Dear Lord! Ten days since my last chapter! I guess I'll never be able to update as regularly as I'd hoped. Especially since I'm taking a course online over the summer which sucks. And I started a new story to write, which in hindsight was probably a terrible idea, when I need less work to do. Go check out my new story btw! Link in the signature.

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The four walk around the facility for about half an hour, Dr. Reed and Dr. Channington occasionally pointing out something interesting or important, and explaining how it works. Abby is fascinated, taking in every word the doctors say. James is listening, but doesn’t understand a lot of what they discuss. Eventually, the group settles down in a cafe.

“So, do you have any questions so far?” Dr. Channington asks the two teens.

“Yeah, a lot of them actually,” James admits. “But it would take to long to ask them all. I will ask, where’s the bathroom?” Dr. Reed chuckles.

“There are some right over there, about 30 feet down the hall, second door on your left,” he answers. James gets up and heads in the direction Dr. Reed pointed. He finds the men’s room, and does his business. As he exits the restroom, he notices two doors down on the opposite side of the hallway, there’s an open door that is marked “Keep Shut.” He goes to close the door, but right before he begins to push it shut, he sees hospital beds through the opening between the door and door frame. He opens up the door a bit, and pokes his head inside. This room is lined with hospital beds. James remembers a very similar room in Hillside Laboratories. ‘This must be where they inject the volunteers with the formulas,’ he realizes.

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“How’s the dye formula development coming along?” James freezes. There are two men in the middle of the room, with white hair and labcoats. He quickly pulls his head out of the room, but presses his ear to the door in order to continue listening.

“Where have you been for the past 4 days? We finished developing that Monday! All of these soldiers have had their hair dyed with it,” the second man says.

“Great! Now they’ll follow the orders of the Masterpiece?”

“Of course! It’s just that we combined it with the dye. One less thing to inject the pawns with, you know? Saves needles.”

“Right, right.” Two sets of footsteps grow louder from the other side of the door. ‘They’re coming this way!’ James realizes. He quickly but silently begins walking back to the cafe, trying to process what he had heard. Follow orders? That sounds like brainwashing. But weren’t these soldiers volunteers? Why would they need to sneak that into the hair dye then? Why did they need to dye hair at all? Abby smiles at James when he returns.

“What’s got you so excited?” he asks.

“They said we could help them fight my parents! All we need to do is have our hair dyed so they can tell our soldiers from theirs. I’m gonna do it. How about you?"