Chapter 4 - Ichika and The Escape Team - Part 2
Day 3 – 598 students remaining.
Shuji wakes up from the noise outside. It’s clear that somebody is about to be selected again. Shuji quickly heads outside with the others as the wait for the countdown to reach zero. Everybody is filled with dread as the announcement begins.
“The time is 7am. This is day 3. The system has decided that Takibi Sato is the saddest person in the city.”
Shuji looks around but it appears that Takibi is somewhere else within the city.
In another location, Takibi panics as other students begin to move away from him.
“I can’t die! Not like this!”
Takibi tries to run, but a gun locks onto him.
Bang...
Takibi was shot and falls forward as he dies.
Back at the hospital, Shuji and the others prepare their plan. People are eager to get to action.
“Where should we search first, Ichika?”
Ichika begins to speak.
“Not yet.”
Ichika proceeds to hand everybody a piece of paper and a pencil. Everybody is confused as Ichika continues to speak.
“I want everybody to create a detailed map of where they go whilst they look for an exit. I’ll be dividing us into teams so that we can cover more ground quicker.”
Some of the people begin to get disgruntled.
“What’s the point of making a map if we’re getting out of this place?”
Shuji interjects in Ichika’s defence.
“No, she right. If we all map out everywhere we go, then we’ll be able to figure out if we’ve missed any places.”
Ichika smiles as she looks at Shuji. People begin to calm down. Ichika begins to divide everybody into groups of two.
“Shuji. I’m pairing you up with Himari.”
Shuji begins to wonder who Himari is. Shuji begins to look around but suddenly a girl approaches him and bows.
“Hi there. My name is Himari.”
Shuji notices that the tone of her voice is particularly quiet. Himari seems to be very frail and wears glasses. Shuji decides to introduce himself.
“Oh, hello. You can call me Shuji.”
Ichika subsequently divides everybody into groups of two and gives them areas to investigate and map. As Himari and Shuji walk to their designated area, they begin to make conversation.
“The far eastern district, huh. There are no significant buildings to check out there either.”
Himari is curious as to what discoveries Shuji has made down here so far.
“Oh, have you ever been to the far eastern side of the city?”
Shuji continually looks at the state of the area as they walk and talk.
“No. But the further east we head, the more run-down the area looks. There is still mess from the riots that happened on day one. I guess Mikuni hasn’t been here yet.”
Shuji notices that people in this area seem a lot more hardened than those who live further west. Himari begins to get a bit scared and clings closer to Shuji.
“This place is quite scary.”
Shuji notices people looking at Himari and himself. Shuji begins to think to himself.
‘I can’t let people around here think I’m an easy mark. I need to be confident.’
He looks towards the scared Himari.
“We’ll find an empty building and make it our base of operations while we map the area. It should only take four or five days to clear the area thoroughly.”
Himari looks determined and nods at Shuji.
Over the next few days, they began to inspect every building that they could to look for exits. It quickly became apparent that there was nothing even worth mentioning in this part of town. Every morning, everyone would wait to see if their name is called. Every time that the guns killed another person, everyone got more and more depressed.
