Arthur Dent: You know, it's at times like this, when I'm stuck in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Ford Prefect: Why? What did she tell you?
Arthur Dent: I don't know. I didn't listen.

The explosion had been the only thing to stop them from running and Laguna frowned when he saw chunks of debris and broken plaster back in the direction they had come from. Quistis appeared to have known what the blast had been. She wasn't asking any questions, but Nicholas looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Honestly, Laguna didn't blame him. Selphie and Squall hadn't follow them out of the room, and now that an explosion had taken out the hallway without either of them making any appearances, he was beginning to worry as well. Even as the dust was clearing he was sorely tempted to pass Quistis over to Nicholas to check and see what had happened, but the fact he and Quistis didn't exactly trust Nicholas in the first place was the only thing keeping him rooted to the spot.

When the smoke and dust had finally settled, panic threatened to override logic when he saw the entire pathway had been blockaded. Broken plaster, metal and rubble sectioning the room off from everyone else. The thought that they had lost both of them was almost too much for him, but Laguna took in a deep shuddering breath and tried to calm himself down.

After a moment of silence, both he and Nicholas started towards the debris, but one of the pieces of plaster moved, forcing both to stop where they were. Laguna grabbed at the MP7 while Nicholas pointed a 45 LDA at the wreckage, both of them waiting for whatever it was to claw its way to the surface.

"What's going on?" Quistis asked, but Laguna ignored her, his eyes focused on the moving object in front of him.

Please don't be the Licker, Laguna mentally prayed. Please be anything but the Licker.

Finally, the plaster gave way, and as soon as Laguna and Nicholas took in the sight, they lowered their weapons. Nicholas rushed over and grabbed a hold of the human hand that had pushed at the rubble while Laguna gently set Quistis down and went to help. Finally, both were able to pull Squall from the wreckage who appeared, for the most part, to be fine.

Suddenly, the weight of the rubble shifted, burying the path Squall had made to the surface and surrounding all three of them in a sheath of dust and smoke. Laguna figured that Squall must have done something to keep himself alive, and because he moved the whole thing just caved in.

"What's happening?" He heard Quistis' voice, weakened from the infection, from behind the thick layer of smoke and all three of them made their way back towards her. "What's going on?"

"Well, we found Squall," Laguna said grimly. Never had he felt so worried in his entire life, only to have relief flood through him. At least Squall was still alive. "What happened?"

"Exactly what I'd like to know," Nicholas added. Laguna wondered vaguely why he didn't like the fact this man was asking him those questions, but shrugged it off. As soon as they found the anti-virus and left, he wouldn't have to see Nicholas again for as long as he lived. "Shouldn't we wait for your friend?"

Laguna noticed that upon mentioning his comrade, Squall's features darkened slightly. Before he could ask about it though, Squall shook his head. "She's not coming."

"What do you mean, 'Selphie's not coming'?" Quistis broke in, struggling to stand on her own but to no avail. Eventually, Squall walked over and allowed her to drape her arm over his shoulders. "What happened back there?"

"The explosion," Squall answered. "She stayed behind so we could get out."

"She detonated the bombs?" Laguna asked, and Squall nodded in response.

"She took everything in that room out with her in that explosion. I think she did it so she wouldn't come back as one of those things. She told me she got infected shortly before…" he trailed off, shaking his head slightly. "But we can't stick around here. The explosion might have attracted unwanted company."

"Then let's get a move on," Nicholas said. "The sooner we find the cure, the sooner we can all get out of this bloody building. If you're going to carry her, you might as well hand me the PDA."

Laguna wanted to argue against it but he couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't waste anymore time than they already had. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't continue carrying Quistis for the rest of the journey, and he couldn't read a map worth a damn either. He didn't trust Nicholas with either the PDA or Quistis, but he didn't have a choice in the matter. "Lead the way."

Nicholas turned his attention towards the small hand-held computer in his hand before nodding and pointing straight in front of them. "If we head this way, we might be able to get to safe ground. We can figure out what to do next once we get there."

"Wait a minute," Squall suddenly said, and when both Laguna and Nicholas turned to him he looked as though he were concentrating.

"What's the problem?" Laguna asked.

Squall didn't answer right away, instead he focused his gaze on the ground in front of him, his frown deepening the longer he thought. "What is it?" Quistis finally asked.

Squall finally looked up and directed his attention towards Laguna. "Say you managed to create some sort of medical cure for an outbreak this bad. Where would you stash it?"

Laguna was taken aback by the question and he stuttered in an attempt to collect his thoughts. It was a nervous habit he had taken to since taking the position of Presidency all those years ago. "I dunno… somewhere where those things couldn't break it?"

Squall then directed his gaze towards Nicholas. "What about you?"

The only satisfaction Laguna received was that the question had put Nicholas off guard almost as badly as it did him, but he managed to compose himself and answer faster. "In a lab," he said, looking like a monkey doing a math problem. "A basement… somewhere unwanted hands couldn't get to it."

"In case you were about to ask," Quistis broke in. "I'd put it somewhere no one would expect it to be."

"Exactly," Squall nodded, and for a moment Laguna thought he'd seen the teenager smile. "Somewhere no one would think to look. An out of the blue place to put it, maybe even where someone could find it if they thought about it for a moment."

The thoughtful expression returned on the SeeDs face even as Quistis appeared to piece the puzzle together. "Somewhere we'd overlook because it was too obvious, perhaps?"

The thought expression disappeared and was replaced by one that reminded Laguna of a mathematician solving a complicated problem. "I think we need to head to the infirmary."

Laguna hid the confusion from his features, but Nicholas looked almost shocked at the revelation. "Of course! Brilliant!" He swivelled to look at Laguna, beaming from the thought of it. "We didn't think to search the infirmary because it is a place of healing. If someone where to stash something of healing somewhere, that'd be the most obvious place to put it."

Laguna wanted to kick himself. The idea was so obvious, how could they not have figured it out sooner? Maybe if they hadn't been so quick to deny what was happening, the others would have survived longer than they had.

But now wasn't not the time to be thinking about that.

"What's the fastest route to the infirmary?" Laguna asked.

Nicholas took a moment to check the PDA before answering. "We need to turn left and follow the path. The infirmary is the next floor downstairs."

Nicholas started down the hall at a jog, despite the loafers he wore on his feet and Squall followed after him, supporting Quistis' weight at the same time. Judging by her appearance, Laguna figured she didn't have much time left, so they'd have to hurry.

From there, they continued straight until they ran into another junction, where they took another left and continued straight from there. When the path ended, they found the stairwell he, Quistis and Selphie had taken earlier when they were looking for Squall, and headed down the stairs where they took a right and continued straight.

At first, Laguna had been thankful that they hadn't run into any zombies during their search for the infirmary. But as time continued on, he started to wonder exactly why they weren't attacking them. They had gone down the path before, and run into tons of the creatures. But now the stairwell and hallway was desolate, empty. It was like something was telling the creepy-crawlies to hold back until something happened. Whatever it was, Laguna didn't like it.

He turned his attention towards the teenagers walking ahead of him and frowned. From what the others had told him, Squall had a tendency to follow his instincts, which normally got them out of bad situations. It was kind of the opposite of Laguna's gut – most of the time he was wrong, so Kiros, Ward and even some of the staff at the Residence always did the opposite of what his gut told him.

But why does he trust this guy? Laguna thought to himself, watching Nicholas stop to look at the PDA once again before continuing to head straight. My gut's telling me that he's bad news, and Quistis seems to agree with me, but why isn't Squall putting his guard up? We don't know much about this guy in the first place and yet he's willing to give him the benefit of the doubt?

Though Laguna was a trusting man at heart, he didn't believe in co-incidences. Something must have happened for Squall to not question Nicholas whereas Laguna and Quistis wanted to find out his motives.

"You know," Quistis' voice broke his through his line of thoughts and he couldn't help but listen into their conversation. "We're not even positive that the anti-virus is in the infirmary at all. I was there earlier, with Rinoa, and we didn't see anything out of the ordinary."

"It doesn't mean it's not there," Squall said. "You weren't exactly looking for it earlier, right? And even if it's not there, we won't stop looking for it. We should change your bandages though, at least while we're there."

He indicated towards the bandage sitting just above her elbow. The gaze and material of the bandage were no longer thick enough and were beginning to show the blood that was stubbornly leaking through. "We'll find it, Quistis. I'm sure of it."

"The infirmary should be just up ahead," Nicholas broke in, turning to look at them. "Let's just hope it's there, shall we?"

Laguna frowned, but nodded all the same. It was no use being pessimistic, but he didn't want to get his hopes up just to have them crash down.

Within a couple of minutes, they found the entrance to the infirmary, the doors having been left open despite the automatic failsafe that kept them shut, and Laguna didn't know whether to be on guard or to jump for joy. It seemed too easy to him, to just walk in there and look around for an anti-virus that might not have even been there.

Squall approached the doors and stuck his head inside. After a moment he came back out and picked Quistis back up off the ground.

"I'm really beginning to resent being used as a rag doll…" she muttered under her breath.

"Sorry," Squall muttered back before addressing Laguna and Nicholas. "We'll be inside. If we're not back out in a few minutes, check in on us. Otherwise, stay out here and keep your eyes open."

Even as Nicholas nodded, Laguna wanted to argue with him, but the look in Squall's eyes asked him not to, so he kept his mouth shut and opted to nod instead. Squall nodded back and disappeared inside of the normally sterol room.

Laguna hitched a sigh and stretched, even as Nicholas sank into a sitting position on the floor, his legs tucked into his chest. Laguna was very tempted to do the same, but his military training told him to stay standing, in case he needed to act quickly.

"So, this is what he does…" Nicholas muttered after a few minutes, but Laguna had been able to catch it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Laguna asked, his distrust of the other man surfacing once again.

Nicholas appeared slightly shocked that he had heard him and didn't answer for a few moments. Finally, he did. "It's just these mercenary types. Never did quite understand the business, if you get my drift."

Laguna stared at him for a moment and knew all at once Nicholas was lying. It wasn't his avoidance of the question that worried him though. If he would about something as infinitely useless as a teenager's occupation, then what else had he been lying about from the moment he had laid eyes on him.

The thought disgusted him, that someone would take advantage of a situation as dire and serious as this. Extortionists always managed to set Laguna on edge, and he figured that was the reason he didn't trust Nicholas. But it was as though he had only just scratched the surface of this mystery. Everyone accidentally splits up and when they finally met up with Squall, this man is tagging along. From the moment Laguna saw him, he hadn't trusted him, though he had merely thought of Nicholas as a suit who just so happened to be lucky enough to get away with his life.

But if that was the case, why was he even in the Residence to begin with? He didn't have any reason to be there. He could have just found a way out of the city and gotten away. Yet he chose to stay and was now travelling with himself and the last two survivors of the team who defeated a Sorceress who hadn't even been born yet.

So why was he even there?

The longer he thought about it, the more he realized that Nicholas' presence didn't make any sense. Before they met Nicholas, the number of zombies they had encountered had been through the roof, but the only time they had really run into any more of them after running into him had been when Selphie stayed behind and detonated the explosives. It was as though they were avoiding him, but that didn't add up. The zombies went after everyone, including each other. So what made Nicholas so damned special?

"Laguna, are you alright?" Nicholas asked, breaking through his thoughts. "You look a tad pale."

He had kept his mouth shut out of necessity. The fact that they couldn't afford to stand around and bicker, but those zombies weren't anywhere nearby and they weren't going anywhere until Squall finished turning the infirmary upside-down looking for the anti-virus. He had time to confront this man, to figure out exactly who he was and why the nagging feeling in the back of his head told him he couldn't be trusted.

"I'm feeling alright," Laguna finally answered before turning on Nicholas. "Just a bit ticked off."

Nicholas watched him for a moment before nodded hesitantly. "Yes. It must be tough having to go through all of this. I didn't have the misfortune of watching co-workers die, and I consider myself lucky in that endeavour, but all the same I can only imagine the pain you must be feeling –"

"Speaking of," Laguna jumped in. "You said that you were at work and you managed to get out of the building. Why didn't you try to find a way out of town?"

Nicholas opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it before he could.

"And for that matter, why are you even here?" Laguna continued. "Why is it that everywhere you've led us, we haven't run into a single one of those things, but when Squall was at point, we were suddenly surrounded?"

Nicholas remained silent, even as Laguna continued his questioning. "What's your stake in this? What do you get out of staying here? Are you looking for the anti-virus? Or do you have some other agenda?"

"I think you've watched far too many sci-fi television programs," Nicholas finally said. "I don't have any ulterior motives or anything like that –"

"Then why are you here?"

Nicholas sighed. "I can't tell you."

Laguna stared at him dumbly before he managed to find his voice. "And why the fuck not?"

"Because I made an agreement," Nicholas answered. "I'll explain myself to you once we get out of here, but in the meantime you'll just have to be patient."

"We're trapped inside of a building packed with zombies and other kind of mutated monsters and you expect me to wait patiently for an answer?"

"With all due respect," Nicholas continued in that level tone of his. "I don't expect you to do anything. You can ask me the same questions over and over again, but until we leave this building and get out of the city, I will answer nothing."

Laguna frowned thoughtfully, watching Nicholas' nearly passive expression closely. He wasn't going to answer him, he wasn't going to get anything out of interrogating him like this. Knowing that fact made him more suspicious of him, but he didn't want to waste his ammunition trying to force him to talk.

I'll drop the subject for now, Laguna thought to himself, watching Nicholas for any movement whatsoever. But I'm keeping an eye on you. I know you're up to something.