Jaime stood at the west-side doors of the cafeteria, looking proudly at the freshly mopped floor.
Even though they were the head of the entire Midas Labs Janitorial and Maintenance staff, Jaime insisted on cleaning the facility's floors all by themselves. To Jaime, there was no greater pleasure than seeing a soapy mop swish its way over scuff marks and dust particles, leaving a mirror-like path in its wake. It was an appealing metaphor: Mistakes are not permanent. They can be erased. We can all have a fresh start.
With a contented sigh, Jaime placed the earbuds back in their ears and pressed 'play' on the latest episode of the "Echo and Current" podcast. They started pushing the janitorial trolley back down the hallway, then stopped. They rolled their eyes, shook their head, and mumbled under their breath, "Can't believe I almost forgot."
Jaime reached into the trolley and pulled out a short, yellow A-frame sign. It featured an icon of a person slipping on a wet floor, and bold black letters warning to "Watch Your Step."
Satisfied, Jaime headed back to the office to schedule the rest of the week's maintenance roster.
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"Lunchtime delayed again?" asked Mira.
"Yup," replied Tonya, her sometimes bestie and sometimes rival.
Mira and Tonya were waiting just inside the cafeteria doors, amid the other hungry lab techs, doctors, volunteer residents, and others, all waiting for the food to come out of the kitchen.
"What's the reason this time? Another visit from some potential investor with a... huge endowment?"
"Dunno," said Tonya, stifling a giggle. "Hey, you! Intern. New guy." She tapped the shoulder of the young man wearing scrubs.
"Me?" the intern asked sheepishly.
"Yeah, what's your name?"
"Kivan. I'm Kivan."
"Nice to meet you, Kivan. I'm Tonya, this is Mira."
"Hi. It's, uh, nice to meet you, too." He tried very hard not to stare at either Tonya's or Mira's impressive chests, which even their bulky lab coats did little to hide.
Mira nodded dismissively. "Yeah, hi."
"So, Kivan," said Tonya (who definitely noticed Kivan trying not to stare at her tits), "You got any inside info on why we have to wait for lunch again today?"
"No, I... sorry, I don't. This is my first week."
"Aww, that's okay, sweetie," Tonya cooed, subtly jutting her chest out. "Guess we're all just in this together."
The baritone voice of Reid Ashford rang out from behind the trio. Reid had joined the Midas Board of Directors eighteen months ago. He had spent twenty years overseeing a successful clothing brand, and had used his experience there to increase Midas Labs' efficiency tenfold. "This is a board-approved delay, ladies. Dr. Carlyle is moving some sensitive material from one lab to another. Ordinarily, she would have used the secured hallway route, but apparently this stuff has a short window of viability outside of laboratory conditions, so it's faster to go through the cafeteria. I'm sure she'll be in and out in just a moment, and then we can all have lunch as usual. We appreciate your patience."
Mira and Tonya exchanged a sideway glance. Kivan clasped his hands in front of his body and tilted his head downwards. He knew he was lucky to have gotten this internship in the first place, and he didn't want to make any waves. Especially not in front of one of the Board members! Best to keep a low profile.
After what seemed like twenty more minutes, but was probably closer to five, Dr. Carlyle appeared at the cafeteria's east-side double doors, along with a hydraulic drum cart sporting four large blue plastic barrels. It took a trio of Dr. Mercer's clones to slowly push the cart while Dr. Carlyle supervised. She was constantly checking to ensure everything was secure and stayed upright while moving across the cafeteria's shiny floor tiles.
No one said a word. They could sense how delicate this operation was. Even #47, with his wheelbarrow that carried his massive cock and balls in front of him, was dwarfed by the 75-gallon drums on the cart.
Mira whispered to Tonya, "Bet I get the first brownie out of the oven today."
"Nuh-uh, that sucker's mine."
"You wish, babe," said Mira, and gave Tonya a small, playful shove. Ever since Mira and Tonya's monthly Rapid Breast Growth competitions started, their rivalry had grown into all aspects of their interactions. First one out the door at night. First one to complete their lab reports on time. First one to make Dr. Young crack a smile (a goal neither of them had accomplished yet). And now this; first one to get the good brownie.
Tonya gave Mira a small shove back. Mira responded with a smirk and a slightly larger shove, sending Tonya half a step backwards. So, really, there was no other response than for Tonya to take an exaggerated wind-up step backwards and give a full playful thrust back to Mira.
Everyone was caught up watching Mira's and Tonya's play fighting. Too caught up to notice that Dr. Carlyle's cart, laden with four jumbo drums of highly volatile chemicals, was passing perilously close behind the sparring friends.
Mira lost her balance.
Her body tumbled backwards into the cart, causing the heavy drums to shake and jostle.
The crowd gasped then held its collective breath. The drums shifted their balance, but eventually began to settle back into place. Everything looked like it was going to be okay. That is, until Mira tried to steady herself on one of the still-shaking barrels, accidentally pushing it away from her.
Dr. Carlyle saw everything happen as if it were in slow motion. She watched the container knock into the other three, watched them all tip past the point of recovery, and winced in anticipation of the inevitable spill. Before the first barrel even hit the ground, she shouted a plea to anyone within earshot: "SHUT THE DOORS!"
Everyone stood frozen in shock. Dr. Carlyle was usually so composed. What was happening that could cause her to become so panicked?!
"ALL THE DOORS! SHUT THE DOORS! NOW! DO IT!"
The sharp tone of her voice snapped everyone back to attention. Anyone close to the east and west doors shut them as quickly as they could, creating a sealed room. All eyes then returned to the recently disturbed cart full of barrels. Everyone braced for the impact.
With a dead PA-TUMPH, the first barrel hit the ground, knocking its lid loose. The opalescent contents of the barrel began to ooze across the floor. The three remaining barrels followed quickly afterwards: PA-TUMPH, PA-TUMPH, PA-TUMPH, releasing more and more of the undulating goop. It spread everywhere and anywhere.
Dr. Carlyle jumped onto a table in the front of the room. "EVERYONE GET UP ON THE CHAIRS AND TABLES! GET OFF THE FLOOR. Do NOT let it touch you!"
Without hesitation, everyone did as Dr. Carlyle commanded. Dr. Banks and Rachel clambered onto a table in the northwest corner. Steve, Keshawna, Xan, and Arjun, known together as the "Tech Team," scrambled onto the empty buffet counter, knocking over the heavy sneeze guard in the process. Reid Ashford ran to one of the high-top tables against the wall and perched on top of it, keeping his expensive shoes far away from the goopy disaster inching ever closer. #47 wheeled his cock-and-balls-barrow around as quickly as he could manage, finding respite when Dr. Banks and Rachel helped him lift his impressively hefty genitals and the wheelbarrow onto their table. Mira and Tonya made it onto a table of their own. And Kiran, the intern, found his lonely way onto a chair off to the side of the room, barely keeping him elevated above the now foot-deep ooze sloshing just inches from his feet.
Everyone was spread across the cafeteria, occupying their own little islands.
The room fell silent, save for the rolling burble of the undulating oozy ocean covering the floor.
All eyes turned towards the table at the front of the room, where Dr. Carlyle stood, an unreadable expression on her face.
Reid Ashford took advantage of the silence. He drew a deep breath and calmly said, "Dr. Carlyle."
She looked across the room at him, poised high atop his tall table.
"Now that we seem to be out of harm's way and we can all breathe for a moment... Would you mind, terribly, explaining our... situation?"
Dr. Carlyle grimaced. "You mean how six months of painstaking work and slow cultivation are now completely and irreversibly ruined?"
"How about we stick to the present moment, Dr. Carlyle. What _is_ this stuff?"
Drawing upon her inner strength, Dr. Carlyle resigned herself to the current situation. All her hard work was now covering the cafeteria floor, like a pearl-colored wading pool with highlights of pink, turquoise, and aquamarine. If nothing else, she had to admit it was pretty.
She adopted the stance and vocal tone she used when presenting at medical conferences. It helped her feel comfortable in tense situations.
"Well, Reid, and everyone. What you see here is STGM-6 and STGM-7. STGM, or Short Term Transdermal Genomic Modulator. In essence, it causes temporary genetic alterations when absorbed through the skin. Two of the drums," Dr. Carlyle sighed, "_were_ filled with STGM-6, which affects female adipose tissue, causing rapid breast growth. The other two drums held STGM-7, which affects the Corpora Cavernosa and Corpus Spongiosum in the penis, causing rapid penile growth. It's the most potent batch my team and I have produced so far, and now," she gestured around the room, "it's all just... well, there it is, sloshing about, mixed together. I don't even want to think about what would happen if it happened to get on anyone's skin."
Reid Ashford's stomach was beginning to growl. "And how long do we have to stand up here on these tables?"
Dr. Carlyle looked dejected. She absentmindedly answered the board member's question. "Only about twenty minutes, I'd guess. Once it's exposed to open air, its potency diminishes pretty fast. But its effects last for about three hours. So as long as no one touches it for the next twenty minutes..."
"It smells nice," Kivan, the intern said quietly to himself. "Like toasted marshmallows." He knelt down on his chair, and extended his finger. It looked as if he planned to dip it into the thick liquid and taste it on his tongue.