garrattj

Five-Minute fiction - 13:26-13:31

The image on the monitor flickered into focus, but the thick coat of dust that covered the monitor, and most everything else in the chamber made the image still appear to be blurry. Scurry wiped the screen clean with a swipe of his hand and fought back the urge to retch as his hand came away covered in a thick film of sticky black grime.

The monitor, like the rest of the chamber it seemed, had been left unattended for years. The accumulation of dust was something to marvel at as the automated filtration, and cleaning systems should have been able to handle almost an infinite amount of dirt, but it seemed the system had failed and years of neglect had finally caught up with the chamber.

Scurry panned his flashlight across the room the light catching the faint motes of dust as they wafted in the air, stirred by his arrival. The door had been sealed, though the hermetic locks had not been engaged. He wiped irritably at his hand, trying to dislodge the coat of grim that clung to his glove and balked as the thick black substance only seemed to be pushed deeper and deeper into the gloves material with each wipe.