Infectious Love

Chapter 5: The Hidden Labs

"You found the main lab?" Jeremy asked through the headset "Is the place still intact?" 

"For the most part, yes, but there is quite a bit of... property damage." 8 walked over to the machines, a few crushed in from fallen pieces of ceiling.

3 walked over to the tinted window and pared inside, what she saw sent goosebumps down her arms and legs.

Inside the room were about a least eight to nine IV poles some had fallen over, while others that were still standing were each next to a black chair that had strong restraints built into them. Along with small storage cabinets scattered about, most likely holding more supplies. 

3 recognized those chairs, back in high school, the school's annual Inkdrive. When she went to donate, she remembered sitting and relaxing in the same specially-made chairs while waiting to give ink, except they didn't have restraints built into them. With the Inkdrive it was for a good cause, but here... she didn't want to think of all the octlings that all they felt was pain and terror in their final moments before turning.

"What'ca yea looking at?" a voice from behind asked.

3 whipped around and aimed her Heroshot at the possible threat, only to find Becca now holding her hands up.

"Relax it's just me!" she nearly yelled.

"Sorry..." 3 muttered, lowing her weapon.

"It's fine, it's fine" Bec laughed while waving a hand.

"What's going on?"

8 joined them at the window as Bec finished laughing. 3 nervously looked at 8, spun him around, and gently tried to lead him away from the window.

"It's nothing! Just some busted-up equipment is all there is!" she gave a nervous laugh, still trying to get him to move but he wouldn't budge.

"Come on 3! Did you even go i-" Bec's playful attitude stopped mid-sentence when she saw what was on the other side of the window "What the hell..." 

8 brushed past 3 and her protests as he looked through the window. His eyes grew wide with horror seeing the disturbing and horrid fate that the octlings had faced before turning into sanitized zombies.

No matter how hard he tried, 8 couldn't pray his eyes away from this truly disturbing sight that lay before him. He thought back to first entering the Metro and fighting a brainwashed 3, being the lucky few to escape from this sanitized fate.

"8..." 3 gently tugged at his sleeve trying to lead him away "Why don't we leave this to Bec..."

"Yeah, I got this covered," Becca walked towards the door and gave them a weak smile "Why don't you two check out the rest of the lab?"

8 just gave them a tight nod as he finally gave in and let 3 lead him away from the window.

"They can't do anything to you... I got my friends here with me." 8 thought in an attempt to calm himself.

Once they were in the middle of the lab, 3 let go of his arm and stood beside him.

"I'll take care of the middle why don't you check out the other side for anything."

"Sure thing..." 8 muttered, as he split off from 3.

Once she was sure that the octling wasn't going to turn back around, 3 went to the closest lab table and began poking around for any clues.

8 began looking over the large machinery, trying not to look over at the window. As he went behind one of the broken machines he noticed a door mostly covered by that said machine's shadow. He tried the knob, but the door only opened a creak before being stopped by something on the other side.

"What the..."

8 braced himself and threw himself against the door, but the door barely budge. 

"3! I think I found something can you give me a hand?" he yelled over to her.

What did you find?"

As 3 went behind the machinery and saw 8 next to the door, she immediately knew what he was trying to do.

"On the count of...2" 8 instructed as 3 stood next to him, bracing herself as she got ready.

"1...2!"

8 and 3 pushed against the door with all they had, the door suddenly swung open as the thing blocking it fell to the side with a loud thud and kicked up dust from lack of cleaning. They both fell onto the floor and coughed a little from all the dust, 8 slowly sat up on his knees and looked around the small room.

Next to the door was a large bookshelf now laying on its front, with a few of its contents which included books and folders scattered around it from the sudden impact. 

The room itself didn't really match up with the lab outside of it, it had a wide worktable right next to a few cabinets/counters with a few tools that had rusted due to age were still on the counters. There was a bulletin board and a whiteboard side-by-side with each other on the wall. The only thing that stood out was a large glass stasis-like tank in the corner of the room, filled with what looked like sludge except it looked a bit darker than normal.

"Is this some sort of workshop?" 3 coughed as she stood up, then helped 8 up.

"Well, I'm pretty sure most workshops don't have...that." 8 pointed to the tank.

They both split up and began searching the room, 3 started looking through the fallen files and books while 8 went through some of the cabinets. After finding just some rusted spare tools and small pieces of lab equipment, 8 turned his attention toward the sludge-filled tank. The supports of the tank had a layer of dust covering it, using his sleeve 8 wiped away some of the dust that revealed a plate engraved into the support that read "Commander's sludge" in bold green letters.

"Commander's sludge?" 8 muttered as he looked back up at the sludge, the only thing that seemed different about it to him was that it had a darker tone to it. "What's so special about this sludge?"

As 8 was deep in thought a shot rang out, the ink flying past his face and hitting the glass making a large web-like crack.

"..In...Intruder...detected..."

8 slowly turned to find a roughed up sanitized octling pointing a splattershot right at him. 8 slowly raised his hands up, not daring to even reach for his weapon, luckily the sanitized octling didn't notice 3 when coming into the room due to her being mostly covered by the door. She was carefully moving towards the unsuspecting octling, trying her best not to make any noise.

Before the octling could try anything, 3 immediately jumped her and tried to grab her weapon, only to end up in a deadly struggle.

"8 shot her!" 3 yelled, struggling to keep her ground.

8 kept his Heroshot pointed at the two, but he didn't have a clear shot and didn't want to risk hitting 3. The sanitized shot a strong kick to 3's stomach that sent her flying toward 8, who ended up dropping his weapon when catching her. The force knocked them both against the tank, with 8's left arm hitting the weak point of the glass and breaking it wide open.

8 let out a cry of pain as the broken glass tore through his sleeve and into his arm, in a split second, as the sludge washed over the two of them and spilled onto the floor. 3 looked up while supporting 8 to find the splattershot pointed right at them. 3 glanced to the side, their weapons just out of reach, and even if she tried to make a grab for them 8 would end up taking the shot.

"Targets...acquired," the sanitized said with a dead tone, her finger on the trigger.

Before she could pull the trigger, a large splosh of blue ink splatted her, leaving behind a puddle of blue ink. Standing at the entrance of the doorway was Becca holding a slosher, panting a little with an aluminum case sitting right next to her. She looked down at the blue puddle that began to merge with the spilled sludge, then back up to a surprised 3 and (bleeding) 8.

"Let's get the hell outta here."

Hey guys I want to wish you all happy holidays and happy new year's! I do have a little something planned as a little Christmas surprise that I plan to post, but I don't know if I can get it posted in time before Christmas.