hey were seriously bored. After calling Nicole they had found out they were going to the second lab to retrieve a solution they believed was on the fourth floor. The ride was at least 45 minutes or longer.
"How much longer??" Alice whined, almost slumped off her seat, with a frown on her lips. Millie pinched the bridge of her nose at Alice's behaviour.
"Seriously, could you learn to be a little bit more patient?" she replied back, before putting on her headphones to block out all the noise completely. If she had to put up with her complaining any further, Millie would go insane.
"Chill, Alice. We'll get there. It's not the end of the worl…d…" Ivy spoke, but quickly realized that she was wrong. It kind of was the end of the world. "..Yeah, no.. it kind of is, isn't it?"
"Well I'll be damned." Damian spoke up, doing anything but staying quiet and driving in a decent way.
It was silent for barely a minute before Nathan spoke up from the passenger seat.
"Do you really think they'll find the cure? Or.. even come close to it? I mean I doubt they're any better than we are." He had a point, and none of them could deny it.
"We'll just have to have faith, just this once, I guess." Alice replied with a soft sigh.
The half an hour that had taken them to get to the lab passed by pretty quickly, despite the boredom they felt throughout the way there.
"..Sheesh. This place gives me the creeps." Millie mumbled, standing beside Ivy, who seemed the least phased out of them all.
"Wouldn't doubt it," Nathan commented, following along behind.
And since this group wasn't as dumb, they actually looked at the map that was framed with glass on the ground floor before marching ahead. Before they moved on, though, Damian noticed something written on the map, in red text at the very bottom.
"Sound proof?" He mumbled, catching Nathan's attention.
"What's sound proof?"
"It says half of this building. So technically the third floor and above."
"Huh. . ."
The place was absolutely wrecked. Not as bad as the other lab, because this one was mainly dirty, not a murder scene. Not to mention, it looked like a tornado had personally formed in the lounge room and moved through the building. The sofas were quite literally flipped upside down, trash scattered where not on the floor, and blood everywhere, unsurprisingly. There weren't as many zombies or bodies than they'd expect in a lab, though.
"So this is the place, huh.." Emily spoke in a particularly quiet voice. "Which floor do we have to get up to?"
"Fourth. Let's see if the elevator still works for that matter." Nathan walked over to it, at first calmly pressing the button. But when it didn't light up, he started getting a tad bit more aggressive. The funny thing being that there was actually electricity here, unlike the other lab which was dark as hell. They could actually see around and make something out of their surroundings.
And unfortunately, the elevator was not arriving. It made a weird distorted ding sound that an elevator does, but it quickly cut off and died down. And in the silence, behind the closed doors they heard metal shuffling in the shaft. So either it was malfunctioning, or someone or something was in there.
"Yeah, so let's NOT take the elevator. Using the stairs once won't hurt us." Alice said, already making her way towards the staircase. Nathan sighed, and followed behind her, the others following suit. The stairs thankfully weren't steep, so it was pretty easy to go up them. Although maybe not for the unfit, like Damian. Well, to be fair, he did go to the gym— he loved bragging about it. But he had stopped prior to the apocalypse, so he had become slightly unfit. Don't even ask about the other five. It was about time they made it up, the smell up there shifting from blood to chemicals. It was rather strong too. Stronger than in the first lab.
"The smell of this stuff's pretty strong.." Emily muttered, covering her nose with her arm.
Making their way through the halls, Nathan kept a mental note of which room numbers they were passing by. They had to get to room.. 31. The only problem being, the place was no better than a damn maze. Room 8 here, room 20 next to it. Where did the numbers in between go? They didn't know. It was their first time here, after all. But after all that difficulty, they finally managed to find room 31. It was dimly lit, The light at the very inner corner of the room flickering, apparently for added creepiness. The door swung open as ivy led them inside. The place seemed messier than the four floors below them. Metal trays everywhere on the ground, chemicals spilled, and glass pieces scattered across the floor.
"This place sure needs a clean.." Alice spoke, following right behind Ivy.
"I haven't seen a single body here. Zombie or not." Damian stated, observing some testing tubes on the counter top.
"So what are we here for? Which solutions do we need to get?" Millie asked, turning to Damian.
"Let me check. Nicole sent me a whole damn list of them."
It was long before they found the chemicals they were looking for. The place was a mess, none of the stuff organized. So they had to look literally everywhere. It was definitely a pain, but they got through it within maybe an hour or two. They hadn't been keeping track of the time, even though they were low on it.
"Got everything?" Nathan asked, while Millie was making sure they had everything on the list.
───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
The couple wasn't particularly planning any evil schemes or any revenge after they found out their most precious file had been stolen. But seeing their former allies exit into a building, they found the perfect, most utterly perfect opening to sabotage their way of going back easily. How? They had just been relaxing nearby, about to go into the lab themselves to get things they had left there. That was until they saw Nathan and the rest of them through the window of the second floor heading up. Lorrell had detected movement that wasn't supposed to be there, and decided it's help them if the organization's plans got delayed. But even they weren't sure why the teenagers would be there. But they knew it couldn't be good news for them.
"Got your phone ready?" Ty asked, looking at the phone Lorrell had in hand. She simply nodded. And with that, Lorrell set the phone down on the road, phone connected to a portable Bluetooth speaker nearby. She put it to full volume, and the fake screeches started playing. So loud that the couple had to cover their ears while running back to their motorcycle.