9 Days Before

○~ They arrived inside the hospital, Chandra following with. She quickly opens the doors for them, They nod in respect, and she nods back.

The floor makes their shoes mimic mice. The nurses stepped in to block Chandra from going into the procedure room.

She buffs and looks over their shoulders, making sure he arrives in the right rooms. The door opened, showing doctors, more staff, and nurses.

The door flaps shut. Leaving flashes of Dealix being carried away. The rain is still pouring, thudding on the ceiling.

The water flowed down the windows with rolling lightning in the clouds as if stalking prey.

"You can take a seat over here and wait for your friend-" Before the nurse finished, Chandra added the same story she told the carriers.

"He's my adopted brother."

"Ah", says the nurses with a skeptical undertone while moving over to their desks, one of their fingers twirling on a slow day.

Chandra looks away with a shake of her head and flops down on the chair with a huff.

"Why are you huffing? You ain't old yet, " a random stranger included. She looks at him and shrugs, then continues to mind her business. The old man chuckles and does the same.

She bounces her leg, waiting for information about her "adopted" brother.

Chandra can technically say that and get away with that. She looks around the hospital and looks at the sleek ceiling.

"I'm sure that was a pretty penny." She mumbles, continuing to observe the hospital room.

Flora arrangements pattern the pillar holding up patient rooms above. The pillar is a sleek white marble, and so is the floor with some high-class carpets.

She doesn't feel comfortable in hospitals, especially nicer ones like these that are close to the tower.

Bodies will sometimes go missing, along with individuals with mental disorders - continuing bouncing her leg.

-

The skies grew darker as the storm went on. Lightning recoiled closer to the area, thunder shaking the windows periodically.

Chandra looks at the two nurses, both doing other things except their designed roles.

The sky fluttered, lightning snaking across the skies, slithering above the hospital, creating a cascade of thunder.

It crackles. The hospital shakes continuously with rippled lightning strikes, the nurses hold onto their meeting desks, darting around in a cascading panic. Chandra grasps her chair, flipping it over, crawling underneath it.

However trepidation pulled onto her, she bolted to a small coffee table while reinforcing it with the chair. The rumble continued, knocking some wiring loose accompanying some frail pieces of the building.

-

Flickering lights basks Dealix's patient room.

The windows rumbled, making no sound for the unconscious Vel.

It rumbles again, accompanied by electrical discharges from the lights. The room turns pitched.

"Hello, Dealix." A distorted voice echoed throughout the room. - Dealix awakens.

His eyes fluttered open. His eyes feel dry, itching within the sides. Crawling, printing sclerosis amongst the Sclera and into the iris, crawling its way into the pupil -

It gets interrupted by Chandra busting into the room, her arm damaged, and parts of her skin tissue peeled off, exposing specks of flesh.

She grunts and grabs Dealix, picks him up, and onto her shoulders, adrenaline powering Chandra.

Her epinephrine carries them outside the room. The lightning continues to roar outside the hospital walls, almost as if it were infuriated.

Doctors rushed left and right, panicking while others sparked heroism. Rescuing people.

Hysteria haunted the hospital as the storm flared

A doctor rushes in, hitting the side of the door seal.

"I'm glad I reached you - we have to hurry and get out of here!" The man takes them, and a few other nurses and doctors who had run past the doorway lended out aid wherever they could in the evacuation.

They were reaching the main entrance - a spark flew by capturing the attention of Chandra.

Making her look into another room, the busted electrical wiring repeated its flicker.

"We need to go. The Tower escorts are here to help you evac!"

"Alright!, take him with you. Make sure NOTHING happens to him!" Chandra hands off Dealix in the hopes of protection, just for a moment.

"There's something that I got to check real quick! It won't take long. I promise -"

The doctor looks down diagonally, then interrupts her"Just make sure you come back out of here. We'll have help surrounding the buildings if we need to get you out of here in a jiff. "

The man let her go. She sprints to where she observed.

-

Entering the double doors and into the hallway, rubble littered the ground. Sparks are going off in every direction.

The storm outside continues to roar, lightning strikes a window off in the distance.

A force of curiosity drove Chandra towards the noise, willing to uncover the formalities.

"That sounded like it was coming from down here." She traversed through the rubble, picking things up and kicking things out of her way.

Lightning strikes again, right above Chandra, causing part of the ceiling to rumble and collapse.

She lunges out of the way, hitting the ground with a thud as it tumbles down. Coincidentally making a way up to the upper floor.

"Can't waste any more time. I need to hurry out of here, " she mumbles to herself, picking her body up

- Bolting up the makeshift ramp and ascending to the upper floors.

It was quiet. No rumbles, no sparks. It looked perfectly intact other than the hole that had just been created.

Her mind became intrigued by why there were no damages - until a lightning bolt struck again, erasing the anomaly

hitting a window. Shattering it in pieces. Chandra turns around in the direction of the noise, a room down the darkened hallway slowly opens, emerging blues and purple lights.

With an occasional flash to follow it. Chandra leaps over the hole.

Thud, her feet planted on the other side. She landed the leap. Years of skateboarding taught her a few balancing tricks, and this was easy.

Peddle peddle, her footsteps inch closer to the open doors, the flashing of lights become more visible to her, however, she still can't make out what's causing it.

Everything around her became a convergence of silence, filling the space around her with an eerie thickness.

The door slowly inches open more. Leaving her heart amplified, the old door creaks open. Showing...

"A Projector...?" Chandra questioned, opening the door for herself to make sure she was understanding everything correctly.

A sharp feeling rushed down her spine and up to the nape of her neck. Leaving "Ghostmarks" behind, an altered version of goosebumps, but they're not there. - she steps forward.

The projector is now dimly lit, glowing off and on. With even higher voltages between.

"Like talking," she says. Moving in front of it directly. The lights switch to a low hum, making an item visible on the projector itself.

She looks up at the light board, glimpsing a silhouette of a planchette like object.

"I've practiced with stuff like this before when I was a kid... even some now. Why this all of a sudden -"

She gets disturbed by a loud crackling sound coming from the dark hallways - disturbing the ominous silence.

The projector flashes matching the rhythm of panic.

Without hesitation, she grabs the stone and leaps out the broken window... How convenient again?"

Awaiting her were some tower escorts and a blanket catch. She flops on the blanket

Lightning rolled within the skies, crackling voltages of arches down the hospital distorted the room she was in.

"That was close! " One of the escorts said.

"How did you know I was going to be in that room!" Chandra yells back.

"We had an anonymous caller!" Leaving Chandra with more questions than answers.

She shocks back up, checking for the stone. It's there safely tucked into her coat zipper pocket.

"Where's my brother?" She plays the same key. The escorts lead her to him. Leading her into a carrier - the escorts shutting it behind her as the storm continued.

There, he was sitting alone on the other side of the seats, strangers staring at him concerning his health.

Chandra plops a seat next to him as the carrier sways them forward in motion to the vehicle, taking them to the Tower.

"You okay?" She says, trying to check him for any damages. He waves her off but says that he's fine. However, she doesn't care, continuing to check.

"Do you know where our bags are?" She asked him. He points underneath the seats to the other side.

Chandra looks up at the civilians who are staring like a rat with cheese, Very intrigued.

"Excuse me..." she puts her arms out, checking for a latch to open the storage. They found both of their bags along with some of the other civilians' luggage.

"If you say ANYTHING about this, I'll throw you out the carrier." She implies grabbing the bong from her bag.

The others shifted in their seats, and one of them peaked over.

"Can I have some..?"

"HARLED!" The other one screeches at the asker. Chandra shrugs as he looks dead in her eyes as she packs the bowl - turning around to Dealix.

"You want some..? Given the certain circumstances taking place right now."

Dealix shrugs and nods. His dirty palms grasped the stim of the bong. Taking the first hit.

"Smoking the greens.." she says as Dealix hits the bong - taking a big coughing fit after he releases the smoke.

Handing the bong over to Chandra, he waved the smoke away. She grabs it and turns to the guy who asks and hands it to him. Giving a stare to the lady.

"You're hitting this, too."

The lady's head bolts back and then looks away in silence, while the assumed connection takes a hit but doesn't cough. Chandra gives him a look, making him 'cough' while she gives him the thumbs-up for participation.

He hands the bong back after a few more hits with glances from his connection. With that settled, she was going to hand the bong to the lady, but decided she was going to go first rather than have her go.

She puts the tip-off the bong up to her lips, the bong stim, warm from use.

However, she puts the other thoughts into the back while she flips the lighter to create flame, putting the newly born blaze onto the herb, sizzling it with clouds of smoke tunneling down and up the bong as she inhales.

A sense of rush followed with calmness enters her while holding her breath, an odd sensation,

Calmness takes more than a rush. Letting the smoke flow out after a solid minute.

She takes a seat with stoned Dealix on the cold seating of the carrier as they continue to their destination.

A thought came across the lady's mind.

"Shouldn't we have gotten to the tower by now.. where are they taking us..? "

Chandra thinks for a moment before answering, having some panic mixing in with the high.

"Well, that's not good," she tried to say quietly, but the lady overheard.

"What..?"

"Oh, I'm sure they're taking us to another tower..after all the tower that we thought we were going to might've been too close to the destruction..?" She claims, trying to give relief to her.

The woman nods, looking down with a brewing thought in mind, "Names Clincy.." she says, trying to be polite in her way.

Giving thanks for the attempt to make her feel comfortable.

The carrier moved to a destination unknown to them, the sound of the storm outside making its way into the vehicle.

Rumbling the passengers inside. Chandra looked above and around following the roaring passing by.

She sighs deeply, catching herself to show restraint, although the others mind their business - inconsiderate about her will to restrain.

Dealix is now asleep, his head laying on his backpack. Dealix's Head bobbing as the vehicle continues. Leaving Chandra to herself and with her thoughts on the ride.

The carrier shifts, tweaking them forward and back in place. The doors open.

A wave of lights hit them, making them cover their eyes. Leftover smoke flows out and into the nostrils of a voice behind the light.

"You all will be coming with me. You're not - " the voice stops to sniff.

"Is that weed..?"

Chandra lit up and gripped her bag giving a 'oh fuck'.

"Well if it is, it's alright. Especially in this situation, we have now. I would be smoking too if I had the time" The voice gets a face as their eyes ease into the light.

"Hi, my name's Sameria, Most people call me Sam for short - I'll tell you this upfront. I'm a doctor at the 4th tower. Welcome to my home."

Sam explains, giving a comfort authority figure, making Chandra ease a little bit by releasing the grip of her bag.

"Who's he?" She points at sleeping Dealix.

"Oh, that's my adoption - " before Chandra can finish that key story. She nods it off and shakes it away.

"Okay, but who"

Chandra takes back with the sudden change.

"Dealix.." she answers.

"No last name or -"

"Why does it matter?" Chandra challenges. Sam was taken aback as well. Glaring at her rather than confirming.

"We'll have to do some tests on him.."

"Alright, well I'm coming with obviously" Chandra tries to bring the point across but fades on the same authority ego that seeped out during the questioning.

"No, you'll be elsewhere" Sam confirms having one of the guards take all of them in.

Dealix, still surprisingly asleep, gets lifted by a built arms guard.

Walking beside Sam, another guard pulls Chandra with them before they break ways Sam says.

"Don't worry about her, she'll definitely protect your friend from any harm."

"Maybe not from you, and he's my ADOPTED brother." She finally snuck it in.

Sam cuffs her, breaking the two paths as she hints an eye roll from the response.

"I'll see you again, Dealix!! Just remember that, " Chandra says one last time in hopes his subconscious hears for him in his sleeping ears.

"This way," the guard pulls her into another tower entrance, watching her friend enter another one across the way as the door tightly shuts the sight between them.

The storm fell silent after a final lightning strike hit a rod, catching it before it connected to anything else,

leaving goodbye to the group - with Chandra's and the guard's footsteps echoing the corridors.

Invading the ears of a science worker.