If you enjoy music while you read, try "Live Like Legends" by Ruelle. It's what I listened to while writing!

*****

~ SASHA ~

Sasha stepped inside the sterile hallway that smelled like a hospital and even though the place was perfectly pleasant with bright lighting and clean walls, her skin began to crawl. The hallway was long, broader than the hallway in the office and housing building they'd just come from. Broad enough for hospital beds and wheelchairs to pass each other, Sasha realized. She had to stifle a shudder.

Then on her left the wall gave way to a long window, the length of a large room and Sasha caught sight of people inside it in lab coats and safety goggles, working at different machines that circled the work benches all the way around the room.

At its center was a long table with many, many test tubes, microscopes, tools that Sasha had never seen before, papers, and folders, and various jars and containers holding differently colored liquids. A woman stood at the center of the table, a long syringe in her hand that reminded Sasha of a turkey baster. She was counting drops of liquids into a tray of test tubes on the table in front of her.

She didn't know a lot about medicine, but she knew that all those machines and pieces of equipment added up to a helluva lot of money. And that the four staff she could see would be expensive, too.

"This is just one of the several lab buildings we have here," Nick said, pausing next to her with Sasha stopped to look at the room.

"Several labs?" she asked quietly, horrified.

Nick nodded. "Plus, the actual project headquarters, staff quarters, the stables, and the sanctuary. This is a massive project, Sasha, and our work with the Chimera is all undertaken here, out from under the eyes of the public. The internet and cellphones only work through secure connections in the buildings. This land is secure and even the airspace is monitored. You're safe here."

Safe? That didn't make her safe. That made her utterly alone. That made them utterly without accountability for the atrocities they were committing here.

But she knew she couldn't say that. So she nodded and followed Nick further down the hall, only glancing at the door into the room they'd just passed with it's fire red WARNING: SECURE LAB. STERILE ENVIRONMENT. DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION.

This place made her skin crawl, but she kept her chin up and made listening noises as Nick rattled off stats about the things they'd achieved here—including accidentally discovering a vaccine that was currently in human trials.

"No matter what you might think, Sasha, the Chimera we have here are genuinely helping the human race. We aren't here to find ways to make better make up or keep aging heiresses looking young. We're solving problems. We're making people. Bigger, faster, stronger, healthier people. And once we nail this, the things we learn from them will make everyone else stronger and healthier, too."

They passed two more labs, one on each side of the hall before they hit a wall blocking their path and a set of double doors marked, SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED.

Nick thumbed a button on the wall that buzzed, and the doors clicked, then one opened and a massive man in a gray uniform stepped through. When he saw Nick, his face relaxed and he stepped back without a word, opening the door to let them in.

Sasha followed Nick through the door to find a guard station on its other side. Blinking computer monitors showed a dozen different rooms in black and white, including the labs they'd just passed. But before Sasha could look at all the images, Nick tugged at her elbow and led her forward as the Guard checked behind them before closing the door and locking it. Nick didn't even greet the guy beyond a nod, just led Sasha deeper into the building, letting go of her elbow after a few steps.

Sasha forced herself to relax, but she felt like she was walking into the belly of the beast. Seeing the guard there, noticing the security cameras high on the walls with their blinking lights, it all added together to a place where she had no control, and her every move was being watched. Nick, too, though he didn't seem to care, just walked casually down the long hallway.

The lighting here wasn't as bright, and the walls looked more worn. As if the first half of the building had been renovated in recent years, while this one was allowed to weather.

It felt more… lived in. And yet, it raised the little hairs on the back of Sasha's neck. The hospital-like smell was less pronounced here, but still present. But something else prickled her skin as well. Sasha would have sworn she smelled the tang of fear. Telling herself that she was just letting her mind run away with her, she forced herself to focus on what Nick was saying.

"…might not be excited to see you until they've checked you out. But don't worry, they're not violent."

Sasha blinked. "I'm sorry, who are you talking about?"

Nick stopped at a door on her left. This hallway was darker, she realized, because there were no windows here. Just walls and doors, also without windows.

"The ladies," he said, with a smirk, as if the word made him want to laugh, but he was trying to be professional. "These were made here and haven't ever left, so they won't be familiar with Thana. Just be aware of that."

Stunned, Sasha opened her mouth to ask, but Nick held his card in front of the sensor and the door beeped, then clicked, then he was walking through, beckoning Sasha to follow. She hurried in behind him, her head spinning, as they walked into what looked like a long dorm room.

At its center was massive, L-shaped sectional couch, large enough to seat eight or ten normal sized people. There was a kitchenette on one end, and several large, single beds around the rest of the space, each with its head to the wall and its foot sticking into the room.

But Sasha couldn't do more than vaguely register the surroundings, because as they stepped into the room, several women that had to be Chimera turned and looked at them.