Noah stepped back to let the doors close, eager to get out of view, then turned to begin making his way back towards the room with the other uncured students. He immediately noticed the mask he had discarded earlier laying on the floor, and he quickly picked it up and replaced it back over his mouth. No point leaving it out in the open to invite questions.

The light over each door lit up one by one as he walked down the hall. After the third fifth one flashed at him, Noah slowed to a stop and stared consideringly at the door. He put his hand against it, wondering if it would be a good idea to look inside. It would be a waste not to, he thought. There was still no sign of the remaining doctor and his assistant, and it would just take a moment to peek in. He hoped he would find some clue as to what Insight was actually doing with the dust.

He leaned into the door, fully intending to enter the room, only to back off at the last second. He was suddenly paranoid that he would be met with a room full of employees. One or maybe two, he could deal with. But he only had one mouth; any more than that and he would only get himself captured and brought under scrutiny.

He pressed the side of his head carefully against the door, trying to pick up the sound of voices without accidentally pushing it open. He couldn’t pick up any noises, but then again, the walls of this building were clearly quite soundproofed. If a man could get murdered in the hallway without anyone coming out to check what all the noise was about, he doubted he would hear anything through the door even if there were a dozen people busy at work inside.

With one final regretful look, he turned away and continued down the hall. Depending on where he stayed the night, perhaps he would have a chance to explore at a later hour.

He had some difficulty picking out his room from all the other identical doors, even knowing it was slightly ajar. The doorways were designed to be slightly set into the wall, which made it difficult to see the subtle gap he knew he had left.

It took him a minute, but he did finally find the correct room. Once he was standing right outside, he could see the barely visible lump of his shirt serving as a doorstop, and he stooped to pick it up before pushing his way inside.

“Hey, guys,” he greeted everyone. The same four students were still seated within, and the injured guy seemed to have collected himself somewhat and had taken a seat on Noah’s chair while he was away.

A few seconds passed without any response to his return, prompting him to look around quizzically. “What’s up?”

“You have blood all over your face,” Clarissa said hesitantly, like she didn’t want him to panic but kind of thought he should be.

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, it’s not mine,” he assured her, ignoring the slightly horrified look he received in return and getting right to work stripping away his outer layer of clothes. He stared at the dirty garments uncertainly, wondering if it would be incriminating to carry them around, but after a moment of thought he just shrugged and bundled everything back together. There was hardly any blood visible.

Once that was done he plucked each of the masks off his face and gave them a cursory glance before holding them out. “You guys want these back?”

“I’m good,” Mark said quickly.

Violet just shook her head, seeming horrified at the prospect of even touching the blood-soaked scraps of fabric.

Clarissa sent both students an incredulous look. “Those are good masks. Hand ‘em over.”

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“Here you go. Good as new.”

Clarissa laughed. “Like hell they are. But they’ll be fine after a good wash.” She tucked them away into her coat. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you got up to out there.”

“I ate one of the doctors,” he said casually, before realizing that he wasn’t in proper company to be disclosing that kind of information. He suppressed a wince and shut his mouth.

Nobody seemed to know how to respond to that announcement, except perhaps the hungry student. He gazed intently at Noah.

“Is there any left?” he asked hopefully.

“Apologies, but he’s very dead.”

“Oh.” He drooped.

“Can I get your name?” Noah asked, feeling a touch of sympathy for him.

“It’s Elias Puckett.”

“I’m Noah. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Yeah. Do you want your chair back? I didn’t know when or if you’d return, so I kinda just snagged it for myself.”

“You’re fine.” Noah went to the wall and grabbed another seat for himself. As he was unfolding it beside Elias, the door to the room suddenly opened to reveal none other than Brian, May, and Leah. Behind them were the remaining doctor and his assistant.

“Hi, Noah!” Brian said cheerfully, quick to pick him out from the small crowd. Leah and May waved.

“Guys!” Noah exclaimed in surprise. He narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you get cured?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Leah began, but the hollow sound of metal clattering to the floor interrupted her.

Everyone looked over to see Elias standing over his fallen chair. His eyes locked upon the two Insight workers and his hands trembled with barely restrained hunger.

“Buddy, I know they look delicious, but you probably shouldn’t,” Noah said impassively. “You’ll just get knocked out again. You’re better off waiting until one of them is alone.”

He felt a few pairs of eyes turn to him, but he kept his gaze trained calmly on Elias, waiting. “You know I’m right.”

To everyone’s surprise, the student slowly nodded and bent to pick his chair back up. He sat back down and glanced around with a faint smile as if nothing had happened.

Noah looked up to see the attendant slowly removing her hand from her pocket, a faintly disbelieving expression on her face as she glanced between Noah and Elias.

The doctor cleared his throat. “Anyways. The three of you will remain here while we finish treating the other students. Our shift ends within the hour, at which point we have been instructed to bring you to Dr. Heinrich.”

“Who?” Noah asked.

The doctor sniffed. “He is the head of the temporary unit tasked with investigating the infectious outbreak at Oakridge.”

“Oh. So he’s the one to blame for dragging you all into our business.”

He spluttered. “You ungrateful little-”

“Alright, Phil, let’s get back to the office,” the assistant interjected.

The doctor sighed and smoothed back his hair. “Yeah. We’ll be back shortly to pick you all up.” He turned away, then swiveled right back towards them in the same motion. “Oh! Did my associate happen to stop by this room? I haven’t seen him in a minute.”

Noah gulped and did his best to maintain a slightly concerned, innocent gaze. He tried not to look at his fellow students, but he could imagine their accusatory stares.

“Ah, I’m sure he’ll turn up,” the doctor said after it became clear none of them had anything to say. He stepped back, letting the door swing slowly shut behind him, and headed out of view towards the treatment room.

Leah casually stuck an arm out to block the door from fully closing.

Noah laughed. “I did the same thing.”

She sent him a glance. “Do you have something I can stick in the door to keep it open?”

His hand went to his pocket and he fingered the keycard hesitantly. He didn’t particularly want to deal with the questions it would raise, but after a moment of silence he decided they should be aware he had it, and he pulled it out to brandish it in the air. “No need. I got the key.”

“Holy crap,” Mark muttered quietly behind him.

Leah’s eyes widened excitedly, only to turn to suspicious slits almost immediately. “And where, pray tell, did you happen to acquire that?”