Descent Into Madness

Chapter 19: Going Nowhere

"Here we are."

The restrooms were nearly as trashed as the offices. Some stall doors were laying across the floor and the walls of the stalls were caved in. Thankfully, the creatures hadn't seen a need to destroy the sinks. Letting go of Phineas' hand, I stepped over the decaying remains of an arm to reach one of them. The handle turned with a squeak, and I waited for the water to work its way through the pipes.

There was no rust this time.

I pulled the plastic covered name tag from my pocket and began to wash it off.

Another squeak filled the air, and I looked over to see Phineas trying to wash the blood off his hands. My own hands stilled as the gunk came off of his, revealing exactly how distorted they'd become from the mutangent. His nails curved down into sharp points. While not very long, they were obviously claws. Maybe they were still forming, still growing. The thought made my stomach tighten into a knot. It was surprising I hadn't felt them digging into my skin when we'd held hands. Or maybe he'd been careful not to scratch me.

I looked away, swallowing thickly. It could be worse, I tried to reassure myself.

Forcing my hands back into motion, the water and rubbing was taking off some of whatever it was covering the ID. The name had become partially viable, it was enough.

The corpse was that of Dr. Abraham.

I turned off the water. The person who started all of this was dead. Possibly one of the first to die when it all went bad. That's almost comforting.

So why did I feel more uncomfortable knowing it?

I shook the plastic card before wiping it off on one of the cleaner parts of my ruined shirt. If someone were to look at it, I doubt they'd even be able to tell the button down was once white.

"What is that?" Phineas turned off the faucet.

Telling him about the body I had found on the lower level had slipped my mind. Not telling him about the specimens and bones had been purposeful. I hadn't wanted to. Didn't want him to be worrying about the infection, and I knew he would have been disturbed by the mention of the leftovers from the monsters' meals. I closed my eyes. Why had I been so stupid? If I had told him they'd been human once, he would have had some warning.

"Ferb?"

"I found it on a body when I went searching before-" 'Before' what? Before I stabbed him? I forced myself to take a deep breath. "It's an ID." Oh, yes, because that's not vague at all. "The ID of the person who started all of this."

"How do you know?" He sounded closer.

"From the video on the cellphone." I opened my eyes. Phineas was closer, right next to me now. "The one in... one of the offices. You saw it, didn't you?"

"Nope." He didn't seem to the least bit phased. "So they're dead?"

I nodded. He hadn't fixed it...

Phineas looked up from examining the card. "We done in here?"

Nodding again, I slipped the ID back into my pocket before turning away from the sink.

Phineas began to walk backwards in front of me once we got back into the hall. I sighed and watched behind him. With our current luck, he'd walk into something. "I guess... it's good the person responsible's dead." He didn't sound very certain about it, and I shrugged.

Part of me felt it was only just that she was killed due to her own creation, but there was another part that felt disappointed that I wouldn't be able to kill her myself. That part was worrying me. I couldn't recall a previous time when I'd actively wanted to hurt another human.