Dan's POV

The four of us continued making our way through the gymnasium-sized laboratory. Nate and Jason seemed like they might vomit if they had to stay here much longer.

It was understandable, considering that they had spent the past thirty or forty minutes looking at kids their age drenched in blood.

Phil and I had managed to swallow our squeamishness while searching for tables thirty-eight and forty-two. I looked to my left and saw table twenty-three.

"I don't think we're anywhere near our tables and I haven't seen Percy yet," Phil whispered.

"We'll find him, don't worry. Right now, just focus on finding our tables. If we don't even check in with the kids, someone's going to get suspicious," I replied.

"Dan, can I see the notebook for table thirty-eight?" Nate asked.

"Sure, why?" I responded as I handed him the notebook.

"I think I'll faint if I have to look at blood much longer. Besides, someone should probably read what we're supposed to do to the kid."

I smiled to myself as I watched Nate open the notebook. However, upon opening the book, his facial expression changed from a small smile to one of panic as he inhaled sharply.

"Oh no, what happened?" Phil asked.

"This–she...Jason, isn't this–"

Jason peered over Nate's shoulder at the notebook. "I've never seen her before. She looks about the same age as us, though. Maybe a year younger."

"Maybe Jason doesn't recognize her because he doesn't live at the orphanage?" I commented, remembering what we were told right after we got here.

"She looks really familiar, but I can't see her clearly because of all the blood on her in the picture," Jason explained.

"Does the file have a name?" Phil asked.

"Alex," Nate whispered.

Jason stopped walking and stared at Nate in shock. Phil and I glanced at each other quickly before Phil asked, "Who's Alex?"

"I don't really know anything about her other than the fact that she's one of Reagan's friends," Jason mumbled. "I've only seen her once."

I looked to Nate. "Why'd you freak out so much?"

"One, her and Percy are here. That's two of the orphans from this orphanage. I'm willing to bet that I know everyone here from one place or another. Two, she's covered in blood, just like everyone else here. What do you think we're supposed to do to the people here?"

"Doesn't it say in the file?" Jason asked.

"There's no way I'm reading that right now."

I sighed as we continued weaving our way through tables. Nate seemed to be trying extremely hard to not look up at the kids, keeping his eyes glued to Alex's file.

After a few more minutes passed, I saw table thirty-four. "We're getting close," I announced.

"Do you see table thirty-eight?" Phil asked.

"No, I see thirty-four, though–"

"Have the tables been in numerical order?" Phil questioned, slightly surprised.

I started to facepalm but stopped myself after realizing that several people had started staring at us. I sighed and whispered, "Did you just figure that out?"

"Sorry!" Phil whispered back. "I think I see thirty-eight up ahead, though."

After hearing this, Nate and Jason looked up. Nate peered around the room, searching for table thirty-eight, while Jason asked, "Is Alex on the table?"

Phil nodded. "Someone's on the table and I sure hope it's the person that's supposed to be there."

"Am I allowed to add an extra step to our plan?" Nate asked hesitantly.

"Depends," I decided, "what is it?"

"I think we should help Alex, too."

"We're going to help all these kids before we leave the orphanage. Wasn't that the plan from the beginning?" Phil asked.

"I know we'll help her and everyone else eventually, but I think we should bring her with us now."

"You want to drag someone you barely know into the mess we're facing?" I questioned.

"I just don't want to leave her here," he whispered.

"Let's focus on saving Percy since that's why we're here in the first place. After we help him, we'll see what we can do about Alex, okay?" Phil suggested as we approached table thirty-eight.

Nate nodded and the two of us came to a stop while Phil and Jason continued searching for table forty-two. Alex was asleep on the table and drenched in blood, just like all the other kids here. Nate handed me the notebook while he asked, "What are you supposed to do to her?"

I shrugged as I opened the notebook and skimmed over the file. Occurring to the file, we were supposed to inject her with a stimulator of some kind. It was probably something that caused the monster mutation to take place.

"We're supposed to inject her with something that's here." I looked at Nate. "You think we should actually follow these instructions or just try to wake her up and take her?"

Nate's eyes widened. "You want to break her out? I thought Phil said–"

"I know what Phil said. We're going to save Percy first, but after we break out Percy, everyone will know what we're doing. We're going to have to be fast about this."

"Are you suggesting that one of us stays here to get her ready to take while the other goes and finds Percy?" Nate asked, intrigued.

"If you're okay with that, yes. We need to get everyone and get out of this orphanage. I'm really starting to get worried about everything."

Nate chuckled quietly, "You're just starting to get worried?"

"Shut up," I responded in a whiny tone, causing Nate to laugh again.

"Whatever. Are we waking Alex up or not? Also, how are we supposed to explain literally any of this to her?"

"We'll figure something out," I decided. "Can I ask you something that's been bothering me?"

"No."

I looked at him. "What do you mean–"

"Kidding. What's up?"

"What's your reputation here with the other orphans?"

Nate chuckled, "That's what you're interested in? Are you serious?"

"Well, when we first met you guys, you were being yelled at by that one lady–"

"Mrs. Marsh?"

"Yeah, and when you told us the story about Abby, you seemed like the type of kid who gets in trouble a lot–"

"Without explaining my entire life story, yes, I'm a bit of a trouble maker. I'm not nearly as bad as Reagan and Percy, though. Those two seem to be getting into trouble all the time. The four of us together...that's a whole different story."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I wiped some of the blood off of Alex with my lab coat.

"The four of us together, as I've been told, are unstoppable. We practically work like secret agents when we try. All of us can be super sneaky, Reagan and Percy are practically masterminds when they apply themselves, and Jason and I are really good liars."

I stopped what I was doing and looked at Nate. "Why am I just hearing about this now? You and Jason are good liars? Your group of friends is practically a group of assassins, minus the killing."

Nate laughed, "That's probably why all our teachers hate us and no one wants to adopt us."

"Well geez, I didn't want this to get depressing," I laughed softly.

Nate shrugged. "You're the one who asked. Plus, it's just a fact, and it isn't really that sad."

"I bet someone adopts you soon," I commented as I continued wiping blood off of Alex's face.

Nate chuckled, "Yeah, you go ahead and believe that. The only thing that I think will change is the orphanage I'm staying at. There's no way I'm letting the police hear the end of this."

"Be more optimistic. If nothing else, you'll be able to say that you stayed with six famous YouTubers with a bunch of your friends for a month."

"One, that's bragging. Two, can't you find something else to wipe blood off of her with? We don't know where the lab coat has been."

"Should we just wake her up? If other scientists ask why she's up, you can just lie, right?"

Nate sighed, "Is that going to be our go-to solution from now on?"

"Probably. Just remember that you're the one who gave me the information."

Nate and I began gently shaking Alex. Her eyes shot open and she quickly pulled away from us, almost falling off the table. "Who–"

Nate covered her mouth with his hand while I whispered, "Don't yell or gather attention to us. We're here to help."

A/N

I just took really gross medicine and feel like I'm gonna throw up eWW

I hope y'all are having a good day

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOES!