Questions re Crazy Guy's makeshift lab

[Teresa Godfrey]

I'm attempting to write a post-apocalyptic novel in which my main character, Hazel, has to describe under hypnosis a small, makeshift chemical laboratory that she has seen in an old house hidden away in a remote forest. It's important that Hazel doesn't realize that this is a lab in current use. She's 16 and not scientifically trained. I'm thinking there's just a fridge-freezer, a cooker of some sort, and cupboards containing various bits of equipment that she doesn't investigate. Could she mistake it for an ordinary kitchen? How could I, as the writer, have Hazel describe it so that the more scientifically minded reader would suspect a lab yet still make it plausible that Hazel doesn't suspect? I want her to have no idea that there is a crazy guy manufacturing a deadly virus in this house. My second question is how would crazy guy power his little lab given that the house hasn't been occupied for several generations and there is no electricity? Could he do it if the house had solar panels? Or any other method? I don't need to go into details of how but again I need to make it plausible. As will be obvious, I'm like Hazel - I know nothing about labs. The novel is about her journey of self-discovery and will contain very little science but I want what is included to be believable. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through all this. Hopefully someone can help me out.

 

[The Judge]

Eek! I know even less about labs than poor Hazel, I'm afraid, so I can't help you there. What I can do, though, is put your thread in our General Writing Discussion, since that's where our writing fraternity -- and sorority! -- hang out and, unlike me, a good many of them know all about scientificky things!

 

[sknox]

Power to the house: a gas generator. These can be noisy, but if the guy is aiming at secrecy, he could hide this away. Solar panels would be noticed.

If the house really has been unoccupied for "several generations" it's likely going to be structurally unsound. You may want to re-think the time span. Also, "several generations" would put it prior to electricity, so there would be no wiring.

I figure the guy will be paranoid. He could take steps to disguise the rooms that can be seen from outside. He can't put up curtains because the house has been empty and they'd be noticed. Does it really have to be unoccupied? Couldn't he rent a house? It's easier to blend in to normal suburbia than in an Addams Family style home.

Maybe have her notice unusual activity. Is it important for the reader to guess Science? Would it be enough merely to think Nefarious Activity?

 

[Ihe]

You can always mention jars with foul smelling/bubbling liquids, heady fumes, thin pipes dripping into weirdly-shaped glasses, plastic bodysuits hung up by the door, notebooks full of numbers and indecipherable scribbles, heavy-duty gloves, holes on the table like something (acid) had dripped through it, etc. Just describe the equipment using layman's terms.

 

[Biskit]

My background is physics and chemistry - those you could probably do in a standard kitchen without it being obvious what was going on - but if you're cooking a virus, that's a different game. In general, you could probably breed your average virus using basic kitchen equipment, but the 'deadly' part probably makes it tricky, unless crazy old guy is somehow immune to the bugs he's making. Without some sort of decent containment, it's going to be a very short-lived Master Plan.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

In terms of the hints - the reader likes to be smart. Put enough clues in your naive POV for the reader to go ah-ha and you have a great hook

 

[Bagpuss]

Does it have to be a virus?

If, for example, you swapped the virus out for a chemical weapon, then there are things you could make in a kitchen with a small wood-burning stove and the right plants. - so long as you don't poison yourself in the process. In reality, it's difficult to produce a lethal chemical weapon in your kitchen but this is fiction. The meth recipe in Breaking Bad wasn't authentic either, but that didn't stop the show.

An alternative heat source would be gas bottles. I used to go camping as a kid and we took gas bottles. So the bottle is a standard item, which fits to a burner. You fit the bottle, turn the gas on, light it with a match and you can boil a small kettle or heat a saucepan up just fine. It would certainly heat a beaker or other lab-type equipment. You would have to explain why he has a stockpile of gas bottles, but that could be easier than trying to explain why the house has electricity. In this scenario, there's no electricity and you wouldn't have a freezer, but a chemical weapon wouldn't necessarily need one. It could go in a jam jar - of which your madman could also have a convenient stockpile in his kitchen cupboards.

 

[sknox]

It occurred to me reading these posts that much will depend on whether the MC is looking from across the street, maybe with binoculars, or is standing at a window, or actually gets inside the house for a look around. Different levels of disguise for different prying eyes.

 

[Ursa major]

How could I, as the writer, have Hazel describe it so that the more scientifically minded reader would suspect a lab yet still make it plausible that Hazel doesn't suspect?

I think this encapsulates a possibly insoluble problem... unless:

1. your narrative is not strictly attached to Hazel's PoV in this scene (though I suspect, given what you've said, it is strictly attached), or
2. she isn't, as a character, at all curious**, so that she could mention odd shaped "utensils", "pans" or "bowls", smells, etc., without having the slightest interest in knowing why they are oddly shaped. If, at any point, she lets the reader know that something is amiss -- i.e. that the kitchen is not really a kitchen or more than just a kitchen -- she will, by definition, have noticed it herself.

** - This does not mean that she has to remain that way -- her character arc can include her losing her innocence/naïvety -- only that she has to be that way in this scene if she is the only narrator present.

 

[Teresa Godfrey]

Does it have to be a virus?

If, for example, you swapped the virus out for a chemical weapon, then there are things you could make in a kitchen with a small wood-burning stove and the right plants. - so long as you don't poison yourself in the process. In reality, it's difficult to produce a lethal chemical weapon in your kitchen but this is fiction. The meth recipe in Breaking Bad wasn't authentic either, but that didn't stop the show.

An alternative heat source would be gas bottles. I used to go camping as a kid and we took gas bottles. So the bottle is a standard item, which fits to a burner. You fit the bottle, turn the gas on, light it with a match and you can boil a small kettle or heat a saucepan up just fine. It would certainly heat a beaker or other lab-type equipment. You would have to explain why he has a stockpile of gas bottles, but that could be easier than trying to explain why the house has electricity. In this scenario, there's no electricity and you wouldn't have a freezer, but a chemical weapon wouldn't necessarily need one. It could go in a jam jar - of which your madman could also have a convenient stockpile in his kitchen cupboards.

No. It can be a chemical weapon. Gas bottles is an excellent idea. I could have Hazel see a stockpile of empty gas bottles and not realise the significance. These could be near a locked room so she doesn’t get to see what’s inside. Thank you.