Rushed...
Chapter 9 – FamiliarityCreeping up to the fence surrounding the tall office-like building, I looked around to make sure that there was no sign of danger lurking anywhere. Despite still holding on to firearms, we all know it’s useless. I got in through the front entrance. I found myself in the lobby, and it reminds me of a hospital. It was dark since nightfall is approaching and the ceiling lights were busted. There’s a reception desk, security desk and a directory. Starting with the security desk, I searched around for anything useful. Found a torch, battery packs and a bunch of keys. Anything potentially useful goes I guess, but I really need a bag to hold them all. I took out the radio again.
“Paging for Reina, are you there?”
I spoke into the device. It took at least 5 minutes before I got a response.
“Yeah? What do you want?”
“What exactly are we searching for again?”
“Anything scientific? I don’t know! Think mad scientist!”
“Oh,
very helpful.”
I rolled my eyes and looked up at the directory hung on the wall. Hmm, canteen, administrative offices, more offices. Nothing out of the ordinary. I’m pretty sure there are at least 50 stories here but the directory only reaches the 40th floor. Where are the other 10? I went back to the security desk and opened the drawers. 2 were filled with stationeries and the last one was locked. I pried it open instead of using the keys since I’ve no patience to try out every one of them. There were some documents that proved no relevance and a floor map. It’s a layout of the entire building, including the ‘hidden’ floors.
“Don’t you think anything important would’ve been gone by now?”
I put down the radio on the desk and spoke again while looking through the map under a working lamp. Another 5 minutes to wait for one response.
“Don’t jinx the operation you-“
“Brat, I know I know.. Stop calling me that already.”
“Glad you know. There’s bound to be something around, keep looking.”
I sighed and tried to find a way up to the 41st floor at least. Seems like the map indicates that there’s a separate lift somewhere that goes higher up. Clipping the radio back to my belt, I rolled up the map and headed for the elevator. It was still working, thank God. Seems like this part of the building wasn’t affected by bombings. I took the lift and waited patiently. Nothing much happened during my search for the hidden floors and I arrived there without any trouble.
Stepping into this floor made me feel nostalgic for some reason. The quarantine rooms lined along the hallway were familiar. Memories I don’t remember ever experiencing began surfacing in my mind. I guess they have something to do with my birth. I have to admit, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m… not entirely normal. Actually, it’s more like accepting it without believing. It’s not half bad, as far as I’m concerned; I’m still human and not doing harm to anyone yet. It’s like there’s nothing unusual to begin with. Regardless, it feels a little like home here.
I kept moving with a torch held between my teeth until I came across an office. I guess I’ll start here. The door was unlocked so I invited myself in and flicked the light switch on. There were folders scattered everywhere and on the table was a file labeled ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ in big bold letters just screaming at me to read it. And so I did. I opened the file and it was a list of some sort. It was a name list upon further reading.
‘Shou, Li’ was within the list. That’s probably me, since my dad’s last name was there. Though, with all that’s been going on, I wonder if my dad’s even my biological one. This is a list of all the infants they took in to experiment on, 100 names in total. Many shared the same last names, especially the Chinese ones. I scrolled further down and nearly dropped the file.
“Tanaka, Ryota…”
I blurted out loud. I reread the names under T and there weren’t any other Tanakas. Two things ran through my head at the discovery.
1) It’s just a coincidence.
2) Oh boy….
What to do? I pushed any attempt of speculating to the back of my head and swiped a briefcase off the chair and kept the files inside, along with the map. I browsed the office again for anything of significance. Turning to the PC isolated to a corner of the desk, I wonder if it’s connected to the rest of the building’s network. I sat down on the huge office chair and turned it on. This reminded me of the room I was in days earlier where I stumbled upon email backups. Maybe I could access them from here. While waiting for the PC to boot, I unclipped the radio from my belt so that I could sit better.
“Hey brat, found anything?”
The radio went off the moment I removed it, as if it predicted that I would start slacking off the moment I find comfort.
“Yeah, still searching though.”
“So, what did you find?”
“Just a name list…”
I hesitated and concentrated on finding those email copies.
“… And?”
Hmm, says here that there’s a delay in the mutation which could even total up to a few years. Maybe that’s why I’m still how I am compared to the others, but there’s no telling when transformation would take place.
“Shou?”
I gritted my teeth, really not wanting to say anything even if she was being polite and calling me by name. There’s no telling what she’d do if she knew that I knew something about her. I continued reading the files I found. There was a description of effects that the drugs causing the mutations did. I had them all printed out.
“OI! Shou you brat, answer me!”
“Y-yes?” I finally gave in and responded.
“What else did you find?”
“Some documents too long to explain.”
I skip over trying to elaborate about the name list, hoping that she doesn’t notice. Taking the printouts, I placed them into the briefcase as well. I picked it up along with the radio and moved out of the office.
“Can’t find anything about destroying myself though.”
“I told you, think mad scientist. Where would you store stuff if you were mad?”
“But I’m not mad.”
“Says she who likes to free fall.”
I made a face at the radio, not wanting to be reminded of my stupidity.
“Anyway, I’ll just keep searching.”
“Obviously.”
“Tch. How’s your wound coming along anyway?”
We were starting to have a normal conversation as I walked down the hallway searching for any suspicious looking rooms to violate. I’ve completely forgotten the fact that monsters could be roaming about. I’ll worry about it when they come. I hope they don’t.
“Still smarts like hell.”
“You know, this is kinda nice. Us not bickering much and you sounding normal.”
“Don’t think we’re friends just because I’m not spontaneously expressing my hate for you. I’m just tired.”
“It’s still nice.”
I heard her did a ‘pfffft’ and I laughed a little until I started passing by a certain quarantine room. It was the same room I came out from when I ‘returned from the dead’. There were dead bodies in there, genuinely deceased. Perhaps even their cells had not begun mutating yet and they had to meet such an ugly end. I feel oddly lucky to be standing here and observing the morbid sight. Prying my eyes away, I walked away and instinctively entered that same room nearby where I first met Reina. It's just like deja vu. The computers were still turned on; everything was how it was when we ran off. Turning to the PC, I tried to find any other files that weren’t in the office before.
“What do I do if the documents are password protected?” I asked into the radio the moment I stumbled upon more confidential files. I waited for an answer while typing out random words into the password field.
“What do you mean password protected?”
“You know, like you need a password to read the files?”
“I know that. Means something important must be in there then…”
“No way!” I answered sarcastically.
“Why you…” She caught on fast.
“Seriously, what do I do?”
“I don’t know, crack it?”
“I’m not THAT smart.”
“Yeah, you’re not. Bring back the PC?”
“You try carrying a CPU with one arm!”
“What do you expect us to do then?!”
“I don’t know, come back another day?”
“Wait, remember how the mad scientists mentioned they had a hacker? Maybe they could access those files from back in the lab .”
“Is that possible?”
“We could always come back another day.”
That made no difference at all! I silently agreed with her still and copied any data of the organization’s network into a disc. Why? I guess I placed myself in the shoes of a hacker. It was so much easier than being a mad scientist. Whoever LinLin’s hacker friend is, he or she would definitely need information like these.
After completing my task, I made a beeline for the exit.
Topic: Shinra Bansho [Chapter 15] (Read 17059 times)