"I think it was supposed to be secure," Sawyer replied, "but people dropped the ball. Instead of standing their ground when the mechs attacked, they ran, leaving the place wide open."
Frankie snorted. "I'd run, too."
"You're not trained to fight, love," Roark said. "You'd better run."
Sawyer chuckled when Frankie stuck his tongue out. He relaxed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. Stefan's breath caught when Sawyer smiled. It felt as if it had been forever since he'd seen that smile. He leaned against him, enjoying the moment.
But all too soon it was over.
Sawyer drew himself up as the smile slid from his lips. "The laboratory is down this way."
Stefan once again found himself following after Sawyer as they walked down yet another corridor. He was glad Sawyer had handed out lamps before they started this little trip. Without electricity, the place was pitch black.
When they reached the blast door, Sawyer handed Stefan his lamp then pulled the door open. Stefan didn't realize until he was inside that the room they stepped into was actually several rooms. Most of them had floor-to-ceiling glass walls facing a long hallway, so it was easy to see what was inside of them. It was the one at the end of the corridor that led to a clean lab that worried Stefan.
He pointed to it. "You didn't go in there, did you?"
"No, the door is still sealed." Sawyer shrugged. "Until I can get power restored, I figured it was better to leave it that way."
Stefan knew he'd fallen in love with a smart man.
"That's a clean room," Frankie said. "Until we know what they were storing in there, it's best if we just stay out."
"I kind of figured," Sawyer replied before leading them to one of the other rooms. "This is where they had the vials of the cure."
They walked into the glass-walled room then to a door on the far side. When Sawyer opened it, Stefan's jaw dropped. "Holy shit! There's enough of that stuff here to cure everyone."
Well, maybe not that many, but close enough. There were floor-to-ceiling shelves with batches of little injection bottles stacked in every available space.
"Are you sure this is all the cure?" Frankie asked. "Could any of this be other stuff?"
"There's a manifest hanging on the clipboard by the door that correlates to all these bottles, and each bottle I've come across so far is labeled. I figured they wouldn't go through this much trouble unless it really was the cure."
Stefan wasn't so sure of that, not after everything they were learning.
"Frankie, hold this." Roark held out his lamp. After Frankie took it, Roark grabbed the manifest hanging by the door. He read a little then flipped the page to the next one, then again and again until he had read every page.
"Well?" Stefan asked. "What does it say?"
"Oh, it's the cure all right, all of it, and according to the dates on the manifest, they started storing them about twelve years ago."
"That's before the first case of the virus was even reported," Frankie said. "Before I was stuck and got sick."
Wait.
What?
"You were stuck?" Stefan asked.
"We were out dancing," Roark started. "When we went to leave, someone bumped into Frankie and stuck him with something. He got sick within seconds. He was one of the first, so no one knew what we were dealing with at the time, which was why he was placed in cryostasis."
Stefan glanced at the manifest in Roark's hands. "You don't think…"
He couldn't even say it.
Roark paled as he glanced down at the manifest. "They wouldn't…"
Sawyer growled. "They would, especially if they had an agenda."
