I made an attempt to open the door. I expected it to fail, and was right. The knife could not even squeeze between the door parts. I started looking around and saw a screen by the door. I poked it again and again but nothing happened. One the screen were numbers and a large blue glass screen above them. There was a card image on the screen.

I am smart enough to understand that something is required, so I started looking around the room.

Behind a pile of steel rubble I saw something, and as I approached closer, the terrible smell intensified.

There was a lab coat on a skeleton. The corpse bile already dried, the remaining flesh was also dry. It was not even a mummy but a deteriorated dead body.

I braced myself and searched the corpse. I found a black card on its front. Also, I found out that the poor bastard died from a knife injury. Aside from that there was nothing of note.

I tried opening the door by placing the card on the screen.

‘Beep’

‘CREEEAK’

The door started opening with terrifying screech. The first layer of the door opened, and I saw another one behind it. For an unknown reason it was only half-opened. I applied brute force but it refused to open.

Since I am a pathetic brat, I searched for a lever. I used one of the steel frames lying around.

After a bit of force usage, the door started opening.

‘CREEEEEEEAK’

Suddenly, the door started opening by itself.

When it opened, I entered another room. This time it was tidy. There were some lab coats and metal boxes but no rubble or hanging wires.

‘Good to know that things can be going nice here.’ I mumbled after I found another computer screen.

Right after I touched the keyboard, the screen lit. I had no idea what I am searching for, so I randomly selected one entry.

[Observation log 1989-810-D.

It took us 7 years… 7 long years… just to finish the first stage.

Through trial and error, we synthesized it. The basis of most living beings. The DNA.

We have one molecule of DNA, completely blank. We can incorporate anything there. We can make anything. We reached the first stage of synthetic organism.

The military showed its interest. The project received its codename: ‘Wyvern’.

With all of the required templates prepared, we will start the Creation. After we receive the new personnel, we will make the prototype embryo.

Dr. M. Yerberg.]

Just out of curiosity I continued reading but the other logs contained simple observation: something was done, somebody reported this and that, and other scientific things that make no sense to me.

I searched for the next door and found it behind a wall panel. I expected no cooperation and hit the door with my fist. The card, that was hanging on my wrist, hit the other steel panel.

‘Beep’

I could only pretend that this was intentional.

I entered the next room.

There were more jars with a liquid inside, and some machinery of unknown purpose.

I searched for a computer. There was one, which I immediately managed to start up. I even felt the pride of being a computer genius.

[Observation log 1990-800-A.

Currently all of our attempts ended up in failure. The embryos were unviable. Average lifespan was 2 weeks, only enough to reach gastrulation.

One of the newcomers, Dr. Stein, proposed a new approach to Creation. Dr. Wu already agreed to revisit the synthetic DNA template. If this experiment will succeed, the military would close project ‘Denaturator’.

Dr. M. Yerberg.]

It was weird that I couldn’t find this log in the previous computers. Still, I continued going forward. Or backward, or whatever the way I am heading.

I barely found the door, since they were always covered by thin metal panels. However, they easily opened. It looks like they did not rust that much, and were not dusted.

What waited me in the next room was disturbing.

The walls were covered in dried blood splashes, there were a couple of dead bodies in lab coats, and all of the equipment was broken. Even that did not stop me from finding a working computer.

[Observation log 1994-877-B.

The bioengineering team finished studying the ‘Denaturator’ documentation. The previous project reached the maximum of its potential and could not be improved further. All of their work was passed to us. So much for a cyborg rat.

Dr. Stein’s experiments gave us a dozen of embryos. All of them survived long enough to be considered successful.

After Dr. Stein’s fierce opposition, we had to dispose of the embryos. This is ‘inhumane’ to use human DNA for experimentation.

Her first batch of project-related prototypes will be finished by the end of the year.

Dr. M. Yerberg.]

I felt chills.