Snapping out of it, Oliver's unfocused black eyes turned to me. Then, as I saw them slowly clear and sharpen, he loosened his tight grip on the papers. Bringing them up, Oliver placed them on the table and pushed them towards Raven.
Taking it, Raven slipped it under the table and raised an eyebrow towards Oliver, as if asking what he thought. In response, Oliver enlarged his eyes slightly and answered with an unnatural tone of calm.
"It's ... a novel theory."
Nodding his head slightly, I saw Raven's hand wander down under the table. Curious, I sneaked a peek under the table to see him softly running his hand over his research paper, straightening the wrinkles caused by Oliver.
"It's a great theory. However, I wasn't the one who came up with it."
Shaking his head, I saw the sadness reflected in his eyes. For some reason, the old, straight back of a certain somebody appeared in my mind as he was escorted back to his cell by the police officers. Shifting my gaze to Oliver, I saw a flash of surprise run across his face before an equally sad but proud smile surfaced.
"It's been a while since I've seen him, and with how busy things have been, I had forgotten he was a researcher at this center."
Wiping the expression from his face, Raven packed the rest of his unfinished lunch and stood up from the table.
"There's more data and papers that he managed to write before he was captured by those people. If you would like, I can show them to you."
Giving Richard a look, Oliver and Raven exited the break room, leaving the three of us alone.
Licking his lips clean, Richard smiled at us as he stood up.
"Now that the two geniuses are gone, I have something less headache-inducing to show the two of you."
Leading us out of the break room, we headed towards the elevator and onto the fourth floor. The scenery on the fourth floor was drastically different from that on the second floor. With a slightly more pastel palette, the walls on the fourth floor were blue in color and were extremely soft on the eyes.
"This is the fourth floor. The second floor where we just came from is where all the labs are, so most of the interesting action occurs there. This area is where the boring work gets done, like everything related to money or anything that needs a computer. We also store some of the products here, especially those that do not require a lab."
Walking down the corridor, we stopped at one of the doors.
"Around a couple years ago, when Raven was just hired in the research center, the MDVA research team had reached a crucial roadblock. At that time, we needed someone who had MDVA. Unfortunately, the majority of the researchers' families had already lost their loved ones to MDVA. It was during this time that Will volunteered to help us."
Entering the room, Richard turned on the lights and led the way to one of the many shelves lining the walls of the room.
"Will and Raven were from the same orphanage, but both were adopted into different families. Since Raven showed a talent for science, he was adopted into a family from High street, while Will was adopted into a stable family from Middle street. But even after they went into different families, Raven said that they met up pretty often."
I observed Frank's reaction from the corner of my eye. Seeing that he didn't seem even a little surprised by Richard's words, I gave a silent sigh of relief and turned my focus back to Richard. Reaching his hand into a box, Richard took out a small box. Walking to one of the tables littering the room, he placed the box down and opened it to show several small white pills.
"These pills are the culmination of Will, Alex, and many volunteers help. Although we have been researching it for quite a while, it was thanks to Alex's data that we could finally create this prototype."
Taking a pair of gloves from his pocket, he put them on. Then, passing a pair to each of us, he gestured to us to put them on before he carefully took them out of the box. He gently placed one in each of our hands.
"It's supposed to help calm down the violent state that MDVA is most known for. It was just completed last week, so the side effects and how effective it is are unknown. However, Andrew was very optimistic about it."
Looking down at the physical manifestation of all the years of suffering and the deaths of at least two people, the pill seemed too small for the value it held. In the corner of my eye, I could see Frank's hand close around the pill. It trembled, and yet I could see a small space of air between his fingers and the pill, preventing the small white miracle drug from becoming powder in his palms.
"The documents to approve animal testing are being written about right now. If the testing is proven to be safe for humans, it can be made into a good defense to stop the Anti-MDVA act."
Looking at Frnak, Richard waited until the trembling stopped before lightly tapping his fist. A little startled, Frank instinctively loosened his fingers, and Richard plucked the pill from his palm. Then, retrieving the one in my hands as well, he returned the two to the box and closed it shut. Once they were safely kept back on the shelf, he pulled his gloves off and helped us remove ours, stuffing them in his pocket, and then led us out of the room.
"Currently, we're trying to find any volunteers for the clinical tests down the road. Usually, recruitment should be held after the animal tests are finalized, but since the patients are hard to find, we're starting it now."
As he spoke, he led us back to the elevator. Pressing the button for level two, we went past the break room and instead entered an area with several white double doors. On those doors were different symbols with crosses and illustrations on them. Next to the doors was a metal plate with the name of the lab. And each lab had a black rectangle next to their doors.
"So, if the two of you know someone who suffers from MDVA, could you lead them to the research center? We promise that we won't let the government take them without a fierce fight."
Smiling at us, he then tapped his card on the black rectangle and led us into the lab. Inside, crowding around a computer, were both Raven and Oliver. They seemed to be staring at the screen, mumbling words to each other. However, when they heard the sound of the door opening, they simultaneously turned back to see us.
"You've already shown them the drug?"
Raven twisted his head to glance at the clock on the wall and made a face expressing his surprise at the time.
"I knew the two of you would take a long time, so I just brought the two down here instead of waiting in the break room."
Walking up to the two of them, Richard smiled as he placed a hand on Raven's head and ruffled his hair. Pouting, Raven shoved the mischievous hand off before making space for the two of us to view the computer screen.
"I was just showing Oliver some of the data collected by the team over the years."
On the screen was a spreadsheet with hundreds and hundreds of rows of numerical points, ranging all over the place. From a quick glance, the numbers seemed to make no sense, like some fanciful nonsense that bled into white noise in front of my eyes. However, before my brain could process any patterns, Raven switched the window to show something else.
This time, a graph appeared. There were three lines running through the graph: red, blue, and black. These lines were much easier to look at than the jumble of numbers that was the spreadsheet. However, having no idea the context of the graph, I couldn't make heads or tails of the data.
Standing in front of the screen, Oliver showed a thoughtful expression and made a vague sound of thought. Slowly, he absorbed the data and then nodded his head.
"It certainly does seem to prove the theory. However, I don't think anyone is ready to accept this now."
Turning away from the screen, the two geniuses launched into an entirely technical conversation. Looking at the serious expressions on their faces, Richard silently shook his head and led us a short distance away.
Before following the two, I twisted my neck to look at Oliver's serious face as he conversed with Raven. That expression, that face, was one that I always observed when he was reading those papers of his. However, even during those times, he just seemed like an unusually smart child.
Feeling my hands ball up into a fist, I couldn't help but feel that even though the distance between the two of us physically was only a couple steps, it felt like we were separated by a thick invisible wall. It was like he was in a whole other world.
"Dan?"
Returning my attention to Frank, I caught him giving me a concerned look. Then, without any words, he slipped his hand into mine, and we both headed towards Richard, who was waiting at a corner.
"Those two seem like they would take a while. So, I have something much better to show you two."
Smiling, he picked up a thick album from the research bench and opened it. On the first page was a well-cared-for picture of five people. Three of them were wearing lab coats, while the one in the middle was wearing a plain white shirt. Beside the boy in a white shirt was an adult woman wearing red. Hand in hand, the child and adult pair were smiling with their hands raised in a V-shape.
"We try to take pictures with the volunteers when we can. It helps us remain determined, especially when the project hits a wall."
Flipping through the album, we glanced through the many pictures. Each picture was uniquely and heartbreakingly different. Some of the volunteers stood alone, others with family. Some cried, and others smiled. There was even a pair of twins in one, where one twin was looking at the other with warm eyes. Each picture seemed to show a glimpse of someone's story lost to time, with few people other than their families and the researchers to remember them.
Reaching a specific page, Frank instantly shot out his hand to hold it down as he stared right at it. Eyes glazed over in sadness, I paused my flipping and stopped to observe the picture more carefully.
This picture had a similar feel to most of the others. The researchers in lab coats were at the end, while the volunteers and their families and friends were in the middle. At the center of the picture was an extremely calm and composed teenager. His eyes were slightly tilted, looking over at Raven, who was in a lab coat right next to him. Although his eyes were calm black pools of still water, his mouth was just ever so slightly raised at the corner, giving the boy a feeling of youth that suited his age.
"Big brother."
Mummering from beside me, I watched as Frank stared hard at the picture, as if trying to burn it into his memory.
"If you want to, we could send you a copy of this picture."
Speaking up from beside me, Richard gave Frank a kind smile. Listening to him, Frank finally tore his eyes away from the photo before shaking his head.
"It's alright. We already have many pictures of him at home. It just feels a little weird to see my big brother be involved in something so big and yet never bother to tell us."
Swiping his fingers over Will's face, Frank took a couple more seconds to absorb the sight of his brother before turning the page over to see the next volunteer.
Keeping silent, I observed him forcefully calm the surging emotions inside his eyes before refocusing my attention back on the album. Then, once we finished the whole thing, we placed it back where Richard took it from.
"For now, that's the only album we have. Hopefully, that will remain the only one. Since the reason behind having it isn't very hopeful."
Shaking his head to remove the negative thoughts, Richard then led us past the album.
"Other than the album, there are several other things that we do to remember the volunteers here in the lab."
Walking up to a stack of books lying innocently around on the counters of the lab, he took the top one and flipped the pages. Then, stopping at a certain page, he passed it to Frank.
I leaned over Frank's shoulder and peaked at the page. On it, a simple picture of Will in his white shirt was staring straight into the camera. Unlike his picture in the album, his lips were straight, and those emotionless eyes seemed to bore a hole through the picture and into my soul. Next to his picture were his name, likes, hobbies, and random details about himself.
Beside me, Frank took his time reading through the page, his eyes slowly scanning the words as he smiled sadly at them.
"We try to keep some details about them, with their consent, of course. Will himself wrote all of these, and it helps us see them as not only victims but people. Sometimes, I like to read over what they wrote, just to keep them alive. At least within my memories."
Once Frank reached the end of that page, he turned to the next page. Unlike the previous one, this page seemed more personal. There was no more general information, like likes and dislikes. Instead, the whole page seemed to be an almost obsessive letter talking about Frank, what he loved about him, etc etc. One sentence in, and I was already shifting my gaze away, feeling a little awkward.
As I avoided gazing at the book, I saw the two geniuses had already finished their conversation and were heading this way. Stopping near us, the moment Raven saw the book in Frank's hands, his eyes narrowed and unconsciously tilted downward.
Only taking one glance at Raven, Oliver moved over to stand beside me and peeked at the book. However, he only took one glance at it before tearing his eyes away.
"Are there any other things like this with Will inside?"
Closing the book once he reached the end of Will's portion, Frank gently placed it back on the stack.
"Those are the only two that involve Will. There were several other things made, but those were only implemented a year ago."
Hanging his head in disappointment, Frank thanked Richard before the four of us left the lab. With a soft bang, the door closed on the project, and I could feel the sound reverberate through my chest. Freezing me to the core.