Caden and Renee had been roaming the streets for almost an hour. That included evading the undead, collecting supplies and marking the streets with chalk to make sure they didn't end up walking in circles.

After they exited the forest, they ended up in a completely different city which neither of them had visited before.

Their plan, for now, was to just eat, sleep and not die. 

"Are you okay?" Caden asked noticing Renee's troubled expression.

"Yeah, I just feel like it's going to rain soon" She replied.

"Well then, these supplies will sustain for the night," He said taking a look at what they had. "Let's focus on finding shelter now" 

Since they didn't have stable shelter, they couldn't horde food and instead would go every day to collect whatever they needed. It also helped them not go crazy due to boredom. 

"Please tell me it's not an alleyway" Renee groaned. "My back still aches from last night"

"Trust me, I don't enjoy sleeping near dumpsters either" He replied.

They kept to the centre of the road, which in theory sounded dumb since they were supposed to be hiding. But these past few days gave Caden and Renee all the time they needed to learn the streets and know that the undead mainly lurked in the corners and by being in the centre, they could have a better view.

"You think any of those flats are unlocked?" Renee asked, eyeing a big apartment complex. 

"Somehow, I don't think so" He sighed. "but we can still check" 

She nodded as they walked inside the complex. It was unlikely that they'd find an unlocked flat, but at the same time, they had to consider the possibility that someone was in a rush to escape the undead that they forgot to lock it. 

And even if they didn't find anything, it was better than roaming the streets right before it rained. 

"Let's split up," Caden said. "I'll go to the right wing and you can take the left" 

"Sounds good," She said and they split up. 

Caden started walking right and fiddled with every doorknob he came across, most of them were locked and hence didn't budge. He sighed as he looked out one of the windows and saw that it began to rain. Even if they didn't find an unlocked door, they'd have to sleep in the corridors of the building. 

As he was about to move to the next floor, he heard a faint noise. But he was sure it was Renee's scream.

»»————-　☠　————-««

"What in tarnation is that?" Gabriella asked.

"I don't know" Janelle replied, a look of uneasiness on her face. "you're the nerd, I thought you'd know" 

"Yeah, well I excel in politics and guns, not chemistry," She said. 

She stared at the notebook for a while trying to understand the notes. 

"What's C fourteen H something," She said slowly, trying to understand Renee's handwriting. "you know what? I'm not even going to say it. It's too big"

"I looked it up and it's the chemical symbol for atenolol," Janelle said. 

"Why is Renee writing that down?" Gabriella asked herself.

"It's not even the worst part," Janelle said, forcing Gabriella to look at her.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Atenolol production was banned a few years ago after patients claimed to have gotten sick after regular dosage, some even claimed that it killed people. Only the government was allowed to produce it and people needed a doctor's prescription to be able to purchase it" Janelle explained. "but I checked Renee's records on the safe-house database and she has no medical issues" 

"Then why did she write it down?" 

"She mentions it many times in her book, each time reacting with different elements and a red cross beside most of them," Janelle said flipping the pages to show Gabriella. 

"I would've never taken Renee for a mad scientist" Gabriella muttered. 

"Let's google the other chemicals, maybe we'll find something," Janelle said turning on her phone. 

"Ok, well this one says C eighteen H 10" Gabriella slurred trying not to mess up the numbers. 

"Give me that," Janelle said, snatching the notebook from her. A few seconds later, she spoke "Well, this one is melanin"

"Melanin? What's that?" Gabriella asked. 

"It says here that melanin is responsible for the skin and eye colour" Janelle read out.

"Okay, well that's random" She replied. "it has a red cross next to it, so it probably means it's a failed reaction" 

"True, but it'll help us understand what she was trying to do," Janelle said. 

Gabriella flipped a few more pages until she stopped. 

"Look here," She said, "some of the pages have been torn off" 

"Do you think she tore them after coming to the safe house? If so, we can search for it in the garbage room" Janelle suggested. 

"Could be, we'll have to check that out later," She said as she continued flipping the pages. From the corner of her eye, she spotted something that caught her eye.

"Wait, check this out," Gabriella said pointing to the corner of a page. "there are dates on all of them and the very first date," She said while flipping a few pages back "is about a week after she messaged Dr Evans" 

"And she met Dr Evans through Arthur" Janelle finished. "which means she was experimenting with something related to atenolol on Arthur's command" 

"It makes sense. Since Arthur was in the government, he could easily supply some of it to Renee for the experiment without it getting on the official records" Gabriella continued. 

"The only question is," Janelle started. "Why was Renee experimenting with illegal heart-stopping chemicals?"

»»————-　☠　————-««

"Renee?" Caden called out. He panicked after he didn't get a response. Renee wasn't the type to scream because she saw a spider, so he knew this was serious. 

He dropped the grocery bag where they had food for that night and ran down the hallway and into the left wing, searching for Renee.

"Renee?!" He called out once again. 

"Over here!" He heard her say and immediately ran towards her direction. He finally found her, struggling to put down an undead. He saw that she had killed two of them, but was struggling to take down this last one. 

"Stand back, Renee!" He screamed as he charged forward, gripping his cleaver. With one swift movement, he swung the knife forward and it slipped right through the undead's skull. Renee watched in fear, hoping he didn't get bitten.

"Are you okay?" She asked after a few seconds.

"Yes, are you?" he asked and she nodded.

"I'm sorry, I thought by now I'd be able to handle three undead on my own," Renee said, feeling embarrassed that she needed Caden to rescue her each time.

"Hey, don't worry," He said placing a hand on her shoulder. "it'll take a while for you to get used to so much fighting. Especially after weeks of doing nothing in the safe house"

She took a few breaths to calm down. 

"We can't even leave now," She said referring to the weather conditions.

"We'll just have to find a place that isn't fully infested" Caden suggested. 

"Yeah," She nodded as they both started walking away. 

They strolled down a few hallways, their weapons held tightly in one hand in case of an emergency.  

"Hey, that door looks unlocked" Caden pointed. Renee turned in his direction and squinted her eyes to get a good look. 

"I guess you're right" She shrugged. "let's check it out"

Caden made his way to the door and opened it before turning back to Renee.

"It's open," he said with a huge smile.

"Amazing" she replied, returning the smile.

Caden took a step in as Renee followed, but instantly rushed back pushing Renee back with him. 

She fell to the floor with a thud and looked up to see Caden trying to shut the door against familiar pale green hands. She quickly got to her feet and helped him push the door back. However, their strength was no match to all the undead combined and after a few seconds of back and forth, they ultimately opened the door causing Renee to fall again.

Caden raised his cleaver and killed one of them, but soon realized that they wouldn't be able to take all of the undead without one of them being bitten.

He stretched out his hand to Renee and pulled her up. 

"We need to run!" He exclaimed. They started running towards the exit, the undead following slowly behind. 

All their noise must've attracted more of the undead hiding in the shadows because, by the time they reached the lobby, the whole place was packed. 

"Crap," Caden thought to himself. They looked at each other, hoping the other had an idea, but one glance and they knew they were screwed. 

They panicked as they looked around for anything that could help them. 

"What if we tried crawling under them?" Renee whispered to Caden.

"Are you crazy? That would never work" He replied. 

"The undead aren't very smart, they won't have the sense to look under them. If we keep stabbing their feet or cutting off their toes as we go, they won't see it coming" She whispered back furiously. 

By this point, the undead noticed their presence and began to inch closer towards them. Renee spared Caden one glance before she ducked down and started navigating her way through a grove of feet. Caden had no choice but to follow. 

Renee used her left hand to stab the undead's feet and her other limbs to crawl to the exit. The stabbing immobilized their legs, it wasn't death, but far worse. Since Caden did not have a better idea, he followed Renee blindly. 

Using this strategy, they finally reached the exit. 

"Let's get out of here" Caden breathed.

Renee nodded and they stepped out into the turbulent storm, only to see they had a bigger horde to face.