The facility has been up and running for the past few months. The jobs pay well, that’s about all anyone wants to know here.

The company owning the facility seems to enjoy its privacy, no one knows why and no one cares. In today’s world, anyone will do anything for money.

A young man sits at his desk, facing away from the door and in a lonely computer room. Mouse in hand and laser-focused on the computer screen. He takes his job seriously, a naturally cautious and respected worker in his field. There’s not a doubt in his mind that he will get a promotion soon. Everyone coming in the room wearing a suit and tie has him jumping out of his seat.

As he types on the computer, he feels a tap on his shoulder and looks behind him.

“Coffee?”

“Oh man, you’re a life-saver, Joey.” He says, gripping the cup with both hands

“You know, Dan, I get you’re working for that promotion and all, but it’s just… well I think you’re pushing yourself too hard here.”

“Why do you think that?” Dan replied.

Joey lowered his voice a tad and spoke to Dan, “I don’t think this is the kind of company we should be putting that much time in.”

Dan sat back in his chair and rolled his eyes as Joey finished his sentence and said, “Again with this? I thought we ended this off last week.”

“Yeah, but I got something this time, something that oughta put it to rest.” Joey pleaded

“Sure, and it’s different from the other times, right? Also please, don’t say ‘oughta’. We’re scientists, not hillbilly’s” Dan replied quickly, sitting back up for a sip of coffee.

“Oh don’t get so high on yourself, you sit on your ass all day watching a computer, ain’t nothing science about that” Joey retorted.

Danny let a sigh out and plainly said, “If you’re going to come in here and poke fun at what I do, then leave”

“Well that isn’t what I wanted to do but it’s an added bonus, nonetheless. Here…” Joey took a hard drive from his back pocket and slid it on the table towards Dan. “…picked this up a little while ago, I insist you take a look”

“You insist? Oh then by god, I’ll look at it right now. Such an important object mustn’t go to waste.” Dan said, with sarcasm and annoyance at Joey’s pleading.

“Please, look at this one.” Joey was serious this time. He stood up and made his way to the exit and left.

Again, it was Dan alone, now in a room with a hard drive. Despite his carefulness, he’d trusted Joey for this long, of course he’d take a look at the hard drive. I mean why wouldn’t he? Joey seemed pretty serious about this one, maybe he might have something. With these thoughts racing through his head, Dan plugged the hard drive into the computer. Once it finally loaded, he took a glance.

Most of the files seemed like junk at first glance. One labeled “SWIF832” or “TRE7291”

However, one file was named nothing but “CLASSIFED”, No numbers or odd acryonyms. Just “CLASSIFED”. Dan sat back in his chair. Staring at the mouse, hovering over the file. He took a quick look around the room. The lights were dim and it let him see some people outside through the thick glass wall, Maybe one or two people walked right by, what were the odds someone would barge in now?

He sat back up and clicked the file. The first thing he noticed was something named, Project Blood. A daunting name, worthy of investigation. Project Blood read of explosives, powerful explosives. Talked about it’s plans, selling price, and even showed some footage of it being used, Dan could’ve sworn these little explosives were more powerful than anything in use today. Questions circled his head, he saw another Project, Project Harvest. It mentioned tens of advanced genetic machines. Fast machines of which could “get the job done right and safe” as the notes said. Dan knew he was more far into this then he wanted to, but he had to take a look at the one last Project. Titled “Containment Specifics”, filled to the brim with all these “smaller details” apparently. It mentioned “Meat Feeders”, “Watch Towers” that were 60 feet high, and a 40ft tall electric fence.

Dan didn’t know what to think. All these projects and all these mentions. “Containment Specifics” “Project Blood”? What’s the use of this? What exactly is being contained? What kind of company had Dan devoted so much of his time for?

If there’s so much here, then why not check the ones I skipped over, Dan thought. Before he could do that, the light’s in the building flicker repeatedly. He looked towards the door and saw groups of people walking out. Some moved slow and others more quick. But he noticed a woman quickly on her way to his door. Without thinking, he shut the computer off and tucked the hard drive into his pocket.

The woman knocked and opened the door, “Hey, you best get out, they’re evacuating the building.”

“What for?” Dan questioned.

“They said it’s a minor earthquake apparently, isn’t too much but best we get a move on, now hurry”

The woman closed the door and went on to the one next door.

Dan looked at his computer for a moment and thought, ‘This isn’t… this isn’t something I should know’. He turned the computer back on, rushing to delete all trace of the hard drive’s information in the case someone came in and noticed it. After about 5 minutes or so of rushing and hurrying, he deleted it all and stuffed the hard drive into the drawer.

Went he got up to leave, he saw no one else was in the hallway. The lights outside were accompanied by the occasional red light. He stepped outside, the bright lights blinding him for a moment, and looked around. The hallways were empty and the red alarm was beeping red, however making no sound at all. The computer room was to the left of the lobby, just down the hall, so the trek wouldn’t be too long. Dan walked quick through the hall, his mind racing of the hard drive and what it all could be.

Finally he reached the lobby, but before he could feel the relief of the exit, he heard a blood-curdling scream of which sent shivers down his spine, from the hallway he came from.

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I hope y’all liked that one, I’m pretty proud. There might be some errors, but plz let me know, I’ll be sure to fix it. Horror is definetly a new one for me, hope I did the genre justice with this little opener :D