New York City. January 14, 1934.

A blizzard swept through the streets as I got out of my automobile. I placed one hand on top of my fedora as the wind tried to blow it away from me. Turning around I stared at a huge marble, stone, three-story building. In its time it was quite an extraordinary building, with its lifted domed ceiling, radiant colored glass, and its unique designs that spread throughout, like the design around the windows or block pillars that gave the building a personality on the outside. It used to be the center of town but now it was just on the forgotten side of New York City. The people gave it to us scientists and forgot all about it, leaving moss, cracks, and even some blackened stone in its place.

I worked in section B, which was on the left side of the building. Section A was on the right side and slightly further down the road. The more appreciated scientists were in that section and they basically made us look second best, but I believed our work was just as important, even more so.

A light post flickered above me as snow covered the sidewalks. I ran across the cold and icy road trying my hardest not to lose my hat. I could see my assistant waiting for me by the front doors but the wild blizzard made it quite hard to see. Once I got to the other side, he pushed the door open and glanced back to watch the snow fill in my tracks. The bitter cold chilled my muscles and bones with every step I took.

“Good Afternoon Mr. Harris,” my assistant said as I was greeted with a rush of warm air while the door shut behind me. His hair was slicked back like usual and he wore his nice white buttoned-up shirt with a black tie and grey dress pants. A young lady who wore a brown long skirt with a matching blazer and a white blouse walked past my assistant and stopped in front of me, grabbing my coat, hat, and scarf, and placing them on a black coat rack that stood in the corner. Her curly brown hair barely bounced as she walked away and back to her seat behind an old desk.

“Good Afternoon Richard. Is everyone downstairs?” I responded while I brushed the rest of the snow off my grey suit. He nodded as we walked quickly down the stairs to the basement, where we were greeted with two big white doors.

“Now I understand that my paperwork will be done by tomorrow, yes?” He nodded.

“Splendid. I shall drop by your office later tomorrow with the papers for my conference. For now, I have a letter that will be arriving shortly, do send for me when it arrives,” I said as I took off my jacket and put my white lab coat over my clothes.

“Of course, sir.”

He walked back up the stairs as the doors opened. The quietness of the outside seemed to have been blocked out as the noise grew louder. I was greeted immediately by my fellow colleagues as they rushed from one desk to another. A young woman in a dark blue dress, who just so happened to be my beautiful wife, dropped a book and a stack of papers onto the floor while the lights flickered above me. I walked to her side as she jumped from my appearance.

“Oh heavens, you scared me, darling,” She laughed. We had been married for 3 years and she was pregnant with our second child. Our first child died at birth which still made my heart grieve just at the thought.

“Well, I can’t help but notice that my wife looks absolutely stunning today.” I smiled at her as I glanced at her belly.

“How is our boy today?”

“William, you don’t know that it is a boy, what if it is a girl?” She smiled.

“Oh Mary, but it is a boy, I just know it.” She shook her head at me as I kissed her on her rosy cheeks and walked toward one of the testing rooms. A man with blonde hair stood in front of the door, his stance was one that I knew quite well.

“Charles my good friend, how are you doing today?” Charles was one of the very few volunteers who wanted to help us in our search for cures. The cure for cancer and the cure for the sicknesses that were found during the great depression. He and his wife signed up after their son died from Tuberculosis and they’ve been here, working hard every day since then.

“Same as always Will,” he chuckled.

“He is just saying that because he's too lazy to say anything else,” said a familiar female voice. I turned my head to see my wife’s best friend, Margaret Lewis, Charles' wife.

“Always a pleasure to see you, Miss Margaret,” I smiled. My wife grew up with Margaret, they were practically inseparable since they were five years old. She had brown hair that was always pulled up and bright blue eyes that never looked judgemental. She was quite passionate about her work, always focused, and never not doing anything. This was funny because as hardworking as she was she always knew how to have a good, relaxing time in the city.

“The pleasure is all mine William. So Charles and I were wondering if you and your wife want to go on a double date this Friday? We wanted to go to that new dinner place called Larue, one of my friends says the food there is absolutely divine, and the band is known to be one of the best.”

“We would love to go. You know my Mary could never say no to a day out in the city.” I smiled.

“Perfect. Now since that is settled I think we need to get you ready for the third test today.” She said as she waved her husband inside.

Once Charles got seated I glanced into the main office at the top of the room, which overlooked everything. One of the main scientists appeared to be fighting with four guys in black suits. They had come here every other month to try and convince us to let them take control or they would shut us down. They liked to cause trouble and were definitely a pain for us brainiacs.

“They've been fighting for three hours.” Said Shirley White, one of my favorite colleagues. In my opinion, she was by far one of the smartest people we had in New York. Shirley made sure to go into every testing room and make sure everything was hooked up right and going the way we wanted it to. She was most likely going to be the one who would discover the cure for cancer, or better yet, discover several cures for many other illnesses.

“They never give up, do they?” I frowned.

“No, they definitely do not. They’re as stubborn as your wife,” Shirley smiled.

I laughed loudly. The four men started to yell back as they shoved a piece of paper into the scientist's face. I shook my head at the show that they were giving everyone, it was honestly ridiculous to watch.

“You are not wrong. So how are they going today?” I asked as we started to walk down the hall.

“Same as usual. Room 2 is still broken and patient 7 is still seeing no signs of a change. Now we have seen some changes to patient 5 in the last hour.” She stated while she showed me a sheet with all the progress that had developed over the last day and a half.

“That’s wonderful. I’ll take a look at him later tonight. Great work Shirley, you never cease to impress me.” I complimented as I handed back the paper while she turned around and walked back to Charles' room, and started to help Margaret set everything up for today's testing.

“Willam,” James yelled. His red hair and blue eyes greeted me as I turned to the electric room. He was our lead electrician who made sure everything was hooked up right and that power was getting everywhere it needed to.

“Hello James,” I paused. “What can I do for you?”

“Will you come help me put the plugs in the right place,” He pleaded. I nodded as I followed him into the back room. With my five years of electric experience, I was quite useful in reworking our complicated machine. A couple of wires sat on the floor while James tried again once more to fit them together. I grabbed the wire he was having trouble with and twisted it together with another then plugged it into the machine. After fifteen minutes of switching plugs and wires, the lights on the machine turned on with a hum.

“See, the trick is to lift it up, push, and then pull down,” I stated.

“Thank you. Oh and your letter is upstairs on the front desk,” he responded. I thanked him and walked quickly out of the dark brown room and up the stairs as he walked down the back hall towards the other testing rooms. A cream-colored envelope sat on the edge of the front desk. I grabbed it as I walked by and started to open it while I stood in front of huge glass windows. The dark skies grabbed my attention as I looked outside.

“That's weird,” I said as I walked outside the front doors and gazed up at the extraordinary clouds. It was snowing like a blizzard and yet, in all my time of being alive I’ve never, ever, seen it thunder and lightning while it was snowing. A rare sight that I didn’t even know was possible. It was a frightening yet beautiful sight. All of a sudden through the silence and without a warning a bolt of purple lighting hit the stone building. A huge explosion came from the basement, followed by a massive cloud of smoke that came through the basement door opening. The explosion was so big that it felt like an earthquake had passed through, and it took me a minute to regain my balance.

My heart seemed to stop at the terrifying sight. The letter slipped through my fingers, landing in the middle of the road as I ran back inside and towards the basement. I covered my mouth as I sprinted down the basement stairs. One of the main doors was on the ground, while the other swung back and forth on its last hinge. Wires hung from the ceiling sending sparks in every direction. My colleagues laid lifeless across the room as small fires burned the now blackened tables. The stench of burning flesh filled the air which in return filled my lungs and made me sick to the stomach. I glanced up to the main office to only see the window, shattered into a million pieces. I rushed to some of my coworkers' bodies, looking for a pulse or any sign of life, but everywhere I looked, every pulse I checked, there was no sign of life. Even the annoying flies seemed to be vacant from the thick smokey air. Then what felt like a brick hitting me in the chest, I remembered my friends and beloved wife were all still down here.

“Mary!” I yelled “Mary!” I frantically searched the room for my wife, who I hoped and prayed was still alive. I looked behind tables, and inside the rooms but I couldn’t find anything but more dead colleagues. Then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the fiery red hair lying in the corner of the room. She lay in a pool of blood that looked to be her own. I ran to her side, and immediately checked for her pulse but I found nothing but my own beating in my neck.

“No, no, no,” I cried as I started to do CPR.

“Mary please, please don’t leave me,” I begged as I moved some of her hair off of her face. My own tears fell down her cheek like water going down a leaf. Everything inside me wanted to believe that this was all a dream or that it was some sort of sick trick. I wanted to believe that my wife and unborn child were still alive. Hope burned inside of me as I waited for my wife to just wake up and hug me, placing her soft fingers against my face or even feeling the baby kick under my hand. After about ten minutes of CPR, I felt no change and hope seemed to leave my body. I fell back onto the burned wall that was behind me, grief filling my body as water glazed my eyes, making everything around me turn blurry. Putting my bloody hand over my mouth, I looked away from my lifeless wife as the sight seemed to bring my soul to a painful abyss. I yelled out as the wall I leaned against shook as something or someone hit it. Looking up to the window above me I moved away from the wall and slowly got up.

Walking to the door frame of the room I looked back towards my wife, my last tear falling off my face and hitting the ground as I cautiously walked into the room where Charles, Margaret, and Shirley were last seen in. Peaking into the quiet room I noticed Shirley, lying in the middle of the room. The right side of her face and down her arm had what looked like lightning scars, yet they seemed to glow a luminescent purple. A broken wire laid close to her hand, sparking at least twice before it seemed to stop. I tried to look at her chest but from the way she laid I couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not.

“She’s still alive,” said a familiar voice. I turned my head swiftly to see Charles, huddling in the corner of the gray room. He held his unconscious wife close to his chest. She was covered in burns, yet he seemed to be free from any.

“I checked her pulse,” he paused as if he were trying to hold back tears. His arms started to shake as he held her closer to him.

“What's happening to her?” He asked. I stood there in shock, not knowing what to do or what to say. Margaret's hair fell off her face and I finally noticed what Charles was talking about. She had what looked like a lightning design that went up her face as if they were her veins and like Shirley's scars, they seemed to glow but this time they were a light blue. When I looked closer, the strange lightning design seemed to be moving around her face as if it were electricity going through a powerline.

“What’s happening to me?” Charles said. I noticed that he had the same weird design going up his neck as his wife, but this time they glowed an orange, yellowish color. I gasped and fell backward as he looked up at me. His eyes glowed as if they had fire in them. They struck me with fear yet at the same time they were mesmerizing.

“What’s happening to us?” He asked as he looked back down at his wife, who was still

Unconscious.

The adrenaline that filled my body seemed to stop my ability to speak. Fear and questions rushed my mind as I looked back at his glowing eyes. His questions were ones I couldn’t answer nor knew the answer to, yet they intrigued me. My mind was bombarded with questions of my own but one seemed to be much bigger than the rest. Had we created a solution to the problem or had we created a new disaster waiting to happen?