"So it's another lab? Seriously?" Christian asked, leaned against the wall beside the table.
"Yeah, it's a lab. But it's actually pretty close to here, so that's a pro." Darren replied, typing away on his laptop.
"So we'll stay here, and read a bit more thoroughly into the books, and you guys'll go?" Damian asked, looking in the file. Millie butted her head into his space, looking at it too. He swatted it her way, as if shooing her away. He then put his arm on her head, just to piss her off.
And so, the group was off. Dave and Darren volunteered to stay behind, since they'd only be a burden to the group if they ever had to start running for their lives. Perry had unfortunately disagreed with that, so either way, they had to come along in the end. After.. what? The fourth time of getting on and off the van, the usual chattiness was back in its nature. Maverick was spouting nonsense— as usual, and Rexine was talking to Eli, trying her very hardest to ignore her douchecanoe of a brother. Dave and Darren playing.. eyes spy with my little eye.. yes. The ride wouldn't be too long— 20 minutes if they sped it up, 30 if they went by the speed limit.
"Are we there yett??" Maverick groaned, slumping in his seat.
The ride was enjoyable— the mood being a bit lighter than before.
Perry was sitting in the passenger seat, Christian driving. Nicole was there too, dissociating, reading a book in the back with Dave and Darren.
"Can you drive straight for once?" Perry commented, crossing her arms.
"Hey, at least I'm avoiding all the dead zombies on the ground!" He replied, scowling but not caring to look her way.
───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
"So this is the lab?" Waylen asked as he stepped out last, looking up at the rather tall building in front of him.
"Guess so.." Axelle replied, file in hand as they started towards it. From the moment they entered the building to the elevator, everything was creepy as hell. It gave off a bad vibe from the very first breath inside.
They had decided to go floor by floor, having not seen a specific floor the solutions and stuff were at in the file. Sure, there were only 7 floors, but the place was damn near huge. And so, they started on the first. It didn't take them long to realize how long it might actually take them. Considering the lack of time they had, it'd be a risky task. By the second floor, Axelle was reading through the file again, trying to make sure she didn't miss anything important, because roaming around the floors wasn't doing it for her. That's when she caught— in the corner of her eyes, a floor number next to the lot number on the file.
"Thank god." she muttered under her breath, standing up with a newfound motivation. She marched up to Perry, Nicole and Christian who had been gathered around a suspicious looking substance, smiling brightly.
"The file says most of the solutions are probably on the 6th floor, and on the fifth is most of the hypothesis' and stuff. Like the actual research, non-experimental stuff." She explained, proudly holding out the file in front of her. Christian leaned down to take a look upside down, reading like a dyslexic kid. Examples; Maverick and Alice.
"So we don't have to waste our time looking all over this humongous building?" he asked, also slightly relieved at the news. Perry took the file from her hands, taking a closer look at it.
"Alright, let's go to the 6th floor then..?" She proposed, more as a suggestion than anything else.
"Yeah, that's where we'll find anything useful, right?" Rexine spoke, giving a thumbs up.
Making their way up to the sixth floor, they found many unnerving things. Like what? Dead zombies— but they're normal in a zombie apocalypse, you say, right? Skulls as if they were blown up, eyes gauged out, mouths stitched, arms cut off and some even bones sticking out of their skin. It sure was gruesome. More than anything else they'd seen along the way throughout the whole apocalypse. Waylen was stumbling over things trying to cover his eye, trying his best not to throw up on the spot. He wasn't that sensitive to blood or gore, but it was REAL. Not a movie. It was right in front of him in real time. And that happened to be the problem. He was practically clinging onto Axelle the entire way through the floor.
"Len, stop pulling at my shirt." Axelle mumbled to Waylen who had been behind her for the past 10 minutes walking around the lab. They were still trying to find the elevator, since getting lost in the lab wasn't a particularly hard job. Roaming the place hadn't been their motive at all, but that's what they ended up doing for the following 20 minutes. And, having wasted nearly half an hour, Eli decided to be smart about it and tried looking around for a map instead. Sure, it took another 10 minutes, but who knows how long it would've taken them otherwise to find a damn elevator. A contributing factor to their time loss was also the fact it was lights out in the lab. So they had been using Perry's and Waylen's phone the whole time.
Stepping into the elevator, it sure was dusty but who were they to complain if they wouldn't be the ones to clean it? Reaching the 6th floor, they all exit to the smell of not blood— but the faint smell of an unknown something. It didn't smell like flowers or anything, but it wasn't unpleasant either. But as of now, they chose to ignore it.
"Is this the room?" Dave asked, pointing to a room at the very end of a hallway. Eerier since the lights were out. It was dead silent too, not many signs of life around. Even if the 'life' meant were zombies.
"Yeah, I guess so." Nicole replied, walking over to him, peeking through the blurry glass slab on the door. He opened it, the door creaking slightly from the pressure, immediately hit with the smell of chemicals. They couldn't tell what kind, though.