Even though he had already arrived at his work and was getting himself settled at his desk, ready for another dull day, Seth's mind was still firmly rooted in that train car. He kept going over everything that had happened, trying to separate reality from hallucination.
'She definitely said the same thing as that weird voice. And the way she was looking just as confused as me, there's no way I could have imagined that. Plus.. The feeling that voice gives me, it's unlike any of my other all-nighter consequences. Just what the hell is going on today?' He pondered before shaking his head and letting out an audible sigh.
The strangeness of the day didn't end there, however. Looking around the open plan office floor he worked on, which was located in the basement level of an office complex so tall that it was clearly made to compensate for something, Seth noticed a large amount of empty desks. This wouldn't have been unusual for any other day, especially since it was still early, but something about it itched the back of his mind.
Before he could put the finishing touches on his alien abduction theory, he heard a voice calling out to him,
"Seth. Hey Seth! Snap out of it man, you got work to do. Can't be lazing about and dreaming all day, as much as I'd like that." His boss, Ron, said as he lightly smacked Seth in the back of his head with a stack of papers before leaning on the edge of his desk.
"Some asshat on the forty second managed to break their copier, again. Since a bunch of people are off and I can't be bothered, guess who gets to take care of it?" Ron chuckled, flashing a smug grin, the type you'd want to slap off someone's face.
Seth let out a low groan, knowing that the 'broken copier' probably just had a paper jam or some idiot was pressing the wrong buttons. That was unfortunately the life of an IT guy for a large company like this, which somehow attracted countless people who can barely function with any kind of technology.
"Sure, sure. I'll get on that right away." Seth lamented, standing up from his desk with no real sense of urgency. "Speaking of which, what's with all the no-shows?"
"Who knows," Ron grumbled in response, looking around the half empty office. "I've been getting calls all morning. People claiming they feel sick, even a few here now are complaining. Must be something going around. I'm even starting to feel terrible."
Hearing that Seth covered his mouth in a nonchalant way, edging away from his boss as he said,
"Ah, good to know. Well I'll get right on that job. Sounds like a bad one though, so it might take me a while." He then hurried out of the office, heading towards the elevator and hoping that he didn't catch anything. It was just like his boss to be hovering so close to him and breathing down his neck, all while carrying some new strain of plague.
***
A quick elevator ride took Seth up to the forty second floor of the skyscraper he worked in. If he was honest, he didn't know much about the company he worked for and nor did he care. He simply took the first job that he could get and didn't ask too many questions about it. If he was truly pressed for an answer on the subject, however, he was sure it had something to do with insurance although he had no idea what kind of insurance.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter much to Seth. All he needed to know was the issue with the computers, which was usually the person trying to operate it. Such was the case with this copying machine.
Seth was on his knees in a small room off the side of the main part of floor forty two, a room that was 10 x 15 feet. It was a supply closet of sorts, filled with shelving that held standard office supplies; Pens, paper, staplers, paper clips. The usual things that people would steal from their work, and of course, the copying machine that had broken down. The door to the supply closet was closed, leaving Seth alone in the room with the culprit that caused this mess as his only company.
He had the machine open, reaching in and pulling out the jammed paper, as was expected of the 'broken' nature of the machine.
"So, how exactly did you encounter this error?" Seth said to the worker that was standing nearby, idly looking through the shelves as he was waiting for his "unsolvable" issue to be easily solved. In all honesty, Seth didn't care what the man had to say. He was mainly making conversation to be polite, as well as to distract himself from the strange feeling that had risen in his chest over the last few minutes.
It wasn't so much a heart pain, instead it was like a tightening feeling deep within the dark recesses of his ribcage. Like something was being pulled together and tangled up into a giant knot that pushed against the rest of his squishy organs.
"Oh you know," The office drone replied, trying to act casual, "I was doing a large printing job and suddenly the machine started beeping at me. Usually I know what to do in these situations, as I'm no stranger to machines like this, but I just couldn't find the issue. So naturally, I called the experts."
"Yeah, naturally." Seth muttered under his breath, not caring if the drone heard his words laced with venomous sarcasm. Finally he wrestled the jammed paper free, closed up the copier and reset it. Scrunching up the paper to toss it in the trash, he glanced over at the drone and saw him pulling out a handkerchief, before coughing heavily into it.
"Damn, looks like you caught something. I did hear there was some nasty bug going around." Seth said, looking over the drone. He was a portly man, his fat mainly resting under his chin and in his bulging gut instead of being evenly spread across his body. His greying hairs combed in a poor attempt to hide the growing bald spot on the top of his head.
Beads of sweat rolled down the portly drones forehead, only to be quickly wiped away by his blood soaked handkerchief. Wait…. Blood soaked?
Seth had to do a double take, glancing at the blood on the man's handkerchief, then at the crimson liquid dribbling down his chin from his lips.
"Oh damn. Hey man, are you okay? That looks pretty bad, maybe we shou-" Seth said with a worried look on his face, stepping towards the man that was leaning heavily on the shelving unit that separated them. He would have said more, but he was interrupted by a familiar voice ringing inside his head and an encroaching, disgusting feeling enveloping his mind. A voice that stopped him in his tracks completely.
[Assessment Complete. Displaying Results…]
[Individual Results;
Name: Sephtis Quinn
Species: Gaian Human
Biological Score: 46 Elemental Score: 50
Spiritual Score: 63 Psychic Score: 45]
[Species Results;
Biological Average: 48 Elemental Average: 49
Spiritual Average: 46 Psychic Average: 45
Evolution Threshold: 60, Aberration Threshold: 30]
[Activating Mutagen, Please Standby….]
Unlike before, when Seth only heard the voice whispering into his mind, this time he could see the words it was spouting right in front of him. He stumbled back, waving his hands uselessly at the illusionary words and nonsensical numbers, but his arms simply went right through them.
Looking up at the portly drone, he could see a glassy look in his trembling eyes as he stared at nothing. It was clear they were both seeing the same thing, both hearing the same voice. Both being judged by the same voice.
'It had mentioned species average, so is it possible that this is a world wide event? He must be seeing it too. But even then…. What the hell is happening?! What does it mean by evolution?' Seth thought to himself, his mind racing in a panic. When that strange voice had said it's final sentence the uncomfortable feeling in his chest had increased, starting to pulsate slowly and gradually gain in intensity.
Seth clutched his chest tightly, leaning on the copying machine as the knot inside his chest started to thunder, it felt as if it was trying to wriggle its way free. As if it was about to burst through his chest and give birth to an extra terrestrial of some kind.
His breathing was staggered and trembling, unable to take a proper breath as the knot pressed against his lungs. A glance up at the office worker showed that he wasn't faring any better. His small cough had turned into a violent coughing fit, his veins were bulging and were visibly black as if his blood was rotting from the source. Understandably, it didn't take the poor man long to collapse to the floor, letting out blood curdling screams of agony and by the screams coming through the closed door, it definitely seemed like he wasn't alone.
Uncaring of their struggle and pain, the voice chimed once again in Seth's mind, although the pain in his chest drowned out the euphoric feeling that it brought.
[Activation Complete. Subject will achieve Spiritual Evolution. Good Luck.]
And with that, the true pain began.