"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean..."
"Absolutely! No one goes in there anymore and those supplies will be taken by someone less worthy if we don't claim them! Besides, Susan let me use all her stuff and was dedicated to finding the same cure... She would be fine with us using her lab tools. C'mon!" I hopped onto the chain-link fence and swung my leg over the top.
Donnie stood below me and scratched his head. "Well... If you say so." I had gotten the bright idea to search Susan's old lab for her notes or other useful things about a week before. Donnie had been indecisive the whole way to the building, but he climbed the fence after me like a good boy. "So they still don't know who killed her?"
"No." I thought back to the day I had heard the news.
"Are you going to be alright in there? I mean, they might not have cleaned it up all the way." The police had shut the place down after the killer/killers had murdered multiple scientists and staff members. Yellow caution tape stretched around the doorway. Donnie had already disabled the security cameras, setting them on a loop.
"I will be fine. Let's go." I squeezed through the tape and held the door open for him. "Age before beauty." I joked.
"True that..." He smiled. "Actually, I'm not exactly sure if I'm older than you. You don't know your age for sure, right?"
"No. I just assume I'm about 16-17ish. You?"
"I have no idea what my birthday is, you know. But, I know that I am about seventeen..." His fingers pushed buttons on his wrist gadget and he mumbled. "It says that Dr. Rockley's laboratory is on the third floor... You haven't ever had any weird dreams, or any memories that could give any clue to your previous life?"
We rounded a corner and ran up the stairs. I pondered for a moment. "Not that I can think of. My memory itself probably isn't the best lead, though. Do you know any computer trick to find out about my past?" He chuckled as we bounded up another flight of stairs... I could fly, but I prefer to go on foot with others around.
"I could figure something out. I'll try when we are..." We reached the third floor and halted. They didn't clean it up all the way. "... Done here." We walked around a stained-reddish brown section of carpet and found a door with 'Dr. Rockley-Genetics' on the window. I cautiously opened it and gasped when I saw a spurt of dried blood on the window. Stumbling back, Donnie caught me and stammered. "Angel, maybe we should go back."
"No. I'm fine. Let's see what we can find." I held myself together and ignored the window. Instead, I walked to the tables that had gadgets and tools set neatly atop them. One wall, above a table with a microscope, had notes tacked up all over the place. Donnie picked up a bulging notebook and inspected the contents while I leaned forward to read the notes.
"This is packed, absolutely packed, with information on her previous experimentation and reactions of different chemicals... Angel, this could fix our problem! You were right!" Donnie paused and I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Angie? You okay?"
"Who would come in here and murder a scientist... But leave all their notes, supplies, finished work... It doesn't make sense."
"It could have been someone that was angry with her for some reason and just wanted her gone."
"But they didn't just kill her! They slaughtered tons of people!"
"A deranged psychopath, perhaps?" He suggested. I shook my head in frustration. I didn't like not understanding things. It was one of the worst feelings; along with guilt and helplessness. I started untacking the papers and stacking them on the table.
"Whoever they were, fact is they left us a whole lot of information, so let's get it back to the lab." I looked around the room at all the tables. "Anything you see that we would need?"
"Um. Yeah, I'll start packing some of it up." We got to work.
Soon we were exiting the lab and walking past the bloodstain to go back downstairs and back to the lab to start working again.
-
Donnie jumped down the manhole and I lowered the bag of fragile instruments and jars of chemicals down to him. We carried the bags to the lab and unpacked the equipment.
I heard a knock and turned to find Leonardo there. "Hey Angel. How did it go?"
Helping Donnie clear a place for a very nice and expensive-looking microscope on the desk, I nodded. "It went pretty well. She had a lot of notes and stuff like that left on the desk. We are a lot closer to a cure now than a few hours ago."
"Cool. Well I'm going to train some more... Don't work too hard, you two." He disappeared out of sight and I sat down, opening Susan's notebook.
"I think he likes you..." Donnie said.
"What? Who?" I looked up at him, confused. "Leo?"
"Well, yeah." He turned and set out some tools. "He is a lot more talkative and friendly when you're around."
"Not to sound snobby, Don, but I don't live here. It seems only normal that he would have better manners while talking to a guest than his own brothers... Right?"
He played with his fingers and shrugged. "I guess that would make sense."
We continued working and then I asked. "Would you be disapproving of Leo liking me if he did?" I felt like a middle-school girl.
"Well, I don't know... It would be kind of awkward if he was trying to flirt with you while you work with me in my lab... er... Never mind."
I chuckled quietly. "Don't worry, about that sort of thing, Donnie." I socked his shoulder. "Let's get working instead."
Sitting beside me, he put his goggles over his eyes and grabbed two jars of liquid. "Sounds good to me."
