XIV

The Scent of Trouble

Fox was the first across the threshold. He sniffed. His hound-nose picked up something faint from deeper in but he couldn't quite place it. It smelled like metal and something else. With Luigi already losing his cool, he thought better than to mention it. The rest followed close behind but lacking his superior olfactory awareness, made no mention of the smell. They activated the flashlights mounted on their shoulders. Six beams carved through the blackness. A dark mold had settled in around the heating vents and crystallized after the power shut off. Fox sniffed and could smell it but that wasn't the smell that bothered him. Wooden support beams shone through punched-out drywall, the floral patterned wallpaper peeling away in tatters. It was too cold for termites so based on the rot that had settled in the wood, Fox guessed the lab had been abandoned for decades. Or perhaps that's just how it looked. If Peach had been here recently, certainly it wouldn't have been like this. The Federation wouldn't send out a princess to a building that looked like it should be condemned. A thought occurred to him that something else had caused the rot. He shuddered.

They rounded a corner and the smell hit him like a truck. The metal was iron. A thick splatter of blood coated the wall. Daisy yelped. Luigi moaned. Falco and Toad sighed the sigh of battle-hardened soldiers who had seen the sight one too many times. Most likely arterial spray, thought Fox. He saw that the spray was blackened at the edges and realized that the oxidation had started and then stopped. The cold must've snap-froze the hemoglobin, meaning that the power had gone out suddenly. But this was no power failure. This was a deliberate attack.

They padded down the dark hallway, careful not to make any noise. They were bunched close from the fright and the cold much to Fox's displeasure. He had a mind for battle tactics from his years in the field. If this was an attack and they were all huddled together like school children telling ghost stories, they could be wiped out in an instant by one clever ambush. He gritted his teeth at Luigi's heavy breaths on his neck. The beams were lost to the dark as it seemed like the hallway went on forever, that same tacky wallpaper making no statement on their progress. It was as if it went all the way to Hell. Perhaps, it did. Finally, that second smell that had put a pit in Fox's stomach made its presence known and he kicked himself that he hadn't guessed it sooner. It was the unmistakable scent of rotting flesh. As soon as he smelled it, he angled his beam toward the floor and, sure enough, there was a trail of blood leading down the hallway.

At the end of the hall was a doorway, the hydraulic door wedged open a little over halfway. Beyond which was the observation deck. Keeping the door open was the body of one of the researchers. It lay crumpled at the bottom of the threshold. He was human, or had been, before being ripped in half. His legs had been chewed and discarded to the side of the door. His torso was angled towards them. They could see up into his ribcage but most of the viscera had been torn away. No, that wasn't quite right. Fox approached the body. Daisy reached out a hand to stop him but then retracted. He knelt down to inspect the torn torso and realized that the viscera had not been eaten by some snow bear but rather had been almost entirely melted away. He could see little remnants of the pancreas and liver, the wormy remains of the large intestine, and the scorched lungs that were so black, he would've guessed the man had been a lifelong smoker had he not known better. The face had been torn off in its entirety. If not for the badge hanging from the body's lapel, he never would've known what the man looked like. The name, however, was smudged and lost. Fox felt a pang of guilt and wished he believed in something greater than himself, something or someone to pray to, but he was not given to superstition. He rose and returned to his teammates without uttering a word.

"Oh no, no, no. I don't wanna do this," said Luigi, panicking again.

"Luigi, hush," Mario replied, growing exasperated. "Toad, help me move him."

"Why me? Get the hound to do it."

"Careful, Toad," growled Fox.

"Because you're a gross scoundrel and this is a gross job. Now, grab a limb."

Toad huffed and puffed but grabbed an arm. Mario grabbed the other and they tugged at the torso. The door had nestled itself into the groove between the ribs. They tugged but it was stuck. They threw themselves back in rhythm, pushing with their legs, until finally they heard a loud crack! The rib had snapped off completely and the torso came unstuck and slid out from the doorframe. Mario wedged himself between the door and the frame, his round belly smushing uncomfortably. He pushed through gritted teeth until he heard the door give and open.

A terminal glowed a soft blue inside the observation deck. It played a holo recording on loop. Somebody's rigged it to battery power, thought Fox. The holo was Princess Peach. Clever girl. She was wearing a white lab coat over a pink sweater dress and thick black glasses and she looked scared. Her voice was faint and digitized and skipped at random intervals. The skipping was never in the same place twice and after a few loops, the crew could make out the full message.

"Solar Cycle 400.82. Log 13. This is Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. Initial testing looked promising. I told Dr. Brittany not to push it but she assured me that the time was now. Phase 2 was a disaster. The rachquids went berzerk and broke from their containment fields. I don't know what has happened to Brittany but the rest of the facility has been destroyed. I have barricaded myself in Laboratory Delta in the tunnels. I don't know how long I can hold out. If anyone sees this, please, you're my only hope."