Az listened as he claimed one of the bunks, setting his blanket down and using one of the empty drawers to put his valuables in. He crawled back into bed, but faced his new friend. It was so comfortable after years of sleeping on the cold, hard ground. "So they just did all sorts here?" No wonder why the religious types were angry. "I've seen a few things... In tubes and jars..." He shuddered as he recalled them.

Erin nodded. "I'll bet those things are... well, these..." He flipped some folders open and looked through the photos. Some images from other levels, no doubt. "This... a vampire..." He held a photo up. It was a sallow form, not connected to life support machines. Its mouth was slightly open, revealing a mouth of sharp teeth and a long tongue. "It says they've been... trying to find a secret to immortality. And these creatures have lived for centuries, combating the base human fear---death. I can understand why humans fear death... they don't know what's after it..." He slid the folder away, picking another---undead study. "Do... you fear death?" Erin glanced up to Az, lying on a bunk.

Az shivered at the photo. It wasn't what he had seen, but perhaps the things he had seen were more... Rejected experiments. Babies with four arms, severed heads with one eye... Rats with spider legs... He tried to push the memories away, know that those rooms had been ransacked and burnt down by the intruders. He looked at Erin for awhile, trying to think of an answer to his sudden question. He hadn't really thought about it before.

"I guess not really... I think we go to a better place after we die..." He turned his head to look at the ceiling. Clean but still somehow dirty from dust. "I just focus more on living and surviving than what will happen if or when I die."

Erin nodded, closing the folder he had flipped through. "I suppose that's a good way to think about it." He muttered. He couldn't remember if he was, at one time, afraid of death. Maybe he was. The concept didn't fill him with a sense of dread, however. It was just a word, to him. Was he even religious? He didn't know. He picked up the largest folder---Life-form .1. It was the heaviest, after all. He opened it, and immediately saw a copied photo of him. It had to be him, only with much shorter hair. Several inches in length, by the estimate. Perhaps this was taken just months after he'd regenerated---if he could consider that as a fact. How had he regenerated? The photos from before flowed through his mind. He'd been found as a charred half-skeleton in a huge crater in the middle of Australia. On the way the Perth he had regenerated with such speed that it had truly scared the people that discovered him.

What was he? The information just din't give him anything more than referring to him as 'the being', 'the creature', 'life-form .1', or simply 'this strange abomination of a faux-human'. Was he really human? If not, it would explain why he wasn't afraid of death. Why he didn't know himself. He sat back, and confusion brought frustrated tears to his eyes. Why couldn't he figure this out?

Az noticed how distressed Erin was getting and suddenly felt really sorry for him. He got down from his bunk and sat next to the man, offering a consoling pat on the head. He felt awkward, because he had never been with someone like this before, so he had no idea how to help his new friend. He looked at the files he was holding and decided that they were distressing him more than helping.

He placed a hand gently on the pages and pushed it down, so Erin wasn't looking at them. "Hey, don't be sad... I know we'll find some answers... All he have to do is talk to the scientists that used to live here. Find someone that will talk to you... But first, I want to show you the city..." He was being selfish. He didn't want his friend to find out who he was and to leave his side.

Erin wiped the annoyed tears from his eyes and nodded. "I suppose I should see how things changed... I just don't know how I'd find these people. They might not even be alive! They might be in prison... They might have gone into hiding or... I don't know. Is there a... library? Or public service office? Maybe we can track them down that way..." How far had technology come? Somehow he recalled that in certain offices one could scan a photo and facial recognition would take over, finding records both current and past of the person. He stood, pulling Az along with him. "I'll just take this with me, okay?" He brought up the folder full of the scientists that had immediate work on him and whatever else the lab housed at one time. Were some things still alive? Were they still in stasis? Were they in half-waking states, begging for death?

"I don't know this place... You're my lifeline, eh?" He smiled, brushing back his wild hair. It was odd to have it so long. Odd to speak, walk, move on his own. It was all odd to him.

Az could sense the time when he was in the depths of the windowless building. He knew that morning was coming, but it would still be too early for them to go searching in the library and even with Erin at his side, he was still risking being beaten.

"Erin, I have to tell you something," he said suddenly, and with a sigh he looked straight at his new companion. "My... Colouration isn't normal... People... Well, I have to be careful around the city because people think I am a demon... Or a ghost come to steal their children away..." He stopped talking before the hurt showed in his voice. "So when we go out, I will have to cover myself up if I want to walk with you..." He pointed to his ragged blanket, that had also doubled as a cloak on many occasions.

Erin tilted his head, raising a brow in surprise. He knew what Az was. It wasn't strange to him---it was why he hadn't given the young man a double-take when he had seen him the first time. "You're an albino." He said quietly. "Lack of pigmentation in your body make you pale and easily burned in direct sunlight." He reached out, grasping a small handful of Az's hair and studying it. Just like anyone else's hair, only white. "It's... rare. But not unnatural. They don't know what they're talking about, Az. I won't let them touch you. They won't get close enough to harm you with me around, I promise. The fools must fear things they don't like or understand." He grasped the blanket from nearby, holding it up. "You can bring it along if you like, but I promise they won't get near you. And anything they say won't matter." Erin pressed the blanket into Az's hands. "Can you trust me?"