No comments? I’ll go with what I have planned then.
Chapter 5
The leaves rustle as the wind blows through the hospital courtyard. A girl, with short red hair in a hairstyle that’s wide enough to completely cover her ears, attends to an elderly person. She gets him settled down on a bench underneath a tree.
“Aprile!”
A call turns Aprile’s attention to a boy shakily walking towards her. The sight brings a smile to her face. The boy slowly makes his way over to her.
“You can do it,” Aprile cheers him on. "Just a little more.
The boy takes the last few trembling steps then falls forward with Aprile catching him. Aprile looks down at him proudly.
“Good job, Alfonso,” Aprile congratulates him. Then she looks at woman behind a wheelchair, Alfonso’s mother. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Ottavio.”
“Aprile, Aprile…” Alfonso tugs at her dress, to bring her attention back to him. “Let’s go watch a movie in the lobby.”
“Not right now,” Aprile answers. She helps him back to his wheelchair. “I still have work to do. Why don’t you go watch cartoons for a while.”
“Okay.” Mrs. Ottavio starts to push him forward but Alfonso wiggles and rocks the wheelchair.
“I can get there on my own, Mama,” Alfonso fusses. He leans his small frame forward so he can reach the control stick of the eletric wheelchair. With a tight grasp on the stick, he drives the wheelchair forward on his own.
“Be careful now,” Aprile cautions. “Make sure that you don’t fall out of the chair.”
“I will!” Alfonso calls back over his shoulder.
“Alfonso’s looking much better today, isn’t he?” Aprile remarks.
“Yes,” Mrs. Ottavio agrees. “And it’s all thanks to you.”
“Me?” Aprile looks at her with surprise.
“Yes.”
“But I haven’t done much…” Aprile says humbly.
“Of course you have!” Mrs. Ottavio insists. “My son was always stubborn. He got it from his father, see. He would make no attempt to walk until you came along. But with you, he manages to progress as much as he did. You are his savior.”
“ThThank you…” Aprile stammers.
Mrs. Ottavio pats her on the head and walks off to the direction of the lobby. Aprile is left standing there dumbfounded that someone like her is able to help a person so much. But a smile spreads over her face knowing that her effort are being appreciated and her steps feel light as she goes to the rest of her tasks.
From a hospital window looking over the courtyard, Juni watches Aprile as she leaves to go about her business. She’s been observing her movements for the past few hours. Judging from her disposition, it’s highly unlikely that Aprile would join her. Juni turns and leaves the hospital.
In battle, she’s last to fight and first to see to the fallen. That’s her duty as the Dolls’ Medic. In retrospect, the winged skull symbol of Shadaloo adorning the medical kit along with the red cross of protection appeared rather ridiculous.
Juni takes a break at a local cafe. She takes a seat on one of the outside tables. She takes out a battered-looking laptop and starts making entries to her journal. During one of her conversations with Marz, she managed to garner the location of her place of impact when she was transported. After a few hours of looking around with a metal detector, she found it shallowly buried a few meters from the impact site. Considering the condition it was in, she was relieved to find that it is still operational.
The Dolls’ equipment were made for durability because they were usually assigned to fieldwork. It appears this includes an otherwise delicate piece of equipment such as Marz’s computer. The battery is intact and can still be recharged. It did lose the power cable that attaches it to a power supply contained in Marz’s armband though. A regular power cable from a store is a sufficient replacement for the cable. The armband can convert Psycho Power into electrical energy to run the laptop, but that’s not something Juni needs as one person unwittingly discovered.
In addition to utilities for hacking through computer systems and various top secret information, the laptop also contains data on the Dolls such as combat attributes and skilles. Juni has been researching information on the rest of the Dolls and sees this as a good find. Unfortunately, there’s no current information on them. The Shadaloo mainframe remains unavailable no matter how many times she try. It’s possible that it may have been moved. She can’t do anything about that at the moment, so for now, she’ll have to make do with what she has.
After making a note on Aprile’s profile, Juni closes the laptop and slips it back into a backpack she’s carrying. She considers her options over a cappucino. She’s been through France in search of Fvrier, who is away participating on a target shooting tournament across Europe. It’s unknown when she’ll be back.
There’s no information on Juli at all. It appears she became an orphan shortly before being taken in by Shadaloo. The relatives who are supposed to take custody of her reported that she ran away. They gave no indication that she have ever returned at all after the Dolls were returned. This makes her concerned. It brings to mind a number of possibilities, most of them not encouraging.
As for the other Dolls, she only has clues to where they might be. Almost all of them are from news reports from different countries sharing similar stories about bright lights and missing girls reappearing. The odds are likely that the girls would be the former Dolls. Juni takes a sip of her beverage as she thinks about her next step.
Heavy leather boots sound out as they climb the stairs. A gloved hand carries an indescript black suitcase. The other hand opens a door leading into a bare room. The room has one closed window. The person strides over to it and opens it.
The suitcase is laid down on the floor. Latches click as they are unlocked. The suitcase is flipped open, revealing disassembled rifle parts within. The stock is picked up and gripped on one hand. A long barrel is then connected to it. After that, a scope is attached and the rifle is loaded with ammunition. Finally, a bipod mount is set up near the window and the sniper rifle is placed on it.
Sounds from the traffic drifts through the windows as the rifle is swiveled in place. The crosshairs of the scope moves and stops when it has Juni’s face in its sight. A finger slowly pulls the trigger. A shot rings out.
Planning on making more frequent updates. I have a habit of putting off things and too many interruptions can come up when I try every two weeks. I’ll be putting up what I got instead of putting off stuff so I can get a long chapter up. I want to at least have something up every week. This one’s suppose to be up last week, so I’ll be updating again in a few days. That is, if nothing else comes up.