Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Ping An Asylum
Chapter 165: First Underground Floor
Blond’s two legs kicked in the air, and through the metal door, one could hear his desperate screams echoing in the narrow, confined space:
“Quick! Pull me back!!”
Wen Jianyan’s heart was startled.
He didn’t even have time to think much, loudly instructing Luce, who was supporting the other leg of Blond, “Pull!”
The two exerted force together, and Blond, who was not so big in the first place, was directly pulled back through the gap!
Under the reaction force, the three stumbled backward, crashing into the guardrail on the side of the elevator with a “bang.” The already precarious metal box seemed to have a tendency to fall again, and outside the metal walls, a grating friction sound echoed in the dark elevator shaft, causing a shiver in everyone’s hearts.
“…”
All people instinctively tensed their bodies, not moving, afraid of causing another change in gravity and making the elevator unbalanced.
The brief creaking sound ended, and the elevator fell into silence again.
The metal box swayed and finally barely maintained stability, stopping in the distance.
Everyone slowly let out a breath.
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at Blond, who was finally pulled back.
He saw him sitting on the ground in a daze, his pale face covered in cold sweat, his eyes staring blankly not far away at the narrow gap, as if he had not recovered from the terrifying moment just now.
“What’s outside?”
Luce frowned, asking.
“…”
Blond slowly turned his head in his direction, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and tremblingly said, “Just near the elevator, there is—there is a whole nest…”
“A nest?”
Luce’s brow furrowed even tighter, and he asked, “What kind of nest?”
After the recent scare, Blond seemed unsure of how to describe what he had seen. Gesturing and stuttering, he said, “It’s, it’s…”
The next moment, he audibly gasped, and his voice changed again.
Blond raised his hand, trembling, and pointed to the gap he had just crawled out of, exclaiming, “Aaaaaah!”
Several people reflexively looked in the direction of his pointing finger.
In the narrow, dark gap, faintly visible were a few pallid faces slowly moving toward them. Those faces were blank, devoid of any expression, silently approaching. In the midst of the deathly silence, there seemed to be faint, eerie, sticky sounds.
The emergency light inside the elevator flickered, casting a dim, moist light on these pallid faces.
“What, what is this?”
Luce exclaimed, instinctively taking a step back.
“I don’t know either!!!” Blond screamed in despair.
One, two, three…
They had facial features but similar expressions. These pallid faces approached in the darkness. They pressed tightly against the narrow gap, seemingly attempting to squeeze inside, filling the thin seam without leaving any space. They pressed against each other, making it appear impossible for anyone from the outside to enter.
Sizzle.
A sticky water sound echoed.
“!”
Wen Jianyan suddenly realized that outside the elevator was the ground on the first floor.
In other words, these strange “faces” were sticking to the ground and approaching. So, how were their bodies…
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.
The eerie, sticky sounds echoed inside the elevator.
Helplessly, everyone watched as those faces deformed under pressure. The seemingly rigid skulls behaved like soft-bodied creatures, emitting nauseating water sounds as if gelatinously sliding toward the interior of the elevator.
Every person couldn’t help but feel their scalp tingling.
They instinctively retreated, but their heels bumped against the elevator’s inner wall.
At this moment, it seemed that everyone realized there was no way to retreat in this narrow, enclosed space.
“It’s okay, I have offensive props here.”
Luce, being a seasoned anchor, quickly calmed down. “I’ll eliminate them, and then everyone moves as quickly as possible—”
His words were interrupted by Wen Jianyan: “No.”
Luce was puzzled: “What?”
“Haven’t you heard what he said?” Wen Jianyan pointed to Blond, who was lying on the ground, pale: “There’s a whole nest outside. Even if we eliminate these few, it won’t help.”
Another teammate frowned: “It’s so dark outside. Can he really see clearly? And…”
He subtly glanced at Blond on the ground and swallowed the rest of his words.
But everyone knew what he wanted to say.
Timid people were not trustworthy.
Under the heavy pressure of fear, they could do anything, including lying.
Blond’s face became even paler. He opened his mouth, but ultimately couldn’t say anything.
“He can.”
Wen Jianyan said it firmly.
Blond was startled and subconsciously turned to look at Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan didn’t look at him. “I take responsibility for this.”
Luce stared at Wen Jianyan, took a deep breath, and said, “Alright then.”
He let go of the prop he was preparing to use and asked, “So, what’s your plan?”
In just a few seconds, several heads had completely entered.
The reason for using “heads” was that there was no other quantifier that could describe it.
Behind those pallid faces were pallid “necks” of the same thickness, soft like noodles and moist like slugs, squeezing against each other, looking particularly nauseating.
Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth: “Jump.”
“Three.”
“What?”
Several people were puzzled.
“Two.”
Su Cheng quickly grasped the situation: “Everyone, together, quickly! Jump in place!”
“One!”
Simultaneously, everyone jumped and landed!
Bang!
The entire metal box shook violently, and the piercing sound of metal friction echoed again.
“Continue!”
Blond got up and, along with others, forcefully jumped and landed again.
“Crack!”
The elevator, suspended in mid-air and teetering, finally lost balance. Accompanied by a sound resembling something breaking, the steel box plummeted again!
The emergency light flickered, plunging the narrow space into darkness once more.
During the fall, people faintly heard a sound as if something was being cut, like the burst of a water-filled balloon, emitting a nauseating and eerie noise.
“Bang—”
The uncontrolled fall ended with a loud crash.
“Zzz, zzzz.”
The backup power lit up again, illuminating the space inside the elevator.
Several people crowded at one end of the elevator, looking at each other in shock, then looked up toward the other end—
Roll.
Three pallid heads rolled on the floor, cleanly severed in the middle. Some kind of semi-transparent yellow fluid was splattered on all sides. Their mouths opened and closed, and the pale, slug-like necks continued to wriggle at a slow pace.
It seemed like they hadn’t died yet.
But it was truly disgusting.
“…”
Several people showed expressions of disgust.
Wen Jianyan bent down, tentatively using the tip of his shoe to nudge one of the severed heads, as if searching for something.
Su Cheng’s face turned a bit green, apparently not yet recovering from the nauseating sensation.
He looked at Wen Jianyan and asked:
“Did you find something?”
Wen Jianyan turned his head, took a deep breath, and said, “Yes.”
“These should all be patients from the Ping An Asylum.” He pointed to the side of the neck, near the direction of the artery. “Look here.”
On that sticky, pale skin, there were some small, faintly visible dots.
“The sedative used in the Ping An Asylum is injected from here.”
There were similar wounds on his own neck.
Luce’s complexion wasn’t good either:
“So, does this mean the anchors could also end up like this?”
“I don’t know,” Wen Jianyan said solemnly.
But…
It’s possible.
While they were discussing, the elevator door in front of them suddenly opened slowly.
They were all startled, reflexively stepping back.
This time, there were no more faces outside—quite the opposite; what remained outside was just an empty, silent darkness.
But no one felt any relief.
Wen Jianyan turned to look at the floor indicator on the side.
[-1]
In the midst of the darkness, this number looked particularly ominous.
Considering that even the patients on the first floor were high-risk, and now that the first floor has become so dangerous, what would happen to the patients on the first underground and second underground floors…
Wen Jianyan found it hard to imagine.
The ground inside and outside the elevator was at the same level, so there was no need to climb out like before. However, the thick, impenetrable darkness outside brought intense psychological pressure. In comparison, even this elevator containing three severed heads seemed unusually safe.
“…”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, wiped his face with his hand, and broke the silence: “We can’t stay here.”
Based on the extent of the elevator’s damage, the internal cables should have snapped, forcing them to continue descending without the option to go up.
To reach the chapel, they had to go to the stairs on the first underground floor, proceed through the stairs to the first floor, exit from the small door at the back of the first floor, leave the main building of the hospital, and enter the courtyard.
Looking at the pitch-dark first underground floor, Wen Jianyan felt a shiver down his spine, and his stomach convulsed slightly.
He pushed aside his thoughts and said, “Let’s go; I have a rough idea of the way.”
Led by Wen Jianyan, the group moved forward into the darkness.
The flashlight beams were so weak, barely illuminating the path only a few meters ahead in the inky blackness.
They groped their way forward in the dark.
The stairs near the elevator were not an option—if there was a nest near the elevator, taking these stairs would not change their situation.
In other words, they had to take the risk of traversing an entire floor and use the stairs on the other side.
The layout of this floor was similar to the second underground floor—a long corridor separated by iron doors. However, the gaps between each ward were not as long as on the second underground floor, indicating that this floor likely housed more patients.
Soon, they reached the vicinity of the first ward.
Wen Jianyan bravely pointed his flashlight into the room. Under the light, they could vaguely see what was inside the ward.
He lowered his voice and asked Blond, “Is there anyone inside?”
Blond looked for a few seconds and shook his head: “No.”
Although they hadn’t encountered any patients yet, Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling.
The situation he least wanted to see had occurred.
Patients on the first underground floor could freely leave their rooms, which meant… the high-risk group on the second underground floor could do the same.
What was even worse was that the first underground floor and second underground floor were too close.
Prev | Table of Contents | Next
