The Haunted Orphanage

Chapter 41

Dan's POV

"Alright, the first thing we need to do is find the entrance to the laboratory," Phil instructed. "Just like Dan said, it's probably somewhere in this room. Why else would all the lab coats be in here?"

Jason chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. We get it. Do you think there'll be an actual door, or a secret entrance?"

"Probably a real door–"

"I'm willing to bet that it's both," Nate cut me off.

"And why's that?" I asked.

"Well, it's obviously going to be a door. It wouldn't make sense to have a trapdoor or something like that when this room is already hidden away. That would just be more work for the scientists. However, there will probably be some kind of code on the door, or it'll be hidden somewhere."

After a few seconds of silence, Phil stated, "Good point, Nate. Okay, everyone start looking for the door. If you find anything suspicious or anything that seems out of place, tell the rest of us, got it?"

"Yup!" Nate and Jason cheered as they raced toward one of the walls.

Once they were out of earshot, I whispered to Phil, "So I know this was partially my idea, but do you have the slightest clue what we're going to do if we run into a bunch of mutated kids?"

"Nope, I just assumed we would make stuff up as we go. I'm currently just hoping that when we get in, everyone is in 'human form' or sleeping. Both would be nice," Phil mumbled.

"Agreed. What are we going to do about the other kids, though? Do you think they're all okay? I mean, there were a lot of highlighted names on the list, which I assume means that those people are alive, so that would mean that there's going to be a pretty significant number of other kids in there."

Phil dragged me with him to a wall and began studying it for any signs of a door. "We'll help as many as we can, I guess. I don't intend to let people die who don't have to."

I smiled faintly and began searching another wall. I pushed lab coats out of the way and found several more name tags that were difficult to read due to an odd liquid covering them. It looked like dry blood, but it was sticky and bright blue. "What the heck if this stuff?" I murmured to myself.

"I bet it's goo that came out of dead monster's eyes!" Nate yelled in my ear, causing me to scream.

"What are you doing right behind me?!" I yelled after I had calmed down a bit and Phil had stopped laughing.

"I realized something that I think you and Phil both overlooked," Nate replied.

"What?"

"Do either of you realize that if this room has an entrance to the lab, eventually someone is going to come through here?"

"All the more reason to find the door as quickly as possible!" Phil exclaimed.

Nate glanced at me again before walking back to Jason and continuing his search. I walked to Phil and stood next to him. "He forgot to mention that scientists will likely be swarming the laboratory."

"That'll be harder to get around, but we'll be fine. Those kids seem to be pretty sneaky, and you and I can be sneaky if we really try," Phil encouraged me.

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled as I began walking back to where I had been searching.

I moved a small table out of the way to get a better look at the wall. I still couldn't find anything. Everything in this room seemed decently normal for the situation we were in. I lifted a rug, but there was nothing underneath it besides the floorboards.