"Here we are."

The restrooms were nearly as trashed as the offices. Some stall doors were laying across the floor and the walls of the stalls were caved in. Thankfully, the creatures hadn't seen a need to destroy the sinks. Letting go of Phineas' hand, I stepped over the decaying remains of an arm to reach one of them. The handle turned with a squeak, and I waited for the water to work its way through the pipes.

There was no rust this time.

I pulled the plastic covered name tag from my pocket and began to wash it off.

Another squeak filled the air, and I looked over to see Phineas trying to wash the blood off his hands. My own hands stilled as the gunk came off of his, revealing exactly how distorted they'd become from the mutangent. His nails curved down into sharp points. While not very long, they were obviously claws. Maybe they were still forming, still growing. The thought made my stomach tighten into a knot. It was surprising I hadn't felt them digging into my skin when we'd held hands. Or maybe he'd been careful not to scratch me.

I looked away, swallowing thickly. It could be worse, I tried to reassure myself.

Forcing my hands back into motion, the water and rubbing was taking off some of whatever it was covering the ID. The name had become partially viable, it was enough.

The corpse was that of Dr. Abraham.

I turned off the water. The person who started all of this was dead. Possibly one of the first to die when it all went bad. That's almost comforting.

So why did I feel more uncomfortable knowing it?

I shook the plastic card before wiping it off on one of the cleaner parts of my ruined shirt. If someone were to look at it, I doubt they'd even be able to tell the button down was once white.

"What is that?" Phineas turned off the faucet.

Telling him about the body I had found on the lower level had slipped my mind. Not telling him about the specimens and bones had been purposeful. I hadn't wanted to. Didn't want him to be worrying about the infection, and I knew he would have been disturbed by the mention of the leftovers from the monsters' meals. I closed my eyes. Why had I been so stupid? If I had told him they'd been human once, he would have had some warning.

"Ferb?"

"I found it on a body when I went searching before-" 'Before' what? Before I stabbed him? I forced myself to take a deep breath. "It's an ID." Oh, yes, because that's not vague at all. "The ID of the person who started all of this."

"How do you know?" He sounded closer.

"From the video on the cellphone." I opened my eyes. Phineas was closer, right next to me now. "The one in... one of the offices. You saw it, didn't you?"

"Nope." He didn't seem to the least bit phased. "So they're dead?"

I nodded. He hadn't fixed it...

Phineas looked up from examining the card. "We done in here?"

Nodding again, I slipped the ID back into my pocket before turning away from the sink.

Phineas began to walk backwards in front of me once we got back into the hall. I sighed and watched behind him. With our current luck, he'd walk into something. "I guess... it's good the person responsible's dead." He didn't sound very certain about it, and I shrugged.

Part of me felt it was only just that she was killed due to her own creation, but there was another part that felt disappointed that I wouldn't be able to kill her myself. That part was worrying me. I couldn't recall a previous time when I'd actively wanted to hurt another human.

"Oh!" Phineas' exclamation startled me from my thoughts. His eyes widened as he reached into his pocket. "I forgot!" He pull out something and tossed it at me.

I caught it and quirked an eyebrow as I looked the Reeses. "I see you found the vending machine."

"Yeah, but most of the stuff was stale."

I ripped open the wrapper, not even bothering to remove the peanut butter cup farther from the packaging then necessary before sinking my teeth into it.

Oh my gosh. I couldn't stop the moan of pleasure from slipping out. "Is there more?" I mumbled around the bite. This is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. How long has it been now since I've last eaten? I'm not sure how long we've been here anymore.

"Yeah. I took a few of the bars, but I had to leave most of them." He gave an apologetic  smile. "They wouldn't all fit in my pockets."

I tried to convey that it was fine while chewing my second bite of peanuty heaven when I bit down on something hard. Freezing, I felt around with my tongue and shoved the hard whatever to the outside of my teeth in order to swallow. Phineas didn't appear to have noticed, his obliviousness coming in handy for once.

When he turned around, I took the object out my mouth. That's not good. I discreetly flicked the tooth behind me as I probed for where this one had come from. Canine, opposite side. Great...

Hopefully, if I didn't smile, Phineas wouldn't notice.

Why hide it? Why not just tell him?  I frowned at the thought. Because he's not stupid. If I tell him I'm infected, he'll figure out that he's the one who infected me. Plus, he'll worry. I don't need both of us worrying.

I shoved the second peanut butter cup in my mouth. Trying to ignore the fact that my tongue kept wanting to prod at the new gap.

"There's a stairway through here," Phineas called, giving a 'ta-da' gesture at the open doorway. The door wasn't even in the area anymore.

I walked through the doorway. Oh, I was wrong, there's the door. Wonder how it got on the stairs... It couldn't have landed there when it was knocked down, the angle's all wrong.

There was only one flight of steps, heading up.

"I already went up there, it looks to be the ground floor," Phineas said, joining me at the base of the stairs. "There's some windows, but I didn't try to get outside. It doesn't look any better out there than it does in here."

No surprise there.

Grabbing the edge of the metal door, I pulled it off the stairs, Phineas began to help me once he saw what I was doing.

Door out of the way, we started up the stairs. Our feet almost silent on the concrete.

"Ferb?"

I glanced over at him.

"What's the plan to go home?"

My heart sank. I suppose it shouldn't shock me that he expected me to have something planned out. It was rare that I wasn't two steps ahead. And, technically, I was, just not in the way he was hoping. We didn't have the resources needed to get home and, even if we did, could we really go back?

He was showing signs of mutation, and so was I. What if we're contagious? Would we spread this virus to the people in our dimension?

When I looked back at him, he'd paled. "We're not going home, are we?"

Sometimes I hated how easily he could read me. "I'm not sure it's safe."

"Yeah." He sighed. "I was wondering the same."

That made it worse, if Phineas, the eternal optimist, thought going home was a bad idea... We reached the top of the stairwell, and I shut out the negative thoughts. We'll figure something out. We always do.

The ground level looked disturbingly peaceful. A breeze blew in from broken windows, giving me the first breath of fresh air I'd had since coming here. I didn't bother looking for a door, finding a large window, I kicked out the glass still clinging to the frame and climbed out.

I squinted as the sunlight hit my eyes and looked around. High grass, overgrown bushes and shrubs dominated every place there wasn't concrete. A dull thud as Phineas landed awkwardly on the ground behind me. The street was lined with abandoned and crashed vehicles, some of the crashed one still had decaying bodies hanging out the windows.

Once my eyes finished adjusting to the light, though it still seemed much too bright, I turned to my brother as he rubbed at his eyes. The sun must be bothering him too. Without the red lighting, it was plain how much the mutation had taken a toll on him.

His skin looked pallid, the tan he normally sported completely wiped away. He dropped his clawed hands, blinking, before looking at me, probably with the same intent that I was looking at him with. His eyes visible, my earlier thoughts were confirmed, his eyes appeared just as faded as his skin.

I doubt I look any better.

"You're infected too, aren't you?" he asked after a few minutes.

Staying silent, I blinked at him.

He crossed his arms. "Ferb, don't lie to me."

Rolling my eyes, I gave a hesitant nod. It's not lying if I didn't say anything.

Phineas bit at his bottom lip. "Is it my fault?"

"I was scratched after you ran off," I said, putting as much conviction into the words as possible.

Continuing to stare at me, he frowned.

I narrowed my eyes. "Phineas, you did not scratch me." It wasn't a lie. He'd scratched at me, but his nails hadn't been able to tear my shirt let alone reach my skin.

"I believe you," he finally declared, and I had to stop myself from letting out a relieved sigh. He walked up to stand next to me and leaned against my side. "Where are we going?"

I shrugged, looking down at him. Honestly, as long as we were both alive and together, I didn't care.

A smile pulled at his lips. "To nowhere?"

It took a moment to understand what he was asking. What he was referencing. I smiled as the memory of that summer filled my mind, and I threw an arm over his shoulders. "There's no one I'd rather go there with."