A silver-haired man walked cautiously around the science lab, pausing every few steps to check a prone body for signs of life. Eventually he confirmed that he was indeed the only living soul in the room. “Well, that’s that,” he sighed. He crouched down beside one of the scientists, peered intently at him for a moment, then with a satisfied nod began to remove the man’s clothing.
“Sorry about this, old chap, but I’m afraid I’m going to need your clothes. Hope you don’t mind but this is something of an emergency, after all,” he apologised to the dead man. The pants and shirt didn’t fit him as well as he would have liked, but beggars can’t be choosers, he reminded himself. As an afterthought he chose to add the lab coat to his ensemble as well. The large pockets on it may come in handy and, having just acquired these clothes, he was in no rush to get them messy.

Fully dressed and feeling more in control than before, he turned his attention to the nearest computer. “Let’s see what’s in here, shall we?” he muttered, sitting down and squinting at the screen. His eyes lit on a file entitled ‘Experimental Prototype Listing’. “Ah, now this looks promising.” His expectant smile as he clicked on the file quickly became a frown as the standard username and password screen appeared, along with a warning that if the correct login was not entered within three tries, the user would be locked out and would have to contact the IT service desk to correct the situation. He glared at the screen and muttered a few choice oaths. “Yes, that’s right, I’m talking to you!” he told the computer and sniffed melodramatically. “I’ve got other places to be anyway. I’ll deal with you later, my recalcitrant friend.” He turned the monitor off with a flourish. If he looked closely he could just make out his reflection in the dark surface of the screen. His reflection peered back at him from behind eerie red eyes. “Humph, doesn’t suit me and damnably hard to see out of it to boot,” he snorted. “Ah well, nothing I can do about it for now.” He pushed his chair back and strode to the laboratory door. “I do believe it’s time to see what’s going on out there. I don’t expect it’ll be long before we get visitors.”

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