It turned out that only two of the vats were currently being used to store dust. The remaining four were completely empty, though Noah had no idea how many infected students were still waiting to be treated. For all he knew, all of the vats would be filled by the end of the day.
“We’ve been played,” he said portentously.
“Yeah?” The girl was still hovering across the room. She glanced at the door regretfully.
Noah began pacing back and forth in front of the vats, his mind racing. “I’d bet you anything that they only ‘treated’ us to get their hands on this dust they’re so interested in. The fact that it cures the patient is just a convenient side effect. Actually, they probably wish it didn’t cure us, so they could keep harvesting from us indefinitely.”
He suddenly came to a halt and turned to her, a dark look in his eyes. “I wonder if they didn’t cure me and the other kids on purpose. Someone probably realized they would lose their steady source of dust if everyone got cured, so they made sure to set a couple of us aside.”
As angry as the thought made him, it was also a source of hope. If the only reason he wasn’t cured was because they pulled the plug too early, then it would be an easy thing to remedy.
“Uh,” the girl mumbled, unsure of what he was referring to. After a few seconds she hesitantly said, “Well, you don’t seem very cured.”
“Yeah, that was never in question,” he muttered. He stared back at the vats. “What use could they have for so much of this stuff, though? What purpose could it possibly serve?”
His eyes widened. “Oh my gosh. They’re gonna make it into a biological weapon and sell it to the government. They’re going to end the world.”
He looked back at the girl to see what she thought about that, but she just pointed at the tables on the other side of the room. “Or, they’re experimenting with using it as a renewable energy source, potentially solving the global energy crisis.”
He narrowed his eyes at the tables as he wandered closer. There were spools of copper wire and various electrical paraphernalia scattered upon them. The main item that caught his eye, however, was a brightly shining lightbulb screwed into the handle of a two-pronged metal fork, which in turn was stabbed directly down into the white plastic lid of a glass jar of dust.
“Huh. Would you look at that,” Noah said.
“Yeah. It’s like a potato battery, except it’s a dust battery. Pretty cool.”
“Maybe it would be, but this is Insight we’re dealing with. Next thing you know, we’re gonna be the ones hooked up to a lightbulb.”
The student stared at him. “Are you always this paranoid?”
Noah blinked. “My fears are perfectly justified. You’re the one who’s not being cautious enough. I mean, you followed a zombie into a locked and empty room. What kind of idiot does that? Literally right after watching me eat someone, too.”
She gazed at him. “You’re not still hungry, though, right?”
He shrugged. She had nothing to worry about from him, being too much of an enigma to his senses for him to consider her as good food. Though if he were being truthful with himself, the few bites he had taken out of the doctor hadn’t done much for his hunger. He was already looking forward to his next meal and the pleasant burst of energy it would provide.
He wondered briefly if he should be concerned that he was becoming some kind of addict. Even if he was, he decided, it was nothing to be troubled over. He was a zombie, after all; his behavior was perfectly natural and expected. Although he might do well to not announce the fact to his friends when he next saw them.
“Before I opened the vats, did you feel cured?” he asked the girl, forcing his thoughts away from his steady descent into zombiehood. “Also, what’s your name? I’m No- uh, no. No. I shall remain unnamed.”
“I’m Penelope.” She stared at him like he was crazy. “And, well, I guess so. The hunger went away once they finished with the vacuum, at least. I can’t really say for certain about the other symptoms. I didn’t take a moment to really pay attention, to be honest.”
“Hmm. Maybe that slapped-together vacuum thing actually worked. That’s nice to hear.” He stuck a thumb at the door. “You gonna go back to get another round of treatment?”
She shook her head. “The doctor and his attendant would want to know where my escort had gone. And when they inevitably find his body in here, it’ll seem obvious that I was the one to kill him. Especially when it turns out that I need another round of treatment because I seemingly wasn’t cured properly. I’d rather just get out of here and find my own vacuum somewhere to do it myself.”
“Good point,” Noah acknowledged. “Although I wasn’t planning on leaving the body out in the open like that. That seems improper. And a downright safety hazard.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to do?”
Noah looked around. “Think he’d fit in one of those vats?”
She gaped at him. “That’s horrible!”
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“Is it?” He walked over to the body and started dragging it across the room. “Can you just help me get him in?”
She backed away from him. “No.”
“Oh, come on! It’s in your best interest to delay the discovery of his death. You said it yourself, you were the one last seen with him.”
“There might be cameras. They could see it wasn’t my fault.”
“I didn’t see any cameras,” Noah said. “Weren’t you just talking about how doomed you’ll be if the body gets discovered while you’re still around?”
She didn’t respond. He went to the sixth vat in the line, figuring it would be the last to be filled with dust, and began unscrewing the top. “I’m going to have some trouble if you make me do this on my own. The guy isn’t light. Must’ve had one too many empanadas at the Insight potluck.”
“You’re literally insane,” she said.
Noah gave her an odd look. “Hey, we both know I’m battling a certain illness at the moment. You can’t blame me if I don’t come across as normal to your sensibilities. Besides, you’re probably infected, too. You can’t be throwing around these kinds of criticisms.”
Her expression said that she very much could. “I haven’t eaten anyone. And I’m not currently stuffing a man I killed into a metal vat.”
Noah dragged the body over, and after a considerable amount of effort, managed to get the head and shoulders tipped over the rim of the container. From there it was relatively easy to push him the rest of the way in. His skull hit the bottom of the vat with a loud clang. Noah’s headache, which was still lingering annoyingly, throbbed in response for some reason, but he did his best to ignore it. He grasped the edge of the vat and pulled himself up a few inches to peer inside, and to his satisfaction, the body was nearly invisible. He dropped back down to the floor, picked up the lid, and sealed the container back up.
He turned back to Penelope. “Alright, I did it. No thanks to you.”
“Good. I’d rather not be guilty by association. I feel like I’m committing a crime just by standing in the same room as you.”
Noah frowned at her, unsure how to respond to that comment.
“You do realize that all those masks on your face are covered in blood. You look like an actual serial killer.”
Noah picked at the masks, nearly pulling one off to look at it himself, before freezing in place and shooting Penelope a suspicious look. “Are you just trying to trick me into revealing my face?” His eyes and mouth were visible, but the rest of his face was still hidden, as far as he was aware.
She stared at him. “No. Are you okay?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“My apologies. The answer is obviously no.”
Noah grumbled under his breath. “Alright, we’ve spent enough time here. I’m leaving before the next delivery of dust shows up.”
He walked over to the door and tugged on it, only to find that it was once more locked. A pit formed in his stomach and he looked awkwardly over his shoulder at the vats.
Penelope looked at him blankly for a moment before facepalming. “Did you drop him in the vat before taking his key?”
Noah gulped. “I might actually need your help now. I won’t be able to get him out on my own.”
She scowled. “I’d rather wait for the next doctor to pay this room a visit. With you right here, it’ll be pretty obvious I wasn’t the one responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the doctor.”
Noah glanced around, beginning to panic. He couldn’t let himself be found like this. His gaze panned over the tables of electrical equipment, and he wondered if anything there could be used to somehow short out the lock on the door.
He shook his head. Who was he kidding? He was a bio major, not an electrician. He’d sooner electrocute himself than get any doors open.
A different solution suddenly occurred to him, and he slowly turned to face Penelope.
She must not have liked the look in his eyes, because she flinched and retreated quickly across the room. “I’m sorry, dude, but I’m not going to put myself at risk for a crazy stranger I just met. Surely you can understand.”
“Oh, I do,” Noah said.
He wondered how much damage it would take for her to go crazy. Crazy enough that it would seem obvious she was the one to have killed the doctor.
He stepped towards her, working his jaw. His instincts warned him she wouldn’t be good food, but that was okay; he wasn’t trying to satisfy his hunger. He just wasn’t sure how else he could effectively damage her. His jaws were the strongest weapon he possessed.
“Wait!” Penelope screeched. She scampered sideways and swiped something off the floor, and Noah nearly sprung at her in response to the sudden movement. Barely restraining himself, he watched as she frantically searched through the pockets of what turned out to be the very bloody lab coat of the doctor. “It could be in here,” she said breathlessly.
Noah’s eyebrows rose. He had forgotten about the coat, but it would make his life a lot easier if she turned out to be right.
“Here!” she shouted, almost crying in relief as she yanked out a wallet. She glanced at him nervously and slowly edged past him towards the door, holding up the wallet as if to assure him she were just checking that the key lay within. Noah let her cross the room without making a move. As she came within a few feet of the exit, there was an audible click and the light flicked green.
Both of them smiled in relief. “Here,” Penelope said, holding the wallet out to Noah before he could say anything. “You can keep it, just let me out of the hall. Alright?”
“Sure,” Noah said, surprised at her willingness to give up the key. “Thanks.”
She twitched a nervous smile at him before turning and exiting the room. Noah followed with one last look around the space, scanning to make sure there wasn’t anything too obviously out of place. There was a bit of blood on the floor by the door, so he scuffed it with his shoe in a quick attempt to make it less visible. Nodding to himself, he stepped out after Penelope.
He went with her to the end of the hallway. As they approached the double doors the light overhead turned green and the twin panels automatically swung open. The next section of hallway looked much the same as every other he had encountered so far at Insight, though there were a few people at the far end. Noah noticed a sign indicating a stairwell somewhere ahead on the left, and pointed it out to Penelope.
“Yeah, I see it,” she said. “I’ll ask some people for directions to get out. Hopefully someone will be kind enough to lead the way.” She looked down the hallway before reluctantly adding, “You sure you don’t want to leave too? You wouldn’t look too suspicious if you took off those masks. And it looks like you’re wearing two layers of shirts; you could take off the outer bloody one. This could be your last good chance to escape.”
Surprised by her thoughtfulness, Noah nonetheless shook his head without hesitation. “My friends are still here, and besides, I want to find out for sure what Insight’s planning with all of this. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do about it, but, well, you never know.”
“Okay. Bye, then,” she said quickly, stepping through the door and hurrying away from him as quickly as she could.