“Are you sure we should leave her alone like that?” Makoto asks in a worried voice.
“She is fine. I believe in her. Even though she may look scared like that, she can put up a tough fight when the situation needs it.” Yuuko assures her.
“But don’t you find it strange? It’s like she has become a complete different person just now. The Hinami we know is very brave. Such a mind attack like that should have not affected her that much.”
“Human is very complex creature. Even if the person is very strong mentally, with the right psychological attack, he can waver and become weaker than anyone. I don’t know what she saw but her “death” may have triggered something in her.” Lexar answers “However, now is not the time to ideally chit chat. We need to figure out a plan to how to deal with the problem in the hospital. We have wasted some time already.”
Yuuko puts her hand on Makoto’s shoulder, whose is about to say something “Don’t worry about it much. She is probably down for a while, but I bet that she will decide to fight together with us soon. She is not the type to just give up half way and abandon friends.”
“Un. Lexar, how is the situation?” Relieved, Makoto gets into working mode.
“This is a more serious than I initially thought. This is a hospital so normal evacuation procedure cannot be applied. What worse is that I cannot find any hospital staff. To add to that, there are many patients still sleeping despite the noise that we made, including those next door. Something must have happened to cause them sleep that much.” Lexar directs his gaze to the nurse, who has been covering herself in the corner of the room “I guess there is a need for some inquiry”
Perhaps understanding what the cat said, the nurse lifts her head to see everyone. However, such action shocks all the persons in the room.
With the face skin all dried up like a mummy, red eyes with veins popping up near the sockets, and the expression of madness, her horrible appearance makes everyone jump back a few step. The human fingers suddenly extend like spikes about 40 cm long, and with that she leaps toward Makoto in a second.
Makoto is caught in a surprise, but luckily, there is a person cover for her immediately.
An armor hand quickly catches the nurse’s neck in mid air, then slams her violently on the ground with a crashing sound. Lexar definitely heard a bone breaking sound with that attack.
Even so, the nurse only flinches a little and continues attacking by swinging the hands full of sharp spikes at Yuuko’s face.
“Grrru, gruuuu, graao” Her mouth gives out the screaming of a monster, rather than human.
Yuuko, while still holding the nurse’s neck, dodges her head sideway, then quickly lifts up the nurse and throws her toward a wall. Creating knives in an instant, she throws them toward the hands and the clothes of the nurse, pinching her on the wall.
“Thanks, you really saved me there, Yuuko.” Makoto gives her thank.
“No need to mention it. More importantly, what is this monster?” Yuuko directs attention to the woman on the wall.
“I think we know what is wrong with all these medicines.” Lexar rolls a small empty vial on the floor
“Probably she drank this to become like that.” The cat looks at the vigorously struggling woman swinging on the wall.
“She reminds me of the witch in Left 4 dead. I don’t think she is human at this point.” Makoto looks at Yuuko “What should we do with her?”
“I will kill her.” Yuuko takes out the katana “There are things that I need to do.”
With a swoosh in the air, the disfigured head of the zombie nurse flies in the air and rolls on the ground. Like the fake Jerome, her corpse remains intact without burning into white ashes.
“It still feels kind of disgusting, but I feel that I can get used to this.” Yuuko swings the weapon to throw off the blood, then puts into the sheath “And you four, stay here obediently if you want to stay alive. There are monsters like that roaming out around outside.” She says to the four male patients who are looking at her with scared expression.
“Can someone tell me what is going on? Why are all of these strange things happening? And what is up with that cat? ...” One man throws a barrage of questions at Lexar’s group.
However, his sentence is cut by a knife flying close to his ear.
“Did I say no time to explain? I don’t like repeating. Get up and block this room immediately after we are out.” Yuuko says with cold voice, then leaves the room.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Wait, Yuuko” Makoto follows her and exits the room “Do you really need to act like that? They are just confused like us when we first met this situation. Besides, did you agree to stay back to save people? Why are you leaving them like that?”
“Makoto, you misunderstand me. I only want to save my friends, not just anyone.” Yuuko answers her friend “And think clearly, Makoto. You can’t save everyone, especially in this case. There are many that you can’t evacuate like the drill we often do. For hospitals, moving patients is considered as the last resort, and only when the danger is immediate. The way to handle this situation is to eliminate the source of danger, meaning solving the mystery behind this red world. And that is the method to save the most amount of people. If we bring those people with us, they will just hold us back.”
“Wow, so that’s the way you want to do it.” Makoto makes a smile “And here I just thought that you are going to abandon them.”
“It’s not really incorrect. I told you that I only want to save my friends, those who are also here in the hospital. However, they suffered too heavy injuries that they cannot move alone. Someone is needed to assist them, but I doubt that there are enough people who can help the other. The others are just extra. It’s not like I want to save them” Yuuko says.
“Yuuko, I did not know that you have tsundere material.” Makoto giggles.
“No, it’s not like that. Idiot, what are you thinking?” Yuuko turns back flustered.
“Hahaha. It’s just a joke. No need to get serious.” Makoto says “So, what is your plan to unveil the secret behind this?”
“Find any strange creature then beat them up.” Yuuko swings her katana around “Mission: total annihilation of the enemy.”
“That’s quite an optimistic yet reckless plan you have there.” Lexar joins the conversation. “Did you not take any of my warning about the enemy?”
“Yeah, I did. But if the enemy gets stronger, it does not mean that I do not.” Yuuko confidently answers “They will not know what will come at them.”
With the guide from Lexar, after a few minute walking, they meet one of the target. A large chunk of meat on two legs are standing quietly in front of a room.
“From the game knowledge, that design pattern signals a bombing suicide unit.” Makoto peeks out from behind the wall “What are you going to do?”
“Lexar, are there any normal human nearby?” Yuuko asks.
“This is a staff area, but there is no one here. So no normal people either.” The cat answers.
Hearing so, Yuuko immediately sprints toward the monster. Her action is so sudden that it shocks everyone. Within a second, she draws her sword then slashes the monster horizontally right at the middle, before putting it back.
Without a moment to react, the large chunk separates cleanly from the human leg then falls on the floor.
The next moment, a large explosion occurs, engulfing everything around it.
Even after retreating behind the wall, Lexar and Makoto can still feel the impact very clearly as well as the heat the wind brings along.
When they inspect the scene, the floor, the ceiling, and the walls are completely gone. The area is now connected to both the upper floor and lower floor, while the interior of the adjacent rooms is visible with collapsed or burnt furnitures.
“Yuuko?” Makoto calls out with a worried voice.
“Looking for me?” A hand with sharp claws puts on her shoulder.
“Kyahh!”
“Now, that’s something I want to hear. Hehehe” Yuuko laughs while twitching her claw weapon.
“How did you escape from that?” Lexar asks in surprised voice.
“Simple. I learned the trick from that slit mouth woman. You know, the skill that allowed her to get behind me.” Yuuko answers while restraining Makoto, who is trying to hit her.
“That is too reckless of you. You know that is a bomb, yet you actually attacked it in a melee. What if your skill range was still in the explosion, would you still survive that?” Makoto criticizes Yuuko as she tries to break free from the lock.
"Get serious, you two. We have company.” Lexar points to a direction.
In a corner, a man in patient clothes comes out. However, there is something abnormal about him as he staggers a lot. His eye balls are spinning crazily without stop, combining with the agape mouth, he resembles an image of a crazy man. Furthermore, in his hand, there is a fireaxe.
Yuuko and Makoto look cautiously at the man, and he looks at them back. A moment of silence between two parties occur, before the man breaks the silence.
“They are fucking here.” He yells out, then swing the axe at the fire alarm next to him.
The ringing voice echoes the whole building. With the clairvoyance eyes, Lexar sees many people who are still sleeping wake up from the beds. However, that is not something worth celebrating, as their eyes are in the same state as the man before him. As they get down from the bed, they all take something next to them as weapons, be it knife, scissor, crutches. No matter how he looks at it, it is obvious that they are up to no good.
In only a minute, two girls and a cat are pincered by two group of patients with weapons in hand. Their faces show nothing but hostility toward the girls. The scene makes the girls doubt their sanity for trying to save these people. Lexar, who is still looking at them hard, speaks.
“Look like we are quite late already. These people are already injected with the strange liquid we saw with the nurse. I think we should change the plan to evacuate the minority of people who have not received that strange liquid outside, rather than solve the root of the problem.”
“How are the ones from our school?” Yuuko asks.
“Luckily, they haven’t received the same treatment as these guys. However, we must hurry. There is a group heading for them now.” Lexar confirms the situation with clairvoyance.
“Good, lead the way Lexar.” Yuuko says.
“Jump over that gap.” Lexar says as he jumps over the hole created by the explosion earlier.
The bomber has made the hole with a diameter about 10 meters. Beyond it, the path is clear without any mad man seen. Yuuko follows with a long jump, then Makoto with the assistance of white air. Seeing the three targets escape, the patients roar in anger and chase after them, but then stop in front of the hole.
“See you later, old men.” Makoto sticks out her tongue and waves her hand at them.
Suddenly, the crowd on the other side make a strange formation. They all move to both side, clearing a path in the middle. The man who has a fire axe lies down in the middle, then six men on both side grab him up by the clothes. With a synchronization like cheer leader team, they lightly swing the man back and forth, make a dash toward the hole, then finally throw the man. With a sound of wind blowing, the man shoots toward the other side like a flying ram.
“Oh shit!”