Alice in Borderland

Chapter 37 - The Hospital

We didn't have to stay in the hospital for too long. Ann has noted down some file names, which I then search for from the archive. The others collect useful things such as antibiotics, dressings, sedatives, disposable gloves and some blood cans.

I try to focus on the tasks that Ann gives me instead of seeing Chishiya. As I thought, we don't talk a word to each other, but I honestly don't know what I could say to him after this morning. About the weather or how mood-enhancing but dimly lit hospitals are? never.

"Why do you need the medical records?"

"For my research," she begins, always naming me new names, "I want to find out where they implanted the chips. The medical records help me with the exclusion procedure."

"Understand. And who is ready for the experiments?"

"Nobody. You help me cut up two more corpses later"

Wait, what? I look at her with a mixture of disgust and wonder, which she dismisses with a little grin.

"You haven't eaten anything today?" she jokes, but somehow a serious undertone resonates. I look at her for a moment mutely with my mouth slightly open, before I just turn around and dig into the files. I would say this is an interesting lunch program that Ann has thought about for both of us. I feel their side-view, but I say nothing. If she wants something, she will get out of it when she finds the right words.

'I'm sorry it's right today. After what happened to Norikita"

"I'm just glad her body wasn't thrown into the big container behind the hotel or is now lying on such a metal table"

I feel Ann's compassionate gaze, but I dodge it. I probably don't want to know what happened to Norikita's body. I should just remember her as she was. I hand over the last file to the woman from the list and close the cupboards again.

"And where do you think these tracking implants are?"

'I think they're in the head or chest. The risk of losing a leg or an arm in a game is too high"

"You've experienced something like this before?" I ask her as I try to keep up with her.

"More than you might guess," she looks around to make sure we can talk undisturbed, "You should be more careful with him"

Surprised, I stop next to her and only now notice her serious gaze. Seconds from fractions later, I catch myself again, I want to answer something or ask her what she actually means, but she interrupts me right away.

"Chishiya. I don't know what he did in your room this morning, but you must never forget what his specialties are: heart games"

I had already forgotten that. A heart game is about playing with the hearts of other participants. To do this, you have to be manipulative and insidious, and according to the stories, this kind of game Chishiya must be really easy.

I just nod to Ann and look around nervously. Am I really behaving so conspicuously? I mean, I'm behaving as always. I only now realize that I'm holding the rubber ball and turning it playfully.

"Hey Ann, I want to look for something again. Do we make a meeting place?"

"In 10minutes in the underground car park?"

"Perfect"

I walk to the stairwell and climb down the whole floors. Since the electricity is not possible and therefore the elevators have failed, I have to take a detour. I don't have keys for the door to the staff aisle, so I go to the last elevator and put the door open. The elevators in this hospital have two sides. On the one hand the visitors come and go, on the other side there are the changing rooms and private rooms of doctors, nurses and nurses. Exactly this side I open a gap wide and slip through. I know exactly what room I'm driving, after all, my mother used to take me here.

I enter the nurses' locker room 3 and search the spines for the right name. Arakida. Damn, there's a lock hanging. I quickly look around the room and grab the fire extinguisher. I bang it three times as hard I can on the lock until it tears off. I get a little bit injured on my index finger, because I feel it immediately pulsating and i see a little blood. I put the fire extinguisher behind me and open the locker. I sit on the tip of my toes and feel for something at the back of the compartment.

When I feel the delicate paper on my skin, I pull out the photo. I have to remember who I am and sort my thoughts. For the moment everything becomes too much for me and this photo of me and my mom calms me down. I must have been about five years old when the photo was taken. I wear a white-orange summer dress and smile broadly into the camera. My hands hold my mother and my little sun hat flies away. It's probably the last happy photo of us, everyone else after that was just put. My mother never admitted it, but that the photo here is in her spin proves that she knew it.

A smile forms on my lips and I feel better. What such a small, inconspicuous object can do? That always amazes me.

"What is this?"

I shrug and hide the picture behind the locker door. Innocently, I look up to the one and realize that it is none other than Chishiya. Of course he has to be. But Ann's words don't go out of my mind, so I decide to keep the picture for myself.

"Nothing," I simply answer and put the picture back in place. It is safer here than in the beach.

"What happened to your hand?"

I only now notice that I am bleeding a little more than I thought and I am just waving. I run to the faucet and keep my fingers under cold water, but I keep an eye on the man in my corner of my eye. But he keeps standing there and doesn't move, it's not his way of just going to the spin and looking at the picture.

He gets moving and crawls something out of the corner. When he comes back, he holds a bandage in his hand and looks at me waiting. You don't believe it, but it can make it really hard to keep it at bay. I quickly dry my hand and take the bandage material out of his hand as I walk by.

"I made a meeting point with Ann, we're still late," I add, so as not to seem too bare-faced. I wrap the bandage around the wound a little awkwardly and I can literally feel it sticking on it and twisting its eyes.