C.R.A.N.E (Strange Editing WiP)

Chapter Three: Evacuation

After going through the walkways and streets that felt endless, Roukan reached the entrance of the hospital, which was blocked by the patients struggling to get out. He squeezed through the doors, and saw familiar faces escaping the buildings. One who caught his eye the receptionist from the previous night. She was pale, with her mouth slightly opened and her eyes widened.

"Hey!" Roukan hollered at her, sounding panicky. "What is going on?"

At first her instinct was to move away from him, but when she had a better glimpse, her eyes exposed a small sign of relief in her.

"Oh my goodness, Roukan. You're okay," she panted heavily. "I don't know what happened. One minute everything was normal, then the guards at the gate raised the alarm, saying that soldiers of C.R.A.N.E managed to get in."

"Where is Accalia?" He asked her, but she was beginning to get pulled away by the crowd away from him, and it got too loud to hear anything.

"What did you say!?" she yelled.

"I said 'where is Accalia?'!" He exclaimed.

But she was already gone. The hospital was becoming emptier the more time it took to find Accalia. He went up the hospital stairs and through the hallways to Accalia's room, hoping that she was at least safe in there.

Roukan reached her with Jake right behind him, and the old, gold-coated doorknob. It was locked, shut tight. He rammed into the door with his shoulder once to try and break the lock loose, but it failed.

"Accalia! It's me! Are you alright?" He called out, but there was no reply on the other side of the door.

"Accalia! It's your father! Please let me in!"

He began to feel a sense of panic, thinking about the worst possibilities. He hoped that the door was locked because she was not letting any of the soldiers in, and not because someone other than her did not want to let him in. He did not think twice about trying to kick the door open, after failing to break it the first time.

"Accalia, if you're in there, get away from the door!"

He took a step back and used all the energy to kick the door down. The first time, it didn't work. He fumed and tried harder the second time. It didn't work.

"For fuck sakes!" He shouted in frustration.

He had to think of another way to get in, but how? There wasn't another way. That's what Roukan had thought, until Jake started to nudge his nose under the door from the room next door. He kept scratching it, like he desperately wanted to get in there. Roukan thought of an idea; a crazy one, no doubt, but it was better than being stuck in the hallways.

"Jake, good boy," he praised.

Roukan turned the knob of the second door, and thankfully, it was unlocked. He swung it open, and was caught off guard by a child, no older than Accalia, bawling his eyes out, sitting and curled into a ball on the floor. The room was trashed. The bed was flipped on its side and the hospital equipment was destroyed.

Roukan became unnerved by the condition of the room and headed straight to the window, which had already been opened. He put his hands on the window sill but hesitated to climb up for a moment.

You'd be one sadistic bastard if you leave this child here.

He turned around and glanced at the boy. Jake slowly approached him, trying to comfort the boy, but he seemed to afraid to trust anyone. He looked outside, and back at him. He couldn't have left him there. Not with those soldiers running around. Besides, he would want someone to do the same for his daughter. He didn't have enough time to contemplate and had to get out of there as quickly as possible.