Dark bags formed under my eyes. I hadn't sleep much— just a few hours, maybe less. Knowing this, I grabbed an energy bar, hoping it would keep me awake. As I ate, I scanned the bunker.
When I scanned the bunker, I saw people exchanging glares. They grew wary of one another. Their alliance was falling apart from the looks of it, and their trust was growing thin.
As I finished up eating my bar, I turned to Ael. "Hey, Ael—"
Before I could finish my sentence, a scream erupted from the bathroom. A girl came running out. "Someone—t-there's someone dead in there!"
People turned towards her while Marcus came rushing to hug the girl, trying to console her. "Calm down. What happened?"
The girl sobbed in his arms. In between sobs, she said, "Man—dead—last stall." She wiped away her tears as much as she could.
He rubbed her back to tell her everything was going to be okay. Clearly, she was shocked by the sight of it all.
"Settle down." A voice from the back spoke.
It was the officer getting out of his desk for the second time.
"Let me check it out."
The officer took his time checking the body. During that time, you could see some starting to keep their distance from each other. No one wanted to accuse someone outright. No one had proof, and to accuse someone without any evidence was a disgrace to their family name. So we all stood in silence.
After a few minutes of waiting, I could hear footsteps coming from the bathroom. The officer was coming out.
In a tired tone, seeing as he just woke up, he said, "Looks like a man was stabbed in the heart—and a finger was missing."
He scanned the audience that formed in front of the doorway.
"The killer might have kept the finger somewhere as a trophy. I will be conducting a search of each person's personal area."
As he finished talking, he made his way off to A-1, the head of row A. It looked like the person who was killed was from A-1—the top bunkmate, A-6.
If I recall correctly, his name was Liam.
The officer scavenged through the bedsheets, storage bin, and pillowcases but found nothing. He did this for every bed, going one by one until he finally reached my bed.
My body tensed up. And for a good reason, too. Yesterday, when putting away my energy bars, there was a finger in the storage box. Alongside it, there was the murder weapon. The issue was that I didn't kill Liam. I couldn't even kill the man outside when my life depended on it. Yet, my body tensed up, thinking I hadn't gotten rid of it properly.
When I found it the other day, I quickly went to the bathroom and saw Liam's body in the last stall. Careful not to touch his body, I put the knife that killed the man and the finger in the toilet to flush it down. Even after getting rid of it, I couldn't help but think that I might have missed a bloodstain.
I used alcohol wipes from the first aid kit had to make sure no blood was left behind that would link me to the murder. I don't know exactly why this murder happened, but they seemed to want to frame me.
Was it because I was the only low-noble here? Did they want to get rid of me?
No, if they wanted to get rid of me, they could do so with little care. They could just walk towards me and kill me off if they wished. I had no big family name protecting me, meaning no war would start between families. No, they wanted something else, but what?
As he scavenged through it, his expression didn't change. My heart raced faster and faster than the moment before. Then, one word fell onto the room, making it all go away, "Clear." I couldn't help but feel relieved.
'I have to be more careful.' I thought. I looked around to see if there was any reaction from anyone to tell me who was behind this, but no one gave any hint of it.
As the officer went around clearing each person's storage bin, he stopped. It was the final bed. D-1.
At this point, there was no reason in searching, but he didn't know that. He still had to make sure to thoroughly search each person's area. It took about an hour. But as he was scavenging around in there, he seemed to have found something.
"Look here, a toe."
'A toe?' Confused, I tried to get a better look.
Thinking back to the man in the bathroom, I realize I never checked him. Everyone here was wearing shoes. If he were missing a toe, I wouldn't be able to see it.
'Was this a backup plan? Just in case things fell through?'
The man stood there in silence, with a single tear running down his face. He didn't try to defend himself; he knew no amount of words would prove him innocent.
The officer, without hesitation, took out his pistol and shot him in the head. He fell back on the small path between beds, and people fell into shock. Shocked not because he was killed, but by how quick and merciless it was.
"Just a quick warning to you all. If something like this happens again, I will not hesitate to kill you. I may have let you guys kill each other outside the bunker, but I still have a duty to the Empire. I made a promise to make sure to keep order, and that is what I will be doing." He finished up by putting his gun back in his holster and returning to his desk.
The room was silent. The only sound still in the room was the officer's shoes tapping on the floor as the officer walked. That and the ringing from the gunshot, and all I could think was 'That could have been me moments ago.'
As I stared at where the man fell, the ringing from the gun grew louder in my head.
***
After people got a handle on the situation, Row D scavenged the dead man's storage bin as if they were vultures.
As for me, it took a bit longer to compose myself. Ael could tell something was wrong with me. He saw me like this once, so he knew a part of what was going through my head, except for the fact that I had the man's finger.
'Fuck the finger!' I thought as I remembered why I was on edge. It was the reason for the whole search.
Scanning around, I could see people getting back to their usual routine. Distracted by the commotion, they all forgot about it.
I let out a sigh of relief. 'Thank the gods.'
I placed my hand on my chest, calming down. Today, the gods were watching over me. I was grateful—more than I could put into words.
I looked up once again, and my eyes fell on row D. It was falling apart. There was less trust in their alliance. They were now in the same boat as Row B and C were with their alliances—and I got the feeling that war was dawning on them. They were right on the edge.
Row A, on the other hand, seemed to be keeping to themselves. The bunkmate of the victim didn't seem to care much. He was feasting on the resources of the dead from the looks of it. Everyone else in row A was just trying to mind their own business.
"Eirian, how about we go take a shower? After a mess like this, something relaxing might be nice." It was Ael speaking as he was grabbing spare clothes from his storage bin. I think he was trying to comfort me.
"You go on ahead. I'll take one after."
After the mess that just happened, there was no way I was going to leave my storage bin.
"Fine by me."
I sat on my bed, thinking of all the endless possibilities this situation could lead to, but each possibility ended with me dying. I could not imagine one where I didn't die, and my heart began to throb.