UTOPIA ✔

Chapter 6 - Area D (Part 2) - Carpe Diem

- 1 -

Kenji looked up at the large structure in front of him. The barred windows reminded him of the cell he was kept in when he underwent training.

'Area-D. What kind of place is this?' He cleared out the dust from the nameplate. Below AREA-D, "Welcome everyone. Hope you have a productive day" was inscribed in 5 different languages.

He tried to open the electronic door in front of him but it didn't budge. The windows were too small for Kenji to get through. He looked around to find some other way to get in. He found a broken door at the back of the building, which stated, "EXIT"

He entered, making his way through the small corridor, being careful not to land on an unbalanced floor and reached the hall area. The inside was rotting away. There were holes in the floor, shredded wallpapers, rusted wood sculptures and ceiling designs. The interior was huge, with furniture lying around, broken, rotten. Beside furniture's, there were large number of skeletons lying throughout the hall. There were blood stains on the clothes.

'Something must have happened here, something terrible.' He moved ahead to search the area. The hall seemed like a waiting room with the reception far away in the corner near the electronic gate. The floor could fit hundreds of people at once and these skeletons might be from those living here. There were 4 doors located in that room but were locked.

Kenji tried to force open it but the ceiling trembled and the cracks in the ceiling began to widen. 'Forcing the door might bring down the entire floor. I need to be careful.'

He went towards the reception desk. There was a nameplate, he cleared out the dust covering it and there was a name written in bold, "Mary Fox" and below, "Welcome to Area-D"

The desk was wide and there were more nameplates lying around it. There was more than one person to handle the reception. But the unusual things were the furniture and other things that were scattered everywhere. Some were broken down and its pieces were scattered around the area. Like there was some kind of panic inside the building. He noticed nail scratches on the wallpaper as if they were ripped. Human skin was stuck to some of the edges of the wallpaper.

While looking around, he noticed bullet holes on the floor. Due to limited light entering the building, he didn't notice them at first. He knelt down. The bullet holes were only on the floors and nowhere else. He checked the skeletons lying around. There were bullet holes in some of the skulls. 'Were they killed?' 'No! It's more like they were executed. It seems like they were shot in the head facing down towards the floor.' He stood up and went near the reception desk again.

He looked around the desk and found key stashes lying near it. They were mostly rusted but not broken and still could be of some use. All the documents, files and everything once important to them were either rotten or were stained in blood.

He continued searching for something else but didn't find anything. There were keys that opened the four doors located in the hall. Room 1 was cafeteria, Room 2 was dining hall, Room 3 was resting place and room 4 was the storage room. All were empty or trashed. There were still three floors left for him to look into.

He went up the stairs to the 1st floor.

- 2 -

Eric and Ishita were still looking for Kenji and others. They were outside the forest and had reached near the river where they found traces of burned woods and leaves scattered around it. They looked around but didn't find any traces or footsteps. The wood was warm still and the scent of the mushrooms was around but faint.