11 December 2045
Two months has passed since your and Norman arrival at the lambda. As soon as both of you had your first test, topic about you and Norman quickly become a hot news among the researchers. You, because of how wide your range of talents if it comes to art and Norman, because of his prodigious intelligence. Peter Ratri is not an exception from those researchers.
He has put an extra care for your and Norman's examinations and experiments. It's a common knowledge in Lambda that the Ratri heir is really fond of you and Norman.
But unlike the other day report when he would be looking proud while reading your reports, today there is a frown on his forehead.
There are a few words written in bold and underlined in the interpretation segment.
Depression. Loneliness. Fear. Anxiety.
Those unneeded negative emotions are caught on your recent arts by the researchers. Your personal doctor also stated that your mental condition has been getting worse since a week ago. It is also shown in your recent creation which are seems to have darker vibes than before.
"92194 is reported to has insomnia for four days straight. She doesn't has appetite and never finish her meal since yesterday. During her free time in her room she only sit in her bed and humming a song, other than that she did nothing which is different from her usual behavior," said Antony, the head researcher and also likely to be Peter's right hand to observe all experiments in Lambda.
"We haven't finished with her inspection. Have you inject the chemical to her?"
"No, sir. Since injecting the chemical bound to worsen her condition, I'm afraid we can't do it while her mental state is already unstable. It might affecting her creativity."
"So what you're suggesting?"
Antony gives him another paper, your doctor prescription. He explained, "Her doctor said that her depression is likely caused by homesick or sudden change of environment. He suggests we bring a reminding of Grace Field house to boost her mood."
"You suggest we call Isabella to baby sit her? We can't bring someone unrelated into this."
"Correct. That's why I suggesting another person, Sir."
12 December 2045
Someone knock your door and enter your room without your permission, as usual. Privacy is something you never have in this fancy room.
"92194, time for your lesson," said the person.
You frowned, I don't have any schedule for this afternoon?
You stay still on your bed and covering your body with the blanket until the person forcefully drags you out. With your petite figure compared to him and because you haven't eaten since this morning, you don't have the energy to fight and let him lead you to your lesson room.
"I want to go home," you whine on your way but he doesn't pay you any attention.
"When I'll go home?" you whine once again.
He looks annoyed this time and hold your hand harder. "This is your home," said him.
You soon arrive at the front door and the person submits his id card to open the mechanic door.
And behind the door, you behold a boy with platinum blonde hair is sitting in a mattress. Your sullen face is quickly changed to astonishment, the boy's expression is also reflecting yours.
"Norman?" you called his name, surprised to finally able to see his face.
He also doesn't expects to see your face. "Y/N?"
The researcher pushes you. "Go inside," he said and the door is closed behind you.
You look over Norman once again, you want to run to him but nite sure if are you allowed. You never interact with other children and as far as you remember, you aren't allowed to meet them.
Hesitantly, you take one step closer to him and check the researcher's reaction from the glass wall. They are watching your movement and make no reaction to stop you, so you assume approaching him is alright.
You quickly run and jump to him, Norman catches you secure in his hands.
"Norman! Norman! Norman!" you call his name over and over, yearning to finally able to see him.
The boy returns the hug with as much yearning and place his hand on top of your hand.
Finally, the whole week of act is worth it.
You check his appearance and relieved to see there's nothing changed since the last time you see him except he's getting taller. He also looses some weight, but it's alright. Thank goodness he is fine.
"I don't expect to see you, how have you been?" asked Norman.
"I'm fine," you lied. The whole two months in here is like an imprisonments. "And you?"
"I'm alright," he shows a narrow smile. He is lying.
After a brief reunion, you positioned your head on his lap while Norman is stroking your hair. You noted that even though you're finally meeting Norman, the researchers aren't leaving you two alone.
With both of special children in one room, the overseeing is tighter than ever. They are observing your movements, your expressions, and listening your conversations.
You try to test the water. "What were you doing before?"
He is paying attention to the researchers' unbothered expression. "I finished my meal and was on my daily test and suddenly they told me to come to this room."
"What kind of test? My daily tests are always about painting, music, and such."
The researchers are staying still. So talking about daily activities is alright.
He answered, "Same like what we did in back in Grace Field, but much harder with the same amount time limit. The room air is more restless too because I did it alone."
"More restless how?"
"They put a kind of helmet for my head while I did the test. The chair is not a regular chair, it is larger and has this kind of machine that connected through cables into the helmet."
You frowned. "I never saw that before. Is it on a different test room?"
"Probably. It is about ten minutes walk from here."
Norman try to test another subject. "Y/N, did they ever inject those drugs to you?"
"No, they didn't. And you?"
"Me too. They haven't done that, yet."
A voice is interrupting your conversation. "22194 and 92194, please refrain from talking unnecessary thing."
You and Norman nod to the researchers on the microphone. That's the limitation for your subjects.
You give a soft tap in his tight near your face. Three short taps, then three taps that last longer, and another three short taps.
...
---
...
In morse code, those are spelled S.O.S
You do that on repeat until Norman catches your signal.
He gives you a light tap in your shoulder.
_.__ Y
. E
... S
You look up to him and he shows you a knowing smile, the researchers are not noticing your gestures.
"I wonder why they meet us up?" he asked. The researchers are still careless.
You answered, "A doctor said that I suffer a homesick."
I tricked them, you said through morse code.
"I see... Are you alright now?"
"Much better."
"Great."
I found a friend, said Norman.
You said, "In one of my test they asked me to make 20 paintings a day." I have Lambda's map.
Norman flinches a bit. "That's ... that's amazing." How?
"But I ended up did those in rush and the results were not that great," you said. My pen.
Norman commented, "I'm sure you're the only person who thought like that." A friend of mine is related to Smee.
You and Norman are continue talking another stuff about your daily activities while secretly sending morse code.
"I moved to another room now. It's larger than before." Let's talk more. My cameras are off on 2 a.m at Saturday's night, you suggested.
"Me too. The room is fancy too with fancy furniture..." he describes how his room looks. Your cameras are off?
"It's identic to mine! Maybe the design is same?" It's probably Smee or his allies who in turn to watch over me.
Any idea for the meeting place?
I'll visit your room through the air ventilation in bathroom.
Then, I'll pretend to go to bathroom at the time.
Meet me at 02.10 p.m.
Your meeting is cut off when two researchers are entering the room. They lead both of you to out from the room.
You bid Norman a goodbye and he replied, "Take care."
"You too."
〰️
You're really grateful that luck is on your side by having the Lambda's map. The pen doesn't only has map, but also another descriptions about the place. William Minerva, in some way, is likely involved in Lambda's establishment.
It is described in the pen that Lambda is originally built to be a hospital and research platform to cure deadly diseases such as cancer and polio. The map is a bit different from the current Lambda, though. There are new room and buildings that aren't included in the original design and there are rooms that are renamed.
For example, the corridor with demons and distorted children you saw was originally called "Regular Treatment Room" but now is called "Play Room" according to the researchers.
And another feature from the pen, they can detect your position. The red dot is defining your position, which is currently in "Special Treatment Room". The other blue dots that are spreading through the map is probably the locations of pens from the Minerva's allies.
You enter your bathroom at 2 a.m. and open the map.
Since Norman is in the similar room to you, he must be in another "Special Treatment Room". There are plenty of it near your room and you probably can reach it through the air ventilation. You have less than 20 minutes but if you don't waste any of it, it would be enough.
Meal is finished at 2 p.m. then Norman went to a test. From his test room to yours is approximately 10 minutes, with how fast he usually walks then...
You eliminate the rooms that are not fitting with your measurement and the last room remains is three rooms to your right.
There is it.
You jump over the toilet and try to open the air ventilation. You use your wood sculptor to open the bolts on every corner. They actually give it to you in case you want to sculp on your free time.
As you open the last bolt, you pull the ventilation away and jump inside. The ventilation is huge enough for you to in and crawling inside. The luck is really on your side.
You open your map to guide you over Norman's room. It's dark but the hologram's shine is helping you to make out a bit.
You arrive at Norman's room at 2.09 p.m. so you wait. You hope you didn't make a mistake and come to a wrong room. If you didn't show up, you've told Norman to leave after three minutes so his lookovers won't get suspicious.
At 2.10 p.m. you can see the boy with platinum hair carefully approach the toilet.
Norman beamed when he see you are really managed to come to his room. Doesn't want to waste any time, he bring his cup telephone and throw the other end and you catch it.
He whispered, "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can!" you answered, also in a whisper.
He seems exited. "I want to ask you many things but let's wrap this fast. I secretly make a friend with someone called Vincent, he also went through the same test as me. He has been in touch with Smee for a while now and Smee asked him to gather ally first then start planning for escape."
"In his last letter he said that Smee told him that there would be an explosion soon," said Norman.
"How and what did he mean by explosion?" you asked.
"Vincent also didn't get it. Smee only told him that we can try escape during that, if we want."
You realize something is off with the message. It was as if Smee doesn't suggest us to escape even if there will be an opening.
"Are we going to try?" you asked.
"No." Norman answered in a beat. "But we will observe the situation first, we might get a clue who is Smee actually is from that event. Where is your room, I'll come to you first when the event occured."
"It is three rooms to your left. But Norman, you really didn't get any injection from them, did you?" you concerned.
"Yes, I really didn't get it and neither did you right?"
"Right."
"The chemical they are injecting can affect you physically both inside and outside, tell me as soon as possible if you got one, okay?"
"Yes, I'll."
Norman counts the time is almost over. He is exhaling long before saying, "I'm really glad you're fine Y/N. Please take care until our next meeting!"
You see his eyes are glimmering with hope, very similar to how Emma's eyes look like. He is reassuring you everything will turn out well at the end, and you give him all your trust.
All your days in Lambda without your siblings, Isabella, and far from home is suffocating. You also know the situation can get worse the longer you stay here so finding Norman is your prioritize. Now that you finally find him, and make sure he is safe and healthy, you can start proceed the plan.
Because Norman is the mastermind. You alone won't be able to do anything yet with him, you don't have to worry too much. At the end Norman always get what he wants, that's absolute.
You really glad you have Norman here.
"Take care of yourself too!" you release the cup.
7 minutes left.
You are crawling back to your room.
3 minutes left.
You jump out of the ventilation into over the toilet. You tried to fasten the bolt as fast as you can.
1 minute...
You jump once again and landed on the floor then running like a crazy to your bed. You cover yourself with a blanket until your shoulders.
You take a deep breath into your lungs and blow it out bit by bit to calm yourself down.
Lastly, you close your eyes when the countdown is over.
Time is up.
Then the cameras are on.
15 December 2045
You were just preparing for a bed when suddenly you heard a loud noise from outside. The lamp was turned off and changed to an emergency light that leads you to an evacuation route. You notice the cameras are also turned off and the door is unlocked. Soon it is followed by a fire alarm.
The explosion is really happening.
You open your door and outside is total chaos. You asked one of the friendliest researcher who is coincidentally passing in front of your room.
"Sir, what's happening?" you asked him.
He answered you in a hurry. "There are some demon bandits trespassing and blow a bomb in common barrack. Follow the evacuation route and gather with everyone, quickly!" He left as soon as he finished his words.
You're now left alone, without any supervision, and are allowed to wander by yourself.
But this is not an opening to escape.
"Y/N!" you hear a familiar voice is calling over you, without thinking any further you're running towards him and hug him for a short moment. A taller young men is standing behind him.
As you release the greeting hug, Norman said, "Let's go we will talk as we run."
You three then start running by following Vincent's lead. He introduces you to the taller young man with a cross stitches in his head, he is the Vincent Norman has told you about. He wear a black vest, white long sleeved shirt and a black pant to match.
It seems that Vincent was experimented with his brain. You feel a bit bad because you often focused on the stiches in his head by chance, it looks painful.
"The explosion is from common barrack, our room when we first arrived," you said.
"Yes. And from your map it's impossible for us to escape through that route."
"So why Smee told us beforehand?"
Vincent replied, "I got an additional message yesterday, he told me about an evacuation route."
"And apparently, it's different from the Lambda's evacuation route."
"That means ... the route is--"
Norman cut you off, "Yes, it leads to Smee's whereabout. The explosion is to make some time for us."
William Minerva's ally, you'll meet him really soon.
The three of you are running down the hallway beside Play Room, passing the staff's room, bunch of experiments room eventually out of the building. All the gate and doors are opening for evacuation room, you over hears the guard and researchers on your way that the fire is spreading fast. The explosion is bigger than your expectation.
You then start to go out of the regular route. The map is also including cameras position and range, you use the blind spots to across the field behind the building and entering the forest, then to what seems like a storage room hidden behind the bushes and tree.
There's a blue dot inside it.
You three stop at the door and take a moment to ease your breaths.
Vincent hold the door knob and said, "I'll open it." He looks over to you and Norman, both of you give him a nod.
As the door is opened, it's revealing a man is standing on his back to you under the only light in the room. The room is filled with electronic properties, a case full of chemicals, and at the middle of the room where the person stands, there are plenty of couches and tables.
This looks like a basecamp. Probably for the allies to gather?
The person notice the door is opened and turn to face you.
But when you three recognize who is that person, you three simultaneously take a step back.
"Is this a trap?" you asked. You are remembering the map, doing your best to make an emergency exit route if the three of you are indeed caught in an enemy's snare.
Norman also looks unsure for the moment. They are supposed to meet Smee here, neither one of them have seen his face before or any of his allies. They didn't have any expectation or guess regarding the mysterious figure.
But they never imagined they would see him, out of everyone, to be the one who waits their arrival.
"Sir Antony?" asked Norman.
Antony is standing still with the usual flat expression. Yes, he is the same Antony everyone knew.
"You know my name? Ah, I'm sorry, I've never officially introduce my name, have I?" said Antony. You see him smile for the first time.
Norman hissed under his breath, "No one doesn't know you."
Antony bows a little and said, "My name is Antony Barrie, the head researchers of Lambda. Nice to officially meet you Vincent, ..."
"Norman, ..."
He averts his gaze on you at the rearmost. "And Y/N."
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Hello dear readers,
Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoy this double update as well <3
Next update will be three days from now.
See U Next Chapter~