The Sword and the Pen

Dr. Santiago and one of the nurses let us in. We found refuge in the three-story talent agency's building. The first-floor lobby was filled with what I would consider our first and only line of defense: the night watch volunteers. They held sticks and steel pipes as makeshift weapons. Each one of them had a frantic, panicked, and sleep-deprived look on their faces.

Since the first two floors were jam-packed, we made our way to the topmost floor. It was where the doctors made their makeshift offices and where the high-risk patients were. We passed by a mother trying to calm her newborn, a child with an IV drip playing with what looked like her older brother, and a man taking care of an older woman, presumably his mother.

I kept looking outside the window, hoping that I would see Jason, his dad, and the other technicians running to the building and arriving safe and sound.

"They'll be here," Miss Kagami said, "Jason's tough, and he got that from his parents. Don't worry, Santiago will have her assistant back soon."

I nodded and smiled. She's right, they'll be here. I was about to catch up to DJ and Jelo when I noticed that we were missing one person. I looked around and saw Paige giving an origami flower to a little girl.

"Don't be scared, we're safe here. The scary people outside aren't monsters! They're just sick people that need help. We're in here so they can't hurt anyone. They don't want to hurt us but they're sick and can't control their actions," she assured the girl. "And we have to stay here so that we don't get sick like them. Okay?"

The little girl nodded and then Paige smiled and patted her head. KJ turned around and saw that Paige wasn't behind her, "Where is that girl?"

I pointed to where Paige was and she immediately went to get her. "Honestly, what am I going to do with you? The second I take my eyes off of you you wander off! You should've at least told us to wait!"

"Hehe, sorry!"

"Don't 'Hehe' me young lady! Come on, say goodbye to your new friend."

"I'll come back later and let's play, okay?" Paige said and waved as KJ dragged her back to the leading group.

When they came back Ethan and Paige's eyes met, she raised her eyebrow at him, and mouthed "What". Ethan didn't answer, he just shook his head and turned around.

Jelo sighed, "Not this again."

After a few minutes, Ethan looked around multiple times. I almost got a headache just watching him turn around and around!

"Ethan!" KJ called out, "Can you try to be still for five seconds?!"

"Where are Angus and Jason's mom?" he asked.

"They stayed on the first floor with their family and to keep an eye out for Jason's group," Jelo explained.

"Why didn't I know that?"

"Probably because you were in the bathroom when it happened," said DJ.

Dr. Santiago showed us a small corner where we stayed. She gave us some snacks and a pitcher of water and paper cups. KJ and Paige, our newcomers, quickly chugged down the water in their cups and finished their biscuits.

The quiet but feisty cat-eyed girl with layered hair is KJ Claymore. She can change at the flip of a switch, on one hand, she'll be the responsible older sister or mother figure in our group and has the brains to go with her brawn. The next thing you know she's out there doing something extreme and borderline chaotic, when that happens you'll know because of her signature maniacal laugh. KJ's other side, as we like to call it, isn't known to the teachers, which amazes me because it's so obvious. It's either they really don't know or they're scared of her family. If it's the former I'd like to ask how she keeps it hidden, if it's the latter, I understand them. All in all, this girl fascinates and downright scares me.

As for the other one, how shall I put this? The oddly bright person in this entire messed up scenario, befriending the kids, and scheduling playdates is Paige Matthews. The second youngest person in our group and the shortest. Like many of us, she wore prescription glasses. This girl's a bookworm, when we hang out she's either reading a book, talking to Jelo about books, or being dragged into KJ's shenanigans. Paige's hair was styled in a leaf cut, when she came to school the day after she got that cut she tried her best to hide it but we all knew she wasn't happy about it.

Paige calls Kylie "Mai". She sees her as an older sister, and KJ too sees her as a sibling. She, KJ, Thea, and all the other girls in our group of friends always look like they're having so much fun. Lunch was always noisy, especially if we were all together. It would always be like a picnic. Good times.

"Slow down both of you, you might choke on your food," Miss Kagami said and refilled Paige's cup with water.

Paige gulped down her last biscuit, "Sorry for the mess! It's just that we haven't had a proper meal in a day!"

"Where were you guys?" DJ asked, "We didn't see any of you when we were called to Jupiter Hall."

"Oh, that? Of course, you wouldn't have seen the two of us because we were never there."

Jelo furrowed his brow, confused by what KJ had just said, "What do you mean you weren't there?"

"Before we answer that, tell us this," KJ said before grabbing another biscuit. Her eyes met Paige's and then looked at me, "From what I was told five of us had already reached Prasinos. Four got on the first bus and one on the second. I know I can count so it seems like we're missing one aren't we?"

"KJ…" I paused, I didn't know what to say.

"Where's Thea?" KJ asked with serious, searing eyes.

KJ and Thea were bread and butter, you'd always find them together. KJ was the sword, and Thea was the shield. She would have these out of this, how should I put this, unique way of doing things and Thea would be with her in every step of her bizarre ideas while also making sure that she didn't go too far with her little projects. For instance, her latest project involved a four feet high baking soda volcano with paper mache dinosaurs, which was all fun and games until you realize where this project was held, in the school parking lot at the principal's slot. She got permission of course but with the mess she made no one could park their vehicles there, or anywhere near it.

Thea was KJ's best friend. I didn't know how to tell her or Paige that awful news.

"She said," Jelo paused and took a deep breath then turned to KJ with half a smile, "She'll see us later, under better circumstances. Isn't that right Lanz?'

"What do you mean better circumstances?" Paige asked, looking around and waiting for someone to answer, "You don't mean. She's-"

"Enough about us," Jelo said, cutting her off. He knew that they already understood, so he didn't let her say it. I think he didn't want to hear it again, the word "infected" carries a heavy tone these days, especially if it's about someone you care about, "What happened to you guys? I don't think your cuts and bruises are from driving."

KJ's arms were covered in bandages and gauze pads, and she was bruised all over. Paige wasn't in a better condition. She was wearing the Type C uniform and had the blazer covering her arms so I couldn't see just how badly the condition of her arms was, but her legs had several gauze pads as well.

"Back to my question first," DJ asked, "Where were you when we were called to Jupiter Hall?"

"How about we just start the story from the beginning?" said Paige.

KJ nodded, "Good idea! You tell them."

"What?!" Paige exclaimed, "Why me? I haven't finished eating!"

KJ just stared at her and she sighed, "Fine. Well, you heard what she said earlier you wouldn't have seen the two of us specifically because we weren't there."

"But Harvey and I had a list," Jelo retorted, "If someone was missing, we would notice. Especially two of our friends!"

"They must've done something about that. After all, they wouldn't want anyone to be suspicious."

"They? Who's they?" asked Ethan.

Paige turned to him and answered, "Estrella Corporation."

Our eyes widened in shock when we heard the name. Estrella Corp. It was them again.

"An hour before we were supposed to meet at the food stalls I got separated from Jelo and the others. I wandered around, but I couldn't find any of you and you know how I am with directions. I got lost."

Everyone made a face that screamed 'I knew it'. Why was I not surprised? Paige was smart but if there's one thing she was bad at it's directions.

"Anyway," she continued, "In the crowd, I thought I saw someone familiar. Someone I wasn't expecting to see anywhere. So I followed them. I was getting close but the crowd became denser and I lost track of that person. That's when KJ found me."

"Chet and I were looking for her ever since she got lost and found her wandering in that sea of people like a lost child," KJ explained.

"Wait, Chet was with you?" DJ asked.

KJ bit her lip, Paige waited for her to answer but it looked like she wasn't going to, "She was."

"We were going to head back to where the others were but Chet needed to go to the bathroom by then. So we went and looked for one. We found ourselves in the furthest part of the convention center, there weren't that many people there. When we found a door that said restroom, Chet didn't think twice before getting in and dragging me with her. Our first mistake." Paige said somberly, "Of course, KJ followed us but before we could even step further into the restroom KJ accidentally hit a light switch. Only it wasn't a light switch, it was an elevator control."

"Before she continues, can I just speak my mind?" KJ cut in, "They built a secret elevator in the form of a bathroom and didn't think to disable it when they were hosting a convention. There would always be a possibility that someone among that large group of people would find that little secret they were hiding!"

You got to admit, she did have a point. KJ cleared her throat and tried to put on a straight face, "Proceed."

"So, continuing where we left off when KJ hit the switch, the door closed. We were confused because we didn't close it but became more confused when the elevator doors closed, blocking the exit. Then we started going down, and down, and down. That's when we realized we weren't in an ordinary bathroom. Though I'm sure that it wasn't long, that elevator ride felt like hours to us. We didn't know what was going on at all! When the doors opened we weren't prepared for what we were going to see."

"And that would be?" asked Miss Kagami.

"A tree," KJ said.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jelo was in disbelief, and so was I. All that suspense for a tree?

Paige looked like she expected our reaction, "You'd think that too if it weren't for one thing, that was no ordinary tree. I can't even call it a tree because, by definition, a tree is a tall plant with woody tissue and is perennial. This thing, roughly about fifteen meters from the ground up, wasn't woody at all. More like, human-y."

Dr. Santiago blinked a few times as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Come again?"

"That entire 'tree'," Paige said with air quotes on the tree, "Was made up of what seemed like hundreds of people, all stuck together and stacked on top of each other. And this thing, out of it grew these weird glowy flowers, some fungus, leaves, or was it just human hair that resembles leaves, and it was oozing some viscous liquid. And those people, it seemed like-"

"The plants were growing out of them," Dr. Santiago said, completing her sentence.

"Yes! Exactly!" Paige exclaimed then looked confused, "But how did you know that? Have you seen something like it? Here in Valens?!"

We all looked at each other before Dr. Santiago replied to her, "More like heard about it. We'll tell you later, for now, tell us what happened next."

Paige nodded and continued, "The entire tree, or whatever, was encased in a giant glass wall. Scientists were observing it, documenting it, and experimenting on little extracts of it. I wanted to know more about what was going on. How could I not? Those were people inside that gigantic biological-botanical thing!"

KJ handed her another glass of water. Jelo once more, furrowed his brow and turned to KJ, "By this point, have you gotten off the elevator bathroom?"

KJ sighed, "Nope."

"Then how could you have known that this… thing was at least fifteen meters tall?" he asked. But while looking at KJ his eyes widened as if something clicked in his head. He quickly turned to Paige, "You didn't…"

Paige averted his gaze and whispered, "Why do they always assume it's me?"

He closed his eyes and clicked his tongue, "KJ, tell me she didn't."

"Not her," KJ pointed out.

DJ quickly turned to KJ and with a horrified look asked, "You don't mean…"

"Yup, it was Chet," KJ said, "But before she did she told me to find you guys and get you out of the convention center, she even handed me her wallet and told me to treat you guys to the fancy Asian restaurant down the street! I was confused by what she was saying but she took advantage of that and hit the elevator button and as the doors were closing she slipped out!"

"She what?!" I exclaimed.

"You've got to be kidding me…" DJ mumbled.

The two of us turned to Paige who was staring at her water cup, "I was already trying to figure out how to get back up but she went off on her own. I may have wanted to know more about it but I knew that if I pushed it I wouldn't be able to avoid the danger that comes with it. I may be reckless but I know when to bounce. But Chet on the other hand has always been running to danger as if she were metal and it was a magnet! The two of us had no choice but to run after her!"

"She hid behind the crates and we followed her, that's when we saw how big the… I will call it a tree because it was easier that way. That's when we saw how big the tree was. And at the bottom were more people going towards it as if they were being drawn to it. People were sticking to it, letting themselves be buried under the yellow enzyme the fungus in the tree produces and completely merging themselves with all the others in it." Paige explained, "To the side, more people were crying out to be let out, coughing, and vomiting in one room. The other one was filled with people that were infected, they were growling, pounding, and trying to bite on the glass. But the room in the middle was something unsettling. The people there were infected but they weren't moving, they were just standing there with yellow glowing pollen around them, the plants were growing everywhere in their bodies. They were like mini versions of the tree."

"By then I was certain something serious was going on and that we really had to get out of there, KJ had the same idea so we told Chet it was time to go."

"But let me guess," I said, turning towards her, "She didn't listen."

"Stubbornness is a trait the girls in this group have in common," KJ commented.

"One that we know all too well," Jelo added.

"She said that we had to learn more and get more information and solid evidence so that we can tell the teachers and get everyone out there. It made sense so Lady Claymore here agreed," KJ clicked her tongue and Paige just gave her a look that said 'What', "By then it was two against one. I was outvoted so I just went along with them though it was against my better judgment."

"Claymore?" Miss Kagami whispered.

"Chet was running around the place with the two of us closely following. When we felt like we were going to be seen we hid where we could. Behind the desks of computers, underneath tables, anything!" Paige continued, "We didn't want to get caught but we had to find out more, specifically how much danger we were close to."

"Why does this sound familiar?" DJ said as he glimpsed at the letter peering out of my pocket and then back to Paige, "What happened after that?"

"Behind one of the empty cryogenic-esque chambers we overheard two scientists talk about the virus, specifically on how they regret that one small accident devastated the lives of all those people."

"An accident? We've heard of it before! Do you know more about it? Did they say anything else about what caused this nightmare?" I asked.

Paige didn't answer me but asked me a question of her own, "How could you know about this, Lanz?"

I grabbed the letter from my pocket and showed it to them, "Because of this. This letter is from my Mai's friend in Mare. They were doing their OJT in one of Estrella's laboratories and stumbled across a secret level just like you guys and found out about the virus."

KJ grabbed the letter and skimmed through it, "Who else knows about this?"

"Just us and the doctors that are exploring the abandoned Estrella Laboratory near our school. And also Czyrus."

"Fukishima? Wasn't he hospitalized before the trip began? How did he jump into the picture?" KJ asked.

"His symptoms, KJ. Can you remember what they were?"

"Huh? Well of course I do, Lanz. How could I not? He finished the water in the dispenser in two hours because he was dehy-" She stopped and her eyes widened as things fit in place for her.

"He was dehydrated. One of the three common symptoms," Paige said.

"Yeah apparently he's in one of these secret laboratories with Lanz's sister and someone we couldn't hear over bad reception," said DJ, "Now back to what happened at Prasinos. Did you find out about what this accident was?"

"Not really since they weren't going into detail about it. But from what I saw on the files on the floor, a researcher at Estrella was experimenting on the Cordyceps Fungus," Paige explained.

"A fungus that turns people into zombies?" asked Ethan, "That sounds familiar."

Jelo gave him a side-eye, "Even if this researcher was experimenting on the fungus, it isn't harmful to us humans, only to certain bugs."

"Yeah," KJ agreed, "The caterpillar one is medicinal in China, my grandmother bought some and tried to make it tea. And for a fungus that grows from a dead caterpillar, it sure was tasty."

DJ and Ethan looked so confused at what KJ just said. Paige blinked a few times before continuing to speak, "And I thought I was weird."

"No, that doesn't top your weirdness, Paige," I adamantly said.

"By weirdness, I assume you mean my food taste?" she asked.

"What else would I be referring to?" I asked then immediately followed with, "You know what there are loads of things I can think of that answer my question so never mind!"

"I tell you that I'm curious about what a rabbit might taste like and you act as if I were some weird kid that only eats exotic stuff! I just said I was curious!"

"Enough you two!" Jelo exclaimed, "Have this conversation later. Although Lanz is right that it doesn't top your weirdness, Pajge."

"Hey!"

"Ah, ah!" Jelo said shushing Paige, "Save this conversation for later. Now, back to the fungus."

"Right. The file on the floor containing the information about the Cordyceps research had a big red stamp that read 'Confidential' and the file itself was named IV001. Only this research didn't focus on the fungus itself but rather its ability to spread, the papers went into detail how they wanted to replicate this to plant life."

"You're saying Estrella wanted to reproduce how this mushroom spread?" Miss Kagami asked.

"Exactly," KJ answered.

"But how were they even going to accomplish that? It's not like all plant life has spores," Jelo noted.

"Isn't the cordy-thingy spread through bites?" asked Ethan to which I nodded.

Dr. Santiago blinked a couple of times and turned to Paige and Jelo, "Clearly they are not the brains of the group."

"Nope," Jelo said.

"No, they are not," Paige added.

"Good to know," said Dr. Santiago, "So, how did they replicate the fungus' spores to other plants Miss Marcus?"

"Marcus?" Paige questioned, "Oh! Not Marcus, it's Matthews and you can just call me by my first name, doctor. Paige is fine. And to answer your question, we don't know how they replicated it but one thing is for sure, they were successful."

"How do you know?" DJ asked.

"Because the file said so," KJ answered, confused why we didn't make the connection.

"If the file said that then why don't you know the how part?"

"Because, Deej, we didn't get to the next page of the file," KJ explained, "We got spotted."

"Chet had accidentally knocked her head under the table and doing so knocked over some lab equipment on top of it. It didn't take long for them to find us, it wasn't that hard too since we all squeezed ourselves under the same table we just got caught from."

"You know, Paige, I actually expected you to do better than that," Ethan said, and I know that little comment of his ticked her off.

"Moving on!" DJ intervened before another bickering of theirs could start, "What happened next?"

"We were immediately surrounded by armed personnel telling us to state our names and agenda, so what do you think we did?" KJ asked, "More specifically, what do you think the two Shrimps did?"

"Well let's see," said DJ, "One of them doesn't doesn't do a thing they're told…"

"And the other," I continued DJ's sentence and turned to Paige who was holding a paper airplane, where did the paper come from? "Is similar to a volcano or an earthquake, spontaneous."

"In other words, nothing good," Ethan summarized.

"Chet was adamant on not being captured so she headbutted a guard twice her size," KJ explained.

"More like triple her size," Paige murmured, "I told her multiple times to keep that anger in check."

"Says the girl that threw a chair across the classroom!" I said to her in a whisper.

"I thought we agreed not to bring that up Dandelion?!" She hissed.

Tsk! There she is again with her weird nicknames! How the heck am I a Dandelion?! "What did I say, Short Stack!"

"Chet wanted to fight her way against the guards and Paige was trying to stop her because they had guns and tasers. I picked up a long metal rod on the floor and tried to get the guards to back off, I managed to make one of the guards drop his weapon but was tased by the one behind me. When I fell to the floor the two of them had already been tased. They tied us up in chairs with rope and the person who looked like they were in charge of the whole facility asked us questions. I wasn't in a talking mood and Chet was making a fuss so we let Paige do all the talking."

"I told them the truth and nothing more, that we were there by accident and that we only wanted to know more about whatever they were but they thought that KJ was a government spy using me and Chet as cover but the school ID cleared that up. They weren't going to let us go so I took that opportunity to ask what was happening."

"You asked a scientist working on a deadly project what was going on?" Jelo asked, flabbergasted.

Paige looked puzzled, "Yeah, I did. Why?"

I patted his shoulder, "It's Paige you're talking to. Why are you so surprised? She's the textbook definition of direct."

"What did the scientist tell you?" Miss Kagami asked.

"She was Dr. Whitlock, the head of the research facility, and the people there were sick and being treated. I was skeptical about the "being treated" part to say the least."

"WHITLOCK?!" everyone except Paige and KJ explained.

"Is she someone you know?" KJ asked.

"More like a familiar name," I explained, "That doctor and my sister's friend share the same last name."

"Odd coincidence," Paige commented.

"Maybe," Jelo said before turning to Paige, "But maybe there's more to those two than meets the eye. Okay, what else happened?"

"Dr. Whitlock explained to us what the Inmourti virus was, how it spread, and its mortality rate. And I have to say, I didn't like what I heard one bit. When I asked her what the tree was she was as vague as you can get. But what she meant by all the fancy metaphors and similes she used was that the tree was connected to the disease, in a sense its final stage."

"What? What do you mean? Elaborate," Dr. Santiago ordered.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I can't tell you what I don't know. All that I could get out of her little poetic description was that it was the virus' final stage and needs to be contained otherwise it won't just be Insula in danger, but the entire world. The glowing things I mentioned earlier, they were spores. Spores that came out of the infected's bodies after they merge with the tree."

Miss Kagami and Dr. Santiago's faces looked as if their whole world was crumbling. Dr. Santiago closed her eyes and put together what Paige was saying, "The virus could go airborne."

"Bingo," Paige said with a slight smile, "Points to you, doc. You catch on quick."

"Airborne?!" Jelo exclaimed, "This could go airborne?!"

"Not for ten years don't worry," KJ assured him.

"I'm sorry, come again?" Miss Kagami said.

"The final stage of the virus, i.e. plant-thingy takes about ten years. We know this because of dear Dr. Whitlock who kindly explained it to us. When a person is infected by the virus for five years that person wouldn't even be alive by then. They'd be dead. All of their organs, their heart, liver, brain, etc. are all gone. What's left of the person is their skin which acts like soil for the plant and underneath it all is pure plant root and yellow goop. Quite literally a reanimated corpse whose sole purpose would be to merge with other corpses to form the tree."

"How do they know this? Their observation would mean that-"

Dr. Santiago cut off Miss Kagami's words, "That this has been going on for far longer than we thought. You say that it takes about ten years so I am guessing it took five more years for the plant to grow up to fifteen meters high. By this, we can assume that it doesn't take ten years but five."

"Yes," Paige agreed, "However just because they form a tree doesn't necessarily mean spores will come out. It has to be thirty corpses all linked together forming what they call a brain. It's not a brain that thinks but more of what holds the entire tree together. And amassing thirty bodies for the tree takes time, add the merging to each other factor and we get at least three to five more years."

"So basically," Ethan cut in, "We have, what? Give or take, eight to ten years, to stop this nightmare?"

"Yes," Paige answered briefly.

To which he replied, "Lovely."

Miss Kagami faced KJ and Paige, "What happened after she explained that to you?"

"By the time she finished Paige and I already cut ourselves loose from the rope," KJ said as she grabbed the pitcher of water, not realizing that the doctors were confused by what she said so I gave her and Paige a push, "What? Oh. I've been trained for these kinds of situations since I was little, being kidnapped I mean, not the whole zombie-apocalypse thing."

"She taught me how," Paige said, pointing at KJ.

"And your other friend?" Miss Kagami asked.

"We couldn't leave her," Paige answered, "One of the researchers called for Dr. Whitlock so she had to go and when she did, and when we were certain that she was far away, I handed KJ her metal rod and she knocked out the two guards watching us while I was busy untying Chet's rope. When she was free I called Principal MacConnell immediately and told her what we found with a few images of the lab. I figured that it was better to go directly to the head rather than the teachers in charge. It was better if they heard this from the principal rather than a student, the chances of them cutting the trip short were higher with the principal rather than me."

Ethan's looked so confused, "You're texting buddies with Principal MacConnell?"

"What? No!" Paige answered.

"Then why do you have her number?'

"She's Clarisse's aunt and a close friend of mine is on the student council whose stuff can be a mess and I happen to notice her number and memorize it."

KJ sighed, "You could've just said Harvey's on the council, Paige."

"They realized that we've called the outside world so the whole place was on lockdown. Dr. Whitlock did what she could to contain the chaos and tried to mask it as just a "dangerous exposure to a radioactive experiment" that was harmful and had gone wrong instead of what it really was," Paige continued, "after that, we tried to bolt again, but we were caught, and this time. We were locked up in one of the cells, hours passed by with Chet demanding to be let out, when she saw the opportunity to bolt she just dragged me and KJ away. The guard who brought us food accidentally left the door unlocked. We hurried to get out of there and went back up to the main floor to warn you guys, but to our surprise and relief, the whole place was empty," said Paige, "So we rushed to the hotel with the two of them dragging me along."

"We didn't want her to get lost," KJ explained.

Jelo nodded his head, "Understandable."

"Anyway," Paige continued, "We went to Mr. Morken after we learned that Mr. Williams and Mrs. Jung was already on their way home. We told Mr. Morken everything that we've learned and urged him that it was imperative that we get out of there as soon as possible. He didn't waste any time and told us to get on the buses. When we were on the road I noticed that we weren't being led out of the city but back to the place we just escaped from and KJ saw that the driver wasn't the one from before."

"How does she know that?" asked Miss Kagami.

"Photographic memory," I answered to which she nodded.

"The new driver turned out to be one of Estrella's men. They were most likely looking for us. They took everyone back inside and there Dr. Whitlock was waiting for us. Apparently, the "exposure" part wasn't a hoax. One of their researchers was at the hotel the school was staying at, he was about to meet an associate and give him a sample of the spores. But he got into a fight and accidentally spilled the spores of the tree to the ventilation shaft and everyone who was at the hotel was now at risk of contracting the virus," said KJ, "Apparently it happened around the time the second bus had left and since we got there when the third bus was just about to leave, only the three of us were safe."

"Everyone freaked out when the doctor explained what would happen to them and there was panic and madness all at the same time," Paige recalled, "We were given rations and they were all given tags, the guards kept a close eye on the three of us because though we weren't exposed to the virus, we knew classified information."

"It was about eight in the evening when Jacob and Simon went to where we were sitting, handing us their biscuits and water. Jacob was finding an excuse to talk to us, they found out about Estrella's plans to take us to their laboratory in Mare to observe their reaction to the spores and probably to contain the virus and information about it any more than it already has," KJ stated.

DJ was in disbelief, "There already has been a presidential address and mass evacuations because of this virus, information about this should be shared for the good of all! That's the Department of Health's epidemic protocol!"

"That is correct, though I didn't expect you know about that, Henderson," said Dr. Santiago, "But it would be hard for the people to trust Estrella, who was the front runner in finding a solution for this ever since the Oram outbreak if they found out that they're the reason why this started in the first place, accident or not, that would take a toll."

"The two of them heard everything we knew from Sir Morken," Paige said as she stared blankly at her cup and fidgeted, playing with her charm bracelet, one that I didn't notice until now.

"When did you get that?" Jelo asked, looking at her bracelet.

"From Chet," she answered.

Jelo smiled faintly, "We were supposed to give you that on your birthday when you turn sixteen, though it's months away. Jacob said you mentioned that you found them fascinating and wanted to fill them up with momentos and happy memories we would've made this year."

"So much for that idea," mumbled Ethan, causing KJ to elbow him at the gut causing him to squirm.

"This is the part where you tell us about what happened to our friends," DJ said adamantly.

"Since he knew that we weren't exposed to the spores and that we held valuable information, Jacob wanted us to get out of there and contact the necessary authorities. Simon agreed with him and was already thinking of a way to get us out safely," Paige explained, "We told them that we didn't want to escape without them and that we would get out of this mess together but they already had made up their minds. They knew they were going to be infected, they knew the danger they would pose to us when it takes over their bodies. So, when Estrella's transportation arrived to take all of us, the two of them caused a ruckus. They screamed and shouted that they weren't going to be taken easily. Others soon followed and things got violent, Estrella's men tased a lot them, Jacob and Simon were being hit by batons! They had no choice but to defend themselves, Jacob punched one of the guards in the face, Simon kicked one in the guts. Because of that the three of us had the chance to slip away."

"If the three of you slipped away, how come there are only two of you now?" asked Jelo, "Where's Chet?!"

"She's getting there," KJ said.

"When we got out, it didn't take long for them to realize we were gone and started looking for us. And to add more problems to their plate, the infected people they were keeping fifteen feet below the surface got out! They kept I don't know how many infected people who were in the early stages of the virus inside that laboratory and now they were all out. We ran for two days, we even witnessed Prasinos' evacuation. We wanted to go with the other people but Estrella's men were there, looking for us. And we know this because we saw our faces ontheir tablets, they were looking for us as they let the residents of Prasinos board the transport vehicles," Paige crushed the cup on her hand as she continued telling us what happened, "At the evening of the second day we were cornered, we had nowhere else to go. KJ and I wanted to stand our ground, but Chet? Well she had other ideas. Using KJ's metal rod, that was quite thick mind you, she knocked us out! The next thing I knew I woke up in a puddle of sewer water with KJ beside me, Estrella's men were gone but so was Chet. Beside KJ was my bag, I managed to take it with me when we bolted, there was a note inside with Chet's handwriting, 'I'm sorry'. When KJ woke up she was obviously ticked off but we couldn't do anything about it, Chet was gone, my phone was out of battery and KJ lost her watch, we had no idea how much time had passed."

"So let me get this straight," Ethan cut in, "You have no idea what happened to Chet?!"

"In a nutshell," KJ replied.

"How did you get here?" asked Miss Kagami, cutting the brewing tension.

"We left the sewers when we were certain that it was safe, when we got out, I noticed that we were in a familiar neighborhood. We were near the home of my dad's side of the family. I took KJ there because I knew there'd be food and supplies we could use," Paige answered, "When we got there, we realized that almost half a day had passed. Thanks to a combination of fatigue and Chet using our heads like baseballs, we were out like lights. The plan was to stay there for the next few days but Estrella was determined to find us. After two days they were closing in on us."

"We had to move quickly," KJ explained, "So we grabbed all the food that we could, we almost got caught because Paige here took a little too long to get something."

"And that would be?" Ethan asked.

"My father's sword," Paige answered, "I gave it to KJ, I don't know how to use it but in the hands of Collis' best fencer I figured it could be useful for self defense and only for self defense."

"Paige took off the car cover of her family's jeep and we used it to get out of there. After that, we were always on the move, not staying at a place more than half a day, at times we even left the jeep and circled back just to shake the Estrella's grunts of our tails. Not to mention the fact that we had to avoid being lunch by the infected who are swarming Prasinos now. Yesterday, before the battery of Paige's phone was used up, we received a message from Harvey "Get to the lab in Valens", or at least that's part of what it says," said KJ.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Santiago asked.

"The message was incomplete," she replied, "Most likely, he sent it in a hurry. I have no idea what he wanted to say in the end. All he managed to write before sending it was "It's", we didn't have much to go on. But it was clear enough for us to get here as soon as possible. So the two of us set off for Valens. And I've got to ask, HOW IN INSULA DID THIS YOUNG LADY GET HER LICENSE?!"

"I passed the test, that's how," Paige answered.

"With what I saw earlier and KJ's horrified and very vocal response, we highly doubt that," I said to which DJ nodded.

"I did pass it! All they made me do was make a turn and park the vehicle," she explained, "Though in his paper there were more tests that had to be done but he passed me anyway. I think most of us at that branch did, I don't know about others."

"Our country has got to have a serious look into that after all this," Jelo said, shocked by what he's learned.

"Insula has issues, we got that, now moving on," DJ noted and motioned to continue.

"When we got to Valens, Paige took us to her place, and their entire village was empty. And because we saw a few infected people wandering around the streets of the city we figured that they'd already reached Valens so the people were evacuated for safety," KJ esaid, "After that we took a break for a couple of hours at her place and ate our first decent meal in days then headed to the city to find help, and that's how we wound up here."

"I don't understand, even if there were tons of infected people locked away at the convention center, they wouldn't have been quick enough for them to reach Valens at all if they broke out later that night. Given the timeline, it doesn't make sense!" Jelo voiced out.

"What do you mean?" KJ asked and looked as if she had just realized something, "How come you're still here? Valens is practically empty by now!"

"The city was evacuated on the first day the convention was held," I answered her.

KJ mumbled, "That doesn't make sense…"

"No it doesn't," Paige agreed, "Unless the breakout in Prasinos wasn't the first one that happened. You said something about an abandoned laboratory, it's one of Estrella's is it not?"

"Yes, it is," Miss Kagami answered.

"I see," Paige said then seemed to be in deep thought.

"What are you thinking, Paige?" I asked.

"I'm not at all sure about this, it's just speculation, but I don't think that the breakout in Prasinos wasn't the only one. It's possible that in this abandoned laboratory, Estrella had more of those people locked up."

"That tracks," Jelo agreed, "We have reason to believe that all this started here; it would stand to reason that they'd have infected people kept there as well."

KJ's face made a confused look, "How can you know that it started here? And if it did , wouldn't that,I don't know, be a good enough reason to bolt out of here?!"

"In case you didn't notice we lack the transportation necessary to get everyone to safety," DJ pointed out.

"Surely some of the doctors and patients have cars, what about the ambulances? Couldn't you have taken those?" she asked.

"All the doctors that had cars took all the patients that they could and headed for the safe zones, same with the nurses. The patients helped out the evacuation too. That's why we're all that's left, compared to the day of the evacuation there's only at least fifteen percent of people left, and this rough estimate includes those in the hospital that got infected," Dr. Santiago answered.

Then we heard a commotion from somewhere, it sounded like cheering, joyous exclamations. What was going on?

"They're back!" shouted a man who pointed to Dr. Peralta and the rest of the team who were walking right up to us.

Miss Kagami and Dr. Santiago embraced Dr. Peralta, relieved he came back safe and sound.

"I'm glad you reached us and told us where you were," he said, "We would've gone crazy if we came back to the hospital not knowing what happened."

He turned to KJ and upon seeing her he curtsied, "Your highness!"

"There's no need for that," KJ said before lifting him up, "Insula is a democracy, and has been for a century."

"I knew it!" Miss Kagami muttered.

"Sorry to disappoint you but we didn't find much in that lab, no hidden basement level either like the one Lanz's sister discovered in Mare." Dr. Peralta said, "But I don't understand why they had to close it down if it didn't hold anything valuable. Despite the reports we found about the lab, there was no evidence that it was hazardous or that dangerous chemicals were even present in the area."

"We're all ninety nine percent sure that there's a hidden level," Dr. Santiago insisted, "Are you sure you were thorough?"

"Of course we were, we didn't spend hours up there just to enjoy the scenery."

"By any chance there wouldn't happen to be anything unusual?" KJ asked, "Like a restroom that was out of place? Or anything of the sort."

"Now that you mention it, there was something like that!" he exclaimed, "It struck me as odd but there was this restroom that was in the back of the building far away from other facilities and just didn't seem to fit. We didn't think much of it though, we thought it was there for emergency toilet breaks. I mean, hey, when you've got to go, you've got to go."

"That's it!" we all shouted.

Dr. Peralta was so surprised, "What's it?!"

"Doc, you're going back," said KJ, "But this time, you're going to take us with you."

Once again we've taken a step forward to find the cause and end this nightmare. I should be glad and optimistic about this, but I get the feeling that this would only lead to more questions rather than answers.