Restarting From Genesis

207  Duck for Cover!

Opening the package, Arthur was greeted with an army of rubber ducks, each packaged in their own collective bags, some of varying sizes and colours.

Buried underneath the ducks was another box, this one more tightly packaged.

Arthur made quick work of the box using a small blade he kept in his desk's drawer. Within the box was a layer or two of bubble wrap, followed by a sleek black nylon case and a rattling cardboard box.

Quickly unzipping the case, Arthur found himself gazing upon a variety of different lockpicks, tensioning tools, rakes and various bypass tools. It was a well-rounded set with plenty of variation to tackle more unique defences.

Arthur opened the cardboard box and poured out its contents, various types of locks and padlocks fell onto his desk in a disorderly pile. Arthur picked up a padlock and began testing his new lockpicks, testing if the skills he developed over the years for opening more advanced locks than what could be seen in the game had remained.

Muscle memory didn't seem to be working at first, causing Arthur's frustration to build, but similar to riding a bike, once he had gotten the feeling for it once more, his memory took over. The first padlock had taken him ten minutes to open, by far his worst time in quite some time.

To rectify this, Arthur reached for the next padlock and began the process again.

Within his focus, he almost missed his sister knocking on his door.

"Hey, I got called in for work, I'll be back later tonight, we'll be having takeaway so order whatever you'd like," Anna shouted from behind the door, where she loitered for a moment before receiving a response from Arthur.

"Yes! I did it!" Arthur mumbled to himself with excitement, placing down the last padlock from his pile, one that took him mere moments to open. "I've still got it."

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Arthur grabbed his old messenger bag, filling it with his lockpicking set and a varied collection of ducks before slinging the strap over his shoulder and making his way downstairs.

'Sounds like something is going on at the lab, maybe that'll take some attention away from Dad's office.' Arthur thought to himself.

Arthur made his way out of the house, locking the door behind him as he left, and walked towards the laboratory, namely the building next door.

Before entering the building, he made sure that Donovan's car was parked in the parking lot, and after confirming that detail, he made his way inside.

As expected, it seemed as though something had happened at the office, Arthur wasn't sure what that was, but he had the feeling that something was amiss.

He made his way up the stairs and onto the first floor, walking past his father's office, he noticed that nobody was around, which was convenient for him.

After a moment of checking corners, ensuring he wouldn't be caught in the act, Arthur snuck inside the office.

Although this was his father's office, there were two desks, the main one was obviously for the big man himself, but the second desk was for his secretary, Donovan.

Arthur snuck behind Donovan's desk, crouching behind it so that nobody noticed his presence if they walked past.

The top drawer of Donovan's desk was Arthur's current target, but unfortunately for Arthur, Donovan kept the desk locked when he wasn't present. Unfortunately for Donovan, however, Arthur considered himself an expert at picking locks, and something as subpar as a drawer lock was mere child's play.

Opening the drawer took only moments of Arthur's time, and after opening the drawer, Arthur's prize was resting on top of several notebooks and a handful of miscellaneous items, like a calculator, half a packet of chewing gum and a few pens and pencils.

Arthur swiped Donovan's car keys before closing the drawer. He made sure to leave the drawer unlocked so that he could quickly return the keys when he was done.

Arthur briefly scanned the outside of the door, making sure nobody would witness him leaving, aside from the security cameras. And when he determined it was safe, he slipped out of the room and down the stairs.

When he left the laboratory with Donovan's keys in hand, Arthur found himself feeling a sense of childish excitement, but most of all, he was going to enjoy Donovan's reaction tomorrow.

Opening Donovan's car, Arthur unzipped his bag and took out a handful of rubber ducks. With a devilish grin plastered on his face, he began hiding the various ducks anywhere he could within the car.

Arthur hid tiny ducks anywhere he could; in the ashtray, in both the driver and passenger side sun visor, he fit a couple of larger ducks in the glove compartment. Several ducks found themselves wedged in the drink compartment of the centre console, in the storage areas behind the seats and one even buckled up on one of the backseats. Although Arthur was cautious that the duck wouldn't roll under the driver's seat and cause issues.

The remainder of the duck army had been loaded in the car's boot, scattered within anything the boot contained, even the second pair of shoes stored in his boot weren't safe from a rogue duck sneaking its way in there.

When he was out of ducks, Arthur locked the car and made his way back into the laboratory. Once again the first floor seemed empty, so Arthur snuck inside his father's office and slipped behind Donovan's desk once more. He returned the keys before closing the drawer, and as he just finished locking the desk again, he heard voices quickly approaching.

Arthur hid underneath the desk and decided to wait it out.

The voices became more recognisable, even more so when the office door opened and two people walked inside.

 "The medical bay has seen an increase in visitation from the reactor staff, they aren't reporting injuries, but various ailments," A voice that Arthur recognised at Doctor Hudson spoke up, "It's quite possible that the experiment is causing rapid onset ailments, we don't know what the long term ramifications of exposure to this undocumented radioactive element are."

"Various ailments?" Arthur's father responded, "Elaborate."

"One of the patients is burning up to such a degree that we were forced to submerge his body into an ice bath, the ice doesn't seem to be working for very long, as each bag of ice has melted after only a few minutes." Doctor Hudson reported, "Alternatively, another patient is showing extreme rigour, his body temperature has dropped significantly."

"Several methods of external heating have been attempted, but do not show any signs of improvement, he has since requested to be allowed to run around the hallway to increase his body temperature, and this request has been granted." Hudson continued.

"Observe their conditions, provide a report for any further symptoms and the duration of symptoms. Keep a record of each patient's testimony regarding exposure durations and approximate distance from the element source, note that the file should remain confidential." Arthur's father spoke next, "I will arrange a team to attempt to identify if the element is the cause, and if so develop a way of containing the radiation, is that all?"

"Understood, sir..." Doctor Hudson responded, "But, it is my understanding that you have had high levels of exposure to the element as well, are you experiencing anything that could possibly be considered a side effect?"

"I am fine, Doctor." His father spoke up before seemingly grabbing a handful of documents, at least from what Arthur could tell based on sound alone, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, please excuse me, I am due for a board meeting."

"Of course..." Doctor Hudson responded.

The two men made their way out of the office, Arthur felt both surprised that he hadn't gotten caught and guilty that he overheard a conversation that clearly was not meant for him. But his sense of curiosity had caused him to follow Doctor Hudson, albeit from a distance, to the second floor, just to see what was going on.

As he wandered down the hallway, passing by researchers, doctors and a few patients, he began feeling somewhat overheated, as if the heater on that floor had been turned up to a slightly uncomfortable level.

Despite the heat, Arthur noticed that one of the patients was shivering as if he had been caught in a snowstorm without a jacket, this patient was someone who worked at the laboratory, clearly identifiable by the keycard hanging on his waist.

This keycard informed Arthur that the man before him was one of the engineers working on the reactor project, namely the engineer that had been experiencing the rigour.

The engineer was running through the hallway in a desperate attempt to warm himself up, he was barely managing to avoid others as he sprinted down the hall as if his life depended on it, Arthur attempted to avoid the man, but he ended up lightly brushing past him.

A painful static shock could be felt at their point of contact, followed by Arthur feeling a sensation of energy running through his body. He quickly turned to find that the engineer, surprised by the slight shock, had slipped and ended up prone on the floor behind him.

As the engineer stood back up, Arthur expected him to sprint off again, but something surprising occurred.

"What?... It's not cold anymore," the man spoke to himself out loud, "What the hell is going on? I should tell the doc..."

The man sprinted past Arthur once more, this time heading towards the location of Doctor Hudson's office, leaving Arthur feeling quite surprised.

Arthur stared down at his hand where he had felt the shock and decided to go home, his curiosity had not been quenched, but he felt like something troublesome would happen if he appeared before Doctor Hudson right now.