Beastars: A Symphony of Life

Chapter 112: Kidnapped

"Do you have those samples of creeping dogwood?" Isoko asked.

"They should be in the bin," Taki said, looking up from her work.

The anteater shifted carefully in the bin of plant clippings, not finding the vegetation she wanted.

"Nope," she said, turning to the brown rabbit. "Not there."

"Well then I don't know," Taki shrugged, hunching back over her work and focusing the microscope.

The anteater groaned and turned back to the task she was originally doing, shutting off the spectrophotometer and looking over her notes. Luckily there wasn't a time restraint on anything she was doing, so she could pause and come back when she had what she needed.

"I'll grab them on my way back from break," Haru offered.

"You sure?" Isoko asked. "I can get them now."

"Don't you have a culture of algae you need to do something with?" Taki asked, not looking up from her slides.

Isoko sighed, casting a glance at the seated rabbit who was unphased by anything outside her task. She had developed her acclaimed tunnel vision and pinpoint laser focus.

"Seriously," Haru said. "It's fine."

"Ok," the anteater said, flicking her eyebrows up for a split second. "Sorry."

"It's fine," the white rabbit reassured. "I'll grab them on my way back."

Haru turned and left her coworkers in that lab and left down the halls towards the break room. The halls and rooms were dark. Everyone had flashlights or headlamps in order to move through the labs. The greenhouse was probably the only facility that didn't have any power back whatsoever, and still running at full efficiency. Most of the tools used in the labs could be used with batteries or be plugged in to charger packs that were recharged every night via generator. The greenhouse section of course, ran with the sunlight and was open to the public, despite the happenings of the outside world.

Haru made her way to the break room to clock out before heading to a meeting she had made with her husband. They had decided to meet up at the greenhouse and spend her break hour together. She slipped into the break room and punched out, noting the few beams of light that were swiveling around in the room, and the few that looked at her as she performed her task. She looked at her watch and noted the time, doing the math she needed in order to figure the time she had to be back. She then pulled out her phone on the way to the greenhouse.

On my way, he texted her. See you in a bit.

And that was fifteen minutes ago; the walk being a fifteen minute trip from his job. He'd meet her there. She turned off her headlamp and pocketed it, squinting her eyes in the sunlight as she stepped into the main greenhouse area. The glass walls and ceiling allowed the sunlight to stream in and warm up the building, even with the chilled autumn air accumulating outside. The various vegetation was scattered with the few people visiting the greenhouse. Not many and it was easy to get lost, hidden by the walls of green.

She was making her way to the exit to meet Legoshi outside when she found her path blocked by a janitor's cleaning supplies. And it wasn't just a caution sign, it was a full setup to keep people out. She'd have to go around a planting bed, but it wasn't that much of an issue. She turned and was caught off guard to find someone in her path.

"I think these are perhaps my favorite flowers," he said, picking some from a bunch in a planter. He pulled down his mask to hold them to his nose, inhaling deeply and closing his eyes to lose himself in the smell.

"Sir you can't pick the flower," Haru said.

"Not the scent," he continued, ignoring her to pull the mask up and look at her. "I can't smell very well. I just like the blood red color and the difference in its appearance from the usual flower look."