Under The Veil of Night

Even though Tommy was hesitant, he still followed after the others to the next floor. By now, he had learned how to ignore the pain on his thighs. It was still hurt, but it only made him walked far slower. He didn’t want to rely on Jason too much anymore.

In the 20th floor, they didn’t see any monster, but only a large pool in the middle of the room. In addition, they could see that the next floor was joined together, with only half of them existed above their head. It looked more similar to a certain place for them to watch the pool below.

"The pool is incredibly red," Tommy gulped when he saw the sight in front of him.

The pool that was placed right in front of them was bright red in color. It looked rather scary rather than inviting.

"I can’t swim too," Kanae’s face was ugly.

"You want to swim there?"

"No, but even if it’s clean, I can’t swim."

Jason smiled wryly. "Why don’t you think of a way to get across the place?"

"Can’t you think on my behalf?" Kanae grinned.

"It’s the responsibility of a captain to think for their teammate, so I believe that you are the one who have to do it, Captain," Jason threw the task back to Kanae.

"Are we playing ball right now?"

"You can just ask Tommy to think for a way."

"Do you really mean it?"

Jason looked towards the nearby Tommy before shaking his head. He would be the world biggest idiot if he truly asked Tommy to think for a way to get across the pool. That man would surely give some weird ideas that they couldn’t possibly do.

Tommy arched his eyebrows. "What do you mean by that? I know the way to across the pool!"

"Name it!"

"Swim!"

Kanae: "..." didn’t we agree to not swim in the very first place?

Looking around the place, she noticed that there were several things around. Many of them were in broken state, but she still could recognize their shape. There were tables, chairs, lamps, shoes, hose, cupboard, hanger for clothes, and many others.

Wait, she could possibly use them! She eyed the gun on her hand. After shooting that man, she still held the gun close to her in case she needed to use it.

"Captain, why are you smirking?" Tommy noticed that Kanae didn’t join in the debate between him and Jason.

Kanae looked towards the two of them. "I think I know a way to get across the pool safely."

"Is swimming not safe?"

Pointing towards the red pool, Kanae asked the two of them. "What do you think about the pool?"

The other two moved their head to look towards the pool again. The pool was relatively clean. Aside from the fact that the color made it looked rather scary, there was nothing strange about the pool at all. Some water splashed to the side, but there was no item inside.

Tommy didn’t seem to see anything wrong with it, but Jason noticed what Kanae wanted to convey.

Jason frowned. "It’s too clean."

"What do you mean by too clean? Isn’t it good that the pool is clean?" Tommy asked confusedly.

"In normal times, it’s indeed good for the pool to be clean, but in this place, it’s rather strange. There are already numerous fights happen in this place, which should have sent broken pieces of items to the pool. They should have floated on the surface of the water, but there’s none right now."

Kanae nodded her head. She picked up a nearby broken wood. "Under this condition, no one will have the thoughts to swim because it’s too red. However, there should be some people who did that before."

The wood on her hand was thrown towards the pool, landing on top of the water. The moment it reached the surface, bubbles appeared from within the pool. Slowly but surely, the wood started to disintegrate.

Tommy’s face was already white with fear when he saw that. Was that truly pool for swim? Who in their right mind will swim in that acid water?

"Everyone who tries to swim has died," Jason murmured. "That’s the reason the water became so red."

"I thought it’s because there’s a fight," Tommy gulped down, trying to calm himself down. It was hard to accept that he already nearly walked to the death door twice today.

"If there’s a fight, there should be dead bodies, right?" At this time, Kanae had picked up the long hose and the clothes hanger. She used her sword to change the shape of the hanger until it looked like a hook.

Jason’s eyes widened when he saw what Kanae had made. He looked towards the next floor railing as realization dawned to him. Right now, he knew what she wanted to do very well.

"Captain, do you need help?"

"Help me bring the hose up, it’s rather long."

The two of them brought the hose and the hook that Kanae made to the next floor. This floor only consisted of two sides, one in this place and the other one at the other side of the pool. There was no ground to travel directly between the two places.

Tying the hose to the hook, she placed the hook that she made on the gun she had. Aiming towards the other side of the room, she pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The hook reached the end of the room perfectly, crashing towards the wall of the other side while bringing the hose that she tied along with it. Pulling the hose, she made sure that the hook grasped the railing tightly before tying the other end to the railing near the place where she stood.

"Can you walk on the rope?" Kanae asked the two of them.

Jason shook his head. "Do you think I’m an acrobat to train walking on the rope? I can pull myself to the other side, but I’m not sure about Tom."

"I can’t go there," Tommy’s face scrunched so badly because he knew that he wouldn’t have the strength to walk or even reaching the other side by pulling himself.

Kanae looked around. This part of the floor was filled with unused box by the side. She pointed at them. "You hide there, Tom. We’ll go to the other side and return back quickly."

Tommy’s face turned sourer. "Can’t you just send me back to the first floor, so I can hide there?"

"Do you want to go through all the battles again?"

Considering the struggle they had before they could reach this place, Tommy could only sigh in resignation. He looked towards the other side of the room before turning his gaze back to the other two.

"Stay safe. I’ll be waiting here for you."

"We’ll do our best."

Jason patted Tommy as Kanae moved towards the hose. She jumped outside the railing and used her hand to grip the hose tightly before hanging herself there. Her feet rose towards the hose, putting it above the hose as the two feet crossed each other. Slowly, her hand moved and pulled her body along the hose with her feet made sure that she won’t fall.

Tommy looked towards Kanae in amazement. "I really wonder what she can’t do right now?"

Jason smiled wryly. "Just ask her to cook, she will surely send you to hospital because of food poisoning."

"I’ll never ask her to cook then..."