Moribe glances around the place, saying, “This looks like the kinda place they’d keep AD and other things that might come in handy.”
“Yeah. We should take special care in searching this room.”
We begin combing the infirmary, excited for what we might find. I start by walking over to the refrigerator and open the stainless-steel door. Inside are bags of red liquid, labeled with “A,” “B,” “O,” or “AB.”
Blood packs? So this is a full-scale doctor’s office…like one you’d see in a hospital.
Blood packs are all I find in the fridge.
“Captain Kasasagi, any luck?” Miss Ena calls from the other side of the room.
“Nope. No luck here. We might find a use for the ventilator and transfusion kit, but we don’t have an immediate need for it.”
“Same here. There’s a ton of empty AD ampoules, but not a single filled one,” she explains, holding out the depleted ampoules for me to see.
“It might not be AD, but I found something good,” Moribe says from where she’s rummaging through the cabinets. She pulls out a medicine tube. The label reads “Styptic Chiron.”
“What’s that?”
“Pretty much the ultimate ointment. It closes small wounds so ridiculously well it’s like they’re glued shut.”
“Wow, sounds useful.”
“Sure is. Let’s take one each.” Moribe hands a Chiron tube to me and Tachibana.
Sadly, that’s the only useful thing we’ve accomplished. With nothing left to do here, we leave the infirmary behind.
As soon as we leave the room, I spot Tachibana’s team talking in the corridor.
“It’s far too dangerous to drink that, Mr. Ukita!”
“But I’m dying of thirst!”
Tachibana and Ukita are arguing about something. Yuuri has her hands nervously pressed together as she watches them. I run over and ask, “What’s wrong? Did you find something?”
“We didn’t find any AD or survivors, Captain… But we did find this.” Tachibana shows me what she’s holding in her arms: six plastic bottles labeled “Distilled Water.”
“Water?! You found water?!”
“Yes. It appears to be water meant for mixing with medicine. But I’ve been telling him not to drink it because there’s a possibility it will give us radiation exposure from the inside…”
I loudly gulp when I see that liquid gold. Just as Ukita said, everyone’s thirst has passed its limits. The biggest problem now is figuring out how safe it is to drink.
“I-I want to risk the danger and drink it,” Miss Ena rasps out in a hoarse voice.
Ukita smooths over our shock. “I believe she’s made the right decision here. We found these in a metal medicine cabinet, so the possibility of them being contaminated with radiation is extremely low. And naturally, there’s a zero percent chance any atomic dust is inside sealed bottles. Bottled water is completely different from tap water that way.”
“Then it’s safe enough! I’m taking one!” Miss Ena announces as she snatches a bottle from Tachibana’s arms.
“Hey!”
Miss Ena twists off the cap and chugs the water before Tachibana can stop her. She immediately starts choking.
“M-Miss Ena?! You okay?!”
“I-I’m okay. A little went down the wrong pipe because I drank too much at once… Anyway, how about you have some as well? This is the first time mere water has tasted so heavenly!” An intoxicated smile overtakes her face as if she had something stronger than water to drink. That only serves to rouse everyone else’s thirst.
“I-I’m having some too!”
“Me too!”
Ukita and Yuuri snap into action and share a bottle of water.
“Oh, come on!” Tachibana says, exasperated. But even she recognizes that the temptation this water poses is greater than the fear of radiation exposure.
“…Sorry, Tachibana, I’m also taking one.”
“S-Same!”
Tachibana finally gives in after Moribe and I do. “…There’s no helping it. At least it seems safe enough…”
Everyone ended up taking a water bottle. I twist off the lid and slowly pour the water into my mouth, careful not to choke on it. Fresh water soaks into my parched and cracking throat. It’s unbelievably tasty for lukewarm, room-temperature water.
“Whew! I feel alive again!”
“Right?! All hail water!”
Moribe and I share a smile.
“W-Well, keeping hydrated is an important part of the job… It’s my duty to have a drink,” Tachibana says awkwardly, as if she’s making up an excuse to drink it as she puts the bottle to her lips.
Even someone who’s always as levelheaded and calm as Tachibana has her human moments too. There’s something cute about her reactions.
“Now that we’ve quenched our thirst, let’s get back to the search— Huh, what’s that?” I spot something strange out of the corner of my eye as I’m talking. At the end of the corridor is a plate on the wall with the word “EMERGENCY” written on it. Right below it is a keypad with ten buttons labeled from zero to nine. “Hang on, guys. What do you think this is for?”
The others gather around what I’m looking at.
“Hmm…what could it be?” Moribe tilts her head.
“No idea. Maybe it’s an emergency line or something of that sort?” Ukita ventures.
Doesn’t sound like anyone knows. I press the buttons at random, but nothing happens. Yuuri watches closely as I fiddle with it.
“Is something wrong, Yuuri?”
“Ah! No, I’m just a little…tired.”
“I’m sure you are. You’ve had to keep moving without rest.”
“I-I’m okay. I can keep going.” She balls her trembling hands into fists. Her forced display of being okay worries me more.
Maybe our two-team system of three and three isn’t the right balance. “Hey, Tachibana? Why don’t we increase the help on your side by adding Miss Ena to your team? Moribe and I will cover the inner ring,” I suggest.
“I can see the merit in that. What do you think, Miss Ena?”
“I have no complaints.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Miss Ena. Ready to get to work, Moribe?”
“You know it!”
As we’re about to leave, Yuuri calls out to me. “U-Um, Captain Kasasagi…thank you for looking out for me.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s the adults’ job to look after kiddos. Don’t push yourself too much, Yuuri,” I tell her and walk toward the inner ring with Moribe.