The Water Apocalipse

It was just a job. You were meant to be mopping floors and

cleaning toilets at a Pharmaceutical Research Center. And you were
happy about it. You didn’t even know that the building you were in was
hiding something much, much worse than anyone could ever imagine.
The Pharmaceutical Research Center wasn’t actually a Research center
it was actually a Containment facility, with the sole purpose of
containing one single anomaly, Quandle. But again, you’re just the
janitor it’s not like they would bother telling you what’s being
contained here. If it breaks out you won’t even know what’s killing you
before it’s too late.
It begins like most classic horror stories, on a dark, stormy night.
You're mopping out a silent hallway, whistling a little tune to yourself,
with the rain hitting the window next to you loudly. Not long after, you
see a bolt of lightning split the distant sky followed by a loud thunder.
Soon after, you hear screaming and panicking from below, loud
footsteps, then the red flashing lights and sirens. You think back to your
employee orientation. These flashing lights and wailing sirens can only
mean one thing: Containment breach. You run, not even knowing what
you’re running from. You bring your mop and bucket, mostly out of
habit. You seek refuge in the only place in th facility that truly belong to
you: The mop closet. You lock yourself in the closet, you’re shaking with
terror and can hear the screaming of your colleagues. You hear more
noises, running, screaming, a wet dripping sound, gunshots, and then...
silence. While sitting alone in the closet, you can’t do anything else but
think: “why isn’t anybody coming to help us?”.
After a while, the only thing you can hear is the rain and the distant
thunder. It’s been hours, you’ve only managed to quench your thirst
with the filthy water from the mop sink. But at least it seems as the
chaos outside has died down. Carefully you open the door and peek out
of the closet. Darkness, but no movement. Now’s your chance and you
make a run for it, running down the hall. The dark hallway is suddenly
lit up by lightning, and you can see that there are bodies everywhere. If
you could make it to the security office, you might be able to radio for
help, or maybe access a computer terminal. When you enter the
security room, you see that the head of the security is already dead. His
body has been cut open from neck to stomach. The anomaly, whatever
it is, has already been here. You notice that on his body lies a security
card. Using it, the terminal gives you the option to view security feeds.
You access the feed of the corridor outside of the security office. You
see a scientist walking down the hallway, his movements seem slow,
calculated, like he’s in a trance, he then suddenly clutches his gut in
pain and crumples on the floor. You access the camera feed from the
first floor entrance, it seems that the whole area is flooded, is this
because of the storm? In panic, lower tier staff have tried to escape,
defying the lockdown protocols in the special containment procedures,
now they’re floating face down in the water,
All dead. You access the first floor cafeteria camera feed. The whole
room is practically underwater, the only vidence of the massacre that
must have happened are the fragments of clothing floating on the
surface of the water. That, and the fleshy, pink slurry forming at the
bottom of the windows. It’s violent chaos, looking more at it isn’t
helping you. So you put that security clearance to good use, so you hop
onto the Quandle anomaly file, but as you wait for it to load, some part
of you knows that time is running out for you.
Perhaps it’s the stress, or the fear, or the filthy mop water you drank,
but you’re feeling the pressure start to mount, physically. Your stomach
is beginning to ache. You can see blurry shapes moving in the corners of
your eyes. It’s getting harder to focus your vision, and harder still to
quiet the terrified voices in your mind. But you can’t get up - not
without knowing what is doing this to you. The containment class for
Quandale is now declassified. “Euclid.” And what’s more, the Special
Containment Procedures have altered, too. They now explain that
every week, a new member of D-Class personnel is to be deposited into
the entity’s lair in Sub Level 2 through Subterranean Access Point
Gamma. The D-Class- or more accurately, the sacrifices - are to be told
lies about why exactly they need to descend to the lowest point in the
facility. They’re even given a working flashlight and a defensive
nightstick to create the illusion that the Foundation expects them to
ever return from the depths. Little do they know, they also have a tiny
transmitter sewn into their jumpsuit. This broadcasts a frequency that
will attract an eager Quandale to the D-Class’ location, like a dinner bell
only it can hear. The file specifies that Quandale always prefers live
prey. “Well, at least that explains the dead D-Class in Sub Level 2,” you
think, hoping that it’ll somehow overwhelm the dizziness you’re feeling,
or the nagging pain in your gut. You read on. Somehow, the file’s tone
becomes even more severe. It says that failure to maintain the
containment of Quandale will not only trigger a lockdown, it will always
call in the intervention of two different Mobile Task Forces: MTF Iota-
12, “The Silencers”, and Tau-4, also known as “Water, Water
Everywhere.” If twelve hours pass from the point of initial containment
breach, and the O5 Council hasn’t been given the “all clear” signal by
one of these teams, preparation begins for an imminent XK-Class End of
the World Scenario. Just reading the words sends you into a cold sweat.
“End of the World? What on Earth is this creature?” Finally, you reach
the description. You get to find out what this horrifying entity actually
is. But the last thing you expect is for the first sentence in the file to
read, “Quandale is a sapient entity composed of a fluid physically
identical to water, capable of traveling roughly two and a half
kilometers per hour.” It’s water. It’s literally a living, thinking blob of
water. As you read on, the concerning details pile up: Any water that
the anomalous Quandale water touches, it integrates into its own mass.
But any time water is separated from this mass, it remains anomalous,
and continues to act independently. When the creature was first
discovered, it was a mere 66.4 liters in volume. Now, it’s around twenty
five hundred. The water infected by Quandale is hostile to all humans,
and not just in a defensive manner. Quandale will actively seek out
human prey. And when it finds them, it forces its mass into any
available bodily orifice, including the victim’s pores. This can happen in
such a subtle manner that you may not even notice yourself being
infiltrated. But below this, the file has a list of symptoms for those
experiencing Quandale infiltration: loss of motor control, weakening of
the micturition reflex, visual hallucinations, and abdominal pain. As you
read the words, your stomach gives another painful churn. Almost like
something is moving around inside you. It’s all coming together. You
read on. The file states that Quandale is so difficult to contain because
it exhibits claustrophobic tendencies. Any time it’s placed inside a
container, whether organic or inorganic, it escapes with pressurized
water jets that travel at over 255 miles per hour. If the water is inside a
human, it may literally explode out of them, killing them in the process.
Your jittering eyes turn to the gutted body of Security Officer Nichols. It
all makes sense now. Everything is becoming clear as the pain in your
stomach builds in its intensity. The file goes on to say that if ever
Quandale escapes Sub Level 2, it may be impossible to contain again. If
Quandale ever escaped the site proper, it would indeed cause an XK-
Class End of the World Scenario to unfold, as Quandale merged with
our water cycle and destroyed all of humanity on a global scale. It
would become truly impossible for anyone to escape. You can’t read
any more. The pain in your stomach is unbearable. You jerk from your
seat and stumble out into the hall, doubled over in agony. You can feel
it pulsing in there. Fighting its way out. It must have gotten in through
the filthy mop water you were drinking. You didn’t even know it, but
your fate has been sealed for hours. You’ve been a dead man walking.
The hum of pain builds in your ears and renders you almost deaf. All
you can hear is the patter of rain and the distant thunder. You collapse
against the glass, feeling the coolness of it against the skin of your face.
And in that moment, you see the water droplets on the window pane
reverse direction. They’re slithering up the glass towards your face in
defiance of gravity. Then, you realize it’s already over, and not just for
you. Quandale has escaped. It’s out there, and it’s going to drown the
entire world. As you collapse to your knees and prepare to be torn
apart from the inside, your final thought is that at least you won’t be
alive to see it.