A Tour of the Lab
At the far eastern corner of Galloway, where the Frozen Abyss lapses into the city, is where the lab is stationed. It’s a dreadful place having been abandoned and never rebuilt after the war. Completely vacant of human life the only thing alive or seems to move in this part of the city is the constantly falling snow. Most of the buildings are in the process of falling down and most have already collapsed under the weight of the snow leaving nothing but ruins. In this lonely part of the city the only thing still standing and that seems to be in any kind of shape is an old two story hospital. The outside is still covered in neglect and shows the abuse it has undergone from the elements. A few windows here and there have been busted out leaving those rooms to the mercy of the weather, but despite that, once through the doors the inside is a little different than one would expect.
The first room, the lobby, is near spotless. The floors have been recently cleaned and waxed, the walls have been freshly painted within the last few months and a single picture hangs above the check in desk. Aside from the picture, the desk, and a single chair sitting behind the desk, the room is void of everything else. The upper levels would prove to be the same. A single gurney would be neatly placed in each sleeping quarter, linens finely pressed as if awaiting a patient, but there is nothing else. The nurses stations would be empty aside from a desk and a single chair leaving the upper floor just as barren as the lower level.
The true part of the lab lies beyond a janitor’s closet on the far end of the lower level. At the very back of the closet there is another door that opens up and reveals a steel staircase that leads down into a pristine white room. The room itself is nothing special, it is much like the upper levels of the hospital, empty, but it opens up into a long hallway, which is the first view of the ‘patients’ that Suto keeps. The hallway seems to be made up of small rooms all with a thick layer of glass on the outer wall to allow easy viewing. Each room is equipped with a small gurney, a little table, and a single chair. Each room contains a single person, all males and generally small children though a few are older but none are past their teens. All of them have the same general appearance, sunken in eyes, pale skin, and an emotionless stare showing their broken will. A few will look up, mostly the younger children, to see a new comer, but for the most part anyone coming through the hallway is ignored.
The hallway twists and turns in this underground lair of sorts, until it finally comes to a stop at a large metal door. Past this door is the actual lab where Suto spends most of his time doing his research, conducting experiments, or planning for the future. The lab itself is huge, much bigger than anything upstairs and is full of equipment that is far from anything anyone has ever seen. Technology that has yet to be exposed to the outside world is littered through out the lab. Suto has a hand full of associates who are constantly moving throughout the lab doing busy work or helping with an ongoing project. Most, if not all of them look sleep deprived but they obey orders without question.
In the center of the room lays Suto’s desk amongst the chaos so he has a clear view of everything that is going on. Upon the desk are a few things, mostly papers, writing utensils, but also a large leather case in which he keeps his acupuncture needles. Beside his desk is a stand with a large rabbit cage. The cage is spotless with fresh bedding, clean water and fresh food are at one end while toys and things to chew on are at the other. Nothing has been left out or overlooked in the care and well being of the rabbit within the confines of the cage. Too bad the rabbit was dead and more than painfully obvious, even at a quick glance. It was permanently affixed in a sitting position with its paws by its mouth as if cleaning its face. No eyes, just large dark empty sockets left in their place. Large chucks of fur were missing, mostly in places from prolonged petting and attention like the back and head most of which showed the skeleton of the rabbit underneath. A few places had been sow up and even reattached leaving one to assume this rabbit had been dead for quite some time, possibly a childhood pet that Suto had not wanted to part with.
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