box began to move.
West continued to search. My work?! Where the hell is it?! He grew agitated as he continued to search. Suddenly, a voice came through the loudspeaker.
"Mr. West, welcome."
"Where's my work?!" West yelled back.
"That will be revealed shortly, you just have to answer a question for us."
West didn't respond, instead, he stared at the speaker, intrigued.
"We were wondering if you would like to continue your research here. Subjects will be delivered to you and the finished product will be collected by the government."
Before West could respond, a bright light turned on. The two men stood confused, until they looked at the monitors, showing the survivors.
"No, Goddamn it!" The co-worker yelled.
West continued to ponder his answer, as he waited for a voice to come through the loudspeaker. The box began to move, and West fell to the floor. He watched as more boxes came into view, showing grotesque things. The first being he saw was a rather obese man, with clothes clearly too small. The man looked at him and vomited towards him, but it hit the glass wall. Herbert didn't cringe, he just observed. He continued to pass beings, as they began to line up in rows. He heard loud screaming, and looked up to see a woman, with a man right next to her. The woman was screaming. What could she possibly be screaming at? After waiting for a certain period of time, the boxes began to move again. He noticed as a line came into view. Is this an elevator of sorts?
West began to ponder, as he waited for what felt like a long time. He heard voices outside of the cube and began to listen. He heard their voices began to fall away, until they were no longer heard. West continued to look around the cube for anything he could use to escape, or a means of escape. To his surprise, the door opened behind him and he watched the chaos ensue within the small area. West stood, watching the carnage, planning his next move. As soon as he saw an opening, he ran into the chaos and began to run down a corridor. As he heard more things coming from both sides of the corridor, he hid inside of the first closet that he saw. West lowered his breathing, as the things began to move past him. As the screams continued in the corridor, West took a deep breath and stood up. He looked in the room he was in and noticed that it appeared off. What kind of closet is this? The room was bigger than an average closet size, including shelves with boxes and a lone computer on a desk. West walked over to the computer and began searching through the files. The screaming wasn't registering with him, as if it could be white noise. He looked through lists of subjects, coming across names that struck him. He clicked on one of them and read the file. He read the last part out loud.
"Because of Daniel's unwillingness to cooperate, the company had no choice, but to terminate him."
Herbert sat there, anger boiling to an outrageous level. He shook it off and clicked on his name, which happened to be below Daniel's.
"Re-agent medical bag located in Closet #21." Herbert read aloud.
He looked at the door, reading "Closet #22". Herbert sighed as he grabbed a broom handle. It's simply next door, that shouldn't be difficult. Despite the screaming being silenced, Herbert felt nervous. Without hesitation, he swung the door open and ran into the corridor to see more things fighting each other. He ran in the direction of the twenty second closet, which was blocked by a man in a hockey mask, as well as a man in a latex mask. They appeared to be distracted with one another. Herbert snuck past them, as the man in the hockey mask was stabbed. Herbert ran into the closet and saw his medical bag on a desk. He quickly grabbed it and ran back into the corridor. He continued running in the direction that he had been running in. Herbert came across an elevator. Perfect. He entered the elevator and pressed the top most button. Suddenly, a man began running towards him and entered the elevator, just before the doors closed.
"Goddamn you, West. You did this to me!" The man yelled.
West stared at his former colleague. "I didn't do this to you, Howard."
Howard didn't listen. Instead, he charged at West and pinned him. Herbert quickly pushed him off and hit him with the broom handle. Howard groaned in pain. Herbert didn't hesitate, he began to beat Howard until he was sure that he was gone. As soon as Herbert dropped the handle. The elevator doors opened, revealing a forest. Herbert looked at the elevator controls and began to smash them with the broom handle, as well as his foot. The buttons were completely smashed, ensuring that no one else could take the elevator up. He stepped out and watched as the doors closed. Herbert smiled. At least they will be stuck down there. Herbert walked in the direction of the woods, confident with his ability to finish his research.
It's up to you whether or not this story ends with the hand coming out of the ground, effectively killing West. I made sure that Howard's death was included to ensure that West would be the only one aware of his research.