▼ 1:24 pm
Area 1, Outer Ring
OVER ten seconds have passed since the beeping stopped. But the only sound filling the corridor is our heavy breathing. We fearfully glance back at the stairwell from where we’ve fallen on top of each other on the floor.
“It didn’t explode…? Why?”
“I-I wish I knew… But it looks like luck is on our side.”
We wait a few minutes before moving, but the explosion never comes. I push to my feet and help Miss Ena up.
“Do you think it was a dud?” she asks in a voice drained of energy.
“It might’ve been, but something’s weird here… Something about it feels very different from everything else that’s gone wrong until now.”
Strange things have been happening left and right. The sprinkler system was off, the cargo lift’s control panel was busted—but unlike those times, I sense clear intentions to cause harm from this one.
But isn’t it too sloppy of a job for that?
Something that looks like a metal bar is lying on the ground next to the door I kicked down. Someone probably used that to jam the door. It feels too improvised for a trap.
And to top the weirdness off, the bomb in question didn’t detonate. If the person who set the trap was trying to kill us, they completely and utterly failed at it.
Is there a reason they didn’t spend much time prepping the trap? Did they give up on it halfway?
Approaching footsteps interrupts my thoughts. I jerk my head around to see Moribe running toward us from the other end of the corridor.
“Moribe?!”
“Did something happen, you two?! I heard a loud bang from over here!” Moribe’s voice is followed by another set of footsteps. Ukita is sprinting our way from the opposite direction.
“Oh, you’re all together?! I heard a jarring noise! What happened?”
They both said more or less the same exact thing. My eyes dart to Miss Ena’s hands. Moribe’s and Ukita’s eyes fly open in shock when they look at her.
“M-Ms. Tsubakiyama, where did you get that?!”
“I-Is that a p-pistol you have there?!”
Pressed by Moribe and Ukita for answers, Miss Ena recoils. “Ah, this is…well…” She fumbles over her answer.
Ukita jumps on her. “What’s the story with that pistol, hmm? Can it be…you’ve kept something that dangerous on you this whole time without telling us?”
“Wait! You’re jumping to conclusions! This isn’t my gun. I picked it up inside LABO!”
“You picked it up? Where?”
“In the room with the cargo lift. It was lying on the ground in the corner.”
“You really expect us to believe that? You mean you found a gun and pocketed it while everyone was focusing on conducting CPR?”
“Wh-What else can I say…? That’s the truth…” Miss Ena shrinks away from Ukita’s reproachful glare. Moribe is warily eyeing her as well.
Her story is full of holes, but I decide to back her up anyway. “S-Settle down, people. Let’s believe her story for now.”
Moribe shoots me a look of disbelief. “Huh? You’re gonna trust her? Did your brain go soft with your amnesia?”
“We don’t have many options here, Moribe. Since no one saw what she was doing at the time, we have no way to prove if she’s lying or not.” I put Moribe and Ukita in their place, then turn to Miss Ena. “But why did you hide it until now? That’s the bigger problem.”
“It wasn’t really the best time to bring it up… We’d only just found a dead girl, and our hope of escape was squashed… I felt like I needed a way to protect myself.”
Now that she mentions it, Miss Ena brought up the notion of there being a killer multiple times after we discovered the girl’s body. Did finding the gun solidify in her mind that there really is a killer? Or was it because she was plotting the best way to protect herself?
“…Well, whatever the case may be, the fact is that we have a gun,” Ukita states while I’m still puzzling things out. “It’s a dangerous weapon, so I will hold on to it for you.”
Moribe balks at his offer. “Where do you come off offering something like that, Mr. Ukita?! It’s only right for a rescue worker such as myself to confiscate it!”
“N-Neither of you has any say in this!” Miss Ena sharply raises her voice. “I know it’s not right for me to have a gun, but it’s just as dangerous for either of you to have it!”
“Why?!”
Threatening glares are shared among the three of them. I shudder just watching. People are going to start fighting over the gun for real if this goes on.
“Wait, guys. Stop right there! Something that dangerous should either be destroyed or gotten rid of!” I advise in a hasty attempt to stop them.
Moribe shakes her head. “Those are both bad ideas, Captain! Destroying it will render us all unable to oppose a terrorist if there really is one! And how do you propose we get rid of it in this sealed-off facility? Someone else will eventually find it.”
“Argh… In that case, er…”
Moribe still believes the terrorist theory. It’s an absurd opinion, but I won’t discount that we have enemies inside this place. I rack my brain and toss out the most reasonable answer.
“I know, how about we do this? First, we remove the magazine from the gun. Then we take the bullets out of that. That’ll leave us with three separate parts: a gun without bullets, an empty magazine, and just bullets. Each one of us can take a part for safekeeping.”
The three of them shoot me questioning looks.
“You want us to split it into pieces?” Miss Ena confirms.
I nod. “Yeah. That way in the off chance a terrorist does show up, and we’re all in agreement, we can reassemble the gun to fend them off. On the flip side, if a terrorist doesn’t show up, we’re all equally powerless. Isn’t this the least offensive method?”
“But, Captain Kasasagi—”
“Go along with my plan, Miss Ena. I want to finish this idiotic argument ASAP.”
Silence stretches between us. Miss Ena eventually lets out a resigned sigh. “…Fine. I’ll cooperate with you, Captain Kasasagi,” she says as she pulls the magazine from the gun. She empties out the bullets. There’s a grand total of eleven.