▼ 12:41 pm
Area 5, Outer Ring
Infirmary
SEVERAL minutes later and the two of them come back with their hands full of medical boxes.
“Captain, you were right! There were six medical boxes with thirty AD total!” Tachibana’s news surprises us all. Even I’m stunned by the large amount.
“Seriously? There were thirty of them?! That’s thirty hours’ worth of AD!”
“Indeed. We won’t have to worry about a lack of AD for a good while now.” A relieved smile touches her lips.
Moribe grins and cheerfully points out, “Plus, this is clear proof that Captain was telling the truth! Isn’t that right, Mr. Ukita?”
“Hmph…” Ukita uncomfortably averts his eyes.
I prod an answer out of him in a calm voice. “Do you believe me now, Ukita? I have no ill intentions toward Yuuri or anyone else for that matter.”
“……”
“If I was some bad guy, I’d keep all the AD to myself. I’ve gone and shared everything with the whole group, so please believe me.”
My earnest appeal finally wrestles a bitter response out of him. “…It certainly seems you were telling the truth.”
Suspicion still reflects back at me deep in his eyes. But I should leave well enough alone now that he’s openly stopped accusing me.
Moribe walks over to me and whispers, “U-Um, I’m real sorry, Captain…for you know, not believing you right away…”
“Hmm? That’s nothing you have to apologize for.”
“But even if it was for only a second, I…doubted whether your amnesia was real.”
“Y-You did? Well, I can’t blame you for that one.”
Looking at it objectively, it’s inevitable she came to that conclusion. I should probably avoid doing things that draw suspicion from now on.
“I believed in you, Captain. You should scold Moribe,” Tachibana instructs me.
“Oh, really? I thought his whole amnesia spiel sounded fishy from the get-go.” Miss Ena’s frank admittance leaves me stunned.
“Th-That’s harsh, Miss Ena. I see your cutting remarks haven’t lost their edge yet.”
“That’s my candid opinion. But it looks like you were telling the truth and are starting to get some of your memories back too. You can just think of the whole thing as having a valuable experience few people get to endure.”
“Y-You know…you can only take positive thinking so far, and that right there about does it.”
Everyone laughs a little. Their laughter is temporary, but it still brings me peace of mind. After losing our newly found escape route, finding another victim, and Yuuri disappearing on us, everyone’s mental health is starting to fray. Getting into quarrels here and there is unavoidable. The scariest thing at a time like this is having everyone at odds. I convince myself of that.
“…All right, now that we got that out of the way, we have something more important to discuss here,” I say to bring us back on topic.
Tachibana’s eyes sharply narrow. “Yuuri.”
“Yeah. You don’t need me to tell you how bad it is that we got separated inside this huge facility.”
Miss Ena gives a firm nod and gets on board with my change of subject. “I’m concerned about Tenkawa and the girls too. Whether we passed each other by or overlooked them…doesn’t matter at this point. We have to reconsider our search method.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something important?” Ukita cuts in. “Isn’t searching for AD just as critical?”
“Huh? We just got our hands on thirty…”
“And that’s still not enough. With the cargo lift taken out of the picture, we have no choice but to wait for the lockdown to end. We each need to inject AD five more times to survive until the estimated release time.”
“Right. If we meet up with Yuuri and the three high schoolers, it’ll mean we need five hours’ worth of AD for nine people… So we need forty-five AD total, huh?”
That’s right—not everyone will survive if the AD we have here is all that’s left in the facility. It’d be a different story if people start stealing AD from others, though… That thought gives me the chills.
If we’re going to try to survive another five hours with the thirty AD we have on hand, there will only be enough for six people to be covered for the whole duration. Put another way, only six people can survive—three won’t be saved.
Everyone is holding on to their thin veneer of calm right now, but anything could happen as time and the radiation levels progress. Ukita turning on me just now is a perfect example of how things can go wrong.
If worse comes to worse and our stress, fatigue, and fear continue to escalate, a life-and-death game of “musical chairs” will inevitably break out.
S-Stop! Don’t think like that! Put your energy into coming up with a plan to keep everyone alive! I shake my head and try thinking about things in a different light.
I glance at the Procyon and check the radiation level. It’s reading 4,531 mSv right now—the levels are steadily increasing. Every area in this facility will eventually surpass 8,000 mSv if the contamination continues spreading at this pace. And if it does, it won’t matter whether we have AD.
“…There are four possible ways we can go about this,” I say to the others as I hold up four fingers. “One: prioritize finding an escape route. Two: look for an escape route while searching for the survivors, including Yuuri, and AD. Three: look for the damaged part of the gates and repair them to suppress the speed of contamination spreading. Four: look for everything—an escape route, AD, the damaged gates, and the survivors. Choosing which path we take may very well decide whether we sink or swim.”
Everyone loudly gulps. Tachibana answers in a low voice. “Searching for everything is unrealistic. Splitting our attention between too many things won’t yield any results. So four is out.”
“Indeed. Repairing the damaged gates doesn’t seem like a smart move either. I highly doubt emergency repairs will do anything to hold back the contamination,” Ukita says, knocking out number three as an option.
“Then that leaves us with option one or two. Either we prioritize an escape route, or we look for the survivors, AD, and an escape route…”
“I can’t believe you even think there’s a decision to be made,” Miss Ena snaps at Tachibana. “We’re going to search for the survivors and AD while looking for a way out of here. I mean, it’s questionable if there’s even another escape route, but we know for sure that Tenkawa and the girls are trapped down here!”
She makes a solid argument. Plus, Yuuri will be in terrible danger if we don’t get to her soon because she didn’t have any AD on her, and I doubt she’ll inject herself.
Moribe seems to be thinking the same thing I am because she agrees with Miss Ena. “Okay, guys, are we good to go with searching for the survivors, including Yuuri, while looking for an escape route?”
The whole group nods without argument. It seems like we came to a decision. I direct the conversation right into the next topic. “Then we should do one more lap around LABO leaving no box or shadow unsearched. How about we split into two teams with one searching clockwise and the other counterclockwise?”
“I like that plan,” Tachibana says first. “It will decrease our chances of missing the survivors. How do you want to split the teams?”
“Good question… Tachibana, Ukita, you’re with me.”
“Sure, I can team up with you.”
“I have no complaints on that front either.”
I’m secretly relieved they both agreed to join my team.
Ukita is dangerous. His hostility is directed toward me right now, but I can’t be sure he won’t turn on someone else next. I can’t shake the feeling things will end poorly if I pair him up with Moribe and Miss Ena.
Moribe is a rescue worker, but she’s still young and inexperienced. And Miss Ena is an untrained civilian. Tachibana and I will be more adept at squashing any problems with Ukita.
Tachibana gives me a slight nod as if she caught on to why I made this call. “All right, we are currently in Area 5, so one team should head toward Area 4, while the other heads in the direction of Area 6.”
“Where do we regroup?”
“Since we may pass each other along the way, I suggest using this infirmary as our final destination. We can take one lap around and set off again if we don’t come across the survivors.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I want you all to return here in an hour, even if your search doesn’t yield any results. Come back sooner if you run into any unexpected trouble.”
“So what do we do about the AD?” Moribe interjects. “Take it all with us?” She points to the thirty AD we just obtained.
I mull it over. “No… Let’s take two hours’ worth with us—so two per person. We’re screwed if something damages them along the way.”
Each person takes two AD.
“How about we leave something like this behind too?” Miss Ena grabs a piece of paper and a pen and scribbles a message on it.