8 Chapter 7

HIRO

Outlanders had attacked the apartment complex. They had killed the concierge and used his identity card to gain access to places past the lobby. They had set fire to the greenhouse and had kept gas in the vents so a lot of people had to evacuate the building immediately. The gas they used was Alper gas which displaces air, causes dizziness and confusion, and leads to chemical burns of the lungs after a few seconds of inhaling it.

Some people hadn't been able to make it out and had died in the building while the rest that made it out... were going to die. Including Hiro's sister.

When he saw Omi outside without her gas mask, he felt like his world had been ripped out from beneath him. He hadn't been able to speak or do anything else but bring out the spare gas mask that was in his bag when she ran to him, crying and saying things he couldn't hear. His head was under water till the first responders came to put out the fire, take care of the gas in the vents and take the residents to the hospital.

He didn't remember much of the ambulance ride to the hospital. He didn't even remember how he and Omi entered the hospital and when the doctors got her admitted. It was like a time skip.

He was having an out of body experience as he stared at his sister's sleeping form on the hospital bed. She had been sedated and was wearing an oxygen mask because of the damage to her lungs caused by the Alper gas. She wasn't going to live for more than three or four months, maybe even less, that was for sure. The doctors that had taken her vitals and performed a body scan on her hadn't explicitly said so but Hiro knew it.

The only family he had left in this world was going to die and he blamed everyone.

The outlanders, for causing this shit by attacking the apartment complex he and his sister lived in. The scientist, for creating the airborne particles that destroyed the planet's oxygen. And himself.

He could have stayed home till she went to get her gas mask and kept it close to her. He could have stayed home and done something... anything that would prevent his little sister from being in this situation.

"Hiro," someone called out and he instantly looked up and to the door of the hospital room he and Omi were in where Barney was standing. "I got here as fast as I could."

"Barney?" he stood up from his seat and glanced at his sister to check if she had woken up but she was still asleep before he made his way over to the door. "How did – What are you doing here?"

"You called me when you were in the ambulance," Barney replied as they stepped into the hallway of the hospital's private wing and Hiro shut the door behind them.

"Really?" He didn't remember doing that but he also didn't remember a lot of things since he saw his sister outside the apartment complex.

"Yes. Has she been attended to already?"

"Uh... yes," Hiro said as he spotted a couple of men and women in black suits heading down the hallway towards them.

"Hiro," Barney said when the men finally got to them. "This is Agent Fisher. He's with the government."

Agent Fisher outstretched his hand and shook Hiro's hand when he took it. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Tachibana." He dropped Hiro's hand and faced Barney before he pointed at the room Omi was in. "Is the girl in the room?"

"Yes, go ahead."

'Huh?' Hiro thought as Agent Fisher moved to open the door to the room and he immediately placed his hand on the man's chest to stop him.

"What are you doing?" he asked the man who glanced at Barney.

"Hiro," Barney said as he gently pulled him to the side and the man opened the door and entered the room with the people that came with him in tow. Hiro moved towards the room but Barney stopped him. "They can help your sister."

Hiro furrowed his brows in confusion. 'Help her how?' He moved toward the room again but Barney pulled him back.

"Let me go. What do they want with Omi?" he scowled at the man who was holding him back.

"As I said, they can help her... like the way they helped me," the man paused to gauge Hiro's reaction and saw that his expression was blank before he glanced around to make sure that they were still the only ones in the hallway. "Do you remember when I had floor to ceiling windows in my office and one of them broke?"

Hiro nodded as he remembered the day it happened. He hadn't been at the institute that day because Omi came down with a fever and had only heard about it the next day.

"Yes, what does that have to do with this?" he looked into the hospital room to see that one of the suited women had retrieved a wheelchair from the closet and they were about to move Omi from the bed to the chair. "Hey, what the fuck -"

"I was in the office that day... my office."

Hiro stopped talking and glanced at the man with his mouth slightly opened. That had happened five months ago. If Barney had been in the office, he should be dead by now.

Hiro narrowed his eyes at him. "That was... that was five months ago. You –"

"I know. I should be dead but..." he gestured at the people in the room who had now moved Omi to the wheelchair and were headed towards the door. "They helped me. Well, not them... the government."

Hiro was still confused about what he was hearing. He wasn't sure if Barney was telling him the truth or not but he believed the man was telling the truth because he had no reason to lie to him. But how could they have helped him? If someone inhaled the airborne particles, they were certainly going to die and there was no way to save the person.

"There is a condition though... If you want them to help Omi."

He looked at his sister who was still asleep and being wheeled out of the room then looked at Barney.

'He's still alive,' he thought. 'He inhaled the airborne particles and he's still alive.'

The suited people had already gotten to the elevator that was down the hall and they stopped to wait for the men that were still conversing in front of the hospital room.

"What's the condition?" Hiro asked as he watched his sister.

"...You have to join the Planet Z team."