Chapter 363: Centipede |
Inside the second-floor clinic, the curtains were drawn shut. Three silhouettes hid in the room, peering carefully through the gaps in the curtains to observe the outside.
"Dr. Wu, there's no movement outside, and the phones have no signal. Could we have, like in the news reports, been transported to another world?"
"No signal on the phones, and it's no good. What if, like in the novels, we actually traveled through? Dr. Wu, do you think we can go back?"
Wu Shanqi's mouth twitched into a stiff smile, "I don't know either..."
Through the bonfire blazing on the balcony of the building across the way, the outlines of multiple buildings shimmered in and out of view.
He couldn't guarantee anything else, but he was at least certain the building opposite definitely wasn't the maternal and child health center across the road.
Besides, the surrounding darkness was absolute; even a total solar eclipse wouldn't turn night this quickly.
A strange suspicion rose in his mind, fueled by recent news and things his superiors had said at meetings.
Could it be that the building they were in had been chosen, just like those missing buildings in the reports?!
No, no—my wife is about to give birth! If this continues, will my kid be born without a father?
The two patients beside him kept chattering noisily in his ear.
"Dr. Wu, I really feel like we traveled through."
"What should we do, can we still go back?"
"This is all your fault for seeing the doctor today. Now look, we can't go back, and the kid is still at school with no one to pick him up."
"You blame me? If it weren't for you—" "Quiet!!" A sudden unnamed fury surged up from Wu Shanqi's chest.
"You yelling at me?" The female patient froze. The male patient pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, "Dr. Wu, your attitude like this could lead to a complaint."
Wu Shanqi's face went deathly pale. Were these people sick or what?
Never mind, if they weren't sick they wouldn't be in a hospital.
"Ah!!!" A sharp shriek rang from downstairs.
Immediately after, panicked cries came from below.
Hurried footsteps stamped through the neighboring corridor.
Wu Shanqi's expression changed slightly. He flung open the clinic door.
In the hallway, the emergency lights along the ceiling flicked on in rows. Their weak, ghastly light cast warped patches of shadow along the narrow corridor.
The neighboring Safety Staircases door was shoved open. Two young nurses in pink uniforms dashed in, glancing around wildly.
"What happened?" Wu Shanqi asked urgently.
"There's a monster downstairs!"
"Run! It's coming up!"
"Help! Don't block the way!"
The safety door that had just been closed was pushed open again; several people rushed in and shut the door behind them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hard pounding came immediately after the door shut.
"Open the door!" a roar bellowed from outside.
The roar turned into screams.
Heavy objects crashed to the floor.
Wu Shanqi's face drained pale. He ran back into the room, grabbed his phone from the table, then opened a drawer and took out a flashlight.
The Safety Staircases were out of the question. They needed another route. He turned his head to the other side; though he didn't know exactly what was happening, staying on the lower floors was too dangerous. They had to head upward.
As he ran out of the clinic, the neighboring Safety Staircases door was suddenly shoved open by a blood-stained massive hand. A venomous curse came from beyond the door, "It's your fault you closed the door. We'll all die together."
The door was forced open, and a dark-red body poured through the gap.
In the dim emergency light at the stairwell entrance, Wu Shanqi could see clearly: it was bigger than an adult man's thigh!
Dark red armor plates and jet-black, scythe-like jointed limbs made his scalp crawl.
The hand that had pushed the door sagged limply; the safety door tried to swing shut automatically, but the creature's body jammed it. Its jointed limbs waved like dense, twitching fingers, and then, from the slit at the doorway, two slender antennae probed out.
Wu Shanqi's pupils shrank.
It was a scarlet-shelled giant, its countless legs on both sides churning madly, forcing it through the opening.
Once one had squeezed in, the centipede stuck in the doorway kept thrashing. In the eerie green glow of the stairwell emergency lights, there were uncountable black shapes.
Wu Shanqi held his breath. There was more than one of these things!?
Run!
That thought crowded his mind.
But his legs felt weak. He tried to run, yet he couldn't move.
He had been terrified since childhood of many-legged arthropods, centipedes and the like.
Seeing this mass of gigantic mutated insects that looked like they'd been on steroids, he nearly collapsed to his knees.
"Run!" The couple who had been in his ward grabbed his arm when they saw him zoning out.
Using their pull, Wu Shanqi stumbled several steps and nearly fell.
From behind came a rhythmic tapping, like countless fingers drumming on PVC flooring.
!
Slamming the Safety Staircases door behind them, Wu Shanqi switched on the flashlight. Its beam lit the stairs ahead, and the three of them went white.
Thick, viscous blood trickled down step by step from above.
Slowly sweeping the flashlight, he saw a half-arm dangling limply above the flight landing.
Creak, creak...
A chilling chewing sound cut across the blood-scented corridor with grim clarity.
The flashlight startled it.
The sound stopped abruptly.
Two thin antennae probed out.
At that moment a dark joke bubbled up unbidden in Wu Shanqi's head.
When you see two thin antennae in the south, guess what it is:
- Sun Wukong
- Lu Bu
- Cockroach
Now D should be chosen: maybe it's a four-meter centipede.
"Run!"
Wu Shanqi's face tightened. He couldn't go up; he had to find a way down.
They had only run two steps when, around the corner downstairs, a giant centipede came thundering up toward them.
The group was frozen with terror, trapped between a wolf in front and a tiger behind.
This is the end!
Strangely, however, the centipede that passed by them did not attack; it brushed past the group.
Before they could react to this bizarre sight, dense footfalls sounded from below.
A lithe, long figure vaulted over the railing with one hand planted, and a silver flash cut from his palm.
That centipede was cleaved in two.
Wu Shanqi's mouth dropped open in astonishment as he watched the scene. What was this?
What was that thing he held in his hand?
"Newcomers? Don't just stare, go downstairs and wait to see." Cao Biansheng gave the three of them a quick glance and waved his hand.
One man from the team behind Cao Biansheng detached and led Wu Shanqi and the others down to the first floor.
When they reached the main hall on the first floor, he found many people patrolling with torches, moving about in formations. They carried spears and shields.
The floor was littered with centipede bodies.
At a glance there were dozens.
Around the chairs in the center of the hall sat a team of a dozen or so people, including nurses in pink uniforms and doctors in white coats.
While Wu Shanqi looked around, a familiar yet strange voice rose from the crowd, "Old Wu?"