Editing A Simple Survey:Volume2 Reaper03 (section)

===Part 1===

They approached the door in the metal bars blocking the passageway, inserted the newly-acquired key in the keyhole, and turned it.

“It’s open!” shouted Kazakami in his work uniform.

They all passed through the metal bars and continued on.

The operating room had more or less confirmed their suspicions, but they were definitely in a hospital. They found hospital rooms, bathrooms, a nurse station, and a medical office. There were a few dozen hospital rooms and they could feel their tension slipping away as they searched through them one by one. Even in this situation, it was a tedious task.

The different variations in the rooms provided a great many types of objects. However, all of them were completely normal sights in hospitals. The square rooms with all but the bare minimum removed had been much more unnatural.

“This fire extinguisher could be used as a weapon.”

“Hey, I think these floor lamps in the hospital rooms could be used in place of wooden swords.”

Kazakami and Matsumi were selecting object after object and checking the weight and feel with somehow cheerful voices. They were looking for weapons. To Hiyama, it seemed less like they wanted something to protect themselves with and more like the more normal and cluttered areas had raised their spirits after so many empty areas.

And she sighed so the others would not notice.

Then she cautiously whispered in Higashikawa’s ear.

“(What do you think?)”

“(I agree that this is a risk. We do need powerful weapons to oppose our enemies, but we will all become each other’s enemies if something causes the group to split up. If that happens, we might be able to recover if we are unarmed, but weapons could cause the situation to spiral out of control. On the other hand,)” added Higashikawa, “(we can’t deny them a weapon if they say they want one. Doing so could cause the group to fall apart.)”

Hiyama completely agreed.

Apparently, the organizers had given them four handguns during the attraction in the operating room. If they were prepared to give them those weapons, what could anyone hope to do with a fire extinguisher or floor lamp? And while those weapons were not enough to overpower the organizers, they were more than enough to smash an ally’s head. Kazakami and Matsumi may have wanted a weapon more for a sense of security than any practical use, but in Hiyama’s eyes, they were gleefully choosing a suicidal option.

She could have agreed if they had tried to create some sort of protective equipment like a bulletproof vest, but not this.

It frustrated her that she could not put a stop to it even though she knew they were putting themselves at a disadvantage.

As Higashikawa had said, they could not force their opinions on others if they wished to maintain the group of five. And yet the actions of any one of them could greatly affect the fates of all five.

“Do not be led astray. This has probably all been calculated out. The organizers want to split us up. This is like the North Wind and the Sun. If we do not remove our coat even after growing sweaty, we will win.”

“…That’s right.”

Hiyama did not completely agree, but she nodded anyway. There was no need to create more cracks here.

She honestly felt their odds of survival would rise dramatically if all five of them did not have equal rights to speak.

In other words…

She wanted some strong leader to take command of the group.

“…”

She heard someone gulp.

It was the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Rachel. Despite how gorgeous she looked, she seemed to have grown even more hesitant to speak after the attraction in the operating room. Hiyama had been outside the operating room, so she did not know what the woman had experienced.

“The fire extinguisher is probably stronger in a single strike, but reach is more important for our safety. It would probably be best to take this apart.”

It seemed Kazakami and Matsumi had decided to use the floor lamp. They removed the lamp cover, pulled off the cord, and grabbed just the 1 meter 50 cm wooden stick.

Hiyama grew even more dejected.

She had no confidence in her ability to get along with those two.

“Hey.”

Hiyama half-sarcastically felt Higashikawa was an amazing person to be able to speak to the two of them.

She also felt his presence as an individual was growing more diluted the more he emphasized the group of five.

“Could you try the same thing as before with those sticks?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“The elevators.”

Higashikawa’s reason for leading Kazakami and Matsumi there was likely to prevent them from growing violent if provoked.

They had been under a lot of stress. They had been forced to take part in such unreasonable attractions. If the stopper was removed, it would begin to overflow.

And now they had acquired makeshift weapons. If they lost their means of controlling their unstable hearts, many different factors could lead them to growing violent simply to relieve stress.

If that meant they attacked the wall or a door, it was no real problem. However, that same violence could be turned on a human. And the victim would be Hiyama or one of the others who were still rational.

The five of them headed for the elevators.

The elevator hall next to the nurse station was small, but it still contained four normal elevators and one freight elevator.

However, to match the Hell Hospital theme, each of the elevators was completely blocked off by a semicircle of metal bars. The shape reminded Hiyama of a bird cage.

These metal bars had doors in them too, but they used a card reader. The key from the operating room could not open them.

However…

“There we go…”

Kazakami stuck the wooden stick through the gaps of the metal bars to reach inside. He was trying to press the elevator button.

The button clicked a few times as he pressed it, but it did not light up.

“…Doesn’t seem to be doing anything.”

“But if we could get through these bars, do you think we could force open the elevator door? This isn’t an action movie, but we might be able to reach the first floor if we climb down the shaft.”

“But we can’t find the card key to get through,” said Kazakami while stomping on the floor in frustration.

Hiyama felt this was a sign he was growing more confident with the weapon.

“We couldn’t use the stairs either,” cut in Matsumi while holding her own wooden stick. “Let’s head that way. There were two sets of emergency stairs and they were both covered by metal bars. We couldn’t go up or down.”

“It looks like the key from the operating room only gave us free use of this floor. First it was the five bombs and the wall. Then it was the four guns and the key. Now it’s this entire floor and multiple card readers.”

“I hope there isn’t a limit to how many times we can use the card and we’re stuck here forever if we don’t use it on the door to the exit.”

“They crawl through the ducts in action movies, right?”

Hiyama hated how they had to go through with each and every childish suggestion. There was no way a chance like that had been left for them and yet they had to pull one of the hospital beds out into the hallway, climb up on it, and remove the duct cover.

It was all a waste of time.

As Hiyama thought on that, Higashikawa stood on top of the bed with Matsumi sitting on his shoulders peering into the duct.

“Hmm, it’s too dark to tell much, but it’s too small to fit inside.”

“Th-then,” said Rachel in a frail voice as if to force back her unease. “Do we need to find the card key to continue on?”

Hiyama could not believe she thought that

The enemy had prepared handguns and bombs for the attraction. With such destructive traps, it was possible they could remove some of the explosive and use it for themselves. But using it on the obvious metal bars would be completely foolish. Hiyama could not believe none of the others had realized they needed to destroy the walls or the floor.

But Kazakami reached his limit on his own. The weapon had given him more confident, but it had also given him a shorter temper.

“Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh!! I can’t stand this, I can’t stand this, I can’t stand this!! I’ve had enough! I can’t keep doing what they want again and again!!”

“H-hey…”

“I said I’ve had enough!! The rest of you can do it yourself. That’s how it was with that last attraction, right!? You can continue on without me. One of you has to complete the attraction is all!!”

After that outburst, Kazakami ran off down the dark hallway with his wooden stick still in hand. Higashikawa began to run after him, but Hiyama grabbed his shoulder.

She whispered so Matsumi, the other one with a weapon, could not hear.

“(Leave him be. You don’t want to break a bone or anything over an angry outburst, do you?)”

After a short pause, they heard noises of destruction in the distance. Rachel covered her ears with her hands and crouched down. Kazakami was likely attacking everything nearby in order to pacify his heart that was near bursting.

He may have thought he was a strong person, but his driving force was clearly that of a weak person.

Higashikawa asked a question with the expression of someone looking at an extraordinarily large pile of laundry.

“Wh-what should we do?”

“As I said, leave him be. He’ll run out of breath before long. Once he stops moving, he will come back to his senses and realize his actions are meaningless.”

But that was only for the brief period before the blood rose to his head once more.