Today’s word is…

MICROSCOPE

“Mike, you’ve got to see this.”

“What is it Sarah?”

“Just look at the specimen.”

Mike walked over to Sarah’s microscope and peered into the eyepiece for a second before turning the focus knob toward him. He drew in a sharp breath before whipping his head up to look at her.

“Which one am I looking at?”

“It’s from Test Subject #1054.”

Mike’s eyes turned back to the cells he could see through the lens, his amazement growing with each passing second. He watched as they divided and then consumed the surrounding healthy tissues. He spoke again, unable to tear his eyes away, “am I really witnessing this?”

“Yes Mike, though I have to admit I’m not sure why you’re excited. These are not the results we were hoping for.”

“Yes I can see that Sarah, but do you know what this means?”

“Yeah, we’ve just created a monster. I’ll take all the samples from 1054 to the incinerator today and make sure the animal is destroyed and incinerated as well. It explains why the test subject didn’t react well at all. In fact, it bit me pretty badly while I was trying to get the samples.”

Mike looked up, fear entering his eyes for the first time. “You got bit?”

“Yeah, little bastard took a pretty big chunk too.”

“Did you report it to anyone?”

“Not yet. I wanted to see the samples before I did anything else. I’m probably going to need some strong antibiotics.”

Mike knocked over the stool behind him as he backed away from Sarah, terror plastered all over his face. There seemed to be a level of indecision in his actions, like he wanted to tell her something but couldn’t decide if he should just flee.

“Mike, what’s the matter?”

“I changed the formula last week.”

“You did what?”

“I changed the formula… Look, I know it was wrong, but I had a hunch!”

“A hunch?”

“Yes, I thought if I could make the cancer consume itself, we could die billionaires and Nobel Laureates.”

“But I don’t have cancer Mike… What will this do to me?”

“I have no idea Sarah, but you’re really not looking too well at the moment. I think you need to go into quarantine.”

“Quarantine?”

Mike had finally gotten himself to the door to their lab. Opening it, he slid out and closed the door behind him.

“What are you doing Mike?”

“Hopefully saving the world…” Mike gave her one last look as he palmed the emergency quarantine button on the wall. The room sealed and the ventilation system shut down. As the doorways around him all began to close, and the sounds of the ventilation system shut down over his head, he brought his face up to look at Sarah again, surprise covering it.

“Did you think they’d only quarantine me, Mike?”

All Rights Reserved © 2014 Julianne Snow