Kai inched his way through the dimly lit and cramped ventilation system of the heavily guarded army base, yet again. He had no other choice; it was the only way for him to move around undetected. Plus, it was safer, and the military maintained hygiene, so it was not as bad a place as one might think.
The narrow metal ducts reverberated with the sounds of the base below: soldiers' voices, clanging machinery, and distant footsteps. For some reason, they all seemed a bit intensified after his attack on the Control room.
It showed that he had destroyed the chain of command, and that's exactly what he was hoping for.
"Well, for one thing, the plans are working, and it's going well. On the other..."
["It's going too well... That it's starting to get creepy. Makes you wonder if all the bases are this vulnerable to attack?"]
"Hey, don't jinx me yet. Why don't we think of it like this: maybe I'm just that good? That I have a talent for espionage?"
["Hah! Dream on. Good? Talent? Stop flattering yourself. Either this base is weak by default or the guy running it has a few screws loose. I expected you to be filled with bullets twenty times at this point."]
Zeff could laugh his a*s off the entire day, and he still wouldn't be able to get enough of that joke.
"... Not that it's enough to kill us, but I'll take that to heart."
The further he ventured into the ventilation system, the more he noticed subtle anomalies.
Maybe it was his imagination, but his heart was beating faster, and it was getting harder to breathe every moment.
He ignored it at first, but any more would be a mistake. Then he realized.
The smell in the air was changing slowly.
"Is this...?" It felt somehow familiar yet different to him.
After the stunt he pulled at the control room, Kai expected some kind of reaction. But never that they'd be crazy enough to fill the base with toxic gas.
"This odor, why does it feel familiar..." he pondered. "It's... rusty? What is this?"
Then Zeff interrupted his thoughts in a hurry after realizing the smell.
["...! It's Hesperin! Someone is pumping its gas through the tubes; at this rate..."]
The switch inside Kai was flipped at that statement, the sense of irrational worry took over him.
"What? Poison? What about the civilians in the base? Are they trying to kill them!?"
["It has the scent of death; that's why it's familiar. After you pulled that stunt in the control room, I expected some kind of reaction from the guy at the top. But not this. It's severe, even by my standards. Maybe he really does have some screws loose."]
"Did you say the commander did this!?"
["It doesn't make sense otherwise."]
Kai felt unconscious anger at that moment. "I swear... if something happens!"
But that rage soon subsided after what Zeff said next.
["You better hope nothing happens to the civilians. Otherwise, everything we've been through to get here will be for naught."]
It made Kai think about their true goal. He didn't care what happened to him as long as he was able to accomplish what he came here to do.
"It's time to improvise, Zeff?" he asked, knowing full well how selfish he was being.
Kai always rejected Zeff, not wanting to think that his ugly self could manifest in the form of him, and doing actions that he would lament later.
But Zeff thought differently, always pulling Kai out of dangers he couldn't handle; he was insensible towards his feelings for him.
His apathy extended to the world at large; he cared about no one, even his host Kai, as long as he lived longer and peacefully. He longed for a body of his own, which was medically impossible...
He would usually make a careful analysis of the dangers he was around and pull Kai out of anything that could potentially harm him.
Even now, Zeff wanted to steal this body and get out of there, but Kai had the seat now, and like every time, Kai proved to be a magnet for trouble. Making life harder for Zeff, he knew long ago that he couldn't influence his decisions, but he could navigate it. Zeff was looking for a chance to steal the seat and escape with his limbs intact.
["... Don't ask me. I got nothing. By the silence outside, I can only guess the commander had issued an emergency code made for times like this. Makes things worse for you. He's trying to weed you out of all possible escape routes. He's Meticulous, but I would do the same in his shoes. I can clearly imagine you surrounded by several soldiers wearing gas masks, pointing their machine guns at you as you lay on the ground like a helpless princess, while they debate with their mommy on the communicator if the commander wants you alive any longer or to kill you on the spot. You make the call this time, sh*tface! I'm running in a blank here."]
Kai heard a sound of faint humming below him. Holding his breath with his hand, he looked through the opening of the tubes. There was water running, and a man relieving himself in the toilet.
A bulb lit in his mind.
"... Well, I think I have something. Don't know if you'll like it," said Kai, trying to hold his breath while not wanting to inhale any more gas.
Zeff scoffed.
["I never like your plans, by the way! They're all beyond crazy. Just like you."]
"Heh, that makes two of us then," thought Kai, smiling.
***
[Squad 5 Barracks]
Squad Captain Angelina Sarge was having the hardest time of her life that day.
Her squad was in charge of taking care of civilians in Area 4.
The entire base was divided into six areas. Area one and two were where Squad 7 barracks and the commander's offices were. The control room was in area 3.
Area 4 was a very large place in the base. It occupied one-third of the whole region.
Right now, she received an urgent report from one of the hospital doctors about a patient gone missing. In her list of priorities and duties, that report was at the bottom. It wasn't anything serious that needed her immediate attention.
At least, it was until she received her new orders in the next hour.
"Code Zero!? Are you sure the commander said that?" she asked her communicator.
Thoughts raced in her mind like a beast. Laying out the possibilities of what might've happened that led them to this situation.
'Is that missing patient a spy, but who would infiltrate a human settlement at a time like this, feining wounds... unless he's on the side of monsters? Attacking the same day the monsters breached the barrier.... Coincidence? Unlikely.'
But her thoughts were interrupted as her superior voiced his orders.
["Yes, the guys managing the chain of command are dead. The entire base is under lockdown. And your Squad 5 is ordered to guard the civilians until further instructions. Squad 6 is searching for possible infiltrators as we speak-"]
On the other side of the communicator was Angelina's older brother, also her superior, Lieutenant Bucky Sarge, one of the two lieutenants of Commander D'roben.
'...just great,' she thought, cutting the line in the middle of talking.
She just wanted to tell her brother to piss off, but she couldn't because he was her superior at work and one of the two second in command of the base, and she had to obey.
She was already annoyed by many things today, and this was just the cherry on top.
Slamming her fist on the table, she ordered, "Bring Mathew to my table right now!"
"..." her assistant, Sunny Will, went out of the office in a hurry to fetch him.
Matthew was nowhere to be seen in Area 4. A little enraged, and mostly due to fear of his short-tempered boss, Sunny ran around the base until he finally found him in the toilet, half naked and unconscious.
'Eh?!'
***
'I think these clothes are a bit tight around my neck,' thought Kai, wearing his gas mask.
"Heugh…" After taking a deep breath, he felt as if his life force was finally returning.
After deciding to borrow the military uniform from the 'benefactor' he found in the toilet, he thought about acting as naturally as possible.
But as usual, with his terrible luck, he just had to get his hands on the most sweaty one. It was itching all over his body.
It took all his bravery, just so he wouldn't tear off the clothes he was wearing at the risk of getting himself found out in his birthday suit.
Zeff held back his sneer at Kai's predicament. It would serve him no more than just embarrass him further.
Kai also noticed as he walked through the metallic corridors that every soldier had masks on them, holding their weapons at arm's length, running furiously around the corridors.
He played along and ran in the direction of where the soldiers were going. Well, he did that for a while, until a fierce hand grabbed him from the back.
"Dude, where the heck was you!?" a hurried and exhausted voice said, gasping for breath, a man with blonde hair and a gas mask holding Kai by the shoulder. "Captain Ange is looking for you, Matt!"
====