▼ 10:55 am
Area 3, Outer Ring
AS a group, we head for Area 3’s outer ring, eventually arriving at the unopenable door. I peer inside through the small window and spot a ladder in the back corner. I hadn’t noticed it the last time, but Ukita’s information was spot on.
“Alrighty, I’ll give repairing it a whirl. Give me a few minutes, guys,” Moribe says, taking up position in front of the door. She fiddles with the switch using her army knife’s screwdriver.
Hoping for the best, we watch her as she works on it. I shift my eyes from her to where Tachibana is rubbing her arms with unease etched into her features.
“What’s wrong, Tachibana?”
“Oh, not much… I just feel this tingling pain in my skin…”
“You do?”
I have a seriously bad feeling about this. Forty minutes have flown by since our last AD dose. What if the damaged AD isn’t working like it’s supposed to? Has her cumulative exposure surpassed 2,000 mSv by now? It doesn’t help that we haven’t gotten a single AD since then. Time will finally be up for us if Moribe can’t fix the door.
As we’re impatiently waiting, Yuuri suddenly cries out from behind us. “Oh no, smoke…!”
“What?” Everyone turns around at once. “Smoke? Where, Yuuri?”
“Over there…” She points to the floor a slight distance away.
KA-BOOM! The floorboards are blown away and fire spews from where they had been like a flaming geyser.
“Ack! Why’s fire coming from the floor?!”
We instinctively move as far from the spot as we can.
“On rare occasions, the wiring under the floor will short out and catch fire! Let’s put out the flames!” Tachibana orders in a sharp voice.
“O-On it!” Luckily, there’s a fire hydrant right beside us. I pull a hose from it and hand the nozzle over to her. “Here comes the water, Tachibana!”
“Roger! Everyone else, please stand back!”
Learning by example, I twist the fire hydrant’s valve, and Tachibana directs the water toward the incoming flames, pushing them back. Steam rises on contact. But flames burst through another floorboard, sending it flying. Even with her experience, it’s taking all of Tachibana’s effort just to slow the fire’s progress.
“Holy crap! Moribe, are you done yet?!”
“G-Gimme another minute!” Moribe speeds up as fast as she can. But with every passing second, the fire is coming ever closer.
“Khh!” A heat wave slams into Tachibana and she lets out a pained moan.
Miss Ena pulls Yuuri into her arms and begs, “Ms. Moribe…please hurry!”
I’m praying for her success, too, when the door finally slides open. “Yes!” We cheer and make a break for the door, but before we can get there, Moribe sways violently on her feet.
“Hey! What’s wrong, Moribe?!” I rush to her side and catch her before she falls.
She doesn’t respond to me at all, and her eyes have rolled back into her head—she’s completely lost consciousness. Instinctively sensing danger, I shut the door we’d only just opened. But then Yuuri and Miss Ena let out agonized moans and fall on top of each other.
“Yuuri! Miss Ena!” People are dropping like flies! I have no idea what’s going on.
The color drains from Tachibana’s face when she notices. “Oh no, is this oxygen-deficient air?!”
“What’s that?”
“A lethal gas generated by fires! Inhaling it will knock you unconscious and, at its worst, kill you.”
Ukita starts shouting in a shrill voice after hearing that. “This is very bad! The HVAC is broken here and can’t properly ventilate the room!”
In other words, the room in front of us is teeming with oxygen-deficient air, while the path behind us is covered in flames—we have nowhere to run!
“How do we handle this, Tachibana?!”
Tachibana makes up her mind on the spot. “We have no choice. We have to climb the ladder to the engine room while holding our breath.”
“Will that work?”
“Oxygen-deficient air generally occurs in sealed off rooms. There should be an airtight door at the top of the ladder. We’ll be saved if we make it to the engine room!”
“But what about the three who fainted?!”
“I’ll carry Ms. Tsubakiyama. You carry Moribe and Yuuri, Captain!”
“Y-You want me to climb the ladder while holding my breath and carrying two people?”
“You can do it, Captain! Please have faith in yourself!”
Tachibana looks me in the eyes. The trust there sets my spirit on fire, igniting my self-confidence.
“G-Got it! Leave it to me!”
“That’s my captain!” She smiles, then turns to implore Ukita, “I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Ukita, but can you climb up by yourself?”
“H-Hmph, I can try.”
“Thank you!” Tachibana exclaims as she lifts Miss Ena up and over her shoulder.
I use the rope I always have wrapped around my chest to tie Yuuri and Moribe to my back. They’re light. Together they probably weigh around 220 pounds, but they feel lighter than feathers to me.
“All right! Move out!”
At Tachibana’s signal, I open the door to the room teeming with lethal gas.
We dash through the room chock-full of oxygen-deficient air and white smoke while holding our breath. I lunge for the ladder in the corner and begin climbing it. Smoke instantly stings my eyes until they’re tearing up. Looking up, I see a circular airtight door about twenty-five feet above. That’s got to be the engine room door. Such a short distance feels like it will take an eternity to reach with my breath held. But the weight of the two lives literally resting on my shoulders gives me strength.
Bear it! If I run out of gas here, two more people will die with me! Powered by that thought, I frantically scale the ladder.
After what feels like forever, my fingertips finally brush the doorknob. I grab hold of it and push it upward. The spacious engine room lies beyond the opening. It’s covered in poorly lit darkness, but the air is clean. The three of us pull ourselves up and roll onto the engine room’s cold floor.
“Haaaaaaaaaaa!” I take a huge breath, allowing fresh air to spread through my strained lungs.
Breathing heavily, Tachibana seals the airtight door behind her. Meanwhile, Ukita lets out a moan and collapses to his knees.
“Ukita, you okay?!”
“I-I’m horribly dizzy… I think I inhaled some of the gas!”
At least the lethal gas can’t get into this room. We’re safe for the moment, but we’re not entirely in the green yet either! I glance at my watch—it’s 11:07 am. Only nine minutes to go until we need our next AD dose. And we currently don’t have any on us! If we don’t do anything fast, everyone here will be exposed to radiation.
There’s a very high chance there’s a supply of spare AD in the toxic room filled with lethal gas below. So we need to restart the sprinkler system—thus putting out the fires—wait for the ventilation to kick in, and then search for AD—that won’t work! We’ll never make it in time!
Making it through the lethal gas and reactivating the sprinkler system won’t mean anything if we run out of time before finding more AD. That leaves me but one option.
I untie Moribe and Yuuri and lower them to the ground. “Tachibana, look after the group!”
“What are you planning to do?!”
“I’m going back into that room to look for more AD! Close the airtight door behind me!”
“Don’t be crazy! Please stop, Captain!”
Ignoring her advice, I open the airtight door and descend the ladder into the room that’s essentially a death trap.