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And, you're not going to repeat a word of our little conversation. This is another secret you keep, just between you and me. Understand?”
    “I understand, I’m not stupid. I’m feeling a little under the weather, from our conversation.  Maybe, I’ll just have a little nap.”
    “That’s a great idea Robert. You should do that.”
     
    Robert went over to the cot in the back of the office and laid down. Chaz opened the door, but flipped the lock on before closing it from the outside. It stayed locked. Just for extra measure, he put all his weight on the handle bending it till it was inoperable. That should buy me a little extra time, in case our freaky geek decides to cut his nap short. Time to pay a visit to Patzy.
     
    ***
     
    It didn’t take long for Chaz to find his way to Alpha Lab. This lab had no windows, only a single white door. Chaz opened the door and walked in. Nothing he’d encountered so far, could have prepared him for what he was about to see. The lab was dark, except for the center of the room. There were ten separate but connected glass tanks each sized for and containing the body parts of what could only have been patient zero … Patzy.
     
    Each arm, leg, hand and foot were in a separate tank. The torso and head were also in their own tanks. The tanks were suspended but still connected in proper anatomical position. Patzy looked like Michelangelo's proportions of man drawing. The arms were straight out at ninety degrees from the torso, with the tanks holding the hands just at the ends of the arms. The legs were slightly wider than shoulder width, with the feet just hanging below. The head in the middle where it belonged, but the eyes were missing. Everything else seemed in place. A bluish bubbling liquid pulsed through the tanks. Narrow silver metal tubes connected all the tanks, and some sort of organic strands could be seen running from each body part through the tubes to the next. The strands between head and torso were thicker, and throbbed as a red liquid moved through them. A large circular metallic wheel surround the grotesque display and supported all the parts with hanging wires and supports. From the wheel hung multiple wiring harnesses that fed to the computers and lab machines around the room.
     
    The lab was void of personnel, as Chaz said out loud, “What the hell have these sick bastards been up to!”
    He backed slowly towards the door he had entered. Initially taken back by the sheer monstrosity of what was before him, Chaz now noticed the details of her face. It was older and more wrinkled than any he had ever seen. Even though it was encased in liquid, the face still looked as dry and recessed as a corpse rotting in the desert sun. The skin though, was free of blemishes and scarring. It just looked bone dry old. How can that thing even be alive? How could it have any affect on someone outside this room, let alone those outside the walls of the fort. It barely looked alive.
     
    Then Patzy started twitching. Just little twitches at first. Chaz wasn’t even sure she had move at all as he moved in for a closer look. The liquid in her tanks started changing color, from blue to clear. It started with the tank encasing her head and slowly spread to the remaining tanks. As it cleared, it became luminescent. Like a light was being shone through from the other side. Then, just as all the color changed from blue to clear in the tank of her feet, Chaz heard a voice. It was the voice of a young girl. A voice that seemed familiar.
     
     
     

Patient Discovery
    Patzy’s mouth moved. “You are tired and lost. You who has never been here before, are afraid. You who have have never been afraid are lost. I know why you come here.”
    Chaz tilted his head and shuffled back closer to the door.
    “You who has come so far, does not want to leave now. Come closer. I mean you no harm. It’s not in my nature to harm.”
    Chaz stopped moving, and asked, “Where are your eyes? Why are only