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Alcatraz's condition didn't get much better as the hours past, in fact it probably got worse. The reddish tint on his skin actually got darker, His fever was hovering over 99, which was already dangerous territory for a synthetic, seeing as how they were supposed to run "cold", or less than 80. Jacob and I kept a close eye on him as Tyler tried, again and again, to lock Martin out of his Exo skeleton, but didn't have any luck. Matt stayed close by him, trying to keep him awake because we were worried if he went under that he might not wake up. If Alcatraz kicked the bucket, I'd be up in that tower tonight to murder the fuck out of Martin and anything that stood in my way.

"No luck", Tyler said as he entered the lounge with Sarah, "I tried everything from a simple security switch to a complete soft and Firmware rewrite, Martin still controls Al's Exo."

"Man just can't lose any opportunity to screw with us", I sighed, "he's gonna pay for this."

"Assuming you can make it up there", Tyler said, "in addition to working on Al's Exo, "I've been keeping tabs on the lab and Tower security systems. Biological agents are pinging all over the lab, Red Star is spreading very, very quickly. If it keeps spreading like this the Lab will go into Lockdown and then detonation."

I sighed, "neither of those sounds very good. What's lockdown?"

"Lockdown is when the AI closes and seals every possible door", Sarah said, "then it will deploy Security bots to sweep and clear any bio-mechanical or Biological life form it detects. Unfortunately for us, these bots are armed with flamethrowers, the idea is that any life form is unable to survive intense heat, to say nothing of an open flame."

"I can guess what detonation is", I sighed, "question is, if sweep and clear fails, how far will the explosion spread the contamination?"

Sarah shook her head, "no telling. Seeing as how our self destruct is composed of platinum based Thermobarics, their pretty efficient. The system pumps pure oxygen into the air to bring the content to 20 percent, which is enough to knock out humans..."

"But not me", I sighed, "or Magellan, Matt or Al. What happens after that?"

Sarah sighed and looked at Jacob.

"It Sparks and sets the air on fire", Jacob said, "the air heats to a million degrees for almost two minutes. I've seen video of what this kind of system can do to a building, to say nothing of flesh and blood."

"So what's the good news?", Alcatraz asked, managing to speak for the first time in hours.

"It's quick", Jacob sighed, "that temperature will kill you in 1/100th of a second, quicker than you can blink."

"Okay, so Detonation won't spread around Red Star", I said, "so let's hope it doesn't come to that. Sarah, have you made any kind of headway on the vaccine?"

"Barely", Sarah said, "I have the base of Red Star's DNA down. Now, the task is finding the right scissor, and writing it to target the correct Gene. Red Star was pretty easy to map, but the way it's codded is like a fucking Rubik's cube."

"I hate those things", James said, "there difficult as hell to solve."

"There like a math problem", Alcatraz said.

"For some people their not that hard", Sarah said, "I believe that the record is like five seconds. Still, I've never seen biological code written like that before, I'm not even sure I can brake it."

"In that case I have our next target", James said looking at me, "son, first thing tomorrow, you and Mike take a trip to Area 7 on Floor six."

"That place was a deathtrap even before the out brake", Mike said, "you want us to go up there?"

"What's Area 7?", I asked.

"It used to be a chemical research area", James said, "we had the SD systems as well as the sensor control and safety protocol nodes down there. About two or so years ago, something happened, to this day I'm not sure what, but that area of the lab got so heavily contaminated that it only takes mere seconds of exposure to drop someone where they stand. Even with a hazmat suit on the contamination gets to everyone to some degree, most people it's some form of a tumor. Sometimes harmless, other times not, but for a few unlucky people they mutate into what the rest of us hope we never become. Trogs."

"The fuck?", I asked, "what the hell's a Trog?"

"It's the term a few of us gave to humans mutated by the contamination", Sarah said, "their DNA has been altered to such a point that their almost not human anymore. All that's left of the human body are the hearts, ribs and lungs, everything else completely changes. The liver and Kidneys in them produce a slime that is extremely toxic to human nervous systems, just a drop of it can kill you. Not only that, but the slime contains a corrosive agent as well. This agent seems to be a form of bacteria that converts the blood into an acidic compound that starts on braking down the body just seconds after death. Then, they put their modified digestive tract to work and consume the body. Their eyes don't seem to key off of color, rather, they seem to key off of heat and motion. Their hearing is extremely good as well, chances are pretty good that their hearing us right now."

"In other words these humans are mutated, to hunt humans", Mike sighed.

"Sounds about right", Sarah answered.

"Do they at least die if you shoot them?", I asked.

"Yes and No", Tyler said, "Trogs are difficult to kill unless you can dismember them. A buddy of mine was out there with me working on some damage to the SD system when we got attacked. My buddy shot one a few times in the chest and he got back up. I kicked one down and pushed a workbench down in her, which took her arm off, she didn't get back up."

"So in other words, the sword and the High Power", I said.

"Yeah", James said, "your Gene Mods to."

Speaking if Gene Mods", Sarah said, "there's an old one that I worked on in that area, Lab 6 I believe. It's in a five syringe rack and it glows green. It's marked Mod Alpha Beta-32910, but I called it Swarm. It implants the user with a special Gene that ads a third kind of blood cell, known as the grey cell. When the mod is activated, tubes that the mod grows in the users arms will open to blood flow and the Grey Cell will divert into a special receptor which is very similar to the Bronchi in the lungs that injects it with a special chemical that mutates it into an egg, which hatches a Concrete Hornet. These hornets will then crawl out of your arm through special release holes and will attack anything you will them to. All of this happens in less than a second."

Alcatraz looked like he caught a chill, "that's..."

"Fuckin nightmare material", I laughed nervously, "but it also sounds pretty cool. Summon a swarm of hornets hatched from the veins in my arms."

Sarah sighed, "as cool as it is, I never had time to perfect it. It was still in Beta stages when the Accident in Floor six happened and no one's been up there to retrieve any research that's stowed up there."

"How much work went on up there?", I asked.

"Quite a lot actually", James said, "Chemical 240 and Number 12 originated up there. Everyone of the 20 some people who had stations up there had projects during before the accident."

"Okay here's a question", I said, "Is the entity of floor six contaminated, or is it just Area Seven?"

"It just seems to be Area Seven", James said, "but since the Outbreak began, the quarantine protocols I had in place may have been overridden and replaced by the 300 to follow standard procedure."

"Wonderful", Mike sighed, "do we have hazmat suits?"

"Yeah", Jacob said, "there's a case of them for both species in the machine shop. Thankfully the Requisition team was a little slow getting them to the right place."

"Well I guess were paying a visit to Area 7 tomorrow", I said, "what's the objective?"

"Disengage lab safety procedures and render the SD System in operable", James said.

Sarah, Jacob, Tyler, Mat, Mike and Alcatraz looked at James as if he had just asked them to commit suicide.

"Are you fucking crazy?", Jacob asked, "disengage lab safety protocols? That's asking to die!"

"Do you have a better idea?", James asked, "right now Red Star is infecting everything with wiring or blood vessels and there's no telling how long it is before the 300 decides it's time to cut it's loses and vaporize the building."

"There has to be another way", Sarah said, "killing the safety protocols is a psychotic idea!"

"What happens if I turn off the safety procedures?", I asked.

"Not only does it disengage the SD system and Lockdown", Jacob said, "it also disengages lab security, camera's, bots, turrets, synthetics, com systems, everything. We lose the cameras and the coms, we lose all operational knowledge about the outside. Not only that, but we could lose power again if the circuits fry themselves. The safety manages a lot more than Lockdown and SD. It runs the building. Remember that Accord you drove to Ransol?"

"Yeah", I answered, "what does a sports car have to do with this?"

"It's an example", Tyler said, "think of the accord as the lab."

"Okay", I said, "I'll bite."

"Now you know cars have a check engine light that is controlled by the computer right?", Tyler asked.

"Where are you going with this?", I asked.

"The computer on the Honda constantly monitors everything vital to the car's performance and makes adjustments, minor or major, as much as a 1000 times a second. 750 horsepower for that car is LUDICROSLY overpowered for that chassis, without the onborad computer making adjustments to the injectors, Traction Control, stability management, power steering and Anti Brake lock system, the car would be an unbalanced, twitchy psychopath that would be actively trying to kill you with each passing second. The safety in the lab is the same way. It handles SD and Lockdown, Quarantine procedures and all that good stuff, but it also samples data more than 1 million times a second from every single chipped item in the lab from the Security Cameras, turrets, bots, synthetics and the com systems to things like the lights, air conditioning's and even who bought what for lunch. If we turn of safety, the lab itself will begin trying to murder us with all the things that could go wrong. Doors might seal, the breakers could trip or the SD systems might even activate. It might even shut down Matt and Alcatraz and with Al's condition, he might not wake back up."

Alcatraz and Matt gulped.

"So turning off lab safety might", Mat began, "...kill us?"

James nodded, "yeah...unfortunately."

"If there's a chance that turning it off might cost me two friends anyway", I said, "then it can stay on for all I care."

"If it stays on we will all die for sure", James said, "as I've said before, like to live to see my 73rd birthday."

"Is there a way we can only turn off Lockdown and SD?", I asked.

"Maybe if we could rewrite the program", Tyler said, "it would be a lot of binary code to go through, but I might beable to get something, a software patch maybe, might take a while but it's definitely possible."

"Get on it son", James said.

"Yes sir", Tyler said rising and leaving. Sarah stood as well, "I'll get started on something to eat and I'll have Skyline bring your food by once it's done."

"Thanks", Tyler said as he picked up a computer and his PDA before leaving the room. Sarah pulled out Four MRE's, two of them were Spanish Rice and the other two were freeze dried Pizza.

'Alright pizza", Alcatraz smiled, "my day just got a little brighter."

"You sound a little better", I commented.

"Feel a little better", Alcatraz answered, "I'm still burning up though."

"What was his last temperature?", Sarah asked without looking up from the stove.

"99", I answered, "hovering over the 100 mark. Not quite there yet."

"That's still dangerous territory", Jacob said, "his model of Synthetic runs cold."

"I know", Alcatraz said, "the heat is starting to cook me, or at least it feels like that. Can I has my Exo back soon?"

"Tyler's been working on it", Magellan said pulling out his PDA, "lemme see what I can do from here."

Alcatraz shifted in the bean bag so his face was closer to the fan. His entire body was drenched with sweat, so much so that his hot red skin had taken on a bit of a shine.

"Damn Al", I said, "if I didn't know any better I'd say you were on fire. 99 degrees is a bit above average for me, but it looks like it's killing you."

Alcatraz shifted again, trying to sit up, but looked like it hurt too much.

"The bean bag is trying to pull the skin off my back", he whined.

I walked over and knelt down beside the bean bag. I slid my hand between him and the bag, carefully peeling back the fake black leather so Alcatraz could sit up. Once the layer of sweat that was acting as glue had be broken, Alcatraz managed to lean forward with Matt's help. He took a deep breath and sweat dripped off his hair.

"I need my Exo", he panted, "my systems are going to shut down without it."

"I think I've about got it", Magellan said, sounding...rather like he couldn't believe he was unlocking it.

"You sound like your not sure", I said.

"I'm not", Magellan said, "Martin had access to it from a...Sky go get Al's Exo from Sarah's lab."

"On it", I said as I left the lounge. I walked down the hallway to Sarah's lab, clicked the door open and grabbed Al's Exo from the back before bringing it back to the lounge. Jacob was waiting for me and took it.

"Now if I read my PDA right", Magellan said pulling open a small access cover at the base of the spine of the Exo. Inside was a flashing red chip.

"I did read it right", he said pulling out a multi tool and ripping the chip out, "fuck you Martian."

"What was that chip?", I asked.

"An aftermarket computer enhancement", Magellan said, "Martin managed to hack into Al's Exo from that."

"Man", Alcatraz sighed, "if I wasn't dying right now I'd be a little depressed, put it back on."

"You don't wanna clean up or get dressed first?", I asked.

"No", Alcatraz said quickly, "fuck that, just put it back on! I can't take this any more."

"Sarah, Allen", I said, "can you help Alcatraz up?"

Sarah put down the spoon she was using to stir the rice and James set down his bottle of water. The two of them helped Alcatraz out of the bean bag as Magellan and I took the front piece of the Exo off. Magellan' and I took the pins off the connection points of the rear. Once we had all the pins out, we placed them on the table and lined the points on Al's body to the ones on the the Exo and then put the pins back in. Jacob bolted the front of the Exo to Alcatraz's chest and then grabbed the neural link.

"You ready Al?", Jacob asked, "it's gonna force a reboot of your systems."

"Plug it in!", Alcatraz whined, "I'm dying!"

Without another word, Magellan plugged the computer into the port that was implanted in the back of Al's head. There was a mechanical grinding noise and a high pitched squeal as Alcatraz suddenly stiffened and then went completely limp before pulling him self up and sitting on his feet, looking up at the ceiling as though he was drowning and had just come up for air.

"I'm never losing this again", he said taking a deep breath.

"That's a pretty quick recovery", I noted.

"It will still take a while for his temperature to go down", Sarah said putting the food on the table,, "but his systems are now reset because the Exo came back online. I'll have a look at him tomorrow and see if he improves at all over night."

"Thanks doc", Alcatraz sighed.

He pushed himself up and sat down at the table with the rest of us. He and IU grabbed most of the pizza while the rest of them favored the rice.

"I had a run in with some Primal Xenos a while back", Jacob commented, "after that day I'd never suspected I'd see one at a table eating pizza."

I laughed.

"Well", Magellan said, "things change."

"Ain't that thr truth", Alcatraz laughed. He still sounded rather weak, but getting his Exo back had been an immediate plus. We ate dinner in relative silence. James turned out the lights shortly after everything was cleaned up, even though most of us were still wide awake and it was only about 5 in the afternoon. When I was in the shower, I could hear the rain above us stop.

"Ah man", I sighed to myself as I turned off the water and stepped out, "I wish this lounge had some damn windows, getting sick of the fucking dark."

I got dressed and joined the others in the lounge, which was lit by a single office lamp that Sarah had turned on and set on the dinner table.

"I'm getting sick of the dark", I sighed as I sat down on the couch, "and my species is known for hunting and living in the dark. The fact that I'm sick of it should be speaking volumes.

"In all honesty", James said walking in, "I am too. I haven't seen the sun in more than a month and it's starting to get to me."

"Same here", Jacob said, "you and mike get to see the sun quite a bit."

"Not as often as you think", I said, "but yeah, more than you guys have since this shit started."

"We should move our base then", Allen said, "I do know of a security room with a lounge elsewhere on this floor that has glass wall that points outwards to the forest, assuming we can get all our stuff there, it would be a much better location for us to hide out."

"We'd be tempted to brake the window and jump out", Sarah laughed, "but yeah I get what your saying, the sunlight and grass and trees would be nice right now."

"Yeah", Alcatraz said, "I miss my hideout in the treetops. The sun light and the view was what kept me going everyday."

"What kept you going everyday?", Tyler asked walking back in, he looked at the sink, "I missed dinner?"

"There's pizza in the fridge", I said.

"Cool", he answered, "anyway, I wrote your software patch", he handed me a USB drive, "once you install it you can turn off individual safety procedures as you wish", Tyler glanced over at Alcatraz, "got your Exo back I see."

"Martin had a hold of it by the after market computer I had in it", Alcatraz explained, "Magellan found out and yanked it out."

"Good thinking", Tyler said, "so what I miss? Besides dinner I mean?"

"we were talking about moving to a different lounge so we can have some sunlight", I said.

"Yes let's do that", Tyler said excitedly, "I'm sick of the dark."

"So that's that then", I said, "tomorrow, I visit Area 7 and then, we move the base."