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“Doctor Adams!” shouts an intern soaked in blood, “something has gone terribly wrong.”

Doctor Adams tosses a large cup of coffee into the sink of the break room and follows the intern out the door. They break into a run to quickly cover the distance between the break room and the exam room. 

“What happened,” Doctor Adams asks. 

“I don’t know. The patient was acting fine but then began to get sick. He fell to the floor and then began to seize. Before I left to get you, he began to change.”

“Change into what, my boy,” asked Doctor Adams. 

“I don’t know,” said the intern, his ashen face tarred with fear. 

“It’s alright, young man, I’ll take care of the situation. Why don’t you go lay down. You look unwell.”

The intern stopped. Doctor Adams noticed the young man’s eyes were bloodshot, and a dark half-circle was painted under each eye. 

“Why do you want me to lay down?” Said the intern with an accusatory tone. 

Doctor Adams stopped and turned around. 

“I just figured you were in shock and could use a rest,” said Doctor Adams.

“No, you just want me to fall asleep so you can experiment on me,” the intern’s small round face tightened. His lips became small, thin pencil marks below his nose. 

“I don’t,” explained Doctor Adams, trying to find a name tag on the young man’s chest.

“You’re not going to try anything on me,” the young intern stated while hitting his chest firmly with his right fist. 

“Are you a patient?” Doctor Adams asked, becoming worried about his safety. 

“No, I am a doctor,” said the young intern. Doctor Adams began to walk toward the young man. He wanted to get behind him. Doctor Adams was very capable of restraining almost anyone. As long as he could get behind the subject. The intern followed him and would not allow Doctor Adams to get behind him. 

“What are you doing?” The intern asked loudly.

“Young man, I need you to stand still,” Doctor Adams insisted as he closed in on the intern.

“No,” the intern shouted as he began to walk backward toward an adjacent hallway. 

“You are going to hurt yourself,” Doctor Adams warned. The intern’s anger returned, he shouted, “I am going to hurt myself?” 

“You experiment on us, you hurt us, and I am going to worry about hurting myself.

“Suddenly the situation turned, and the intern began to rush Doctor Adams. Doctor Adams stepped back and fell into a gurney. With his left leg and arm twisted within the legs of the gurney, he was helpless. 

The intern approached with a murderous look that could frighten even the heartless. Doctor Adams tried desperately to free himself as the intern bent over him and raised a meaty fist to bring down upon him. 

Doctor Adams could hear footsteps sprinting toward him, then a grunt and a crash. A large hospital guard tackled the intern. They wrestling upon the floor. Doctor Adams freed himself and stood. He wanted to help the guard, who was having a terrible time restraining the intern. 

“Get out of here!” shouted the guard after he landed a crushing blow to the intern’s face.

“I can help you,” shouted Doctor Adams.

“No, get out of the hospital. Go…,” the guard said as he finally seemed to have the upper hand. He had managed to work the intern onto his belly and held the young man’s arms under his own. The guard stepped upon the intern’s back like a mountaineer at the peak of a mountain. 

“Go, damnit,” the guard demanded. 

Doctor Adams turned and began toward a hallway. An awful crack and groan made his stomach wretch, and he wanted to turn back but didn’t. The hallways were numerous and hard to maneuver. He began toward the Directors office. The office sat on the far southern corner of the large compound. As he walked farther away from the incident near the operating rooms, he began to slow his pace. The halls were quiet and orderly. The thick room doors closed and locked. There looked to be no epidemic problem or a reason for him to hurry. Doctor Adams rounded a corner and then made a right down the administrative hallway. The Director’s office sat on the right side. He passed the Research and Development Offices on the left. He glanced inside the rooms as he passed. Norman Oswald sat behind his desk and looked up as Doctor Adams passed. He waved, and Doctor Adams returned a wave. Within the next room, a couple of doctors sat on small chairs facing away from him. A large desk sat in front of them. They seemed to be waiting for Doctor Rebekah San Marino, who was not sitting at her desk. The last Research and Development office was empty except for a few chairs tossed in the middle of the room. The next set of offices was finance. The finance department had four rooms. In the first room on the right of the hallway sat Kerry Peterson, behind his desk, and talking on the phone. He seemed strangely animated, arguing into the receiver. The remaining rooms up to the director’s office were empty. Doctor Adams approached the director’s door. The director was a balding fifty-year old man, small in stature by appearance only. Doctor Adams knocked on the glass pane of the office door. He watched as the director waved him in with a flick of his small wrist. Doctor Adams opened the door and immediately caught the potent scent of cigars, many cigars. He approached the large desk that sat in the center of the room and sat down. “No, no, no…” said the director as he spoke to someone on the floor. “Everything is under control. You don’t need to send any help. 

Dr. Adams listened for a few minutes, smiling as he did. 

“Please sir, you know I’ll let you know if I need help.” Dr. Adams watched as he nervously wiggled a yellow wooden pencil on his desk. “I’m sorry, sir, but I have a visitor and have to let you go.”

Dr. Adams smiled. The director hung up the phone. 

“Hold on,” the director stands and walks to the large window in the back of the room. Below the window is a bookshelf crammed with binders dated in black ink. The director scans the book and finds a binder with the date May 5, 2008. He pulls the binder from the shelf and walks back to his desk. 

“What can I do for you, doctor Adams?” He said as he sat carefully down into his chair. “Uhm…” 

Doctor Adams struggled to organize his thoughts. “There was an incident down the hall near the examination room.”

The director’s smile fell.

“I was almost killed,” Doctor Adams continued, “a patient pretending to be an intern approached me with an emergency and then tried to kill me. He said he was hurting him.” 

The director stood from his chair and paced back and forth behind his desk. The concern in his face seemed to weigh him down. 

“I did tell you there was a risk with this job, didn’t I,” the director said. His tone changed. ”

“You did tell me,” Doctor Adams acknowledged, “but I want to know there is a bigger problem.”

“A bigger problem?” The director stopped and looked at Doctor Adams. 

“The guard that saved my life told me to leave the hospital,” Doctor Adams said. “He then killed the patient.”

“He did? Well, you probably misheard something”.

“I misunderstood the noise of bones breaking as I began down the hall!”

“Damnit.” The director picked up the phone and began to dial a number. 

“You can do what you want, Doctor Adams. Leave, stay, run away, I don’t care. Just get out of my office. I have important phone calls to make,” the director waited for Doctor Adams to walk out of the office.

Doctor Adams stood outside the door. The director shouted into the phone. 

Doctor Adams began to feel helplessness, or was it fear? 

Did he fear what he had been doing the past few months? 

Was it torture?”

“No,” he replied to himself. “This is important research. How else are we going to survive in this world without the gene implantation research he was trying to do?” 

Doctor Adams turned from the director’s door down the administration hallway. He passed Kerry Peterson’s room again and instinctively looked inside. The large man stood just inside his door, staring at the opposite wall. Doctor Adams opened the office door.

“Is there something wrong Kerry.” 

Kerry Peterson was a family friend. Kerry was actually the man who helped get him this job.

“Derrick,” Kerry began pleasantly using Doctor Adams first name. 

“I saw you heading to the director’s office. What’s going on?”

“I was assaulted by a patient about an hour ago. A guard told me to run from the building. I was trying to figure out what was going on.” Kerry’s face went pale.

“A patient attacked you?” Kerry asked.

“Yea, it was pretty frightful. I thought he was going to kill me till the guard took him out. Then, the guard broke the patients back.”

“My god,” Kerry said as he walked toward his desk. Doctor Adams followed.

“Do you have any idea what is going on around here?” Doctor Adams asked. Kerry said nothing and sat down behind his desk.

“I have an idea but nothing concrete. Only bits and pieces of information from the financial comings and goings.”

“So what’s up?” Doctor Adams asked.

“The companies losing money hand over foot. We have spent over half a billion dollars in bad investments over a two year period,” said Kerry.

“What does this have to do with patients pretending to be doctors?”

“The company is getting lax because they are cutting cost.” 

“That’s a good reason, but I don’t believe that’s everything,” Doctor Adams said.

“What are you going to do?”

“Well I’m not an investigator or Nancy Drew or anything, but if this involves my livelihood, I have to do something.”

“It may be that I will have to find another job.”

“Uhm…” Kerry paused then continued, “you can’t leave the company.”

“What are you talking about,” asked Doctor Adams. 

“You are contractually obligated to this company until you are released by the company,” Kerry said carefully. He looked a little apprehensive.

“Contractually obligated!” Doctor Adams spat as his stood from he chair and began to walk around the room.

“Is this a joke,” he asked, not really expecting an answer.

“No, it’s common practice for the company.”

“Really, where is this paragraph in the contract?”

“Under the signature, small type, of course.”

“Yea, of course,” Doctor Adams said while he continued to pace.

“How could you have gotten me into this crap?” Doctor Adams shouted, his temper pushed over the edge.

“I’m sorry,” Kerry said just before he stood and stumbled backward toward the window in the back of his office. Several loud crashes erupted from outside the office door, and Doctor Adams looked. Metal gurneys began to pile up just outside the door. They came from the left side of the office and were tossed or pushed into the pile. After five or six gurneys sat in the hallway, a large male nurse named Hoyt leaped over the pile, followed by several others. There were six people total; Doctor Ruiz and Doctor Stein made their way over the pile dressed in the standard white coat. Three nurses followed them; Nurses Smith, Alexander, and an Asian woman Doctor Adams did not know. They pointed toward the left of the hallway, some of them crying. The large nurse Hoyt seemed to take charge and shouted orders. 

“We need to make this higher,” he said as he pushed to pile upward.

Doctor Adams walked to the office door and attempted to open it, but Hoyt stopped him. He held up one of his large hands and then made crude hand turning motions attempting to convince Doctor Adams to lock the office door. Doctor Adams locked the door and stepped back. The women screamed as something began to approach. The scream shot through the office like the glass door was not even there. They walked backward till they disappeared from sight. Doctor Stein began to follow them when Hoyt stopped him. They then stood behind the pile of gurneys and waited for whatever was coming to hit them. Doctor Adams watched from inside the room as the men braced themselves. Suddenly, a large naked man burst from the left side of the doorway and smashed into the gurneys. It reminded Doctor Adams of an attempted 1-yard dive at a football game. The doctors shoved the gurneys up and into the naked man, stopping his dive mid-air. The naked man fell backward onto the gurneys. His back broke over a gurney that lay on its side. Hoyt rushed forward over the gurneys and shoved a thin glass rod through the bottom of the man’s jaw and into his brain. It was disgusting but apparently necessary. Blood splattered over the glass office door. The naked man lies in front of it. Doctor Adams turned to look at Kerry and found him crumpled upon his knees in a corner.

“What the hell was that,” Doctor Adams said loudly, but Kerry was not listening. Doctor Adams pounded on the office doors till Hoyt shoved the body out of the doorway. Doctor Adams quickly unlocked the door and opened it.

“What the hell is going on?” Said a booming voice from down the hall. The director stood, all four-foot nine of him, outside his office with his hands on his hips.

“Director,” said Hoyt, his large frame towering over the small director. “I think you owe us an explanation.”

“About what,” said the director, looking up at the male nurse confidently.

“About your experiments.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no experiments. Everything that’s going on is known by all of these staff members.” 

The director pointed to everyone that stood behind Hoyt. 

“I’m sorry if you are out of the loop.

”Hoyt laughed. A hearty chuckle that he bottled up quickly so as to make a pointed statement.

“I am so in the loop, Director. I know everything. I know you have commissioned a select few to do behavior research and gene therapy. I know you have a grant from the Defense Department to do this.”

“Is this true, Director?” Doctor Adams asked.

“No,” he said defiantly. 

“Is it true that the company has been running in the red for the past two years due to bad investments?” Doctor Adams asked, and the others gasped.

“No,” the director said again.

“Why don’t you stop lying to us,” said Kerry from within his office door. 

“I’ve seen the documents. I’ve got the proof.”

The group, all eight staff persons, glared at the director, but he said nothing, turned, and disappeared back into his office.

“Can you believe that, man?” Said nurse Smith, a petite woman in her mid forties.

“He has been nothing but bad news since he got here,” said Doctor Stein as he ran his thin hands through the small bit of hair he had left on his head.

“Kerry, are you alright,” Doctor Adams asked as he approached.

“I’m fine, just a little shaken,” Kerry said, his hands trembling.

“Did you know anything about these experiments?” Doctor Adams asked. 

Hoyt, Doctor Stein, and Nurse Smith approached. Kerry fumbled for words as he scanned the area around him. Blood covered the floor and the glass wall around the door. The body of the naked man laid awkward, face first on the floor.

“I knew something was going on,” he admitted.

“The defense contract came through my office several months ago. The director searched my office a couple of days later when I had left for work. He found the paperwork and took it.”

“How’d you find out he took it,” said nurse Smith.

“Rebekah told me,” Kerry said, looking toward her office.

“Speaking of Rebekah and the Research and Development office,” Doctor Adams began, “why haven’t they come out of their rooms?”

“We should go find out,” said Hoyt, and he began down the hall. Doctor Adams, Doctor Stein, and Nurse Smith followed. Doctor Ruiz, Nurse Alexander, and the Asian woman stayed behind talking amongst themselves. Kerry Anderson stood within the doorway of his office. He could not force upon himself the courage to step outside of it.They approached the first door, Doctor Rebekah San Marino, and stopped. They looked inside to see two doctors sitting in chairs in front of Doctor San Marino’s desk. Doctor Adams then noticed, which he failed to notice before, that the two were slouched forward slightly, their heads down.

“I think they’re dead,” he said as he opened the door.

“Go check the other offices,” Doctor Adams shouted.

The others began to search the other research and development offices, and Doctor Adams began to approach the two doctors in Doctor San Marino’s office. He immediately noticed the smell of gunpowder. Good-sized dark red stains ran down the back of the doctor’s white coats. Doctor Adams searched the office for a visible reason for the murders. The books were in order on the shelves. Perfectly kept and dusted. None of the many drawers that Doctor San Marino had set into the walls of her office were closed. There was no sign that anyone was looking for something. Doctor Adams passed the men and walked around the large desk in the office. He noticed that Doctor San Marino’s chair had fallen over, and several documents were scattered over the floor. The bottom left drawer of her desk was open and emptied. Something fluttered in the corner of the room. Doctor Adams walked slowly to the far corner of the room and bent down. Printed on the company letterhead was an e-mail.

The email stated that the sender was Col. Eric Price from the Department of Defense and that the ‘Changing World’ program would start May 5, 2008, which was three months from today. It stated several directives:

“This project is to be held under the utmost secrecy. No one is to know anything,” the directive began. “If you are suspected of knowing something, deny it. If you suspect someone knows something…I won’t tell you what to do, but this is of the utmost importance.”

“This research,” began the second directive, “will be performed thoroughly and will be reported to me on a weekly basis.”

The third and last directive was typed and red, the letter size was large, and the type was bold.

“Under no circumstance is any patient involved in this research to be released, ever!”

It returned to 12-sized text, with black and unbold text. “The patients will become permanent residents of this facility.”

“Who is Col. Eric Prince?” Doctor Adams asked himself.

“Who are these doctors that are performing these procedures, and why haven’t I had a clue this was happening?”

“What is happening?” Doctor Adams asked as movement from behind made him jump. He turned around quickly, and one of the men sitting in the office chairs was falling backward. With a loud thump, he landed on the floor, and a freakish sigh escaped from his open mouth.

“Alright, I’m outta here,” he thought quickly as he began toward the door. As he passed the fallen man, she instinctively looked down. The man was definitely dead. His skin was pale or more of a chalk white. His chin was bruised where the blood had pooled from the downward position of his face. His arms were stiff. He was still in position as if he was still sitting in the chair.

He suddenly thought, “How long have these men been here?” That was a curious question because just yesterday everything at The Company seemed to be going fine. Doctor Adams recalled walking through the administration hall once or twice to speak to Kerry Anderson.

“Did he look into this room?” He thought hard.