Chapter 269: Hospital (3)
The basement level (B1) was pitch black, with every light turned off.
Standing inside the dark elevator car and looking out through the open doors, only scattered points of red light were visible. They came from the elevator indicator lights on the outer wall, reflected off the floor and wall tiles.
The crimson glow resembled some kind of warning—or the eyes of a monster lurking in the night with its eyes open—instinctively provoking unease and resistance.
Everly, however, didn’t have much of a reaction.
Even now, all the warning and defensive items she carried remained silent, and her sixth sense for danger had not been triggered. If one or two items malfunctioned, that would be one thing, but surely all of them couldn’t have broken at the same time?
Because of that, Everly genuinely suspected she had simply been unlucky enough to encounter a faulty elevator.
There was only a single floor between B1 and the first floor, so taking the stairs was entirely possible. However, according to the floor plan Everly had photographed, the basement level of the inpatient building housed the morgue. The elevator lobby was located in the center of the building, while the stairwells were situated at opposite ends. Whether she chose the left or right staircase, she would have to cross half the floor to reach it.
If possible, Everly really didn’t want to pass by a morgue at night. Even if there were no ghosts, the atmosphere alone was frightening enough. It wasn’t as though she was incapable of feeling fear, so why make herself suffer unnecessarily?
She glanced at the elevator in front of her.
Modern elevators are equipped with multiple anti-fall safety systems, including traction cables, speed governors, and pit buffers. Under normal circumstances, they don’t plunge into free fall the way they do on television. Besides, she only needed to go to the first floor. Even if it somehow did drop, it would only fall one level at most, which wasn’t a huge problem.
After a brief moment of consideration, Everly took out her phone and turned on the flashlight. She first pressed the button for the first floor, then the door-close button.
The elevator really did seem to be broken. Neither button lit up when pressed, and the elevator remained suspended in place with its doors wide open, completely unresponsive.
‘Should I try the emergency call button?’
Everly looked up at the elevator’s surveillance camera, its indicator light still on, then lowered her finger and tried to contact security personnel.
However, for some reason, whatever was wrong with the elevator seemed to affect even its backup systems. The emergency call button, which was supposed to serve as a last resort, was as unresponsive as everything else.
Left with no other choice, Everly stepped out of the elevator and prepared to make her way upstairs via the stairwell.
Click.
The soles of her boots touched the floor. As her deliberately amplified footsteps echoed through the space, the motion-sensor lights in the elevator lobby flickered on in response. Their light was as deathly pale as ever, bringing to mind stagnant pond water and carrying a cold, lifeless atmosphere.
The inpatient building was roughly V-shaped, though with a relatively wide angle. The elevator lobby sat at the point where the two wings met. On the basement level, the two wings housed separate morgue sections—one for ordinary remains, the other for victims of infectious diseases.
Standing in the elevator lobby and looking left or right, she could see a long corridor stretching into the distance on either side.
The corridor to the right was completely dark. Aside from the illuminated emergency-exit signs spaced along the walls, everything else seemed submerged in thick black ink. Visibility was nearly nonexistent, and the longer one stared into the darkness, the easier it became to imagine some indescribable presence lurking within it.
As for the corridor on the left, the middle section was equally dark, but a single dim yellow light glowed at the far end.
The light resembled a lighthouse in the middle of a vast ocean, steadily radiating warmth and drawing lost travelers toward it.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
She called out toward the lit corridor.
Her voice echoed faintly through the long hallway. By the time the lingering reverberations faded into the darkness, Everly still hadn’t received the response she was hoping for.
Well, it seemed there was probably no one on the basement level.
The sense of isolation and the inability to seek help stirred up some unpleasant memories for Everly. She took out her phone and glanced at the upper-right corner of the screen.
No one knew whether to admire her foresight or lament her terrible luck. At some point without her noticing, her phone had completely lost its signal.
Great. Another round of that damned “island mode”…
Without any communication capability, her phone was reduced to little more than a light source. The annoying part was that, after spending so long waiting with Misha in the radiology department, the battery was already running low. Even using it as a flashlight wouldn’t last much longer.
Everly switched off the phone and slipped it back into her pocket. She first walked over to a light switch on the wall and pressed it a few times. Just like the elevator, nothing happened. The lights on either side remained dark and unresponsive.
Fortunately, Everly had a habit of carrying a small flashlight with her. And not long ago, she had upgraded it to a newer model.
Reaching into the pocket of her trench coat, she pulled out a slim black flashlight about the length of her palm and clicked it on.
Whoosh!
A brilliant white beam shot from the tiny flashlight head like a laser cannon. The intensely penetrating light tore through the darkness of the corridor, illuminating the safety door at the far end in an instant.
The beam was astonishingly bright. Wherever it passed, everything hidden in the darkness became crystal clear. The corridor, which had seemed so dangerous and terrifying moments earlier, instantly lost its mystery beneath the powerful light, becoming as ordinary and unremarkable as a hallway bathed in daylight.
[What’s going on? Where did that flashlight come from?!]
[My eyes! It’s so bright! Can someone adjust the camera angle? The beam is shining straight into the lens—I feel like I’m going blind!]
[What do you know? The camera can’t just move around! If light reflects into someone’s eyes, it’s easy to get discovered!]
In a livestream hidden from public view, the number of comments exploded in an instant.
Everly, meanwhile, remained completely unaware of what was happening.
She glanced at the brilliantly illuminated corridor before her and thought to herself that the inexpensive gadgets from Yiwu really were reliable. Thank goodness for Yamaxon. This high-powered flashlight was exactly as advertised—portable and incredibly bright!
Using the flashlight to light her way, Everly decisively turned around and headed into the corridor on her right.
There wasn’t any particular reason for choosing that direction. She simply didn’t want to go toward the lit area.
Something about a brightly lit section suddenly appearing in a place like this felt strange, almost like a trap.
Besides, both corridors ended at stairwells, and both sides were lined with morgue rooms. It didn’t seem like there was much difference.
In the surveillance room, a man who had been staring intently at the security monitors frowned.
“What’s going on? Why is she going right? Wasn’t the light on in the left corridor?”
“It was,” replied a man with a lip piercing beside him.
“Then why is she heading right? If you’re standing in complete darkness and suddenly see a light, shouldn’t your first instinct be to walk toward it?”
The man grumbled irritably. Then he noticed the flashlight in the girl’s hand on the monitor, and his complaints suddenly lost their target.
“Forget it. No time to dwell on that. Is the emergency-exit door on the right corridor secured?”
The lip-pierced man answered, “Tom and Edron have already gone to take care of it.”
“At least you people have some brains.”
The man snorted and sat back down in front of the monitors. He picked up his phone and opened the livestream chat.
The good news was that, for the moment, none of the viewers had realized the girl had made a choice that wasn’t part of the plan.
The bad news was that the audience was complaining that the broadcast was boring.
[What’s wrong with this woman? A normal person should’ve been scared the moment the elevator lights went out. Why doesn’t she have any reaction at all?]
[Come on, Dr. J. Don’t tell me this is all you’ve got.]
[Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring…]
The man—or rather, Dr. J—felt a vein twitch at his temple. His mood instantly worsened.
“There are too few scare moments. Can’t you add a few more?”
“But all our people are in the left corridor. We didn’t station anyone on the right…”
“Tch. Useless!”
The man cursed under his breath and could only remain seated, enduring the livestream’s mocking comments. Beneath his thick eyebrows, his venomous gaze locked onto the young girl walking alone down the corridor. If looks could kill, she might already have been torn to pieces.
Everly, the target of that murderous stare, remained completely unaware.
Holding the high-powered flashlight, she softened her footsteps and moved silently through the right corridor. As she walked, she kept her ears pricked for every sound around her, while her eyes swept rapidly over the surroundings, refusing to miss a single corner.
The corridor was underground. One side was a solid wall, the other lined with morgue rooms. Perhaps to protect the privacy of the deceased and prevent people from peering inside, the rooms had doors but no windows. That meant anyone walking through only needed to watch the path ahead, without the distraction of checking dark windows.
As far as Everly could tell, the corridor was very clean. Aside from carts, IV stands, and other miscellaneous equipment placed against the walls, she saw nothing suspicious.
After walking for about three minutes, she arrived at a closed metal door.
A safety-exit sign was posted on it, and beyond it lay the staircase leading to the first floor.
Doors like this are not supposed to be locked. There was no keyhole, and normally they could be opened with a simple push or pull. But when Everly reached out and tugged on it, the metal door refused to budge, as if it had been glued shut.
‘What is this? Did the hinges rust shut?’
Everly clenched the flashlight between her teeth, freed her other hand, and gripped the handle with both hands before pulling hard—
The tightly shut door opened a crack for a brief moment, then, under a stronger force from the other side, slammed shut with a loud bang.
A question mark popped up on Everly’s forehead.
Wait—what was going on? She clearly had pulled the door open just now, right? So why did it close again, as if… as if someone on the other side was pulling it shut in the opposite direction?
Everly refused to believe it. She grabbed the door handle and yanked hard again.
Bang!
The same scene repeated itself. The metal door was pulled open a crack inward, only to be slammed shut again with force.
“…”
What the hell? Was there someone outside the door?
Everly began banging on it—bang bang bang—while shouting for it to open. The thick iron door shook under her strikes. On the other side, two young men temporarily assigned to “hold the door shut” were drenched in sweat, gripping the handle tightly. Their hands were already trembling uncontrollably from the strain.
“What’s going on? Why is she so strong?!” one of them hissed through clenched teeth, squeezing out his complaint in barely audible breaths.
“How the hell should I know!” the other replied, veins bulging on his forehead as he kept his voice deliberately low.
While speaking, his eyes never left the watch on his wrist. From earlier on, the screen had been quietly streaming the live broadcast in mute mode.
They had originally assumed the girl on the other side would give up after a couple of attempts and find another way. Unexpectedly, in the livestream footage, the seemingly soft and delicate girl chose to go all in.
In the blinding glare of the flashlight seen on the surveillance feed, she shifted her stance, grabbed the long vertical door handle with both hands, and planted her feet against the outer wall and the other half of the metal door. Using her legs as leverage, she prepared to launch another assault on the door.
“Damn it, she’s coming again—hold it!”
Because the livestream had a slight delay, the man only had time to issue a low warning to his partner before he immediately mimicked the girl’s posture. He pushed his feet against the wall and door, leaned his body back, straightened his arms, and ended up hanging in a grotesquely strained position on the iron door.
“No way… do you really need to go that far?”
The other man looked at his partner’s actions, shock flickering across his face.
But very quickly, he understood why the man was acting like that.
Barely having relaxed for a moment, a surge of tremendous force suddenly came from the other side of the door.
This force was far greater and more violent than the previous two attempts. The entire door began to emit faint creaking sounds—creak, creak—making one instinctively doubt what was on the other side. It almost felt as if the person pulling the door was not the pitiful, delicate girl seen on the livestream, but some kind of ferocious, rampaging beast…
“Ugh… ughhh…”
The man let out a muffled groan through his nose. In order to keep the door from opening and disrupting the livestream, he had no choice but to imitate his partner—planting his feet against the outer wall for support, leaning his neck back, and using all his strength to hang himself against the door.