All his life, Dylan had been a rule-follower.

Since he was a kid he'd gone by the book—gone to school every day, never smoked, never drank, obeyed his parents, done his chores. He had been a golden child as a kid in Oasis Springs. Even when he got older, he met Jess and dated her for a couple years before they got married. Christie had come along not long after. When Jess wanted to make her way up in the military he'd let her, becoming a stay-at-home dad to Christie. His entire life he'd tried to please people by doing what they wanted as long as it wasn't illegal or stupid.

Now that they were in Strangerville the game had changed. Jess was infected with something and avoiding him. The locals were freaking him out. Government agents stopped him on the street to ask him questions, to ask Christie questions. And that wasn't even mentioning the bizarre pods he'd been noticing more and more. If they'd been back in Oasis Springs, he'd be going along happily. But Strangerville wasn't Oasis Springs. It was new and starting to scare him and he had to change to fit his new situation.

Hence why he was currently sitting in Carlotta D'Angelo's living room.

His new neighbor (along with local 'crackpot' Erwin Pries) was looking into the lab to figure out what exactly was going on. They'd invited him to Carlotta's to ask him to join their efforts as neither of them was as tech-savvy as he was. Erwin was an expert on the area and Carlotta knew plants along with being more physically-inclined than her partner-in-crime. If this had been prior to Jess's infection and odd behavior, he would've declined. As it stood now his answer was 'yes'. Definitely. Absolutely.

"Only thing now is to find someone to keep an eye on Lucy," Carlotta sighed. "I'd ask you but you'll be busy."

"Jess is off this weekend—" Carlotta vehemently shook her head.

"No. Not with all the crap that's going on and not with the way she's acting. The only person I trust less to watch my daughter is my mother."

Okay, that's a loaded statement.

"Why don't you trust—" Erwin started before Dylan caught his eye and shook his head. "Never mind. Look, I know this girl who lives up in Shady Acres. Not infected and super nice."

"How well do you know her is my question."

"I've known Alice since we were in college. Trust me, she's okay."

"Get her down here and I'll consider it. In the meantime, Dylan, figure out how to get into the database at the lab."

"When are we doing this?" Dylan inquired.

"Whenever. I work from home and I'm pretty sure Erwin's unemployed."

"I am."

"And I don't have a job, either."

"Good. Then it's settled. Let's say… Thursday night?"

It was agreed and they split up.


Thursday night arrived and so did Alice Martin, who seemed immediately taken with Lucy and happy to babysit. Erwin, Carlotta, and Dylan headed out, dressed in clothes that were both built for camouflage and inconspicuous. They also didn't look too out of place. It was because unfortunately the database couldn't be accessed from their neighborhood and they had to head up to the crater to get a signal from it. Carlotta was driving her truck and the plates had been replaced by Erwin (where he got spare plates she had no idea and didn't ask) with the old ones tucked into the drawer with the envelopes from her supplements.

As she drove up, Erwin anxiously tapped his fingers on the passenger-side door. Dylan was in the backseat with his laptop, ready to announce when they were in. The closer they got the more nervous Erwin became. Carlotta became frustrated by the sound and sighed.

"Could you cut it out, please?"

"I got chased off last time I went up here! I'm sorry!"

"Well, you're not helping anything."

The crater came into view and Carlotta noticed that the floodlights that normally illuminated the area were off. Dylan shook his head to signal that no, he wasn't in yet. It was a quiet drive into the crater itself and as the lab came into view, she got a sick feeling in her gut. The whole place was eerily silent, military trucks sitting abandoned with not one guard around the lab itself. All there was to separate them from the government building was a high chain-link fence with a heavy padlock on the gate.

"I think we should go in," Erwin suggested.

"I was thinking the same thing—better signal," Dylan agreed. He put his laptop into his backpack and Carlotta parked the truck in some thick bushes that left it well-hidden from view. They approached the fence at the gate, Erwin illuminating it with a headlamp he'd brought along.

"Okay, so I think I can get this open," he told Dylan and Carlotta, the latter rolling her eyes. "I brought a lockpicking kit just in case. It'll take a minute, but it'll be worth it."

While the geniuses focused on the gate, Carlotta thought back to her days in San Myshuno before Lucy's father had come into the picture. She could remember that as long as a fence didn't have barbed wire on top and had enough footholds, you could climb it. After all she'd climbed into a few fenced-in car lots to grab vehicles on behalf of her father and older brother Nicky.

She gripped the links and began to climb. It was even sturdier than the ones back in the city and easily held her weight. Climbing wasn't a challenge thanks to the fact that she'd kept up with fitness at her job. By the time she got to the other side, Erwin and Dylan were still fiddling with the lock and hadn't even noticed that she was gone.

"Hey, morons!" she called in a loud whisper, getting their attention.

"Carlotta, how…" Erwin asked, dumbfounded.

"I climbed the fence. It's sturdy enough to hold your weight. Hurry up."

They glanced at each other and she waited while they clambered over. Neither was nearly as in shape as she was but they made it. She made a mental note to bring bolt-cutters next time while they headed inside. Getting in there was easy since the lock was electronic and Dylan was able to fiddle with it to let them in.

There was no turning back.


Erwin wasn't sure what he'd been expecting the lab to be like but this wasn't it.

The whole place was deserted. Most of the high-tech equipment he'd assumed would be there just wasn't. Boxes and piles of papers were all over the place, as if the scientists had just left in a hurry. This explained everything except why they had left. Carlotta was already searching through papers by the flashlight on her phone and Dylan had set up to get into the system, so Erwin decided to look around.

Most of the place was about the same. He could hear Dylan tell Carlotta that he was in and Carlotta say she'd found a thumb-drive in the papers she'd been shuffling through but he was distracted by a slight smell. Around a corner there was a door, and the door was the source of the smell. Through it he could hear the slight hum of machinery and there were a few pink spots on the floor in front. Part of him wanted to touch it but alarms in his brain screamed not to.

When he got back to Dylan and Carlotta, they were scanning the database.

"There's something down there," Dylan told Erwin upon seeing him. "Apparently the lab up here is just a cover. Most of the scientists kept their information on their personal laptops so in order to get access to that I'd have to take one of those. Carlotta's thumb-drive didn't help much, either."

Erwin thought for a moment, then an idea popped into his head.

"Carlotta, did you see anything else in those piles?"

"A few things, why?" she asked.

"Find as much as you can. I have an idea."

They managed to gather sixteen pieces of evidence and Erwin took it home, scanning as much as he could onto his computer before he uploaded it to one of his favorite forums.

All of this is directly from the Lab in Strangerville. Could anybody get me a keycard for it?

Within minutes, not even five since he'd uploaded, a girl thanked him for the evidence and promised to send the keycard. He gave her Carlotta's address for delivery and smirked.

This was it.