Chapter 7 – Hope… ?How long have I been running? I slowed down my steps and took a look around me. The walls were moldy, the lights were faulty and the pavement was slippery.
Well duh, you ARE in a sewer.
Why did she choose to stay behind?
Why indeed? Considering Reina has made it clear that she doesn't like Shou, why the decision to stay behind to give Shou a chance to escape? Is she still intent on killing Shou herself should she survive the run-in with the creatures?
Gradually, I arrived at a dead end, but there’s a ladder hidden in the dark right by me. I slung the weapons around my neck and reached out for it weakly. It was a difficult attempt to be climbing with one hand, but I made it to the top after much effort. The lid was shut tightly, not locked, but a handicap like me can’t possibly open it with ease. I knocked against the lid with my severed shoulder. Nothing happened. I rotated my joint, took a deep breath and rammed myself against the lid a second time. I heard a crack near my neck and the lid popped open.
Hmmm...so now Shou has finally reached the planned destination? Will the coast be clear, or have some move of the creatures managed to find their way in?
It was pitch black around me when I crawled up to the surface. I tried to stand up only to trip over something hard. Whatever I touched felt like metal… bars? I’m probably in the subway or something.
...
It’ll be stupid to be walking on the tracks, knowing that the trains these days were automatic and likely to be still running.
An old subway tunnel? Shou had better be careful to avoid stepping on the rails whenever possible. Even though the subway probably shouldn't be running since there's no one really around to use it, there's still a chance of electricity running through the rails. One wrong, unlucky step and Shou would be in a LOT of pain.
Every little sound is amplified down here and any that isn’t my own sends me spinning around in fear. Even a tiny breeze brushing past my ears sends my heart pounding. Being ignorant of your surroundings is quite terrifying, more so than having to face a dead body or those monsters down there even.
Some people would be surprised that being surrounded by silence can be just as scary as being surrounded by loud noises.
Suddenly I remembered the pack of cigarettes I looted. Searching around my pockets, I pulled it out and opened the lid.
Not the most healthy thing to do under the circumstances, but it's not like she's going to get busted for doing it.
Not exactly expecting it, but there was indeed a lighter squeezed between the sticks inside the small box.
Some smokers do this for convenience's sake. This way, they don't have to keep their lighter in a separate pocket and are less likely to be caught without a light when they need one.
I kept the rest of the cigarettes in my pocket and tried to use the lighter as a source of light. That was a lousy idea as the flame was hardly reliable. I released my hold on the device and placed it back in my pocket. Taking a deep breathe of harmful substances to calm myself down, I kept a steady pace.
Yeah, Despite what might have been depicted on TV or the movies, a lighter doesn't really provide that much light (it's not it's function to, after all). For now it's better to save it just in case it's needed to light something (i.e. to blow it up) in the future.
I should be running back to try and rescue Reina, or anything productive instead of wandering in the dark and killing my lungs, right?
Well, Shou IS doing something that's potentially productive. If she can get to one of those computers and get Junjun/Linlin what they need, they could potentially find a way to stop or even cure the creatures. I'd say that's pretty useful.
Besides, if she had tried to rescue Reina the latter would have kicked her ass from here to next Tuesday.
Given her mentality about us, she’d probably rather kill herself than let them do the job.
Okay, now THIS has me worried. Being told that you're one of those creatures is one thing, but when you start to refer to yourself as one of them? That's not encouraging. It's like Shou's given up, that she's resigned to the fact that there's nothing that can be done to help and possibly cure her.
I managed to see a ray of light coming in from a distance. I was hesitant at first, or probably stunned from joy. Either way, it only took a second to regain my senses. I threw the unfinished cigarette to the ground and ran towards the light, finding my way to the train station.
Hmmm...how long has Shou been underground again? This must surely be a refreshing change of pace for her.
Out of the blue, a loud cackling sound echoed throughout the station. I jumped from my seat, startled at the noise at first until I noticed that it came from my pocket. There’s that cackling again. I could hear a muffled voice. Then it hit me- it was the two-way radio!
REINAAA~!!!
“Craaaack!!!”
Ouch! The sharp sound caused me to drop the radio. I pressed a finger forcefully against my tragus and did not turn to look at the fallen item until I no longer felt the pain coursing through my ear. Having unconsciously shut my eyes closed, I finally opened them to peek at the radio.
Considering how loud your typical, personal two-way radios get, they shouldn't be able to get loud enough to cause any real physical pain of this severity, unless Shou happens to be wearing an earpiece. The only other possible explanation is that Shou has started "changing", and the first thing to be different is that her hearing is much more sensitive.
Chapter 8 - To the resue“Reina! Is that you?”
...
Reception was loud and clear at the moment. She sounded weak and she was panting. That’s not normal. I kept quiet as ordered.
Either she's tired from the fight, or she's somehow injured and is having a hard time breathing.
“I’m in the south..”
South? I looked at the map behind me. Right now, I’m in the central area. I’ve walked THAT far?
Well, heading in the right direction wasn't exactly on Shou's mind at the time that she was running away from those creatures.
”I’ve… found the organization… Where’re you?”
“Central. Are you alright?”
”Get o- *crack * here… Argh!”
Well, at least one of them found it. Reina might need Shou's help to get at the computers though, particularly if she's hurt.
A car! I need a car, or any damned vehicle I can find in this god-forsaken place.
...
I looked through the window of each vehicle and finally found one with a key still in its keyhole. I smashed the window with the end of my gun and opened the door. The vehicle was ready after some tweaking around. Now to put all those hours spent racing in the arcade to the test.
Can't help but wonder what kind of "tweaking" Shou meant.
Either way, driving the hovercar shouldn't be that much different from the video game...provided that the game was a realistic simulator-type game and that Shou didn't completely suck at it.
It took me only 15minutes to reach the south without much of an obstacle. Ah, the joy of no traffic.
If only traffic could always be like that.
I entered the southern region of the city soon enough and drove around cautiously. I could see the same building we fell from days ago, it was very much surrounded by ruins. It started to drizzle. Where would I be if I were Reina though?
That's right, Reina never told Shou where she was specifically. She might be inside the building, just outside it in the sewer, probably anywhere that could hopefully provide some shelter against the creatures. Only thing now for Shou to do is actually find her.
I finally found Reina huddled in a phone booth but in no state to be overjoyed about. She was leaning against the glass, pale, and probably far worse off than from what I could see. I ran up to the booth and opened the door in a panic. She was bleeding profusely from the leg and likely to have blacked out due to the lost of blood or pain.
Sounds like a major blood vessel was severed during her fight with the creatures. Any hope that Shou knows how to tie a tourniquet and/or that there might be a medical kit handly?
I ripped my remaining sleeve of my undershirt off with my teeth and soaked it in the rain. I cleaned the blood away, washed the sleeve again and tied it around her wound to stop the bleeding. Hopefully there won’t be any infections; the rain in the city isn’t exactly clean but it was all there is.
Good...good. It's not exactly what one would hope for, but it's better than nothing.
“No! … He doesn’t want to go! … Where are you taking him!?”
I turned my head at the sudden outburst. Reina was talking in her sleep. He? Family member? Friend? Boyfriend?
Mmmmm...someone close to Reina was likely taken away from her, and it was against his will by the sound of it. If this incident with this person is somehow related to the genetic experiments and those creatures, we might have stumbled upon a clue as to why Reina's so hostile the way she is.
“We have to get to the building!”
“What? But your wound! Don’t be crazy.”
“You’re crazy! I’m fine!”
No, physically Reina's far from fine. A severe loss of blood like the one she has suffered has likely left her body in shock. Plus with her blood levels depleted, it wouldn't take too long for her to pass out again, which could be really inconvenient depending on the circumstances.
“I’ll go search the building, you hide somewhere and recover.”
“And why are you being helpful?”
“Because you tried to sacrifice yourself earlier for me? Don’t want to owe you anything?”
“It wasn’t for you, you brat!”
“For what then?”
“None of your business.”
Might it have been for that mystery person that Reina was referring to when she was talking in her sleep? Maybe she really has taken to heart the claim that the Pandas think they can come up with a cure.
“Whatever. You know you can’t do it alone, that’s why you called me back, right? As much as you hate me…”
“What the? You talk too much, stop!”
I smirked at her, looks like I hit the nail on the head.
Whatever it takes to complete the mission, I guess.
We walked around for a while until I found an abandoned place well hidden inside an alley. It was a sleazy drug store that had a steel door, seems like a safe place to hide. I doubt the mutants would wander this far in just to look for food too. We went in and were glad that there was some left over rations that were still edible. Electricity and water was still available.
Lucky for them the rations and water were still there.
I cleaned her wounds a second time with clean water, reusing the cloth to bandage her again. Yeah, I have zero sense in first aid.
This time, yeah Shou should have known better. I mean, you're in a freeking drug store!
There's bound to be some antiseptic around, not to mention antibiotics and a first aid kit (or at the very least clean bandages). Reusing an old bandage like this (even if it's been cleaned) is just risking the wound getting an infection.
Still better than nothing though. At the very least it's slowing down the blood loss.
“You’ll be staying here until I get back, okay?”
...
“You’ll run away and leave me here to rot anyway… why bother.”
...
“I won’t.”
“Like I’d believe you. I hate you, you obviously can’t stand me and now’s your chance to leave and save yourself. Why wouldn’t you do just that?”
Reina must really be trying to avoid getting emotionally attached to Shou. She's still trying to antagonize and push Shou away, even though she's come back and helped her when she was hurt.
Maybe for Reina, she's doing it so that it won't be as hard for her to kill Shou later on (as she swore she would).
If I wanted to leave you behind, I wouldn’t be here and neither would I be trying to keep you safe.”
She looked away from me. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but I just hope she’d trust me for once. A little trust among all that hate wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Sounds like Shou hit a nerve there. What she's saying makes sense, it's logical, and it's likely true...and Reina knows it.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you but think about it. We’ll keep in touch with the radios.”
I left her to her own thoughts and headed outside. Composing myself, I started towards the building that stood out from the rest.
Whatever I might find there better be worth it.
Hopefully she'll be able to find something, PERIOD (provided of course that it's NOT another one of those creatures).
I cupped my hands together and filled it with rainwater.
I asked again, folding my arms over my knees.
I thought she had only one arm 
Whoops...BUSTED!
Topic: Shinra Bansho [Chapter 15] (Read 17055 times)