Is it July? I know, I know, not the damn thing I should be bothered about, but it's so damn dark outside, and the breeze feels bone-chilling. I'd say it's autumn, but that means the incineration didn't happen. Thank the eldritch gods! My mind screamed that for me.
For whatever cosmic reason, I'm alive in a body that got squished against the wall. No wound, not a single scratch, nor scar. What the abyss is going on? My eyes scanned Storage 28 once more, and I found nothing, just a pit with bodies.
"Screw it." My palm wrapped around the handle on the heavy, rust-covered side-rolling doors, and I pushed on them. They were damn heavy and quite rusty. Through all my effort, I wasn't able to move them until I pushed myself off the wall, and I made a small crack, just big enough to slip out.
A sight I have seen isn't anything I was prepared for. The air was suddenly colder in my lungs than on the outside. My purple eyes widened, and I felt my jaw drop, hyperventilating, I grasped my chest, trying to understand.
"No, no, no, this can't be." Tears rolled into my eyes. "How...how long have I been..." My words died somewhere in the middle of the question. I'm standing at the place I knew really well. I'm in Bratislava. To be specific, at the research center near the city where my father worked. The company was called GRON, and they were evolving some damn medicines for new world diseases.
But the sight I have here isn't some modern city I used to live in; it's desolate. Once a beautiful facility was half torn down, holes in walls, missing windows, walls—the whole left side of the building was just debris. It wasn't just that one building; the whole damn center was a mess, almost like no one walked through for ages, maybe centuries. Trees and small plants cracked asphalt through, and what wasn't coated with the protective layer was corroded. The air wasn't heavy as I remember; it smelled more like I am in nature than near the capital.
"I can't believe this." Those words ran on repeat in my mind as I walked toward the building which, on top, has a damn sign GRON. I remember that one to be shining with a soft azure color during nights to let customers and workers know there's the headquarters of the biggest company in central Europe.
Once glass automatic doors were now just frames which ivy used as a base that it can crawl up through. I knew this lobby really well; right behind the desk on the reception used to be Alice. She always greeted me with a smile and asked me if I came to see dad. How old could I have been? Maybe ten? Twelve at the top. But what happened here?
The glass shattered on the ground cracked under my feet as I progressed further into the damn building. The lobby used to have a nice wall, made out of marble and decorative stones such as amethyst into a damn beautiful mosaic that was painted right behind the counter where Misha used to sit.
The wicket separating the lobby from elevators was jammed, so I damn well jumped over it. My finger touched the elevator button in the expectation that it still works. "Dumb..." So I moved to the end of the room, and there was a damn staircase connecting each floor in the building.
Honestly, I don't even know what the hell I am looking for. I made my way to the 5th floor where research labs were and where my father worked. All doors on stairs were wide open, as if someone was searching through different floors and divisions.
GRON was specialized in medical research and enhancing human abilities, but there was also the damn facility where other companies came to test their equipment. Such as new kevlar fibers or military gear. Those were usually tested on the 4th floor where I was. Once my feet shuffled into quite a dark hallway, I sighed in damn relief.
It was just as I remember, a bit dusty but the same. On the right and left side, huge fortified glasses separated six testing rooms with different pieces of equipment, and at the end of the hallway, Dad's damn office. "That's where I am heading."