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.