This Is Not the End

            It was frankly a miracle that no one tripped over the inordinate amount of junk that was scattered across the office's floor.

"Guess whoever ran this place wasn't too neat," Xyli voiced my thoughts, kneeling to pick up a stack of paper that lay coated in dust on the floor.

"Here's the computer... and it still works!" Zoltan was across the room behind a large oak desk fiddling with a keypad.

I joined him, light from the dim computer shining in my eyes.

"There," I pointed, "That's what we need. Can you convert those files to a hard drive for Pan?"

Zoltan nodded, then moaned, "Oh, I forgot to bring a hard drive with me!"

"Me too," I frowned, mentally scolding myself for forgetting something so simple.

"I brought one."

We both looked over at Xyli, who was holding up the red piece of plastic and metal.

"What?" She asked after staring for a moment at our surprised faces, "I can be prepared too!"

I laughed to myself as Xyli gave Zoltan the hard drive and he converted the files. My laugh sounded strange echoing off the rubber mask, and it reminded me of our purpose.

I let the files download and waited until the hard drive was safely in Zoltan's pocket before ordering, "Come on, hurry up. We've got to find those supplies and get them back to the Ostrich."

"Hold on."

Zoltan mumbled, not taking his eyes off the computer.

"Zoltan, really," I started but he motioned for me to come and pointed to a particular file he had open on the screen.

"What is it?" I asked, leaning closer.

"It looks like a medical file," Xyli commented.

"It is, but not any file we've seen. Look," Zoltan pointed to specific parts in the long line of computer script.

"Here and here... and here! These are different. These are effects of different chemicals on humans."

"Oh," I whispered, understanding.

"They were testing subjects to see what chemicals did the most damage," I murmured, my voice low.

"How awful," Xyli shuddered beside me.

"No. I mean, yeah, it is awful, but look at this part. This isn't seeing what damage can be done with chemicals... I think they were trying to find a way to make humans immune to the chemicals. They were trying to make the skin thicker so it wouldn't absorb the sulfur and poison that are in the gases."

We all stared for a long time at the files, reading and processing.

"Doesn't look like they made any progress," Zoltan murmured after a while.

"At least they were trying," Xyli added.

"Come on," I pulled away from the computer first, my mind reeling at this information, "Let's go."

There was a bit of rubble piled in front of the door to the supply warehouse. As we got to work picking up the biggest pieces and carrying them away, I couldn't stop thinking about the files we found.

Turns out the people responsible for creating the deadly gases to be used against our enemies were also trying to protect us.

I wished they had succeeded.