Mind Lab

“We’re gonna go here,” Chris said as he pressed the second floor button. The elevator began to move as the number changed from 1 to 2.

“Again, we’re just wasting our time here. We could be living it up at a cabin,” Thomas said. “There’s an awesome fireplace.”

“The fireplace will be there when we’re finished,” Emma said as the doors opened up.

Before them was a small room and beyond it was a set of large doors, on it was the text that read “MIND LAB.” The walls were a pale white and the sound of electricity hummed in the air from the fluorescent lights above. There were a few plants in the corner and posters up on the wall that had various motivational pictures plastered on them. There was also a framed picture of some scientist that none of them recognized.

“So, who wants to go first?” Emma said as she specifically looked at Chris and Thomas.

“Hey, it was his idea,” Thomas said, shoving Chris forward.

“Jeez, alright,” Chris said as he started walking forward towards the door. He reached the door and turned the handle, expecting to find it locked. To everyone’s surprise, the door was completely open and flung open.

Inside the lab was technology and computers of all sorts and sizes. Gizmos and gadgets were strewn about haphazardly. The beeping and buzzing of computers rang through the air as the four of them walked in.

“Man, this place is something right out of a sci-fi level,” Grace said as they looked around at the different devices that were all around.

“What exactly is this place?” Emma asked as they separated into different parts to look at everything.

“I mean, the signs said that it was the Mind Lab,” Chris said as he picked up a strange device that looked like a helmet. “I wonder what this thing does?”

“Why don’t you put it on?” Thomas asked as he picked up something that looked like a fancy Rubik’s cube.

“Because we don’t know what the hell anything does in here,” Chris said as he set down the helmet. He picked up a device that looked like a laser gun from a kid’s toy. “Eraserfier. Huh, neat.”

“What did you find?” Emma asked as she came over with a small laptop that had the icon of a four armed person on the front of it.

“Just something that looks like a toy,” Chris said. “Hey, where’s Grace?”

“Over here!” Grace called out from beyond a few shelves and desks. The three of them walked over to her and found her in front of a room that had a sign that said “HOLO.” “This place looks like it would be interesting.”

“Come on guys, we shouldn’t be here,” Thomas said, still holding the box under his arm. “Let’s just go and pretend that we were never here.”

“Says Mr. Petty Theft,” Grace said as she pointed at the box. “What do you have there?”

Thomas looked at the box and pulled a small tag on it. “It says that this thing is called the Scramblizer.”

“Any idea what that does? And should you be holding it?” Chris said as he looked at the box.

“Oh, hey, I found this.” Grace held up a dossier that had been laying on a desk. “This looks like the elevator pitches of the different stuff we found. Uh, the Scramblizer says that it’ll help you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. The Eraserfier says that it was designed to help people block out terrible memories. This laptop says that it was for being able to form a better bond between people. And the HOLO is for making the wildest fantasies come true.”

“Guys, come on, we should leave before anyone catches us here,” Thomas said as he set the box down on the table. “Who knows what kind of crazy stuff could happen?”

“Oh, so now that there’s actually fun and interesting things to do, you want to leave,” Chris said as he crossed his arms. “I’m sure there’s nothing as cool back at that cabin.”

“But… but… fireplace.”

“I want to check out what some of these things do,” Emma said, her eyes sparkling with desire and curiosity.

“Fine,” Thomas said, turning his attention to everyone. “But when things go wrong, don’t come crying to me.”

“Buzzkill.”

The other three put together the laptop, the Scramblizer, and the Eraserfier near each other and looked at them.