Jackson hesitated, and then shrugged. “There’s only one building that looks in good enough condition to house a laboratory, so I can’t see the point in checking the others first.”

And with that, he moved forward, into the sea of dead. I followed, body tense, waiting for something—anything—to happen. Nothing did. The stench of rotting flesh increased, until it became a putrid cloak that clogged my pores and overwhelmed my senses. I stepped over arms and legs that had become detached from torsos, and avoided eyes that had rolled out of sockets and seemed to glare at me with an odd sort of life. It was macabre and frightening, and all I wanted to do was get the hell off the road. Jackson increased his pace and, in very short order, we were free of the dead and walking through the glass doors that led into a wide, dark foyer.

I created another sphere of fire and tossed it into the air. Other than a thin layer of dust and soot, the area was in pristine condition. The guard station could have still been in use; there was a coffee cup sitting next to the phone, and a half-unwrapped sandwich sitting on the desk, suggesting the guard had been called away before he’d been able to eat it.

Jackson walked across and picked it up. “No mold.” He finished unwrapping it, then sniffed it. “Chicken’s off, though.”

“So it’s possible it could have been there for anywhere between one and three days.”

He dropped the sandwich back onto the desk. “It’d have to be three—no one has been in this area since the trench was created.”

“Meaning this place had been secure right up until the very end. Wonder what happened to the guard.” I spotted the stairs and walked across. The door creaked as I pushed it open, and soot fell across my face and arms. Faint echoes of life reverberated through me, and I shivered. That ash had once been human, but whether it was a cloak or someone else, I couldn’t say.

“He’s probably either dead or hiding with the scientists.” Jackson came up behind me. “They have to be here. There’s no way they could have gotten out.”

“You forget the helicopters that attacked us.” I opened the door fully and sent my sphere upward. It revealed nothing more than an everyday concrete stairwell. “Besides, while De Luca might have confirmed Luke had the scientists, he didn’t actually say where they were being kept.”

“De Luca was a self-important, delusional prick.”

“Yeah, but he was a prick who had the foresight to steal the original research notes both scientists had made on this virus, and secure them where they could not be found.” Sam’s voice was somewhat tinny as it echoed in my ear. “How about less conjecture on the dead, and more details on the current situation?”