“So now what are you going to do?” Keegan asked as Rick finished setting up his dad’s old microscope.
“I need to take a blood sample.” replied Rick.
“How are you going to do that? What are you going to do with it?”
“Needle, and I’m gonna look at it under the microscope, duh.”
“What good will that do? You don’t even know the to look for…” protested Keegan.
“I’m sure I’ll see something. Maybe you should look up what blood looks like normally under a microscope.” suggested Rick. “Wait, no. I’ll look it up. You get my sample. Here’s a needle and a slide.”
Keegan sighed. Well, I might as well just get it over with. He decided. He isn’t going to let up until I do. Taking the needle he pricked his finger and somewhat awkwardly let a reasonably large drop fall on the slide. “That wasn’t so bad…” He started to say, when suddenly the finger lit up with the same burning pain that had followed when Rick’s hand made contact with his back, only this time it was much less overpowering. In response to the pain he dropped the needle and shook his hand.
“It’s just a little poke” teased Rick.
“No, it isn’t just that. It felt like when you hit my back. I wonder…” He touched the affected finger with his other hand. “Ow! Yep, it’s hot.”
“Tell me you at least got my sample.”
“Yep, right… here… Huh, it’s gone. Weird…”
“Come on man, it isn’t that hard to just get a drop of blood on a slide, is it?”
“Hey, I did, but it’s gone. Look, there isn’t even any blood on my finger anymore.”
Sure enough, there was no blood anywhere, on the needle, the slide, or his finger. It was as if he never pricked his finger. Rick glared at him suspiciously.
“Did you even prick your finger or did you just pretend ‘cuz you don’t want to?”
“No, I pricked my finger, drew blood, and got a fair sized drop on the slide.”
“And you swear you aren’t pulling my leg?”
“No, I’m not!”
At that Rick’s gaze of suspicion gave way to an excited grin. “In that case, I’d say we’ve found our weird sciencey stuff!”
The few glass shards we’ve located must be from the container of the experiment #57005 sample, but there’s no sign of the sample itself. The storm drains nearby have all checked out as clean, but any detectable trace most likely would’ve washed away by now. So it isn’t at the scene and if it made it into the drains, vaporized, or burned up there’s no way we’re getting it back. The only other possibility is that it somehow bound to someone during the accident. Normally I wouldn’t even consider that, but according to the records it was a quick-binding sample and there is an ownerless bike in the middle of the scene. As unlikely as it may be, I suggest we check local hospitals and all civilians who were within the quarantine zone when it was established for anyone experiencing symptoms like those caused by the experiment.
Merry Christmas fellow human beings! I’m actually getting ahead again, which is nice. I had this one done on Monday (other than a few tweaks I made right before posting), and I’m about half done with Part 10. Both these parts reveal some stuff about experiment #57005, and when this happens I like to hear people guess at where it’s going. Please, guess away!
‘Till later
-chip
chipgw.com 