RE - Chapter 310: I Just Remembered, I Never Got Around to Beating You Up (Patreon)

Alan checked the ammunition in his handgun, holstered it again, then glanced through the car window at the entrance to the sanatorium before opening the door and stepping out.

For the past six months, whenever he had nothing better to do, he kept wondering how someone as cautious as him had managed to get knocked unconscious.

He was constantly watching for surveillance, never went anywhere unarmed, and certainly wasn’t stupid. There was no way someone should have been able to take him out without anyone else even noticing.

Then another possibility occurred to him.

“Don’t tell me someone I trusted screwed me over.”

The thought irritated him.

For Alan, trust represented an investment of both time and emotion.

He rarely gave it to anyone, but once he did, that trust was unconditional.

Of course, Leon was partly to blame for spoiling him in that regard.

Leon: Ahem... What can I say? He’s my closest friend.

But not everyone was Leon.

After going through the possibilities again and again, Alan eventually thought of Victor.

Alan had approached Victor voluntarily in the first place, so he had never been particularly guarded around him. On top of that, he had regularly let Victor examine him, draw his blood...

Blood draws...

Just thinking about needles made Alan tense up now. After everything he had gone through treating his condition, Rebecca and Luis had practically built a private blood bank with his name on it.

Alan pushed the thought aside, climbed the steps, and opened the front door of the sanatorium.

Fallen leaves blew inside with the draft.

Out of habit, Alan looked toward the reception window on the left.

Despite it being a weekday, the window was sealed behind a metal shutter and bars, with a Closed sign posted on it.

The entire sanatorium seemed to have lost power.

The once spotless white tiles had turned dull and gray beneath a layer of dust.

Alan ran his index finger lightly across the reception counter.

A thin coating of dust clung to his fingertip, making him frown.

“Did this place shut down?”

He moved farther inside.

The corridors on either side, which had always been open before, were now sealed shut. The nearby access-control terminal was dark, completely powered off.

Alan stared at the door ahead of him, then backed up several steps.

“Sorry about this. If everything turns out to be fine, I’ll pay for the door!”

With that, he charged forward.

His foot planted hard against the floor. In the next instant, he twisted his body and drove his other foot into the door.

A heavy boom echoed throughout the lobby, making the dust on the floor tremble.

The door had only dented slightly.

Alan backed up again.

Then his figure blurred.

The sole of his boot slammed into the door with another deafening crash, followed by the sharp crack of splintering wood.

Half the door split apart.

The mechanical lock in the center was still intact, but one side had been smashed open, leaving a large hole.

Alan noticed several exposed wires inside the damaged door.

He cautiously yanked them loose, then kicked the opening a few more times until it was large enough to crawl through.

Without hesitation, he climbed inside.

He switched on his flashlight, and the beam illuminated the passage ahead.

“...Seriously? Every door is locked?”

Door: Stay away from me!!

Alan mercilessly kicked the next door open.

What he saw on the other side immediately wiped the humor from his face.

“...These are patients. They’re all dead?”

Alan pulled on a pair of tactical gloves and crouched beside one of the bodies to examine it.

“No visible injuries?”

He carefully checked the corpse for any obvious signs of trauma.

There were none.

The only unusual marks were several faint punctures resembling needle wounds.

“Great. Looks like I won’t have to pay for that door after all.”

Alan stood, looked around at the bodies scattered nearby, then continued forward while attempting to establish communications.

“...Nest, come in.”

“Nest, this is Saber-tooth.”

“...Alan? Weren’t you recovering in China?”

Alan pushed open an unlocked door and checked both sides of the corridor beyond it.

“Just finished treatment and got back. Figured I’d go for a walk.”

“A walk? Where exactly did you go?”

“Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center.”

Hunnigan paused.

Then she quickly connected the dots.

“Did you remember how you were knocked unconscious?!”

“No. But I’m almost certain this place had something to do with it now. I found a bunch of dead patients. My initial guess is that they were injected with something that caused their vital signs to stop.”

“...You’re taking a huge risk, Alan.”

“Sorry, but I’m already here. We got nowhere investigating Victor’s public records before, so let’s try digging into this sanatorium instead. Hunnigan, I’m counting on you.”

“All right. Do you want me to contact Leon?”

“If he’s available... Oh, right. Did he give you the gift?”

Hunnigan glanced at the mug beside her, decorated with a chibi version of herself, and adjusted her glasses.

“He did. I like it.”

After the call ended, Alan stared at the metal-barred gate blocking his path.

“Yeah, I’m not kicking through that... This is annoying.”

“Looks like I’ll have to find the main power switch, restore the electricity, and then track down an access card... Why does this feel so familiar?”

With no other option, Alan headed back toward the lobby.

Then he suddenly regretted something.

“Should’ve kept a chainsaw in the trunk... Whatever. I’ll go buy one.”

Why make things harder for himself?

If there was a shortcut, he was going to take it.

Alan quickly returned to his car outside the sanatorium and drove straight to a store.

By the time he came back, he was carrying a chainsaw, a jack, a welding torch, a door-opening tool, and a rubber mallet.

The store employees had even complimented him for being such a dedicated demolition worker.

Back at the sanatorium entrance, Alan noticed the security camera mounted above the doorway.

It looked like it was powered off, but Alan still stared directly at it and issued a warning.

“You’d better watch yourself, Victor. I’m coming for you.”

At that exact moment, Victor was hiding in an office on the top floor, watching the security feed and breaking out in a cold sweat.

“How can my luck possibly be this bad? Didn’t he leave?!”

The truth was, Victor had only returned today because he had suddenly remembered some early research documents he had never retrieved.

He had hidden them so well that even he had completely forgotten about them until he needed them again.

To avoid Alan and Leon, Victor had spent more than half a year staying at Zeno’s research institute.

The sanatorium itself had been deliberately shut down not long ago.

Patients who had never been experimented on were discharged.

Those who had been experimented on were simply eliminated and disposed of.

And for the entire past six months, neither Alan nor Leon had made a single move.

Victor had only come back today to retrieve some documents.

And Alan just happened to show up?

Fine.

When Alan first arrived, Victor had spotted him immediately.

He had already hidden inside the helicopter, planning to restore the power once Alan ventured deep enough into the sanatorium, lock him inside, and make his escape.

He was just about to do it when he saw Alan turn around and leave because he couldn’t get through the metal gate.

Victor had finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had gotten out of the helicopter, returned to the office, and started gathering his things.

Then Alan came back.

“With a whole damn collection of tools that look like he’s here to demolish the building?!”

Victor nearly choked.

He felt genuinely wronged.

Who had timing this ridiculous?

What kind of sane person stopped exploring halfway through, left the area, went to a damn store, bought a bunch of tools, and then came back?

Alan simply hadn’t gone through the rear exit of the lobby toward the helipad.

Otherwise, he might have caught Victor sitting inside the helicopter watching him through the cameras.