One day, the world as you know it is going to end and when that happens, we will be there to pick up the pieces and start again. I know that sounds ominous. But I don’t mean it like that. If anything, I see it as an opportunity for new growth. New life. I think that is something to get excited about, don’t you?

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It’s why I joined the program. It’s why I gave up everything and worked so hard to ensure that when the world tears itself apart, it can be rebuilt.

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My name is Christina Cowie and I am part of the Global Adaptation and Repopulation Initiative.

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It’s unlikely that you’ve ever heard of us. We don’t deal with the public. It was decided long ago that it was better to keep us out of the public eye. People like to pretend that we aren’t headed for an inevitable ending and a public reminder would upset them more than anything else. We don’t want that. Personally, I hope that whatever ending comes isn’t one we’ll see in our lifetime. But even if that is the case, I want to lay the groundwork to restore the world anyway, even if I don’t live to see it bear fruit. It’s all about the big picture, you see. You leave something behind for those who follow. It’s the right thing to do.

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One of the first things that GARI set out to do when it was created years ago was ensure the survival of all nonhuman species in the event of an apocalyptic event, to maintain biodiversity. While to this day, the cataloguing of species continues, I’ve always considered that part of the project to be a noble but possibly doomed initiative. Any event that would change the world so severely would leave scars upon the earth. The life that currently exists will very likely no longer be able to survive and thrive on the earth as it will be after the apocalypse. Drastic changes in temperature, loss of habitat, radiation, oxygen saturation, the variables are too many to count. While I have no doubt that some of the hardier species will find a way to survive, others won’t. It’s why I chose to specialize in something a little bit different. Creating new life that possibly could survive in the new world that would be waiting and I have to say it’s been rewarding.

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My team and I have planned for every possible eventuality. We’ve taken steps to give evolution the little push that it needs to keep some of our most incredible species from dying out.

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I could spend months discussing the exciting new species that we’ve synthesized to deal with all sorts of apocalyptic events. Ultimately though, that’s not why I’m writing this.

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You see, genetic experimentation is a risky endeavor that exists in a legal gray area and comes with some very serious potential consequences if anything goes wrong. We only allow some of our non predatory specimens to mature in a highly controlled environment so we can observe them and ensure that they are capable of survival. We’ve taken drastic measures to ensure that nothing can get out and cause problems with the local ecosystem. Very drastic measures.

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If, for example, one of our crustacean species adapted to live in a radioactive deep sea climate were to somehow find its way out of the facility, it would have about a 600 kilometer fall before it reaches the earth, and it would almost certainly burn up in the atmosphere long before it landed on the surface of the planet. I’m quite certain that there’s nothing that could survive that. It’s hard for genetically modified life to escape and invade the surrounding ecosystem when your surrounding ecosystem is the vacuum of space.

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I can’t imagine how expensive it was to set up the GARI Enhanced Evolution Laboratories, but it’s really something impressive. Our facility is top of the line and the work we do here is worth the inconveniences of living in a low gravity environment, and even that has been minimized with the recent experimental rotational gravity engines that keep the labs somewhat stable. You can float in some of the outer living modules, but you can’t float in the labs. The transition is always a little weird. It’s not quite the same as being back on solid ground, and the lab doesn’t exactly have all the comforts of home. But they do as much as they can, and it’s not all bad.

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For instance, the view is surprisingly beautiful. If you’ve never seen the sunset from outer space, you should. It’s indescribably beautiful, and somewhat surreal, watching a wave of light lovingly cascade across the surface of the planet.

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Our science team works in rotations. We spend 90 days up in the GARI EE Lab studying our live specimens, and 180 days on solid ground focusing on the more technical aspects of our work. It ensures that we have plenty of time to spend with family and loved ones, as well as helps prevent the negative side effects of spending too long in a low G environment. So far, the project has been a success. I’ve always felt that my work was more rewarding than demanding and I’ve never had a valid reason to question the security in the EE Lab before. Not until recently.

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At 0600 hours, on the 61st day of my rotation up on the EE Lab, a lockdown notification was sent out across the station. The procedure is clear. When a lockdown is engaged, all non-security personnel are to head to one of the safe rooms. If the problem becomes so severe that our security team cannot contain it, then security is to enter the secondary safe rooms, and every area except for the safe rooms will be filled with a potent toxic gas. All live specimens are to be terminated and then after at least a minimum decontamination period, all staff is to be evacuated from the station. Work will then resume during the next cycle, when it is safe to do so. In all of my experience, we’ve only had two lockdowns and both were drills. The toxic gas was never actually deployed in those instances. I mentioned before that we also only permit non-predatory species to mature. While some of the species we have allowed to live on the station can be dangerous (as can any animal) our policies make it clear that we are not to take any unreasonable risks and they are extremely strict on what they allow us to bring up for observation.

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With all of that in mind, as concerning as a lockdown was, I assumed it was really nothing more than a precaution. Something had probably slipped out of its enclosure (Possibly the cephalopod we’d bred to survive in a highly oxygenated environment) and security would need to either kill it or put it back (probably the latter.)

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At the time the lockdown notification was sent out, I was in our large aquatic animal enclosure, working with Dr. Laura Blanchards team in running some tests on the radiation-adaptive species of amphibian we’d bred. It had settled in near the bottom of its tank, perched on a log that was part of the enclosure. Algae clung to its skin and its gills flared as it examined its surroundings with big, watchful eyes. The creature (Which was officially called Specimen 19223, but whom we’d dubbed Bob) had a fairly gentle demeanor and fed mostly on dead plant life. It resembled a large salamander or an axolotl. The gills weren’t quite as pronounced and I’ll admit that it was just a little bit cute, despite its considerable size.

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As soon as we got the lockdown notification though, all work had to stop. I could see a distinct look of frustration on Dr. Blanchard's face. Like me, she hates being interrupted and she probably suspected that this was either another drill, or such a minor inconvenience that it was hardly worth going into lockdown over. Still, she set her clipboard down and sighed.

“Alright, everyone. Lockdown has been engaged. Please proceed to the nearest safe room.”

​

Her tone was matter of fact and disinterested. Despite the buzzing from most of our PDAs, there wasn’t much panic. Instead, people just moved toward the safe room in a fairly calm and organized manner. I spotted our supervisor, Dr. Page amongst the 4 others already in the safe room. He had his PDA in his hand and was keeping a close eye on it, frantically tapping away at it. I assumed he was just as annoyed as the rest of us to have been interrupted.

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I didn’t pay him much mind. My guess was that this would be no more than a minor setback. Irritating, yes. But nothing we couldn’t handle. I noticed Dr. Page had started speaking to a member of security who had come in with us, and said security team member departed off to a quieter corner of the safe room to speak into his radio. If I were a more paranoid person, I might have been bothered by his urgency… But I’ve never been the paranoid sort. I think I’ve made it clear that I trusted our protocols.

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Out of curiosity, I did check the alert on my PDA. I wasn’t sure if it would specify exactly which asset was out of containment, but I figured that it couldn’t hurt to look. The alert didn’t give me any specifics, so I checked through the status of all active specimens, just to sate my curiosity while we waited for security to do their job.

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Specimen 19223 (Bob) was obviously secure and the seals on the other active specimens looked to be normal too.

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Specimens 19430, a species of highly resistant beetle we had bred looked to be secure (They were another one I’d have expected to escape), and Specimen 19302, the aforementioned cephalopod also appeared secure.

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Interesting… Looking through our files, all specimens appeared to be secure… Maybe this was just a drill, then? But we were usually warned in advance when a drill was being called.

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I looked up at Dr. Page again. He was off in a corner with security, speaking in a hushed but seemingly urgent tone. I noticed that Dr. Blanchard was looking at me, her brow furrowed and she approached me through the small crowd of other scientists.

“Does your PDA tell you what got out?” She asked.

“No, it looks like everything is where it belongs.” I replied. “I guess this is just a drill?”

“It’s taking an awfully long time for a drill…” Dr. Blanchard murmured. She looked warily back over at Dr. Page. I couldn’t help but think that he looked agitated.

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We both watched him as he said something under his breath, then went for the door. Security followed him as he went for the keypad to open the door. He didn’t address those of us in the room. Instead, the guard he had with him watched us as if he was making sure that the rest of us didn’t leave with Dr. Page. We weren’t the only ones who noticed him leaving. I don’t remember who asked about it, as soon as he’d disappeared out the door but the only answer that our remaining security guard seemed to give was:

“Dr. Page has gone to check on things. He’ll be back shortly.”

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It was almost two hours later that that started to feel like it might have been a lie.

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I think it goes without saying that drills don’t last for two hours and as time crept by, our frustration at this incident very quickly turned into genuine concern. It was one of our other associates, Dr. Harbor who started asking the questions first.

“What exactly is taking so long?” He asked the guard, “By this point, the failsafe should’ve triggered, shouldn’t it?”

“I’m sorry Doctor. But I’m afraid I don’t have any updates.” The guard replied, a little too dutifully. I couldn’t help but notice his voice wavering a little, as if he was just as worried as we were.

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“Well don’t you think you should?” Dr. Harbor said, “These saferooms aren’t designed for long term occupation. They’re vacuum sealed. Dependent on an outside oxygen source. Those reserves are only made to last for six hours. We’ve probably used a third of it already.”

“Closer to half. It’s been two hours and twenty five minutes since lockdown was declared…” Dr. Blanchard noted, “Doesn’t standard operation procedure dictate when the gas gets turned on? There has to be a time limit.”

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“That was removed.” The guard said, “We thought it would be better to manually control the gas and minimize the risk of exposing our team to it, in case the search took longer than normal. If it’s a nonlethal specimen -”

“The question isn’t risk of exposure. It’s how long we can stay locked up.” Dr. Blanchard said, “Dr. Harbor just explained it!”

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She glanced at me looking for backup, although my mind was elsewhere.

“Dr. Cowie, you agree with me, don’t you?”

When I didn’t respond, she called me again.

“Dr. Cowie?”

I glanced over at her, finally coming back to my senses.

​

“Yes… I agree. Part of the question is air supply right now.” I said, “But security would know that… Dr. Page would know that. If they use the gas, it could be another hour or two until it’d dispersed… Factoring in the time we’ve already spent here. That’d be cutting it awfully close, don’t you think?”

I looked around. The guard, Dr. Blanchard and Dr. Harbor just stared at me.

“Has anyone had an update on their PDA? Don’t you think that’s weird?”

“What exactly are you suggesting right now?” Dr. Harbor asked.

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“I don’t know what I’m suggesting. I’m just looking at the facts.” I said, “We are nearing the halfway point before the saferooms run out of air and we will be forced to leave. The gas, which must be dispersed manually, has not yet been dispersed when it should have by now. Neither Dr. Page nor the outside security team has given us any updates. Look at this information and tell me what it points to.”

Dr. Blanchard went quiet for a moment.

​

“Something is wrong…” She finally said, “Some sort of critical failure… Life support maybe? It couldn’t have been the escaped animal. Nothing we keep up here is that dangerous! It sure as hell couldn’t wipe out an entire team!”

“Not that we’re aware of.” Dr. Harbor said, “These animals could have any number of traits we haven’t observed yet! That’s half the reason for the extensive security! If we corner something we made up here, it could shoot acid from its eyes or something. We don’t know!”

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“And take out the entire security team?” Dr. Blanchard scoffed, “Listen to yourself!”

“What about some of the creatures in Lab C?” The guard asked.

All three of us looked at him.

“Lab C?” I asked.

“Yeah… I’ve been in there with Dr. Page before. He was examining some of the predatory species.”

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My heart skipped a beat.

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Predatory species?

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“What do you mean predators? We don’t permit predatory species up here!” Dr. Blanchard said, “Dr. Page knew that!”

“I mean, they weren’t big!” The guard said, “Like, a coyote or a bobcat or something. I saw them cutting one open to study its biology. It was dead, obviously.”

“But it was mature, right?” I asked, “The animal you saw, it was an adult?”

“I think so? But like I said, it was dead.”

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Dr. Blanchard and I exchanged a look.

“That idiot… If he was allowing predators to mature…”

“He had to be keeping them at the lab.” I finished, “This is the only place he could’ve grown them.”

“And if he was, what the hell are we going to do about it?” Dr. Harbor demanded.

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For a moment, all three of us were silent.

“If we assume that the team is compromised, then it may be necessary to trigger the gas manually…” Dr. Blanchard said, “One of us would need to find the mechanism and do it.”

“It would be in the security office.” The guard said, “It has an airtight seal like this to keep the gas out. If we could make it there…”

“If!” Dr. Harbor said, “I don’t like if!”

“If is all we’ve got right now.” Dr. Blanchard said, “I vote we go out. We enable the failsafe ourselves.”

​

“What if they trigger it while you’re outside?” Dr. Harbor asked, “You’ll be killed!”
“At this point, I’m just as likely to be killed staying here or by whatever got out of containment.” Dr. Blanchard said, “So, am I going alone or not?”

“I’m going with you.” I said, “It should’ve triggered by now… And there’s safety in numbers.”

“I’ll go too.” The guard added. “At least I’m armed. Maybe I could help.”

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The three of us all looked at Dr. Harbor who swore under his breath.

“Shit… Shit I’m going to fucking die today, aren’t I?” He asked before shaking his head, “Whatever… Open the doors. Let’s go outside. See if we can’t unfuck this situation.”

The guard gave a curt nod, before going to open the door for us. As he worked, I took a deep breath.

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I looked at Dr. Harbor… The man could be hotheaded but he wasn’t an idiot. He was right about the danger. But if this was as bad as we thought, something would need to be done. The door opened with a hiss. Dr. Blanchard was the first one out, followed by our security guard, Gibson. (Gibson was the name printed on his vest. We never got around to actually formally introducing ourselves.)

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I looked back to see Dr. Harbor lingering behind before he swore under his breath and finally stepped out. He looked a little redder in the face than usual and kept glancing around like he was expecting something to pounce on us immediately.

“The security office is this way.” Gibson the Security Guard said, gesturing for us to follow. He’d unholstered his gun although it didn’t make me feel that much safer.

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The hallways of the EE Laboratories seemed a lot less welcoming than usual. Usually, they were at least somewhat full of life but as we made our way through them, they felt so much deader than ever before. I suppose that was a good thing… We saw no signs of violence. No bodies. No bloodstains… All seemed peaceful and relatively quiet.

“It’s not that far.” Gibson said, “A few more hallways.”

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He had to open his mouth…

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As he rounded a corner ahead of us, Gibson suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his breath slightly catching in his throat.

“Oh God…”

It took a moment before we saw what he saw.

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The blood was the first thing that stood out to us. It was smeared along the walls in visceral patterns. The body lay strewn along the hall. One arm and one leg was missing. The stomach had been torn open and the entrails were strewn around the hallway. Despite the fact that most of the face was missing, I still recognized the body.

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It was Dr. Page… Or, I suppose what was left of Dr. Page… The four of us stared down at the body, and looking at the others, I could see the reactions on their faces. Gibson had a stern expression, desperately trying to mask his fear. Dr. Blanchard had no expression at all and Dr. Harbor looked as if he was ready to vomit.

“Goddamn fool…” I heard him say quietly.

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“He did this to himself…” Blanchard replied. Her voice was colder than I’d ever heard it before. She stared down at the corpse, before taking a step forward, avoiding the blood as she pressed on ahead. She looked back at us, her eyes still cold and stern.

“Come on. We still need to fix this.” She said.

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Gibson was the next to go, gun in hand as he stepped over Dr. Page’s body. I went next and Dr. Harbor went last, trailing behind us. The blood spatter decorated the next few halls we passed through, and the bodies lay strewn around. Members of the security team. Most of them I recognized, and I knew that Gibson recognized them too. I saw his eyes linger on most of the corpses and swear I saw a pang of grief in them.

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“Jesus…” Dr. Harbor murmured, “What the hell did Page make…”

None of us had an answer for that.

“The sooner we get to the security office, the better…” Dr. Blanchard replied. Even behind her stoic eyes, I could see a quiet understanding of the severity of our situation.

​

Our pace had grown faster. Dr. Blanchard and Gibson were ahead of us and I was moving as fast as I could to keep up. We didn’t run. Running seemed like it could easily be a mistake… Whatever had killed those people, it was out there and the last thing we needed in that moment was to get its attention.

“Just a bit further.” Gibson said, “Next hallway… We’re almost there…”

“Good… We trigger the gas and then we file our goddamn report…” Dr. Blanchard said.

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I looked back to where Dr. Harbor had been to say something to him. But there was nobody behind me. Just an empty hallway.

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I paused, before looking back over at Gibson and Dr. Blanchard.

“Wait! Harbor’s gone!” I said.

They both froze. Gibson looked back at me, eyes wide.

“Wait, what? No he’s…”

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He fell silent, staring into the empty hall. Dr. Blanchards brow furrowed. But I could see that her frustration was just a thin veneer for her terror. Her hands were shaking.

“They’re here…” Was all she said, eyes darting around. I watched her take a tentative step backward before she turned and continued down the hall, “We need to move!”

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“Laura, wait!” I called, but she was already gone, having rounded the corner. I took off after her, pushing past Gibson.

I’d barely even rounded the corner when I saw it…

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Much like with Dr. Harbor, Dr. Blanchard hadn’t even gotten the chance to scream… Her death had happened with almost complete silence. But unlike with Dr. Harbor, I saw her killer, hanging from the ceiling above her corpse.

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It was roughly the size of a dog, with a smooth, mostly hairless body. It had long, hooked talons and several quills jutting out of its arms and back. Many of those quills were jutting out of Dr. Blanchard's head and neck. Her eyes were still open, with a dazed, almost delirious look to them. I’m still not sure if she was dead, or if she was dying. Her legs still twitched slightly, but that may have meant nothing.

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Beside me, I heard Gibson swear as he saw the creature hanging from the ceiling. He went for his gun, and the creature let out an animalistic hiss. He squeezed off exactly two shots as it charged for him, racing across the ceiling. The bullets tore into its body, and it crashed to the ground in a twitching, gurgling heap.

“Oh my God…” He said, his voice shaking slightly, “Oh my God…”

“The security office!” I snapped, “Come on!”

​

Tearing my eyes away from Dr. Blanchard's body, I ran for the door of the security office, with Gibson behind me. And somewhere in the hall behind us, I heard movement. The sound of creatures coming to investigate the gunshots they’d heard.

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We reached the door at the end of the hall, and Gibson fumbled with his security keycard. The door beeped and opened.

“Go, go!” He snapped, “Now!”

I pushed the door and turned to watch him follow me. As I looked, I caught a blur of motion behind him, and noticed that the body of the creature that had killed Dr. Blanchard was missing.

“Gibson!” I cried. But it was too late.

​

The creature hit him head-on. I saw its quills rip through his chest and heard him let out a pained exhale. His eyes widened, and I knew I could not save him. As the creature sank its teeth into his throat, I did the only thing I could and pushed him back onto the hall before closing and locking the door behind me.

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I watched through the glass as the wounded creature clawed at him, tearing through his body like tissue paper… And the sight of it made me want to vomit. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I looked at the two fresh corpses in the hall, and knew that I could have easily joined them.

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Near Dr. Blanchard's body, I could see more of those creatures. Four by my count, but God only knew if that was all of them… One of them sniffed at her corpse, before biting at her head. I couldn’t watch…

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The one that Gibson had shot chirped at the others… And then its eyes shifted towards me. All of them were looking at me, in the security office, and for a moment, I wondered if they knew what I was going to do…

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I ran deeper into the office. There was a desk with a camera feed from most of the labs, as well as some hall views. I could see a few more of the creatures on the camera feeds. I checked the laptop and put in my access code. As I did, I heard the sound of something slamming against the glass.

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Oh God… They were trying to get into the office.

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Oh God…

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They could have damaged the seal!

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I realized that one way or the other, I was probably already dead. I closed my eyes, forcing myself to take a deep breath. I wasn’t ready for this. I wasn’t ready to die.

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But I had no choice.

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I brought up the authorization to activate the failsafe… I clicked the button. I heard the creatures slamming against the glass again, and I ran as far away from the computer and the door as I could. It felt childish, but I huddled in the corner.

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An alert was broadcast over the PA, one I’d never heard before.

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WARNING FAILSAFE ENGAGED. STATION STERILIZATION IN PROGRESS

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I closed my eyes. I held my breath. And I waited. A klaxon alarm sounded. I didn’t know if I was going to live or die, and I wasn’t brave enough to see just how bad the damage to the door had been.

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For a while, there was no sound other than the alarm. And in time, that too went silent.

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I didn’t die.

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The failsafe was active.

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And I didn’t die…

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An hour later, the station was vented. Once the environment had stabilized, the saferooms opened again. Within 24 hours, a team had been dispatched to bring us back down to the ground and a cleanup crew had been sent to the EE lab.

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I spent the next three days being debriefed by my superiors. I told them everything I knew. Dr. Page had gone too far with his own research, and his specimens had escaped containment. Because of that… My colleagues were dead now.

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The GARI EE lab is still up there.

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I’m aware they’ve supposedly implemented some new security features to prevent another catastrophe like the one that I lived through from happening. But honestly - I’m not going to chance it. I’ve withdrawn from the EE Lab program. I think I’m done with that.

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I’m much happier doing my research on solid ground.