Chapter Text
"God, what is wrong with you?"
Oso couldn't tell the man assisting zhim- who was more than patient, a fact that made zhim feel guilty for forcing zhimself to throw up- that there was nothing wrong with zhim. Maybe zhe could tell him that zhe was conspiring with zher friends to get him out of a job at the facility and that he needed to be out of here before that point. Zhe knew he wouldn't take zhim seriously and kept zher mouth shut.
"I'm sorry," zhe groused whilst holding zher hand close to zher mouth. Acting like zhe was sick was the best course of action because it meant he would think zhe needed to go to the bathroom to puke, and that was how it was working out. He was thinking about how annoying zhe was to take care of and how this was the worst time to start puking because there was drama in the other hall he needed to attend to.
The drama was that a patient, who was suffering from PTSD caused by experimentation as a form of punishment, had been triggered by the sound of the door slamming a couple of rooms away. She began clawing at her neck and was attacking any staff who came near her. Oso felt bad for her; she didn't deserve what had happened to her and loud noises were often unavoidable in the facility.
The person who slammed the door originally was someone who was enraged by the staff because they were trying to feed him pills. He had a fear of swallowing things like pills because of past abuse, so of course, he wouldn't take the medicine. Once he fought the nurses out of the room, he flung the door in their faces and kept it barricaded. That caused that woman's sudden instability.
Knowing all of this, Oso had a plan: use these people to zher advantage. Zhe could make it to the pipes in the bathroom and, while the nurse was occupied, check them out. Zhe knew where everything was, what everyone was thinking and where everyone was going. Zhe could very easily sneak around the area and grab a wrench, unscrew the waterline, and watch how people reacted.
This relied on whether or not zher brain would let zhim juggle all of these things. Even as zhe was doing it now, zhe felt the bile rising in zher throat and it wasn't an act for a moment. Zhe gagged into zher hand, refusing to think about all the connecting parts. Whoever it was who caused this, zhe really hated them right now.
Just as zhe thought of the plan, the woman screamed as she was taken from her room, which angered another man across the hall. Over the man's talkie that was strapped to his belt, Oso heard a panicked woman yell, "We need you down here now, Sakurai-san!" She didn't want to call him by his real name, but she did. He dropped zhim off at the bathroom and quickly ran down the hall.
That left Oso to do whatever zhe wanted. Nurses ran behind Sakurai and past the door and for a moment, Oso thought zhe was invisible. A woman, who was wearing stained scrubs, tried to hook her keys back onto her wrist, but they instead fell off in front of Oso. Zhe waited for a moment before plucking the keys off the ground and running to the staff room, where a handyman was doing maintenance.
Choro ate lunch with Todo and Jyushi, still trying to get into contact with Ichi and Kara. Jyushi was still unsure of how he hadn't lost hope yet, but he didn't say anything. "Toddy, what's going on? What are you doing?"
"Messing with my food."
"Eat."
"I don't want to."
He was normally obstinate when he was irritated. Jyushi already had a feeling that he was annoyed because of Choro, but he wasn't about to get into it. Todo looked focused on his thoughts as if he was dwelling on them more than necessary. Jyushi wanted to crawl inside his head and listen to what he had to say, but he couldn't, so he was left with himself. He hummed to himself and kept eating the food he was given.
Finally, after a long minute of silence, Todo said, "Stop trying, Choro. You've been at this for too long."
"It's only been a few hours," he said defensively.
"That's way too long." He grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head towards him, watching as his eyes tore open. "You need to eat and do all kinds of other things. We need to focus on something more important."
Choro clutched his arm and forced his hand out of his hair, snarling at him as if he was a dog. "I'm focusing on something important- at least, I was before you stopped me."
"You were doing something useless." Todo glanced around the table and brought them all closer together, whispering, "We need to break out of here. Jyushi, your meds stop working after two days of not taking them, right? When was the last time you took them?"
"Yesterday morning," he answered.
"Then tomorrow, you need to pretend to take your meds."
Choro rolled his eyes and asked, "And how will he do that, Todo? They'll be able to tell if he hides them in his mouth; they check that."
"Put the pill on the top gums."
Jyushi thought about it and nodded, agreeing with that notion. "I can walk away, get out of sight, and put the pill away so they don't find a gob of spit out pills a few days later."
Choro looked at the two as if they were mad, unsure of what to say or if there was anything he wanted to say. "You can't be serious."
"I'm completely serious," Todo said. "We have to break out of here, Choro. That was the plan Kara made and you were all for it; what's changed?"
"What's changed? Are you kidding me? We're down three people and we don't even know where two of them are!"
"Well, get angrier, then," Todo murmured. "The louder you get, the more likely our plan won't work."
"That's the thing, Toddy: there isn't a plan. What are you talking about?"
"I was going to get to that, but then you decided to get into a tizzy and try to argue with me." He sighed and looked around before continuing the plan. "I say Jyushi is the muscle of the plan and he takes care of anyone who gets in our way the day we go through with it. Choro, you get to visit Oso today, right? Zhe requested it yesterday, didn't zhe?"
"Yes," he confessed begrudgingly.
"Then," Todo continued, "you can talk to Oso about what to do. Zhe knows everything. You could've been projecting to zhim this whole time, but instead, you chose people who aren't even here anymore. We just have to assume they know what they're doing." He took a deep breath and said, "Oso can tell us the best ways to get this done because I'm only talking about the skeleton plan.
"I'll slink around the place without anyone knowing and let you guys into areas you really shouldn't be in. If Oso has a plan, we'll go by that, but until we figure that out, we'll just have to keep preparing. That means we have to figure out how to get those stupid bracelets off of you and, if they come back, Ichi and Kara."
Jyushi butt in and said, "Ichi probably doesn't have his bracelet on since he took himself and Kara somewhere else."
"Just Kara, then." Todo looked around and said, "We need to get eating so we aren't weak whenever this plan happens."
Choro had no reason to object. They didn't have a plan and Oso was most likely going to be against it anyway. He was fine with playing along until they understood there wasn't a way out without everyone being a part of the plan. Without Ichi, he wasn't sure how they were getting out. "We'll make this work," he lied to the table. Todo's eyes gaped at him with a hint of hope and Jyushi smiled.
They were so easy to please.
Oso had snatched a keycard off a table and scanned it to get into the staff room, carefully peeking in. There he was, the handyman, standing on a stool with half of his torso in the ceiling. Zhe quickly ran into the room, got on zher knees, and looked inside his toolbox sat on the floor, moving a few tools out of the way before stealing the wrench from the box. Zhe got back on zher feet just as zhe heard the man step to the second step on the stool.
"Huh?"
Oso stared with wide eyes, blinking a few times at him. They gawked at each other for a few moments before zhe said, "I-I'm just getting something for a nurse."
"Who?"
Zhe took the card out and passed it to him, letting him read the name on the front. "H-He asked me to come in."
"And take a wrench? While you're in your hospital gown? In the staff room?"
Oso could have come up with a better lie. Zhe could admit that much. Zhe glanced at the cameras in the room and knew they were offline. He was installing them as they spoke. If zhe did this correctly, zhe could kick his stool and make it look like he died by accident. No, that still wouldn't work; the hall cameras were still working and they saw zher feet enter the room.
"Listen, kid," he said as he stepped off the stool, "I don't care if you want to take the wrench. I have more at work. All I'm worried about is what you'll use that for. I can easily keep this quiet and the tapes will be wiped by the end of the day, plain and simple. We can pretend we never met, but only if you give me the wrench back."
Oso looked at the wrench and shook zher head. "I need this, sir."
"For what?"
Zhe looked away. "I can't tell you."
He stared at zhim and bent down to zher level, looking in zher eyes. "If you plan on killing anyone with that wrench, I doubt you'll be able to get out of here cleanly."
"That's not my plan."
"Then what? The waterline? Do you want to flood the place? Is that your plan?" He sighed and looked around. "Since I really don't care what it is you want to do to this place, I'll tell you this: there is a panel in the basement," and as he said it, he handed zhim a screwdriver, "and it contributes to a majority of the power supply of the main floor. Almost all of the staff is on that floor at a time."
"What do you want me to do?"
"It's not what I want you to do; it's what you want to do. You could easily kill the lights and elevators. Head up the stairs secretly and take care of whoever you're doing this for. You'd have limited time to get there and back to your friends because the generator has to be started manually. Grab who you want and go back down to get out through the front."
Oso looked at the screwdriver and clasped its plastic handle firmly. "I need more help. I'm...kind of on my own. I only have three other people who would be able to do something for me."
The man thought and sighed, closing his eyes. He stood up and peered around before saying, "You're on your own from here."
"P-Please, at least tell me something that would help!" Zhe grasped his sleeve before he could leave and looked at him desperately. "I don't know where anything is; do you have an extra map? Just one thing that could help us. I saw the waterline and I know there are other places to mess with it." Zhe gasped with a new idea and asked, "Can I cut it somehow? Can you help?"
With an annoyed look, he studied zhim and said, "You can only mess with those things with a wrench. I don't know how you'll sneak a wrench off this floor."
"I can't, but you could."
There was a moment of silence where the man considered that. Oso stared up at him with those sad eyes of zhers, doing zher best to make him feel sympathetic for zher. He was already vulnerable and Oso knew that; no one who hated someone like zhim would give zhim this much leeway or assistance. He was on zher side. Zhe thought back in his past and found he had spent more time here than he wanted.
"You've seen what they put us through, right?" Zhe swallowed zher anxiety and asked, "If you feel bad, you'll help me here."
"I don't know how to help," he said.
"Are you their mechanic? Are you part of the staff?"
"Yes."
"Then you're here every day, correct?"
"No," he said, "I'm here on and off. I get here for two days and then I'm off for two. Depending on what days I work, I work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Twelve-hour shifts each day; that's what time I can give you."
Oso nodded and reflected for a moment. "Then...we need to meet one day. I'll be here for a little bit, maybe longer if I can pretend like I'm not getting better."
"I need to install new cameras around the area."
Zhe smiled at him and nodded. "Then that's settled. When I get more information on our situation, we can talk about it." Zhe backed up and put the screwdriver back, heading to the door with the card and keys in hand. "Go back to what you were doing. I need to meet with a friend of mine."
"Stay safe. Make sure you check around corners."
"Don't worry about me. I know where everything is." Zhe waited until the coast was clear, not checking past the door, and finally walked out, running out of the staff room and back to the hall zhe was in before meeting the handyman. He watched as zhe left and sighed, getting back on the stool. He had no idea what he just got himself into- and, if zhe were honest, Oso didn't know what he got himself into, either.
Choro walked into the room silently, spotting Oso sitting upright in bed almost like zhe was expecting him. It was likely that zhe was expecting him, or maybe that zhe knew he was coming rather than expecting him. Contrasting the word, zhe knew the exact time he would enter the room, not the estimated time.
"How are you doing, Oso?" He smiled at zher and walked to zher bedside, surprised when zhe jumped up and brought him into a hug. "Oso?"
Zhe didn't answer and squeezed him tighter, smiling brightly. "I'm so glad you're here. I missed you so much!" Zhe backed up and looked at him, brushing a hand through his hair. "Still soft."
"Still soft," he repeated. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, but don't tell them that. Tell them I'm nauseous. I need to stay here for a little bit, alright?"
He looked at zher with a perplexed face. "What?"
"Ichi wrote me a note that they working on something to break us out of here. I talked to a repair guy and he's on our side. He'll help us."
"Woah, wait, what?" Choro looked at zher with shock in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Isn't that the plan?" Zhe chuckled and said, "We're breaking out. I assumed that's what you wanted, too, Choro-chan."
"I..." He hesitated and let out a soft sigh. "I don't know."
Oso frowned and said, "I've only been able to juggle a few things at a time before getting overwhelmed lately. I'm sorry; I acted without considering you. I just assumed." Zhe gently held his arms in the palms of zher hands. "Do you want me to do anything differently?"
"No. We can do this."
"Are you sure?"
"If Kara and Ichi are sure, then I'm sure," Choro assured zhim.
Oso's eyes showed zhe was disoriented. "Those are their names?"
"Wait, what?"
Just as he said that a large piece of rolled-up paper hit the top of Oso's head, making zher squeak in surprise. It fell on the bedside, rubber-banded into a small scroll. Oso hastily lifted it and took the rubber band off to roll it out. Written at the upper right corner, Choro recognized Ichi's handwriting. It read, "These are the paths you need to take. Other people can go in different ways."
In multicoloured glitter pens, Kara wrote along the thick red line Ichi had charted, "Knock out the power here," "Place the bomb on the blue pipe," "Guard is always here," "Get out as soon as possible." Choro studied the map and took a deep breath. "We need to wait for the bomb, then. Pipe bomb? Sticky bomb?"
Oso blinked a few times and said, "I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see." Zhe quickly folded the map and instructed him to put it in his sock by tugging on his pants. "Can't have the nurses finding this. They don't check the socks."
Choro hid it where zhe told him and sat down afterwards, unwinding in his spot. Oso smiled at him and hugged his arm, making him laugh. "What comes next?"
Oso thought about it and said, "We wait. I know the guy I talked to offered to let me use his screwdriver. I think he might be a great help for us."
"No, not in the plan," he explained. "For us."
Oso squinted and saw inside his head for an answer, smiling when zhe found it. "Anything you want to do."
Without another word, Choro lifted Oso and squeezed zhim to his chest, kissing the top of zher head. "I missed you a lot. Did you know that?"
"I figured you missed me. If I miss you, you miss me. That's how it works."
Zhe had a good point; Choro knew that was how it always worked.