Theo turned hastily towards the door as he called out, "Iris? Is everything okay?"
There was no response, and the scream stopped. Most of them gathered around the door as they wondered.
"Iris? Can you hear me?" Theo rushed into the partially dark room, followed by a few more students.
Theo threw the file on the table and circled the table where he found Iris sitting on the floor holding her finger. He rushed towards her with a worried look on his face. "What happened?"
Others popped their heads from behind, trying to grasp the situation.
"Those mice," Iris turns towards them, "one of them bit me and wasn't letting my finger go."
Theo grabs her hand and looks at it carefully. "Why is it turning blue?"
Hearing Theo, Lorek perked up. Making his way through the other students he said, "Let me check." He pushed Theo back as he checked the bit mark.
"Those mice were most probably poisonous," he said tearing a piece of cloth from his shirt and wrapping it on her finger tightly.
Theo stood up and rushed to get the file he was reading. He started flipping the pages.
"What are you doing?" Eve asks in an irritated tone.
"Look," he moves by her side showing her the file, "This is the experiment record file. If it's poison then there should be some antidote."
Hearing that everyone started looking through the papers and other files, the whole table was filled with nothing but papers and boxes. They couldn't find anything about the antidote and most of the things seemed some other kind of language to them. Still, they could figure out that so many different kinds of animals were sacrificed just for their random experiment, the records have different kinds of animals from mice to those wild dogs and cougars explaining why they have the decomposing skins as those animals couldn't handle the experiments they were conducting and those scientists left them on their own as they will die soon.
Lue throws a file on the table furiously, "This is nothing but a time waste. These papers won't give us anything instead of this we should clear this thing soon so she can be treated" she turns towards Lorek, "You tied the cloth tightly right? So, the poison won't go any further"
Lorek nodded in agreement.
Ayaan speaks up, "Exactly, we shouldn't forget why we are here in the first place" he picks up his newly found weapon a rod and keeps it on his shoulder. It wasn't much thick or long but enough to defend himself.
"They are right," Iris picks herself up and dusts off her clothes, "I am fine and I can't feel my finger, I guess the cloth is pretty tight. We should keep moving."
Eve turns towards Lorek with hopeful eyes, "so, what's the plan?"
"Hmm," he clears some space on the table and places the map on it as he points out, "We are currently here, and we have to go to the third floor exactly below the class we were in and search for them, so the best route I can suggest is to take the stairs. Taking into consideration they are still alive, they would definitely be injured so we can go to the second floor and escape."
"Why the second floor?" Ayaan asked, "Why not the first floor? Are you probably asking us to jump from there?"
Lorek nodded, and as others widened their eyes, he continued, "See, we are on the fourth floor still the voice of those wild dogs and cougars is loud enough which explains why they have already started climbing the floor. I am not even sure if the second floor would be empty or not but I am just guessing it would be because I heard wild dogs and cougars aren't that smart."
Every one started murmuring to each other as none of them was really satisfied with the plan.
"Well," Lue said loudly, averting her eyes, of course, she is one of them who isn't satisfied. The plan was somewhat void and obviously dangerous, because what if there are those monsters on the second floor? They wouldn't be able to run because of the injured students, but on the other hand, if those students are not there... she shook her head and continued, "I think for now we should proceed to the third floor after checking on their condition we can decide further" she looked around to see their reaction.
Some of their eyebrows were pulled up and together, some had vertical wrinkles between their eyebrows, and some had their lower eyelids tensed and drawn up, holding onto their hands, some of them clasping them together. The scene was horrible in one way, but not much horrible as what awaited them downstairs. The sounds of cougars crying and wild dogs howling didn't stop as everyone stood in silence. Lue could not bear to stand there anymore and started moving towards the door. Beric and Eve followed her quietly.
"We are not forcing you, it's your choice" Lorek completed his part and followed them out. The twin brothers, Ayaan and Kayan nodded while looking at each other, "We don't really have a better plan, so count us in"
Lue turned back and noticed only a few actually came. "Shall we head out then?" It wasn't her part to worry about, it was their choice. She took out her curtain rod which she managed to find in the curtains, most of them did. It was thick and not in a particularly poor condition, it was better than having nothing. They started heading down the stairs slowly, trying their darnedest not to make too much noise. Lue heard some noise, she stopped and gestured to the rest of the group the same. After they have already come halfway, Lorek and Ayaan gestured to Lue and Eve to slow down, 'We will proceed and check, you guys come slow'.
Both of them swiftly yet with light feet go down the stairs and look around. Lorek walks right and Ayaan walks left. Seeing everything clear Lue and Eve with Beric and Kayan start to go down when Kayan hears footsteps and turns around, "Well, well, well, that's not a surprise now. After all, you don't have any other choice."
Lue and Eve reached the third floor when they looked back and saw that others were following them. She waved her hand, telling them to come down fast.
"RUN! RUN BACK UP!!!" Lorek was yelling from afar at the end of the right side of the corridor.
"Run back? Why?" Kayan asks as he and others reach the third-floor landing.
"Hilary and Elisue are down there, I saw them!" Ayaan shouted from the other side while trying to open the rusted window.
Seeing Lorek being followed by a cougar half of them lose their wits and begin to climb again.
"Run run run! Up up up!" Eve shouted, "Faster!"
"Let's go right, there was a fire exit on that side" Beric suggested.
The cougar's cry was much more audible now that it was so close to them. Upon looking down the stairs, Eve and Lue saw the cougar staring at them.
"Trust me Lue tastes better" Eve said in a squeaky voice.