▼ 9:56 am
Area 3, Outer Ring
LIKE the inner ring, the outer ring has a stark interior with unfaced concrete walls, but with a different floor layout. Several doors leading to small rooms are located on either side of the six-foot wide corridor. I don’t see any immediate traces of a fire, but a thin layer of smoke is definitely hovering over the entire area.
“Is this facility’s HVAC system not working either?” I ask.
“It has been, on the most part, but there are some places where the vents have broken, like here. They’ve likely taken damage from the fires.” Tachibana looks around before continuing, “More importantly, Captain, I need you to take one extra precaution while searching this block.”
“What’s that?”
“Please touch the door with your hand and confirm how hot it is before you open it. Don’t open doors, under any circumstance, that feel hot to the touch.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll cause a backdraft,” Moribe answers instead of Tachibana.
“I take it that’s a bad thing?”
“It sure is. When a fire burns in a sealed-off room, it’ll eventually consume all the oxygen inside and begin to smolder. So when you open the door, air rapidly rushes inside, causing it to combust explosively.” Moribe gestures to the smoke hanging in the air. “We don’t see a fire in this block, but there’s smoke, which means a fire is smoldering away in one of these rooms. So if you don’t check the temperature carefully beforehand, you could get us all blown away.”
“Geh…” I swallow my fear and survey the area.
Dozens of button-operated doors line the corridor. Every single one poses a serious risk of unleashing a torrent of flames if I open it. This feels like a game of Russian roulette, where one door has an explosive booby trap just waiting to be tripped.
But survivors and AD may be hidden behind these doors, and we can’t leave the source of the fire alone either. I have no choice but to muster my courage and carefully check each room.
“O-Okay, let’s tread carefully!”
Frightened of what lies beyond, we commence our search of each room. Tachibana points the hose at the closest door first. I take off my glove and place my hand directly on the door to confirm the temperature.
“…It’s not hot.”
“Roger that. I’m opening the door!” Moribe announces and presses the button.
I brace myself as the door slides open, but all that’s waiting for us on the other side is a tidy office. I let out a long breath—no signs of a fire here.
“Search for AD within thirty seconds!”
At Tachibana’s orders, we do a quick sweep of the room. I spot an iron receptacle the size of a tissue box on the wall near the door.
“Isn’t this one of the medical boxes?” I run up to the container and open it, but it’s empty. It looks like someone has already made off with the contents. Sadly, I don’t see any other survivors or security cards around either.
“On to the next room, then. Let’s increase our search efficiency!”
The next door leads to a stairwell. Unlike all the other rooms with automatic sliding doors, this one has a fire door with heavy hinges. After checking for heat, I open it to find a mountain of debris inside. The spiral staircase had collapsed. It’s been completely destroyed from the part connecting to the surface down.
“Hold on, how did this staircase collapse? I don’t see any traces of a fire burning here,” I observe. There aren’t any scorch marks on the walls either.
“It certainly doesn’t appear to have been caused by a fire. I believe it was caused by one of those explosions of unknown origin.”
I investigate the staircase’s rubble as I listen to Tachibana. There’s nothing here, so we’re forced to move on to the next room.
We scour dozens of rooms after that, with no luck. Not only do we not find survivors or AD, but the fire’s source continues to elude us.
Crap! We need to find some AD and fast! I’m growing more impatient by the minute. The last time we administered AD was around 9:16 am. It’s almost 10:00 am now. We have little more than fifteen minutes left before we should take our next dose. Finding survivors and the security cards is important, but we won’t survive the next hour without more AD.
With growing dread biting at our heels, we approach the next room. I check the door’s temperature like every other time. It doesn’t feel any hotter than body temperature.
“No…heat here either,” I report.
“Roger. I’m opening the door.” Moribe reaches for the button.
We’ve repeated this routine dozens of times now. I’ve become less focused than I was at first because I’ve grown used to nothing going wrong. That’s why I didn’t notice it sooner. The door might not be hotter than body temperature, but it’s still hot!
“Oh, crap! Don’t open it, Moribe!” I yell, but it’s too late. Moribe’s finger presses the button, opening the door.
It feels like all the air around us is being sucked into the room. Moribe dives away from the door just as fire shoots toward me out of the room with a monstrous roar.
“AGH!” I cry out from the shock.
I’m dead—or so I thought, but thinking means I’m alive. My eyes peel open and I see Tachibana on top of me. She knocked me out of the way just in the nick of time.
“Are you all right, Captain?!”
“I-I’m fine! But this is bad!” I push to my feet and assess my surroundings, which have been engulfed in a sea of flames. The fire smoldering in the room had combusted and spewed into the corridor. The hose had been flung out of Tachibana’s hand and onto the ground beyond the fire.