Slim chance, slimmer hope.
After the disappointment of the managers office, there was nothing for a while. Days went by. The timer on the door counted them. It said two hundred and nine days. You entered around twenty seven days. It has been one hundred and eighty two days, or roughly six months.
For the first time, you can hear something outside.
The walls were thick and metal, so even the sound of rain would not get through. But this time, when close to a few different spots where the walls were thin, you could hear sounds outside the hotel. It wasnât rain, nor the sound of people. It was like something inhuman and ferocious was tearing the building apart, and pieces were clanging against the walls. The faintest sound of winds faster than you can possibly imagine can be heard when close to the iron door with a timer.
It was dinner time when the power flickered out. It never occurred to most that a hotel as big as this one didnât have _any_ generators at all- it was nearly pitch black. Luckily, most students had spent enough time wandering the hotel that they knew it by heart. Unluckily, the elevator was clearly not going to work, and there were no stairs.
Or so they all thought.
The mutters and chatter of the students was interrupted by a cry from akemi, who sounded hopeful for the first time in months. Near the elevator, she had found something strange.
A door that had never showed signs of being capable of opening was unlocked.
Haruki blindly moved toward the sound of Akemiâs voice. It was⌠really scary, not being able to see. Especially because in order to move in his wheelchair, he really couldnât do a lot to feel around with his hands for shit that could KILL him.
God I hate stairs⌠Situations like this? They reminded him of things like that.
But⌠there really wasnât much of a choice now, anyway.
He drew in a deep breath, hoping his determination could carry him through, even though his face was still gaunt and pale from sickness, and his whole body was on fire, sticky with sweat. As he neared Akemi, Haruki stiffened in shock.
âIshikawa⌠we should go in.â he said without a second thought, narrowing his eyes into the sheer darkness as he gripped the side of the opened door with his left hand. It was really open. He⌠would never have thought something like this could happen. But⌠if it had, it had to mean something important for all of them. âI⌠donât know what weâll find, butâŚâ Haruki looked toward where he could faintly hear her breathing, then turned back to where he came from. ââŚIs everyone here? The door⌠is unlocked. Letâs go.â
She could hardly speak, only stroking the side of the door as if to assure herself it was real. "An electronic lock....", she whispered, in awe of the whole thing. It took a few seconds for he to process what Haruki said to her. She nodded in response at first, then remembered he couldn't see that and spoke. "Yeah... but we can't see down there. There's stairs upwards, I think, and something else to the right?" She pulled the door open wider with one hand and reached for Haruki with the other, nervous and wanting the reassurance of a friend. "I don't want to go in there alone in the dark..." She trailed off, finding his wheelchair and holding onto the metal for support. "Do you want to investigate with me?" @un-luckster
