Nurse Dagmar looked bewildered as he laughed at her. It was less of a funny laugh and more of an insane, sad irony laugh.

“I’d like to see them try,” he responded, breathing raggedly from a weird combination of sadness and humor.

His ears started ringing as he stepped off onto the fourth floor. No. That was an alarm. It grew louder, and he looked back at Nurse Dagmar. Her eyes were wide with fear, darting upwards. Then they rolled back into her head. He shivered at the creepiness of it. Her fingers were trembling a bit, like they were tapping something invisible in front of her.

His bet?

It was definitely Aino who set off the alarm.

He decided to go get the stuff in the lab and return, hopefully after whatever seizure Nurse Dagmar was going through was over. Getting anything they could to escape or use as a weapon was important. It would be good, too, if they had some clothes that didn’t smell like shit.

Hustling down the hallway, he found many doors with different tags. The third one said “LAB,” and he was silently thankful he had learned how to read.

Inside, he found rows of tables lined with different glass containers, strange machines, and bottles with labels. Medicine? Might be useful.

He saw a cabinet right away and hurried over to it, pulling on the handles. It wouldn’t open. He felt around for the key and tried it in the keyhole. It wouldn’t fit.

Fuck! Why give him the damn key if it didn’t go to anything?

He took one of the weird machines and hurled it at the cabinet. The metal cabinet dented, but the handle didn’t pull the door open.

Shit.

He grabbed another machine and was about to start beating the cabinet with it, but then he saw how one of the handles was turned. He dropped the machine, not caring that some of the parts shattered on the floor.

Then he turned the bent handle to the right. The door of the cabinet unlatched, and he cursed himself.

Pulling open both doors, he saw a couple of packs. He pulled both out and looked inside. Sure enough, there were clothes and other random things like soap and water bottles and things he wasn’t sure what they were. He also saw her throwing club and a couple of the smaller guns they had kept with them. No rifles.

Shit.

There were coats and boots. He put those on and put on his holster to carry his smaller gun around. After strapping the bags to his back, he felt the weight press into his feet. Damn, this was all heavy, but it was manageable. He wasn’t sure if it was worth taking any of the glass bottles in the lab.

Stolen novel; please report.

He grabbed a few anyway, shoving them in the pockets of his coat.

Eien was wary about how he had not seen anyone else. Nurse Dagmar had gone when he got back to the elevator, and he pressed the button to call it. The alarm was still ringing.

Sweat was dripping down his back, causing him to be uncomfortable sticky.

What now?

He gets to Aino and then what?

He didn’t even know where they were. Neither of them had ever left Beldam. At least, he thought Aino had never left Beldam.

He wiped sweat from his face with the sleeve of his coat.

The elevator beeped as the doors opened.

“Ai!” he blurted out, seeing a disheveled woman, still in the same state, if not worse, than when he left her. She grabbed at the pack he was carrying, tearing it open.

Nurse Dagmar stared on, slightly horrified as Aino stripped openly in the hallway and robed herself in the new clothing in the pack. She clipped her throwing club to her pants and holstered her small gun.

“Missing rifles. Protective clothing gone. Guns loaded. Extra bullets. Bottles from the lab. Not sure. Nurse Dagmar helped us. Something wrong with our eyes.”

Aino paused a moment, glancing at him before she wiped away the goop from her face with the white robe.

“Let’s go,” she said to Nurse Dagmar, a bit dried goo still streaked across her cheek. Nurse Dagmar nodded quickly, her hands clasped together in front of her.

“Th-this way,” she stammered and led them down the hallway where Eien had gone.

Aino followed her with Eien trotting behind them, watching their backs.

Nurse Dagmar led them to another door past the lab labeled with “File Room.” It was a vast room filled with cabinets with drawers labeled with letters and numbers. Nurse Dagmar pulled open a drawer, flipping through folders with her fingers.

“We do a…a full workup of everyone who comes in here. I managed to destroy the ones we were using out in the hospital, but we keep records here, as well. Luckily…” she paused as she pulled out a couple of files, “Your records have not been filed yet. I would take them with you, rather than destroy them. Just in case.” She held them out to Aino.

Eien ended up taking them and stashing them in his bag.

Nurse Dagmar led them out, back towards the elevator.

“Stairs are this way.” On the opposite side of the elevator was a door leading to a set of stairs going up and down. They went up.

“We going through a window?” Eien asked as they climbed the stairs.

Nurse Dagmar looked at him oddly.

“No. We’re heading to the ground floor.”

“Wouldn’t that be down?”

“Hush now,” she replied, “I don’t know who is up there.”

The sound of their feet echoed up and down the stairwell.

They passed a few doors, but Nurse Dagmar kept leading them higher. The doors they passed were all unlabeled, white, and solid, just like the door they left. Eien counted ten floors, and they all were sweating by the time Nurse Dagmar led them to the top of the building.

Nurse Dagmar opened the door, revealing another hallway with doors.

The alarm was still ringing.

“Try to relax,” she said, “Act normal.” She eyed Aino. Aino inclined her head. Nurse Dagmar took a minute to compose herself, smoothing out her hair with her hand. Blood was hot running through Eien’s body. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Aino showed no such problems, but her sharp movements and serious face was a different problem in itself.

They exited through a door on the right which opened up to another atrium similar, but smaller, to the one downstairs. The alarm was silent; the lobby was completely empty. Plants and couches and chairs were grouped similarly, and the windows looked like a smaller version of the downstairs one.

Eien saw Nurse Dagmar tremble a bit as her steps slowed.

Noises behind them.

He turned.

“Duck!”