damned_institute | Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

Despite the rough start and the heavier snowfall, the buses managed to stay on route and on schedule. With minutes to spare, they arrived at the gates of Landel's Institute, back to the waiting arms of the military. All pretenses seemed to drop at this point, and the soldiers again took on their patented gruff exteriors. Patients were filed out of the buses in an orderly manner, eventually being escorted to their rooms for dinner in much the same. There, as promised by the personnel, well-behaved patients found their purchases among their returned possessions. A few even found new faces, though whether they brought as much joy as bought goods remained unseen.

The woman manning the intercom seemed to have missed the notice about the day's trip as her announcement remained no different from the usual. "Attention all subjects and personnel," she said. "Lights Out will commence within the hour."

A pause.

"I repeat, Lights Out will commence within the hour. All personnel: please report to your stations. The General will begin his address once preparations are underway. Thank you."

The intercom clicked off.

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Sakura abruptly woke from her slumber as the woman manning the intercom made the announcement. Her first instinct was that it was now morning and time to go to breakfast, but the lights out announcement set off an alarm in her head. So that meant it was almost night? How long had she been out? Sakura had slept through days in the past before, but she thought she had already overcome that exhaustion.

As the young girl sat up, she had the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach. Had something happened to her friends and family? Was Yue or Touya okay? Was Tsubaki okay? It seemed like every time she slept through a day or two, something bad always happened. She only hoped that she was wrong.

Trying to shelve her bad feelings, Sakura took a gulp of her gruel. It wasn't a waffle, but Sakura was willing to eat anything at this point not only for nourishment but also to get her mind on something else.

Out of the whole day, the worst of it had been the searches on the way home, and in the grand scheme of things, they were just a small moment of discomfort. Tsubaki’s fears had so far been unfounded, which wasn’t at all a bad thing. Though she hadn’t seen a lot of people, the trip had actually been nice. She hoped Sora had liked the snowman.

As a matter of course, there was no accounting for what nightshift would bring after the pleasantness of the day, and she could only guess if the military had some kind of surprise in store. She wasn’t surprised when the soldiers ceased pretending to be hospital staff once the buses unloaded; the last few days had set the tone for what their leadership would be like.

Tsubaki arrived back at her room escorted by her female soldier, cheeks still a bit pink from the cold. “Thank you,” she murmured in her usual way as the door was unlocked for her.

Inside, already eating, was Sakura. Oh, good.

The girl had still been asleep when Tsubaki had left in the morning, but now that they were both awake, she gave her roommate a smile. “Hi! How are you?” Actually, that was weird, Sakura was already back in her hospital uniform…

Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

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