16 - Another possibility

Somehow I don't really understand what's going on here at the moment. One minute we finally thought like a group and swore to stick together, and the next minute there are several groups here and everyone wants something else. On top of that, Zhan along with Cheng and Yanli have already been gone for three hours, even though the three of them just wanted to go back to Station 4, where we spent the night, and see if there was anything else we could use from there.

Zhan came up to me earlier and told me he and the other two were going down one more time. I didn't really know what to say, I couldn't forbid him to do it, even if I didn't like it. My brother even tried to forbid it to Cheng. He said to him: "You will not go anywhere without me! You will stay here nicely by my side, do you understand?"

Cheng immediately got angry and said, "Who do you think you are? Just because you and I are a couple doesn't mean you have control over me and can/may tell me what to do and what not to do. These two are my family and if I want to go with them, I go. Even without your permission. I'm just informing you right now and not asking you."

Zhan gave Cheng a look that was probably meant to say something like, "Come calm down and cool off." Then Cheng went to Zhan and Yanli and the three of them disappeared through the door to the stairwell. That was three hours ago.

Meanwhile, May, Rin and the other three of their family retreated to one of the patient rooms. André is in another room taking care of Han, who is getting worse again, and Leni, who is walking worse again and needs to rest her foot. Meng Yao is with Missy looking for files and other documents from which we might learn more about this institute.

My brother and I stared almost steadily at the door, waiting for the three of them. For the first time since we left Beijing, my brother and I were together and alone for a longer period of time. And also for the first time since, my brother shared his thoughts with me.

"I am incessantly trying to get all of this together. So much has happened that I don't even know where to begin to find an answer for all of this. And every time I think I've finally solved a mystery, something new happens again. Do you understand what I mean little brother?"

I thought for a moment and finally nodded my head. "Yes, I know what you mean. I've been wondering all this time how Rin and May got here? If Rin was unconscious, did May carry him here? Rin is as tall as me and broadly built, while May is maybe 5'6" and very petite. How could she have brought him here? And if so, why was she also unconscious when Zhan and I found her? How could they even survive so long without water and in complete darkness if there's a creature out hunting?" I asked him.

My brother shrugged his shoulders and just said he didn't know either. "I've been racking my brains over this. Cheng and I have listed and gone over everything again and again, but no matter how we spin it, we just can't find any answers. Look at the three of them, Julia, Jay and Ziyi. They've been here for four long years. Why? Why have they been here for so long? And why aren't the three of them asking themselves the same question? And what's with the red dragon? Is that really just a psychological trick to keep them from just opening the door and leaving?"

We continued talking like this for quite a while, asking each other the questions that were on our minds. But it didn't get us anywhere either. My brother said he felt like he was going crazy soon and felt like he was in a cage.

I think that I am still so calm is perhaps because I record all my thoughts here in my journal and thus also bring myself down a bit. Because before I picked up my journal just now, I was feeling anxious and was about to run out that fucking door and find my boyfriend and his family. But as soon as I started writing, it calmed me down again.

Of course I'm still worried about Zhan, but where is he going to go? Certainly not to the cave. He and his relatives might want a moment among themselves to talk, like my brother and I just talked. Maybe they just need that time right now.

I just think it's a shame that Zhan and I, since this morning, since the first time we slept together, haven't had a moment alone to really talk about it. I would have liked to have stayed in bed with him longer instead of getting up shortly after to find May and Rin unconscious. I would have loved to celebrate with him, this moment, this new and so important step a little bit by just taking time for ourselves and holding each other. But under the circumstances, I guess I can be glad that Zhan and I had at least this one night and our morning.

*~*~*

Zhan and the other two are back. They told us that they had taken a closer look at the other floors and stations. They found out that there are video cameras only in this station. Yanli had seen them here and told Zhan and Cheng about them. They then looked everywhere. Apart from this station and the door in station 1, which we couldn't get open, there are no other cameras. That means until we were upstairs in front of the door, the ones behind the monitors didn't even notice us.

And now that they know about us, it could be that soon we'll hear from them. Soon it could be that they want to get us to play by their rules. Just like the other three. Will we be strong enough to win against them? And, who are they anyway?

After the three of them told us all what they found, or didn't find, during their re-exploration of the entire stations, Zhan took me aside and told me he wanted to talk to me.

I then walked with him into the stairwell and down one floor into station three and he pointed to the door straight ahead. "Did you notice that when we were both here for the first time today, we didn't even look to see if we could get the door open? I don't even remember us seeing it at all." Said Zhan.

I thought about it for a moment and then said, "Right, you're right. When we were here, we did look around and noticed that the place looked the same as the station where we slept, but I didn't really notice the door."

"When we were here again earlier, Cheng tried to open the door, it's locked. But footsteps had clearly been heard behind the door. Yanli thinks we can't find an exit upstairs and it's more of a trick. She thinks that we might have an exit here."

"So Yanli thinks that the door upstairs is just a misdirection and the exit can be found where we least expect it?"

"Mhm exactly. What could also fit with this, and we noticed this by accident, is that the floor here is way too clean. If no one has been here for years, then the floor should be just as dusty and dirty as in the other stations. But it isn't. Quite the opposite!"

I looked at the floor leading from the door through the hallway and to the stairwell and had to agree with Zhan. It is definitely too clean. I then looked at the other two hallways and noticed that the floor there was far dirtier. So that kind of proves that someone, or someones, regularly come out of the door here and go to the stairwell. But also to the two elevators.

And then I remembered that Jay told Rin and May that every delivery they receive is either in the stairwell outside the door, or in the elevators. Now I'm glad Zhan went alone with his family and I had enough time to hear one thing or another that the now happily reunited family had to discuss.

While we were still standing there talking, we heard footsteps approaching from the other side of the door, pausing and leaving again. I immediately looked around at the door and then indicated to Zhan what I saw. A small camera hidden in the sign above the door. The sign says, "Staff access only" and the small camera is hidden in the O.

We left the station and headed further down instead of up. We wanted to look at the signs again. But, nowhere did we find another camera. So, the development station is camera guarded, the door in station 1 and the door in station 3.

Zhan and I decided we didn't want to stay in the camera-monitored station and would rather, if we really had to, spend the night in the station where we spent the last night.

We went back upstairs to the others, to the room of André, Han and Leni and talked without Rin, May and their entourage about the hidden camera and our plan to sleep downstairs. They all immediately said that they too preferred the other station and wanted to stay there. At least until Han is better and we don't have to carry him anymore.

We also talked about the other door and decided that as soon as Han and Leni are halfway fit, we will try to get this door open and see who or what is behind it.

Because of the many unanswered questions concerning Rin and May, we decided not to let them in on our plans. Also not the other three from their family. André thinks the three of them could become a problem for us. They feel at home here after these four years and see in those who keep them imprisoned here a kind of protector, from whom they are provided with everything they need. "They don't even have the desire to get out of here." Said André.

That's the impression I have too. Because whenever we said anything negative about this institute, they immediately looked for counterarguments. And they like it even less when we talk bad about their protectors and say that they treated them like lab rats all these years.

But now we will go back to the others and have dinner with them. Dinner, well noted. It seems to be true, at least, that time passes differently here.

Oh yes, at least I know the time again, because there is a working wall clock in this station. Only unfortunately I still don't know what date it is.

At the moment I have to think a lot about my parents. I'm sure they are already worried and sick with worry because Hai Kuan and I are not contacting them and they can't reach us. Zhan also said earlier that his parents, especially his father, are probably already freaking out. Zhan wants to tell me more about his father later when we are alone in our room. I'm really curious about that.