July 22, 2175
6:00 P.M.
The numerous officers surrounded Jack's car, their guns at the ready, waiting for a chance to strike at the intruder if he came out to be an enemy. The more time passed, the more their suspicion rose.
Jack was inside the car, his left biceps clutched tightly in his right hand, a Kana hand gripping tightly on his left arm. He looked at Diana, her face pale and sweaty from concern. Jack gave her a smile and nodded.
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
"Graaahhh," he groaned.
Jack pulled his arm forward, his right hand clutching his left biceps securely. He then manifested another Kana arm and used it to strike sharply with a large force on his elbow. There was a loud crack, followed by groans of pain from Jack as he tried to stifle the cries that threatened to surface because of the blinding pain. After a few seconds, the pain subsided, and with a final meaningful smile at Diana, he put on his helmet and got out of the car.
The officers aimed their guns at him. He raised his hands above him.
"Identification," the officer standing at the center barked.
Jack told them the credentials. One of the officers entered the details in his wristband and nodded.
After seeing his nod, the officers lowered their guns. Then the center one said, "You are verified. Now tell me, why did you take so much time getting out?"
Jack stretched out his left hand, his arm below the elbow dangling lifelessly.
"I think you can see why, or are you just blind? Of course I would take time getting out. It hurts like hell," Jack said in an annoyed tone.
"I see. Very well. Follow me," they said.
Jack looked back in the car and nodded softly. He took out the button camera and stuck it on his helmet.
As they approached the door, the officer turned and said, "Don't take your helmet off, even when you are in the bathroom. It smells like shit inside."
"What do you mean?"
"See for yourself," he said, pushing the door open and waiting for him to enter.
The hospital, the place that serves as a border between life and death, is always characterized by the same sterile environment, air full of the smell of medicines, and a subtle whirring of machines in the air. But when Jack entered the hospital, all he saw was another evidence of the monstrosity of the Ortho Sapiens.
Jack entered the hospital. The corridors were clean, with just stains of blood like those at the mall. He looked at the officer, wondering what he was talking about.
"Don't get too excited now. Go look inside any one of the rooms."
Jack obliged. He strode towards one of the rooms and opened the door.
"Oh my God," he gasped, looking at the disturbing sight in front of him.
The room was the general patient lobby, lined with beds and normal equipment along the walls. The room in which one usually sees normal patients meeting up with their loved ones, but this time, this room was nothing less than something straight out of a horror movie. Children, women, men—people of all ages were lying there, dead. Some were huddled in a corner, lying on top of each other, probably as they retreated to the corner to escape. The victims were just lying there, dead and covered in blood. Bullet marks covered their bodies.
The shock and sadness filling Jack's mind slowly turned into fury and disgust. He clenched his fist, some energy radiating out of him even after he tried his best to control it.
"Hey, you alright?" the officer walked to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Jack jumped back to reality. He wanted to rip every Ortho Sapien there apart, make them pay, but then he remembered that he was responsible for Diana's safety too now. He breathed out heavily, trying his best to act calm.
"Ye—yeah. I was just shocked a bit. Why didn't they clear the bodies?" he said, looking at the officer.
"Well, as you might've heard, the higher-ups are going to demolish the Kratian hospitals and make something new on them. They decided it wasn't worth it to clean the bodies. They're just gonna demolish the building and build anew on it."
"I see. That's a worthy insight," Jack said as he bit into his lip, trying to calm himself down.
"Yeah. Dead don't need medicines or hospitals. They need graveyards, and they'll get one as they get buried in the rubble," the officer said, laughing.
Jack nodded silently as he held back the urge to kill the guy in front of him.
"Now then, let's get that arm of yours fixed."
The officer escorted him to the medic room, where an Ortho Sapien medic was sitting, looking outside the window. He didn't have his helmet on. As he turned, Jack saw his face—a man of about 40 years of age, his eyes tired yet full of experience.
The officer filled him in on the situation. The medic gave a soft nod and asked Jack to sit.
"Hmm. Dislocated elbow, quite clean. Did you get into a fight?" the doctor said, squinting.
"Yeah, we spotted a Kratian. He had the body-strengthening Ikanami. So it was quite the battle. We made it out though. Zero casualties," Jack lied.
"I see."
The doctor stretched the broken arm. He straightened it. The dislocated bone was sliding beside the bone it was connected to, visible as a sharp bump on his hand. The doctor tugged his arm quite hard, and the bone fell back into place, leaving Jack groaning in pain.
"All right, that's taken care of. Don't move the arm for a while," he instructed. Jack nodded, and he slumped into a chair because of the continuous pestering from the doctor.
A doctor—someone who is supposed to save lives—was working with the terrorists. Those terrorists who had committed genocide and had almost wiped a whole race from a planet with a plan that had been in the making for more than a decade. Jack's mind filled with disgust as he looked at the doctor peacefully smoke a cigarette after giving Jack some painkillers.
"I should go patrolling now. Idling around makes me uneasy," Jack said fifteen minutes later.
"All right. Use a handgun for now," the doctor instructed.
Jack got out of the ward and headed to the bathroom. When he was finally inside the cubicle, he took out a healing syrup and drank it. His elbow muscles felt like they twisted and churned, making him feel stings throughout his arm. When it was finally over, he slid the now fully working arm back into the fiber splint. He took out the button camera from the helmet and turned it towards him, giving a small smile and then putting it back on.
Meanwhile, Diana was flushed as she saw him enter the bath.
"Remove the camera, idiot. I don't want you flashing me," she muttered, putting her hands over her eyes.
But when she saw what Jack was doing, she relaxed, and when she saw Jack's teasing smile, she couldn't help but give a small laugh.
"You lil—" she muttered. Her eyes hadn't left the screen even for a second ever since Jack entered the building, her heart racing with worry and shock as she saw the dark scenes inside the hospital.
Jack started moving around the hospital, opening every door to make a strategy. He wanted to do something that would serve as payback to these terrorists and a small gesture of sadness to his kin that was lying dead around him.
Diana's eyes widened in shock and disgust when Jack entered the pregnancy ward, her heart threatening to jump out of her chest. The weight of the innocent lives that were taken there was just too much. Blood littered the floor and the bodies of the doctors that were performing delivery of the children were lying beside the beds of the patients. They had shot them during operation. The mothers were also dead, their children too. A few unborn children were stuck in the birth canal, their heads poking out from the bodies of the mothers.
Jack closed the door swiftly, panting. He turned around, determined as he had finally figured out a plan.
7:30 P.M.
The sun had set, the hospital was enshrouded in darkness, yet there was no sign of electricity. Jack wondered the reason behind it as he looked around the place. There had been no electricity except a few battery-powered devices like sirens and such. Jack thought they didn't turn the lights on because it was day, but now as the corridors were filled with darkness, he wondered why no electricity was up. He took out his flashlight and started moving again.
The hospital siren blared and a voice came out from it:
"All personnel come down to the ground floor main hall to get your dinner. Then you will be assigned patrolling duties by the commander."
The voice echoed through the empty halls that were ringing with dead silence.
When he entered the main hall, he saw a queue; all the officers were lining up to a table to grab the canned food being distributed. Three officials were seated at the table. One of them was the doctor and one of them was distributing the cans. The third person didn't have their helmet on, like the doctor, and considering how everyone bowed to him before taking the food, Jack realized he must be the commander. Jack joined the queue, slowly moving forward to the table.
The doctor was busy with a register. When Jack finally reached the table, the doctor grumbled, "Identification," he said without even looking up. Jack told him his credentials. The doctor looked through the list on the page and then said, "Strange, I don't find anyone called Xeudify here," he muttered as he finally looked up.
The doctor scanned Jack, and when he saw the splint, his squinting eyes relaxed and he said, "Ahh, it's you. No wonder we don't have you here. Give him the food, he is a comrade."
Jack took the food and bowed to the commander as he held back the urge to kill that man on the spot. After all, he must've headed so many killings.
Jack's hunger had died after seeing such disturbing scenes, yet he had to eat, to show he was one of these monsters. As Jack turned, he could overhear the doctor telling the commander about him. He sighed and started walking toward a table nearby, hoping to overhear some other stuff. He did manage to catch some talk about the Ninth Chair looking for the body of a psychic Ikanami user.
Jack pushed up his mouthpiece, the scent of heavy room freshener filling up his nostrils. He slowly began to eat, observing the people around him as he worked on his plans.
He curled his fists into a thumbs up on the table, knowing Diana would be seeing the screen at the moment.
As everyone finished eating, the commander ordered them to stand in lines. Jack followed the order. The doctor handed the commander a register, and he began reciting orders of patrol locations to officers.
The assigning ended and all the officials moved out, leaving Jack, the commander, and the doctor in the room. The doctor nodded to the commander and he headed out too.
"Why are you still standing here, officer?" the commander barked.
"I didn't get assigned any duties, sir," Jack said loudly.
"Ahh, are you the outsider? You are injured. You can rest if you want," the commander said gruffly.
"No, sir. I want to patrol, sir. Idling around makes me uneasy, sir."
"A good answer, officer. Your enthusiasm is astounding. Go patrol the second floor then."
"Yes, sir," Jack said as he left the room.
He bit his lip. The medicines were stored on the ground floor, but then again, he can't have everything spoon-fed to him by luck, and he needed to head to the top floor at the end anyway.
"Will have to do the plan in reverse, I guess," he sighed, considering the danger it brought.
He walked to the top floor. He slid into his item pouch to take out a concealing field generator, an object similar to the purifiers they used to purify the radiations, but in this case, it helped with stealth.
It converted the infrared radiation around the body—except the eyes—into Kana energy, making him invisible to night vision goggles. He put the small device on his chest and tapped the button on it. A thin layer of fibres and wires spread over him and started to do its work.
He walked over to a mirror and put his own night vision goggles on. He was looking like a hovering pair of thin spectacles. He reached out to the fibre over the button camera and ripped it off, allowing Diana to be able to see through again.
Jack sighed and started his plan.
The hospital had a basement, a ground floor, and two upper floors. Each floor had an incineration ward used to dispose of unrecognized bodies and waste. Thus, there was incineration fuel there too. He slid inside the storage and opened the valves of every hydrogen cylinder inside. He knew how risky it was—one little spark and an explosion would happen.
Diana saw what Jack was doing, her face turned pale as she tried to comprehend what Jack was planning. But as she saw Jack's thumbs up again, she had to assure herself this is Jack that they were talking about—the person whose strategies surprised even the teachers. She bit her lip, thinking what was going to happen.
Jack sneaked around the floor, opening the doors slightly to allow the gas to uniformly distribute itself throughout the floor. The windows were closed and airtight, proving it easier to spread the fuel around. He did the same to the lower floors, avoiding the few officers that were awake. A lot of others had fallen asleep on the benches, patient beds, etc.
Jack eventually entered the basement. He first opened the fuel valves there and headed to the medicine storage.
"The failure of the safety system is proving to be a blessing," he muttered before he entered the storage.
Huge shelves, about 15 feet in height, were arranged along the walls, filled with various medicines—most of them specialized for Kratian bodies.
Medicine serves like an elixir in desperate times like the ones he was going through. He planned a heist, and the plan was slowly falling into place. He quickly took out his item pouch and started emptying shelves of medicine into it.
He weaved his energy through the various bottles, pills, and tools that filled the shelves and emptied them into the pouch, his heart racing at the happiness of success. He was so engrossed in his task that he didn't even sense an officer come into the room.
The officer gave a small scream as he saw the medicines flying in the air—after all, Jack was invisible to night vision. The officer took off his helmet, rubbed his eyes, and put it back on. In the meantime, Jack quickly stuffed the medicines he was holding with his energy into the pouch and dashed out of sight. He took off his stealth suit and slowly emerged from behind the shelf, stretching.
"Waaaah~ What's wrong, comrade? You gave me a fright," he said, yawning.
"There—there were medicines flying up in the air," the man said, a hint of fear in his voice.
"Don't be ridiculous. Are you sure your night vision goggles are okay?"
The officer said nothing; he was too busy observing Jack, who had his left arm in a splint, his right hand on a handgun.
"Tell me, officer, what's an officer who was supposed to be patrolling the second floor doing here?" he finally said, his voice full of confusion as he recognized Jack from his injury.
Jack was alarmed. He tried to manage the flow of the conversation, his eyes staring dangerously at the officer's gun. One shot and I will be buried under metres of rubble. Will be a real chore getting up, Jack thought.
"Well, I got bored and wanted some fresh air. The top floors reek of rotting flesh," Jack said, his right hand slowly reaching into the item pouch that he had tucked into his belt quickly.
"I see. But I didn't hear you enter. Why did you sneak inside?" the officer said as he folded his left arm, his hand resting near a button on his neck—the button used for alerting emergencies.
"I didn't want anyone reporting my slacking off," Jack said, giving a small laugh. His hands clutched tightly around the handle of Kazekiri. He slowly began to pull it out of the bag and kept it at the ready, his eyes on the neck of the officer in front, Kazekiri half unsheathed, Jack's energy coursing through the blade, ready to be drawn for an attack at any instant.
"Fair enough," the officer said.
They stood there in silence for a second. Then there was a burst of movement—the officer quickly pressed the buzzer with his left hand and pulled out a handgun with his right. As he aimed at Jack, Jack pulled out Kazekiri and slashed, cutting off the officer's right arm. He turned around, not letting the momentum of the swing die. He swung again as he faced the officer, this time claiming the head, which fell down with a loud thud echoing down the hall.
"Shit, shit, shit," Jack muttered. He had prioritized taking the advanced medicines first, and there was only one shelf remaining, that was full of items for first aid.
Jack bit his lip, debating what to do, when the sound of alarms blared throughout the building.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Suspected intruder found in the medicine ward by Patroller 34, whose vitals are now offline. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill! All personnel, gather your arms and head to the basement." The commander's voice echoed through the building through the siren.
"Well shit, now I am getting a welcoming party," Jack thought bitterly.
He looked at his watch. 11:45 P.M. The gas must've distributed throughout the building now.
He supplied more energy into Kazekiri. The blade emanated a soft glow, visible flames around it. Violent sparks crackled throughout its length, silently yet lethally.
"Let's do this," Jack muttered with a sigh as he heard the footsteps closing in on him.