Chapter 59: Oasis Bares Its Fangs in the Morning
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
Under the bed, Lin Sanjiu saw only a pile of torn bedsheet. Marcie pulled out the bedsheet and realized instantly that she didn’t plummet 12 hard enough. 12 must have woken up some point in time. Since the cleansing effect only lasted for 120 seconds, he regained his physical enhancements. Once he reverted to his original strength, a single bedsheet was certainly not strong enough to keep him bound. Marcie was suddenly gripped with regret, helplessness, and even a little fear. If she didn’t waste her time searching for Lin Sanjiu for 40 minutes, he might not have been able to escape…
However, this was the biggest problem that weighed heavily on them: If 12 intentionally leaves Oasis and goes somewhere further, Marcie would disappear once again.
Once she thought of that, Lin Sanjiu grew restless, “Marcie, I don’t think he went far, why don’t we look for him now? Anyway, the entrance of the factory compound is guarded...“
Marcie sighed after hearing Lin Sanjiu’s suggestion, “He is still in Oasis. I can sense it.” Looking at Lin Sanjiu, she explained a little impatiently, “For example, if I can move freely within a 100 meters radius from Luther… I would feel a sense of danger when we are about 70 meters apart. However, right now, I don’t feel this feeling at all. This means that he’s not far from us. I am sure of that.”
Lin Sanjiu frowned, not knowing if it could be considered good news. Even though Marcie didn’t face the risk of disappearing now, that also meant that 12 was nearby, monitoring them secretly.
[But, where?]
After she mulled over it for a while, she clapped her hands together and finally made a decision. “Marcie, let’s go. Hear me out, I have an idea,” Lin Sanjiu said with a serious expression.
“We have already found a Consular Officer. Oasis is a complicated place; furthermore, Chen Jinfeng has an agenda against us. If not for the series of events that happened over the few days, only a fool will continue staying in this place. Since 12 has disappeared, we should make the first move and leave Oasis. If we wait outside Oasis for him, we will get him somehow.
“Even though Oasis is created by modifying a factory compound, all the other exits are locked for security reasons. Even the plot of land used for farming is surrounded by high walls and metal gates. If 12 wanted to leave, he had to leave officially. Otherwise, he would have to climb over the walls or force his way past the main entrance. No matter what method he chooses, we can just keep watch outside.”
Even though that was just a vague plan, it sounded quite feasible — Marcie’s face visibly brightened as she listened to Lin Sanjiu. With a less dejected face, she agreed, “Say no more, this is definitely worth a try.”
For this plan to work, they only had one problem: How were they going to secretly leave with their vehicles?
It might be easy for them without their vehicles. However, driving their vehicles just to another spot would easily draw attention, let alone blatantly driving all three vehicles out of Oasis.
“Let’s wait till morning. We can secretly go out of this building and assess the situation.” This was the only unimpressive idea Lin Sanjiu could come up with after thinking for a long time. “Almost everyone is asleep in the morning, so security would be laxer. At the same time, you must stay alert, if you sense that 12 is getting too far from you, you have to tell me.”
Marcie nodded her head worriedly. In the past, with all twelve personalities in the same body, none of them could hurt each other. However, with the current situation, she could not help recalling the traumatic experience of witnessing the aftermath of what happened to the female doctor at the mental asylum.
Lin Sanjiu sighed softly when she saw Marcie’s face. After they had discussed about their morning plan, they kept quiet with heavy-laden hearts. Knowing that a homicidal maniac was spying on them, they did not dare to split up. Both squeezed into Lin Sanjiu’s tiny bed and somewhat managed to rest awhile. After some time, they heard the rising volume of people’ voices and various noise coming from the first floor. It was followed by multiple footsteps and the smell of food. Lin Sanjiu knew that the duties for that day had ended and once again it was mealtime.
Considering their planned operation in the morning, both tried to eat as much as they could even without an appetite. They returned to the bed and laid for two to three hours waiting as the basement grew slightly brighter. The people in the basement gradually fell asleep, and the basement was filled with the sound of breathing.
When they felt that most of the people were fast asleep, Lin Sanjiu sat up and beckoned for Marcie to follow her. They quietly walked along the corridor, trying to keep their footsteps as light as possible. Fang Dan placed down the charred book she was reading and crooked her head when she noticed two pairs of feet creeping past her curtains.
“I’m a little worried about Luther,” Marcie confessed quietly after they walked past about 200 over cubicles.
“Why?”
“He doesn’t know anything about that incident with the female doctor.” Marcie grimaced, “Another personality took over the body after it happened. The doctors discussed with the ten of us, and we decided to hide the matter from Luther.”
Marcie sighed and continued, “At that time, Luther was still young, he was just a kid… When you first got to know us, you saw how proud he was that he had multiple personalities. He always felt that it was cool to have this disorder. If he found out that there was a monster hiding in his body, and that he had murdered an innocent woman with his bare hands…” Marcie stopped at this point.
Lin Sanjiu concurred silently. Even though Luther had already lived in different apocalyptic settings for a total of two years, perhaps because he had people around him and because he did not experience anything too cruel, Luther managed to keep a gentle, straightforward personality just like many other teenagers his age. Lin Sanjiu was certain that he wouldn’t be able to accept that something like that happened. She wasn’t even sure if she, herself, could accept such trauma if it happened to her.
Lin Sanjiu knew that Marcie was very close to Luther, yet she did not know how to console her, so she just patted Marcie’s shoulder lightly. They stopped when they reached the entrance to the stairway. As expected, they saw Xiao Yu sitting on a stool guarding the door. Xiao Yu looked exhausted as she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes, her head was drooping.
“Why is she so afraid that people would go out during the day?” Lin Sanjiu remarked softly, feeling suspicious. Lin Sanjiu observed Xiao Yu carefully; Xiao Yu was sitting in the middle of the corridor to the door, so it was really quite difficult to sneak past her. Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to try her luck, she had a sudden thought. She used her【School of Higher Consciousness】 and processed what she had just seen. It was hard to believe that her glance which lasted barely half a second held so much information. She couldn’t help feeling that she usually walked around with her eyes closed.
There was a glass of water and a piece of folded paper beside Xiao Yu. From the back of the paper, she could see the vague outline of the content written in black pen — five days before, Lin Sanjiu also saw a similar piece of paper beside Xiao Yu. She instinctively retrieved the image from five days ago. Once the image was enlarged and the words were reflected, she made out what was written.
The paper was a name list of the five operations administrators and some main tasks. When Lin Sanjiu compared the two pieces of paper, she realized that within the five days, three of the administrators had been replaced. One of them was Sister Li. The reason they were replaced was the same: individuals from their building went out during the day. This was probably the reason why Xiao Yu became oversensitive over that issue.
Lin Sanjiu quickly deactivated her ability before she spent too much energy. She paused for a few seconds before she whispered to Marcie, “Be careful, let’s try to slip past her.”
Marcie nodded and tiptoed forward. She strode over Xiao Yu’s glass of water. She was nimble, so she quickly reached the basement door. She carefully opened the door and mouthed for Lin Sanjiu to follow her. Both slipped out of the door without making a sound. Xiao Yu did not notice anything as she rested her head on her own shoulders and fell asleep fully.
After they closed the door, a head appeared in the corridor not far from them. The person looked in Xiao Yu’s direction, perplexed and secured her long hair behind her ears. That person was Fang Dan. She followed both women because she suddenly felt curious.
Fang Dan looked around to check that there was no one; Xiao Yu was also fast asleep. Fang Dan felt as if she was a thief, and her face flushed with excitement. Following Marcie, she pulled out the door stealthily.
After they left Basement One, both women headed for the main hall. Fang Dan tried to hear their almost soundless footsteps and followed behind them. As there were no lights in the stairways, it was very dark. Fang Dan felt her way upstairs. Suddenly, she staggered as she stumbled and nearly fell due to some broken concrete on the floor. She steadied herself hastily, but she accidentally kicked a piece of concrete down the stairs.
Thud thud thud.
It rolled down the stairs and hit the door at Basement One. The sound it made echoed in the stairway, and Fang Dan could even hear some noise from behind the door.
Fang Dan’s heart leaped from her chest. She was so afraid that she ran up three steps with each stride. She rushed into the main hall — even though she did not know how she would return later, she wanted to evade Xiao Yu for now!
By then, the main hall should have been blazingly hot, but it was much darker than Fang Dan had expected. The vicious daytime sunlight even seemed muted. Fang Dan blinked in confusion, unable to react immediately. Her eyes swept the area, and she spotted the two people. They were standing motionlessly at the entrance of the building. The sunlight which flooded in from the entrance gave them distinctly black shadows. Fang Dan looked behind her and quickly walked toward them.
Before they could even hear her footstep, as if she had eyes at the back of her head, Lin Sanjiu turned behind to look at Fang Dan. Lin Sanjiu’s reaction shocked Fang Dan. Fang Dan wanted to say something, but the scenery outside caught her attention. Her mouth hung open as she stood stunned.
There were numerous duoluozhongs in the skies outside. Those duoluozhongs had developed raven black wings and were flying everywhere. There were so many duoluozhongs around that they blocked a lot of the sunlight. The ground was covered by patches of their shadows. There were even ten over duoluozhongs on the roofs of some of the buildings, they walked around without wings but with the familiar long mouthparts.
Lin Sanjiu had a very tense expression. She placed a finger over her lips signaling for Fang Dan to keep quiet. Fang Dan’s forehead was covered in cold sweat as she nodded repeatedly. Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream tore through the silence. At that moment, their blood froze.
Xiao Yu had managed to chase after them, but she now sat limply on the ground. Her face was pale, and tears streaked down her face. Her lips quivered a few times, and she finally let out a sharp meaningless scream again: “Ahhhhh… Ahhhhhh… Ahhhhhh!”
Before Lin Sanjiu could say “Sh*t!”, the duoluozhongs started landing on the ground outside their building, stirring up a cloud of dust.