Water poured from burst pipes overhead in heavy streams but to Roland it no longer crashed.
For some reason, Roland's perception was getting slower.
The microscopic pause before violence. He wasn't reading movement anymore. The sensation unsettled him because it didn't feel like intelligence.
Roland breathed slowly.
"Right. Either I am awakening spiritually or finally losing my mind."
The anomaly lunged fast enough to kill him.
Fast enough that ten seconds ago I would have been lying dead right there. Now?
Roland evaded before his own thoughts could process the scernario.
His boots splashed through rising water as he stepped sideways.
The creature's fist tore through the corridor beside him, smashing concrete into dust.
A broken maintenance rail became footing.
He kicked off it, twisted midair and slammed the steel pipe across the anomaly's neck with his left hand hard enough to reverberate through the flooded hall.
The thing barely reacted to whatever damage he had done.
Its second swing came from below. Roland ducked swiftly before the attack could begin.
Its third hit came before the second fully ended.
Roland stepped onto a broken roof, vaulted over exposed piping, landed near its blind side and hit his knee into its jaw.
Roland realized that and clicked his tongue in irritation.
"You are one of those problems."
The anomaly chased him more terrifyingly.
Roland slid under a shattered support beam just before another punch ripped through steel behind him.
Water surged more and more now. Flood systems finally failed to process completely. The corridor looked less like a hallway and more like drowning plaza in flood.
The anomaly stepped forward and stopped for a while.
Its skin twitched strangely. Its flesh… sagged. Roland saw it, in this strange slowed state, small details became impossible to ignore.
The water wasn't hurting it instantly.
He looked up briefly toward the bursting pipes.
The anomaly roared and charged again, arm pulling back for one final crushing punch. The force behind it shook the corridor before impact even arrived.
Caius shouted from behind.
"ROLAND!"
But Roland didn't try to block or dodge. He walked forward toward the punch instead.
Water ran around his boots. Broken wrist hanging uselessly. Steel pipe held loosely in his left hand.
The punch descended closer, close enough to erase him and in that stretched moment of distorted awareness.
Here it is, the weakness is slowly originating in its tissues.
He exhaled.
"You know what your problem is?"
The anomaly's fist stopped inches away.
Roland raised the pipe piercing it through the anomaly's throat.
"You were built to survive violence but nobody taught you how to survive consequence. Thank you."
He pulled the pipe back swinging dramatically.
The Anomaly's muscle loosened into dark liquid. Bone softened unnaturally before dissolving into water flooding across the floor.
The thing that had hunted them reduced itself into ruin, melting beneath Roland's feet.
Roland stood there for several seconds after it ended.
Rain falling through broken pipes.
Steel pipe rested against his shoulder.
He looked less victorious than simply… tired.
How ironic it is. In the darkness, I am powerful. In the light I am nothing. Only a nameless guardian cursed to save everyone except himself.
Behind him, Caius stared at him with hopes lingering in his visions.
As they both didn't waste a time and marched onwards, Roland had managed to find an old emergency maintenance route.
A forgotten drainage tunnel leading toward the outskirts beyond the plant.
It seems dangerous, but for now I see no exit in here. I hope it is survivable enough. He thought.
The sky had begun changing colors. Black faded into dark blue.
Caius stood near the tunnel entrance quietly.
For someone so physically overwhelming, he suddenly looked painfully young again.
The kind of lost nobody should ever look at fifteen.
Roland leaned against broken concrete nearby, trying not to visibly react every time to his wrist.
"You remember what I said earlier?" Roland asked.
Caius looked up in confusion.
"…About surviving?"
"Yeah."
"People are annoying. They survive things they absolutely shouldn't. I think I have told you before."
No reply came.
Then Caius asked quietly,
"…What if I become something bad?"
The boy had already begun blaming himself for things done to him.
Roland exhaled slowly.
"Listen carefully. What people make you into and what you choose to become are two very different things."
Caius looked down.
"They called me a lab bitch..."
It was the first time, Roland's expressions had visible rage screaming to burst out.
He sighed and smiled again.
"You are a person. The moment somebody starts comparing human beings with numbers, it usually means the adults in charge have become unbelievably stupid."
Caius laughed but ended up coughing.
Roland pointed toward the tunnel.
"You follow this route. Stay away from crowds and don't trust uniforms too quickly. That is all I would give for you. This place is more dangerous."
"What about you?"
Roland glanced back toward the nuclear plant. The documents under his arm was itching his sides.
"I have got work."
"You are hurt."
"Does it matter? It is just a prank!"
"You could die."
"Ah, now you have become stubborn staying with me. "
"Why are you staying?"
"Because somebody has to figure out why a place full of dead scientists somehow produced a kid who survived when C-123-01 didn't."
Caius felt an unnatural sensation.
He only continued quietly,
"And call me crazy but I am starting to think 02 turned out a lot more human than they expected."
The morning wind moved between them.
Caius looked away first.
"…Will I see you again?"
"If fate allows, I will teach you chess next time."
"And if not…"
He smiled tiredly.
"Try becoming the kind of person who makes every turn of their life meaningful."
The sunrise finally touched the edge of the horizon. Caius stepped into the tunnel.
He stopped once and looked back.
Roland raised his good hand lazily.
"Go and try not to get adopted by cults."
Caius actually laughed this time. Then disappeared into the tunnel looking forward.
Roland stayed standing there alone.
Watching the sunrise claiming the documents in hand.
Once again, he looked at the distant golden rays of the sun coming out from the horizon straightening his chest in a relief.
An amusing thought made him chuckle hard and feel heart warming at the same time,
You are free, Little World.