"So we're just going to skip over the part where we've been designated as bait for your stupid expiriment?" Blake shouts as he pounds his fist down on the desk, metal cuffs clanking loudly.
"Did you listen to anything the warden had to say?" Kid snapped back, getting up from his seat, "Your job is to escort us safely to where we need to go."
"Why do you even need escorts in your own lab? That doesn't make any sense!"
The woman sighed audibly as she slid out of her chair, silencing the two from bickering further. "Patchwork is a high security laboratory that ran experiments and research on large lithium deposits that were discovered during an archaeology dig. Whatever caused the evacuation in the first place is still down there." The silence that followed her explanation was bliss. It was the quietest the blue haired prisoner had been since they were introduced.
Soul dropped his chained wrists on the desktop, causing her eyes to shift over to him as she moved over to the entrance. "So it's a lithium research lab. But you don't know what's down there? Are you sure it wasn't like, someone who wanted to get their hands on that lithium for profit?"
She looked to Kid, clutching the paperwork in her hands. "W-well… All we know is that Patchwork went down six months ago. And we've sent numerous parties down there to try and bring communications back up with no avail. So we really have no clue what else is down there taking out our people."
"And you think sending yet another group will change something?" Soul scoffed. "Your boss is just sending you down there to die with a couple of death row inmates."
"You two were chosen for a reason by the warden because he saw something different in you from the rest of the people we've sent down there." Kid reasons with him. "You have a very specific purpose for being on this team whether you like it or not."
"If we could make our way down to the medical office, I can get started on those lab tests so we have some time to rest up before deployment." Dr. Albarn spoke up before Kid could continue. "We can continue answering questions to the best of our abilities there." She eyed Kid, trying to pull him back on task.
"Kid," Dr. Albarn flagged him over as she pulled herself closer to Soul's bedside, "I need his hands free." He gave her a look and scanned his eyes over to Soul emotionless.
Kid yanked Soul's wrists closer by the metal bar between his hands and pulled a single key from his coat pockets. The second the tension was released from his wrist, it was dropped to his lap in relief. His right arm still being held up by Kid grasping the metal bar, was led further away from his body and against the railing of the bed frame.
"Seriously?" Soul glanced at his wrist and back up at Kid in disbelief. Kid snapped the handcuff to the bed frame in response. "We're on the same team here. You just made a whole speech about it not too long ago?"
"I'll put my trust in you when you've earned it. For now you're just another prisoner." Dr. Albarn lowered her head as Kid spoke.
"Can you set up the other prisoner for testing and get blood samples for me?" She excused him nicely. She waited until he was out of earshot before speaking up again. Clearing her throat she spun around a lifted table. "If I can have you place your arm here for some bloodwork."
Soul complied, rolling the sleeve of his jumpsuit up with his bound hand and relaxing it on the table between them. "I need about six vials so bare with me."
"It's not like I have anywhere I need to be." He chuckled as she set up the rubber tie off on his arm and began her work.
"What sort of tests are you running?" His eyes followed the stream of blood leaving his body and entered the vial at the other end of the tubing. She took a breath of hesitation before switching the vials out.
"Just some standard blood work. A coagulation panel for the obvious injury reactions. Stuff like that."
"Hm." He paused, wracking his brain for conversation. This was the most he's interacted with someone in over seven months and it made him nervous? "Is there something other than Dr. Albarn that we can call you?" He glanced up at her.
"There is," She chuckled, switching out the third vial. "My name is Maka. Should probably stick to Doctor though." She locked eyes with Soul for a split second before darting back down to her work. "Chain of command and everything."
She pulled the needle from his arm and gathered the samples. "Get some rest while I run these and then we'll get some food into your systems." She gave him a small smile as she walked over to the lab counter across the room and began working on running tests.
As soon as she was situated at the counter with Kid by her side, Blake threw open the curtain between them. "I'm not buying their whole, 'this is all we know' bullshit." Blake mocked as he was perched on the stool beside his own bed, also cuffed to the bed frame. "I think they're just sending us down there to die as a sick game. Got tired of lethal injections."
Soul scoffed, "Why would they send their scientists down there to die too?"
"Did something wrong and they know too much to just fire em'," Blake shrugged.
"I think of it this way, I have a fighting chance to get out of here once we finish whatever the hell this mission is and I won't have to sit in this god forsaken prison anymore." Soul dropped his head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling tiles.
"Speaking of," Blake leaned in closer to Soul, placing his free hand on the stool between his legs, "How did you end up here?"
"I'm not having this conversation with you."
"Tsk, figures."
"No, I know. But just take a look at the antibody count here. It's insane compared to our controlled tests." She handed off the clipboard to Kid. As he glanced over the paperwork, she ran the same tests with the other blood samples.
"Do you think that's why he was chosen by your father for this mission?" Kid hummed in response, setting the clipboard on the counter beside her.
"It could be, although it would be strange sending one of the only immune people we've come across into such a place when we could be running tests and coming up with a vaccine for it."
"Yeah…" She trails off as she focuses on the microscope with the current test, "It looks like prisoner 715 has mild haemophilia."
"You think that'll be a problem?"
"It shouldn't be, he probably doesn't even know he has it if it's mild enough. As long as he isn't injured too drastically while we're down there, he should be fine." She documents the data on the paperwork and discards the biohazards into their appropriate bins. "Here. You can run these up to the logistics team. I can take them to the cafeteria for their meals."
"You sure?" Kid glances down at the files being pushed into his hands. She offers him a reassuring smile and nods.
"I'll see you at the drop site, yeah?" He takes a breath in and passes her the keys to the handcuffs.
"I'll see you at the drop site." He bids her goodbye, trying to ease his own nerves for the upcoming mission.
