"What do you an is that a big deal?!"
Adam stepped back, surprised by how livid Leona was. He always thought of her as a sort of motherly figure of the RLRD—but then again... she’d already showed signs of this the first ti she realized Adam could possibly be ancient.
"You—" Leona inflated with even more frustration, then deflated just as quickly. She waved him away, slightly annoyed now.
"Just... I’ll teach you about the importance of that later. Let’s move on."
"...Right."
Adam moved to the center tables. Stone tablets lay in rows, heavy and dark. He leaned over them, scanning the symbols. He could feel Leona’s eyes on him, even more intense now. He would’ve felt uncomfortable... but the way she was looking and the way the people of the Hospital looked at him were... different.
Adam briefly glanced at her, and then just continued his... tour.
But then, all of a sudden, as he looked at one of the tablets... a small chuckle escaped his lips.
It wasn’t loud. It was a light, almost surprised huff of breath. The sound seed to startle Leona, and she looked at her with incredibly wide eyes.
After all, if she was correct... wasn’t this the first ti she ever heard Adam laugh?
"What?" she demanded. "What’s... funny?"
Adam touched his own face, surprised to find his cheeks raised, his mouth curved. It wasn’t only Leona who was surprised. When... was the last ti he’d actually laughed? Or if ever? More than twenty years?
It felt... weird.
"It’s... nothing," he said. He pointed at a tablet covered in symbols, almost similar to stick figures—crude drawings of lines. "This one. It’s saying soone... well... it’s saying sothing like ’soone released their waste here’."
"Huh...?" Leona stared at him. Her mouth opened, and then closed. Her mind seed to vacate her body entirely, leaving her standing there like a mannequin as she could no longer think of what Adam’s words just entailed.
Adam moved to the next tablet. "This one says the king likes... grapes? No, dates. This one is also about a king. Huh."
He kept walking, and Leona now followed him like she was a... robot, her eyes completely vacant.
"All of them keep ntioning a king. I don’t really—" Adam abruptly stopped talking as Tomoe’s voice once again repeated in his mind—the part where she ntioned about him being... several kings.
"Hm..." He shook his head, dispelling the thought. He continued through the archive, past pottery shards, more texts. But after a few minutes, he sighed.
"I can’t really rember anything," he said. "But when I looked at the statue of the Administrator back in Dallas, the vision just ca. Maybe I should—"
He turned to Leona, but her eyes were now empty, not even listening to him at all.
"Leona?"
"W-what?!" She jolted. Her whole body jerked like she’d been shocked. She pointed at him, her finger shaking, and she scread, "Surian!"
Adam also almost jumped from her sudden scream. "What?"
"You can decipher Surian texts! That’s why you see ziggurats in your visions! You really are from that ti!" She spun around, pointing at the Greek papyrus, then at the tablets. She left Adam and then started quietly mumbling to herself. "Did you... travel from Sur to Greece? And then lived there until the Romans captured you? They thought you were a vampire...?"
"Leona." Adam stepped toward her. "Are you... alright?"
"But did you walk...? But that’s..." She wasn’t even listening to him anymore. She was muttering to herself, pacing, her hands fluttering around the rocks like she was trying to commune with them. "Athanatos. The Deathless. Did... you share culture with the Greeks? Wait... could you possibly be the reason why... wait... wait. What..."
"Uh... Leona?" Adam reached out to touch her shoulder. But before he could tap her, the door burst open.
"Mr. Adam!" An agent stumbled in, his face pale as he shouted. "We need your presence now! One of the patients—she’s going crazy. She’s asking for Patient Zero. That... that’s you."
Adam glanced at Leona, and seeing she was now lost in her own world, he just quietly sighed and jogged toward the agent.
"She...?" Adam whispered. "Is it Eleven?"
"Yes! Please, follow !" The agent stepped out. Adam was about to follow him when he glanced past the very first set of tablets he checked.
He could sowhat read everything that was here—and from what he got from Leona, the Babylonian rocks were younger than the Surian tablets... so, why couldn’t he read it?
No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t read it—he felt nauseous even looking at them. What was even on it...?
"Mr. Adam!"
"I’m coming."
Adam shook his head, quickly following behind the man. They moved fast through the corridors, reaching the patient wing in no ti. And as soon as they got there, Adam saw the field agents crowding the hallway—all of them with their weapons drawn.
"What’s going on...?" Adam quickly pushed through them, gently tapping their hands and gesturing for them to lower their weapons.
"Everyone, please holster your guns," he said. The agents looked at each other, hesitating at first, then complied.
Adam finally reached the end of the crowd, only to see Patient Eleven out of her room.
"Why did you open the door?!" Adam slightly raised his voice, causing the others there to flinch. Patient Eleven seed livid, screaming at everyone while she stood at the doorway. Her eyes were wide, frantic.
And soon, she saw Adam.
"You!" She pointed at him. "What are you doing to ?!"
"S-shit!"
"Back! Back!"
And as Patient Eleven suddenly rushed toward Adam, the agents who were close to him all scrambled back, so of them almost falling as they focused more on covering their mouths and noses than running away.
All the agents there have read Patient Eleven’s file—they knew what she could do. One touch, one single drop of saliva, and they’d be vomiting blood in seconds.
But while all of them ran away, Adam just stood there.
Patient Eleven, who was initially keen on lunging at him, stopped three feet away from him. Her steps died, and she stared down at Adam, her lips trembling and her chest heaving.
She looked at the others behind Adam, who looked at her with almost utter disgust and abhorrence.
"Ma’am..."
She quickly turned her focus back to Adam as he called for her. And then, to her surprise, he even stepped forward and extended a hand toward her.
"Let’s talk," he calmly said.
"What..." Her voice cracked. "You... you don’t rember , do you?"
Adam squinted, slightly confused.
"You really don’t rember ..." Patient Eleven’s lips rose, a manic expression almost painting her face. "Because if you did... you’d be afraid of ."
"...Why?"
"Because they used to put us in the sa room. They made ..." Patient Eleven looked down, clutching her hair. "They made do those things... to you."
"Well..."
And then, to everyone’s shock, Adam stepped even closer... and gently grabbed Patient Eleven’s trembling hand.
"Ma’am..." Adam slightly tilted his head down to look at Patient Eleven’s face, her eyes and mouth widening as she felt Adam’s warm touch.
"...I’m not afraid."
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