Omega's Decision - Dead Logic

The students were in their facility life again. The hallways of the facility stretched endlessly, It had long corridors on each sides. The sound of shoes echoed in the hallways. Students were moving in slow, tired groups, instructors passing them with files in hand, navy-blue suits crisp and perfect.

No one spoke loudly. Here, voices carried like whispers in a tomb.

A few students were walking with notebooks in their hands, some moved in pairs muttering equations, some were alone with their heads down. The air felt heavy inside, the smell of polished steel and antiseptic. It always reminded everyone that this place was not a school—it was a laboratory.

Gamma was in one of the hallways. His back was with the wall and arms crossed. He was staring up at the sealing. "Who was he? An imposter? A rogue instructor? Or worse… someone among the staff hiding a darker purpose?"

His eyes scanned the instructors as they passed. Every detail mattered—gestures, posture, tone. Gamma's mind was a net trying to catch a single crack in the façade. "There's something rotten here. Someone not so like the other teachers. I need to know."

Dinner Time

The dining hall had been changed quite a times through the previous years. This one was large, with a rectangular table at the center. Enough chairs for everyone. Yet, silence crawled in the room and it didn't take too long to happen. Half the tables were empty.

Delta sat down slowly, her eyes flicking over the vacant seats. No one had to tell her why. She saw the pattern. The ones who failed the trials were absent.

Her tray had less food than usual. It had half a portion of rice, half of the soup. They didn't even give her a glass of water. After doing good inside the facility, she was treated well. It had been a while since she faced the discrimination problem.

Across the room, Omega sat devouring his plate with intensity. He wasn't even looking around. He was just eating and eating.

Delta's stomach twisted. "Why him? They used loophole to win. We were the one who fought the most hard yet we..."Then her thought shifted. "To be honest, it was my fault for not thinking about it. There were no rule stating that you can't use loopholes."

Night Session

The hall lights dimmed. Students shuffled back to their rooms, some dragging their feet, others simply vanishing into the uniform rhythm of the facility.

But not Delta. Not Theta.

Their group was herded into another room, notebooks and chalk handed out. The instructors gave the order without explanation: "Night session."

Delta sat cross-legged on the cold floor, chalk in her hand. She began drawing squares, mapping out grids. Theta worked beside her, silent but focused. It was training in spatial recognition, discipline, and coordination.

She switched her chalk to her left hand. The lines grew shakier, but she persisted, forcing her brain to adapt. Every mistake earned her a sharp correction.

Morning

The bell rang at dawn, shrill and metallic. Students dragged themselves from their rooms.

Omega emerged late, his eyes ringed with heavy black markings from lack of sleep. He rubbed at his temples and muttered, "Stayed up all night…Ahh that monitor training really drained my brain!"

He moved like an overtime worked office worker. Dark spots could be seen under his eyes.

Then—

Everyone heard a scream through the hallway. A high-pitched, sharp voice filled with terror.

Pi, who was going to the classroom stopped midway. Hearing the voice made her stop. Then, she started running towards the source of the voice.

"it's an instructor. What happened?"

After taking a turn to a hallway, she found her. An instructor collapsed on the ground. Pi didn't need to use her sharp body language detection skills to understand. The instructor was trembling in fear, tears in her eyes, lips muttering but no voice.

Pi's heart hammered. She opened the door without thinking anything.

Inside—

Her breath stopped of what she saw. Her scream blasted off the walls.

Alpha was hanging from the ceiling, a rope was attached with his neck. His eyes half open but lifeless and his body was swinging slightly.

"ALPHA!"

Instructors rushed in. Gatherings, shouts, the stampede of shoes filled up the area. Some were trying to put the kids away. The words spread like fire: Alpha hung himself. A suicide.

Omega didn't go. He turned away from the commotion. Clenching his fist, he quickly went into his room. After entering, he locked it.

He was thinking of one question, "How did Alpha manage to get a rope? There is no place to get a rope here. Then how?"

He pulled out a box from under his bed, his fingers were trembling. He then opened it.

Inside lay a rope. His gaze got sharp when he found it but his mind snapped into motion.

"I knew it. These monsters! They are trying to cut off weaklings among us. First the card game, then the tower survival. Failing it will bring massive pain on our back. The instructors knew many students could not take it anymore. So they purposefully put a rope in our room's boxes, making suicide an option!"

Holding the rope, he couldn't think more ways to curse the instructors.

"Monsters. They don't care who survives. They just want the strongest."

His teeth ground together. "If I stay here any longer… I'll rot. Just like Alpha."

For the first time, a decision came in his mind. To escape.

In the afternoon on the rooftop

The rooftop was a open place. After passing entire day in the facility's four walls, the rooftop was the only place for them to get fresh air and sunlight. It was permitted as fresh air and sunlight is essential to be healthy.

Normally there was chatter, even games. Today there was only silence. No one could shake the image of Alpha's body. The air itself felt heavier.

Gamma was on a side edge of the rooftop, watching the sun going down bit by bit.

In his head, he was thinking about possible connections, "Do Alpha's death has anything to do with the black figure? Does someone want to destroy us from the inside? Only the guards here wear black suits yet that is nothing we saw. My investigation is also leading me to nowhere."

Delta crouched low, a chalk in hand, sketching on the cement. She was redrawing Alpha's room, diagramming it from memory. Though right-handed, she forced her left hand to hold the chalk, simulating the awkward motion Alpha might have used. Her face was pale, but her eyes stayed sharp.

"If I can reconstruct it, maybe I'll understand. Did he really choose this… or was he pushed?"

The sun was going down. It was looking half red. Its glow turning half the sky blood-red. Everyone's Shadow started stretching, becoming taller than themselves.

Omega was just standing there, watching the sunset. He went towards Delta and grabbed her hand.

Her chalk dropped. "Senpai?" she asked, startled.

He didn't answer. He just pulled her up gently and began walking.

She followed, confusion mixing with something warmer she couldn't name.

They reached Zeta after a few steps. Zeta was just sitting on the floor, head down. Omega without saying anything grabbed Zeta's left hand.

Zeta looked up, confused, but stood without saying anything.

Omega walked, one student on each side, holding their hands firmly. Together they started walking towards the edge of the rooftop, away from the crowd. The sun's dim red light covered them, three figures against the fire-colored horizon.

From the distance, Row was watching. To him it looked like an older brother leading two younger siblings to safety.

But Omega knew the truth. This is the last time. The last time he will see them like this.

---

That night, the facility trembled.

An instructor's body was discovered in the hallway, blood pooling beneath it. Another instructor discovered it while walking in the dark hallways with a torchlight. The shock spread like a wild fire. No one expected what came next.

Loud footsteps could be heard from a hallway. It was getting faster and faster, louder and louder. A boy was running with a blood painted knife in his hand.

After running for a few times and passing gateways, he found the room he was looking for. The control room. Without hesitation, he entered in it. It was a chamber lined with screens and consoles. With shaking hands, he slammed the knife down and began typing furiously. Data cascaded across the monitors. There were graphs, maps, hidden records.

"Now this… this is where my training comes in handy," Omega muttered, his eyes darting across twenty screens at once.

Alarms blared. The door slammed open.

Two guards in black suits stormed in, guns raised. "You there! Stop right now!"

Omega didn't stop. He yanked a laptop off the desk, charging forward.

BANG! A shot rang out. The bullet slammed into the laptop, sparks flying. The screen shattered, smoke hissing. Omega hurled it at the guard's face. The laptop exploded in a burst of short-circuit sparks, burning the man's skin.

"AHHH!" The guard shrieked, clawing at his face.

"My eyes!"

The burst basically made him blind.

The second guard aimed, but Omega took cover behind a desk. He quickly came up with a strategy to survive. He pulled out a pen and tightened it in his wrist. He threw it but not at the guard, but off to the side.

Clink! It hit the blinded guard.

He heard the sound and panicked.

"There you are!"

He fired blindly from the way the pen came, the gunshots echoing.

But the bullets didn't hit Omega. They tore into his comrade instead who was in front of him.

"GAH!" The second guard collapsed, screaming.

The blinded man froze, realizing too late. He dropped beside his fallen ally, frantic. "Sam! Hey, Sam! Talk to me! Somebody, HELP!" His hands were shaking. The floor got painted in his comrade's blood. He was blind, panicked, lost.

Omega didn't waste a second. Instantly after getting a chance, he made a run for the exit with a knife still painted with blood.

"I'm not gonna end up like Alpha. I'll carve my way out. Yes! I have a chance!"

Chapter 27 - Omega's Decision