Matoi yelled over the noise, "Twenty minutes! We need to get out of here!"

Hearing that Sin started a countdown on his scroll and called to them, "Alright let's move."

Turning the first corner Sin swore seeing the infected rushing toward them, "They're coming!" he called alerting the group.

The minutes crawled by as they stood in the dimly lit elevator. The guard they had met at the elevator door had begun coughing before passing out on the floor and then the elevator's power went out. Sin, Shore and Matoi stood between the collapsed guard and the terrified scientists, their weapons trained on the body of the guard.

Sin tapped Shore's arm, "Get the door."

Shore handed his weapon to Matoi stepped to the side to try and pry open the elevator door.

Birk told Sin, "Just shoot him" keeping his voice down as to not rouse the infected guard.

Sin shook his head, "He may not be infected, and even if he is the small space we're in will amplify the sound on the gunshot, I like my hearing the way it is."

Shore got his fingers between the elevator doors and began pushing outward forcing the doors open, "We've got a problem" he said stepping to the side.

The elevator was halfway past sub-level two leaving a medium size opening, they would have to crawl through.

Sin nodded, "Shore you go first, Matoi you follow, after that, Romine, Quartz and Birk, I'll be last out."

Shore rolled his shoulders back, "I'm getting too old for this" he said lowering onto his stomach and sliding out of the opening getting to his feet and turning to take his gun back from Matoi before the guard slid out behind him.

Shore moved to the end of the hall checking his corners before looking back and giving Matoi a thumb's up.

Matoi looked over his shoulder, "Hallway clear" he told the people still in the elevator.

Sin motioned for Romine to go followed by Quartz, both of whom slid out one after the other with Birk scrambling right behind them. Keeping his eyes and weapon on the fallen guard Sin approached his body his aura up just in case as he pressed two fingers against the side of the guard's throat. His pulse was there, but weak. Grabbing the guard's shoulder he pulled turning him onto his back and began unclipping his vest removing it, there was only one way to check if he was infected.

Unzipping the jacket part of the guard's uniform and lifting up the shirt under it he checked the guard's skin. It was turning white. Sin backed away until his back pressed against the wall keeping his weapon on the guard as he lowered himself to his knees and crawled backwards out of the elevator.

Shore looked at him, "Is he?"

Sin nodded, "Nothing we can do, let's move."

Shore took point once more and led the group through the halls the dead silence in the halls unnerved even the seasoned huntsman as he peeked into each room they passed to make sure no grimm had somehow made it to that level.

Birk told them, "This sneaking around is stupid, the only way out of sub-level three is by the elevators we just took. It is completely impossible for the grimm to be here."

"Keep your voice down" Sin quietly commanded, "There were no bite marks on that guard and he was infected. Which means we can't rule out the possibility the virus was somehow introduced here."

Matoi concluded, "Which means infected."

Sin nodded, "Let's hope that's not the case."

Quartz asked, "But how would one go about spreading the virus here? It's impossible for it to be a airborne it can only be transmitted through bodily fluids like saliva and blood."

Romine looked up, "What if someone mixed it into the water?"

They all looked at each other.

"Of course" Birk said, "Eight years ago an entire town got infected out of the blue. Upon investigation it was because the body of several infected was found in the stream where they get their drinking water. If someone mixed the virus into the water here then that would cause an outbreak amongst the staff. Gods I'm brilliant."

Sin looked at Romine, "Good thinking Romine."

The puny scientists rubbed his nape, "Oh, well thank you."

Birk groaned, "Oh shut up Romine, let's keep moving I want out of here."

Sin looked at Quartz and Matoi, "Isn't the facility's server room on this level?"

They both nodded, "Yes, but without the power there's not much we could use it for" Quartz answered.

"I could" Matoi said, "Well maybe, depending on what you want to do I could do some work on the wiring to give us some bit of power."

Sin told them, "I need to get a signal boost so I can call Ozpin."

The group continued through the halls making sure to remain silent as they passed by each room. Bodies littered the rooms, some on the floor facedown others on their sides some sitting in corners or slouched against walls while some had fallen over their desks, no visible blood or injuries on any of them as far as they could tell leading them to believe Romine's theory about the water being true. The dim emergency lighting only served to make the atmosphere around them even more nerve-racking as they proceeded unsure as to if or when those infected would finally get up and begin roaming.

No one had brought it up yet, but if the power was out they had no way of activating the facility's sanitation and if the virus had spread to the ground floor lobby they had no way of initiating the emergency lockdown. Without power there was nothing they could do aside from escape and call for help to contain the outbreak. It was on everyone's mind, but no one brought it up instead they focused on surviving.

Matoi pointed at an open door, "That's the server room. You said all you need is a signal boost so you can make a call to someone?"

Sin nodded, "To Ozpin back at Beacon I need to tell him what happened. After that we can start thinking on what to do next."

"Clear" Shore told them after checking the room, "I'll stand guard make it quick."

Matoi went to work opening the panels for one of the servers, "Good thing all of these are constantly transmitting and sharing data to each other, otherwise we'd lose everything we have stored here."

Pulling out a think cable Matoi took his knife making an angled incision against the cable peeling back the rubber covering to get at the wires.

He chuckled, "A little trick I learned in the Atlas military."

Pulling one of the wires out he asked for Sin's scroll sliding the cut wire into it's charge port handing it back to him and telling him he'll only have a few minutes before the current overloads his scroll.

Sin nodded, "Already dialing."

"Sin" Ozpin's voice answered after what felt like hours, "How is your conference?"

Sin cut him off, "Ozpin we have a problem. There's been an outbreak."

Ozpin leaned in closer, "How many?"

Sin shook his head, "I'm not sure. Right now there's me and five others the grimm in the facility are loose, but contained on that level, but it seems someone managed to spread the virus amongst the staff, they're all still unconscious, but they are turning. The security systems have been tampered with and the power grid is out."

Ozpin lowered his head, "What do you need me to do?"

"Call the council" Sin told him, "I need local police, huntsman anyone and I need a complete perimeter set up in a two block radius around the facility. Deploy bullheads with snipers if you have to, but I need everything within two blocks evacuated and secured, without the power we can't activate the lockdown or sanitation."

Ozpin nodded, "Alright I'll send the word out. How do you plan on getting out?"

Sin took a moment, "Right now that's not a priority. We're going to see if we can't restore enough power to activate lockdown and sanitation level two."

Ozpin stood up, but Sin didn't give him the chance to object, "Ozpin, it has to be done. I don't plan on dying down here, but my main priority is making sure this infection doesn't make it outside."

Ozpin hung his head, "Just make sure make it home, I won't accept anything less."

Sin hesitated, "I need you to promise me something Oz. If I don't make it out, tell Ivy and Velvet I'm sorry."

Ozpin looked at the video feed on his scroll, "Alright. Just don't give up."

Sin nodded, "I won't, got to go wish us luck we're going to need it."

Ending the call and pulling the wire from his scroll Sin turned to the people behind him. The plan was to head to the nearby generator room and try to restore as much power as they can to initiate the facility's lockdown first and if they could sanitation. Birk objected claiming they should be focused on getting out more than anything raising his voice when Sin disagreed.

"You listen here" Birk nearly shouted, "Just because you think you're a one man army and research team doesn't mean you get to call the shots. As far as authority goes I outrank you in these labs so you will listen to me."

Shore interjected, "Normally you would be correct, but in an emergency situation such as this huntsman have authority so we actually outrank you right now."

Birk stood in front of him, "Now you listen to me you overgrown muscle-headed housecat! I will not take orders from a man who can't even keep his personal life in order and I damn sure won't take orders from a wash-out like you! We are leaving and that's the end of it!"

Sin leapt at the irate doctor covering his mouth, "Shut, up" he demanded, "You yelling is going to wake the infected and if you get one of us killed I guarantee you'll be the next one to die. With the way you're acting right now you're only proving why you shouldn't be in charge, you are a liability and I will leave you here to find your own way out."

He backed away from him, "Now keep your mouth shut and fall in line. We're heading the generator room on the other side of this level and we're restoring the power. Shore you lead."

They left the room, little did they know Birk's shouting did stir the infected staff. One of the bodies in the adjacent room leaned over a desk began twitching in its seat. The shoulder jerked back as the doctor's head slowly rose, his red eyes glowing in the dimly lit room, large amounts of saliva pouring from his open mouth as he stood up knocking the chair over behind him. Hearing the shouting from the next room the infected doctor snapped his head in the direction of the noise gurgling and snarling in response the sound as it shuffled toward the open doorway.

Shore slowly opened the door to the generator room scanning the darkened room, counting the bodies on the floor.

Matoi whispered, "I'm glad you faunus can see in the dark, but I'd still prefer it if we could find a flashlight or something."

Shore pointed at a maintenance closet, "Try in there. Sin stay and guard the door."

Sin stood at the doorway as Shore crept in avoiding the bodies of the staff and maintenance workers while Matoi checked the nearby closet finding a pair of flashlights and the fuse box for the whole floor. Holstering his weapon he turned the flashlight on checking the fuses and flipping them all off. The reset handle was nearby all he had to do was give it a few pumps and flip the fuses again.

Matoi looked at them, "Hold on to your butts" he said flipping the fuses one by one and then the main switch.

The emergency lights flickered before being replaced by the normal lights illuminating the whole room.

"Shore!" Romine called pointing at the corner next to the maintenance terminal.

An infected worker stood up turning to face them blood dripping from her mouth, at her feet hunched in the corner the body of another custodian, his neck ripped open and blood pooling at the floor under him. Seeing the faunus not more than a few feet from her the infected custodian snarled breaking into a sprint toward Shore her arms violently swinging in an attempt to catch him. Bringing his aura up Shore grappled with the infected planting his feet to hold off against its strength long enough for Matoi to come up behind it and slam a wrench against the back of its skull. The infected dropped to the ground an incomprehensible language of growls, snarls and whines as it tried to crawl back to its feet before Shore brought his boot down on its head killing it.

Matoi dropped the wrench and ran to the control panel for the generator, "Alright, now let's see."

Matoi moved from the control panel to the terminal in the corner, routing what power there was to the emergency systems, "Alright once we start it up we'll have enough power for both lockdown and sanitation. Are you sure?"

Sin turned to him, "Yeah, we can't risk the infection getting outside. Start it up and set a timer to give us time to find a way out."

Matoi nodded starting the generator first the noise from the turbines deafening them as they started the noise spilling out into the halls rousing every infected on the floor, their eyes flying open before they rose to their feet.

Matoi yelled over the noise, "Twenty minutes! We need to get out of here!"

Hearing that Sin started a countdown on his scroll and called to them, "Alright let's move."

Turning the first corner Sin swore seeing the infected rushing toward them, "They're coming!" he called alerting the group.