In the midst of a smoke-filled ruin…
Three humans lay sprawled on the ground, looking as if they were dead.
All that surrounded them were shattered bricks and a collapsed ceiling.
Their bodies, covered in dust, resembled discarded corpses.
But soon enough, a gasp broke the silence, proving one of them was still alive.
Hurk, hurk!
With a cough, Cooper expelled the dirt packed in his mouth.
The coughing echoed, repeating like a broken record.
He continued to hack out dust stuck in his throat.
Even though he was still coughing, he seemed intent on confirming something as he pushed himself up.
He then rolled up his sleeve and pulled out a watch, wiping the dust off the screen.
“…7:35.”
With a small cough, he quietly stated the time.
Unlike earlier when it had completely stopped, the watch was now ticking normally.
It was a clear sign that he had escaped that dreadful space.
“Damn it, I won’t be able to go near the stairs for a while…”
Muttering in annoyance, the sound slipped from his lips.
However, beneath the complaining, there was a hint of relief in his tone.
“Everyone, are you still alive? If so, wake up!”
He shook the two who lay beside him.
They didn’t move at all.
But their slight twitching confirmed they were alive.
Finally, a weak groan escaped one of them, who then began to rise with a kellok sound.
“Where… are we?”
“I don’t know. All I know is it’s not that damn staircase anymore.”
“Did we escape…? Ugh, my head still feels like it’s ringing…”
Eleanor clutched her head, trying to regain her senses.
She clearly hadn’t fully recovered from the earlier shock.
Still bothered by the faint buzzing in her ears, she looked around, wincing slightly.
“Oh, oh my!”
Seeing the man collapsed beside her reminded her of what just happened, and she hurriedly reached out to him.
“Mr. Elijah! Are you okay? You’re still alive, right?!”
She shook him vigorously.
His body remained still.
But just as she began to shake him harder, something seemed to trigger him, his body wriggling for a moment before raising his head.
He started to cough heavily as proof he was alive.
“…Cough!”
Once the coughing subsided a bit, a faint groan came from inside his mask.
It sounded like he was enduring pain.
He tried to lift himself up while enduring the agony.
But for some reason, his body didn’t obey him, and he could only lean on one arm.
“…Sorry, could you help me up for a moment?”
“Y-Yes! Just put your hand on my shoulder!”
With a determined huff, Eleanor pulled him upward.
His body slowly straightened.
Before long, he was able to lean against the wall, allowing everyone to notice his arm twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Looks wrecked, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that hurt?”
“…To be honest, it’s quite painful.”
Cooper expressed concern, looking at him with a pitying glance.
There didn’t seem to be any bleeding, so his broken bones hadn’t pierced the skin.
Yet, the grotesquely bent arm was painful to look at.
“I-I’m so sorry. This is all my fault…”
Eleanor’s apology spilled forth.
It was fair to say his arm ended this way was her fault.
If she hadn’t slipped at that moment, he wouldn’t have had to twist his arm saving her.
“No, there’s no need to apologize. Thanks to you opening that door, we all made it out alive.”
Elijah, with a calm demeanor, simply conveyed that it was okay.
Besides, the fact that the door had opened was thanks to her reckless action, and with the Medical Office’s capabilities, they could definitely treat his arm.
Though, that was only if they could survive long enough to get treated.
“Right, next time, at least give us a heads-up if you’re planning something. I thought you’d gone crazy.”
“Well, my head was so cluttered at the time…”
Cooper joined in, voicing his thoughts about the situation.
Ultimately, it had turned out fine, but it was a risky situation where one wrong slip could lead to death.
No one wanted to witness their teammate explode into a bloody mess right in front of them.
“…Anyway, let’s wrap this conversation up. We have more urgent matters to attend to.”
Elijah cut off the conversation as it seemed to drag on.
While their tension eased a bit after escaping the seemingly endless staircase, they remembered there were still unresolved issues.
“Members, do you have any idea where we are?”
He asked while letting his broken arm hang.
Before them, a new place unfolded, with collapsed walls and ceilings.
It didn’t look like the typical concrete walls they’d seen before but resembled a tunnel made of steel mesh.
This space was completely different from the hallways they had seen underground.
“Why are you asking me? I just regained my senses myself.”
“Is that so? I thought you were looking around like you knew this place.”
“Uh, you were watching that, huh.”
Feigning ignorance, Cooper looked away as Elijah pointed out he’d been observing the surroundings.
Slightly displeased that he’d been caught, Cooper sighed softly, begrudgingly admitting he was looking around because he knew something.
“I don’t really know anything. I’m just guessing. It’s usually better not to say anything until you’re certain about it.”
“Doesn’t matter, just share it. It’s better than knowing nothing at all.”
“Well, if you insist, but… take it with a grain of salt.”
His voice dripped with uncertainty.
He had intended to wait until he was more sure to share, but it seemed Elijah was eager for his guess.
“I think… this might be…”
With an air of resignation, he glanced around again to validate his suspicions.
“I have a feeling this is an underground silo.”
Recalling a vision from memory, he shared his conjecture with them.
“…Uh, Cooper?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you say earlier that silos typically aren’t more than a few hundred meters underground?”
“Probably.”
With a puzzled expression, Eleanor spoke to him.
After the elevator crash, she remembered his explanation about the usual depth of silos.
Now, realizing something seemed off with his statement, she brought up the inconsistency.
“But we were at least a kilometer underground, right? We just went down stairs, so how could we have come up?”
Earlier, he stated that the standard depth for silos was around 30 meters.
While some were indeed built hundreds of meters deep, those depths paled in comparison to where they had just fallen.
Considering they had come down a long set of stairs while avoiding a twisted face, it was evident that his guess didn’t quite add up.
“So I said it was a guess. I’ve never been here before; I’ve only seen some materials.”
“So what you’re saying is――”
He shrugged lightly, as if to say he had mentioned it.
She recalled his earlier suggestion to filter what he said, feeling relieved yet frustrated.
“…But that doesn’t mean you can just say it looks similar and leave it at that.”
With a rather unoptimistic tone, he continued explaining with a tense expression.
“Look, we just came out of a place where time seemed to stop. Worrying about physical laws now doesn’t make much sense.”
He pointed out a few scratches on his wristwatch as he raised his arm.
His wristwatch, although it bore some scratches, was still intact.
In contrast to the stopped watches they’d seen on the stairs, this one was ticking away.
Eleanor, still confused, couldn’t help but reluctantly accept his statement about having just been in a frozen time space.
“And the really important thing is, if this truly is a silo…”
He paused mid-sentence, scratching nervously at his neck.
With a somewhat hesitant expression, he clearly didn’t want to voice what came next.
Finally, he sighed and continued,
“…Unfortunately, that means we’ve re-entered the range of the last lockdown measures.”
This was what he had meant to say later, a murmur that revealed they’d circled back to the uncomfortable truth.
Ultimately, he let the cursed realization slip from his lips.
