Chapter 5 - Research Center

"What do you mean? I clearly heard him." Said Adrian feeling like he was almost going crazy.

"He isn't going crazy. I did talk to him but it wasn't with my voice but…" Raciel then pauses.

The rest of the group was waiting for Raciel to say how he didn't until they in unison heard Raciel in their minds.

"Through my Mind!" Everyone heard Raciel's voice in their minds but could see he didn't move his mouth.

Suddenly behind Raciel's back, an ultraviolet blade appeared, using Psylock's ability Raciel cut the rope binding his hands. After cutting the rope from his hands, he cut the one on his legs.

"It feels good to be able to move." Raciel said while stretching his body from how long he was tied up in the chair.

"Ups, I forgot this." Raciel then took the knife out of his leg.

"Wait, don't take it out yet!" Darcie suddenly said when she saw Raciel taking out the knife on his leg but then she stayed quiet when she saw how after he took the knife out his leg healed in an instant.

"Thanks for worrying about me, Darcie." Raciel thanked her for worrying about him even though she shouldn't in this apocalypse.

"This is yours, Enzo. Don't lose it, this is the only thing you have from your wife." Raciel then put the knife on Enzo's hands.

Raciel then went towards the closet grabbed the backpack and put it on himself. He then turns towards the whole group.

"Enzo, Darcie, Adrian, Mariam, and Dillon. I know you are here because of a mission after giving your minds a light look and I have a proposition for you." Raciel looked at the group with a serious face.

"You may not believe it but I don't know what happened here and how long it has been. I know that I woke up and everything was already the way it is now and I knew your help in getting used to this world."

"So in exchange for you guys helping me get used to this world and learning about it, I will in exchange help you in your mission. Although it may not look like it I have more abilities than I showed." Raciel then paused to let them process what he just said and what they had seen.

After a while, everyone processed what happened and all of them looked at Enzo. They wanted him to make the decision about Raciel's deals and this didn't escape Raciel's eyes.

"So do we have a deal?" Raciel then extended his hand after getting close to Enzo.

"Deal! In exchange for our help, you'll help us too." Said Enzo after shaking Raciel's hand.

"Hahaha, Good!" Raciel couldn't help but laugh with happiness not only because he now had someone to help him a little about adapting to this world he could get some company in this world.

Humans are social animals which means that no matter what humans are more comfortable when there are more humans with them or in a group, and Raciel wasn't an exception.

"Good, now tell me. In what way can I help you now?" Raciel Enzo after finally calming down.

"I thought you could read minds?" Said Enzo confused as to why didn't Raciel know what he needed help with when checking his mind.

"That's the thing about mind reading I need to dig deep in your mind to know what I'm looking for. That's why I stumble upon some things inside your mind like name or even from your past." Said Raciel about the thing about telepathy.

"Also I don't like looking at other people's minds. The mind is also like a little maze, that's why is difficult to find stuff. But if is to read one's thought is easier because is at the surface of the mind." Added Raciel.

"Ohh, that's interesting. Anyway, our mission was to look for some important files on a Research Laboratory Facility."

"They want us to look for those files, but it will take about 4 days due to being at the center of the city and we can't use cars because any sound attracts those zombies."

"On our way there we decided to rest in this hotel. That's when we noticed that this hotel was too quiet and clean and then we found you after checking every room on this floor." Said Enzo.

"Yeah, I know. When I checked this place it was too clean and no zombies were inside." Said Raciel shuddering a little when thinking of the time when he felt that this hotel was full of zombies.

"Wait! You didn't clean this place? Then who did it?' Enzo suddenly said surprised at what Raciel said.

"I don't know, all I know is that this place was like this. The only thing I did was check every single room for any zombies and there wasn't one." Raciel explains what he did after coming to this hotel.

Enzo who heard this was in deep thinking, "Something is wrong. Did you find something out of the ordinary in this place?"

"I don't know. What do you mean by out of the ordinary?" Asked Raciel wondering in what way strange.

"Think of anything. No matter what it is, it can be a small thing." Said Enzo.

Raciel hearing Enzo started to think if anything was out of the ordinary when he came to this hotel. He then suddenly remembered that when he came inside the building through the roof the stairs from the exit escape from the first to the fourth floor were all bloody but for some reason, the inside of the hotel was too clean.

"If anything is weird is that the escape stairs leading from the first floor up to the fourth floor are all bloody and dirty but when inside the actual hotel it was too clean." Said Raciel.

Suddenly Raciel remembered something while thinking about the time he entered the hotel.

"How long did the Apocalypse happen exactly?" Asked Raciel.

"The thing is that when I entered this hotel, I remember that the whole place smelled like cleaning products. This is one of the reasons I thought that maybe the apocalypse has been going on for long." Said Raciel.

"And I don't think cleaning products stay that long."

"Someone was here and even had the time to clean up, but why?" Adrian wondered, wondering why someone would bother to clean an abandoned hotel.

"Maybe it was to clean their traces. That's something I would do if I didn't want anyone to find where I was or if I was here." Said Mariam.

Enzo was thinking deeply when suddenly his eyes light up so he pointed towards a table lamp and said, "Turn the lamp on."

"Enzo, you know that the electricity was cut off 5 days after the apocalypse only a few cities and refugee camps have some sort of electricity due to fuel or solar panels." Said Darcie hearing Enzo.

But before Enzo could say anything Raciel was already at the table lamp and turned it on, and for some reason, the table lamp did light up.

"Well, looks like this place has a generator because the lights are on." Said Raciel after turning on the lamp.

Seeing this Enzo confirms his suspicions, "Someone was here before, and they stayed for quite a while that they even used a fuel generator to light up this hotel and didn't even bother to take it with them after leaving."

"Looks like we can't take a rest here. We need to leave, someone is probably closing up towards the Research lab we are going to." Said Enzo while taking his weapons and putting them on his body.

"But Captain, we would not reach there in time. If they had time to clean this place means that they had all the time in the world, maybe the mission object is not even there anymore." Said Mariam.

"I think I can help with that." Raciel suddenly said.

"How?" Asked Enzo.

"I can teleport us all towards the place, as long as I have a clear image of the place we can teleport there in seconds." Said Raciel.

Hearing Raciel Enzo was joyous but then he suddenly was trimmed, "We don't have a way to show you the images of the place."

"Have you forgotten, I just can look at your memory for the image of the place. You just need to think of the image." Said Raciel.

"That's right. What do you need us to do?" Asked Darcie.

"Just think of the place and grab each other's hands. With that, I will be able to teleport all of us together." Said Raciel.

"Alright, everyone just heard him, check that nothing is missing from you, and after you're done grab the hand of the person next to you." Enzo orders to his comrades.

This didn't take long, the moment that Enzo gave the order every move immediately and effectively from checking their belongings to their surroundings, and after being done they grabbed each other's hands.

"The military is effective in their actions." Thought Raciel after seeing how everyone is done.

"Everyone ready!" Said Dillon to Enzo after seeing everyone holding hands.

"Good, we can go…. Sorry, I haven't asked for your name." Suddenly said Enzo when he was about to inform Raciel that he and his team were ready.

"Don't worry, I only knew your names because I read your mind. My name is Raciel, is a pleasure to meet you." Said Raciel.

Raciel then touches the back of the head of someone close by which happens to be Darcie, "Now think of the place."

Raciel used Charles's ability to look at the thoughts of everyone for an image of the place of their mission. The first image came from Enzo he was more effective than Raciel thought because things like that couldn't be done so fast even for a person with mind abilities.

Now having the image in his mind, Raciel didn't concentrate much and he already had the image so he exchanged Logan's healing factor for Kurt's teleportation.

Raciel and the rest then disappear from where they were leaving behind a small amount of blue smoke. When Raciel opened his eyes they were already in front of the building.

"Incredible, if I don't see it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it." Said Adrian. after noticing that they were no longer in the hotel but on the streets in front of the Research Laboratory Institute.

"Attention, although the Research Lab is blocked off by the owner to prevent others from getting closed doesn't mean that the researchers didn't turn into zombies." Said Enzo.

He then got his Glock from his side and then took the knife from his leg, He then pointed the gun to the front, and under the gun barrel, he had the hand with the knife there for easy access.

"Be cautious of your surroundings. Don't use a gun first only your bladed weapon or blunt weapon. If there are too many to be handled with hand weapons use your firearms." Enzo then positioned himself on the front and then with him the rest got into formation.

"Raciel, maybe you don't need help from us but stay behind our formation to protect you just in case." Said Adrian.

"Do you think that there are zombies inside the building?" Asked Raciel to Adrian.

"They may be, when the outbreak happened it was at the same time all around the world. It didn't happen somewhere first." Said Darcie hearing Raciel's question been closed to Adrin and Raciel.

"There are most likely to be zombies in this place, maybe all the researchers in this place turn into zombies. That's why we need to be careful." Said Adrian.

Imagining the place full of zombies that were decaying and full of the bones of humans made Raciel shudder, this was going to be the first time he saw this type of death.

Raciel wasn't excited about it but he still needed to get used to it because no matter what this world was now his reality and unless he found a way to leave for another world he would have to get used to this world.

Enzo who was in the front of the formation scouted the place and after seeing that it was safe he proceeded to open the door of the Research Lab.

After reaching the door, Enzo first looked through the clear glass of the windows to check for any possible zombies. Having confirmed that there wasn't any Enzo proceeded to try to open the door knowing that the door probably wouldn't open.

Seeing that the doors couldn't open, Enzo turned to his team. "Just like the intelligence said, these doors won't open no matter what after the researchers activated the Lock Down protocol of this research facility."

Hearing this Enzo shocked his head in denial, "It still wouldn't open even if we had the right tools. This research facility wasn't operated privately, it also had governmental help."

"When they designed this facility, they made sure to create an also unpenetrable fortress. The doors were locked with high power magnets and the doors were reinforced with magnetic metal." Mariam started to say.

"What's more is that no matter what way we used to open this unless someone deactivated the magnetism on this door the safety system would immediately play an alarm throughout the whole facility. This sound should have been used to alert all personnel and even authorities that something happened in this facility." Mariam continues.

"Now this system turns into a deadly trap for anyone trying to enter with the right tools and an impenetrable fortress for those without." Said Dillon.

"Wait, if the only way to enter this door is through deactivating the magnetism of this door without damaging the whole system, I think I can do it." Said Raciel.

"How? What are you planning to do?" Asked Enzo after hearing Raciel.

"It's easy, I just need to revert the polarity of the metal door to opposite poles. That way now the door and the magnet would repel each other because their poles are the same." Said Raciel.

When Dillon heard this he was surprised, "You're a genius! Of course, if we can revert the polarity of the metal that it is attracted to the magnet due to its polar being to the opposite of the magnet, we can easily create another magnet with the same polarity as the magnet to repeal each other." Said Dillon.

"Are you sure you can do that?" Asked Enzo after hearing the tone of Voice of Dillon.

"Yes, I'm 100% sure." Said Raciel.

"Alright, do it." Said Enzo after thinking about it for a bit.

Raciel then got close to the door and he put his hands on it. Then he concentrated on using Magneto's power to turn the door into another magnet.

The best way to do this is to simulate a bigger magnet so that the polarities of the door can reverse therefore repelling the magnet that holds the door. If it was Erik who was making this action he would have done it more easily by just controlling the magnetic field of the door or even the magnet but Raciel doesn't have the same proficiency as Erik, only his ability.

This whole process took around 10 minutes, but after those 10 minutes, Raciel was able to push open the door without activating the security system of the research facility.

"There you go! It done." Said Raciel after turning towards the team.

"Well done! Good job, Raciel." Thank the team.

"Alright, Now in positions! Remember we don't know what is inside there, so always stay cautious and check your surroundings. If you hear anything always let someone know, never adventure by yourself or you'll be putting this team in danger." Said Enzo while looking at his teammates with a serious face.

He then turned around grabbed once again his knife and gun, and then entered the building slowly. After Enzo enters, the whole team follows behind him slowly with weapons on their own.

Raciel also followed behind them but he was the more carefree of them all. While all of them entered the building slowly and carefully, behind them around 2000 meters away from a building someone was spying on them.

"There are 6 of them. What do we do?" Said the man with the binoculars.

"I thought that the report said it was only a team of 5. Where did the extra one come from? They also arrive too fast." Said the man who was sitting on a chair far away from the man with the binoculars.

"The sixth person doesn't have any military uniform of combat, so he's probably one of the survivors that are still roaming around on this part. As for why they are here too fast it was probably false information about their departure time."Said the man with binoculars.

"Let's hope all that is true, if nothing goes like plan "She" will not like it a lot." Said the man sitting on a chair.

"Don't worry brother, we never fail." Said the man with binoculars while smiling.

"That's true." The other man agrees also smiling with him.

At the research lab, Enzo and his team had been checking every single corner of this place but not even one body or zombie had ever appeared.

"Where do you think the zombies went?" Asked Adrian to Mariam.

"I don't know but I don't like it one bit. Also, don't try and jinx it by opening your mouth carelessly." Said Mariam.

"I was just asking, also that is not real. There is no way that something like Jinxing would ever occur." Said Adrian in disbelief at the belief of Jinxing.

"I been wondering this but are you two together or something? because I feel like you two are close." Asked Raciel wondering what Adrian and Mariam's relationship was after seeing them interact.

"With him/her? Eww!" Said Adrian and Mariam at the same time.

"She is my sister. I'm the older brother." Said Adrian.

"That's why our names rhyme. Adrian and Mariam, see."

"Really? You don't look like it." Said Raciel.

"That's because we are fraternal twins. We were born at the same time." Said Mariam.

"But for some reason, I feel like I was the only one that was born with a better brain." Said Mariam.

"What are you talking about? Just so you know I'm also smart!" Said Adrian when he heard what Mariam said about his intelligence.

"Shhh! There are zombies in front." Suddenly said Darcie to Mariam and Adrian to make them go quiet to prevent any accidents.

The whole team got close to what appeared to be a closed room. Although their door was made of reinforced glass, it was still see-through, which is why the whole team saw how dire the situation was now.

Through the glass door, Raciel and the rest saw a big, wide-open space. Due to its immense size and the abundant number of chairs, it was most likely a cafeteria for the researchers.

But the whole place was full of zombies to the brim, what's worse is that there is only one way to pass this and that is through those doors full of zombies.

After seeing this place, Enzo said, "That place is too dangerous to cross. We need to turn around and look for another way."

"But we don't know if there is another way, we only know that through here is the fastest route." Said Darcie.

"I know but we don't have any choice. I will not risk anyone on my team just to cross through here, we will find another way no matter what." Said Enzo.

But when Darcie was about to say something else, suddenly all her and surrounding movement of everything stopped. It was not that it stopped but more like they were moving so slow that time looked like it stopped.

"Seeing everything stopped right on its tracks is never tiring." Said Raciel after crossing Adrian, Mariam, Darcie, Dillon, and Enzo while they were in place.

At this moment Raciel just used Quicksilver's speed and entered in what Raciel likes to call Time-Zone, a place truly his or anyone who moves so fast that everything stops in its tracks.

In this zone no matter what he and everyone who has super speed is king, they are unstoppable in this place. After enjoying a little bit of the sight in time-stop Raciel decided to start working.

The smallest of the motions he could make, Raciel tried opening the door. Although difficult and slow it happened, so after having opened the door enough so that he could pass through Raciel enter the place.

On his hand Raciel was holding the Katana that he made before, and standing in front of one zombie he slashed the zombie's neck. The slash passed smoothly on the neck, he didn't even feel any resistance on the zombie's neck.

"Is it because I'm fast or because I made a sharp and well-built Katana?" Thought Raciel while looking at his sword.

But Raciel didn't focus on that for the moment, he wasn't a scientist to know if that was the reason and he also didn't have the tools to test it. The only thing Raciel decided to focus on at the moment was to kill all the zombies in the cafeteria.

Having set his goal Raciel looked at the amount of zombies in this place and when he saw the amount he sighed, "I'm going to be here for a while."

Raciel then headed a second zombie and then slashed its neck once again and the blade of the Katana cut without any resistance. After killing that zombie he went for the next one.

After what felt like an hour for Raciel but in reality, it was 3 seconds, he finally managed to kill every single zombie in that room. Having accomplished this Raciel then went back towards the door and while turning off his super speed and leaving the Time-Zone.

At the normal time, Raciel grabs the door and then practically yells at Enzo and his team to attract their attention, "Hey guys!"

The moment Enzo and the rest hear Raciel's voice their eyes open wide and they shudder at the thought of Raciel yelling amidst all these zombies and attracting them all.

But when they turned their heads the only thing they saw and heard were the corpses and the heads of the zombies falling onto the floor. This scene stunned everyone they were not expecting that after turning instead of angry and hungry zombies on a rampage they were going to see their heads falling.

"I took care of it, now we don't need to look for another way." Said Raciel after seeing that the team turned their heads towards him.

Raciel then turned towards the exit of that place and started walking but after a few seconds, he looked back and saw that none of them had moved yet, "What are you doing? Aren't you guys going to come?"

Hearing this question everyone came to their senses and then started to walk once again, this time they were less on guard from the zombies when Raciel was in front of them.

Although Raciel was in the front, he wasn't the one directing where to go it was Dillon who was telling Raciel where to go. It only took about 10 more minutes of walking before Raciel and the rest arrived at an office section of the Research Lab.

Enzo then looked through the door of each of the offices, in the door of the offices there were names probably from the Researchers who were directors of their studies.

After arriving at a door that had the name "Marita Safiya" Enzo stopped and looked at his team, "We have arrived. The only thing left is to look for the USB drive."

Everyone nodded, seeing that their team was ready Enzo opened the door and what greeted him was a male zombie. Enzo immediately without wasting any time used his dagger to stab the zombie in the eyeball to prevent it from making a sound and attract potential zombies in the vicinity.

The zombie died quickly and Enzo supporting the body slowly set down the corpse, after that Raciel and the whole team entered the office.

The room wasn't that big but it was enough to live in it for a few days, Enzo and the rest were doing a small sweep of the place. It wasn't long before Mariam called the rest of the team.

"Guys, I found it." Mariam then took the USB drive and showed it to them.

"Good job, Mariam." Enzo grabbed the UsB and inspected and then he gave it to Dillon.

"Dillon, check if that USB is the correct one." Enzo orders to Dillon.

Dillon then took the USB, opened his bag, and took out a laptop, he then opened it and connected the USB.

"So that's everything that you guys were looking for? I thought it was going to be something impressive or important." Said Raciel after seeing that it was only a USB drive.

"It isn't only a USB drive, but an important piece of information containing data from the virus before it was transmitted to humans and mutated." Said Enzo.

"That's why we were tasked to recuperate this USB because it may contain important information about the virus to even create a cure or a vaccine." Added Enzo.

When Raciel was about to say something else a loud sound reverter in the distance and after that sound appeared Raciel fell to the floor with a hole in his head.

When Enzo and the rest saw Raciel fall to the floor and process the sound from far away, they processed the situation immediately.

"Everyone take cover!" Enzo then jumped onto the floor and took shelter among the things in the office.

The rest follow his example, Darcie who was hiding the closest to Raciel's body took out her hand and then grabbed Raciel's arm and pulled her towards her.

She did a quick check on Raciel to see if there was any chance to save him, Mariam and Adrian saw this and they asked Darcie. "Is there a chance he will make it?"

"No, he was shot in the head by a bullet and it went clean through his brain." Said Darcie while shaking her head and then closing Raciel's eyes.

All of a sudden Raciel his eyes jolted open and rose from the floor yelling, "Shit! That is painful."

Darcie's, Adrian's, and Mariam's eyes showed surprise at seeing Raciel standing back up from the dead.

"How is that possible? I saw you were dead. How could you survive a bullet through the head?" Said Darcie perplexed at the sight of Raciel not having any damage.

"I just heal, it's that easy." Said Raciel without a care in the world.

When taking cover all of a sudden everyone could hear the furiously pounding on the door. Everyone knew it was a zombie by the way it pounded furiously on the door and this sound attracted more and there was another set of pounding until the door started to shake vigorously.

"That the cue to leave." Said Raciel.

Raciel then touches Darcie who was close to him and disappears from Adrian's and Mariam's eyes. Raciel then reappears and teleports next to Mariam and teleports away with her.

Raciel kept doing this one by one with all his teammates and when it was Enzo's turn, after Raciel touched Enzo the door finally gave in after not being able to handle a horde of zombie furiously pounding.

When teleporting away Raciel looked at the zombies and waved to them, "Bye!".

He then disappears in a puff of blue smoke, meanwhile at 2000 meters away a pair of men are lying down with a sniper in front of them looking towards where Raciel and the rest were.

"You also saw that?" Said one of the men.

"Yes, he suddenly disappeared and appeared, taking with him someone each time." Said the other man.

"Also, didn't I kill him already?" Said the first man.

"I know, you can't fail brother but it's just like how he appears and disappears from there." Said the other man.

"I don't know how he did it but I know, she would like to hear about this." Said the first man.