As the facility turned out to be a dead place, all six gathered to discuss their next move. But before that, they discovered that the bodies they drank blood from decayed into ashes after a few minutes. Tyler, a genius since childhood, took notes of everything that was happening. Every single detail, big or small, tended to serve a purpose.
"Slacovich, it turns out the bodies turn to ashes in exactly 7 minutes and 32 seconds. All we have to do is just blow them away. Also, our bodies are more powerful than before," Tyler said as he jotted notes in his binder.
"I can see that. Do you know how long it takes before we need another set of blood?" Slacovich studied the chart left by the doctors in the monitoring room.
"We're all full right now. Well, I am full. I don't know about you guys. I want to know how many prey each of you had, I can make an estimate."
"Estimate? Won't you be able to accurately calculate everything?"
"No. We all have different body structures. The necessity of blood differs for each of us. But I think I can manage to study the formula Dr. Brischt used when he injected us with the vampire serum. That will take time, though, because now that we're vampires, our bodies have changed a lot. I'm going to go back to square one. Also, if the rest of you tell me the exact amount of blood you took earlier and any signs of blood cravings, that will help a lot. We need to figure this out before we head out." Tyler signaled them to sit down. They all obeyed. Diego, however, seemed to be having trouble controlling his strength and ended up destroying the chair. Not only him, but the others were still coping with themselves.
"I'm going to start. I had... 1, 2, 3, 4-19. I-I killed 19 people just by sucking their blood out. Now that I think about it, it makes me shiver." Just by remembering the taste and scent of blood, Ara clenched her fists. Her eyes turned red, and her fangs slowly showed.
"Ara, you need to calm down. Wait a minute." Tyler hurried to her side. "Are you still hungry?"
"I don't know. I don't think I'll ever be full. I always want a taste every now and then." She calmed down as Tyler gently caressed her back.
"This is going to be difficult to comprehend." Tyler started charting Ara's info and moved on to the next.
"Sofie, how about you?"
"Well, I only had 12. And I'm feeling absolutely disgusted right now, like I want to vomit. I am totally full. It may take a while before I crave blood again." Sofie was truly disgusted by the fact she sucked blood. The thought of it creeped her out.
"Diego, how about you?"
"I've had 23. And I'm full, thank you." He tried to put back the chair by bending the metal to support him.
"Li, how many did you take?"
"Well, 11. Also, I'm feeling full. Like Sofie, I don't think I'll crave blood for a while either." She opened a laptop and extracted important files from the facility.
"So Slacovich, your turn."
"16. I'm good." Slacovich moved beside Li to check the files she was extracting.
"Just to inform you all, I only had 3. I don't feel hungry at all. Seems like my weak human body affects my appetite. But for Ara, she's still always craving blood. We can't let her roam the mainland in her current state." Ara seemed disappointed by the news. Tyler assured her he'd find a way to help.
"Wait, did we really take down every single person in the facility?" Sofie asked as she joined Slacovich and Li.
"I can check that out. Wait a moment." Li scrolled through the files and searched for the list of personnel inside the facility. "Here it is. There are 50 security personnel, 6 generals, 30 doctors, 86 people total." She showed everyone the list on the laptop.
"86? But I only counted 84. That means there are 2 more people here. But I can't smell anyone from here." Tyler stood and checked the security room for possible hiding places the CCTV might have missed but found none.
"The other one escaped as we went berserk on the others," Slacovich smirked, remembering how he had let Dr. Spencer escape.
"How can that be? You saw someone escaping and still let them go?" Sofie glared at Slacovich, waiting for an answer.
"Dr. Spencer escaped while I was heading to the viewing room. I saw her occupying a submarine on the monitor screen." He knew he could have caught her but preferred chasing her out there for a challenge.
"I don't know what you're up to, Slaco. I'll make sure I'm the one hunting her down when we head out to wipe out everyone who knows about us." Sofie walked out angrily.
"There's still one person left. We must search for the remaining one. I'm sure they're still inside the facility." Ara excitedly headed out to begin the search.
"Looks like she won't let that person live." Tyler followed her, and the others did as well. But Slacovich chose to follow Sofie instead.
All four searched every corner of the facility and ended up gathering in front of a heavily sealed room, a door secured with fingerprint and code. The code was easy for Li to hack, but the fingerprint would be tough since all the bodies turned to ashes. Ara, craving blood, grew impatient and kicked the metal door with all her might, but it was too strong. Diego stepped in, repeatedly kicked the door, and finally ripped it from the walls.
Inside the room was a trembling doctor. The moment he heard someone trying to break down the door, he knew he was going to die. Ara immediately grabbed him, ready to bite, when something he said made her stop.
"I CAN HELP YOU!" Dr. Harry blurted out, shaking in fear. Ara looked at Tyler, who seemed curious about what the doctor was going to say. She put him down and kept her distance before she lost control.
"Do you think we need help?" Tyler bluffed.
"Yes, please don't hurt me. I'm a doctor, and I was assigned to you during the mutation. Please listen first, you can suck my blood after and kill me if you want."
"Make sure it's important. We are more powerful than you now, your inferior, and one wrong word, we'll dry the blood right out of your body." Tyler glared at him.
"I know. Your friend 005, something went wrong during the process." Dr. Harry pointed at Ara.
"What do you mean?" Tyler's attention was fully on Dr. Harry.
"During the initiation of phase two, the serum meant for Ara was injected into you. That's why you had a cardiac arrest. As for Ara, the serum inside her body wasn't perfectly blended with her blood. Have you noticed any difference between her and the others?"
"She's always seemed to be craving blood."
"That's a side effect of the serum. The amount of serum inside your bodies was precisely prepared according to your body structures."
"How did our vials get switched?" Tyler pushed him against the wall.
"H-hear me out. Even I have no idea. The vial I took was labeled with your code. There's no way I'd let any mistake happen during the process. When you had the cardiac arrest, I began to suspect something was off. Fortunately, Dr. Brischt knew what to do and was prepared if something like that happened. He was right all along. Someone's trying to sabotage the mutation, but it backfired."
"Sabotage? What do you think?"
"Dr. Spencer. Since she came to the facility, Dr. Brischt doubted her from the moment she stepped in. Her presence was suspicious, preparations were done before she even arrived. Someone big is backing her. If, " Dr. Harry trailed off, unable to finish his thought.
"If what?"
"She's the one who proposed calling the project Bioweapons. Originally, Dr. Brischt wanted to call it Vampire Agents, not Bioweapons. If she succeeded in sabotaging the mutation, you and Ara would have failed and burned to death. Meanwhile, the others would be implanted with chips to obey her every command."
"That bitch! She escaped while we were rampaging through the facility!" Tyler punched the wall hard, leaving a broken mark.
"Please tell me the last vial is still here in the facility." Dr. Harry stood straight, waiting.
"What vial?"
"There were seven vials of serum Dr. Brischt prepared. The last one is still full and unused. Please let me check if it's still here. If she has it, the world is doomed." Dr. Harry ran toward Dr. Brischt's room. Tyler and the others followed him. When he reached the room, he headed straight to the vault, already open. The last vial was gone.
"This is bad. Really bad." Dr. Harry buried his face in his palms, foreseeing the serum's potential misuse.
Tyler and the others took Dr. Harry to the viewing room and called Slacovich and Sofie. He told them about the problem that might arise if the serum isn't retrieved. Aside from total chaos, widespread massacre, and abuse of power, the very existence of humanity was at stake.