Chapter 12: What The Dog Doing

Only the soft sound of cautious footsteps echoed in the silence. Frederick, who had gotten a new fire axe in another lab where the door had been left open, walked little by little down the dark corridor, his hand on the wall to guide him. The total area of the underground laboratory was much greater than that of even the largest sports stadium.

There were many laboratories lined up in the middle of the building, and the corridors were quite intricate. Frederick knew the complex well, but the darkness made it difficult to grasp the space, making it seem like a maze. Even though his eyes were getting used to it, it was still discouraging to see only the red, and occasionally green, emergency lights as regular landmarks.

Most importantly, why was it that Frederick had not found anyone else yet? There must be a large number of researchers working in the lab on a regular basis, even in the Beta Section. But he hadn't seen a single one of them so far. Frederick went to the infirmary to confirm Aria and Daubeny's absence and then continued on his way to the emergency evacuation route, which was an independently powered emergency escape elevator hall on the outskirts of the Beta Section.

While he was doing this, almost thirty minutes had passed. In such a large underground laboratory, it was indeed unnatural to have gone that long without seeing anyone.

"Is it because of that strange animal?"So far, he hadn't heard nor seen any sign of it. However, judging from the bloodstains that could sometimes be seen splattered here and there on the floor illuminated by what little light there was, it had definitely been through the area.

"A facility that is much too large for a man-eating beast.... It's like an escape game." Frederick sighed and then winced as he noticed another new pool of blood. It was then that he heard something clacking and fiddling with a keyboard. Frederick started walking a little faster and turned down the hallway. The door to the lab at the end of the hall was tightly closed, but…. He was still unsure of himself, but if he listened carefully, he could even hear the breath of the person behind the wall.

'Really, I don't know how I can tell those sounds apart.'

"Hey! Who's there?" Standing in front of the door, Frederick called out to the person inside. The reply came quickly.

"I'm here! I'm here!" A pounding on the door was followed by the voice of a young woman. Like Frederick a short time ago, she must have been trapped by the sudden loss of power in the Beta Section. With that in mind, Frederick readied his axe.

"Get away from the door! I'll pry it open from the outside!"

"Oh, no, I'm fine! Wait a minute. This should open…."

"Open, you say?"

He did as he was told and waited for a bit, and then there was a click around the auto-locking unit on the door, and then another click, and then the sound of the lock opening! Frederick had to pry his door open with an axe, but apparently the woman in this room had disassembled the unit on her own and disengaged the auto-lock.

"Good, good…." A small gap appeared in the door, and thin fingers appeared. But the heavy door did not slide easily, as if the woman was not strong enough.

"Let me help you…." Frederick placed the axe on the floor and inserted his hands into the gap in the door. Then, with all his strength, he slowly slid the heavy door open. The door opened more easily than he had expected, with surprisingly little effort.

"Wow, aren't you a strong one?"

On the other side of the open door, a young woman rolled her eyes. She had black hair that was cut into a bob and dark brown skin. At first glance, she looked to be of South Asian descent. Despite the dim glow of the emergency lights, Frederick could tell that she had a pretty face.

"Thank you. Huh, I'm finally out."

"By the looks of things, you've been trapped in here since the emergency alarm?"

"Well, that's mostly right. I was really surprised when it all happened so suddenly."

It was probably because she had been sitting in the middle of the room for a while trying to unlock the door, but she moved stiffly at first. As she exited the lab, she stretched out a couple of times, then popped her hip with an audible crack. Then she looked at Frederick again and furrowed her brow.

"Ugh. You…okay? You've got blood all over your neck."

"Yeah, I guess so. I'd love to know what happened too."

"I don't know what that means, but.…"

Suspicion in her eyes. She took a few steps back, with good reason. If the man covered in blood wasn't wounded, the first question would be where the blood came from. And he has an axe, even if he says it's just for emergency preparedness.

"It's no wonder she thinks I'm dangerous, huh?"

But Frederick had no other way to answer. "Amnesia is a bit of a bitch, but there's nothing I can do about it right now."

"...Are you joking?"

"No, I'm dead serious. It may be difficult to ask you to trust me with how I look right now, but…." As he said this, he put his hand in the breast pocket of his lab coat and took out the ID case that hung around his neck.

Showing the ID card in it, Frederick said his name. "I'm Frederick Bulsara. I work here. My specialization is Gear cells, if that helps."

"So you're from the Gear Project?"

"Well, I don't think I'm notable enough to be able to say that I am. I'm kind of a subcontractor."

"Hmm… I see." She was still staring at Frederick's ID card with narrowed eyes, though, as if in doubt.

"So, what about you?" Frederick asked, gesturing with his ID card.

"I'm…Viidia. Don't ask me my last name. It's quite long."

Frederick wondered if it was a name from her or her family's country of origin. Anyway, since they now both knew their first names, they wouldn't have any trouble for the time being, and they didn't need last names to communicate.

"Okay, Viidia. And while we're here, let me ask you something. What's going on in this underground lab right now? Do you know anything about it?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't have been locked in here, would I?"

"You're right. Then we're in a very similar situation." Frederick said, and walked into the lab he had just opened. He headed straight for the fire extinguisher station, grabbed another emergency axe, and headed back to the hallway.

"Here, take it." He held out the axe to Viidia.

"...What do you mean? I thought we were evacuating." Viidia tilted her head with a strained laugh.

"I intend to, but it's better to be prepared."

Frederick handed her the axe as he briefly explained what had happened so far, about the mysterious beast and the people who were attacked by it.

"I didn't see it, but it attacked people, killing and eating them with ease. It seems that such an unidentified beast, or rather monster, is here in the Beta Section right now. We can't be sure when it will attack us."

"Monsters. You know, I think you've been watching too many movies, like the one about amnesia…." Viidia, who was laughing bitterly, suddenly stopped speaking. Her serious gaze was fixed at something behind Frederick's back.

"Is that the thing you mean?" At these words, Frederick turned around quickly.

"How did I not notice that?!" It was a blunder that he didn't notice until he saw it with his own eyes. Soon to be another tragedy. He was caught completely off guard. Maybe it was the sound of talking that brought it to them. But now that Frederick was aware of it, he could hear its breathing and the slight sound of its claws on the floor.

"A dog…no, a hound."

It was easy to see that that was what it was. Out of the corner of his eye, emerging from the light of the emergency lamp, was a Doberman. It was acting like a police dog chasing a criminal, and tasted the smell of them in the dim corridor's recesses. There seemed to be a sheen around the mouth of the hound. That dampness must be liquid. Even if it is not reflected in the red of the emergency light, it was probably the same color.

"Is that what you call a monster? It seems like some kind of lab animal to me."

"I wish it was." Frederick, who had already heard and witnessed the hound's capacity for murder, nervously held up his emergency axe.

"At the very least, this dog can kill." Perhaps in response to Frederick's words, the hound sniffing in the corner of the corridor suddenly raised its head as if it had noticed something.

Then it saw Frederick and Viidia. The hound's eyes glowed suspiciously, similar to how photographed eyes glow red in the reflection of a camera flash.

"Are its eyes glowing?"

So Viidia, at last, decided that the thing was no ordinary dog. Behind Frederick, she raised her axe in the same way he had. The hound looked at them, tongue hanging slackly, and took a short, huffing breath. At that moment, liquid drooled out of the hound's mouth. The liquid, which was very likely red, could be of the employee that Frederick had abandoned only a short time ago. And just when Frederick thought he had it all together. The hound kicked the floor with a violent stomp. Then, with unexpected speed, it quickly closed the distance and jumped at Frederick.

"Fast…!"

"Woah?!"

Frederick and Viidia just ducked to the end of the corridor and dodged the hound's charge in the nick of time. But right after that, an unfamiliar sound of destruction followed the hound as it charged past.

"You've got to be kidding!"

How much momentum had been built up in that instant? The hound jumped and ran into a corner on the other side of the corridor. The wall that the hound crashed into was heavily indented, like a crater. Cracked concrete wall fragments were launched from the impact. Frederick and Viidia were able to avoid the debris that flew at them, but both were shocked at the thought of what might have happened if they had been hit. In addition, this hound that had just done such massive destruction must have felt something from that impact, but it turned around and lowered itself, as if to say, "Let's go again!"

"This is ridiculous! It's not natural!"

"You think it's a dog with some kind of scientifically enhanced muscles? You've gone too far, there's no way! It's a complete monster. It could be a weapon…."

Frederick broke off as the hound charged at them again.

This time, he went to the center side of the corridor. He dodged again, but this time, perhaps because he was originally near the wall or perhaps because the hound had learned, the hound faced him with its flank against the wall.

"What?"

The hound opened its mouth and jumped again, aiming for Frederick. It was going to bite him. Frederick's instincts told him to hold the handle of the axe in front of his body. But the hound's fangs easily chewed through the iron handle and charged straight at him. The momentum was lessened by the axe taking the brunt of the force, but Frederick was still pushed to the floor by the hound.

"Guh-aghhhhhh?!"

Without pause, the hound snapped its teeth at Frederick until its fangs sunk into his left shoulder. The disgusting sound of fangs into flesh as the hound continued to bite down harder and harder. The heat in Frederick's left shoulder seemed to boil over instantly, and the intense pain he felt caused his vision to flicker like a flash."

"Frederick! Oh, my God! You bastard!"

It was then that Viidia swung her axe with both hands at the hound, which had stopped moving. The axe struck the hound's torso directly, ripping deeply into its flesh. Viidia backed away in disbelief. The blade of the axe did not cut through the bone, but stopped when it dug into the hound's torso. However, the hound did not seem to care at all, and shook its head from side to side in an attempt to bite off Frederick's shoulder.

"Ugh?! You've got to be kidding me!"

Fighting back the pain that made him want to scream, Frederick struggled, bashing the hound one, two, three times with the broken axe handle that remained in his right hand. He slammed the broken handle of the axe into the hound once more. But even as the handle pierced its neck, the hound still shook its head as it bit down. The fangs that dug deeper and deeper into his left shoulder made Frederick foresee the arrival of death.

Du-dum.

That's when Frederick heard it. The moment when he strengthened his will to fight back, not broken by the intense pain. He heard the sound of his heart beating, unnaturally rising in his chest. For some reason, an unusual heat was rising in his throat.

"Damn it! Let go…!" He clenched his right fist, which was losing its strength. Live. It felt like his body was screaming at him.

"I'm not… food!" He swung his right arm as hard as he could at the hound's face. And the fist connected with it solidly. The beast screamed, and the pressure on Frederick's shoulder disappeared. The hound spun around violently, got up, and ran off down the hallway.

"What?" He was sure that only he alone had hit it. For a moment, Frederick didn't know what had happened.

"It was only a punch, okay? It's not possible for it to be blown away like that…."

It had been hit with the raw brute strength one unlocks in rare moments of extreme distress. Yet, for all that, they still couldn't let their guard down.

"Ouch…ah..." Frederick sat up, holding his left shoulder, which was bleeding badly.

"Frederick! Are you alright?!" Viidia appeared from inside the lab with a fire extinguisher in her hand. Was she going to beat the hound with it? Frederick had assumed that she had already escaped on her own.

"Ha, haha, hahah…." Frederick laughed out of nowhere, probably a little crazy from the pain.

"Stop laughing, we have to run!"

"Run away to…?"

For a moment, Frederick was puzzled. Viidia's statement was correct. So, why was he confused? He wasn't sure what he was doing.

"What the hell am I thinking…?"

Fredrick couldn't help but look at his right hand. He opened and closed his fist, as if to check it for anomalies. A foolish stroke of luck on the verge of death? Even so…. That punch was so powerful that it was impossible to believe that Frederick had done it himself.

"That's a nasty wound. Can you walk?"

"Oh, yeah…."

Viidia, holding the fire extinguisher, supported Frederick's unsteady body and helped him to stand up slowly. And then, from the other side of the corridor, they heard the deep growl of the hound. When they looked again at the hound that Frederick had blown away, they saw that it was in an incredibly strange state.

The axe that Viidia had wielded was still sticking out of its torso, and its neck was completely bent to the side. It was not a matter of interpretation, the bones in its neck must have been broken. The direction of the head itself had changed, and was now hanging slackly. The hound's legs were shaking as it tried to stand up, as if the connection between its brain and the rest of its nervous system was damaged. But, to begin with, it was strange for it to be able to move at all with a broken neck like that.

"That's… mildly horrifying."

"Yeah, it's not an amusing sight at all."

The hound slowly walked towards them on shaky legs. It hadn't given up yet. Then Viidia pulled out the pin of the fire extinguisher and threw it in the direction of the hound. Red and green lights mixed together and reflected off the fire extinguisher's discharge. The ensuing glow turned the whole area bright yellow, as if the sulfurous fumes of hell had risen before them.

"It might only be a temporary distraction. Let's go! We need to get you some first aid. "

"Literally went up in smoke, huh?"

Frederick and Viidia walked away, following the green lights that indicated the emergency evacuation route. The hound was still barking behind them, and their steps naturally quic

Frederick and Viidia, who had managed to escape from the monstrous hound by taking advantage of the smoke screen made by the fire extinguisher, sat down in the corridor on their way to the emergency elevator.

Normally, he would have gone to the infirmary, but Frederick had confirmed that it was closed before he met Viidia. Since they couldn't get in there and the place was right behind the hound, they decided to get him temporary first aid elsewhere.

"Let me see the wound for now. If it's a broken shoulder, you're going to need emergency treatment."

"Do you know how to...?"

"I'm a biologist. I'm also somewhat familiar with medicinal care."

With Frederick seated right under the green light indicating the emergency exit, Viidia lightly wiped some of the blood from his left shoulder with the sleeve of his lab coat and checked the wound.

Frederick had clenched his teeth, thinking that the touch of the wound would cause severe pain, but the wound was shallower than he had expected, which was quite disconcerting. Not exactly because of that, though.

"You've got a lot of guts, you know that?"

Frederick joked with Viidia while she examined the wound.

The staff of the laboratory were all insufficiently active to begin with. There was a gym room in the Beta Section, but no one used it, so it was covered with dust. Viidia, on the other hand, had a way with an axe that wasn't like a scientist at all.

"You're young. Have you had a difficult life or something?"

"I'm just used to blood, that's all. Besides, with a monster like that, wouldn't it be more dangerous to be alone?"

"The one who runs away dies in the end, huh? It's a classic in the movies."

"Apart from that… I want to hear what your part in this is."

Viidia, who was examining the wound on his shoulder, stopped and turned to Frederick. It was the same suspicion that she had expressed when she had just met him.

"Frederick. Who are you really?"

"...What do you mean?" Not understanding the meaning of the interrogation, Frederick asked back. Viidia suddenly clenched her fist and punched Frederick's bloody left shoulder with a little extra force.

"What?"

"Is it still hurting? Incredibly, I don't see any wounds."

"…Wait a minute, what do you mean?"

"I meant what I said. The bones are fine. Not only are your bones intact, but your lab coat and the shirt underneath it are definitely torn and bloody. And yet, your skin is flawless."

"That's ridiculous…"

Frederick also touched it, to check the wound himself. But even though he felt his shoulder roughly, it didn't hurt at all, and the wound was completely gone, revealing only his healthy skin beneath the tattered coat. Just a few minutes ago, he was in such pain that he could barely walk, so where did the bite wounds go? When he came to his senses and became more calm, the pain was no longer there in the slightest. It was as if the wound had never existed in the first place.

"I'll ask you again, Frederick. Who are you? Are you actually a subject of classified research?"

"No, not at all. I'm really just a scientist. I'm just a scientist!"

Frederick was in a state of disbelief when it occurred to him, and suddenly it happened.

"...Ugh!"

The abrupt headache made him hold his forehead. At that moment, a flashback appeared in his mind. Just as when he had first woken up in his lab, images began to flow into his mind.

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"Guh-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

It was a memory of rolling around on the lab floor, Frederick holding his head in his hands. His throat was burning hot. Eventually, he couldn't even scream anymore. Back arched, convulsing. And then... That's when his vision and memory faded.

"Ugh!"

Fredrick couldn't help but put his hand to his throat. It wasn't in any real pain, but his throat still felt like the impression of the heat and pain was there.

"Yes, I'm sure I'm…."

The reason why Frederick's lab was such a mess when he woke up was because he had been writhing and flailing. Even though Frederick thought for sure he was dead at that moment, he woke up… for some reason. He had been unable to remember this until just now.

'What happened to me? Why was I writhing in agony then? What does this have to do with the fact that I'm having memory issues?'

Frederick's mind tried to remember what happened just before the flashback, but all that came up was the image of himself in agony, a severe headache, and a burning throat.

'I think… Did I die? No way, you're kidding yourself….'

But if his memory was correct, then it's not hard to understand why the wound on his shoulder had disappeared. The blood around his neck was probably because that wound had also disappeared, just like the shoulder wound. The strange sensitivity in his hearing and the strength of the punch to the hound's head could be explained if he imagined that he had become an altered person, or something ridiculous like that.

'What's going on with me…?'

A tsunami of anxiety surged through his chest. And then Viidia sighed, as if she had no choice but to accept what he had told her.

"Huh. By the looks of it, you really have no idea."

"I'm sorry…. But I told you, didn't I? I think I have amnesia."

"Normally, I'd suspect a brain injury, but…when something out of the ordinary like the disappearance of a major wound like this happens, it's natural to assume something else is wrong."

"I'm in trouble because I can't figure it out. I've got amnesia and I was almost eaten by a monster, but somehow I'm safe and I… I feel like I'm having a bad dream."

"A bad dream. I agree with you on that point. I don't want to be eaten by that monster and die, that's for sure." Viidia said decisively, standing up and staring at the green emergency lights.

"I don't know what to do. If we stay in this place, we might be attacked again."

"Oh…. Yeah.…"

Frederick decided to take her word for it even if, for the moment, there were still many things that didn't make sense to him. The two of them walked side by side down the dimly lit corridor, following the green lights that marked the direction of the emergency exits. This time, he paid close attention to unusual sounds so that he wouldn't run into any more unexpected obstacles.

There had been a number of bloodstains in the hallway so far. It was as horror-stricken as their own attack had been. If these kinds of tragedies were happening all over the place,and Frederick was able to find Viidia, how many others might still be alive? It would be reassuring if they could meet up with other staff along the evacuation route, both in terms of getting information and in terms of gaining manpower.

Frederick couldn't help but wonder what was really going on in the underground laboratory elsewhere right now. It was hard to imagine that a mere accident or biohazard could create such a monster. Was it a terrorist attack aimed at some kind of research being worked on in the facility? What if this situation was caused by malicious human intention? Thinking about this, Frederick suddenly asked Viidia, who was still walking next to him.

"Hey, Viidia, do you know what time it is?"

"Right now? Well…." Viidia took her pocket watch out of her pocket and checked the time.

"It's just after eleven."

"I see." Frederick narrowed his eyes and sighed lightly.

"What's wrong?" Frederick, despite his anxiety, regained his composure and said,"Ah, well, I've been worrying all day about whether anyone I know was safely evacuated."

"Are they your colleagues from Project Gear?"

"They're not in the same section, except for one, but the other two are the ones who sometimes come by to check on me when lunchtime rolls around. I hope they didn't get caught up in all this.…"

Frederick wondered if Aria, Daubeny and Asuka had been safely evacuated. He walked along carefully, thinking of their faces.

"Hmm?"

He stopped suddenly, reacting to an unusual sound he heard too clearly. Wondering what happened to them, he started getting anxious again. Anyway, what he sensed with his strangely acute hearing was a small human voice. They were the voices of the people waiting at the end of the evacuation route. Only the soft sound of cautious footsteps echoed in the silence. Frederick, who had gotten a new fire axe in another lab where the door had been left open, walked little by little down the dark corridor, his hand on the wall to guide him.