Nation 27

CH 22: The Change In Demeanor Was Instant

[Louis] 

The sound of determined footsteps and the loud banging of doors echoed along the second-floor hallway.

"Where in the world is she? ...There's no way she'll be here, right?" Louis muttered as he checked yet another room. His mood was worsening by the minute.

“Oh! Hi, Louis,” a feminine voice called out from a distance.

Louis turned and saw both Clara and Adam walking toward him. The siblings were walking from the start of the hallway- the same way he had come from.

“Hey,” Louis answered in an almost sheepish-like manner.

Clara’s smile widened while Adam raised a brow in response.

“So… what brings you both here, to the second floor?” Louis asked.

“Nothing really… Adam and I just wanted to explore the rest of the facility.”

“I see…”

“What about you?” Adam asked.

“I’m looking for Sam,” Louis adverted his gaze slightly, “I need to talk to her about something…” he continued almost inaudibly.

Clara giggled.

“Ah~ Hm… We haven’t seen her at all. Then again, we were mostly on the third floor the entire d-” Clara abruptly stopped and gasped. “Adam, we forgot to grab our notepads!”

“Oh?” Louis tilted his head in curiosity, “Why do you need that?”

Clara giggled awkwardly, and Adam sighed before replying.

“Clara is sketching out a map of the entire facility because she w-”

“Adam! Don’t say it!” Clara half-yelled as he tugged at her brother’s casual t-shirt.

Adam rolled his eyes and continued, “Clara is thinking of using the layout of this building for a new script idea.”

“Adam!” Clara squealed as she slapped repeatedly at Adam’s arm. However, her slaps seem to have no effect on her brother, who towered a good twelve inches over her. If anything, Adam had always found this shy yet childish side of Clara highly amusing.

Although it was a given for Clara- the younger sibling- to act comparatively immature, she has in reality rarely shown such a side. Most of the time, she was serious and even more adult-like than her 23-year-old brother, who was six years her senior. 

‘Ah, I forgot that these siblings are into acting and such,’ Louis thought as he watched the siblings.

“That’s interesting. What kind of story is it going to be?” Louis asked, which resulted in the teasing coming to an end.

“Oh… I haven’t really figured out the plot,” Clara crunched up her nose, “But the place setting in the story will be an abandoned facility…”

“Ah, I see… Well, I won’t be taking any more of your time. I’ll see you both later at dinner time.”

“Okay! Hope you’ll find Sam soon. All the best~” Clara said the last part in a sing-song manner as she and Adam went back the way they came from.

When Louis was out of hearing range, Adam grabbed Clara’s arm and pulled her quickly towards the stairs. 

“You need to stop talking to him,” Adam warned in a low tone.

“Why? He seems friendly and he’s so cute when he gets all shy~”

“Shhh… Not so loud,” Adam hissed and continued as his sister rolled her eyes, “That boy is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“What? Why do you say that? Hm… Oh, I get it. Hah… It’s not like that. He clearly has a thing for Sam… Anyway, you don’t have to be so protective of me. I’m old enough to handle-”

“No, that’s not why I’m wary of him. Didn’t you notice it just now?”

“Huh? Notice what? You mean his angelic smile and how his blue eyes seem to waver at the mention of Samantha's name?” Clara said dreamily.

“No, the way he acted just before he realized that it was us… The change in demeanor was instant.”

***

[Louis]

[Still on the second floor of the facility…]

[About a couple of minutes later…]

BANG!

"Samantha," Louis growled as he entered the room.

Samantha, who was scribbling on something by the bedside, bolted upright. Assuming that she would be all alone like any other day, the sudden intrusion caught her by surprise.

“Wait… Didn’t I lock that door?” Samantha asked out loud.

Louis simply raised a brow and lifted his right hand which was holding a set of keys.

“Did you really think that these wouldn’t be one of the first items I’d strive to get my hands on?” without giving Samantha any time to respond, he continued, “That’s not an important issue now.”

Locking the door behind him, Louis then shoved the keys into the pocket of his hoodie and approached slowly in a rather menacing manner.

Samantha swallowed hard, “W-What is it? I haven’t done anything…”

“Really?” he asked in a low tone that sent a chill up Samantha’s spine.

“Y-Yes… I haven’t done anything since we last spo-”

“Interesting,” Louis interrupted, “You see… I just spoke to a rather distressed Jared. He hasn’t slept for two days. Do you know why?”

“No… I-”

“Because he just realized that he has a loss of memory. Do you understand? He has f*cking holes in his memories and seemed to have lost a lot of time!” Louis yelled and grabbed Samantha’s neck.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now!” Louis growled as he squeezed tighter.

“It’s… *cough* not me… *cough* ugh… You threw… all *cough* the related medicine,” Samantha struggled to explain as her vision began to darken.

“Are you sure?”

“Y-Yes… He *cough* may be… s-suffering from the *cough*... side effects…” Samantha’s eyes began to water.

“Then what have you been giving him these days?”

“C-Crushed vitamin C p-pills… *cough* I put them in… c-capsules…”

Louis stared at her for a few seconds more before finally releasing his grip on her neck. Samantha gasped and panted as she gratefully inhaled air.

“I’ll be observing Jared’s condition for the next few days. If his memories begin to deteriorate, I’ll finish what I started,” Louis stare pointedly at Samantha’s neck.

Instinctively, Samantha touched her neck in a rather defensive gesture.

“Okay then,” Louis huffed and clapped his hands, “Now, on to the next matter. As I was looking for you, I noticed that many of the patients’ rooms were locked despite not having any occupants in them… Care to explain?”

Samantha hesitated for a moment.

“W-We lost many of the patients… I’ve actually run out of all medicine that is related to mental health. So, even if I have the means to treat injuries and superficial wounds, I’m unable to stop severe psychological cases… Many have unintentionally and intentionally killed themselves. The only patients that have survived are the ones I’ve managed to strap up in time…”

“Okay, that explains the stains and occasional blood splatters I’d seen. However, what about the bodies? What have you done with that?” Louis asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

‘There’s no way a petite lady like her is capable of lugging deadweight of patients who are mostly double her size. Moreover, the morgue hasn’t been fully cleared. I doubt she could have even taken the bodies there,’ Louis thought to himself.

“A-All patients’ beds have wheels. I just have to roll the bed out of the room and into the morgue area. I was quite lucky that all of the patients who have died- so far- have relatively landed either on or at the edge of the bed… I… Err… The only scary part was that I needed to check the morgue to ensure it was enough to enter.”

When Louis did not reply and only watched her in silence, Samantha continued.

“I got the siblings to accompany me to check the morgue… I-I tried looking for you, but you were nowhere to be found… It was about 2 weeks ago… Anyway, we were lucky that the morgue which was located at the back of the first floor, was already cordoned off from public access. Thus, there weren’t any zombies in that particular area…”

“I see… May I know why didn’t you enlist the help of the siblings when it came to moving the bodies?”

“O-Oh… Err… They already seemed uneasy at the chance of seeing a frozen corpse in the morgue. So, I decided to just do it on my own. So far, it has been quite easy to roll the beds to the staff elevator, which is directly connected to the morgue.”

‘That’s true. It’s only the main elevator that can be accessed by the public from the communal areas of the first and second floors which are all bordered up. I guess I shouldn’t worry too much about this… At least, not for now… I’ve other matters to attend to…’

“Okay then. Just tell me if you need any assistance. If you can’t find me, just pass on the message to Jared. He’s fairly easy to find.”

“Ah, yes…”

.

.

.

.

.

.

***

[Jared]

[3pm--- Jared’s bedroom, on the 5th floor of the facility…]

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Louis asked as he entered the room.

“Better… At least, I think so…”

“Yeah, just give it some time, and you’ll be okay. I guess that all the chaos and lack of sleep the few weeks has got something to do with it.”

“Hm… Yeah, maybe…” Jared mumbled, “Louis, I think I should go out there and look for my Mom…”

‘Or rather, find a way to return to my reality…’ Jared thought to himself.

“Yes, I understand,” Louis smiled gently, “I’ll come with you. But I think we’ll need to find a way to safely venture out there without getting spotted by the zombies.”

“Hah… Yeah, you have a point there…”

“Mm…” Louis hummed in agreement as he touched a stray lock of Jared’s hair, “I should give you a haircut. It’s beginning to grow quite long.”

“Haha… Yeah, sure. I’ll give you one when you’re done with…” Jared paused as he stared at Louis’ hair, “Oh, I guess you don’t need a haircut, huh?”

Louis chuckled.

“No, not at all.”