The two quickly burst through the doors, pushing past people(sometimes Adam observed Caleb pushing past people unnecessarily), and making haste to their destination: the archives.
The details to any case recorded, solved, unsolved, or declared cold by any law enforcement over the world could be found here(originally, each city would have their own archives, but as more and more cases were found to be incidents of the phenomenon, authorities began to pool their resources and data together in an effort to make it easier for people working on the case to access information). This building was a veritable wellspring of information for anyone hoping to find any information on crime, so it was highly secure.
As they finally arrived, Adam pushed open the doors, revealing a hall so empty it was eerie. Despite the volume of paper on the shelves, the amount of cabinets so full they were almost bursting, and the papers strewn across whiteboards, the tables, and even the floor, the entirety of the magnificent hall was fully devoid of life, like a ghost town.
In a hushed voice, almost as if he were in some place worth whispering at, such as a library or a church, Adam murmured.
“Where is everyone? I thought this project was so vital that hundreds of people were working to solve it?”
Caleb’s voice rang out in the quiet space.
“Firstly, hundreds are way too many people. Tens of people would be a closer estimate. At most, a hundred. Secondly, most of them left because of the unsafety of the job. All of them were targeted on the first day, so they left. They all went on to live their lives free of this curse, growing old, dying peaceful lives, unaware of the tragedies they avoided.”
He paused, before quickly speaking.
“Are you sure you want to participate in this investigation? You now know the danger that you could face, so are you sure you want to help? Your family would miss you, and…”
As he spoke, a shadow passed over Caleb’s expression, but he was cut off short by Adam flicking him on the head. He swung his head up with murder in his eyes, but stopped short at Adam’s gentle expression.
“You don’t need to worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
Chastened, Caleb looked at his feet, as Adam continued-
“Besides, I don’t have any surviving family, and this bonus is far too large to ignore-”
He was stopped by a quick jab to his gut by Caleb.
“For schiest’s sake, enough with the prattle. Let’s get to work.”
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“But if anything you-”
Adam was stopped short by a flurry of blows by Caleb.
“Schist, enough!”
So they began to work their way through the mountain of information in the archives.
…
Hours into the stack, they had made little to no progress so far. All the information, while being useful, had been completely worked to bits, with little leads left to follow.
Adam was completely wiped by the 7th hour. Despite the amount of time they had spent in this area, they had barely covered a tenth of the information contained in the great halls. Not to mention they had been here researching for the full 10 hours, with no sustenance but for a few granola bars Caleb had brought with him. At this time, he could barely keep his eyes open. The only reason that he was still conscious was because the hunger was keeping him awake. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to Caleb gesturing behind him.
“How about we get a meal for ourselves? There’s a burger place nearby, so we can visit there, get some food, and then get back to work.”
Adam stretched and pushed his chair back.
“Sounds good to me.”
…
After a short drive, the two arrived at a fast food place, and were waiting in line behind quite a few people. The two of them were waiting in somewhat of an awkward silence. The two of them had only met the day before after all, so their relationship was still quite tentative. As Adam wracked his brain in desperation for a conversation topic, Caleb’s voice shook him out of the depths of his mind.
“So what made you take this god-forsaken position in this impossible case.”
Taken aback by the brazen-ness of his partner, Adam took a moment to gather his thoughts, before speaking.
“Well to be completely frank, it’s because I lost my best friend to one of the earliest recorded incidents. Other than this drive to understand what happened to them, I have very little else that I do. So this is something of a passion project to me, to keep me from pondering the pointlessness of my life.”
Adam saw Caleb suddenly still at his words.
“Sorry! That was a bit dark wasn’t it? To be completely honest, I’ve been like this like I was a kid. Always killing the mood, misreading the situation, and-”
Suddenly, (at this point, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been cut off Adam thought)Caleb knocked into his shoulder, cutting him off mid-sentence, pulling behind him, an old lady and two children.
“Caleb…?”
Caleb seemed panicked, forcefully pulling people out of the building, as if there were fire on his heels, screaming:
“EVERYONE, GET OUT NOW! THIS PLACE IS COMING DOWN IN FLAMES, SO GET OUT!”
Still dazed, Adam watched as the panic began to spread through the packed restaurant, people scrambling to get out, knocking others over, vacating from the area as far away as they could. He still stood as the restaurant quickly emptied, its cheerful walls covered with posters of happy families, and deals for food products opposing the ominous, almost expectant atmosphere. He turned around to see Caleb running back for him. He started for the door, before he heard a cracking sound, and turned to see an entire, office-water-tank-sized bottle of water(most likely for the soda dispensary) falling into the vast fryers of the restaurant. Suddenly realizing his proximity to the danger, Adam turned again to run, when…