Chapter 8 chapter eight

I didn't hear anything, but I followed "Her Royal Highness" who left the library and walked out.We walked in the direction of the central hall.The thought of having to go across to the remains of "The Poet" and Mrs. Cotton weighed heavily on my heart, but from the moment I passed the front of the restaurant my mind was off.heard it.I heard.A sound like some kind of electronic sound. Maybe it was too nervous, "Her Royal Highness" stopped and held my hand firmly.I couldn't help shaking her hand back, and we walked through the central hall together. , that is, the door of Room 120 is open, and that is where the sound we heard came from.We once again stepped into the high-tech pile like a science fiction movie scene.The electronic sound continued to radiate at regular intervals, and upon closer inspection, the green light kept flickering in conjunction with the sound.Although the voice didn't sound very familiar, the way it sounded at regular intervals was not unfamiliar. This was——

"Could it be possible—" "His Royal Highness" seemed to have thought of it, "Is it a phone call?" "Yes." There is a green light flashing, which is a different machine from the one we just found, but the same machine with buttons.Yes, this is the phone. "It must be, Kate." "Ah Wei." As if attracted by the light, I stretched out my hand, and "Her Royal Highness" grabbed me back forcefully. "What do you want to do?" "Maybe it's the phone—" "Can't answer, wait a minute." "Huh? Why?"

"Don't ask so many questions." I didn't understand what she meant, but I did as she said and waited.The electronic sound kept ringing.Probably dozens of times.Suddenly the sound stopped.The place was suddenly so quiet that it made people feel uncomfortable.However, the electronic sound similar to the ringing of the telephone began to ring again with the flashing green light.After ringing dozens of times, the sound was temporarily interrupted, and then started ringing again.This pattern continued for a while. "—I said Ah Wei." In the midst of the electronic sound, "Her Royal Highness" said in a low voice, "If this machine is a phone, who do you think is calling from?"

"How would I know. I think it must be someone related to Dr. Seward." "Could it be no one concerned at all, but Dr. Seward himself?" "Doctor? Why?" "Come here." "Her Royal Highness" still didn't wait for my answer, and pulled my hand, which had been held by her, and ran out of room 120. "I want to confirm one thing." We walked through the central hall while deliberately not looking at the remains of "The Poet" and Mrs. Cotton. I thought we were going back to the library, but she walked directly in front of the library and came out through the hallway.

We came, took a peek inside, and there were a white car and a gray luggage cart parked inside.No green SUVs in sight. "Dr. Seward and Mr. Baggins—" "Her Royal Highness" nodded in satisfaction. "Go to Lou Bennett in the green SUV." "Seems." "Didn't you drive the same car when you went to pick up Lu Bennett the day before yesterday?" "That's right—" I remembered the scene when I saw this place by chance after Mrs. Cotton's test the day before yesterday. "Well, yes, that's true." "I don't know where they went and where they brought Lu Bennett, but judging from the round-trip time, the distance should be quite far, right?"

"of course." "Of course it will consume a lot of gas at the gas station, right?" "probably?" "Of course, maybe they refueled on the way. Or after returning the night before yesterday, they went to the simple gas station behind to refuel, but what if they accidentally forgot?" "Ok?" "Because I was too anxious to go on the road, Bennett accidentally chose an SUV with little fuel left, and the car ran out of gas on the way." "What did you say? So now Dr. Seward and Mr. Baggins—" "Standing helplessly in the middle of the wilderness."

"But why do you think about the car running out of gas?" "Didn't they send out an SOS distress signal?" "SOS?" "That phone call." "Ah, is it? I see what you mean at last. They want Mrs. Cotton to pick them up in another car?" "Yes. There shouldn't be a phone in the SUV, so maybe they used a cell phone, or found a phone booth halfway?" "So, shouldn't we answer the phone?" "Ah Wei, don't be stupid. I forget what I said in a blink of an eye. It's very nerve-wracking. If we receive a call, it's okay if it's Dr. Seward. If it's Ba Jin What about Mr. Si?"

"what……" "Let me tell you? According to you, Mr. Baggins has not only killed Lou Bennett, but also Bill? In the worst case, maybe he will continue to commit crimes and intend to kill us all." How would you explain the current situation to such a person?" "It's true...but, what should we do then?" Looking at the two cars parked in the garage interactively, "Her Royal Highness" said quietly. "Where's the keychain?" "what?" "Didn't you just open room 120? It's Dr. Seward's keychain with the master key."

"Oh, that—" That's right, where did the bunch of keys go after that?I still remember inserting the key in the keyhole and turning it to release the lock, but the memory after that is gone.Put it this way—"I think it's still plugged into the door of room 120." "Her Royal Highness" left the garage silently.Our hands were still tightly held, so I had to follow her too.Back holding the pistol in her left hand and my hand in her right, she said to me with both hands empty: "Pull out the key and take it away." "What do you want?" I picked up the keychain and the two headed back to the garage. "what's your plan?"

"The driver is usually Mr. Baggins. It seems that Dr. Seward doesn't know how to drive." "yes?" "So, Mr. Baggins should keep all the keys of the car? But, since he is the person in charge here, Dr. Seward should have a backup key, right?" "That's true." "In that case, then the keys—" "Her Royal Highness" finally let go of my hand and took the key chain.Select a key from it and insert it into the door of the luggage cart.But the door wouldn't turn. "It should be among the keys." "That makes sense, but what are you going to do?"

"A Wei, think about it carefully. The phone in Room 120 probably keeps ringing, but we haven't responded and have been ignoring it." "Ok." "So, what do you think things will look like if this continues?" "What will become... what will not become." "I'm asking you, Dr. Seward, what measures might they take next?" "Although they don't know why no one answered the phone, at least they know that they can't rely on Mrs. Cotton's support, right?" "Probably. Then they can only come back here by their own strength. Even walking is no other way, is it?" "Probably that's all." "Then Dr. Seward was responsible for the walk back? Or Mr. Baggins? Which do you think?" "It's not either. They'll come back together." "Really? I don't think so." "why?" "I'm sure Mr Baggins will come back alone." "So what?" "Why didn't anyone answer the phone? The doctor and the others will notice that there is an emergency on the facility side. Then, you think from the standpoint of Mr. Baggins. You must know that Bill's job of pretending to be an accident is only half done. He has to Awareness, now that Bill's body has been found by everyone. Am I right? In addition to finding that his gun is missing, he will infer that we will reason based on these clues and see through his crimes. He should think so ?” "It makes sense." I think this kind of reasoning seems a bit too much, but let's go with her statement. "Exactly" "I don't know how Baggins will explain why Mrs. Cotton didn't answer the phone. But of course, as a murderer, he has to get away as soon as possible. In order to escape, he needs a pair of feet." "An SUV without gas is useless, so he plans to come back and drive this luggage cart." "Yes. And alone." "What about Dr. Seward?" "I think Mr. Baggins probably told her, I'll go back on foot first, and I'll drive back with gasoline, and you wait here. Maybe he used this method to appease her? Anyway, he just had to keep walking until he reached someone Impatient, so there's no need for both of you to be so tired, the skinny woman just stays in the van and waits patiently - as long as he says that he's fine." "If he's just trying to make sure there's a way out, he'll be back with Dr. Seward." "You can't say that. I said, Wei, you forgot what you said again. For a person who is about to flee, wouldn't it be better if there is one less person who needs to be silenced?" "So Baggins..." For the first time, I omitted "Sir" and called him by his first name, and my whole body trembled. "You mean, if he comes back here, he'll be the first to deal with all of us." "That's what happened. So——" "Her Royal Highness" sat in the driver's seat of the car, put the pistol on the seat next to him, turned the key, turned the engine three times, and the engine finally started. "So, before things get to this point, we have to run for our lives." "Wait a minute, Kate." I was taken aback by her completely unexpected behavior. "You can... drive?" "I'm only twelve years old and I don't have a driver's license, but—" he said to me, "I can drive. It's easy. It's an automatic car. You just put the gear in D and press the accelerator to go. I'm driving forward. If I were to drive in the urban area, it might be a bit difficult, but the road here is straight, as long as you know how to go forward and back. It's too easy. Then, hurry up and call the two of them. .” "what?" "Stella and Howard, we can't leave them here, can we?" "But tell me, what can we do if we run away together like this?" "In short, let's meet with Dr. Seward before discussing specific countermeasures. What we can do is limited." "You have a point, but will the doctor believe us? She will believe that her partner Baggins will kill the students—" "of course?" "You really have confidence." "Because we are all important subjects." For a while, I didn't understand what he meant, but just like "neutrality" believed that "school" is equal to the secret detective training center, "Her Royal Highness" also seemed to believe that this is the secret of gathering people with the ability to reappear past lives. The Institute said. "She spent a lot of effort to find a small number of talents from all over the world. Although she is usually strict with us, but in a critical moment, our position is still more important. No problem. Trust me. Just hold the mentality of breaking the boat Get ready." "I see." She assured her so much, and I have no reason to object. "I'll call them right away, you wait for me." "Come on, wait, and—" She shoved the pistol into my hand. "It's up to you to get this thing, because I want to drive." "Ok." Of course I don't like walking around with a gun, but I can't blame girls for everything.I put the pistol in my pocket. When I left the garage and was about to walk into the porch, I quickly changed direction.If you pass the central hall, you must face the corpse again.Anyway, the "neutral" room is at the back of the dormitory area, so I will walk along the lawn and enter from the back.Of course, there are still the remains of the "retainers" outside, but after all, there are white sheets covering them, which is much better than walking inside. Walking through the classroom window is room 101, which is Stella's room.I thought to myself, calling her from the window should be quicker, but now is an extraordinary period, if I suddenly knock on her window from outside, she must be startled.Now is not the time for pranks.I avoided the body of the "retainer" covered in a white sheet, and went around to the back of the dormitory. "Howard." I entered through the back door and knocked on the door of Room 105. "Howard, it's me, Wei." no respond.I knocked on the door again with greater force than before. "Howard, did you hear that? The situation is urgent. I'll tell you the details later. In short, you open the door first." Still no response, I tried to turn the handle, but the door was locked.This time I knocked harder.The result was still the same, I put my ear against the door, and there was no human breath inside. Did he run to another room?I try to rotate the door of 106.Hey, it's locked.I was a little panicked in an instant. I remember that I forgot to lock the door a few mornings. Could it be that I made a mistake?But I remembered right away.Was it locked with the master key during the previous search?No, wait. Not necessarily the case, is it?It is also possible that the "principal" left without locking it, and now someone slipped into room 106, locked it from the inside, and shrank in it.Although I have some doubts in my heart, for the sake of caution, why not go in and have a look?I'm getting out my keys.But no.I searched every pocket and couldn't find the key to 106.It occurred to me that the reason why I forgot to lock the door when I left the room in a panic this morning was because I forgot to take the key that was usually placed next to the pillow.In other words, I was locked out of my room.It's bad!Hey, forget it.Anyway, "Her Royal Highness" has the master key, so it is really necessary to ask her to open it for me. Just to be sure, I'm trying to knock on 105's door. "Howard, are you in there?" There was no response.I pricked up my ears and listened carefully, but I still couldn't feel any breath.I decided to give up. I checked the unoccupied room 104, the "retainer" room 103, the "poet" room 108, the unoccupied room 102, and room 109, but every room is locked , knocked on the door and no one responded. I finally came to Room 101. "Stella," I called, knocking on the door. "Stella, it's me. Open the door." no respond.I called "Stella?" and knocked on the door again, then tried to turn the handle.It is locked and does not move.Could it be that the fear in her heart has not been eliminated and she doesn't want to see anyone?Or is it too tired to sleep to death?Which situation is more likely?I didn't think she would go to another room, but I thought I'd better look for it—just as I was thinking that, that one came. At first I thought it was an earthquake.With the heavy bang sound, the entire wall of the building shook, and dust flew down from the ceiling.The impact of the ground ringing occurred not only once, but two or three times in a row.That strong impact formed a wind pressure and blew me into the corridor.Somewhere in the distance, the sound of glass shattering and scattering was heard.The sound continued two or three more times. I couldn't get up from the ground for a long time, and even felt as if I passed out for a while.From all directions, enveloping my whole body and almost paralyzing my hearing, although the rumbling sound like earth-crying was not as serious as before, it still continued.What the hell is that sound?Suddenly, the words "end of the world" came to my mind. Maybe the excessive shock freaked me out?I just feel weak in my legs.The shock just now was obviously from the front of the building, and I crawled towards the central hall.I no longer have the energy to care about the existence of the remains of "The Poet" and Mrs. Cotton.I was pulled by a rush of anxiety to confirm what happened as soon as possible, and I struggled to crawl towards the entrance. Even so, when I passed the central hall, I still glanced at the vending machine out of reflex.Mrs. Cotton kept almost her original posture, but maybe the huge impact just now caused the wheelchair to slide? The body of "The Poet" has been moved to the staff quarters area. I finally struggled to get up, and my eyes were on the entrance door.There were cracks in the glass door.The scenery outside the door was shaking slowly, and the outlines of the scenery were distorted. Burning flames occupied my entire field of vision.It's fire.Huge flames and reflections of flames.It's amazing.Very serious fire.When I finally figured it out, I caught a whiff of gasoline. I felt that it was reckless to go outside at this time, so I tried to open the door of the classroom first, but I couldn't get in.The strong heat and smell hit my face, and while covering my head with both hands, I tried to look out of the classroom window.But I can't see it.Can't see anything.It is said that you should be able to see the garage and the gas station through the window.However, I can't see anything.Because the classroom windows were shrouded in flames.Black smoke like tumors rose from between the red flames.The panes of the windows directly exposed to the blast of the storm were broken and their frames twisted. Huge flames, flying smoke. Huge shake.Is it an illusion of the eyes?The red flames and black smoke instantly looked like monsters or something smirking. The voice of the "poet" during his lifetime shook my skull like tinnitus.