Eve and Lilly walked into the building and began looking around. The building was three stories tall, and from what Lilly had heard, the top floor was for offices, the second floor was meeting rooms and planning rooms. The first floor was the entry, a cafeteria, a gym, and other employee recreation rooms. It was the subfloors that Eve and Lilly were targeting.  This was where all the labs were and chemical storage.

"This place is kind of creepy." Lilly broke the silence as she looked around nervously.

"Do you think some kind of zombie is going to come out of nowhere?" Eve asked jokingly.

"I wouldn't be surprised, really. There was once an outbreak about two hundred years ago in a place called Solar City where people began attacking and killing each other. They were really vicious, eating people alive. The weird thing is that after almost three minutes of being bitten, the ones attacking them would stop biting and eating their victim, and that same victim would then get up and attack someone else.

"From what I know, anyone from Solar City was killed on sight. The people they visited and were in contact with were also killed on sight. Solar City itself was completely shut off from the world. The massive metal doors that were created to keep the A.I. out are now used to contain the zombies within. I am so glad I was not alive during that time." Lilly was truly glad she only had to see zombies in movies or tv shows.  Just thinking of how she might have died just because she came in contact with someone who was in contact with someone who had come from Solar City was scary.

"Kind of stupid to just kill people without further investigation. From the sounds of it, the virus was only spread through bites. If people were not changing right away after being in an enclosed environment as an underground city, then they were probably not infected. It's more common sense to say that after hearing what you said. I mean, were there any reports of the virus appearing anywhere else?" Eve asked.

"Now that you mention it. No, there wasn't, and anyone who was infected would have turned after a few minutes..." Lilly's face paled. She wondered if the rulers of the cities conspired to kill off part of the population due to overcrowding.

"Yeah, as expected. I think the so-called virus was actually used as an excuse for culling the crop, meaning killing off enough humans to allow more to survive. I bet all those that died were of a lower class as well. It is a case of sacrificing the few to save the majority." Eve shook her head at this thought. This is why she disliked humans so much. Instead of just expelling people to allow them to survive on their own outside, they would rather kill them. It's a sad thought, but it is true.

Lilly was stunned to think that Eve would have the same thoughts as her. But what stunned Lilly even more, was that Eve had such deep thoughts. But to think that such a thing might happen again caused a chill to run down Lilly's spine. "I hope that never happens again..."

"I can't say that it will not happen again. After all, history has a tendency to repeat itself. But I can say for sure that you will not have to worry about anyone killing you. As long as you never betray me, I will do what I can to help you." Eve decided to use this chance to give Lilly a reason to not betray her. Having an advanced A.I. as a bodyguard was a good reason to never betray her, right?

"Hehe…" Lilly blushed, hearing Eve's words. The more she got to know Eve, the more she felt Eve was like a knight who came from the A.I. gods to watch over and protect her. As someone who was an orphan and had to grow up on her own, she never had someone say they would protect her or even cared much about her if not for the laws the city upheld. If the leaders of X-Cyber City did not put an emphasis on the younger generation to make sure they were taken care of, there would probably be no Her of today.

Eve looked over at the blushing giggling Lilly and shook her head. She wondered why this girl was so strange.

"This seems like the way down. Someone really went to town breaking this door open." Eve said as she stood in front of a broken elevator. It looked as if someone had pried the door open with a crowbar.

"How are we going to even get down there? I am not sure if this ladder can support your weight..." Lilly asked as she looked at the old rusted ladder leading down.

"Hmm..." Eve looked down and also felt like this was a problem.

"Eve, pull on the cable with all your strength. You should be able to use it as a rope to climb down." Aiu suggested. The cable was thick and would still be strong enough to hold Eve's weight.

"Mmm... Thanks, Aiu." Eve smiled inwardly. Only Aiu was looking out for her.  "Lilly, stand back."

Lilly did as she was told. She watched on as Eve grabbed ahold of the elevator cable and pulled on it with everything she had.  There was a cracking sound, and then a loud bang as the pulleys used for the elevator snapped apart and came crashing down. Eve held her ground as the chunks of metal rained down. As soon as they landed on the bottom floor, Eve began pulling the cable and the broken pulley up. "Now then, I just need to secure this…"

Lilly thought for a moment before a thought came to mind. "Oh! I can bring in the loader hook. It should be long enough to reach this far, and we can tie it to that. I just need to back the loader up to the door is all."