Two men in their mid-20s were at a prison quietly talking to each other in hushed voices. One was a prisoner while the other was visiting him.
“So have you prepared the two presents?” asked the prisoner.
“Yes they are ready to be delivered whenever you want them to be,” replied the visitor.
“That’s fast. You sure take your job seriously I see,” said the prisoner happily.
“I will personally hand deliver them myself. You need not worry,” said the visitor.
“Good, good. With this, I will have my revenge for putting me in here and pinning everything on me. Be sure not to let them know who you are or that it came from me.” ordered the prisoner.
“Look, man, I'm a professional. I'm not stupid, this isn't my first time delivering a package of this kind to someone. Just make sure to have the payment for when it's done and everything will sort itself out.” replied the visitor.
“Hey, I'm just giving you some friendly advice. No need to get sour on me,” replied the prisoner.
“Hey X, your visiting time is over. Back to your cell,” shouted a guard as he began walking over to X and led him away to his cell.
***
Yuuto had gone to the mail room on the first floor during the morning to check his mail he had received. While looking through the junk mail, he noticed Niko was standing next to him also going through her own mail.
The only other people in the room was the old man's wife, who from time to time worked at the mail room.
A package delivery man entered the room and dropped off a fairly large box onto the mail receptionist desk and after getting a signature for the package, he gave a smile and quickly left the room.
Yuuto heard the old lady mumbling something about having no clue who could have sent a large box to the club for no reason. It was rather odd and didn't happen much.
Yuuto was curious about what was inside, watching as she opened the box. When the box was opened a large puff of white powder escaped into the air and began floating about and falling onto the table and everything around it.
The old lady immediately covered her face with a handkerchief and shouted to Yuuto and Niko.
“Cover your mouths and body. Close the door! Don't breath it in or get near enough to touch this powder. We have to quarantine this room and try not to contaminate the other rooms,” she shouted moving away from the box.
There was a first aid kit by the door which the old lady opened and pulled out 3 masks for them to put on.
“This will have to do for now,” she said.
After checking that everyone had put on their masks, she used a phone in the room to place an emergency call to the police.
“Hello, there was a mysterious white powder that exploded out of a package that was delivered to club Winter Night. I think it might be anthrax. Could you please get the ambulance and hazmat here to test it?” she questioned the person on the other side of the line.
“How many people are there?” asked the police officer.
“Three people,” she replied.
“How many rooms have been infected? Were you able to quarantine it?” asked the police dispatcher.
“Only the mail room. Yes, we closed the door as fast as we could” replied the old man's wife.
“Okay, sit tight and stay away from the box. The emergency crew will be able to treat you if needed when the hazmat team gets there. We will be able to test and see whether or not it's anthrax.” the police dispatcher ordered.
“What’s going on?” asked the stunned Yuuto as he backed away from the desk.
“Someone may have sent anthrax in that package. All we can do for now is to wait for the police first responders and the hazmat team to come and decontaminate the area and test the white powder. ” said the old lady who's muffled voice come from behind the mask.
They didn't have to wait long. They could hear the loud sirens blaring from the streets and a commotion from the hallways as they set up a quarantine on the other side of the door to the mail room, and washed the hallway to decontaminate it if there was anything that had leaked out from it.
When everything was secured and a containment bubble was attached to the door, there were a few loud knocks on the door.
“This is the hazmat team. We’re entering the room, step away from the door. We will be able to help get you out of the room soon enough.” came a muffled male voice from the other side of the door.
The three slid down the wall away from the door but still keeping their distance from the box and the white powder.
The door opened and a large circular tube was pushed forward a short way and then inflated to cover the whole door frame on the mail room side, creating a double bubble for keeping decontaminated.
The zipper on the bubble was unzipped and four people in hazmat suits walked into the room.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Where is contaminate?” asked the same male voice they had heard from behind the door.
The old lady pointed to the desk where it was very obvious there was white powder all over the table and the ground.
“Check them out and if they aren't in immediate danger, put them through the chemical showers.” the man ordered to one of the other suits.
A hazmat suit walked over to them and a female voice came out of it.
“Show me your arms and other exposed skin,” she demanded.
She inspected each of them and then used a wand sniffer to see if she could find any traces of a toxin on their bodies.
“Are any of you experiencing any nausea or stomach pain?” she asked.
“No,” all three of them replied.
“Good, enter into this bubble. Wait for the air inside to change and be cleared. You will be told when to unzip the other side and exit. You will be led to the decontamination showers when you exit the bubble.” she said as she headed them over to the door.
Yuuto, Niko and the old lady stepped into the small half bubble. The hazmat female zipped it shut and the air was sucked out and then replaced with fresh decontaminated steamy air.
After a minute or so, the other side of the bubble zipper opened to reveal more hazmat’s staring at them and a hallway covered with a large inflated plastic tube leading outside.
They were led down the hallway and outside where the tube opened up into a large tent that had another tube connected to it on the opposite side.
“Here take this bag. Each of you are to go through that tube and into the shower room, put your clothes into this bag, seal it and then use the decontamination soap and wash off thoroughly multiple times. There will be another bag containing a towel and clothes for you to wear after you wash off. When you're done come back here.” said a voice from inside the hazmat suit and handed them each a bag.
“Ladies first,” said Yuuto being the gentleman and offering to let them go first.
“You probably have some perverted reason for wanting me to go first,” Niko commented as she walked into the tube and disappeared.
“How rude, I was trying to be nice,” Yuuto shouted after her.
“Ah it so nice to be young and in love.” said the old man's wife staring at me and then looking at where Niko left.
That quieted Yuuto up from embarrassment.
Not too long after she entered, Niko came back out with her wet hair and uncomfortable stiff looking clothes.
The old lady went inside after her and took a longer time to get decontaminated then Niko had.
Yuuto finally was able to go to the shower. He quickly took his clothes off and put his clothes into the bag.
He rinsed down with the hose that was being used as a showerhead and washed multiple times and then did a final rinse and turned off the hose and opened the bag with the towel. He dried off and put on the itchy stiff clothes.
After he returned to the others. they were led to a room that was quarantined. It had two cots set out for them, Niko and Yuuto sat down on one and let the old man's wife have the other one.
“You'll have to stay here until the results come back from the lab whether it was really anthrax or not.” said the hazmat person number 420.
“Shouldn't you have test kits already to test it here?” asked Yuuto.
“They tested it two times already but the test came back inconclusive. So they sealed the box and sent it to the lab where they can do a more thorough inspection of it. It shouldn't take too long” said 420.
They spent the rest of the morning in the room talking to each other and getting to know one another better.
Around lunchtime, hazmat number Ru34 walked into the room and handed each of them a container that had been decontaminated.
It was lunch and the smell rising with the steam as Yuuto opened it. The smell made his stomach growl as he drooled while staring at the hearty stew with rice as a side dish.
“What are you a caveman?” Niko asked Yuuto.
“My, My... you two sure make a good couple.” complemented the old man's wife.
“It's not like I want to be complimented on that, but thanks I guess?” said Niko in a quiet voice barely able to be heard.
This caused the old lady to laugh in delight.
After eating all the food, the old lady stood and said, “Well I'm going to take a nap and let you two talk amongst yourselves.”
Niko who was sitting next to him didn't say anything for over an hour. Yuuto felt something fall onto his shoulder.
He looked and saw it was Niko who had fallen asleep sitting up and was now sleeping on his shoulder.
She startled him even more when she squirmed a bit trying to get more comfortable and ended up snuggled up next to him with her around his waist. He could feel her breath on his neck and her vice-like grip holding him still.
Yuuto was too nervous with Niko clamped onto him to sleep.
She slept until it was almost time for dinner where she let out a yelp of surprise and punched Yuuto for not stopping her from doing something so embarrassing.
Hazmat number 69 walked into the room.
“Good news the lab results are in, the white powder was not anthrax. But it seems there was another package that was delivered to another club where there was actually a positive test for anthrax and sadly two people died to a large quantity of it being inhaled,” said number 69.
The three of them were let out of the room where the hallway was being put back to normal.
“I'll let my husband know but you too can have the night off. To rest up from this ordeal.” said the old lady with a sly smile on her face.
As she walked past Yuuto, she quietly said, “Go get her tiger.”
Yuuto didn't know what to say so he just kept quiet.
“So Yuuto would you like to join me and my siblings for dinner?” asked Niko.
“Yes I would love to,” he said hurriedly almost biting his tongue, which caused Niko to giggle.
Yuuto spent an entertaining night eating and talking to Eri, Tabito, and Niko. After they ate, they watched a few comedy shows until it was time for the siblings to go to bed.
After Niko came back from making sure the two had settled down into their beds Yuuto stood up.
“I should get going also,” said Yuuto.
“Trying to run away?” asked Niko.
“Thank you for the dinner and entertainment it was very pleasant,” replied Yuuto ignoring her question.
Niko escorted him to the door, he paused in the hallway at the door and looked back at her to say his final goodbye for the night. He saw she was staring at him intently as if expecting him to do something.
Yuuto couldn't figure out what it was no matter how long he stalled leaving by thinking it over.
Niko lept up close to him and pulled his face to hers and gave him a nice big kiss on the lips.
He kissed her back and then she separated from him.
“You're hopeless without me,” she said.
“I guess this means we're officially dating?” asked Yuuto.
“Good night,” said Niko with a smile and slammed the door shut.