The Beginning of the End

The girls quickly scarfed down their meals and hurried out through the backdoor, an extra plate of food carefully held in Zoey's left hand.

In less than a minute, the two were standing next to each other out in front of the large steely door that led down into Edward's Laboratory.

Zoey took in a deep and nervous breath while Mandy confidently burped, her heart full of purpose for the first time in a very long time.

"Let's do this." Mandy said, then reached over to press the big red button embedded in the concrete next to the metal door. "Thank you for getting me this far, Zoey."

"I hate to sound like your mom, but don't make me regret this." The uneasy goth mumbled, giving her friend a very serious glance. "I'm only helping because I don't know how else to bring you out of this funk you've been in, and you were starting to make me worry."

"And I can't thank you enough, sugarlips." Mandy giggled, drunk with excitement as she gave Zoey's butt a quick squeeze, to which made Zoey jump. "If you want, you can be the first person to-"

A loud and unpleasant buzzer sounded off and cut Mandy's offer short, and may it have caused them both to shriek and jump.

From the top of the concrete hull above the door, a horizontal white beam of light appeared and scanned them from head to toe.

After that, the hologram of a bright white orb digitized from the quickly dispersing beam.

"Does this usually happen?" Mandy whispered to Zoey, her eyes fixated on the orb.

"N-No... It always just opens up after I press the button."

"Welcome, intern and family." A soft and soothing voice said, originating from the orb of light. "I deeply apologize, but Edward is unavailable at this time."

"Excuse me?" Mandy said, her eyes going wide. "Where the hell is he?"

"Edward is within the Laboratory, but he is preoccupied at the moment." The voice stated. "I do apologize, perhaps it would be best if you returned at a later date."

"Doing what?!"

"Mandy, I think we should come back another time." Zoey said, growing more anxious by the second. "I've been through here quite a few times now, and if some security system that I've never seen before comes out and tells me that I should wait, then I'm going-"

"Fuck that!" Mandy said, giving the steely door a strong kick of defiance. "You tell that old fuck to open this goddamn door!" She kicked it again, this time actually hurting her ankle in the process. "It's an emergency!"

The orb of light flickered at that.

"An emergency? Oh, dear me. What is the nature of this emergency?"

"This emergency is a crime against nature! A horrible situation based on unfairness and cosmic spite!" Mandy seethed. "This is literally the worst case scenario of everything ever."

"Your way with words never ceases to both impress and embarrass me."

"Thanks."

"Mhm..."

The orb stayed silent for a few seconds, and Mandy was about to cave in and just give up.

Then, just as she thought to turn around in frustration, a miracle happened. Either that, or the beginning of an actual emergency. The two ladies had differing opinions on what happened next.

"Countersign Accepted." The voice said, and the locks of the door began to loudly clink and clank. "Override Protocol Initiated."

"I don't believe it." Zoey said, her shoulders slumped in astonishment. "He's got to be screwing with us."

"Maybe." Mandy mumbled. "Either that, or I nailed the word-vomit lottery."

"Designation: Alpha - Automated Execution Code: The Developer's Kit"

"Huh?" Both girls asked.

As soon as the door cracked open, they both knew that something was wrong. What sounded like a train horn began blaring loud enough to damage their hearing, and a bright white light illuminated the entire backyard with the minuscule beam of light it was producing. The outward motion of the door was slow at first, but quickly swung wide open, revealing a rectangular wall of light that was brighter than the sun itself as it radiated throughout every atom of the two ladies standing in front of it.

After that, everything went black, and all was silent.