Two men in their mid-20s were at a prison quietly talking to each other in hushed voices. One was a prisoner while the other was visiting him.
“So have you prepared the two presents?” asked the prisoner.
“Yes they are ready to be delivered whenever you want them to be,” replied the visitor.
“That’s fast. You sure do take your job seriously,” said the prisoner happily.
“I will personally hand-deliver them myself. You need not worry that a problem will arise,” said the visitor.
“Good, good. With this, I will have my revenge for being sent here and having everything pinned on me. Be sure to not let them know who you are or that it came from me,” ordered the prisoner.
“Look, man, I’m a professional. I’m not stupid, this isn’t my first time delivering a package of this kind to someone. Just make sure to have the payment ready when it’s done and everything will sort itself out,” replied the visitor.
“Hey, I’m just giving you some friendly advice. No need to get sour on me,” replied the prisoner.
“Hey X, your visiting time is over. Back to your cell,” shouted a guard as he began walking over to X and led him back to his cell.
***
Yuuto had gone to the mailroom on the first floor during the morning to check for any mail that he might have received. While looking through the junk mail, he noticed Niko was standing next to him also going through her own mail.
The only other person in the room was the old man’s wife, who from time to time worked in the mailroom.
A package delivery man entered the room and dropped off a fairly large box onto the mail receptionist desk and after getting a signature for the package, he gave a smile and quickly left the room.
Yuuto heard the old lady mumbling something about having no clue who could have sent a large box to the club for no reason. It was rather odd and didn’t happen much.
Yuuto was curious about what was inside and watched as she opened the box.
When the box was opened a large puff of white powder escaped into the air and began floating about and falling onto the table and everything around it.
The old lady immediately covered her face with a handkerchief and shouted to Yuuto and Niko.
“Cover your mouths and body. Close the door! Don’t breathe it in or get near enough to touch this powder. We have to quarantine this room so that the other rooms are not contaminated,” she shouted, moving away from the box and shaking off the little bit of white powder that had landed on her sleeve.
There was a first aid kit by the door which the old lady opened and pulled out 3 masks for them to put on.
“This will have to do for now,” she said.
After checking that everyone had put on their masks, she used a phone in the room to place an emergency call to the police.
“Hello, there was a mysterious white powder that exploded out of a package that was delivered to club Winter Night. I think it might be anthrax. Could you please get the ambulance and hazmat here to test it?” she asked hurriedly.
“How many people are there?” asked the police phone operator.
“Three people,” she replied.
“How many rooms have been infected? Were you able to quarantine it?”
“Only the mailroom on the first floor. Yes, we closed the door as fast as we could.”
“Okay, sit tight and stay as far away from the box as you can. The emergency crew will be able to treat you if needed when the hazmat team gets there. They will be able to test and see whether or not it’s anthrax when they arrive.”
“What’s going on?” asked the stunned Yuuto as he backed away from the desk and bumped into the wall behind him.
“Someone may have sent anthrax in that package. All we can do for now is to wait for the police first responders and the hazmat team to come to decontaminate the area and test the white powder,” said the old lady with a muffled voice due to the mask covering her mouth.
Before long they could hear the loud sirens blaring from the streets and lots of commotion coming from the hallways as the hazmat team secured the area and set up a proper quarantine on the other side of the door to the mailroom.
They made sure to first spray down the entire hallway in order to decontaminate it just in case anything had leaked out from the mailroom.
When everything was secured and a containment bubble was attached to the door, there were a few loud knocks on the door.
“This is the hazmat team. We’re entering the room, stepping away from the door. We will be able to help get you out of the room soon enough,” came a muffled male voice from the other side of the door.
The three slid down the wall away from the door but still keeping their distance from the box and the white powder.
The door opened and a large circular tube was pushed forward a short way and then inflated to cover the whole door frame on the mailroom side, creating a double bubble where one side could open while the other stayed closed.
The zipper on the bubble was unzipped and four people in hazmat suits walked into the room.
“Where is the contaminate?” asked the same male voice they had heard from behind the door.
The old lady pointed to the desk where the white powder could be seen all over the table and the ground.
“You go check and see if they were contaminated if it’s nothing serious put them through the chemical showers,” the man ordered one of the hazmat suits as he pointed towards Yuuto.
The hazmat suit separated from the others and walked over to them. A female voice came out of it.
“Show me your arms and any other exposed skin,” the female in the hazmat suit demanded.
When they presented their arms, she used a wand sniffer to inspect each of them to see if she could find any traces of a toxin on their bodies.
“Are any of you experiencing any nausea or stomach pain?” she asked.
“No,” all three of them replied.
“Good, enter into this bubble. Wait for the air inside to change and be cleared. You will be told when to unzip the other side and exit. You will be led to the decontamination showers when you exit the bubble,” she the female hazmat suit as she led them to the bubble at the door.
Yuuto, Niko, and the old lady stepped into the small half bubble. The hazmat female zipped it shut and the air was quickly sucked out and replaced with fresh decontaminated steamy air for only taking a minute or so to complete the process.
The other side of the bubble zipper opened up to reveal more hazmat people staring at them in a hallway that was covered with a large inflated plastic tube leading outside of the building.
They were led down the hallway and outside where the tube opened up into a large tent that was split in two and had another tube connected to it on the opposite side.
“Here take this bag. Each of you are to go through that tube one at a time into the shower room, put your clothes you are wearing into this bag, seal it and then use the decontamination soap and wash off thoroughly multiple times. There will be another bag containing a towel and clothes for you to wear after you wash off, only open it when you have finished the decontamination wash. When you’re done use the second bubble to enter the uncontaminated side of the tent,” said a voice from inside the hazmat suit as the person handed each of them a bag.
“Ladies first,” said Yuuto, being the gentleman and offering to let Niko go first.
“You probably have some perverted reason for wanting me to go first,” Niko commented as she walked into the tube and disappeared.
“How rude, I was trying to be nice,” Yuuto shouted after her.
“Ah, it’s so nice to be young and in love,” said the old man’s wife staring at Yuuto and then looking at the tube where Niko had disappeared.
That comment quieted Yuuto up from embarrassment.
Not too long after she entered, Niko came back out on the other side with her hair wet and wearing uncomfortable clothes that looked stiff.
The old lady went inside after her and took a longer time to get decontaminated then Niko had.
When Yuuto was able to go to the shower, he quickly took his clothes off and put them into the biohazard bag and sealed it.
He then rinsed down with the hose that was being used as a showerhead and washed multiple times with the special soap that was placed next to the hose. After a final rinse, he turned off the hose and opened the bag with the towel. He dried off as good as he could and put on the itchy stiff clothes.
When he returned to the others, they were led to a new room that had been quarantined.
The room had two cots set out for them, Niko and Yuuto sat down on one and let the old man’s wife have the other one.
“You’ll have to stay here until the results come back from the lab whether it was really anthrax or not,” said hazmat person number 420.
“Shouldn’t you have test kits already able to test it here?” asked Yuuto.
“They tested it two times already but the test came back inconclusive. So they sealed the box and sent it to the lab where they can do a more thorough inspection of it. It shouldn’t take too long,” said hazmat 420.
They spent the rest of the morning in the room talking to each other and getting to know one another better.
Around lunchtime, hazmat number Ru34 walked into the room and handed each of them a container that had been decontaminated.
It was lunch and when Yuuto opened his, steam along with a strong fragrant smell rose out of the box. The smell made his stomach growl as he stared hungrily at the hearty stew with rice as a side dish.
“What are you a caveman?” Niko asked Yuuto.
“My, My, you two sure make a good couple,” complimented the old man’s wife.
“It’s not like I want to be complimented on something like that, but thanks I guess?” said Niko in a quiet voice that could barely be heard.
This caused the old lady to laugh in delight.
After eating all the food, the old lady stood and said, “Well I’m going to take a nap and let you two talk among yourselves.”
Niko who was sitting next to him didn’t say anything for over an hour. Yuuto who was staring at the ceiling felt something fall onto his shoulder.
He looked down and saw it that Niko had fallen asleep sitting up and was now resting her head on his shoulder.
She startled him, even more, when she squirmed a bit trying to get more comfortable and ended up snuggled up next to him with her arm around his waist. He could feel her breath tickle his neck every time she exhaled. Her vice-like grip held him still not allowing him to escape this torture.
Yuuto was far too nervous with Niko clamped onto him to even think of falling asleep.
She slept until it was almost time for dinner where she let out a yelp of surprise and punched Yuuto for not stopping her from doing something so embarrassing.
Hazmat number 69 walked into the room a short time later.
“Good news the lab results are in, the white powder was not anthrax. But it seems there was another package that was delivered to another club where there was actually a positive test for anthrax and sadly two people died due to a large quantity of it being inhaled,” said number 69.
The three of them were let out of the room where the hallway was being put back to normal.
“I’ll go explain everything to my husband, the both of you can have the night off. Take the time off to rest up from this ordeal,” said the old lady with a sly smile on her face.
As she walked past Yuuto, she quietly whispered, “Go get her tiger.”
Yuuto didn’t know what to say to her so he just kept quiet.
“So Yuuto would you like to join me and my siblings for dinner?” asked Niko.
“Yes, I would love to,” he said hurriedly, almost biting his tongue, which caused Niko to giggle.
Yuuto spent an entertaining night eating and talking to Eri, Tabito, and Niko. After they ate, they watched a few comedy shows until it was time for the young siblings to go to bed.
When Niko came back from making sure the two had settled down into their beds Yuuto stood up.
“I should get going also,” said Yuuto.
“Trying to run away?” asked Niko.
“Thank you for dinner and entertainment. It was very pleasant,” replied Yuuto, ignoring her question.
Niko escorted him to the door. He stopped at the door to say his final goodbye for the night and saw that she was staring at him intently as if expecting something from him.
Yuuto couldn’t figure out what it was no matter how long he stalled leaving by thinking it over.
Niko jumped forward and pulled his face down to hers giving him a nice big kiss on the lips.
In his surprise, he kissed her back and after several seconds their lips separated from each other.
“You’re hopeless without me,” she said.
“I guess this means we’re officially dating?” asked Yuuto.
“Good night,” said Niko with a smile and slammed the door in his face.
