The building had exactly 34 levels with level 20 being reconstructed due to a mishap. The windows were all tinted so no one could see in and the heading on building made it quite clear as to where he was. Department of National Security. Snow really didn't want to be here. The last time he was here was four years ago when he applied for a position and ultimately turned down due to the lack of experience. He walked up to the entrance and the doors parted automatically, a low hum echoed around him in the small empty space and Snow knew that he was being scanned for weaponry or any other illegal materials. Once cleared the doors parted to the main lobby and he headed over to the front desk.

"Snow."

The woman behind the desk handed him a visitation badge and then motioned to the side of the desk.

"Someone will be up to escort you to A1."

Snow headed over and finally standing still he looked around. The whole place looked depressing in Snow's opinion. The walls were a bleak white there were benches around in a large rectangle on either side of the entrance and rules of regulation on the walls. Bored he took out his cell phone with the thought of playing a game to pass the time when he remembered that he had to go to the funeral for one o'clock. Game now funeral second, Snow thought quickly before he could actually think about it. He opened up Tetris and started to play.

The minutes passed quickly and Snow hadn't even made it off the first level. He occasionally let out a curse and in turn he would be scolded harshly by people passing by. In frustration he shut down the game and shoved his phone into his pocket. Piece of shit anyway, he thought. As he was ready to head to the bathroom Snow's escort came over.

"Holy shit," Snow chuckled with impression. There in front of him, in usual standing form was Rupert. His arms clasped behind his back, dawned in his usual cameoflouge uniform and legs shoulder width apart. He held his familiar poker face expression as he looked at Snow.

"Last time I saw you, you were whine and crying on the ground," Snow said cheerfully.

"You kicked me in the balls," Rupert replied grimly.

Snow snapped his fingers. "That's was it."

Rupert let out an involuntary sigh and motioned Snow to follow him. They walked to the elevator and Rupert slid a card in the slot and pressed A1.

"Access code," a monotonic voice echoed in the small space. Snow turned while Rupert punched in the number. The elevator gave a buzz of satisfaction and began to slide down the shaft.

"So when did you get promoted?" Snow asked.

"Three months ago," Rupert answered refusing to look at the former CIA agent.

"Good, you're moving up," Snow said while slapping Rupert in the arm. The man remained only flashing a sign of annoyance as Snow slapped him.

The elevator dinged as it reached its destination and both men got off. Immediately they were greeted by two workers dressed in bio-hazard suits.

"Um…." Snow wasn't sure to make of the situation.

"Protocol," Rupert assured. The men sprayed both with a disinfectant before granting entry to the main of A1.

The main was as bleak and boring as the lobby to the building, except a bit more horrific as well. The walls were painted a brilliant white that almost blinded Snow upon entry. Along each wall were six containers each holding a single person dressed in complete white making them seem like mental patients. However Snow knew that they were far from beyond mental. They were sick. They all had pained looks on their faces as they attempted to refuse to give into the symptoms. One slammed himself into the wall as his hands were bound behind his back, patches of red started to seep through his crisp white clothes indicating that he possibly had festers on his body. Another was curled up on the ground in a fetal position and another was shaking her head so hard that Snow feared that she might snap her own neck. Snow knew that on every single one of their transcripts had the name: F-22.

The F-22 virus came into existence during 2070, it was born from a government medical building in Russia where live viruses were kept. A madman had attempted to go into the building, however the plan failed and the bomb detonated earlier than planned. Fifty-four deaths and a brand new virus was the result of the assault. It was given the name F-22 because it took twenty-two day to be recognized as deadly and the city where it came from was Fryazino. The victim would develop painful festers and sores would either cover a portion of the body or the whole body that would be accompanied by a maddened itch. Victims would literally scratch until they bled. On the inside, the virus would attack the minor organs first then make its way up to the main centre of the body – the heart. As soon as the virus hit the heart it would be a long battle lost.

The virus spread like wildfire in the country killing off millions who were in its path. It spread all over Europe in five months and a year later made its way to Canada and States. China was the first to contain the virus and the rest of the world followed suit finally containing the virus however not actually stopping it completely. It took the States two years to finally contain the virus in New York. As soon as the virus was contained around the world then the International Health Defense gave a death toll estimation of how many died; three billion people.

Snow remembered the chaos the virus had caused both him, Mace and many others were forced to stay at the building during most of the duration of the virus impact. He remembered seeing large fluffs of dark smoke rise darkening the sky as bodies were burned and people's lives were destroyed. He remembered reading how Washington had collected those with the virus in New York and shipped them to the state. The whole building was shut down for three weeks while containment then decontamination was in process.

Rupert opened a door and Snow walked in. Inside the walls were painted a darker white and a desk was in the middle of the room with two chairs in front of it. A man was in deep conversation with another facing the wall with their back to both Rupert and Snow. Rupert cleared his throat and both men turned. Both were very clean cut except for the one on the left who had a deep scar going from the bottom of his nose to his chin.

"Marion," the scarred man said waving his hand. "Reality has taken its toll on you hasn't it?"

The other man nudged him with a Slate and the scarred man signed quickly.

"Pallan," the scarred man said holding out his hand. Snow didn't take it.

"I like what you did with your face," Snow retorted.

Pallan touched the scar on his mouth. "Knife fight two years ago, hunting down a bounty hunter. But I've been hearing that you did something…remarkable."

"Saved the president's daughter from a herd of psychopaths," Snow shrugged, "yeah typical."

Pallan smiled. "Not only that but you were able to win her heart as well."

Snow said something inaudible and Pallan ignored it. He waved both Rupert and the man out before turning to Snow.

"I need your help with some…people."

"You mean your friends out there?" Snow asked meaning the F-22 virus patients.

Pallan gave a mischivious smile. "Other friends."

He motioned Snow to follow him and he opened the door on the left wall. The lights were slightly dimmed and Snow gasped at what he saw.

Five people were strapped on a table hanging upside down. IVs were inserted in the crook of their arm and blindfolds were over their eyes. What was strange was that they looked completely at peace they didn't seem bothered that they were hanging upside down. They're faces weren't cherry red as one's might be hanging like that for a certain amount of time and they didn't even stir once.

"What the…."

"A cure," Pallan announced, "a cure to save those poor souls you saw coming here."

Snow's mind was trying to form words to even describe what he was seeing but nothing came to him. His mind was completely blank.

"Hanging a person upside down to an IV is one hell of a cure," Snow snapped.

"It's in the process," Pallan reminded, "a step one to a miracle."

Snow walked up to one of the people and stopped. They looked slightly familiar but Snow couldn't figure out why. He turned to see Pallan look at him intently, watching to see what he does.

"So what do you want me to do?" Snow demanded, "Watch them sleep or is there anything else you want to show me?"

"Follow."

Snow got up and followed Pallan to another room and in this room was more activity. There were people, live people sitting on top of examination tables with two doctors surrounding them. Asking them questions, taking their blood, and other scraping for testing. Snow still didn't understand why he was here.

"Seriously?" Snow asked in disbelief, "You want me to babysit?"

Pallan smiled. "These aren't children Marion, they're adults, adults capable of nearly anything."

Snow looked around to see one adult picking his nose in the corner.

"Yeah their fucking psychos, look I don't have time for this bullshit." Snow turned and was ready to leave when a sudden crash came from behind the door at the end of the room.

"Shit!"

"Hold him down, hold him down!"

"Grab him!"

Snow and Pallan both shared the expression of curiosity and defense to whatever will pop out of that room. More shouts and screams along with something else crashing to the ground. The door flung open, slamming against the wall making spider-cracks. A figure rushed pasted both Snow and Pallan pushing both fully grown men to the ground. It took Snow a few moments to realize that the figure was completely naked. Snow turned back to see the room was fully exposed, a man was lying on the ground with a pool of blood expanding from underneath him. His partner ran up to Pallan to explain what happened, he was covered in blood and was speaking rapidly.

"Snow!" Pallan shouted.

Snow rushed to his feet and scrambled after the naked figure. As he left he could hear Pallan shout for back up. Snow pushed open the door and saw the figure shivering in the corner of Pallan's office. He wondered why he hadn't gone outside but his question was answered by the sound of gun hammers being pulled back. Snow cautiously went up to the escapee to get a better look. At first he thought that the figure was crying but realized that he was just hyperventilating. Goosebumps covered most of his body and occasionally his body would release a spasm of pain making him groan. Snow really didn't know how to approach him, whether to help him up and lead him out or open the door for the guards to handle him.

"Hey," Snow said in a clear voice. The man didn't answer so Snow spoke louder. "Hey!"

The man's head snapped up and Snow let out an involuntary gasp. He blinked and shook his head to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. He stared at the man in complete shock. This isn't happening, Snow thought as soon as his mind was able to make words, he isn't here. Snow looked at the ground trying to gather his senses together and then looked up and realized with horrific realization.

"Mace."