They were in a corridor, with a changing room at the end.
Before, they would have had to change clothes and pass through a sterilization room before going any farther. But after the rats had rampaged through and reshaped the place, the changing room was nothing like it used to be.
Nameless and Xia Shu entered the changing room. In one corner lay a pile of human bones, too far gone to tell whether they had belonged to a man or a woman.
"Let's go. I hope the rats haven't destroyed all the equipment," Xia Shu said quietly.
Nameless gave the bones one last look, then nodded and moved on.
"Look at this." Xia Shu stepped out of the changing room and stopped, speaking to Nameless behind her.
Nameless came forward. A paw print the size of an elephant's footprint marked the floor. Judging by that print alone, whatever had made it was huge—at least as big as an elephant.
"Most of the experimental animals here were rats. I'm afraid one of them has mutated into something enormous," Xia Shu said gravely.
She kept walking, her pace growing faster.
When they reached the laboratory, her face darkened. "The equipment on these benches is unusable. I'll see if there are backups. Go check the basement level. I suspect something big is down there. And... once I've developed the antidote, I'll need lab mice to test it on. Catch a few rats while you're at it."
"Okay!" Nameless nodded.
He left the laboratory and followed the corridor.
Around the fifth laboratory, he heard faint breathing. It did not sound like an animal. It sounded like a person.
No, not quite a person either.
All he could say was that it sounded like something human.
He slowed and approached the laboratory. Its door