As Eric said, as time goes on, the more comfortable I grow even within such a suspicious and shady environment.
I grew closer with Eric and Sarah, I've never had teenage friends before, I've never had casual conversations with people my generation before either, so it was a year full of laughs, I enjoyed it very much.
There is a disadvantage of this job that I soon came to realise though. With more failed operation, more patients that I'm forced to leave to death, my compassionate perception of life had dulled.
Perhaps we're too young, but me, Eric and Sarah all only care about the pay, not about saving people's lives. If we failed, we still get paid, and it's mainly the surgeon's fault anyways, who never speaks a word, nor display a change in demeanor.
Considering how much Mr. Anthony did to brighten my life and lift me up, I'm sure he'll be happy to know I now have a stable jobs and friends.
The cyber cafe was forced to close after his passing, but with my outrageous pay I've been steadily saving up, hopefully one day I'll reopen it to honour Mr. Anthony, to continue on his legacy.
"You three are moved to the secondary division, this is the location." Our manager said and sent something on his phone.
I don't have a phone, I want to save up as much money as possible for both daily needs and the savings for the cyber cafe.
"Here." Manager circled something on a map of the city and handed it to me.
"That's far!" Eric exclaimed.
"Is there any difference with the work there?" Sarah asks.
"Well, you'll still be dealing with unconscious patients, but you'll face more electronics and stuff, it's where patients here that's successfully saved is sent to."
"It's like an hour drive from here manager, the patients we save go all the way there?" Eric asks.
"Yes."
Well things just gets shadier and shadier. But it doesn't matter, I've been here almost 14 months now, nothing has happened except I'm getting paid, just as Eric described early on.
"Gotchu boss!"
"Noted."
"Okay."
We moved to a place, that looks literally identical, I can't see any differences at all except the surroundings.
"Surgeon's working already, get up there." Manager orders and we followed.
I've seen enough gruesome scenes working in an operating theater, but I still got startled by the scene of an exposed brain when I walked in.
"Ugh." I exclaimed.
"What? It's just- oh god..." Eric noticed as well.
"Do you speak Mr. Surgeon?" Sarah asks, and the surgeon waved his hand in response.
"That means no, I'll have to translate again, sighs."
The patient's brain was exposed on the right side of the head, and the surgeon seem to implanting electronics of some sorts into it.
"Any instructions?"
Surgeon waves his hand.
"That means 'no' right Sarah? I'm learning." Eric says with a wry smirk.
"Yeah, so smart Eric." Sarah praises sarcastically.
Following Sarah's translations of the surgeon's instructions, we handed a few equipments and a few tools while he does all the work, as usual.
After the implants are done, instead of stitching up the opening on the head as one would expect, the surgeon pulled out an earpiece.
A very complex earpiece, the earpiece had a metal plate attached to it, like an extension which the surgeon uses to cover the opening of the patient's head.
gestures
"Screwdriver." Sarah translates.
"Huh?!"
"It's behind you Eric."
"Oh alright, but wait, a screwdriver?"
"Pretty sure I didn't misunderstand him, a screwdriver right Mr. Surgeon?"
Surgeon nods.
"Yeah."
"Alright." Eric reluctantly hands the screwdriver to the surgeon.
Surgeon uses the screwdriver and punched screws into the man's skull, fixing the extended metal plate of the earpiece on the head where the original opening was, that's their way of sealing the opening instead of stitching I guess?
Surgeon also made sure the earpiece was fixed on the patient's right ear, that once it's screwed in it cannot be removed.
"Eerie."
"Eerie indeed."
"Eerie...eerie." All three of us commented.
gestures
"Oh! That means he's done isn't he Sarah?"
"Yes, what an intellectual you are Eric." She praises sarcastically again while Eric laughs wryly.
The body was then sent out of the operating theater, and the manager entered.
"Here comes the very productive 4 hours sitting in a corner."
Manager sits in a corner idling on his phone.
"There it is." Eric says with a proud smile.
"Where's he going?" Eric asks when the surgeon suddenly takes his leave out the operating theater.
"To piss."
At the same time, it's 5pm, the usual time where manager would leave. He does, but he made a mistake on his way out, he accidentally dropped his phone on his chair when he was trying to place it back in his back pocket.
He left without noticing, and now we three are left there with our curiosity piqued.
"How much you betting he just plays Candy Crush all that time sitting there?"
"None, not even my mom plays that anymore."
"Jasper you wanna check it out?" Eric turns to me and asks.
"Um...uh we don't know the password."
"Bro, I've observed him long enough to know it's an 'L', you know those kind of password where you drag your fingers on the phone and connect the dots."
"He doesn't have a phone."
"Right right, whatever, I know the password is what I'm saying."
"We might get fired." I said anxiously.
"No no, the contract scammed us into working forever here, that also means, we're working here forever, they ain't getting rid of us."
"Indeed, I do want to know what's in manager's phone, I'm in, it won't be Candy Crush I guarantee it's Tetris." Sarah says.
"Well let's go then."
"Wait!" I tried to stop them as I've got a bad feeling about it.
But they both already lunged forward towards the phone. Nothing beats the adolescent curiosity I guess.
"I knew it!!" Eric exclaimed loudly when he successfully unlocked the phone.
"I don't see Candy Crush in here."
"Neither is Tetris in here alright?"
"Who plays Tetris on the app? Check his browser history."
"Guys..." I stood behind observing them anxiously, in the end I decided to just sit down and wait for them to complete their exploration and return.
"What the fuck is this in his text messages?"
"Wait move over, I wanna see too."
I don't know what they saw, but whatever it is, it got them really excited.
"YO DIDN'T WE SAVE THAT GUY BEFORE?!"
"I remember him too, where is he?"
"I don't know, some village with a random massive white semi circle in the middle. Wait, turn up the volume this video has commentary."
"That's a hemisphere."
After the volume's turned up, I distinctly heard a female announcer's voice saying,
"This month's Afterlife Tournament is about to start! As you can see, all alliances are preparing themselves for the battles ahead..."
"AFTERLIFE?!!!" Eric exclaims incredibly loudly.
I was screaming that loudly internally too, what is that about? Afterlife Tournament?
"What's happening?" I stood up and asked.
"I don't know, but I think we've gone too far Eric." Sarah says with a worried face.
"Just a while longer!"
The entrance door opened up, manager raised a pistol directly at them both.
Bang