"That sucks! It smells like rotting meat! Bleah!" Faith exclaimed, closing her eyes and coughing, swinging the light of the torch, which followed the movements of her body.
When the light stabilized again, Layton, without saying anything, approached the last door of the corridor, the one before the curve.
'EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL CHEMICAL RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS LABORATORY'
Layton read aloud the writing engraved on the metal plate next to the door, right above the sensor, and then his gaze fell down in a straight line, following the vertical segment in the center of the two sliding panels.
Just below it, a large pool of blood now dried.
"Fuck!" Layton exclaimed, taking a step back, frightened, having never seen so much blood in his life.
"What is it, what have you... huh?! That... that's blood?!" Faith said, tapping her mouth and nose in disgust and trying to hold back the vomit, passing the torch in Layton's hands and walking away from that stinking place, returning to Klein's office door.
Layon took courage and pointed the white light of the torch at the blood slick, lowering himself to it and trying to distinguish its details: the deep red blood, almost black, was to be that of Dr. Hudson, of whom Lucius and Tyler had spoken abundantly, painting him as one of Dr. Klein's best study mates.
To confirm this thesis, Layton in fact glimpsed in the blood small pieces of shapeless flesh, similar to those of human organs.
When he was able to distinguish a kind of soggy tube and understand that it was a piece of intestine, he had no more doubts and stood up, swallowing empty and turning the other way, catching his breath after freediving.
"So...? What is it? Is there anything inside that blood?" Faith asked again, who still couldn't calm down.
"It's... it's Dr. Hudson's blood, I'm sure... there are pieces of his organs in there..." Layton confirmed while the girl tried to restrain a panic attack, not believing she was facing such a serious situation.
"I thought it was a simple respiratory disease or a particularly infectious type of flu, but... that scientist was spat out! The guard said his body was found split in two! What disease can reduce you to that state?! Lay, maybe we should just leave, we shouldn't meddle in all this!" Faith replied, thinking that sneaking into sector C wasn't a good idea.
I can't, stop talking nonsense! Don't be a little girl, we're here now, you want to give up everything after we've been able to get in?! Where's your courage?! I can't think continuing to listen to your complaints, go back inside the room or stop acting like a hysterical baby and give me a hand!" Layton exclaimed aloud, venting the anger he had held during those endless moments of silence spent spying on the guards from the porthole.
Layton's sudden and somewhat exaggerated reaction, arising from his strong nervousness, intimidated Faith, who remained silent for a few seconds to look at him, knowing that what he had just said was pure truth and that her immature behavior was only making things more difficult.
"Why they don't want to tell anyone about this... fuck, one person died, it's a very serious thing! The Captain must know this at all costs, he must isolate the whole sector and, if necessary, he must proceed with selective expulsion! We can't risk..."
As he spoke, trying to use the information he knew about the mechanics of the spacecraft he had learned from one of his precious books, something interrupted Layton's words.
His gaze, which had never detached from the ground, followed the irregular traces of blood along the corridor and, with the help of the torch, noticed that they continued beyond the curve.
Faith kept shaking like a leaf and continued to breathe slowly, trying to keep calm.
Meanwhile, with his mind crowded with so many conflicting thoughts, the young janitor turned to the door of the research lab and pulled out Sam's ID tag, bringing it closer to the sensor.
*beeep*ACCESS DENIED*beeep*
"Mmh... I imagined this thing couldn't open all the doors... I would have been surprised to the contrary..." he snorted, realizing that old Sam's key card, from there on, would not be able to help them anymore.
"If the key Sam gave us also opened Voyager's analysis lab, it wouldn't make sense... and then, I'm not sure I want to get in there! I don't think they've sterilized the area yet!" Faith said, who had started breathing regularly again and was approaching the dirty door above the blood.
Looking closely at that red pool with a blunt expression painted on her face, the girl realized that, as Layton had said, the blood certainly belonged to a person and that that blood continued over the curve, running down the corridor.
Layton, resting one foot behind the other with circumspection, followed the red trail scattered here and there, continuing to walk straight and moving further and further away from the front door of Klein's office.
"Hey! Wait for me, don't leave me alone! You also took the flashlight, even though you just believed it wouldn't help us!" Faith exclaimed, running towards him and standing close behind his back, as if he wanted to shelter behind him by who knows what enemy ready to come out of one of the rooms along the hallway.
The darkness and the almost total absence of noise contributed to making the atmosphere chilling: the only things visible were the light sensors of the doors, which shone with the usual greenish light.
The traces of blood continued for a few feet, irregularly.
Some denser patches were found to the right and then to the left, and a kind of red and thin line followed the entire path with a meandering trajectory.
"Faith, take a careful look... it seems that someone crawled on the floor!" Layton suggested, both to ask for an opinion from his companion and to keep her alert and awake, preventing her from falling into total panic again without being able to do anything.