Amanda

I woke up a groggy mess to the blaring sound of a digital alarm clock, one of those old ones from the 90s, provided courtesy of the Foundation. I slowly turned over in my bed and slammed my hand on it once, and then again when I somehow missed the dismiss button. I hated those damn things, but they were effective and within a couple minutes I was standing up and out of bed. I dragged my feet over to the closet on the other side of the room and grabbed the first thing that my hands touched without paying much mind to what I was grabbing. I ended up with a plain light blue T-shirt and some loose jeans. Then I shuffled down the hall, to the bathroom to take a shower, which would hopefully wake me up enough to where I could function without a massive cup of coffee. I turned on the water and let the water run for a minute or two so that the water would heat up. I knew cold showers are better for your skin, but the fact that I had to get up at 5:00 am in the morning combined with my general mood when I woke up meant that no matter the situation, there was no way in hell that I was gonna take a cold shower. I'd rather use a bunch of soap and take an extremely long time in the shower to wake up than have a painful rush of cold water provide a shock to my system. While the water was heating, I walked over to the sink to wash my face. I did this partially because it helped with the waking up process, but mostly, I just wanted to get the mountain of grease off my face before I headed into the shower. After a splash of water or two hit my face, I looked into the mirror for the first time that morning, and as I do every morning, I looked like shit. While yes, I did have pretty clear skin, my face was still incredibly oily even after splashing it with water. I had longish hair that clumped together along my forehead in spike like formations and random strands of hair that stuck to my skin on my neck and forehead. I used to wonder why I always woke up like this, because no matter how many preventive measures I took, I always woke up like this. After so many attempts I kind of just accepted it. After looking at my hideous morning form for a solid minute, I realized the water was heated up, I quickly hurried into the shower.

I took a shorter shower than usual, one that was long enough to wake up and get clean, but not one that was long enough to give me time to relax. I had to be at the Foundation a bit earlier than usual so I could have a bit of time to be briefed for that day's Termination Experiment. For termination experiments foundation personnel were forbidden from discussing these topics over the Foundation's email. Regardless of the security of the email, the Foundation didn't want to risk their existence being exposed to the public. A necessary procuration, but I'll be dammed if it isn't annoying to deal with. After I got done showering I quickly grabbed the clothes that I had randomly grabbed from the closet, pit them on, and rushed out the door, almost forgetting both my lab coat and my ID. I grabbed them both quickly in a bit of a panic, threw them in the trunk, got in my car and quickly bolted down the road towards work.

It was a relatively peaceful drive for most of the way, given that both Foundation site and I reside a decent ways away from the nearest hint of civilization. The foundation did offer me a place in a city that was also a bit closer, but I turned down their offer. I don't like living in crowded areas. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't like being around people or anything, I not anti-social, but living in a crowed city seemed like an extreme inconvenience that I just didn't want to have to tolerate. I'd rather live an isolated life away from most of civilization as ling as it didn't get in the way of my work. Besides, I had plenty of friends that I made over the years working for the Foundation, and so I never felt alone. I drove for about an hour and 15 minutes before I finally reached a fork in the road, one path was a neatly paved road that seemed like it would lead out of the woods and onto some interstate surrounded by farmland, and the other was a dirt road that headed deeper into the woods and was barely wide enough for my car. Obviously I headed down the dirt road.

I drove down this path for about 10 more minutes before I finally reached an oddly placed open, run down garage that sat in an open spot clear of trees. I parked my watch and looked down at my watch. I was about an hour early. I sighed and got out of my car. I walked towards the garage, being careful not to get my boots dirty so I could make a good impression with the site director over seeing the experiment. I didn't want to come off as some wild outdoors-man that didn't understand the concept of professionalism. I needed to make a good impression. I walked in through the open garage door and turned the corner so that no one looking directly at the garage would be able to see me. I then face the wall, and felt around, seeing if I could feel any bumps. Once I was sure there wasn't anything there, I did the same to every wall not directly observable. It was protocol to do this before entering the site, to make sure there wasn't any cameras or any other devices on the wall. After that, I walked over to the farthest fall in the back, pressed the hidden button and began to speak.

"Good Morning, this is Dr. Joyous. I am here with the permission if the Site director. There are no foreign devices in this room other than the company provided smart phone in my left pocket. Would you kindly grant me entry?" I held my ID in front of my face and waited for a response.

There was a pause for a second before an answer came for a speaker hidden by gray paint matching the color of the wall.

"Permission Confirmed. Access Granted. Please park your car inside the garage before entering the facility."

"Yep, I know the drill, Chad."

Chad chuckled on the intercom, "Alright, then. Get it done."

I walked back to my car, opened the trunk and got my lab coat. I put it on and slowly drove my car into the garage. As I parked in the run down building, the garage door began to close. I got out of the vehicle and waited for the door to close all the way.

"Alight Chad, I'm ready"

" Okie dokie then. Lowering platform. See you at lunch."

I smirked as the ground below me began to sink into the ground. Slowly I was lowered underground, to start my day in Site 48