Maxine watched the girl out of the corner of her eye as they drove down the winding highway. For the entire drive the girl had remained silent, just looking out the window watching the vast expanse of emptiness roll by. The questions in Maxine's mind seemed to hang in the air, stifling the air in the car.
Finally the girl moved, pointing to a dilapidated billboard advertising a roadside dinner. She knew the place, a friend of hers from high school worked there. At least, that had been the case last time she had stopped there several months ago. Maxine nodded, almost afraid to break the silence that hung over the car and took the next exit up, over the overpass.
It wasn't a minute more when they stopped in front of the run down dinner.
Her friend turned out to be their waitress. Maxine let the woman draw her into an inane conversation, taking some temporary solace from the cloying silence of the young girl. For the girl's part, she ate as though she hadn't been fed in weeks, but retained her wall of silence. After a full breakfast they returned to their drive.
The silent car gliding ever onward through the empty landscape. The longest drive of Maxine's life.
* * *
Jen starred at the sample under the microscope while Black Sabbath blared in the background. Her eyes carefully examined the mysterious cells, looking for some secret to their inner workings. Behind her an entire wall was filled with projected slides of the substance at various magnifications.
Large quantities of Oxygen, Hydrogen, Silver, Tungsten, with lesser quantities of Gold and Iron, but also another element she couldn't identify. The glue that would hold it all together and give it more unique properties. The last couple of tests had been inconclusive. The mysterious element seemed to have completely deactivated contributing little more than color at this point.
She needed a live specimen. A sample of living 'tissue' as it were. With a sigh she leaned back and began composing her report and request. It wouldn't be popular, but so far, it was all she could really say.
* * *
The dinner seemed fairly calm from the outside. A few splashes of red on the inside of the windows, but otherwise nothing overtly different than an hour ago.
A sharp scream pierces the air and another splash of red appears.
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