Chapter 14: Is It A Bug?
As the elevator began to descend, the door tightened and the sound of air escaping was heard. Jack yanked his helmet off and hastily clicked the button on his protective suit. He then exhaled heavily. He was drenched in perspiration and staring at Alice, who was sprawled on the floor and looked fatigued.
"Are you okay… Jack…?" Alice asked, and was stunned when she spotted Jack's face.
He was fading.
Not in appearance. Like a mist, Jack's face was faded and distorted. The other side was showing through.
The elevator came to a halt with a thud and afterwards opened with a stream of air being released. Jack shifted his body to peer outside the elevator after pressing the pause button on the door. A spotless white corridor, similar to the one within the dome, was there. Some of the lights were turned off, and the area was poorly lighted.
"What about the Nightmare? Are they right there?"
Jack asked in a strained voice, and Alice looked down at Raffi. Seeing that the black cat shook his head, she spoke up.
"There's no sign of them…"
"I see…"
At last, Jack lay down on the floor and took a breath.
"Your… body…"
She asked in bewilderment, and Jack responded with a ragged breath.
"I've been exposed to the outside air to an excessive degree. If I continue on like this, my existence will be lost. Excuse me, but I need an ampoule from the emergency kit on the wall."
When told to do so, Alice rose to her feet and removed the first aid kit box from the wall. Opening the lid, she retrieved a small syringe-shaped medicine bottle from within. A golden liquid had been poured into it.
"Is this it…?"
"Yeah. It would be great if you could help me get undressed."
"O-Okay…"
She nodded as she removed the hazmat suit from Jack's body. Once his hand was out, he took the ampoule from Alice and thrust the needle into his neck. The contents flooded into his body and he gasped.
"A-Are you fine…?"
Nodding at Alice's frightened question, Jack rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fingertips.
"Yeah… it's a fairly strong drug, but it should keep things under control…"
Eventually, his body gradually regained its presence. The translucent body slowly assumed reality, and the translucency disappeared. After wiping the sweat from his face with his hand, Jack eyed Alice.
"Thank you… without you, I would have vanished. Even the Nightmare…"
At that point, Jack dropped his words. Then he swallowed what he was going to say and averted his gaze from Alice.
"Jack, the collapse…? Earlier, your body seemed to be transparent…"
Asked by Alice, Jack nodded and replied.
"Oh. When we humans come into contact with contaminated air or contaminants, our bodies gradually lose their identity and eventually cease to exist. These protective suits are meant to protect us from that disintegration."
"But I don't feel anything when I'm outside…"
"That's because you're an Angel. You are our hope."
He stood up, leaning against the wall, and tapped his finger on the terminal that appeared to be the communications panel in the elevator.
"I will protect you at all costs. I owe you for saving my life."
Perhaps his body was hurting, but Jack gritted his teeth and grabbed the terminal's child device, and brought it to his ear.
"What are you doing…?"
"I need to send help to the shelter at a short distance. Right now, you and I both need to rest… Our dome is no good. There is no going back. The elder is dead."
The "brain" that had been crushed into a mess and was hanging down, flashbacked in Alice's mind. For a time, Jack was conveying the circumstances to the other side, and the communication had most likely been established. He then switched off the terminal after conversing for a while.
"It will take some time, but they will send help. As long as the Nightmare doesn't attack, we can evacuate."
With that, Jack forced himself to stand up. His right leg was bent in a peculiar direction as if his leg had been fractured. Alice hurried to support him as he winced in pain.
"Jack, your leg is…"
"If we can get to the shelter over there, they have a treatment system that can cure me. But…" Jack groaned as he tried to take a step but was not successful. "I can't walk with this… I guess I'd better wait patiently for the rescue…"
"Tell me. What is an Angel? What was the elder trying to tell me…?"
Alice questioned, and Jack shook his head.
"I'm sorry. I don't know the details either. The elders are the ones who are aware of everything. The shelter where we are evacuating to should have an elder there. You can ask him."
"How many elders are there in…?"
"There's one in each shelter as the central system… You don't know anything about them."
"I'm sorry…"
Stroking Alice's head, who had apologized to him, Jack leaned against the wall of the elevator, shielding his legs, and slouched down.
"If the Nightmare is no more to be expected, we should get some rest. There's a blanket in the first aid kit. Take it."
Alice nodded and grabbed a blanket from the box and unfolded it.
◇
"…"
In the darkness, several human-sized "things" stopped moving. All of them took their gazes off the blood-soaked table and simultaneously stared up at the ceiling.
"Hee…"
As one of them opened his mouth, the "thing" seated slightly apart from the others made a shrill, squeaky sound.
"Hatter…? Ahhh… Hatter!"
Upon observing the screaming and banging on the desk, another "thing" with a cigar in its mouth said.
"He messed around with us in secret. He's being punished for it."
"But I don't think there's any Alice that could kill the Hatter that easily."
A child's voice sounded. In the exact same tone, another child's voice said.
"Is it a bug?"
"Either way, the Hatter's most likely been killed."
A cigar-smoking "thing" remarked in a composed tone.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone