15 Chapter 15: Home(?) Sweet Home

"Yeah…", I managed, heading over to the nearest restroom to puke my guts out.

"Where the fuck were you?", he asked, while I was coming out of the restroom.

"Good question. I don't know either. We got trapped in what I think was a realm.", I said, reaching out for the water on his desk.

He paused for a bit after he heard me say 'realm'. Then he said, "What happened to David?"

"He became one with nature."

"… the director is going to kill you.", he said, sounding more concerned for me than for his dead classmate.

"Fuck is he going to say? 'Why did you come back alive' or something?", I snapped back.

"Mhm, then he will ask you to kill yourself.", he replied sarcastically.

"Oh shut you will ya? Make yourself useful and tell me what happened while I was away.", I asked.

"Well for starters, they sent out your batch's president out as a sort of 'rescue'."

"What?", I said, in surprise. He was quite the prized asset, and seeing as how David was killed, why would they send out someone that valuable? "They sent just one person?", I asked. Are they stupid? They should have sent a whole squad or something.

"Yup. The dude at the top of your batch of students, I guess? I forgot his name though…"

"Wilfred.", I said. He should be fine… we burnt down most of the endless forest so retreat should be possible, and he is quite strong so he might be able to dispose of the tree... but-

Why was I thinking about this?

"You said something about a realm right?", Nietzsche said, breaking my train of thought

"Uh… yeah. Why?", I replied.

"What was the realm like…?", he asked.

I paused for a second before answering. He had a fascination with realms for whatever reason, so I wanted to make it sound as cool as possible after all, purely just to make him feel jealous.

"It was a forest with endless trees, with no way of coming outside. The trees were unburnable, and constantly regenerated. No matter where we went, we would find the same trees. No animals, not insects, not even bushes.", I started, making it sound as dramatic as possible before I could physically cringe to death.

"Uh huh.", he said, listening to me as attentively as a 5 year old would their grandpa's old stories. "How did the two of you get out?"

"In the unending labyrinth of trees, was a clearing with a giant tree in the middle of it. The tree was-", I was interrupted by Daphne, entering the room and clapping her hands.

"Such an emotional story.", she said with a Romeo and Juliet level of acting, while still clapping her hands. "Why don't you tell such a beautiful story to our most esteemed director?"

"Oh… hello Daphne…", I said, getting annoyed at the interruption of my heartbreaking story. I honestly wanted to punch her squarely in the face.

"Yeah yeah, hi there. Is that Cecilia?", she said, looking at the lying girl near the green flames. "Of the 3 times I saw her, she was unconscious 2 times. Great track record already."

"Nothing we could have done about it really.", I said, pretending like it wasn't my fault. As her senior, I should have been more hurt than her. Not only that, I was basically out of commission for a pretty long time when my junior had to literally nurse me back to health.

"Good job. You look virtually unscathed when compared to your junior. I'm proud of you.", she said with so much malicious sarcasm in her voice, that one could almost taste it.

"…". I just stayed quiet. Anything I said would sound stupid.

"Alright then, come over to the infirmary, I'll patch you up, then send you to the director.", she said, heading out. "Come with me, what are you waiting for?"

Can't wait to be grilled by the director with questions. It was going to be a long day…

.

.

.

I woke up in a hospital bed. The same one I was in the first time I ended up here. Same ceiling, same bed, same flooring.

My ribs no longer felt like death, and I was basically able to walk as normal. How could broken bones heal so fast? I tried touching my ribs to see if I felt any pain, but it just felt like I never got them injured.

Daphne was standing in a corner, arranging medical supplies, when she turned around to look at me. "You are awake already? Are you a cockroach or something?"

"I take that as a compliment.", I said, getting out of my bed.

"You feeling alright?", she said, as she saw me stumble out of bed.

"Yeah, I am just hungry."

"Go to the cafeteria and grab a bite, Maria took care of everything else.", she said, going back to arranging her supplies.

"Alright thanks.", I said, heading out of the room.

"You know where it is right?", I heard her while I was in the corridor.

"Yeah I do.", I shouted back.

I lied. I did see her get to the cafeteria once, but that didn't mean I knew where it was. And then there was the oh so minor fact of this place seeming like Daedulus's labyrinth or something. Out of one labyrinth, into another.

I roamed around, roughly following the path I remembered from that one trip to the cafeteria with Daphne.

This place was massive. There were doors to rooms everywhere. I didn't even remember where the dorms were.

I opened the first door I could find and found it to be a janitor's closet. I opened the second room to find nothing but dust. Another room was a mirror room.

I kept on opening doors, less because I wanted to find the cafeteria, and more because I was curious as to what was on the other side of the door. The cafeteria didn't have a doorway anyway, so spotting it should be easy.

I felt like a kid finding a new playground. It felt exhilarating. This place was simply massive.

The more I explored, the further I got lost. I kept looking into the rooms. Most were large empty rooms, that looked like they were meant to hold tanks and weaponry. Others were empty rooms that looked like as if the walls were used as target practice for a machine gun.

This place really was a military bunker through and through.

I don't know how long I spent just exploring the place. Each room seemed like it had its own story, with some having craters, and others having rust all over the floor.

As much as I enjoyed exploring the place, fatigue started to set in. Why was I here again? Oh right, the cafeteria.

Where exactly was I?

I just kept roaming around the place, looking into rooms, trying not to think about it. Someone was bound to find me eventually.

While walking through the endless metal corridors, I heard a large boom from one of the rooms. I rushed inside to see what had happened.

A boy, who looked about 5 years older than me, was sitting on the floor, facing the wall. The wall itself looked unfazed, not fire, not even a black mark, just a very small amount of smoke coming from it.

I looked at the person sitting there for a second. He seemed to have realized someone was watching him and turned around to make eye contact.

"Who the fuck are you?", he said, getting up as fast as he could, seemingly caught off guard.

I looked around to see if he was talking to me.

"Yeah I am talking to you.", he said, sounding suspicious.

"I am Cecilia, Maria's new roommate.", I said.

"… What?", he said, looking to be confused. He tensed up, as if ready to take me down if need be.

"What about it?", I replied. Did I give a wrong answer…? He just seemed to be confused, not angry. But why was he confused to begin with? Was it because he knew Maria had gone missing?

"Nothing…", he said, trailing off. "Is Maria still alive?", he asked.

It took me a second to realize why he asked that question. If a person went missing for over a week straight with no notice, it was pretty natural to assume he/she was as good as dead, right? Is that why he was asking…?

"Yeah. She is alive and well.", I replied.

"Anyway, why are you here? Which batch do you belong to?", he asked, letting his guard down a little.

I looked him dead in the eyes. Then I blurted out, "Where cafeteria.".

He looked back at me with a blank face. "How long have you been here again?"

"Uh… I came after being rescued, then got sent on that investigation thing on the day after that and here I am.", I replied.

"You are joking."

"… No I am not…?"

"There is no way they sent you out for an investigation after just 1 day. Some of them have to wait up to 3 months to get out with their first investigation."

"Say what now?", I said. I guess that explained why the 'investigation' was so… hard? But why exactly did the principal send me on a suicide mission? Not just me, but also David and Maria.

I don't really consider myself to be a sentimental person, but I could feel myself getting angry. Either the director was really stupid or he had another goal, which probably wasn't very favorable to me.

Was I overthinking this? Probably. But it was better to be safe than to be sorry.