Back at Perfection, Rose had gotten back from the lab. She had finished one side of the hallway. Since it was just her, she felt a bit of relief and some guilt. It was easier to follow her schedule and keep on track. When she was in the hallway, she could hear the scuttling of the creatures around her. She would freeze before continuing.
When she had opened her computer, there was an urgent message. It flashed at her. She went to the email to see who sent her the urgent message. It was from Dr. Hyde. She opened it to see that it was a video message. Rose rolled away from the computer to her work while listening to the recorded message. Petri dishes and slides were marked with labels and ready for her observation, those were more important.
"Hello, Dr. Frankenstein," Dr. Hyde's voice was the only sound filling up in the room. She put a slide under the microscope. A notebook and pen were near to write down notes. "I apologize on behalf of our counterpart section who is working with us, they did not listen when we recommend that it is easier for you to work alone on certain projects. I am glad you didn't get hurt. It would be devastating."
"For me or the project?" Rose murmured as she jotted down some notes.
"I haven't heard anything from you besides your reports," Dr. Hyde inclined. "Don't get cold on me. The specimens you have been sending are interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the giant cephalopod. That one has been keeping my subordinates busy. Keep up the steady work. I'll see you soon."
"Sure," Rose knew it would not happen. She would not go to headquarters when she would get the chance. It was too much under his control. She wanted to investigate out in the field. "Whatever, you say."
That night Heather stayed in with Burt. Mindy and Lucas stayed with Nancy. Twitchell stayed with Larry in his camper. They still couldn't leave the next day. Burt took Heather on all his rounds. He showed her the areas where the new creatures were found and dealt with. Heather was interested and intrigued.
"And this is what you spend your time on?" Heather looked at him.
"I was hoping just for a quiet life but the life cycle of graboids and now Mixmaster creatures, so much for that," Burt sighed as he put down the binoculars. "The meltdown that I had all those years ago that broke us up, does not compare."
"How is it living with El Blanco?" Heather turned back to the vehicle. She didn't want to think much on the past.
"It has its perks, but sometimes it has its disadvantage," Burt explained. "He is good at keeping pesky people away but he also draws them in."
"Like that scientist," Heather figured. The two got into the vehicle.
"Especially those kinds of people," Burt shook his head. "But we also had activists who almost killed him by poison and mafia type who wanted to flail him open to find their damned key." He continued his tour around the quarantined Perfection.
At night, the government unleashed small devices that resembled silver toasters. They roamed around on small tracks. These devices were supposed to make an impromptu landing strip for airplanes and helicopters. Their main directive was to head towards Rose's territory and create a helipad. El Blanco came across their path. All the devices froze. EL Blanco did as well. It was a small standoff between the two. The devices sensed there was nothing there and started to move again. El Blanco started to move upwards. The devices froze. El Blanco froze. Fifteen minutes later. The devices moved one centimeter. El Blanco moved. This kept happening until the devices caught on that El Blanco was still in the area. The standoff kept up until El Blanco sensed a bigger prey moving about in the morning.
The devices picked up again but their systems were fried from the overwork of keeping vigilant. They stopped in the middle of town instead heading to their quadrants. They started to dismantle whatever was around them and make the helipad right in the middle of town. Larry woke up to the whirring sounds from the devices. He launched out of bed and opened his door.
"Woah!" He breathed.
"What's going on?" Twitchell lurched forward.
"It's like stepping into another world," Larry wanted to jump down. Twitchell snagged him. "Maybe the Doctor is on his way to fix this."
Twitchell stared at him as if he lost his marbles. "Doctor? Her nose is probably stuck in a book."
Larry whipped his head to Twitchell. "How have you not heard of the Doctor?"
"I don't waste my time with that kind of nonsense, Doctor or Officer or anything like that," Twitchell watched at the little robots do their work. "What do you think they are doing?"
"Building," Larry stared with him.
Twitchell bobbled his head and rolled his eyes. "I know that! But what?"
"Oh!" Larry caught on. He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Looks like they are putting down a foundation."
The others were woken up by it as well. Tyler called Burt over. The town was spread around the devices as it continued working. They were observing and trying to make a game plan.
Rose had her gear ready to head back into the lab when she saw a message on her computer screen. It was flashing red and yellow. Rose headed over to read it out loud. "There has been a malfunction with test subjects A.C.T. Capture and return to these quadrants." Rose let out a groan. "And you, government bureaucrats, wonder why nothing gets down around here." She clicked her nails on the keyboard to open the seismic activity throughout the town. She saw noticed the standoff. Rose left her seat to grab other tools. She hurried herself so that she could still make it down to continue her work.
Burt and Heather were planning on taking the machines out with guns but had the notion that these things might attack back. Tyler was suggesting that they could spray water on them and electrify it. Larry was busing taking pictures and filming the chaos. Twitchell was calling his bosses but they weren't saying anything. Mindy, Nancy, and Damian were talking about what Doctor Who episode this could be from. Jodi was about to suggest something when all of them watched the white hummer pull up.
Rose stepped out of the vehicle and plodded up to one of the devices. She opened the hatch on one side clicked a few buttons before all of them shut off. The rest gaped. She took the device and hauled it into her hummer. She headed back over to grab another one.
Burt looked to Tyler who looked to him. "It was that easy." Tyler shook his head. "Hey, so what are these things?" Tyler got up from his crouching position.
"Airfield Creating Taskforce, known as A.C.T.," Rose picked up another. "One of the high-tech devices created by the military. Must have been warped by El Blanco. They were on a standoff for all of the night until El Blanco found something better." Tyler and the rest started to pick the devices up and place them into her vehicle.
"These things create airfields?" Tyler picked up another. They were almost finished.
"Yes, they are supposed to work in hostile environments," Rose explained. She didn't care who knew at this point. "Creating an airfield out of anything for our planes or allies to land. Looks like they need to do some more testing especially not here in this area." The last devices were placed. She closed the door. "Enjoy your down time." She headed off to the quadrants.
"That's her right," Heather muttered. "The scientist he was watching?"
"Yep," Burt nodded.
Heather rose her eyebrows and let out a chuckle. "Like father, like son." She headed off to the Market to get breakfast. Burt glanced between her and the scientist. He noticed the others were watching him. He shook his head before stomping off behind Heather.
Rose dropped the devices off to a bunch of officials in hazmat suits. She didn't even stay. There was a schedule she had to keep. She headed back down into the lab. She worked herself over to finish the other side of hall with a few hours to spare. It was grueling but that hallway kept reminding her of the mistake she made. The first lab she went into was the microbiology lab. She could smell a variety of scents; grape, fecal, decomposition, old sweat, and much more. She took out her electric nose. The small light on her headset flickered. Her electric nose was hooked up to her phone collecting data. She heard something brushing up against the door. Rose could hear her heart beating in her ears. The noise came again. The door hinged squeaked. She gulped. It sniffed the air. She glanced at the light being emitted by her headset and hand-held items. It stopped.
CRASH!
Rose was taken down by whatever creature came in. She felt the weight on top of her. Her headset fell off and her hands dropped what she was holding. Dust filled her lungs. She started to cough to clear her airway.
SNAP!
She could feel the hot breath of the creature snapping its jaw to her. She hurled the thing off her before jumping up to run. Rose felt the wall for the door. It was hard since it was pitch black. She could hear the creature shake. Rose pushed herself to find the doorway. She pushed it open only to run down the hallway to the next set of doors. The creature jumped through the door. It shook again. Rose fumbled to clip herself unto the rope. The creature jumped through the other set of doors. Rose clipped herself in! Her arms started move before her mind could cooperate. She got herself halfway before she felt a tug from below. She let out a gasp before pulling herself up more. The tug from below brought her down a few inches. Rose tried not to glance down. She used her strength to keep pulling herself up against the creature from below. Once at the top, Rose was still being tugged even though she rested on the sand. Rose fumbled again with the clip. Once unhooked, she watched it got pulled down into the lobby. The creature snapped in frustration.
Tears started to form in her eyes. Rose closed the opening with the rest of her strength. "I need cages. Lots of cages." She started to cough again. "I need to excavate this whole lab." She started to lurch forward when her wrist seismo went off. She laid back down. "Not now, El Blanco. Can't you see that I just finished battling another monster. Ugh!" She knew she was fine since the whole place was surrounded by concrete. He was never close enough to get her but he did make her stay there for another fifteen minutes.