Well now he just felt dumb.


    After running his hand along what he had previously thought was a support pillar, he found a patch that felt different. Investigating that patch led to him discovering a panel similar to that in the cryo room. Invisible to the eye until it was activated by his hand, at which point it formed some kind of tactile hologram. The pillar he now knew to be a large elevator shaft seemed to be where he needed to investigate next.


    After he had found that mysterious page with future english on it, he had taken the other papers he had collected to try to learn the language back to somewhere more comfortable. It seemed that whoever had been here really didn’t want anyone to know what they were up to. The pages had been filled with code and possibly even misdirection.


    He knew there was code because they mostly stuck to one language, that being the one he couldn’t read and similar to the wall markings, while bits and pieces were in the future english that he could parse, barely.


    And what they said was…enlightening.


    He couldn’t understand much of the other language used in the papers as it wasn’t just simple words and required context. While he could recognize a word here or there that he had run into before, they lost all meaning in the greater mass. The bits in future english though gave him enough insight. He still had to fill in the blanks, but it seemed they were doing some kind of genetics testing. The mad scientist pods he had found alongside the papers were exactly that, some kind of artificial environment for testing.


    Probably people testing if he had to guess, as there were mentions of sickness and immunity.


    Really didn’t help the paranoia when you are basically dropped into a Resident evil plot. If any of the pods had been broken or dirty in any way he would be treating things very differently right now. Fortunately, everything seemed clean and sanitized, so his running theory right now was that everyone had been caught.


    The contents of the paperwork may not be clear, but the intent to hide very much was. Mad scientist labs combined with clandestine paperwork painted a pretty clear picture of wanting to remain uncaught. State projects didn’t tend to hide from the people that gave them funding, so there would be no reason to hide from authorities if they had that kind of backing.


    Seeing as there was a lack of mess or of things left out, it couldn’t be some kind of surprise raid or unexpected catastrophe due to the research. At least on the level he was on, everyone had left mostly calmly. This of course prompted him to consider why he and his partner in feline crime were still here.


    A quick glance at the cryo room with this new info made the answer blatantly obvious. The color line that wasn’t there led to rooms that ‘weren’t there’. When the cryo room was closed it looked like a normal wall. There was no indication it existed until you found and used the invisible panel.


    Why the main elevator was unmarked he had no idea, maybe this whole level was supposed to be ‘unknown’, but it was the same. You couldn’t even tell where it was until you found the panel. Fortunately, thinking back to everything he had explored up to this point, the only places left for invisi-doors were in the lab. If this place still followed the laws of physics he could account for any ‘room sized’ places elsewhere.


    So, having confirmed his suspicions that things were not great and not wanting to waste all that courage he had spent time gathering, he had wrapped a sheet around his face and shoulders, making a makeshift bandana and poncho. It wasn’t much for protection, but it was better than nothing and his trusty pan would do most of the work anyways. Even if it had cooled down by now.


    It took him a bit to find the panel inside the elevator, it having been placed on the side in a non-obvious spot. He nearly gave up right there as well, the choices not being an obvious ‘floor x’ button but a rather a confusing block of text. Fortunately, the ‘code’ seemed to be a universal thing, bits and pieces of future english in the text.


    There seemed to be three distinct ‘codes’, one for a ‘hold’, probably cargo receiving if he had to guess, one for a ‘deck’, no idea where that went, outside maybe? And the last one was pretty cryptic as all it said was ‘hope’. At least that’s what he thought it said, that last one was harder to parse than the others.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Given he had been looking for a way out this whole time, picking deck seemed the most pertinent move. Hoping he wasn’t dooming the poor girl to starving alone, he touched the hologram where it said deck and crossed his fingers. When nothing happened he went to try something else but accidentally brushed another part of the hologram.


    When the doors closed he figured he was on the right track, even if he had fallen into it. When they opened again a few moments later, he wasn’t as sure as before.


    It looked exactly the same. Peeking his head out to look for any differences he still couldn’t be sure he had moved at all. It seemed like he would have to spend a lot more effort to decipher this elevator. He may even have to reevaluate if it was an elevator.


    “This is seriously hurting my smart guy image.”


    After copious amounts of staring blankly, sorta-educated guessing and some tactical littering, he had determined that whatever this was did indeed move. Wiping his brow after such immense progress, he felt pretty pleased with himself. He now even knew that ‘hope’ was the floor he woke up on, or at least looked very similar around the elevator, and ‘deck’ was a yet unexplored area.


    ‘Still no idea what ‘hold’ is though.’


    Hefting his trusty pan, he confidently walked to the first intersection on the ‘deck’ level. Seeing that the lines weren’t labeled at this part, he quickly shifted gears to start mapping the corridors with his notebook and let the pan be relegated to a clipboard.


    It didn’t take him very long to figure out that the floor plan here was completely different from the other floor. Sighing heavily, he settled in to do a quick check of the floor to get a rough map. If this floor was anywhere close to the size of the last one it would take him days to fully map the rooms here.


    He was somewhat looking forward to the project. Not only was it something to do, he could also hear more industrial noise on this level than he could back in the ‘living quarters’ he had first explored. Hopefully that meant he would be able to find something he could use to make or repair the things he might need, like say, a knife to fight off any nasties he may yet encounter.


    Still, something to do other than wait for his inevitable demise was a welcome distraction, even if it set his hairs standing straight up from paranoia.


    <hr>


    Several hours and a quick nap later, he realized he had completely underestimated the size of this area. He hadn’t taken into account that the ‘hope’ level seemed to be a ‘secret’ area and could have been quite small. Because it was tiny compared to the ‘deck’ level.


    It was starting to make more sense where every one had gone. The ‘hope’ level hadn’t had many people to begin with and they seemed to be a secret level without a lot of common access. The ‘deck’ level on the other hand was a full working level meant for a larger number of…. Workers?


    He wasn’t sure at this point as it was just as empty, though a large place like this getting shut down and the secret area above having to be abandoned to maintain appearances made a lot more sense than a raid leaving crucial evidence behind. This level was clearly more ‘used’, as there were markings on the walls and floors that were likely caused by logistics, moving large amounts of stuff from one place to another kind of logistics. That meant it would be easier for things to get ‘lost’ and end up somewhere less populated, like a secret level few people knew about.


    He had yet to find any living areas for this level, but with the size of the space that wasn’t surprising. All the doors on this level seemed to be closed as well. He couldn’t tell if that was just protocol or if it was something more nefarious going on. He continued to make notes as he made his way back to the elevator.


    As much as he wanted to do a quick pass, there was too much ground to cover in one session. If he wasn’t on strict rations he could just go hungry for a bit, but the lack of extra food made missing even one meal dangerous, especially when he was moving around like he was.


    Getting off the elevator back on level ‘hope’, he made his way toward the showers. He was looking forward to a quick shower and a nice relaxing snack in his little nest while he studied what writing he had found and tried to consolidate his notes on the ‘deck’ level. Things would go faster if he could tell where he was.


    What he didn’t expect was to see little miss Kitty looking lost and spooked near the bathroom.


    Had he really scared her that much?


    It was a shame he didn’t have a choco-stick on him, he might have been able to entice her to shower again. He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers a little while he gave her a quick “here, kitty, kitty”, though without much hope in it. He expected her to bolt and he would get to shower in peace.


    Suffice to say he was quite shocked and nearly dropped his pan shaped clipboard and the notebook he had been looking at when she slammed into his hand and proceeded to try to both wrap his hand around her chest and herself around his hand at the same time. She was comically unsuccessful at both, but clearly something had spooked her worse than his little stunt with the shower.


    Given he had zero hands at the moment, one holding his notebook and the other being glommed by a feline enthusiast, there wasn’t much he could do about it other than make some comforting noises.


    She did still seem wary of him, her attempts to steal his hand happening at a distance she wouldn’t accidentally touch the rest of him, so he didn’t want to try to pick her up or hug her, but he needed to at least get to the bottom of what had spooked her.


    Doubly so when she appeared to be trying to give him the stuffed cat.


    ‘So much for a relaxing night of reading, I guess today is a charades day.’