19 - Dispute and fear

AUTHORS POV

It's 3 o'clock in the night and everyone is still awake, no one can or wants to sleep now. After taking Rin's body, for now, to one of the two labs and removing the blood in and in front of the elevator, everyone went to the visitors' room of station 4.

Only Zhan and Yibo remained sitting in the hallway in front of it, just listening to everyone argue senselessly. Again and again Yibo tried to write in his diary, but his hand was still shaking so much from all the excitement that he can't even hold the pen. Instead, he holds Zhan's hand very tightly and just looks at his diary lying on his lap.

From the visitors' room, the argument can be heard loud and clear. Hai Kuan against everyone, so to speak. Yibo was already fed up, they are all right and wrong. Also his brother!

As his brother yelled, "You all were guilty of assisting murder when you stopped me from opening the fucking door and letting them in. Now Rin is dead and who knows what about May. This is all your fault!"

Yibo had enough. He stood up, took Zhan by the hand again and pulled him with him into the visiting room. He stood directly in front of his brother and asked him angrily, shouting, "Haven't you had enough yet? Do you think any of us could have known what was happening? Hadn't we been specifically warned to stay away from them? And what if we had opened the door and the crazy ones had come in too? What if they had attacked you. Or me, or Cheng? Or all of us? What then? Who would be to blame then?"

Hai Kuan straightened up in front of Yibo and laughed, "Oh yes, you my little brother must be speaking right now. Since we started traveling, you've done nothing but whine and complain, even with such a cute boyfriend by your side, you can't do anything but complain. Mhhh, you of all people should know how to deal with situations like this, right? As a security guard, you had to participate in anti-terrorist training. And what about the survival training? Shouldn't you be the one best suited to handle such situations? And didn't you even learn sword fighting?"

"You can't compare the situation. I had the survival training when I was 16 years old and we were in the mountains and not in some shitty, dark cave packed with murderous creatures or somewhere in an institute underground. And you can't compare anti-terrorist training with this either." Yibo replied.

"Well then, next to your precious boyfriend Zhan and the oh-so-weak Yanli. Both were in a boot camp for a year, there you only survive if you are strong. Why don't you show us some of your strength instead of always complaining and whining. Or Cheng, my beautiful boyfriend whom I love more than anything, you learned how to fight from your dad. Then why don't you fight?" Shouted Hai Kuan.

Zhan sat down on one of the tables and laughed. "You don't have a clue, do you Hai Kuan? Do you ever think outside the box? All that I, Yanli, Cheng or Yibo learned can't be compared to this situation. And hello? Sword fighting? I mean sure, it absolutely fits Yibo and I didn't expect anything else. But, have you seen a sword anywhere around here? Are you trying to make your brother a murderer? And you're not that clumsy, are you Hai Kuan? Do you think my uncle hasn't checked everything out about you? Do you think he doesn't know that you spent two years in the army and also learned how to survive? Even how to handle different weapons and hand-to-hand combat was part of it. Do you think my uncle would let you be with Cheng if he wasn't convinced that you can protect him? But how are you going to protect him if you just react headlessly and open the door without knowing what to expect? What if this was just a trap? We would have opened the door and they would have attacked us. Can you react that quickly and without a weapon of your own? Think about who was standing close to the door and would have been injured or even killed. I'll be happy to list them for you, there was you, André, Meng Yao, Leni, Cheng and Yibo."

Hai Kuan obviously didn't know what to say to that and sat down on a chair. For a moment it looked like he was searching for words, but then gave up.

Everyone was silent for a moment, letting all these words go through their minds. Leni, who has been very good friends with Hai Kuan for so many years, rubbed her eyes and said, "I think the argument was long overdue. Even when we learned the truth about this trip, there should have been this fight. And now it's come to this. But instead of tearing each other apart, we should stick together and come up with something to protect ourselves from these crazy ones."

"I also think this was long overdue. All that stored up anger. It's obvious that it has to be released at some point. And it's better now, as if we're really in a dangerous situation." Said Missy.

Han, already feeling better and sitting in his wheelchair built by Zhan and André, silently listening the whole time, said, "I don't know about you, but we should get the hell out of here. That should be our first priority. I don't care about anything else. Yeah, sure, I'm sorry about Rin. But as Yibo said, none of us could have known what was going to happen. But we were also warned and that's all the others did when they blocked the door. So we should close that topic now and finally move on to the point where we talk about how to get out of here. And I overheard that Zhan and Yibo are already working on a plan. So why don't we try to listen to what they're trying to do and see if there's any way we can support them in that. Because who knows if they really mean it that well with us and let us leave again at all?"

André nodded and said, "The fact is, we are in a secret research facility. And for sure they want it to stay secret. They're certainly not going to take any chances by letting us leave here in a few weeks. The risk of someone opening their mouth and telling others about it is just too great for them. And one more thing. We've been told by them to avoid contact with the others. We don't know what they told them about us. Maybe yeah, that we are a danger to them and they should watch out. And those up there are absolutely in bondage to those who own this facility. If they told them to kill us, I'm sure they'd do it. And they've had four years to memorize everything here and find every hiding place."

"That's why Zhan and I also want to explore this facility in detail and draw a map of each floor. Maybe we'll notice something we haven't seen before. Like the camera above the door of Station 3. We should know where we can or need to run to safety in an emergency. Now they have us confused and scared with Rin's murder, which may have been exactly their plan. And we don't know what's coming next. Even if they only work in threes or fours, they are still MORE dangerous than our whole group." Explained Yibo.

Although they were all tired and the excitement was starting to subside, none of them went back to bed and they all talked about the plan, of Zhan and Yibo making a ground plan of this institute and marking possible hiding places on it.

All of a sudden, after realizing that they are not as safe here as they assumed, each of them wanted to become a part of Zhan's and Yibo's plan and help. Even the two who are still dealing with their injuries.

Zhan also suggested that they all set out to find a router. The others had said that someone kept contacting them through the computer and talking to them. "That means there must be a router with internet access here in the facility, some form of network that we might be able to access with Hai Kuan's internet enabled camera. Furthermore, we should also try at the top if Yibo might get a signal with his cell phone. However, at least two more people should accompany us and watch in case someone comes." Said Zhan.

"Yes. And we should refrain from using the elevators if possible, since they can be heard going up and down the shafts. So unless it's absolutely necessary, we should avoid the elevators and take the stairwell." Added Yibo.

"Could we maybe move down a floor? The crazies wouldn't know and we'd be closer to the kitchen and wouldn't need the elevator then. Because surely no one wants to walk through the stairwell with hot pots when those maniacs might be coming from upstairs." Said Yanli.

Since not everyone was happy about this idea, Hai Kuan offered a vote. Most of the votes were in favor of moving to station 5. And they decided to move downstairs tonight.

They hurriedly returned to their rooms, took out all their belongings and brought this to the elevators. First Hai Kuan and André took the injured ones downstairs, while the women took the other elevator. Then the others followed. While they sent the rest of their stuff down with the other elevator.

Hastily they looked for the keys and even found one, for the door to the station. Then they set up their rooms. This time, however, the division of the rooms was different.

So now Yibo, Zhan, Hai Kuan, Cheng and Yanli are in one room. André, Han, Meng Yao, Missy and Leni, share the room next to it. They also made up a knocking sign. Three knocks on the wall means everything is OK, five knocks on the wall means something is wrong.

To prevent anyone from using the elevators to get to their floor, they held the elevator doors open and blocked them from closing again.

They were still securing and setting up their station when the monotone female voice announced that it was 6 am and time to get up. The lights in the rooms on the station came on and they continued to work until breakfast.

Only after breakfast, they all felt how tired they actually were and went to their rooms, where they locked themselves and wanted to sleep at least a few hours. Everything around them was silent and slowly their bodies relaxed. Their tension fell away with each additional minute they lay in their beds with the bright light, bringing them further and further into sleep.

At 11 am, nothing but the rhythmic inhaling and exhaling of the new residents of, now, Station 5 could be heard. Nothing else could be heard, nothing could be seen, nothing and no one was stirring.