"Simone?" called Carlos, as he crept up to the Earth Sciences Building of the Night Vale Community College. From the outside, the building looked totally abandoned. And it had been, technically, but the community college, but Rigadeau continued to do her work there. Carlos had first worked with her months before, when investigating the Whispering Forest. She was the first one to understand its working, and was a great asset to that investigation.

Rigadeau was a brilliant scientist, and Carlos understood why she didn't want the higher-ups at the college knowing what she really did; why she put on her act of lunatic transiency. Carlos didn't care how she was able to continue her research, as long as she was able to. With her background, apparently with the Umbrella Corporation, her work was very important. She also had an insider's view of how science works specifically in Night Vale, something that had lent her the ability to so quickly understand the Whispering Forest.

Carlos rapped on the old wooden door of the Earth Sciences building and waited for the door to be unlocked. When it opened, Simone, clad in her lab coat and wearing a large smile on her face, ushered him inside. "Carlos," she said, "you never come around enough."

"I'm sorry," said Carlos as he was whisked up to the Earth Sciences lab. "I've been busy with all of this science…"

"I know the feeling," said Simone, sitting in a tall architect's rolling chair next to her lab table. The table was almost totally covered by a series of vials and capped test tubes, as well as an environmental setup in glass stubs, with a large glass orb at the bottom of one of them, being heated from below by an open flame. Simone caught Carlos's inspection of it, and explained: "I wanted to know if I could recreate the Miller-Urey experiment in Night Vale. I've been redoing a lot of older, famous experiments." She paused, her smile fading. "They don't always turn out the same."

"What about the T-virus?" asked Carlos. "Will it be the same?"

Simone's face turned grave. "That, I don't know." She picked up the rack of vials. "I haven't dared test the samples I stole…"

"And yet, you kept samples?" asked Carlos.

"How else was I to know I was safe?" asked Simone, in answer. "The Umbrella Corporation doesn't have former employees. They have deceased employees. I needed insurance, and to get away, to where I wouldn't be found."

"Night Vale," said Carlos.

"Exactly," said Simone. "Knowing I was outside of their evil gaze, and that I had the proof to ruin them, it made me feel safe."

"But after their collapse, you still kept the samples?" asked Carlos.

"Don't judge me, Carlos," said Simone. "I am a woman of science, and though I am disgusted by the implications of the contents of these vials, I am also fascinated by them."

Carlos didn't reply right away. He couldn't lay blame on her, because were he in her shoes, he would have done the same. He wondered to himself if he would be able to abstain from experimentation as Simone had, or if his curiosity would have overwhelmed him. He certainly was curious now.

"We need to form a vaccine," said Carlos, producing the vials from the warehouse. "Because there might be an outbreak of bioweaponry sooner than we could have anticipated. And we have no idea what is and isn't real vaccine."

"And the whole town will be vaccinated tomorrow," said Simone. "Well, what the hell are we waiting for?" She took the samples from him and crossed to the electron microscope against the wall.

"Simone," said Carlos. She stopped and turned to him. "We have to be careful. I promised."

"We're scientists," said Simone. "We'll be fine." She turned back to the microscope. Carlos looked down at his hands.

I sure do hope so, he thought.

x

"I have spent way too much time in underground tunnels," complained Leon. "And they never turn out well." Cecil didn't respond. He stayed just behind Leon's right shoulder. "I can never tell which way I'm going, either," continued Leon.

"I can't help you there," said Cecil. "I am pretty good at navigating using the lights that flash in the void, but down here, my internal compass is all off."

They walked a bit more in silence. Cecil broke it, asking, "How did you get into your line of work?"

Leon was silent for a moment, for long enough that Cecil was musing over whether he should repeat himself or just let it be. Then, Leon spoke. "Back in 1998—after Raccoon City—I was approached by the U.S. Government. Not the World Government, like you guessed whatever that is. They wanted me on as a part of their small anti-bioterror force. There weren't many survivors of Raccoon City, so there must've been something to me, right? Well, I was out of the job anyway, after the police force was completely gone, so there I was. A year of training and I was back in the field."

They continued walking in silence. Their footsteps echoed in the tunnel, the sound bouncing back from the stone walls.

"How'd you get into radio?" asked Leon. He glanced at Cecil in the darkness, but couldn't read the man's face as he responded.

"I'm not entirely sure," he said. "I always was interested, and then, after…" He broke off, his thoughts going elsewhere. "And I was the voice of Night Vale. I just was."

Leon didn't prod him further because Cecil seemed to think that his response was enough to explain and answer the question.

"Do you smell that?" asked Cecil. Leon sniffed the air.

"Smell what?"

"Something… not damp. Something not of this underground." Cecil raised his nose to the air again. "Something—bureaucratic."

Leon wasn't sure what he was going on about, but there was definitely a change in the atmosphere in the unnel, as they crept through it. The air smelt drier, more processed, cleaner, and yet dustier…

"A light, ahead," said Leon, pointing. His hand went to his flashlight's small rubber on/off button, but he didn't press it, yet.

The light grew larger as they drew closer, and soon the two men found themselves at n inset metal door at the end of the tunnel. A small vent was installed to one side, and wire-reinforced glass formed a window in the door, which allowed the light through. On the other side was a semi-furnished office hallway, which seemed totally normal, was it not in a hidden passageway underground. The off-white walls were intermittently adorned by landscape art, and a hibiscus stood against one wall. A semi-sterile gray carpet obscured the floor.

"Do we go in?" asked Cecil.

"There's not much else to do," said Leon, and he switched off his flashlight. His hand went to the steel door handle, and he turned it. With a slight push, the door came open. "Alright, then," said Leon, gesturing for Cecil to enter. "Let's go inside."