5 Go Find the Truth

Tabitha threw two flash bombs to the back. With muted voices, Alfred held her arm and began to rush forward. Moments later, two blasts sounded. All the monsters around them stopped moving and covered their eyes. The spattering gunshots kept ringing in Tabitha's ears. She clenched her teeth and followed Alfred to the second floor.

After killing the last monster that followed them to the second floor, Tabitha threw away the shovel and lay on the floor. Alfred's power was drained as he leaned against a wall. The young man was covered in sweat. He gently gasped, not even having the power to cough.

"Your arm, it's bleeding."

Tabitha's words sounded dumb. As someone who was always being the "good kid," she never even had the chance of killing a fish for dinner. She never imaged that she would actually need to kill something like she just did. With the adrenaline rush, the only thought in her mind was to get away from the disgusting beings but after she realized what she had done, she was seized with nausea. When she saw the red and white liquid that remained on the shovel, she could not help but throw it away. She didn't even want to see it in her hand for a moment.

She suppressed her fatigue. Tabitha knew that there were no monsters around at this moment, but the hospital was not a safe place. If they could not find out the answer to the mission as soon as possible, it was just a matter of time before they ended up dead.

Tabitha reached out and touched Alfred's arm. His skin had a laceration and flesh protruded out of it. A green light covered the wound as blood seeped out slowly, finally forming a thin blood crust. Tabitha rummaged all over her body, trying to find something that could be used as gauze. However, the biscuits and water was the only thing she could find in her pocket. She looked at Alfred, pointed at his wound and gestured to him, as though she was asking if he had any gauze on him. Alfred shook his head slightly. He tried to pull the sleeve straight down, but with the wound on his arm, he found it difficult to do so. Tabitha shrugged, picked up her shovel, and cut a hole in her shirt. She ripped it and removed a strip of cloth to patch Alfred's arm up. Alfred looked down at the girl. From his position, he could only see the spine of her head. He was quiet; a confused look filling his eyes. It was hard to tell what he was thinking about.

After a few minutes, Tabitha was finally done bandaging Alfred's arm. Alfred looked at his armit was a mess. He chuckled as the bewildered look he had disappeared. Tabitha curled her lips as though she didn't hear him. She put her hand on his forehead again. The corruscating bloodstain changed to two lines the moment she touched it:

Life Value: 68/100

Ability Value: 0.01/50

Tabitha was in a trance; she had never thought that the bloodstain could get a more detailed numerical display. She stared at the ability value that was almost 0. She used her ability again when it returned to 8/50. She was also nearly drained of her healing powers.

"I thought it was only us who met such 'replisome'..."

Alfred raised his chin and gestured to the fake Aaron who had been thrown on the ground. "Carol and I had met another 'Carol' in the basement. She looked much dirtier. Carol then fought with that that person." He didn't keep speaking about it. Something strange appeared on his face.

The duo turned silent. After a while, Tabitha shared her thoughts. Alfred turned tense before answering, "If you what you are assuming is right, we are not the only team. I mean, our team isn't the first one here. But this is impossible. It is impossible for the Rubik World to publish such a mission that allows us to enter repeatedly. Most importantly, we don't have any memory of this mission at all."

Tabitha held her tongue, Alfred analyzed the situation more closely: "Match the record that I found before and all the weird things that have happened. I believe that the real reason caused the abandonment of the hospital is the mirror. It could be just one of these mirrors in the hospital, or all of them is the origin of these beings. What we need most now is the basic information of that 'trial of recover mirrors.' Once we know the purpose of this experiment, we can finish this mission earlier."

Tabitha walked forward with her shovel, "Anyway, we need to find Fay and Hale as soon as possible. It's too dangerous to leave Aaron alone there."

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The second floor of the hospital was in a state of silence. Even the footsteps of the two people seemed to be swallowed up by the fog. Alfred walked ahead with the flashlight. The surrounding atmosphere became colder and colder. He slowed down and noticed Tabitha rubbing her arms. The girl looked as pale as death.

"Need to take a break?"

He turned to the shivering girl and asked softly.

Tabitha shook her head. She looked at another corner that appeared ahead of them and couldn't help but look back. They had arrived in this spot from another corner a few minutes ago, but when she looked back, there was only endless darkness and fog. Nothing else could be seen.

Is this hospital really so big?

They seem to have walked across the second floor for more than twenty minutes but they had not even seen a figure of a human being. They had been walked in circles. Tabitha felt delirious. She felt as though they were in a maze.

"Do you want to talk about something? Anything. It's too quiet here."

Alfred spoke again. His deliberate soothing sound calmed some of Tabitha's nerves. She looked up at the handsome man and felt that her current situation was surreal.

"Actually, more or less, lots of hospitals have some strange things or ghost stories. I have never believed them before, but now I have to believe them in this world."

The man's words had a hint of self-deprecation. Although the topic was kind of awkward, it made Tabitha recover some of her spirits. After all, she had been walking in what seemed like an endless loop. She switched her shovel-holding hand and realized that it was dangerous. If she remained in her paralyzed state, she could hardly react in the first place if something attacked them out of the blue. This man was much smarter than she thought.

She glanced at Alfred again. Alfred did not look nervous at all. The golden spectacles frame was reflected in lambency from the flashlight which made his side profile look softer.

"...I hated hospitals when I was little. That smell reminded me of death." The girl responded, "When I was four years old, my father got cancer. He stayed at the hospital for half a year, but he didn't make it. And until his death, his body had the unique smell of a hospital."

Her voice was light, with no emotion. It seemed like she was just trying to explain why she hated hospitals.

"...I don't like hospitals and I have no interest in first-aid courses, medical programs, and things like that. Usually, the most common treatment I use is to go to the pharmacy to buy some cold medicine or get a band-aid when I injure my fingers." Her voice turned a little playful somehow. She touched the wound that had been bandaged by her. "So, as a person who made an attempt to bind up someone for the first time, I think I did a good job." She looked up at the bespectacled man, her face beaming.

Alfred was surprised about how she modulated her mood in such a short time, but when he saw the smile on her face, he suddenly smiled as well. He didn't notice that this girl was actually really pretty. She had a great and amiable look, but her personality was totally different from her look. She was a tough girl. He glanced through the blood that stained the girl and shovel on her hands and secretly came to that conclusion.

"Well, I also think you patched my arm well." The man responded, with a very convincing expression on the face. The atmosphere between the two suddenly turned delicate; the glass wall between them was now gone. They moved a little faster and a few minutes later, they had arrived at the end of the corridor.

Tabitha talked about her life before she came to the Rubik world and suddenly stopped. Alfred looked askance at the corner and turned the flashlight off. The entire corridor returned to darkness again. Tabitha adjusted her eyes to the darkness before she looked ahead. Unless she was seeing things, there was a white figure standing at the end of the corridor!

Tabitha held her shovel. She didn't know who that white figure was, or what it was. Both she and Alfred were support members in combat. They might have the ability to fight stupid creatures that only had aggressive instincts, but they would die if they met someone really powerful!

She missed Fay at that moment awfully...

Wait a minute... Tabitha pulled Alfred's sleeve and whispered into his ear. Alfred stayed quiet for a moment and switched on the flashlight again. Right at this time, a flame appeared beside the white figure.