CH: 3

As they walked through the immense building, Aaron felt uneasy, not from the blood splattered through the halls, nor was it the dismembered bodies of his friends. But it was the silence that spooked him. Every little sound echoed through the chambers and peeled its way into his head.

"Hey, Zoe?"

"Shut it, this place freaks me out too."

"Oh, okay then."

Zoe was beginning to feel dizzy, her sight faded to grey and the taste of the ashy air no longer stained her mouth. She spoke to Aaron in a commanding tone.

"Hey, go gather supplies for our journey. Food, water, some of the camping tents, and anything we can use as a weapon. Now."

Aaron hesitated at first but ran toward the kitchen area, wondering if he had done something to make Zoe upset.

Zoe huffed and made her way to the office, occasionally kicking aside a corpse or taking anything she thought might be useful. When she reached the office, she tried to open the door.

Locked.

She looked through her bag of materials, some money, batteries, bullets, a lighter…

The knife. After a bit of struggling, she cut the door around the lock and kicked it open. The room looked normal, aside from a few strange dark grey splotches on the floor. There was a desk in the center of the room. In the top drawer, Zoe found a handgun, keys and a wallet. In the wallet was about 48,000 yen with some change. There were seven keys on the ring. One of which looked different than the others. She turned to a filing cabinet with an irregular lock. The odd key fit perfectly into the hole, opening the cabinet on contact. As it flew open Zoe went backwards and tripped on something. She looked to see what she tripped on, gazing at the caretaker's dead, tattered body. Her clothes were torn in unsightly places. And wrapped in her arms was a little girl no older than her in the same state. Zoe, unfazed, pushed them aside and continued her search. When she found the folders she silently read them to herself.

"Zoe Du-Soleil. Age: 6. Designation: 561. Nature: Aggressive. Known relatives: Rachelle Du-Soleil. Relation: Sister. Date of Birth:..."

She read through hers and her sisters, tossing Aarons to the side. Over her sister's file she put the word "deceased" and gently placed it back into the cabinet. Zoe placed the files into her bag and left the room. Meeting with Aaron in the dining hall. She pulled out his folder and threw it at him.

"This is yours, you better hold onto it and not cause me any trouble."

Aaron looked through it before gazing at Zoe with a horrified expression.

"Zoe, You're… you're covered in…"

"What is it Aaron? Just say it dammit!"

"You're covered in blood!"

She took a moment to look at her clothing, all she could see were a few dark grey stains.

"What are you talking about aaron? All these are is--"

As she looked around she noticed that everything around her was in grey. The only thing that wasn't was…

"Hey Aaron, why the hell are you so vibrant?"

"Umm… I dunno. What do you mean?"

"It's nothing. What did you find?"

He unzipped a backpack. Displaying the contents.

"There was still a lot of food left, I found a few coolers so we can keep cold stuff. Same thing with cooking utensils and silverware. I even found your set of chopsti--"

She slapped them out of his hand.

"You know i hate using those things, go get me a damn fork."

He nodded and ran back into the kitchen. Zoe rummaged through the contents of his bag. Aside from the food, he had a few notepads, a rectangular black case, and some sort of book. Aaron had come back with a fork and another set of chopsticks. Zoe recognized them immediately.

"Just what do you think you're doing? Those belong to my sister! Put them back!"

"I-I just thought you might want--"

"No! Put them back where they belong, you imbecile! Don't you have any respect for the dead?"

"I…" Aaron tried to protest but realized it wasn't worth it. "I'll go put them back"

The more she looked at Aaron, Zoe could feel something happening, something bubbling up inside her. It burnt her and it hurt. But she forced herself to ignore it.