Green Goo

I wasn’t very excited about going to work that day, and it didn’t get any better once I was told we were doing a new release. I figured it would be something lame like a movie. I was even more disappointed when I was told what it was. “Green Goo” they called it, some beauty product that they had come out with recently. I had heard about it from some commercial in the background during break. I sighed and got to stocking the item. We had boxes of it. The goo came in small plastic containers like body butter. I quickly lost count of how many I put on the shelves. One of my co-workers was going off about how awesome the goo was. She said it was great for your skin and all kinds of other wonderful things. I wondered silently what kind of product would be good for all of that. I looked at the list of ingredients and it was all strange stuff that I couldn’t pronounce, there wasn’t even water in it from what I could tell, and that was even stranger. I always paid close attention to ingredients of the things that I would put on my skin because of several allergies. I decided I’d wait until I heard more about it. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t putting something awful on my skin and of course being afraid of breaking out in hives was my biggest deterrent.

Days later I was at work again scanning items (got to love inventory), when I heard one of my co-workers mention she had been using “Green Goo” and her tattoo was gone now, as well as all of her acne. She didn’t seem to be very upset about losing her tattoo, but I would have been. Sure mine had been inexpensive, but I wouldn’t be happy if it just went away. I kept quiet as the two of them discussed the benefits of goo. I rolled my eyes and made my official decision never to use the goo. It scared me to think about what could be in something to make tattoos go away.

It was later that day while I was leaving the store that I noticed how little goo we had left on the shelves. There were two women, both of whom looked very young and clear skinned, arguing over who would get the last few containers. I was off the clock so I wasn’t going to get involved, but I saw a co-worker not too far away and told her what was going on. I hurried out after that, not wanting to be anywhere near the fallout. The next time I was at work the stock was refilled and the co-worker who I had told about the two fighting women was rubbing some of the goo onto her eye.

“What happened?”

“One of those ladies punched me.”

“Dang sorry,” I took a closer look at her eye where she had rubbed the goo. “Your eye looks good though.”

“Apparently this stuff is good for black eyes.”

“That’s good. How’d you find out?”

“Mindy told me.” She mentioned her direct boss. I nodded; Mindy was the one who had lost her tattoo.

“That’s surprising I thought she’d never use it again after her tat went away.”

“Who knows,” she shrugged. “She seemed really gung ho about it.” I went to the floor and started working. Later on I saw Mindy.

“I’m surprised you still like goo.” I started Mindy, not wanting to ask her directly. She smiled at me gently.

“Nah the stuff is still really good.”

“But to ruin your tat, I’d be upset if I lost my tattoo.”

“It’s ok it was an old one and it didn’t look good anymore.”

“Yeah that may be true, but what kind of thing can get rid of tattoos?” Mindy shrugged and moved on. I sighed and continued working. It was during break that something even more interesting came up. I was sitting at one of the tables in the break room watching the early morning news that was always on before the store opened. The hosts were talking about goo, which itself wasn’t too terribly surprising since it was such a sensation and nobody shut up about it these days.

“On a more interesting note it has been discovered that goo is edible and the FDA has approved it.” I laughed.

“Soylent green” I got some funny looks from everyone in the room. It was then that I realized they all used the goo. I was the only one in the room who didn’t maybe even the only in the building. I shivered at the thought.

After work that afternoon I went to the library. I had a computer at home, but I was getting a bit paranoid about green goo by this point. I didn’t want to search anything about it from home. It may just be paranoia, but the stuff was weird how quickly it became such a sensation and there never really seemed to be a shortage of the stuff. We were constantly getting fresh shipments of it. I doubted the government was watching for people googling the negatives of it, but that is what paranoia is. I picked a random computer and pulled up Google. A quick search pulled up a limited study that had been done originally, but nothing more. I looked up the ingredients and found most were from the sea. I thought of the Dead Sea line of cosmetics, and decided I wanted to know what part of the sea. There was a map that showed where the ingredients came from. The spot looked familiar, so I did a search for the Bloop. It was almost the exact same area. I cringed at the idea, but shook it off.

After some more searching I found a web post buried from a few weeks before the goo hit major markets. The person had a similar idea to mine. She, at least I was guessing that it was a she, went off about how goo was part of some evil conspiracy. I didn’t quite believe it was a conspiracy, but I was in the library looking this information up instead of at home.

She had a Skype name listed at the bottom; I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn’t at the library. So I went home and pulled up my Skype, I debated which to call her with, my fake one or my real one. I finally decided to go for the real one, figuring honesty was the best policy, and called her. She answered fairly quickly and demanded I turn on the video feed.

“Hello.” She smiled. “So I take it you found my post.” I nodded, “Opinion?” She asked almost amused.

“Well I think there is something fishy going that’s for sure…no pun intended.” I shook my head with a slight smile.

“Continue.” She pressed.

“I’ve seen some weird things recently. One of my co-workers lost her tattoo and doesn’t seem the slightest bit phased.”

“And?” She pressed again, leaning forward in her seat excitedly.

“Everyone is using it. The only reason I never did was because I don’t know what any of the ingredients are I couldn’t stand the idea of using something that may cause me to have an allergic reaction because I’m sensitive to so many things.”

“Next time you get a chance look at someone who has used goo under low light, do so.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see. Call me again after you have.” She gave me a half smile, the type that was annoyingly cryptic. I sighed after she hung up. I hadn’t even gotten her name. The Skype name she used was as cryptic as her smile had been. I shut down the computer and contemplated what she had said. Look at them under low light. I wondered how that would help.

That night when my roommate got home I made sure all the lights were off and I sat waiting for her in the living room. I had seen a jar of the goo in her bathroom, so I knew she used it. I shivered with the anticipation. What would I find? What was so important about looking at someone who had used green goo in the dark? I wasn’t sure, but I would find out soon. When Kacey came into the apartment she didn’t flick on the lights, but instead walked straight into the bathroom. It was as she passed close enough to me that if I had wanted I could have reached out touched her that I noticed what I probably wouldn’t have noticed on my own. Her skin had a faint luminescent glow. Not one that would be noticeable under the harsh lights at work, and certainly not outside, but in the darkened room it was just enough to make her outline visible. In the bathroom I heard her open her jar of goo and then smacking sounds. She was eating the goo. I shivered. What was in that stuff? I knew it was supposed to be organic stuff from the sea, but they did nuclear bomb testing out there it could be radioactive, right? If it was though why did the FDA approve it? I waited until Kacey went to bed before turning my computer back on and calling the conspiracy theorist up.

“They glow.” I sighed and the girl smiled at me.

“Exactly, that is extremely odd. Especially since no one has said a thing about it! How many people out there haven’t used the goo? It can’t’ve been just us.” I shook my head. I was convinced there had to be more people out there noticing the same things as us. I was beyond believing I was just being paranoid. There was more to this than met the eye. The two of us spoke for a long time after that. We exchanged names, her name was Terra. I slept uneasily that night, dreaming of strange things that I couldn’t quite remember the next day. I could only recall odd outlines of light and lots of eyes all staring at me.

Days passed again and soon I found myself sitting in the work break room listening to the news at an absurdly early hour. Again they were babbling about how awesome Green Goo really was. Now there was talk about spas using it in baths, like mud baths apparently that was the new thing to do. I was definitely not going to do that.

“Alex have you used goo?” It was one of my male co-workers, John. I looked up and shook my head, stupid me for not just lying. “Why not?”

“I’m allergic to Adenosine Triphosphate.”

“Really? You’re allergic to everything. How so?”

“It produces melanin.”

“So?”

“I’m allergic to it.”

“How so?” I sighed I hated the twenty questions that always arose whenever someone found out one of the strange things I was allergic to.

“It makes me sick.” I shrugged. “Always has, when I was a kid I avoided the sun as much as possible. Whenever I get sunburned I’m sick all night, it’s the worst.” John nodded in acceptance, but the rest of the room was still confused and seemed upset by my lack of desire to use the goo. I stood and threw my cup into the recyclable bin and noticed as I passed my co-workers that their skin was brighter than Kacey’s had been.

“But it is a natural ingredient.”

“So is mercury, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.” I shrugged and headed back out to the floor. Mindy stopped me.

“You seem distant.” She gave me that I’m really your boss smile that I hated about working in retail. She was the shift manager today so I answered to her.

“I just haven’t been feeling well. I’ve got a feeling it has something to do with the goo. Probably a scent in it is getting to me.”

“Right,” she nodded as if she understood. I remembered a day long before Green Goo had hit the market when I had gotten just regular non-conspiracy makeup on me and my hands had broken out in hives and eventually tiny open wounds that burned for days. She was also well aware that the candle isle, or Candle Avenue as a lot of people at work like to call it, was a death sentence for me because of one particular scent. I held back a sigh. “Maybe you should go home if you don’t feel well.”

“It isn’t contagious and I can still work.” Mindy didn’t say anymore as I walked past her and into the main part of the store to get back to work.

That night a dream woke me in the early hours in the morning. I heard a strange sound, a wet guttural gurgle that sent chills through my body. What could be making that horrid sound? It rose and fell and was strangely familiar. The combined letters made no word that I knew, but at best guest would look like “Tekeli-li”. Following the sound with bare feet I crept up to my roommate’s door. Upon pushing on the door it refused to move any farther than a few centimeters. I got enough of a look though to see that the room was brightened by a large span of undulating flesh. I froze and held back an instinctual scream. All the eyes upon the creature were looking around the room. Some would sink back into the bulbous mess of flesh before another would pop up elsewhere on the large body. I shut the door and backed away before dashing into my room and pulling up skype. “Please Terra be online.” I begged the universe for this one gift. She was indeed on and she answered when I called.

“Terra there is something awful in my roommate’s room.” She looked at me petrified as I described it as best as I could. I kept my voice as calm as possible.

“That’s it. We’re out of here. I don’t know what that horrid thing is, but it is vile and I am convinced it is because of the goo. Everyone who has used it will fall victim to this creature.”

“I don’t think she fell victim to it…” I paused and Terra said nothing, “I think she is the creature.” Terra and I sat quietly for a moment.

“Tomorrow we’ll see what happened.” She hung up on me and I stared at the white wall of my room whishing I were somewhere safer than this. The night passed slowly and I crept out of the house as the sun sent its first rays over the horizon. I wandered the streets of the silent city. Pulling my coat around myself tightly against the cold breeze I held back a deep shiver that was borne of more than the chill on the air. Not a car moved about, not a radio blared from a window waking to the world, the silence penetrated into my mind. Only the natural creatures of the world paid no heed to the new silence ordinance, but even their chirps seemed subdued. My phone broke the silence startling me from my deep thoughts. It was a text from Terra, “meet me now at the coffee shop”. We had discovered our close proximity some time before, but had yet to actually meet in person. She spoke of a particular coffee shop that was equidistant between our houses. I made my way there by foot. Though it didn’t take me long to get there Terra was already waiting.

“Hello Terra.”

“Hello Alex.” We stood looking at each other for the first time in real life, something neither of us had been looking forward to because we knew that all was lost if we met. “It is deserted here.”

“And everywhere along the way too.”

“I think they’re all gone.” I quietly looked across the empty parking lot that usually teemed with early morning traffic by this time. Terra looked past me and we wondered the same thing. Would life fill these streets again? “We have to find out.” I nodded in agreement. We climbed into her car droving to my place in relative silence save for the directions I gave her. I hadn’t even bothered to lock the door when I left so we walked in. I hung my jacket so as to feel some sense of normalcy, but kept my shoes on. Something told me I would need them – to run. We stood outside the door to Kacey’s room and both looked at each other with fear in our eyes. What awaited us? Together we pushed open the door getting far enough open to see the mass of eyes and skin. All the eyes swiveled to look at us and the creature still gibbering its one phrase it rushed toward us. Neither of us screamed, or heard ourselves scream at any point, but we were both out of the house and back into Terra’s car before we had even realized it. She started her car up and we drove away quickly, back to what we considered our safe place, the coffee shop. It was humanity’s last bastion for sanity, or at least it was ours. We sat panting as adrenaline finished working its way through our systems.

As we sat there we did not discuss the horror that had once been my roommate, instead we discussed something simple and non-sequitur. We spoke over our own fear and the growing sound of gibbering. It took us too long to notice it. When we did there were dozens of them. At one point I saw two of them met and melt together as if they had never been individual beings at all. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, and instead Terra and I held each others hands and closed our eyes.