THE SAC

03 08 2050

2:45 A.M.

“Get the President on the line.”

Those cold, ugly words. Steve Jameson had hoped he would never hear them uttered in his entire time working for United Sciences Labs. And until that day in November, he hadn’t. He typed in a security alert code, then turned back to Captain Levy.

“What happened?” Steve asked.

“Prototype S-32. It’s gone.” Levy replied.

“How? How can it be gone? It was in a sealed containment area, within another sealed containment area! How did it escape!?” Steve asked.

“It didn’t. It must have had help.”

“Don’t let anyone leave the building. With any luck, it’s still here.”

The two left the room, and activated the sealing alert. Any door, window, or exit was blocked by steel doors. Nobody would leave. After thorough investigation, Steve found that none of the current workers had any possible way of even entering the containment lab. Whomever it was that stole S-32 had already left.

“It can’t be very hard to find, only three people in the lab could gain access to that area!” Levy yelled.

“Well, I don’t have it, and you don’t have it, that leaves...”

“Andrew. But why? Why would he take it out of here? What is his purpose for this?”

Steve thought for a moment. Andrew’s affection for the object had always seemed very weird; even motherly at times. But Steve never dreamed that he would go so far as to take it, especially since with only three people on the planet having access to the item, it would be obvious which one of them had it. Still; despite all logic and reasoning, Andrew had taken it and now it was out there somewhere, exposed to the world.

Or rather, the world was exposed to it.

11 25 2049

“So what the hell are we injecting it with?” Andrew had asked. Steve stood next to him, staring into the microscope and aiming the syringe at the small white puff of cotton-like material. He wore his long white lab coat as always and Andrew had always found it very cliché. Levy was probably watching through a camera or double-sided mirror somewhere.

“Some sort of highly reactive hormone. Think of it as a kind of steroid,” Steve replied as he penetrated the sac with the syringe.

“And what is it going to do?”

“Well, that part is top secret, Andrew.”

“Top secret? You, I, and Levy are the only people on this planet that even know about this project, and you’re telling me that what we’re doing is too top secret for me to know about it?” Andrew sounded upset. He was always the type to want to be in on things; that was probably why he had joined USL to begin with. Still, despite his character flaws, Andrew was an excellent scientist and a good friend. He was a family man; and he somehow managed to balance his long hours spent at work and his home life without making anybody angry or upset. Occasionally a sacrifice had to be made; but Andrew was a master of compromise. Once he had missed little Johnny’s soccer game, and had made it up to him by giving him a ride in a new space plane they were testing. Nobody else on the soccer team got to do that.

“Well, Levy told me all about it and all he said was for me not to tell anybody outside of the project, so I guess I could let you in. We’re making a weapon.”

“A weapon!?”

03 08 2050

3:00 A.M.

“Mr. President,” Levy said through the phone as Steve sat by and watched. “I’m sorry to call you at such an hour, but we have a situation... It’s Commander Levy, Sir, with ... One of our projects, a particularly dangerous one has gone missing... Well, only three people knew of the project, Sir, and two of us are standing right here... we are making preparations to find him right now... I doubt he’ll get very far, Sir... If worse comes to worse, you’ll need to make a press conference later today...”

Steve was losing interest as Levy began to go into detail on the project. He found the idea of a press conference ridiculous. What was the President supposed to do; get on the television and inform his people that there were mutant creatures running around the country, but not to be alarmed? There would be panic and riots and devastation. Steve knew that even if worse did come to worse, there would be no press conference. A cover-up, maybe, but no press conference. The people of the United States did not need to know about this. As for the Commander’s comment on preparations being made; that was ridiculous as well. So far Levy had only told the President and Steve himself; and a search was not underway. Nobody could know about the project at all, and it’s difficult to have a team find something without telling them what they are looking for or letting them see what it is when they find it. If there was going to be a search, it would consist of Levy and Steve.

Steve could tell that it was going to be a long day at the office.

11 26 2049

Andrew burst into Levy’s office angrily with Steve behind him trying in vain to calm him down. Levy immediately shot to his feet and roared about getting an explanation for the intrusion.

“How could you not tell me what I was taking part in!?” Andrew demanded.

“Quiet! Someone might hear you!” Levy shouted as Steve closed the door. Levy was top dog at this place and thus had a soundproof office. The glass used to make his windows were top technology and probably developed right here in this facility. Steve didn’t have any first-hand experience with them, but apparently they contained many small particles althroughout; something close to nanotechnology. They could change hue and make the window range from crystal clear to a tint so black that, as Steve had heard, a nuclear blast could go on inside and nobody would see it at all. Steve’s immediate following question was how that would work since a nuclear blast would surely disintegrate the windows. “Not likely,” his companion had replied, and then went on to explain that this glass could withstand a nuclear blast, given the right dimensions. Steve doubted “the right dimensions” were here in Levy’s office, but he still wondered if somewhere out in the desert there was a place with the right dimensions, and it was used to test nukes. Still, the thickness of this glass made it so that no air could get in or out, and without an air system running in the office, anyone inside would be dead within an hour. This made Steve uncomfortable; but he needed to be here right now.

“How could you not tell me I was helping you to build a weapon!?” Andrew shouted. The way he said weapon, much like the way he had said it before, made him sound disgusted. Andrew hated warfare; one reason for his joining the facility was so that he could help develop technology against weaponry. Steve could definitely see why he was outraged.

“You ran that risk when you signed up to work here. It clearly states in the manual, chapter three, section nine: Anyone may be assigned to a certain project without their knowledge or consent, and they agree to work on it to the best of their capabilities no matter what.” Levy seemed to have the whole manual memorized. He probably helped write it.

“But why did you pick me!?” Andrew sounded more weak; more defeated.

“Because, Andrew,” Levy said as he approached Andrew and put a hand on his shoulder. “This is an extremely important project, and you’re one of the most brilliant minds here.” The way he had worded that sentence; it was flattering yet demeaning at the same time, almost like Levy valued him for his scientific mind and nothing else.

“Andrew,” Steve added, “keep in mind that this is an experiment. It’s research, we don’t plan to use them.”

“So we’ll kill them as soon as we’re done making them?” Andrew said, angered. Levy sighed.

“If it makes you feel better, we can build an area for them, and keep them alive and well trained rather than disposing of them,” Levy said. Steve and Andrew both new it was a load, but it was also the final sign that Levy was done with this conversation. Levy guided the two out of his office, and the subject never came up again.

03 08 2050

4:32 A.M.

Andrew walked through the door to his home. He carried under his arm a cardboard shoebox, and was expecting everyone to be asleep. He was startled as a light at the top of the stairs turned on right as he turned around from closing the door behind him, and his wife, Martha, stood there in the kitchen doorway.

“You’re home early,” she said. Andrew thought he started sweating. He could almost feel the box in his underarm start shaking with anticipation.

Not now. Wait a little bit longer. Just a little while longer.

“They let me go early today. I didn’t want to call... didn’t want to wake anybody.” Andrew’s reply was so cool, so casual. No one would ever know. No one would suspect.

“I couldn’t sleep. I had this feeling, like something was wrong. Then I heard the door and came to see what was going on,” Martha said. Andrew breathed a sigh of relief as she looked away down the hall. “Whatcha got there?” she suddenly asked, shattering Andrew’s relief. He looked at the box, held it before him in his hands, thought of what to say.

“It’s a present,” he finally choked out, “for you. But you can’t have it yet. Wait a bit, okay?” he said. Martha’s face was suddenly beaming with excitement. For a moment the nostalgia of what used to be, what he used to feel, came back. For a moment he loved her, for a moment she was beautiful. For a moment he felt regret. But he quickly left the moment and cast the thoughts aside.

“Okay. When can I have it?” she asked.

“In the morning. But first you have to try to get some sleep, all right?” Andrew said.

“All right,” Martha replied before going down the dark hallway. Andrew waited and heard the bedroom door close, and then after waiting a moment or two he knew he was safe. He sighed some relief and patted the shoebox. Then he went upstairs and unplugged the telephone.

Soon. Very soon.

12 08 2049

Andrew and Steve were running the usual diagnostics on the sac. It had grown substantially, but so far showed no sign of movement.

“So what exactly are these things going to look like?” Andrew asked. Steve paused for a moment in bewilderment and then continued checking off boxes on a piece of paper. He was wondering why Andrew cared so much. Every day he had a new set of questions to ask; he was very interested in this project.

In these creatures. Maybe too interested.

“Well, I’m not sure, exactly. Nothing like this has ever been done before. The base species was the average spider, so I’d say they’d be very spider-like.” The term sounded creepy even as it escaped Steve’s lips.

“What exactly will the injections do?”

“Depends on the injection,” Steve started. He had a feeling that he could tell Andrew each individual injection’s name and its effect on the spiders, but Andrew wouldn’t be interested. “In the end, they should be very big, and keep growing. Most spiders don’t do that. We mixed some of their DNA with that of a grasshopper to increase legpower, and also a beetle so their outer exoskeleton will be near bulletproof. I think we’re even giving them teeth.”

“How big will these things get?”

“About the size of a rhinoceros, I’d say. Keep in mind this is only if they are allowed to incubate and hatch fully... stopping them even a few hours short will permanently change their outcome and they will be underdeveloped.”

“And how long will total development take?” Andrew wondered.

“A year at least, at this rate,” Steve answered. Andrew gave a slight “hm” of interest and looked at the small white egg sac. Steve finished his paperwork and then headed for the door of the lab, and then noticed that Andrew was not following him. He turned and looked back, and Andrew was still leaning against the glass container that held the sac, face about pressed into the glass, staring at the contents of the glass box.

“Andrew?” Steve asked.

Andrew didn’t move.

“Andrew!” Steve shouted, and Andrew snapped his head back as if Steve had just pulled him out of another realm. Andrew looked from Steve to the glass case at a half-glance, then back to Steve.

“Just making sure it’s okay, sorry. I’m coming,” Andrew said. He took a last look at the motionless sac, and then followed Steve out of the lab, glancing back every now and then.

03 08 2050

5:00 A.M.

“So what do we do now?” Steve asked as Levy hung up the phone and paced his office. He still didn’t like being here, the idea that if anything went wrong and the office was locked down with air systems off he could die in an hour was unsettling enough, but with the current situation that didn’t seem too unlikely.

“Well, we have to find Andrew, that’s the given. But where would he have gone? And the question that is also burning a hole through me is why?” Levy asked himself as he stopped pacing and looked up slightly.

“Maybe he took it home,” Steve suggested. Levy turned and looked at Steve as though he was beyond insane.

“Home!?” Levy asked. “Why the bloody devil would he take it home!?”

Suddenly Steve felt guilty. He had seen Andrew growing more and more attached to the sac; dangerously attached to it even; and had done nothing nor informed Levy of his concern. He just never saw this coming.

“Sir, there is something I should probably tell you concerning Andrew and this specimen,” Steve said. Levy looked at him with wonderment. Steve sighed. It was going to be a long, difficult story to tell.

01 21 2050

“I just got word from Levy, funding for the project has been cut off,” Steve said with a sigh. Andrew turned his face away from the glass case and stared at Steve with a look of contempt or disgust on his face.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Levy is scrapping the project. He wants to focus the money on another project.”

“What could be more important than this?” Andrew asked. The question made Steve flinch. Only a few short months ago, Andrew couldn’t believe such a project existed, now it was apparently the most important thing in the world.

“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter, though. The project is being scrapped and that’s it,” Steve explained.

A few moments later he was once again following Andrew as he burst into Levy’s office and Levy once again stood up from his chair, outraged. Steve had always thought that Levy’s extremely short temper would be the death of him some day.

“How could you cut off funding for this project!?” Andrew cried as Steve instinctively closed the door.

“I am the leader of this facility,” Levy started, “and as such I decide where the money goes.”

“You can’t do this to my project!” Andrew said, and again Steve flinched. ‘My project’ is what did it.

“I cannot afford to continue this project at the time being. Our funds are being cut and I need to route the money toward another project we have going. Now if you’ll kindly leave my office and not disturb me about this again,” Levy said as he started guiding Andrew toward the door. Andrew searched frantically for something he could say or do. Then, it hit him.

“What if you cut off my private funding instead?” Andrew asked. Levy stopped, and Steve grimaced.

“That’s a ridiculous idea!” Levy replied. Every scientist at USL had their own funding for their own private projects, and they could work on whatever they could afford as long as they filled out the right paperwork. Andrew had never done this; Steve figured if he was making anything, he wasn’t turning it in.

“Would it be enough to cover the cost to continue this project?” Andrew asked.

“The most I could take away from your private funding is half, and that’d cover half of the project. I’m sorry,” Levy said. Andrew looked to Steve. Andrew looked sad, desperate; like a starving animal in a bear trap begging for some food. Steve let out a sigh.

“I’ll give half of my private funding, too,” Steve said. Again, Levy stopped. Andrew stood next to Steve and faced Levy, a new look on his face: Confidence. Maybe victory.

“Are you two absolutely sure you want to do this?” Levy asked.

“Yes,” Andrew exclaimed. Steve nodded. Levy sighed and sat down and started shuffling through some papers.

“All right then, it’s settled. I’ll reroute half of each of your private funds toward this project. Now go,” Levy said, and Andrew was beaming with joy as he and Steve left Levy’s office.

03 08 2050

5:00 A.M.

Andrew opened the shoebox and looked inside. There was his precious treasure, his greatest achievement. The egg sac throbbed and pulsated as the creatures inside moved around. Andrew reached into the shoebox and took a small object out from beside the sac, and then put the lid back on the box. The object was a small white rectangle with buttons and a screen. Nobody had even known about it’s existence, the technology he had put into it. He had made sure not to let anyone know of his private projects. Andrew pushed some of the buttons in a sequence and then watched as the screen lit up and displayed the time Andrew had set it for: 03 09 2050 12:00 A.M.

Andrew placed the object in his cellar, and then went back upstairs to his shoebox on the table.

No one will ever know.

02 13 2050

The egg sac was throbbing and pulsating now, and it was still getting bigger.

“So how long before it hatches?” Andrew asked as he stared at the sac, face pressed against the glass.

“Theoretically we could hatch it at any time at this point. The creatures would just be underdeveloped,” Steve replied as he filled out more paperwork.

“How big will it get?”

“Right before it’s fully done, probably about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. The creatures should be fairly large, but they will keep growing even after they’ve hatched thanks to the hormones we inject,” Steve explained. He still had the feeling Andrew didn’t care. Andrew was rubbing a finger across the glass, as though in his own fantasies he was stroking the egg sac itself. Steve thought it was a bit odd, but he figured Andrew was just proud of the work he had done. Nobody could prove that Andrew had done anything on his private fund, so this may have even been his first successful project. Still, it concerned Steve that Andrew no longer seemed to care about the dangerous nature of the creatures, and what they could possibly be used for one day. He didn’t want to think about a world overrun by gigantic mutant spiders that could devour a man in a matter of seconds and were nearly bulletproof, and felt sorry for any poor souls who lived to see these creatures alive and loose.

“Soon,” Andrew whispered. Steve couldn’t tell if he was talking to him, to himself, or to the egg sac. He froze in place and looked at Andrew, who was still gazing into the glass case.

“Excuse me?” Steve asked. Andrew snapped back to reality and looked at Steve.

“Oh... nothing,” he said, and then turned back to the case. Steve thought nothing of it and went back to his paperwork.

03 08 2050

5:17 A.M.

Levy sat there with an amazed look on his face as Steve finished giving him every little detail about Andrew’s seemingly bizarre behavior concerning the egg sac. After a moment of silence that seemed to Steve like Levy was making sure he was done, Levy sighed and looked away. Steve was glad; Levy’s gaze could choke a man to death. A few moments went by.

“I have a plan. It’s not much... but it’s better than nothing,” Levy said. Steve looked at him expectantly. “If Andrew was really that attached to this thing, chances are he took it home.” Steve hadn’t even thought of that. “I’ll drive to Andrew’s house and see if I can find him and retrieve the item. I need you to stay here and await my phone call.” Steve was suddenly crushed at the thought of staying in this office.

“Sir, maybe I should come with you-” he got cut off.

“Andrew lives a good two hours away from here. I’ll make the drive myself, and I’ll call you in this office if I find anything. Meanwhile, I need you to stay here in case Andrew or the President, or anyone else calls. If I get there and Andrew didn’t take it home, I’ll be stuck two hours away from this place, and for all we know it’s still here,” Levy explained. It made sense, but Steve hated it. He reluctantly agreed, and then Levy set off.

03 08 2050

5:30 A.M.

The President of the United States of America hung up the phone and sighed. He had just told a special forces team everything that Commander Levy over at Untied Science Labs had told him. There was no way two scientists in the middle of nowhere were going to find this thing alone, and he sure as hell didn’t want mutant spiders running around the country attacking American citizens. However, the special forces team leader, Captain Stark, had insisted that this was a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of bioengineering, and that Levy and anyone else involved with the project needed to be arrested. There was no convincing Stark of anything after he had made his mind, so now the President wasn’t sure if Stark’s team was going after the egg sac or just after Levy. Still, what was done had been done, and there was no changing it now. As usual, he sat in his office and wondered whether or not he had made the right call.

03 08 2050

6:30 A.M.

Stark sat on the helicopter among half of his team. The other half was on a different chopper headed for United Science Labs headquarters. The President had talked about this like it was a simple hide and seek mission, but Stark new what was really going on. This was a search and destroy, whether the President liked it or not. So now he sat on a helicopter headed for the middle of nowhere, an according to the chopper’s tracking system, they were closing in on their target.

03 08 2050

6:40 A.M.

Steve sat in the office and wondered how this was all going to turn out. If only he had seen the signs and stopped this before Andrew got out of hand. It was too late now, of course, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty for it. He hoped these creatures would never get out, never harm anyone. And he hoped Andrew was okay.

Suddenly the lights went off.

At first Steve just stood there in the pitch blackness, wondering what had just happened. Then, it hit him. The power was out. Then, the even worse part hit him: The auxiliary must also have been out, because the hum of the air system stopped and the backup lights had not turned on. And the only way that could happen was if someone had cut the line from the outside. Steve immediately fumbled through the dark and felt along the wall for the doorknob. He found it, but it was as he had suspected. It was locked. He then made a mental image of Levy’s office and used it to find his way to the desk, and then fondled around for the telephone. He found it and picked it up and started dialing, then stopped.

No dialtone. The line’s been cut.

03 08 2050

6:42: A.M.

Levy yawned as he drove down the highway. There was no one else around anywhere, and he was tired. Still, he’d be arriving at Andrew’s house within the next 30-60 minutes, and he was hopeful that he could get this whole situation taken care of. Then, he spotted something ahead of him. A black, unmarked helicopter was descending right onto the highway.

“What the hell...” Levy thought as special forces soldiers poured out of the chopper and made a line across the road. Levy got close, saw that they were staying there, and pulled over. He got out of the car and was approached by one of them, presumably the leader.

“Commander Levy of ?”

Then Levy knew what was going on.

He became furious. The President had called special forces. Levy punched the man in the face and dashed for his car, knowing he’d never make it. The rest of the line opened fire, and Levy felt like Swiss cheese as the bullets tore through him. He leaned against his car door, but didn’t have the strength to open it. He slumped over into a sitting position against the car and stared at the black helicopter and the line of soldiers in the morning glow. His vision grew fuzzy, then dark. Levy fell face first onto the asphalt as the dark figures before him started climbing back into the helicopter.

03 08 2050

7: 17 A.M.

Martha was still asleep in her bed as Andrew opened the door. He didn’t even consider this his last chance to change his heart, to turn back. He opened the shoebox and took the egg sac in his hand. He let the box fall to the ground, knowing he wouldn’t need it anymore. He looked again at his wife, not even considering her in such a way anymore.

Now it’s time.

He opened the door wide enough, then tossed the egg sac toward the bed. It’s outer shell shattered as it hit, and hundreds of small spider-like creatures poured out of it. Andrew closed the door to the bedroom and walked away.

03 09 2050

12:03 A.M.

The President’s phone rang. It was Stark.

“Mr. President, we have a situation. Two of the three targets have been taken care of, but the third...”

“What is it, Stark?”

“It took us a few hours to get the information and find his address. We just arrived on the scene, but there’s no house. It’s an empty lot... there’s no sign anything was ever here, it’s like someone just lifted the whole damn place into another dimension.”

The President let it sink in.

He got away.

“How?”

“We aren’t sure, but the magnetic field readings in this area are through the roof. We had to get out of the chopper 100 feet away, it couldn’t get near it without going haywire. We have no idea what’s going on or where the third target is,” Stark explained. The President hit his fist on his desk.

“Well find it!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir,” Stark said, and then hung up. The President sighed and sat down in his chair. It would never be found, he knew; but he didn’t know the reason why it would never be found, not by anyone here.

03 09 2050

There is no time here.

Andrew looked out the window and saw darkness. It was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. There was nothing; no noise, no color, nothing at all. His invention had worked. Andrew walked down the hallway and cracked the doors to his children’s bedrooms. He had put them to bed after spending the day with them, not telling them where Mommy went. They were still fast asleep, which is how he wanted it. Andrew suspected he must have still had some feeling in order to do that, or maybe it was just for convenience.

Maybe it’s so they don’t get away.

Andrew crossed the hallway and opened the door to his own bedroom. They had gotten larger after their meal, and they still crawled along the skeleton lying on the bed, perhaps looking for another morsel among the remains. Andrew smiled and opened the door all the way, then walked down the hallway and turned around. It took a moment, but then it happened. The creatures came out of the bedroom and poured down the hall. They filed into the children’s bedrooms, and some headed for him. There were screams, but Andrew drowned them out with his laughter.

“Eat, my children, eat!” he cried as the creatures covered him and began devouring his flesh. He stood there with his arms open, proud of his work, proud that he was going to help these creatures to live.