Back at the abandoned lab, the four Deadmen moved on to a boarding room. Aaron quit the waterworks a while ago and made amends with Harry, but the four of them hardly said a word as they continued their search for more evidence of the Ambrosia Project.

Fortunately, they didn't let their awkward silence get the best of them. Ten minutes ago, the four of them stumbled upon an empty, previously white room painted a new sinister coat of red. Bloody instruments lined up in a row on a tray next to a lonely chair, the cushions smudged crimson. In one corner of the room hung a trash can filled to the brim with dirty aprons. The metallic scent of blood in the air would've nauseated them if it weren't for the fact they were no longer disturbed by the sight of violence.

Plus, they were too distracted by the satisfaction of finding the second recorder on a desk. They even ignored the marred corpse of a soldier lying motionlessly on the floor beside the desk.

Once they took the recorder, they left the room and returned to the previously-mentioned boarding room. Aaron placed the suitcase full of evidence on a table that stretched from one end of the room to the other and opened it up. He carefully arranged the evidence on the table, clustering the recorders together and grouping the blueprint with the binder. But he went to the next level by proceeding to use the whiteboard in the room.

Aaron spent the next few minutes writing out nearly everything he's discovered or theorized while the other three sat around the table like businessmen at a meeting. He almost panicked since he realized he left his journal back at Matheson, but relief came over him once he found some of his drawings in his pocket, which were of his trio of undead friends along with the grim representation of Edgar glaring down at a gravestone. It was only harder to look at now that they found out he was Schaefer's son.

"What's that, mate?" Harry asked.

"Just some drawings I made of you guys," Aaron replied as he unraveled them out of their crumpled ball forms. "Nothing insulting though. I swear."

"Like genuine drawings or just really professional-looking stick figures?" Kyle asked.

Aaron handed each of them their respective drawings and gave Jade the extra one of Edgar. "See for yourself," he said.

While the three Deadmen were distracted, Aaron went on a rampage scribbling down every bit of information he had learned in the past hour on the whiteboard. He pulled the binder closer to him to assist him with his information and even played the second recorder out loud as he worked on writing down the facts.

Walter Bennington here, the recording said, more infamously known as Hades here at this facility. Well...maybe not infamous. I may be a bit of a bastard, but I haven't done much harm to the test subjects themselves...

We've had eleven deaths caused by malfunctioning droids, and the corpses were always littered with contusions and fractures. But enough about them. They are test subjects, not people. You don't mourn failed experiments. You dispose of the inadequate variables and try again...

Aaron flipped through the pages of the binder to find the entry for Walter Bennington. He wrote down his birth date, real name and alias, and the recorded incidents of him killing a test subject. Given the fact there were twenty-seven incidents written down, he stuck to using tally marks.

Not only was the AMBR-051A supposed to be a surprise that we would present to Her Majesty the Queen in order for permitted usage in the British Army, the methods of how we tested it are supposed to remain a secret. Even if we aren't treating them like slaves or like prisoners of a concentration camp, we can easily be accused of inhuman experimentation and mistreatment of human corpses. And now that anyone could know what's been going on, our entire project has been fucking jeopardized!

Aaron paused out of surprise at Schaefer's sudden shouting. "Mental," he muttered.

This was only supposed to happen if anyone from the outside world discovered our secrets, but I'm afraid that's exactly what happened. The advanced Ambrosia trials have begun.

The main focus of these so-called advanced trials: blood loss and pain tolerance and their effects on Ambrosia. And I can assure you...a lot of blood will be spilled and sacrifices will be made for the good of our project, starting with the bastard who thought he could steal from us.

Now me and my colleagues can put those spare knives and saw blades to good use.

The recording clicked off, and Aaron began writing down summaries of the recordings he's listened to:

Log 1: Colonel Schaefer. Mentions death of Janus at the hands of robotic training dummies. Also mentions incident involving Ares (AKA Bloodletter) and Atlas (AKA Harry). Threatens to inflict future harm on test subjects.

Log 2: Walter Bennington, AKA Hades, Schaefer's second-in-command. Shows outrage at the revelation of the secrets of the Ambrosia Project due to a stolen laptop. Claims the Advanced Trials will begin and will be somehow more bloody than their previous methods of experimentation. Also mentions "bastard who thought he could steal from them" (no doubt it was Ares/Bloodletter)

Log 3: Artemis (real name: Abigail Maddox) and Hera (RN: Sabrina Smythe). Same thing as Log 2. Warns of Advanced Trials and the increase in violence. Only difference is that Artemis displays the kind of sympathy and subtle innocence that couldn't be found in Bennington's log.

Log 4: Artemis and Harry. Pre-death interview on Harry's plans once the Ambrosia Project has concluded. Won't mean anything to anyone else but to me, this has got to be one of the most valuable treasures I've ever found. I'm the brother he desired so dearly to reunite with. By the time anyone finds this, we are both already dead.

"Yo, these drawings are spot-on," Kyle chimed in.

"Wish my hair looked as cute as it does here," Jade said with a smirk. "And I love the way you did me and Harry's smiles!"

"Not my best work but thanks," Aaron replied monotonously, as he was still writing more of what he learned on the board.

Jade leaned over toward Harry to show him the drawing of Edgar above the gravestone. Neither of them seemed to comprehend its poignancy, instead scrutinizing it only for how well-drawn it was. They rotated the paper around and started chuckling at whatever was on the back. "And I thought those drawings of us were adorable," Jade chuckled.

"Goddamn it," Aaron groaned. He placed the black marker down by the whiteboard and walked over to Harry and Jade. He snatched the paper out of their hands and sure enough he was greeted by the crude but sentimental stick figure drawings of him and Nika on their dates.

"Who's that girly-looking stick figure?" Harry asked, attempting to get one more glance of Aaron's newest regret.

"It's Nika," Aaron sighed. "My girlfriend. Soon to be single in a couple of hours."

"Cool! Now who's the one in the dress?"

Aaron dropped the drawing down by his side, still grasped in his hand. The expression on his face displayed a complete lack of amusement while Jade and Kyle showed the exact opposite, both of them not even bothering to stifle their laughter. Aaron was tempted to rip that drawing into a million pieces, but even he agreed he valued the memories scribbled down on that paper. So he folded it up and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Very funny," Aaron said sarcastically. "You undead sons of bitches."

Aaron proceeded to make his way out of the board room, now determined to find the fifth recorder. He had the sixth one and enough evidence to prove Schaefer was responsible for unleashing the Deadmen. He just needed one more piece. Something to ensure his satisfaction. But then again, given how disturbing these discoveries were, he wasn't sure if he should considered himself satisfied with what he's been learning.

"Oi!" Jade called out. "Where you going, Aaron?"

"I have to find the fifth recorder," Aaron replied back. "Once I've got it, we're getting out of here."

"Where would we go after that?" Kyle asked.

"Well I'm heading to Longridge. If I'm lucky, some of my friends hopefully won't kill me and hear me out. Once I give them the evidence, I..." Aaron cut himself off. He kept on walking, but he didn't know which direction he was going in. Not physically speaking, but where his life would lead him.

"You're gonna what, mate?" Harry called out.

Something new caught Aaron's eye. Deep down the corridor was a large splotch of darkness smack in the middle of the floor. From afar it could've been mistaken for a shadow, especially since the lights around it were out. There were also weird shapes scattered on top of the dark spot varying in shape and color.

"Aaron?" Harry asked. "You still there, mate?"

Aaron ignored Harry's calls and scurried over to the suspicious dark spot in the middle of the hall. Upon closure inspection, he discovered that the spot was a dry pool of blood and the shapes around it were decayed innards and limbs, most of which were covered in savage bite marks. The scent was absolutely revolting. The blood surrounded a open door leading into another room, where Aaron was greeted by a figure of the past.

A very deceased Walter Bennington.

One of his legs lay at the doorstep. His remaining leg had a large bite mark on the calf, almost as if an entire chunk of muscle was sliced out. His arms suffered the same fate, with one disembodied and lying a few feet away from the rest of the body while the other was still attached to his torso. The rest of his corpse was a withering mess. The flesh was deteriorated to the point his bones were visible on most of his body, and his remaining teeth penetrated through what was left of his lips. In fact, his face was the most horrifying thing to look at, especially since half of his skull dangled off the rest of his head! And the part of his skull that was still intact was petrified in an eternal scream.

"Yo Aaron," Jade said as she and the other two approached the doorway. "We were wondering where you—HOLY FUCK!"

Aaron looked back to see the three Deadmen staring at Bennington's ravaged corpse with pure terror, their jaws gaping wide open. While it was definitely the worst time to have a chuckle, the sight of three zombies showing disgust at a crime scene made Aaron let out a quick laugh at the irony of the situation.

"What's with the smirk?" Kyle said. "You're next to a wanker with only half his face and limbs."

"I know, and yet you guys are the ones who look like you're gonna barf," Aaron chuckled.

"What are we even doing in here anyway?" Harry asked. "His corpse isn't worth eating. He's got Ambrosia in him."

Aaron's grin disappeared. "Then why isn't he resurrecting?"

"Because his brain's been destroyed. See? There's a large chunk of it on the floor over there."

Aaron reluctantly glanced back over at Bennington's corpse. Sure enough, a couple of feet away from the body was a pile of decayed brain matter. Aaron returned his view to the others, a shiver running down his spine.

Harry gasped. "I think that's the man Bloodletter killed. Granted, that's vague since he's killed hundreds of people, but I think this is the one he told me satisfied him the most."

Once again, Aaron slowly turned his head toward Bennington's corspe. "Do you think he did something to him? Something that pushed him beyond the point of no return?"

"Without a doubt, mate. Bloodletter does have a hard time talking about his daughter."

Aaron shuffled over to Bennington's corpse and rolled him over so his back faced the ceiling. Aaron found a gun and, coincidentally, another recorder stuffed into his back pockets. He pulled both items out but focused more on studying the recorder, especially since the recorder was labelled with a drawing of a skull and crossbones instead of a number.

"I love the subtlety," Jade said.

* * *

Aaron, Harry, Jade, and Kyle were back in the boarding room with the new recording. Aaron stood at the front of the room next to the whiteboard while the undead trio sat around the table. He flipped through the pages of the binder to find Walter Bennington's file, attempting to connect the final pieces of the puzzle. Did Bloodletter kill Bennington? And if he did, why so violently?

Once he paused at Bennington's page, he quickly scrolled through the information again, particularly regarding the incidents he caused. All twenty-seven incidents listed contained the date and aliases of the test subjects killed. However, while the majority of them were typed onto the paper, there was one at the bottom scrawled in with an orange pen:

4/25 - Ares and his fucking daughter

"I knew it!" Aaron exclaimed. "Bennington did something to his daughter!"

"But what though?" Harry asked.

Aaron nervously glanced down at the fifth recorder. "Guess we're about to find out."

He clicked the play button, and the four Deadmen were greeted by the gruesome sounds of a young girl screaming in terror.

Shut up, bitch! replied Bennington. We haven't even done anything yet!

DADDY! screamed the girl. HELP ME!

SHUT THE FUCK UP! A gunshot followed the statement, and the girl's cries quieted significantly, decreasing from panics to soft but heartbreaking cries. Now, tell me your name, lass. I'm Walter Bennington and this is Troy. How about you?

M-m-my name is Sarah, the girl replied with a sniffle. Where's my father?

Knowing him, he's probably coming for you right now, replied the unmistakable voice of Colonel Schaefer. Let's just hope he finds his daughter and not just her lifeless corpse.

W-w-what are you going to do?

I'm afraid Bennington here left his scalpel back in the infirmary. So I'm afraid we're gonna need to get our hands dirty.

Wait! Please stay back! Sarah warned, followed by the sound of a chair toppling over.

Hold her down, sir, Bennington said. I'll start off.

No, please! Stay away!

The next few seconds of the recording were nothing but the sounds of a physical struggle as Schaefer and Bennington started beating the life out of Sarah. Her screams for help were impossible to listen to now that it was too late to save her. She choked to get some of her screams out as the two sadistic monsters continued punching her.

DADDY! THEY'RE HURTING ME!

Shut her up, Schaefer hissed. And the recording concluded with her screams reaching the breaking point, almost as if she represented the deaths of hundreds of other innocents.

Jade was grabbing Harry's hand with enough to force to nearly crush his fingers. Another tear left Aaron's eye, taking another piece of his heart with him, and he slumped to the floor in a fetal position. He felt cold and scared and alone, not wanting to move or talk to another human being. He did not want to repeat the horror of discovering a heartless creature hiding behind the guise of another so-called hero.

Nearly all of his hope had vanished after hearing that disgusting encounter. Every gruesome murder at the hands of the Deadmen had nothing on the atrocity of humankind preserved by that recording.

Harry moved the recording away toward the rest of them. He wrapped his arm around Jade and pulled her in to give her what little comfort he could provide. "It's over, mate," he whispered to her and Aaron.

"Not yet, guys," Kyle said softly, glancing down at the sixth recorder bunched in with the others. "We've got one more."

"I don't wanna do it, guys," Aaron muttered, absolutely terrified. He felt like if he was in Sarah's place, alone and dying slowly. "I don't want to hear the rest."

"We've gotta, bruv," Kyle replied. "For the good of your friends."

"Y-y-you sound just like my friend Jonah."

Kyle picked up the fifth recorder and traded it out for the sixth one. He was too disturbed to even look at the skull and crossbones on the previous one.

With his eyes clamped shut, he pressed play.