Male Ward (part 4)

They eventually had to keep going. Naegi will never forget this moment… And he's determined to accept the consequences. The couple stood up and started to look around for a way out. Kirigiri saw the ceiling hatch and told him that they'll leave through there. He nodded and she opened the hatch, he helped her get through it and once on top of the elevator she reached her hand.

"Let's go now…" she said.

"Yes…" he said in return, grabbing her hand.

Again, the pain from any contact with his hands injuries were horrible but he had to ignore them. He can't slow down.

They got out of the elevator and exited the floor where Trager corpse was blocking the elevator. If he wasn't squeezed tightly between the elevator cage and the floor, they would have moved him away, they also didn't want to touch him. They quickly looked around. As always, doors locked everywhere but they found stairs leading down. Naegi remembered and told Kirigiri that the crazy Doctor showed him an exit on the first floor, just one floor below! They rushed down the stairs only to find a locked door leading to the lobby where the exit was. There was a large hole on the wall next to them so they squeezed through it. It led to a computer room that they walked through without any difficulties. They reached a large hallway that leaded to the lobby… but there was a door,,, and it was locked. There were windows on this wall but there wasn't any furniture around for them to gladly break them to get through, and they were also blocked at the other side. As they approached the said wall, a voice was heard, calling for them. And a flashlight blinding them.

"Thank God, you survived!"

"Father Martin…" seethed the couple.

The man who drop them in this hell hole when they were about to escape. The man that was leading them to an exit but filled with traps. They were about to ask him some questions (and yell at him) but he beat them to the punch.

"I feared that secular maniac would carve you up like the others. Meet me outside, we're close now." he concluded.

"Wait, WAIT! We're not done with you!" yelled angrily the ahoge man.

"I am sorry my child. But I must go." he said as he ran towards the exit Naegi knew.

"Dammit! WHY do we have to go through this!?" the brunette yelled as he punched the wall.

But it just made his wound splatter blood and he whined in pain, holding his hand close. Kirigiri ran to him and told him to calm down, they will found a way out of this nightmare. But they must not lose their mind or it's game over. He nodded with tears in his eyes.

They looked around and noticed that all doors were barricaded, there was a dark hallway adjacent to the one they were in. Naegi grabbed the camcorder and took Kirigiri's hand to guide her.

"Don't you want me to take the camcorder, Makoto?" she asked in concern.

"N-No, I can do it. Don't worry." he forced a smile, that she couldn't see it in the dark.

They reached a door that wasn't locked. They opened it but quickly closed it as they saw it was a toilet and light was coming from the sink where human arms and legs were burning in flames.

They went back in their track and opened another door that wasn't locked. It leaded them to a locker room where a corpse of a guard was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. They looked around the room, one of the locker had a Variant inside, whispering things but didn't come out to attack them, so they left him alone, not wanting to anger him. They found a note laying on the ground. Kirigiri took it and started to read it.

It was a printed mail from Richard Trager to some Mr. Walsh to accept and process a patient through the treatment at Mount Massive Asylum until the time of the patient's death because of his delusions.

"...Thanks buddy." concluded Kirigiri, reading out loud the letter, she looked up only to see Naegi with wide eyes as he heard 'buddy', "Sorry…"

They looked for an exit out of the locker room and they found it on the other side. They were now in an illuminated hallway so Naegi deactivated the night vision to save battery. As they walked down the corridor, something caught their nose. A smell.

"Can you smell that?" asked Naegi.

"Yes… Fire." The detective answered.

The saw the faint orange glow from the fire they were smelling shining through a top window on their left. They thought it was for the best not to go inside that room… but they saw that the window was open, smoke coming out of it, and worst a trail of blood was leading inside the room… They must go in. All doors around them were locked and blocked. They had no choice.

They stood under the window. They could hear the fire burning stuff on the other side. They just hoped it wasn't a big fire and just some morons burning stuff in a small scale. They look at each other.

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

And both jumped, grabbing the edge to pull themselves to the other side and seeing what was there. The whole room was on fire. All the tables and chairs were on fire. It was a cafeteria. The moment they touched the ground, they huddled close to each other, not letting go of one another. Naegi filmed everything, while Kirigiri was holding unconsciously her hands close to her.

They walked around the burning room, being careful to not get too close to the fire. They met a patient sitting on a chair, a desolated look on his face. Half of it was burnt. He looked up at the couple and talked to them clearly, this man still had his mind intact, it seems.

" I had to burn it. All of it… Murkoff took so much from us… Used us. Turned us into these… things because nobody cares about a few forgotten lunatics…" he stated in a sad tone, "So let it burn… Burn the whole god damned thing down." he continued before looking at the couple, "Get out. If you want to leave… You can go through the kitchen…" he said as he pointed at the open doors leading to the kitchen behind him.

"But… There's stuff burning, we can go through!" said Naegi.

"I don't care… Not my problem anymore…" sighed the man before falling silent, staring at the fire he made.

They turned around, understanding he wouldn't do anything for them. Kirigiri whispered to Naegi that they must extinguish the fire with the sprinklers system, but they must turn it on first. He agreed and they walked through the blazing room. They noticed while walking a pile of guard corpses burning with the rest of the furniture, but it didn't seem that the Pyromaniac they talked to was the culprit since most of them had their head ripped off.

They eventually found an exit and walked through it. It leaded them to a hallway and they took it, but then they saw the wall of furniture blocking the passage, there was a gap large enough for them to squeeze through it, they had a bad feeling of déjà vu as they went through it. Behind the wall of the room they found the switch to activate the sprinklers, but it needed two valves to be turned on. They had a very bad feeling about this.

As they walked inside a larger dark room, they suddenly heard it. And their heart started to beat faster from fear. They huddled in a the corner of the dark room and saw the giant man entering the room, his chains echoing around. Chris Walker…

"You gotta be fucking kidding me…" Naegi whispered very lowly.

"I know you're in here, little pigs…" growled the monster, "I'll find you…" and he walked away.

They saw a panel on the wall behind him and there was a valve for the bathroom. Once they heard him walk away, they walked silently toward the bathroom, thankfully there was a wall of furniture with a space that will block the passage for the big guy. Naegi went first then Kirigiri, but before she was halfway in, sounds of chains were heard.

"Finally found you, little pigs!" Chris roared as he grabbed the lavender haired woman by her collar and threw her across the small corridor they were in.

She hit the ground and before she could groan in pain, a shadow fell on her, she looked up to see the towering Variant glaring down at her. Her face kept all emotions of fear down, but her eyes betrayed her as she was looking at him with wide frightened eyes. She knew how he killed his victims, and she didn't want to suffer the same fate. When he started to reach his hand to her chest, she started to kick herself away.

"Don't touch her you BASTARD!" shouted Naegi as he raised a chair in the air and slammed it down on the monster's back.

Chris didn't even flinch and grabbed the chair behind him. His already disfigured face contorted even more into a furious look. He roared in anger as he looked back, expecting to see the other detective trembling in fear. But the brunette was already squeezing through the wall of furniture. He looked back and saw that the female detective was gone. He trembled in anger and let out a deafening roar.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU WHORES!"

He heard the door leading to the Laundry Room being opened. He looked towards it to see the woman running inside. He gave chase.

Kirigiri quickly closed the door behind her and looked for a place to hide, there was no place to hide in this laundry room but she saw another open door, and she dashed inside as she heard Chris Walker approaching. As she entered this adjacent room she saw to her left another room, but the contents were very important. The valve! She ran to it and turned it. Now she just needed to hope that Naegi found the other one.

"Little pig…" groaned the Variant from behind the door.

She quickly looked around and hid inside one of the two lockers. Chris entered her room after destroying the door. She was trapped.

Naegi looked through the space between the furniture, hoping that Kirigiri was fine. He knew she was alright, she ran away as soon Walker was distracted and he saw her mouthing 'go' when she ran. So he has to find that valve. He entered the bathrooms.

It was a long corridor with multiple bathtubs. All filled with blood and two of them with a corpse inside. One of these corpses though had a living Variant next to him, washing it. The Variant had wide disturbing eyes. He heard Naegi so he looked up to him.

"You can be next if you're a good little baby." he smiled at the brunette who shivered, he turned back to the corpse and started rubbing its chest, "There you go… We cleaned your belly, cleaned your arm. Every little crevice until we find the key… I know one of you babies has it. There you go, shh, shh." he whispered in a chant as he kept rubbing, reaching down.

Naegi looked away in disgust and walked down the hallway, he really hated this place… at the end of the hallway was a room, but most important was the panel right next to the door: 'Sprinklers valve'! He ran inside and turned the valve, now he needed to go meet up with Kirigiri as soon as possible!

He ran down the hallway but the Variant shouted at him.

"Can you be quiet!?" then turned his head toward the corpse again, "No complaining now, the other baby is just impatient, but we have to wash every little part. Who's a clean baby? Who's a clean baby? Yes you are. Yes. There we go… Shhhh." he whispered again before resuming his disturbing act.

Naegi walked out of the room and squeezed out of the furniture wall before letting out a loud shout to attract Chris. He ran and hid in the corner of the dark room right next to him.

Chris heard the shout and immediately ran towards the source, Kirigiri used that moment to escape and ran toward the room with the Sprinklers switch, she met Naegi halfway. They refrained themselves to hug each other since Chris was still around. Kirigiri stood outside the room to look out for the big Variant and Naegi activated the sprinklers. Suddenly it started to rain, the sprinklers were working!

But they were not done yet! The big fucking guy emerged from the corner.

"Little pigs!" he roared as he started to chase them.

The couple quickly squeezed themselves through the other furniture wall leading to the cafeteria and they were safe, for now. Chris roared an insult at them before turning away. They did it! They can go now through the kitchen! The kitchen was being soaked by the sprinklers but it was now in total darkness. Naegi grabbed Kirigiri's hand and guided her through the once blazing cafeteria. The Pyromaniac was gone, but if he was dead, his corpse was nowhere to be seemed. They reached the kitchen.

But after two steps in, the Pyromaniac jumped out of nowhere and grabbed Naegi by his neck, yelling to him why they did that, Kirigiri punched him in the face so he could release her fiancé but the man in response punched the brunette before turning to his partner and punched her once too before running away.

The couple was struck into place for some seconds before saying in sync:

"Fuck this place."

Naegi looked at Kirigiri with wide eyes, not expecting a curse. They must now resume their journey as they walked around the kitchen, looking for the exit. Naegi realized it was the same kitchen where Trager ambushed them as he saw the dumbwaiter.

On a cooking table, they found the corpse of a patient chopped cleanly. His guts all out. They looked away in disgust but only to find a bowl… with fingers in it.

This vision made Naegi gag on the memories of Trager cutting his own fingers. He just hoped that his chopped fingers were not in this bowl. Kirigiri guided him out of the kitchen as she saw his reaction and they exited. They were now at the big hall and the brunette pointed at the opened double door at the end of the lobby, where EXIT was written with red neons above the door.

It was like last time; they could see the rain and hear the storms. They ran towards it but once they stood outside, reality struck them. They were now out of the building… but not of the asylum. This exit was just a signalization. They were now in the Courtyard.

The nightmare continues…

To be continued…

In the next chapter of Survival at Mount Massive…

"We… We're not out yet?..."

"Oh God help us! It's here!"

"The Walrider!"

"Wowowowowowow! NO!"

"Makoto! Listen to me!"

"Let's… just… rest a bit… okay?"

"Watch out…"