Please add this story to your public reading list. It really helps me out as an author :)

Disclaimer: This is a work of FICTION. All of this was written from the figment of my one brain cell (I literally typed this in one go and went along with it). I'm not okay with being sued or being chased by our LOVELY government. Turn the screen to dark. Okay, bye!
🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️

Day 9

We print out the documents we've been reading for the past half hour, thankful that out of all the things going right in this nightmare of a building, it's a damn printer.

On my way out, I look behind the door and notice the fuse box open with half of the wires sticking out. Out of curiosity, I walk closer to take a look.

"That finally explains all the lights that are out," Jared mutters behind me.

The wires have been cut haphazardly, some of them dangling out of the box and some of the pieces on the floor. Whoever killed the scientists must've yanked them out to scare people, or to give himself some cover to hide. Maybe both. Whatever it was, the thought that a single strain of rapidly mutating virus, could make someone do this is horrifying.

We sprint quickly down the stairs and into the common area. It feels emptier, presumably because it's now the seven of us.

I drop the papers I had gathered into one staple on the coffee table. I remove the so-called mask, deeming it useless since the smell had already worked its invasion into my nose and has made itself at home.

"Okay," Jared says, dropping heavily on the sofa. "Now that we're out of that death-infested office, you mind telling us what you read?"

"So basically," Brandon starts as Jared takes the paper from his hand. I take a seat besides Jared and peer over his shoulder, while the rest sits down on the other sofa and chairs in a loose circle to listen to what Brandon has to say. "There's this thing called Project Corona. It was first designed by the government in 1988 as a means of decreasing the population, back when it was at five billion, but the project was put on hold after President Elias Streisser's death. Further down the line in 1993, it was rebooted again, but there were several complications in terms of development and the president at the time became too skeptical about the whole thing and demanded an end to the project. They didn't. Instead, the people in charge of Project Corona decided that it should be kept a secret from future presidents and should only be revived in a state of emergency. In 2016, President Joseph H. Madison discovered it and ordered it to be shut down completely. Except many people in the government didn't agree and pretended to kick it off the map, only to bring it back two years later when his second term was over.

"Fast forward to 2018 when the government saw that President Holt Dower's views aligned with what the project's mission was and decided to let him in on it. Apparently, the world didn't need to reach eight billion people and corona virus would take care of that." Brandon points to a space on the paper that Jared is examining before continuing. "The population reduction was estimated to be about forty million in four years, but they didn't expect it to die down a year earlier, totaling the casualties to a little under twenty million in three years. They also didn't expect the virus to mutate to the point that it was harder to spread. Thus, SADE Labs was created to figure out how to get rid of that 'problem'."

Elijah stands up, his face harshly pale. "You're saying... we're actually here to help these sick bastards figure out how to kill off more people?"

Brandon nods grimly.

"What the fuck!" He kicks at his chair, sending it clattering to the ground and making several people jump back in surprise.

"Not only that," I add softly, standing up and showing the papers I've printed out to the remaining volunteers. "The virus that was injected into Tiana, Gwen, and Daniel was an experimented version of the virus, not the original form. It wasn't a small strand either, it was the whole nine. Everyone was being monitored and those who were beginning to show 'deteriorative states' were immediately killed to prevent it from spreading. The goal was to create a form in which it could remain dormant and undetected for years until it decided to show itself. But the virus kept changing elements, changing symptoms, making it unpredictable and far more dangerous. They were planning to kill all of us because they knew it wouldn't work, and then some guy named Matthew Bianchi, who had reached 'deteriorative state,' somehow escaped and started this entire murder rampage. He must've been the dead guy on the floor."

Jared dropped his head into his hands. Anna looks queasy, her head laid back against the arm of the couch and her eyes shut tight. Elijah was hunched over the pool table, his shoulders rising and falling with each breath. I slide down against the wall and onto the floor, suddenly overwhelmed as everything fully hits.

We were played, pawns to a game that had started a decade before we were even born. What had appeared to be an attempt at saving lives turned out to be an experiment to find other ways to destroy it.

My eyes throbs against its lids and my hands are clenched into tight fists. My heart pulsates deeply to the point that it's tugging at my gut, making my stomach feel queasy again.

"The worst part is that there's someone else with the virus in this exact room," Elijah says. "We don't know who killed Charlie with that screwdriver."

"Maybe Gwen came out to kill her," Brandon suggests.

Elijah glares at him. "There's someone in here with the virus. Don't try to defend anyone."

"I wasn't-"

"Okay," Jared cuts in. "Let's just assume there's one of us left. No one leaves this place tonight. We're all sleeping in here."

Anna picks her head up from the couch. "So they can have easier access to our throats? No thanks."

Preeta stands up. "Isn't this entire place controlled by some kind of machinery? It's gotta be up there somewhere in that room. We need to find it and get the hell out."

I sigh in exhaustion, though a faint sign of hope rises in my chest. "You're right. It has to be in that room, but I'm not going back there."

"Me neither," Henry says.

"Fine," Jared says. "The rest of us are going anyway."

They file out the door, leaving Henry and I in the room.

It's silent, enough for a pin drop to be heard. I finally glance up at him just as he glances up at me.

It takes two seconds before we both scramble out of the common area and run after them.

* * *

"You're alright?" I ask Jared.

We've made our makeshift masks and have settled ourselves into the office. Earlier, we had noticed a safe behind the bookshelf, one that seems impossible to get through. The key to our freedom could be in there, or something nasty that we're afraid to find. Either way, we're figuring out other clues in order to find a way out or into the safe.

In the meantime, Henry's working on the safe since he has experience, Preeta and Elijah are filing through the binders and books on the bookshelf, Brandon and Anna are flipping through the documents on the first computer that talks about Project Corona, while Jared and I are reading a document detailing the entire study. I turn to look at him, hunched over behind me and focusing on the screen.

"Fine," he mutters through his hoodie. I don't believe him. He looks pale and frightened.

"We're gonna get out of here, Jared. I promise."

"It's just that..." He lets out a long breath before continuing. "My girlfriend. I don't know how she's doing, if she's even still alive, and I'm freaking out."

I squeeze a hand of his, tightened into fists. "You'll see her soon."

Jared leans closer to the screen. "What's that?"

I turn back to the monitor, where he's pointing at a file titled, Initiative.

Although reports slightly vary, Dr. Radley, the best friend of President Streisser and Director of ICU for Internal Medicine at Fox Lennon Medical Hospital, allegedly initiated Project Corona. President Streisser had worked with Radley and several other scientists to create a virus that would be capable of minimizing the population within months. Though the projected outcome was impressionable, the project was halted after Streisser's assassination in 1989.

President F. Boyd, previously the Vice President before the assassination, deemed it as unnecessary...

It was more lengthy details about how it was passed on, how President J. H. Madison had shut it down after learning about it during his second term, only for it to be secretly in the works in preparation for reintroduction once the next president took office. Most of the things that I've read in the file that I printed earlier, except more credentials and more facts. There were only a few details that we didn't previously know about.

Studies shows that the virus now have a long incubation period, which indicates that carriers can go undetected and unknowingly affect others. Chris Damascus, a 70-year old man who was infected with the virus, only showed symptoms 8 days later. There is no data showing that an incubation period that lasted longer than 8 days ever existed, but scientists are looking into more ways to detect it sooner.

In some patients, the onset of the virus happened very slowly with only a mild fever before their conditions rapidly deteriorated 6 days later.

That explains why Daniel or Tiana didn't show any symptoms or signs that they had the virus until it was too late.

One thing the file noted was that the government planted the virus in Wuhan, China and lied about it. Many people who first caught the virus weren't near any seafood markets, where it was claimed to be originated from. Whistleblowers were killed after trying to expose this fact, only for it to be confirmed in this article. What was once a theory had suddenly proven to be factual.

Should we tell someone? Anyone that'll listen? Will it matter at this point? The government has proven that they'll stop at nothing to finish this project.

As I ask myself these questions, I make the unconcious decision to save the papers I had already printed, the condensed version of Initiative.

The next half hour goes slow. The phones of all the patients are found in a locked storage cabinet, but unsurprisingly, there is no service, since this place is in the middle of nowhere.

"Got it!" Henry yells excitedly. We look up at where he's standing. Beside the bookshelf, the safe is finally opened, revealing glowing blue buttons on the wall.

We rush over to examine. There's no indications for what the switches are for except for letters and corresponding numbers that goes up to fifteen: A1-A15, B1-B15, and so forth until D-15. A red and bigger button in the center of the other ones say 'Do Not Touch.'

"I think we should touch it," I decide.

"Let's see what the other ones do first," Jared suggests instead. He presses the first glowing button, A-1.

Nothing.

Brandon moves down to touch the B-2. When nothing happens, he proceeds to press the rest of the buttons on the second top row. Nothing.

"Press the red button," I say impatiently.

"It's red for a reason," Jared argues. "What if-"

I push the red button, which resists at first before it makes a clicking sound.

We hear a faint growl of noise and a few seconds later, it stops.

We stare at each other for a second before we all make a collective, unconscious decision to run downstairs.

We bolt to the staircase down to the bottom and push open the doors of the first floor, where the wind blows harshly in through the now-opened space and a scream of euphoric delight escapes our mouths.