“I’m going to buzz you in now, but then you need to go to the back of the facility. You’ll enter through the courtyard there to avoid the security guards.”
“Got it,” Ava said as the gate buzzed before swinging open. They ducked inside and hurried toward the building, skirting the corner to head to the courtyard in the back.
“Got you on camera. I’ll open the courtyard door as soon as you’re there.”
“Do you know where the biohazard level four lab is?”
“Fourth floor,” Sebastian answered as the light on the door lock turned green the moment they reached it. “There’s a stairwell right inside the door you just entered.”
Ava found it and pushed inside, her body resisting the four-floor hike.
“Maybe you should wait here?” Kyle said.
“I’m going up,” she answered as she grabbed hold of the railing. The metal sent a shiver down her spine.
Sebastian eyed her sideways as she shook. “Ava? You’re worse?” Sebastian asked.
“She’s fading fast,” Kyle answered. “She’s not good.”
Ava’s eyelids grew heavy as she pushed herself up the stairs. Her knees wobbled, and her muscles felt like they wouldn’t hold her much longer. The stairway swayed around her as she struggled to stay present in the moment.
“I’ve got a chopper standing by to evac you the moment you have something.”
For a second, Ava lost focus, her foot slipping on the stairs. She stumbled forward, crying out as she caught herself, jamming her shoulder.
“Ava?” Kyle asked, panic in his voice.
“I’m good,” she lied as she pulled herself to stand. “One more flight.”
“Is she okay?” Sebastian asked.
“She’s anything but,” he answered. “She’s not going to make it much further.”
They made it to the fourth floor. “We’re here.”
“Okay, hold on. I’m going to clear the deck for you,” Sebastian said. A second later, alarm klaxons sounded. The lights dimmed, emergency lighting replacing the normal fluorescents.
Kyle pushed Ava to the corner of the stairwell behind the door as it burst open. Several people filed down the stairs.
With his arm snaked around Ava, Kyle dragged her around the door and into the abandoned hall. “Thanks, Shadow. We’re approaching the door now. Come on, Ava, just a little further.”
Ava’s legs felt like lead, barely responding as she willed them to keep moving. Her vision tunneled, and the world around her blurred, but she couldn’t stop—not yet. Each step was agony, her muscles threatening to give out. By the time they reached the door, her knees buckled, and she had to clutch the wall to stay upright. She stumbled inside, the cold air biting at her feverish skin. She was on the verge of collapse.
Kyle dropped her on a stool as he searched the cold storage for the flu. “Uhh, I found it in here. Project Reaper.”
“And the cure?” Ava asked as the room swayed around her.
Kyle crossed to a clear-doored refrigerator, searching for anything. He flung it open, pulling out a number of unlabeled syringes. “Uhhh, I’m not sure…”
“Not sure?” Ava said as he ran a shaky hand through his hair.
“This…these are marked with the same code as reaper, but they could be the virus or a cure. There’s no way to tell.”
Ava’s heart pounded in her chest, every beat echoing like a countdown. Her vision blurred, and her breathing grew shallow. She reached for the syringe, her fingers trembling as she wrapped them around the cold metal.
“There’s only one way to know,” she whispered, her voice shaky. Her mind screamed at her to stop, to think, but time was running out.
Without another thought, she jammed the needle into her arm. The sharp sting of the needle and the cold rush of the fluid were the last things she felt before the world blurred and collapsed around her.
