{M} People Like Us {Numbers & Natora}

Kelly stood in the atrium of the building looking to the large glass doors letting plenty of light in to reflect off the marble floors and around the large room. The clipboard in her crossed arms had a list of five new employees that were joining the ranks of greatness today: two security, one custodian, one transporter, and one researcher. The researcher proved to be the most interesting of them all. He had managed to get hired without her hearing a word about it. Given that she was just recently graduated and had kept ties with the university, she was interested to see what his specialty was given that he certainly hadn't graduated from Kimworth, her alma mater.

This position that she was standing in, the leader of the new recruits, was a new privilege for her, one earned from hard work and good morals. The company worked to inform and revolutionize the country, wanting to make more unique connections than ever before. This was a stage for research and modern ideas! She was honoured that they had bestowed her with this. Of course, this being her first time doing the tour, she had a list of the names of the new people with their locker numbers beside their names. Underneath was a schedule that she intended to stick to, spending a little more time in each of the areas that would be pertinent to the people she was introducing. Behind, a small set of three papers with ample descriptions and notes of every area in the tour in case of the unlikely event that she forgot anything.

Checking her watch one more time she saw that it was one minute before the bus was to arrive. For the first day, the company liked to bring the employees in together so that they would know what the possibilities were for them. The shuttle ran every day and they could ride it if they so wished. Shaking the sleeve of her white lab coat back over her golden watch, a gift from her grandmother upon getting hired here, she stood back up with perfect posture and set her brown eyes expectantly on the door.
Just on time, at 8:29am, the bus arrived and the new recruits walked through the door. Kelly put a smile on her face and walked towards them, the clip of her short black heels echoing a little as she walked towards them. Her confidence showed in how she stood and how she presented herself. Walking up to them she smiled and nodded a group hello. "Hello. My name is Kelly Small and I'll be introducing you to the building today. Welcome to Hamstein Laboratories. This is the first day of many where you will be helping to change the world," she announced to them. Dipping her hand into her coat pocket, she handed each of them a name tag with their name and pictures on it. "You will need to wear these at all times," she informed them after handing them out. She made a small gesture to her own that was clipped on to the breast pocket of her lab coat. "To get through the security check points you will need to scan the cards. They will only permit you into the areas you are permitted to be in," she let them know. "Any questions before we get started?" she asked the group.

Etmere sat on the bus looking out the window as the bus moved. Today would mark the start of his first day on his new assignment. New identity. His first name was the same but his last name was different. Now it was Zurbank before it was Raloth. As the bus stopped he was stirred from his moment of thinking. He stood up from his seat and walked out with the other new people. They all looked excited to be there, he looked like someone who just didn't care as much of them. Which was the truth, they were thinking about how they would help change the world whereas he looked like he only thought it was a job, which was the truth.

As he walked into the building with the others, a woman came up to them and introduced herself as Kelly. He took the nametag and ID that she handed him. As he looked at her, he thought about his mission briefing from a few days before. His ID supposedly was made by another agent in the company to allow him unrestricted access. Though it came with the warning to make sure that people didn't see him use the kind of access that was on it since if anyone tested the card it would show that it was obviously hacked to some extent.

He looked up when she asked if anyone had questions and he went to speak up. "One big question. When do we start working? I would prefer to get started sooner than later." As he spoke he thought on the background he was given. His credentials and job labeled him as a chemical engineer. Of course, he had the knowledge to back it up as well since he would actually have to do work at the company and work to help them while he works to hinder them as well.

Kelly saw one of the men raise his voice and directed her attention to him. An amused smile graced her lips though he seemed much more serious than the others about starting work. It made her very happy to know the scientist was the most attractive men hired out of this bunch. It never hurt to have a good looking associate. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm, your actual work will begin tomorrow. Today is an orientation and a chance for you to finish all the necessary paperwork in order to be considered an employee. Tomorrow the fun will start," she assured him kindly though still leaving no room for argument.

Looking to the group as a whole she nodded to them and said, "Let's get moving, though, shall we?" She turned and walked with them, taking her own security tag off and scanning it before walking through a turnstile like one would find in a metro station. "As you will shortly find, if you don't scan your tag as you enter, you will not be permitted entry. Under no circumstances should you lose it or forget it at home. Losing it can lead to a disciplinary action," she informed them matter of factly as she walked to the elevators and pushed the button for one. She turned back as the new comers made their way over to the elevators. "Each of you will be working on different floors. Most of you will be in the below ground levels but the security staff and our janitors work on various levels each day. As our new transporter and scientist will be working only below ground levels we'll start there," she said to them just as the elevator showed up.

Stepping inside, she held the doors until they were all in and pressed the button to take them down to floor B2. "B1 is for company parking. If you wish to drive your own vehicle you will need to register your vehicle on floor 4. As you could see, the building has many floors but most of the above ground levels are rented out to other businesses for office space. Our floors are limited to floor 10. The rest up to floor 65 are all other businesses so you should have no reasons to go up there for work," she informed them pleasantly.

The elevator dinged and they were able to walk out. "Welcome to the transportation level. Here is where we bring in new test subjects and store our vehicles. Marco, you will be working on this floor. Our transportation groups work in teams of four. One driver, one guard, and two to apprehend the subjects once they are identified," she explained to them as she led them further in. It looked like most large garages. There were only three large vans that appeared to be like army vans with bullet proofing sitting in the lot though there was room for about twenty more. "Most of the teams are already out though one has been stationed until Marco was hired as they were missing a driver. Once you have more experience you can be appointed to a guard," she informed him. She led them up to a station that had an important looking man sitting at a desk with a bullet proof vest. He was introduced as Marco's new boss, Jardon Hammers, and the man that they should talk to if they were looking for a team to help them on an outing. "Any questions for myself or Mr. Hammers?" Kelly asked.

He wasn't necessarily happy with her answer, however, he supposed that this would at least give him the chance to scope everything out. As he followed, he listened intently and observed everything they went by. A garage, he would need to make sure to stop on floor 4 to register himself a spot to park his bike. Once they reached the transportation level though he looked at the few vehicles that were still in the garage. Heavily armored and bulletproof meant that his allies would have a hard time stealing one. Though this was information they already possed. They knew that in order to take one down they had to use explosives and IEDs as forms of traps. If he could somehow capture one and transport it back to the rebels it would give them the chance to study an intact one to find the weaknesses it might possess.

He turned his attention back to the guide when she asked if anyone had any questions for herself or the guy who was in charge of the transports. He thought for a moment on whether or not there were any questions he could possibly ask to try and gain some information without it seeming too suspicious. "Yes, what if there is something that I need that is hard to find, and only really out in nature. Is it possible for me to request a team to take me out so that I can find the rare chemical, harvest it, and bring it back for work? I do deal with some unique and dangerous chemicals that require proper knowledge to harvest without destroying the plant or chemical."

Again the researcher piped up with a question. She would have to talk to her supervisor about him. He was already very keen and eager. Perhaps, if he could work as well as he was interested in working, he would be able to move up through the ranks quickly like she had. Mind, his request was incredibly odd. "Most of the tests and experimenting that is done here are trials that have been done and repeated many times. I suppose if you had approval for a new study and required something that wasn't available there is the possibility of requesting a team expedition," she answered as confidently as she could. Most of the studies that were new were done by the lead scientists of the corporation. It wasn't the place of the more juvenile workers to suggest new ideas. He would come to learn this though.

With assurance that there were no other questions they moved on. Together they went back to the elevators and moved now to floor B4. "B3 is our electrical and maintenance floors. Nothing that we will need there and it is off limits to anyone without clearance. The company does insist on safety before all measures," she explained.

As the elevator came to its slow halt and the doors opened, they could see a vast number of hallways all in pure white. "Here we are at the laboratory floor. This is where any data collected from the test subjects is analyzed by our team of highly trained scientists. Etmere, this is where you'll be working most of the time," she informed as she led them up to a fire escape plan. "As you can see there are many different rooms in this level dedicated to different types of research," she said indicating the map that had at least twelve different labs. "Here we can analyze blood and tissue samples, look at past research done and compare any changes we see to how the Marked are adapting and changing as time goes by. Of course we can't always know what changes are influenced by the environment and what changes are natural courses of evolution but we have found changes. Everyone of you will have access to this floor at some point. Transporters will sometimes come down to help load some of the findings into our storage facility off site," she told them all.

Stuck doing stuff other people had already done, as if to prove it was all still correct. He thought it was annoying, mainly because of the fact that it would make it harder to give information to the rebels if he wasn't allowed to go outside and leave markers to tell them what is going on. Hopefully the other agent in the company would have some way of contacting the rebels in order to let them know about his own situation.

For now though, he continued to follow in the tour, staying in the back of the group as he made sure to look at everything. As they entered the new floor he listened intently to what she was saying again. When she said Marked, it could only remind him of how someone talked when they were testing animals. Granted, to these people, that's what he was to them. An animal that needed to be studied in order to be killed better. His eyes narrowed as he listened to the way she talked about this floor. His own mark, hidden, it felt like it was burning on his skin. He knew it wasn't though. It was more so just him thinking about his own people being treated in such a way.

Then he heard the next part. 'Storage facility off site', he made a mental note to himself to remember that he would need to do research on the location of such a facility. If he could learn of it's location without people realizing he knows where it is. It would mean that he could give the location of it to the rebels freely, and have the company think that the leak came from someone else instead of himself.

Kelly paused as if suspecting and anticipating another question to be asked. When none came she nodded to them. "For today we won't be going into the labs but we can walk through the halls as there are a few with windows," she told them all. With that she led them around to look inside the windows of different testing facilities. There were mostly more lab technicians in lab coats that looked like the one Kelly was wearing over her dark blue dress. As they walked through you could tell how proud Kelly was that she worked on this floor with the others: the way she spoke about the work and her colleagues showed it.

When they finished the tour of the hallways they went back into the elevator. "Now, we won't be visiting the testing facility today as some can find it upsetting, though some, Etmere, Joseph, and Grindel, will have to visit the floor for working reasons of course," she told them as she pushed the button for B6. The tone she used when she spoke about the people that found the floor upsetting showed how she didn't think much of them. It was a different floor for sure but the work was necessary to find new information. No matter how upsetting it could get, it was important and should be viewed by all, she thought.

Arriving at floor B6, the stepped off into a bright but cold area made of stone walls. The temperature of the place matched that of the other areas but the feel of the floor was entirely different. "Now this," Kelly said, building up some excitement as she stepped off the elevator, "this floor is where the Marked are kept when they are free from being tested." She walked in and showed them another map of the area. There were about twenty cells with an odd open space in the middle with no labels. It was clear to see that they were standing at the backs of the cells. "As they have already been served breakfast, there are some that are missing as they are on the testing floor but there are many that are still here housed in their cells. We will be able to walk by them and see their quarters as well as the common area. Joseph I have heard that your assignment will be here during meals and their daily common hour," she said to him with a smile before leading them towards the center with the space. This time there were two security points they had to scan themselves through about ten feet apart as they went down the hall towards the cells. "Spaced well so that if one were to steal a card there is time to deactivate it before they get to the second stop," she explained almost absentmindedly.

Once there it was clear as to why there was a space. There were five floors of twenty cells a piece with a large open center that only had tables and chairs on the bottom floor. "Currently we have space for 100 subjects with a sixth floor at the bottom with a cafeteria for meal times. They are given an hour for each meal and another hour at the end of the day of common time. Currently we have 87 subjects that are being studied each week of adult age as we haven't yet managed to find any Marked subjects under the age of 19. We still aren't sure if it's because the marks develop over time or not," she told them before leading them down a corridor with six cells that they could look into through a small window in the cement door. "Any questions so far?" she asked.

He could only feel the anger inside of him rise more with the more he saw, the more he heard, and the more she talked. They were essentially being treated less than animals. "Question, how do we know that eating once or twice a day, compared to three or four times a day, isn't affecting the mark in some way. I'm just asking from the point of view that is my expertise. Being a chemical engineer, to say the least, I am curious whether or not the mark is affected by different chemical states among their body. Both with the natural chemical states that change based on what a person eats and how much a person's eats, to the different kinds of chemical compounds that can be found in medicine, drugs, and even different states of sickness." He was trying to gauge how much they knew about the marks and the best way to do that was to ask questions like he knew nothing about the marks. After all, to some extent he was supposed to nothing, only what the propaganda would tell him. He also knew that if they didn't know whether these different states affected or not, he could convince them that it would be worth trying in order to give his people food and medicine to make them more comfortable and living more like how people should live in the name for science.

For now though, as he waited for her answer, he looked through the different viewing windows at some of the few people he could see, spying some of the marks. As much as he wanted to break them out of there, it wasn't his job. Something he had argued about with the leader on multiple occasions. If he started finding ways to break people out of here then it would start to draw way more suspicious than what was required for sabotaging different data and locations of the building. Which only brought his mind back to one matter. The propaganda made them out as something to be feared. They really desired peace but to a certain extent it was correct. They were dangerous, not because of their marks, but because they were more than willing to fight back, and were already in the process of doing things in the hope for a hostile takeover if peaceful resolutions never presented themselves to the marked.

((Sorry for any spelling or grammatical issues. On a different device than usual so I don't have my usual tools to help catch mess ups xD, more so since I type much faster than my brain thinks xD))

((They are completely forgiven :) ))

Whoops! First mistake. She made a mental note to be sure she wouldn't make that mistake again. Kelly turned back and smiled at him kindly. "I misspoke," she corrected herself. "A regular three meals a day plus an extra hour after dinner to have common time and wander a little more," she said to him as she continued walking backwards down the hall. Two more steps and they were at a corner with the last door of that hallway. As she took one step past it, one of the Marked ran at the door and screamed at her.

The janitor chirped in surprised and ducked behind the transporter that had taken a step back. To the benefit of both of the security team, neither did more than raise their eyebrows and look surprised. Kelly, of course, didn't move. She had been expecting this. The man in the cell had long, unkempt hair that fell around his eyes, almost covering the piercing blue that was there. His hands were wrapped around the bars in the window and his mark showed on his knuckles. "This is subject 5-241," she announced to the group. "He is by far the most violent of the Marked subjects at this location. We have found through the studies that he also has the most covering mark on him. You can see it on his knuckles," she pointed out before he brought his hand back inside, "and it goes up his arm, around his torso, and down to his upper thigh. This is the largest mark recorded at the facility and we are still running additional tests to see if the size of the mark has anything to do with the viciousness of the Marked."

Finishing that explanation she turned and went down the stairs, leading them down all the flights, her intention seeming to be the bottom floor. "In answer to the other part of your inquiry, Etmere, we don't use our resources to treat the sick. We find it more beneficial to study the chemical make up of their blood at the time of their sickness in order to compare their reactions to illnesses to that of the common person. If the illness is strong enough to take them we can always send out another team to get a replacement subject," she commented nonchalantly as they arrived on the bottom floor.

In all fairness to the company, the cafeteria was very well made. The tables and benches were all attached to the floor but it was veneered wood rather than steel which would be uncomfortable. The food preparation area looked state of the art with a buffet style meal line. "Meeting with common current standards, breakfast is the heartiest meal of the day for the subjects with a small lunch and a medium sized dinner. The cafeteria that we eat from donates the leftovers at lunch times to the cooks down here for dinner so the Marked can have some extra stew or other hearty meal for dinners," she explained. The janitor seemed impressed while the men seemed rather indifferent.

Kelly nodded to all of them and said, "All right. Upstairs to our training center where you will be able to learn a little more about the start of the company from an informative video and then I'll explain some of the basic regulations that need to be followed." Turning down a different hallway she led them through another pair of security booths and then to the elevator. There were no dormitories on this floor so no one was able to jump out at them. As they were in the elevators, Kelly turned with a bright smile on her face. "This place is quite exciting, isn't it! Think of all the good we are able to do determining what created the marks and how we can use them. It's brilliant, I think," she told them all. She pressed the button for A4.

He looked at the man who came to the door. He could understand his anger, and wished that there was something he could do to make the man know that he was one of them. However, he knew that there was a chance that he couldn't trust the poor man. Just because they share the mark, doesn't mean that they necessarily would help him. There would be a high chance the poor man would try to strike a deal to be able to escape in order to give away the identity of a spy.

For now, he continued to follow the woman was taking them on the guide. He was less angry now since he more so felt sad for the people here on the inside. Prisoners, animals, test subjects. He felt sorry for the woman, ignorant of the truth, fed lies through her life. He was sure that the mission of the higher ups was not only to figure out what the marks where, but to figure out if there was a way that they could use them for their own benefit.

As he followed her into the next rooms and listened to her talk and explain more, eventually getting to the point about a video they would have to watch and training he decided to speak up again. "After of which is that the end of the tour? If possible I would like to have time to go up to the correct floor and register my vehicle for a slot in the garage so that I don't have to keep taking the bus with other people here to work. No offense to them of course, but being alone is just so much better than listening to everybody talk on the way to work."

((I should be able to make multiple posts often throughout the day since it is my day off and even though I'm playing DND I have my laptop))