▼9/16/2030 6:19 am
Rokumei City Fire Department, Central Station
Watase
AT 6:19 am on September 16, 2030, sirens reverberated through the fire station like a trumpet heralding the end. Unrest hung over the isolated research city like an unrelenting fog.
An emergency alert blared through Rokumei City’s fire department: “An explosion of unknown origin has occurred at the 6th Laboratory of Atomic and Biological Organization located just outside the city.”
The announcement rocked the central fire station: they weren’t given enough information to determine the scale and danger surrounding the accident, but due to the importance of the affected laboratory, the fire department made a prompt decision to respond to the call in full force with every resource at their disposal.
6:20 am—one minute after the initial alert, orders to dispatch were made to Rokumei City Fire Department’s Special Elite Rescue Squad SIRIUS, the finest rescue squad in the country.
All SIRIUS teams boarded the helicopter and rushed to the accident eight miles from the station. By 6:27 am, only eight minutes after the fire call, all sixteen members had arrived at the scene.
✦ ✦ ✦
☢☢☢
THE enormous research facility towering over Lake Rokumei is commonly referred to as LABO. Unprecedented chaos ensues within its sterile walls. Several hundred people wearing either white lab coats or black business suits crowd the spacious entrance hall—all staff members who had successfully escaped from the facility’s various floors.
Warning alarms continue blaring through the hall, the marble floor occasionally shaking underfoot as shockwaves from explosions still occurring underground travel to the surface. People flock toward the exits, screaming.
We, the members of SIRIUS Team A, move against the flow as we head deeper into the facility.
Fully clad in hazmat suits, Team A is made up of five members including myself, the captain. I stand in front of my subordinates and shout, “Listen up, folks! Many people are still trapped within this facility, but this isn’t an ordinary dispatch. Anything can happen at this site. Expect the unexpected.”
✦ ✦ ✦
My subordinates gasp inside their hazmat suits as more explosions sound off underground. Fires seem to have broken out, as well.
“Our team’s mission is to save lives, but you are humans before you are rescue workers. As long as you come back alive, too, that’s one more life saved.”
Not that anyone in this squad will readily obey that order—they are all men and women who have repeatedly put their lives on the line to carry out the mission.
I look around at the faces of the teammates I’ve served with until today and continue, “Don’t give up! Not even in the worst of situations. Mission commenced!”
“Yes, sir!” All four teammates raise their voices in unison—a hero’s battle cry.
We rush inside the scene of the disaster none the wiser about what awaits us within.
Thus, the curtain rises on what will later be called “SIRIUS’s Longest Day.”
✦ ✦ ✦
☢☢☢
THE members of SIRIUS have one common conviction: see through the mission assigned to us no matter what. More than once, though, situations far exceeding our expectations have struck our team.
SIRIUS’s Longest Day Incident Report:
6:35 am: Radio communications between SIRIUS members was cut off due to interference.
6:42 am: 85 percent of the route connecting LABO’s basement floors to the surface was inaccessible.
6:54 am: Fires spread to roughly 40 percent of the basement floors.
7:02 am: LABO’s security system switched into lockdown mode. All bulkheads shut automatically.
Additionally, in the short seventeen minutes before 7:19, three people died, and three others sustained serious injuries.
✦ ✦ ✦
☢☢☢
IN the midst of this extraordinary disaster and confusion, I was separated from my subordinates and am now making my way through the facility alone. I race through the blazing corridors, aiming for the inner depths—in search of those who may yet be trapped within.
As I run with urgency nipping at my heels, a distant memory flitters into my mind. On this same day sixteen years ago, I lost everything. I’d been racing through orange flames on that night too. But, having failed to save anyone, I’d become the sole survivor. The day of atonement has finally come. Regret and duty push me forward.
At last I cross through the sea of flames and open the closed door, unveiling the bizarre sight beyond.
What is this place?
On the other side is a massive hall drenched in silence and a cold stillness that is out of place for a facility engulfed in fire. Several large metal contraptions connected by cables fill the serene space.
This isn’t my first time here. Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person isn’t allowed to set foot inside this area.
There aren’t any survivors in need of rescue here. My business finished, I try to leave, when something grabs my wrist.
“Wha—?!” Startled, I jerk my neck to the side.
What I see holding my wrist is no human. It’s a “monster” with the devil’s smile. It looks no different from a normal human being, but I know it’s the same abomination I encountered sixteen years ago. It’s a fearsome being that uses inhuman powers and infringes on mankind and society.
My senses, well trained from my line of work, send warning bells screeching through my head. I’m screwed! I have to run!
The moment I try to shake off the monster’s hand, intense pain courses through me as if my brain is being crushed in its fist.