As the days turned into weeks, the research team delved deeper into their investigation trying to understand what the crimson fungi was made out of. Artemis, Emmett, Elias, and Leslie worked tirelessly, their days and nights blurring together as they conducted experiments with endless samples failing one after the other, after Artemis analyzed the data with each of Elias’s brainstormed techniques to figure out solutions she noticed they kept coming up on blockages over and over again, frustration lead to anger lead to tiredness, Elias noticed the bags under the eyes Artemis as she worked so hard. Gently tapping away on her keyboard, Elias made his way over to Artemis and her small figure gently putting his hand on her shoulder as he spoke to her softly, “Hey, maybe we can take a break and call it for the nigh-”, “NO, We HAVE to figure out what kind of effect it causes the human body to react with paralysis, we need some sort of answers an-”, “Look, we will have answers, we just need to take a break, we don’t even know what day it is, shit even what month it is! We need rest Artemis, please…” as Elias’s expression changed from being exhausted concern and worry took over as Artemis rolled her eyes swatting his hand away from her shoulder as she spun around in her little green stool to walk out of the small room before turning around and saying,”Fine, but make sure Emmett can lock up my office after you all leave, we don’t need prying eyes from anyone working here we can’t risk anyone sticking their nose where it doesn’t need to be, understood?” as Artemis spoke with such a stern and domineering tone in her voice Elias swallowed what seemed to be a thick coat of his saliva build up in his throat as he watch her leave down the hallway he turned to the rest of his team speaking up to Emmett who happened to be dead asleep in the corner of the room, as he walked up kicking the side of his dark combat style boots, “Hey, we are calling it a night, Artemis trusts you to lock up here, she doesn’t want any-”, “Yeah mate I know the drill just wait out front of the building with Leslie, She’ll drive us to my place once I’m done here.” as Elias nodded swiftly turning his head to Leslie only to see her already leaving the room he started following her direction walking out of the building after they discarded the suits and thick gloves in the safety bin. Unbeknownst to the group of scientist, this organization, known as the “Dark Covenant”, had been operating in the shadows for years, exploiting scientist for their own gain, telling rumors and lies of “evil doing” from the innocent scientists only for those to be kicked out of the building for them to get their hands on any sort of data they could corrupt furthering their own agenda of domination. They saw the Crimson samples as a key to achieving malevolent goals, a powerful way for them to bend for their own useful will of spreading the mysterious fungi as they kept a close eye from security cameras they happened to hack into within the labyrinthe corridor cameras in the facility.
As the next morning's light shined through the curtains of Artemis’s small apartment she sighed heavily as she slowly sat up rubbing her temples getting ready to start a new work day, as she stood up making her way to her bathroom discarding her clothes she made her way into the shower basking in the warmth of the water it cascaded over her sore muscles sighing as she lathered her fragrant shampoo through her long thin black and red hued hair, as she inhaled the fragrance of her shampoo being washed away she finished off her shower stepping out wrapping her body in the comfiest warmest white fluffy towel she happened to receive as a parting gift from her parents before leaving America, as she stepped out of her bathroom making her way to her closet she was interrupted by her home laptop beeping signaling someone unrecognizable inside of her office space back at the lab. As she rushed to throw on a fresh pair of dark navy leggings and a black button down blouse with her combat style boots in hand she was out the door in such a rush speeding her way over to her car and driving off in the direction of the facility, wondering who might it be that infiltrated her office space without her permission.
Upon her arrival making her way haphazardly to her office she couldn’t shake off the feeling of everyone whispering among themselves as they overcrowded the halls leading to her lab, a gut wrenching feeling overtook her as she heard shouting from none other than Emmett, Elias tried his best in recovering the crimson samples from those he did not recognize as Emmett blocked off the unknown scientists from taking anymore samples than they already have as Artemis made her way pushing through the crowd she felt uneasy as she appeared before everyone shouting, “What is the meaning of this?! What the fuck is going on here!? Emmett talk to me!”, “Bloody hell if I know, they came from out of nowhere and started taking all of our shit!” as Elias and Emmett snatched the few samples they managed to retrieve from the prying hands of the emotionless scientists Artemis pushed through the door as they barricaded themselves shutting off the doors power with the second security system Artemis installed she started going through her things figuring what they could have wanted unbeknownst to them a small camera was watching.
Artemis couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched as they tried to settle down going over data from the system as Emmett reassured her that no one else but them from now on will be able to access the room, as Artemis sighed she confessed to the two men standing before her the eerie feeling she has gotten upon arriving, “Guy’s look, we NEED to be more aware now that fuckers are here to snoop, I can’t shake this feeling of someone watching us right now at this moment so be cautious what you say to eachother from now one, let me make a call to Leslie maybe she can pick up a few things for us to stay here seeing as how we don’t know if we will be safe separated alone in our homes.” Emmett and Elias both sat in the corners of the room with the look of concern and defeat they couldn’t understand why anyone would want any reason to be involved in their studies of the crimson fungi but what they could gather it wasn’t going to be good for anyone if the fungi was left in the wrong hands at any moment.
Artemis dialed Leslie’s number on her personal cell seeing as how for right now they couldn’t trust using any sort of the facilities electronics she decided to use her own by bringing her personal laptop for data input, “Come one Leslie, pick up the phone…”, “Hello?” Artemis let out a sigh of relief as she heard Leslie speak on the other end of her cell, “Leslie! Thank Goodness nothing happened to you, listen do not trust anyone at all! I will explain it to you later but for now I need you to do a few things for us first, I will send you a message, don't ask why, just please do this and come straight to my office as soon as you get here. Do not talk to anyone out there!”, “By the sound of your voice it doesn’t seem too good, I’ll be on my way.” as the call ended Artemis spun around facing the men alerting them Leslie is alright and is now making her way over to the lab so they need to be on the lookout for her arrival.
Artemis’s heart raced with a mix of fear, anger, and determination. She knew they had to act swiftly in retrieving every data input they had conducted and analyzed over the few weeks they conducted experiments, attempting to protect every source they had inputted into the facilities system before it falls into the wrong hands again and prevent those clueless scientists from getting ahold of the files while gaining the upper hand from those idiot’s Artemis installed some sort of fire wall only she had access to, as she aggressively typed away on her laptop switching to writing stuff down in Elias’s journal she happened to snatch from him just a few days ago, they heard soft knocks coming from the other side of the lab door as the men stood there waiting for some sort of approval from Artemis her cell chimed with a message from Leslie, “Here, open up now” as she nodded Emmett opened the door as Leslie made her way inside setting the belongings of her teammates down on the ground looking over at the thrown containers of the samples as she began to ask what happened Emmett spoke, “ I have no idea who those people where but they started prying the samples out of our hands as we tried our best to retrieve all of them, they didn’t even speak to us why they where doing so they just looked like a bunch of pale zombiefied scientists.” as Leslie looked over at the aggressive typing Artemis seemed to be in the middle of she sighed and started picking up the samples getting ready to rearrange them when she noticed they were missing a total of two samples, as she looked up she spoke up gaining everyone’s attention, “Hey guy’s, two samples are gone, we only have eight samples left only 4 samples untouched the rest are the failed one-”, “WHAT?!” shouted Elias as he sprung up from the ground looking through the sample containers banging his fist to see that Leslie was right, only four living samples and four failed samples, Elias clenched his fists, anger burning in his eyes, “We can’t let them get away with this! We have to find a way to stop them from doing anything to those samples!” Emmett nodded in agreement, his voice firm, “Agreed, but first we need to establish a routine to keep eachother safe, as well as getting resources we need from the outside world, we can’t live inside of this room forever.”, as Artemis stood up facing the group before speaking, “Most importantly, we need to protect our research, we can’t just let them poke their hands in like it’s nothing!”
With a renewed sense of urgency, the team divided their efforts. Emmett and Elias focused on strengthening their security alongside Artemis guiding them to be sent out to retrieve resources from outside of the facility, meanwhile Leslie delved deeper into their research finding solutions she could try with smaller proportioned samples trying to figure out if the fungal spores had any sort of vulnerabilities and exploring potential countermeasures against the infection it seems to give off to the human body, with the different components Leslie tried the more she failed with each test, making sure to mark down the halfway point in each analysis she sighed seeing as how they began to lose hope in ever finding the weakness of the fungi.
As the days went by Artemis worked late into the night as her team slept in the corner of the room on chairs, she stumbled upon a hidden file buried in the facilities database as it was encrypted with random numbers at first until she realized it was a hidden message within code form, it contained encrypted communications, detailing the plan known to be named, “The Dark Covenant”, describing interest in the crimson fungal spores, they planned to infiltrate Artemis’s team while stealing the samples to convert it into liquid form as a way to become an all powerful god to dominate over the world for their own nefarious use.
The more Artemis read within the file, the more disgusted she seemed to be before she could even alert her team about the discovery her whole database was wiped as she panicked seeing all of her files being deleted and drained from her computer she tried to stop the process halfway at least to finish retrieving some of her data input but to no luck everything was gone, she banged her hand on the keyboard as she shoved it away from herself as she hung her head low within her hands before straightening her posture and getting back to work.
As the days and nights went by, tension filled the air. The scientist worked tirelessly, their determination unwavering despite the constant threat of being watched loomed over them. In the midst of their preparations, a coded message arrived in the form of a group chat on everyone's cell delivered anonymously, it detailed a rendezvous point where the scientist could meet an informant who had crucial information to give them about the “Dark Covenant’s” plans.216Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QNlG3aWDv
