Sima Xiao’er acted swiftly, gathering his teammates on the third floor. As night fell, the five of them stealthily avoided the duty nurses and gathered in the hallway leading from the third floor to the fourth.
"Listen carefully," Sima Xiao’er whispered to his companions, "We’d better not alert the medical staff, but if we are discovered, we must control them immediately. And don’t believe anything the other patients say. Our daily medication and food contain hallucinogens, and they are using special items to interfere with us. If you believe them, you might end up trapped here forever!"
The faith of the Special Defense Department members who accompanied him was hanging by a thread, especially after hearing that the Tall Black One had escaped and run to The First Research Institute, only to find that the institute didn’t even exist, and that Ting City was nothing but a name in a game. Who could endure such a revelation?
Therefore, they were now following whatever Sima Xiao’er said, for they were partners before their memories became muddled.
Apart from those known to each other in the Special Defense Department, Xu Huo also brought along several people he had encountered in the abandoned building. He took everyone who was willing to go with them, the others didn’t matter.
"Are these patients for real?" Sima Xiao’er couldn’t help but ask Xu Huo. "If they’re just trapped here, won’t they go completely insane if they don’t get out?"
Xu Huo was checking each room one by one. At his question, he glanced at the tiles underfoot. They were now on the fifth floor, where every patient in the ward was tied to their bed, wrapped in cloth, and gagged. If their eyes weren’t open, they would look no different from corpses, though some didn’t even blink.
"Who are we even looking for?" Xiao Yang blurted out, shivering. "These people send chills down my spine. They really won’t come..."
"Shut your mouth!" Sima Xiao’er snapped, interrupting him. "Just pretend they don’t exist and that will be that!"
Biting his lip, Xiao Yang turned to Xu Huo instead of talking about the patients, "Can you really lead us out of here?"
"If you don’t want to follow, you can leave," Xu Huo said without mincing words as he quickened his room checks, for the walls on the fifth floor began to hatch, with the wall surface peeling away – this place of mental contamination was rapidly deteriorating.
A shrill and piercing alarm sounded, "Woo—woo—woo—," and the red warning lights on each floor flashed. Nurses ran towards the stairs, screaming, "The patients have all got out, come and catch them..."
The faces of Sima Xiao’er and his group changed, their first reaction to block the person, but before they could act, a human head was flung down the stairwell, "bang," smacking into the wall and rolling into the hallway, oozing thick blood – it was the head of that nurse!
Then, a foot wrapped in bandages stepped onto the fifth floor, and two meters off the ground, a hand reached out to grab the edge of the wall.
"Run!" Xu Huo barked sharply, and the twenty or so people sprinted ahead. Sima Xiao’er glanced back as they ran, only to see the bandaged creature clinging to the wall in pursuit, crying out in terror, "Fuck, that thing has four legs!"
Before the bandaged monster revealed its full form, judging by the placement of its feet and hands, it appeared to be at least three meters tall. But once it climbed onto the wall, they realized it wasn’t that tall; rather, it had two extra legs and hands attached to its body. Thus, it "stood" in the hallway in such a posture. Now, like a spider, the creature was scuttling along the wall, its speed surpassing that of a running person!
"I told you the hospital was conducting human experiments, it’s one of their created monsters!" The Tall Black One pounded his head, running like a madman, but didn’t get far before shouting, "There’s no way forward!"
On both sides of the hallway were corridors, and at the end of each corridor was a dead end. The only option was to hide in the patient rooms, but as the bandaged monster appeared, the people in the rooms began to awaken one after another. Some even stepped out of their rooms and lunged at them like zombies!
The last member of the Special Defense Department was bitten and poisoned, and the toxin dispersed from the wound, transforming his body into a blackish-grey color in the blink of an eye as his limbs twisted and turned.
"Who the fuck imagined up these zombies!" Given the urgency of time and fear that the more he spoke, the less clear the Special Defense Department’s people would think, Sima Xiao’er didn’t fully convey what Xu Huo had told him. Instead, he fabricated a lie about the hallucinogen and a special item. But witnessing his teammate turning into a zombie, he hurried after Xu Huo, "Did Xiao Gao really turn into a zombie? Is he dead?"
Having checked all rooms on the fifth floor, Xu Huo didn’t waste any more time and didn’t answer his question, instead he said, "Up to the sixth floor."
"There are no stairs... there are stairs now!" Sima Xiao’er saw the staircase that suddenly appeared at the end of the corridor and hurriedly called for his teammates to follow.
However, after he went up, the zombie-transformed Xiao Gao, a few patients from the fifth floor, and the bandage monster all followed them up, particularly the bandage monster, which leapt over several people and landed on the staircase.
Looking back, Xu Huo saw the walls on both sides of the staircase automatically close in, squeezing the bandage monster in the middle!
"Xiao Gao!" Sima Xiao’er shouted, as the walls closed in, trapping all the zombie-looking people behind the bandage monster.
"Hurry up!" Xiao Yang shoved him, "The staircase is disappearing!"
The bandage monster was embedded in the wall only momentarily, the enclosing walls didn’t stop but continued to move up from the end of the staircase, chasing after them and leaving them no choice but to reach the sixth floor if they wanted to avoid being sealed in the walls like the monster.
In a race against time, the group didn’t have the luxury to think further; instinct drove them as they rushed to the sixth floor and promptly took defensive positions, ready for any potential dangers.
Unexpectedly, the sixth floor was bathed in sunshine and colors, filled with laughter and cheerful voices.
"I must be dreaming." Sima Xiao’er said.
In the beautifully decorated place radiating harmony between the patients and medical staff, Xu Huo found Yan Jiayu. From afar, he called out, "Let’s go!"
Yan Jiayu was idly swinging her legs while sitting on the flower bed, looking very bored, but she instantly jumped up and ran towards him with a full smile upon seeing Xu Huo.
"You all are patients from downstairs, how did you run up here?" A nurse noticed them and immediately called for the security guards to apprehend them.
"I can’t beat the monsters, but just a few security guards..." Sima Xiao’er was organizing people to go get Yan Jiayu but didn’t finish his sentence, as he saw a monster crawling out from around the corner. Swallowing the rest of his words, he looked at Xu Huo with a plea for help, "Brother Xu! Come up with a solution quick!"
Xu Huo quickly turned towards the nearest door and pushed it open, but behind it lay a field of crimson, and as he opened the door, something squirmed in the blood clumps.
Without hesitation, he shut the door, and as he turned around, a bandage monster lunged at him; dodging it, Yan Jiayu leaped from the side and with a table top sent the creature flying!