Dan's POV

"Alright, the first thing we need to do is find the entrance to the laboratory," Phil instructed. "Just like Dan said, it's probably somewhere in this room. Why else would all the lab coats be in here?"

Jason chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. We get it. Do you think there'll be an actual door, or a secret entrance?"

"Probably a real door–"

"I'm willing to bet that it's both," Nate cut me off.

"And why's that?" I asked.

"Well, it's obviously going to be a door. It wouldn't make sense to have a trapdoor or something like that when this room is already hidden away. That would just be more work for the scientists. However, there will probably be some kind of code on the door, or it'll be hidden somewhere."

After a few seconds of silence, Phil stated, "Good point, Nate. Okay, everyone start looking for the door. If you find anything suspicious or anything that seems out of place, tell the rest of us, got it?"

"Yup!" Nate and Jason cheered as they raced toward one of the walls.

Once they were out of earshot, I whispered to Phil, "So I know this was partially my idea, but do you have the slightest clue what we're going to do if we run into a bunch of mutated kids?"

"Nope, I just assumed we would make stuff up as we go. I'm currently just hoping that when we get in, everyone is in 'human form' or sleeping. Both would be nice," Phil mumbled.

"Agreed. What are we going to do about the other kids, though? Do you think they're all okay? I mean, there were a lot of highlighted names on the list, which I assume means that those people are alive, so that would mean that there's going to be a pretty significant number of other kids in there."

Phil dragged me with him to a wall and began studying it for any signs of a door. "We'll help as many as we can, I guess. I don't intend to let people die who don't have to."

I smiled faintly and began searching another wall. I pushed lab coats out of the way and found several more name tags that were difficult to read due to an odd liquid covering them. It looked like dry blood, but it was sticky and bright blue. "What the heck if this stuff?" I murmured to myself.

"I bet it's goo that came out of dead monster's eyes!" Nate yelled in my ear, causing me to scream.

"What are you doing right behind me?!" I yelled after I had calmed down a bit and Phil had stopped laughing.

"I realized something that I think you and Phil both overlooked," Nate replied.

"What?"

"Do either of you realize that if this room has an entrance to the lab, eventually someone is going to come through here?"

"All the more reason to find the door as quickly as possible!" Phil exclaimed.

Nate glanced at me again before walking back to Jason and continuing his search. I walked to Phil and stood next to him. "He forgot to mention that scientists will likely be swarming the laboratory."

"That'll be harder to get around, but we'll be fine. Those kids seem to be pretty sneaky, and you and I can be sneaky if we really try," Phil encouraged me.

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled as I began walking back to where I had been searching.

I moved a small table out of the way to get a better look at the wall. I still couldn't find anything. Everything in this room seemed decently normal for the situation we were in. I lifted a rug, but there was nothing underneath it besides the floorboards.

I sighed and glanced around the room. Phil was examining the sticky liquid on one of the name tags, while Nate and Jason were trying to move the desk I had found the list of names on. I walked over to Nate and Jason.

"What's going on?"

"This stupid desk won't move! We can't see half the wall with it here and it doesn't look that heavy, so we tried to move it," Jason explained.

"It won't budge, though," Nate added.

I grabbed the other side of the desk and tried to help them move it, but it still wouldn't move. "That's weird."

"Didn't Phil tell us to report to him if something suspicious happened?" Jason asked.

"Yeah. Phil!" I called across the room.

He whipped his head around. "What? Did you find the door?"

"I don't think so," Jason continued, "but you told us to tell you about suspicious stuff."

"What happened?" Phil asked as he jogged over.

"We can't move the desk," Nate informed him.

Phil glanced at the ground before mumbling, "Are those bolts?"

I sent him a confused look before staring at the legs holding the desk up. I squatted down to get a better look, and sure enough, there were bolts restraining the desk from moving.

"Were the other tables bolted down?" Phil asked.

"No, I moved several of the other ones without a problem," I reported.

"Doesn't that mean this one is hiding something?" Nate questioned.

Jason pressed his face against the wall to try to see behind the desk. "I think it's bolted to the wall, too."

I stood up straight and stared at everything on the desk. Papers, books, pens, and name tags were scattered all over it. "Do you think any of this stuff is bolted down?" I asked.

"Why would anyone bolt a piece of paper to a desk?" Phil directed at me.

Before I had a chance to explain my reasoning, Nate placed both arms on the desk and pushed almost everything onto the floor in one quick motion. The only thing that didn't fall off the desk was a book with no title.

Nate tried to push it off, but it wouldn't move from its position. "Phil, I think it's safe to say that you shouldn't assume things are normal here," Nate stated.

I tried pushing the book, but it seemed to be bolted to the desk in the same way the desk was bolted to the floor. I tried opening the cover to find that it opened just like any other book would.

The book was hollow with a green arrow on the bottom pointing to a slip in the middle. "What do you think goes in that hole?" Nate asked.

Phil's eyes lit up a bit. "I bet it's one of the name tags!"

"Okay, time out. Before we continue messing around with this weird shit, I think we should find disguises. We need to stick out as little as possible," I began explaining, "Everyone should put on a lab coat. Try to find one that fits, as I imagine once we get to the laboratory we'll be doing a lot of running. Maybe grab a name tag too, just for good measure."

Nate and Jason smiled at each other before Nate cheered, "I feel like we're in a spy movie and adrenaline is kicking the heck in!" The two of them raced off to find lab coats that would fit.

"You know, if we don't die, this'll be one hell of a story to tell," I commented.

Phil chuckled, "It'd make a good movie, honestly."

"The hell would we call it?" I laughed.

Phil shrugged, "The Life of a YouTuber?"

I began laughing harder, "Because, you know, all YouTubers have this exact experience."

Phil and I started our search for lab coats that would fit us, and after a while, found some. Once we were done, we looked back at the desk to find Nate and Jason dressed in perfectly fitting lab coats going through name tags. We walked over to them. "What are you two–"

"Alright, so we've got a Sebastian, a Marco, a Jennifer, and a Samuel. Who wants to be who?" Nate stated, "I personally want Sebastian."

"Take Sebastian, then," Phil instructed, "and hand me Samuel. I think I could pull off that name." I heard Nate snicker quietly.

"Dibs on Marco!" Jason exclaimed as he swiped the Marco name tag off the desk.

"I hate all of you," I stated bluntly as I grabbed the Jennifer name tag.

"What're we doing next?" Jason asked.

"Let's try putting a name tag in the slip in the book," Phil instructed.

Nate opened the book and placed his Sebastian name tag into the slip. Suddenly, his card was spat out into the air and the desk shot to the right.

On the wall behind where the desk had been moments earlier was a door half the size of a normal door, with an old, beaten up doorknob.

A/N

Y'ALL I'M HYPED AF AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY

THAT'S LITERALLY ALL I HAVE TO SAY

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOES!