We heard a loud noise. Natsuki and I looked at the direction of the sound which was above us.
"What was that?" Natsuki wondered.
The loudness of it made me think of firecrackers but why would anyone light firecrackers inside? And the loudness of it… I suspected that it might have been a gunshot. I shivered at the thought.
I gave Natsuki a stern look. "It's probably… a gunshot."
"What? Why?" Natsuki looked at me, confused. "Who would bring a gun here?"
I had the same question. That meant everyone was in danger. "We have to see what happened."
Natsuki's eyes widened. "Are you crazy!? What if the gunman is still there!?"
"Our friends might be hurt!" I objected.
Natsuki looked surprised and then sad. "Right. I forgot that your friends are here too."
I then realized something. "Wait, if you're here, then Yuri, Monika, and Sayori should be here, right?"
"Hey, that's true!" Natsuki agreed. "We should go!"
That's a quick change of heart. Natsuki pulled me up and went outside the room. We ran through the hallway and reached the staircase.
"Wait, slow down!" I panted. "I don't really run a lot!"
"Oh, sorry!" Natsuki apologized, patting me on the back. "I forgot you're still human."
"Wait… " I said as I tried to catch my breath. "You're not?"
Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "What, you think people can stick AIs into human bodies?"
"In movies, maybe?"
"This ain't a movie!"
"Well it's still surreal to me!"
"Fine, fine!" Natsuki then stopped and looked at the left side of the staircase. A wall.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Something's wrong with this wall." Natsuki grabbed the peeling portion of the wallpaper from the bottom of the wall and pulled it upwards with much force.
Behind the wallpaper was a styrofoam wall.
"What the…?" Natsuki wondered. "Someone's hiding something."
"We should get back to looking for everyone, Natsuki."
"This could be important too, you know!" Natsuki started ripping the styrofoam apart. "Come on! Help me out with this!"
I reluctantly joined in on her destruction, making a mess of the floor. When we were done, what laid before us made me drop my jaw open.
"An elevator!" Natsuki giggled. "We reach the higher floors faster with this!" She then pulled me into the elevator.
Inside the elevator, it was dimly lit by circular fluorescent bulb and felt like an old one. Most elevators I knew were silvery and shiny. This one was just plain white inside.
"Where's the floor buttons here!?" Natsuki complained as she turned around.
"Isn't this one of those old time elevators?" I suggested.
"Huh? Oh, then we should close the doors first."
Natsuki pulled a door from the left and a metal gate. "Huh. Just like in the movies. Now we… Okay, I don't what makes this move."
I turned and saw a bronze crank on the wall. "Maybe this is it?" I pulled the crank and turned it to the left that said up. The elevator began to move.
"Amity, you're a genius!"
I laughed weakly. "Not really…"
"Hey, try stopping on a floor."
I stopped at the second floor we reached but the elevator wasn't level with the doorway of the floor.
"Oh. It's not even…"
"Screw this! Let's just go to the top floor!" Natsuki grabbed the crank and turned it left.
Surprisingly, It wasn't that slow, and was actually comparable to a modern elevator speed. We reached the top floor.
"I expected it would take a while." Natsuki admitted.
I pulled out doors away and we stepped outside of the elevator. We entered a new hallway that looked different from the previous floors.
"Where are we?" I wondered.
"The top floor."
"I know that."
Looking around, there weren't any doors to be found except the one to the very end of the hallway.
"Let's go." I said, to which Natsuki nodded.
We ran to the door. Upon closer look, the door was similar to the one I met Natsuki in. White wooden finish and a golden doorknob.
"What do you think is in here?" I wondered.
"Who cares? Let's go and see for ourselves!"
Natsuki opened the door without any trace gentleness.
We both stared at the inside of the room.
"Amity… You're seeing this, right?" Natsuki asked.
"Yeah."
The white walls with wooden borders. The windows of the left and front. The giant cow stuffed toy. The plain cabinet. A computer desk. A calendar with scribbles over a certain months.
We were in Sayori's room.
"I've never been here but since I remember everything from the game, this feels so nostalgic..." Natsuki walked in. "Look."
Natsuki pointed where Sayori's bed was supposed to be. Instead, there was some sort of glass pod standing upright and inside…
"Sayori," I uttered.
"She was here all along," Natsuki added. "Still, it's kinda creepy that they went as far as recreating her room."
"Yeah," I agreed.
Sayori laid inside the pod thing with her hands over her chest which reminded me of Disney's Snow White.
Everything looked exactly the same as the background image of Sayori's room. The details were surprisingly accurate. I picked up the cow stuffed toy and it felt real. I felt like if I touched it, it would dissolve or something. Not to mention, I wanted one of these. If I could take it home, I would.
I turned to the desk that had a bunch of monitors on it, like six of them. Each screen seemed to be showing random data scrolling. One screen showed just the following text:
Personnel Status:
Yuri: ONLINE
Monika: ONLINE
Natsuki: ONLINE
Sayori: UNKNOWN
A blinking bar was below the text.
"I think this should wake up Sayori," I guessed as I approached the monitors.
Natsuki approached my back. "Try typing something."
I pressed the Enter key…
'Invalid input.'
"What are we even supposed to type?" I wondered.
Natsuki moved in front of me and began typing.
Activate Sayori
'Invalid command.'
"How about this then?"
Revive Sayori
'Invalid command.'
Resurrect Sayori
'Invalid command.'
"ARGH! What's with this thing!?"
Natsuki began typing more, just in case one would hit. Every word she entered were invalid commands.
"Natsuki, maybe we should look for the password." I placed my hand on her shoulder.
"But we're so close!" Natsuki turned to me. "If we can just get the right word, we'll be able to save Sayori. So we can't stop now."
I nodded to her. Natsuki kept trying, typing various words that might activate Sayori. I can only hope that she'll be able to get in the right keyword.
