Chapter 14:
7:30 am.
"So back here again, huh…"
Chika looks up to the castle.
A castle made of brick and mortar. A traditional looking castle found in every fairy tale ever existed.
North of Planeptune is a castle that sits alone on an island in the middle of a heart shaped lake. The brick and mortar, the wooden double doors, the four watchtowers, and the keep in the middle watches her every breath, her every sweat, her every strand of hair. As if judging her; telling her that her tainted presence and soul are not worthy before the crown that dwells inside.
Chika's artificial arm and leg twitches a little. That twitch sends a signal through the optical cable that's connected to her nerves. And it then sends it to her brain for processing.
"Phantom pain, huh…" before this, she thought it was some psychological effect for thinking that her artificial arm is her real arm, or some quack hocus pocus from her doctors. But experiencing some sort of pain convinces her that it's real.
"Who knew it was real…" she mumbles to herself as she rotates her artificial arm.
Shaking off the feeling, she walks up to the double doors and pushes it open.
The sunlit green themed, circular marbled hall welcomes her. The large circular hall is lit by 4 torches attached to equally 4 Tuscan pillars along the edges of the hall. The marble floor tiles consist of 4 shades of color: amaranth, pear, cardinal, and olive, which they alternate in that order. The green equally marbled walls are littered with coffee-colored insignias. Asserting to would-be guests the current royal family.
At the back of the hall, at the 2 o'clock angle, is the only connecting hall towards the many other rooms that the castle holds.
"…"
She stands in the middle, taking it all in. Her artificial arm and leg twitching uncontrollably. A small itchy pain tickles her.
"Tch…!"
Clicking her tongue, she walks to the only connecting hall.
The sun is above the horizon, sunlight peers through the hallway, leaking to the circular hall where she was before. Her steps rhyme with her heartbeat, the heat from the rising sun mixes with her own, her breathing is calm, unhindered. Her pupils shrink, allowing less light to enter.
She feels calm yet excited. A strange feeling. Like a kid knowing that she's going to ace the exam, but can't help but feel elevated to tell her parents back at home how confident she is in getting a 100. Or like she's excited to go home after long hours of work to play all the games she has backlogged.
It was exciting. She knows she's this close.
It's exciting to see her again. The excitement to see the person which her soul yearns for. Her blonde hair that seems to cleanse her heart, her blue eyes that drowns her, a voice akin to a concerto, her warm breath that baptizes her. The beating of her heart that kills and reborns her with each beat. She can experience all those things again, with no interruption this time. And with no one else to turn her attention to.
The corner at the end of the hall approaches her, she turns left, only to be met by a stone staircase that goes a few meters down.
The north star she's been following is almost there.
She heads down the staircase, her steps echo sinisterly on the landing that's lit by a single torch.
The thorn in her heart is almost pulled out.
A single wooden door is right in front of her.
Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more.
In familiar steps, she pushed open the door.
Almost there! ALMOST THERE!
"–!"
Dammit!
Why?
Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!
Why!?
Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!
WHY!?
GODDAMMIT! GODDAMMIT! GODDAMMIT! GODDAMMIT!
IT WAS SO DAMN CLOSE!
GOD-MOTHER FUCKING-DAMMIT!
LADY V–!
"HIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEEEEEEEE!"
3:39 pm.
"Damn… they're checking the forest" IF curses.
In a way, she should have expected this. About a few meters away from her, at least 4 Spec Ops are going through the forest that surround this village. She was hoping to get to the hospital through this route. But jumping out this early is going to make this infiltration task a tad more difficult.
With IF's guide, both she and Compa jump out of the forest into an alley between 2 houses. At the end of the alley, is a guard standing by watching the road. Seeing a giant trash bin, she tells Compa to open up the lid.
IF pulls out her knife, grabs hold of his mouth, pulls him in using her weight, and stabs him through the neck. The soldier struggles, trying to reach for the radio on his chest. However, she has him pinned by having her legs wrapped around him, arms and all.
"Mmmmmm…!"
He starts to shake violently, trying to make any sort of noise.
In her annoyance of his tenacity, she digs the knife deeper and twists it. Letting blood flow through his breathing valve, drowning his lungs in his own blood. Slowly losing strength, she too slowly reduces the grip of her legs around his torso. And with one last squirm, the soldier finally goes limp.
She quickly loots his body, taking his combat knife, radio, and his P226 and a couple of his extra magazines. While the rifle is tempting, it's not going to help her in any way.
Noticing that she's taken too much time. She stands, pulls the soldier up to her shoulder, grips his thighs, and lifts him up using her knees. She guides his ass towards the open bin and drops him down ass first. He folds like a puppet forcibly pushed into a tight space.
After seeing the soldier neatly tucked in along with his paraphernalia, she closes the lid and quickly hugs and peeks at the adjacent road to her left.
They're on the west side of the main road. The main road is in the middle of the village. She had hoped to get near to the hospital through the forest and thickets that surround the place. But with them scouting, and the risk of noise via stepping on a twig is high, she had to get out of the forest and sneak in via the urban route.
The hospital is situated on top of a small hill, not a hill where it takes forever to climb, but it's more akin to describing it as a slight elevation on a patch of land. This makes the hospital both easy to spot and hard to infiltrate and exit.
Because, it only has one entrance and exit, and for sure there are guards guarding the entrance. She could just climb up the hill, but the hill's side is coated in cement. So, making any attempt to climb it in the middle of the day like this makes her look like an ant on a white piece of paper.
On the road adjacent to her, she sees 2 soldiers taking a stroll, both taking a cigarette and presumably chatting about something. They're at least 2 corners away from them. Should they wait for them to pass? No. They're still very much at the edge of the village, right next to the trees and bushes that surround this place. It won't take long for the soldiers that are scouting the forest to get to their position and spot them.
"Compa, we're crossing the road. Can you keep up?"
"Just don't run too fast, Iffy"
"I'll try"
IF peeks again, the 2 soldiers that are distracted with their chat, not minding the road ahead of them. The moment she realizes this, she grabs a hold of Compa's arm and sprints off to the house on the other side of the road.
"…?"
"What?"
"Nah… I think I saw something crossing the road…"
"Didn't see nothing"
"Hmm…"
"Phew… that was close" IF exhales in relief. It's a good thing they ran fast enough, or they would've been caught.
"Geez Iffy, I told you not to run so fast"
"Ahahaha. Sorry, sorry. C'mon, we need to get moving, we're out in the open here…"
After picking themselves up, they reenter the alley of the current block they're at.
IF takes out the radio she got from the soldier she just killed. She rips out the receiver and turns off the radio entirely, finding a trash bin, she dumps the broken radio.
"You still okay there Compa?" she asked the nurse.
"Mhm. But I'm a bit tired… Ehehehe" she dryly laughs.
"If it gets too tiring, I'll carry you on my back"
"Thanks. But I can handle a few more…"
"Atta girl. It's only a few blocks away, we get in, and get out just as quickly. Then you can rest in the truck"
"Mhm. Okay..."
"Let's get moving"
From the outside, the village houses are all undisturbed, still sporting that playful candy like feature. It's as if it was just any ordinary day. As if waiting for their masters to return home and bring them to life. However, trails of red liquid can be seen inside through the windows. Splattered all around the walls, furniture, and floor like abstract art painted by a crazy man.
As they move close to the hospital, Spec Ops coming out of the homes carrying body bags are becoming frequent. She can tell from their grunts and comments, and the amount of blood dripping through the body bag, that it's not a pretty sight.
"Hm–!"
After crossing another street, and re-entering another alley, IF immediately hugs the wall of a house, taking a corner peek at the main road. They're now just a block away from the hospital, however, something just caught her eye.
In the middle of the 4-lane rough road of the main road, are bodies inside black body bags laid in neat parallel order with the ground. They're spaced out just a few centimeters away from one another. She counts over 50 bodies, signaling to her that there are more bodies than there are survivors.
"Damn, I don't understand this…" a Spec Op soldier said as he put down a body with his buddy.
"About how they died?" his buddy responds.
"Yeah. No force entry, not even any evidence that they sneaked in, but they all died just like a monster just fucking appeared. Plus, everyone in the village is dead in a single night"
"Dunno man. Everything's been strange. This whole damn war is strange. Them turning into those things. So, I'm not surprised this whole incident happened"
"But… there's not even a single one of them here…"
"Well, another mystery for another time. C'mon, less talk, more stuff"
They walk away.
Unbeknownst to them, IF and Compa are in the alley right next to them during the entire conversation, hidden behind a trash a well-placed trash bin. The brunette contemplates on what they said.
'The entire village got wiped out last night?' those words hung in her throat like an old disease she can't get rid of. And the way they mentioned them turning to those things. Means only one thing.
"…" her brain jumps into a million conclusions, trying to disprove her hypothesis. But how could she disprove that? She doesn't know about their nature. No, in fact, she really doesn't know anything at all. They all just came to be, appearing out of the blue like divine punishment.
She looks at the nearest body bag in front of her. Staring at it hard, as if praying, hoping that it's not what she thinks. The whisper from her companion doesn't reach her ears. IF simply stares at the black bag that contains nothing more than fleshy meat.
It moved.
'Shit…!'
It's going to happen all over again.
That nightmare.
*GUHI!*
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