District 42-Chapter 83: Broken schedule

It was Casper’s second day at the lockdown. On the last night, as per usual, he went to the Dark Zone. This time, he was sure that they came to drag him there earlier than usual, which was something quite strange since they always had to stick up to the schedule.

Because of this, he passed more time inside the Laboratory. The procedures were the same, but they lasted for longer.

He had some symptoms after every Dark zone, but after that day, they got even worse. The duration surely influenced how worn out Casper would be in the end.

When he got to the lockdown, the same feeling of his brain-melting, all his body in flames, and without energy for nothing, appeared. Nevertheless, even after rest for the entire night, those symptoms didn’t vanish as always did.

Even in the afternoon, he was still with a huge headache.

"Maybe... After the fuss that happened in the canteen, they see me now two times as dangerous as before and want to put a mask on me as fast as they can?" Think that way made Casper nearly slap himself on the face with the amount of frustration that raised on his heart.

However, he kept his cool, after all, it was impossible to make everything go perfect.

He and the superiors from Halden were in a race, in which Casper made a bold move to gain the advantage and they did their countermeasures.

What would show who was winning or not was just when they reach the finish line. Until then, Casper could only minimize his mistakes and disadvantages, creating a huge gap in the deadline that they would not have any chance to keep up with him.

If he got too desperate, he would trip and fall. Too much confidence was a no-go as well. He needed to stay in the middle, and for it, he must have focus, as he always did.

Casper tried hard to forget about the pain and discomfort, although it was tough. Then, he kept reflecting, training his body and planning. It was way harder to do all of that in such conditions, but the soldier could pull through.

The real problem, though, showed just at the end of the second day.

Casper was taking his breath after a workout for some time. His head was heavy as hell, and he tried his best to ignore that.

He was surprised when someone got in front of the door and started to open it. He heard the sound of the automatic locks of the door open one by one, then a Ridire entered the room.

"They already served me dinner. Leave me alone." Casper mumbled, snuggling in the corner of the room.

"Yeah, I know this much. I came here to get you to the Dark Zone."

Casper sighed, annoyed by that dumb Ridire.

"My Dark zone already has been yesterday. Just tomorrow I will be going again."

Hearing his words, the Ridire shook his head slowly

"Halden’s Laboratory Principal said that, from now on, you will have Dark zone every day."

Casper’s body acted on its own, standing up as he looked in disbelief towards that man. At first, he thought that it could be just a manner to abuse him since the Ridires hated him the most and often did things like stole his food or spit on his drink.

Nonetheless, as far as he could notice in his eyes, there was no trace of malice. And all of those sloth warriors from Halden were cynic, but they had more fun when truly showing their intentions and making Casper feel wronged and powerless.

"Hey, man, I am nearly passing out here. You can’t see? If I go to Dark zone every day until you can put this crap of a mask on me, I will die." He complained. Show his weaknesses like that made him bit his lips in frustration. The last thing he wanted to do was to low his head in the presence of those dishonored incompetents.

Even so, Casper knew that be attached to his ideals this much would do no good for him. As long as you can be flexible, you can overcome all sorts of situations.

The most effective thing he could do now was to show that pitiful side of him and root for them to value his life enough to fear losing him. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"That’s not of my business, White warrior. I only do what I’m told to, no matter what. If something is happening, or about to happen, go cry for them, not for me." Without any hesitation, he got close to Casper and pointed that ring-shaped device towards him...

Casper clicked his tongue, getting pissed off. It had not the outcome he was expecting. That guy didn’t minded if Casper died, but the soldier thought that, at least, he would be apprehensive to be blamed for what happened.

"I am trying to figure out what to do now, but what can I do, really?" The response came when his mind went blank and, after this, he passed out for several hours.

He had always the same feelings every time he needed to pass for the procedure: his numbed and inaccurate senses, the pain in his head, people making something with his face...

He had accompanied the whole process when he used contact lenses that Olaf gave to him and pretended to be mind-blanked. It was a procedure that he could not understand at all, but he thought that it would be good to keep in mind just in case.

After some time, he got his senses back and could distinguish more things around. Sometimes the colors took longer to come back, and his tact, too.

That day, however, the different thing was when they dragged him back to his room. "Hey, man... Is he ok?" The Ridires were carrying Casper, dragging his feet on the floor and just holding his arms.

The warrior had being encharged to take the prisoners after the Dark zone a lot of times, but he rarely saw someone in the state that Casper was.

The few times he saw them like that, they died the next day, with no exception. Though Casper had something different there, something that made the warrior think that he was not a half-corpse now. Maybe it was because there was life in his eyes.

"I don’t know. You have more experience than me here. You should be the one knowing this." Said the other. He was quite pissed off, because he was one of the Ridires needing to take care of the intervention of all the battles occurring at Halden, and it was getting him worn out.

"Well, I think he is just exhausted... Anyways, it will be better for us if not. More prisoners dying means new people getting here to replace them, and the newbies are always the most stubborn of the inmates because we need to prevent them to die in the first days."

The other Ridire nodded, and they threw Casper inside of his room in the lockdown.

The White warrior couldn’t move at all, so he just stayed there. His body was in a strange position, which made him felt more pain, but he couldn’t adjust himself.

His mind was blurry. The fever should be the highest one he had in all his twenty-three years of life. He wished that his brain was melting right now because what was happening with it at that point wasn’t the least better than melt.

In the end, Casper fainted because of the pain and the exhaustion. He couldn’t bear all that suffer anymore and his mind just went blank again.

He woke up in a few hours when he was convulsing in the ground and screaming. He himself didn’t know what was happening.

He probably fainted again, because after the door of the lockdown opened once again, everything was dark suddenly.

...

Amelia was walking through the well-known corridors of Halden’s complex with hasty steps and a furious look on her face. Her anger was so overwhelming, that her eyes were filled with tears.

She faced a metallic white door, and bluntly opened it, walking inside the laboratory.

Once the scientists there saw her figure entering with such attitude there, they avoided their eyes and pretended to have nothing of their business going on.

"It’s better for these rats to keep taking care of their stuff, yes. Otherwise, I will rip off their heads with a blunt and rusty knife!"

She passed through all the laboratory, and then faced a fat man tucked in a lab coat that was way smaller than what he really needed to wear. The usual blond hair from the district citizens was grown up and messy.

He was sitting in a chair, looking at some notes and watching something

Just the sight of that pig made Amelia nearly punch him in the face.

"Rolvur!" She yelled, stopping beside him, with her hands clenched.

Rolvur, the Principal, looked back at her.

"Hey, Amelia." Greeted, his voice with a tone that a charlatan would have. "It’s nice to see you. I was hoping you would come."