"Trust you?" Perry scoffed. She was pissed. How dare he show up like this, and pretend to care about their safety?
"No, Perry you don't understand—"
"Don't understand?" her voice becoming quieter. Nicole shut up.
"...Please, Perry." He pleaded, staying frozen in place.
"...Why the hell should I trust you? For all we know, The organization could be outside waiting for us." Perry coldly spoke, her words nothing but blunt.
"Forget about him." Ruby commented, files in hand, her tone giving away how far distracted she was.
"Perry, you seriously gotta take a look at this. It's… insane." she added.
Perry, for a moment stopped. She glanced back at Ruby, then at Nicole.
Then.. Perry walked towards Ruby in silence, leaving Nicole there to watch in stunned silence.
"You messed up. Bad, Nicolas." Christian finally managed to mumble out, not saying much else.
"Wh.. What the hell? Who.. Whose research is in here?!" Perry's voice, sharp, cut through the silence between Christian and Nicole.
Both of them turned to her. Christian in slight curiosity and worry, Nicole puzzled, with a raised eyebrow.
Christian stepped forward in silence, looking over Perry's shoulder.
"..That's a good question." Christian replied, flipping the page on a notebook.
"Guys!" Waylen barged through the door, panic and haste etched into his voice.
"We like, super duper gotta go. The organizations back." he explained, while simultaneously trying to catch his breath.
Perry didn't move her eyes from the book. Christian didn't reply, Ruby just glanced back at Waylen at a loss for words, Nicole… stood there, also speechless just.. not in shock. Awkwardness?
"..The hell is he doing here?" Axelle spoke from behind Waylen, Rexine and Maverick also catching up to pace now.
Perry was.. unable to do anything. She was at a loss. Both for words and actions.
"Hey, we can't just leave—" Christian started, only to be cut off by Eli.
"Shut your trap and let's get outta this shack. Do you want to be taken?"
"No, you aren't listening dude."
"What?" Eli sighed.
"There's some freaky ass stuff in here. You have to look at this!" Chrsitian was getting frustrated.
"We don't have time—"
"Then we hide here."
"Guys, guys!!!" Perry yelled in between, slamming the book shut. "We hide. Or, you leave without me."
"Wait, wait— What?!" Rexine popped out through the two at the doorway, stepping forward. "Don't you get the danger and risk of this? Are you only thinking of yourself??" She exclaimed, looking at Perry with slight disappointment.
"No. Listen to me." Perry replied. Rexine went silent, gesturing for Perry to continue.
"Do you not see this place? Its filled with research and god knows what about the whole apocalypse. Maybe.. if we stay a bit longer we can at least find some useful information—"
"And what? Create the cure?" Waylen chimed in. He snorted. Like, literally, snorted.
"Seriously, who do you think we are? Scientists?"
"Fine." Maverick finally spoke up. "I'll stay."
"Mave, what?" Rexine stared at him, a little baffled.
"I'll stay."
"No, Mave you can't—"
"I will, Rexine. It's my choice."
"..Ok. I'll… stay." Rexine finally caved.
•───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
Nicole had left to stall Nathan and the rest of the organisation. Why was he helping them? He knew goddamn well why he was with the organization, risking it all.. but he wanted to help Perry. At least. He was guilty, afterall.
"Alright. You guys take this stuff and head back to the van using the exit. Got it?" Perry explained, as they listened. Everyone but Ruby and Christian walked out, and with information they had stolen from the research room.
Once they had gone, Perry sighed. She wasn't sure who was behind this, but she was sure to get as much information as possible. And not to mention, they really didn't have much time.
"We'll take this stuff, okay?" she ordered. A bunch of notebooks, all with done research. Some books filled to the brim, the others unfinished. And Perry made sure to take most of it.
"Wait." Ruby, who had been particularly quiet, spoke. "What's that?" she pointed at a USB.
Christian raised an eyebrow, but Perry took the initiative to step forward and look. "..A USB?"
She picked it up, examining before she looked at the computer in front of her. "..Worth a try.." she mumbled, before trying to find the USB port behind the computer.
What they then proceeded to see was what shocked them the worst. And the only question they'd have remaining was—
Was the apocalypse all on purpose?
Logs. Daily logs on the zombies, their stages and symptoms. Files, containing videos of the experimentations.
"The hell?" Christian muttered under his breath, reading line by line, word for word what the lines actually said. And, sure as hell, it was about the zombies.
Footsteps. It was from outside. It startled all three, since they weren't quite expecting anyone.. yet.
"I think we should leave." Perry said as a statement more than as a suggestion.
"What about the stuff here? We can't just leave all this information here." Christian asked, which was a pretty valid point.
"We'll take it."
And so? They did. Fought looking around for a backpack. The footsteps were getting closer, they did consider hiding. Though, what won out was to knock the daylights out of this person if they happened to enter. Thankfully, they faded.
"Let's go." Perry creaked open the door, scanning both ways before exiting.
They exit, walking back a little faster to the van. Seeing how everyone was still inside, Perry assumed that they were either reading the things they took back, or waiting. Naturally, she assumed the former.
"Dude, there's so much information in here it's crazy." Waypen commented, browsing through the pages, just looking at how much was written, not whatwas written.
Perry sighed as she entered, sitting in the passenger seat next to Waylen. "Lets go. We'll settle somewhere and look over these."
"Alright.. off we go, then. But.. where do we go?" he asked, turning around now. He gripped the steering wheel, waiting for Perry's— or anyone's answer really.