Chapter 36: Missing

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Missing

Xiang Yi hadn’t expected them to move so fast. He scrambled into the corner of a room on the third floor and pressed himself against the wall.

Three silhouettes had already appeared at the stairwell. They quickly positioned themselves at one end of the hospital’s third floor, sweeping their flashlights across to the far side.

"This whole floor, all these rooms — we really have to search every single one?"

"Don’t want to? Then don’t."

"But the boss..."

"He’s got no way of knowing whether we searched or not. Besides, you’ve seen how he’s been acting in here — totally different from out in the field."

"Out there, if we slacked off at camp even a little, he’d have our heads. But in here, he doesn’t seem to care at all."

The one who’d been hesitating thought it over and said, "Yeah... you’re right, actually."

"See? We’re only a short distance from the city. If anything goes wrong, we just run. Simple."

"And think about it — the boss always saves the longest, most exhausting jobs for himself. This time he just happened to take the second floor. That’s because he already knew we’d slack off. He figured he’d cover the second floor himself — since that’s where we’d be resting — and everything else could wait."

"So let’s just phone it in, head back in a bit, get something hot to eat. We’ve still got the second half of the night watch to deal with."

"Fair enough."

Still chatting, the three of them pushed open the door of the office closest to the stairwell, ducked inside, and each pulled up a stool to sit on.

That happened to be the very room where Xiang Yi was hiding. His heart nearly stopped — he was convinced he’d been found and was already bracing to bolt.

But the three men didn’t seem to notice him at all. They just kept on talking, their conversation meandering along without a care.

"I heard hospitals are hotspots for Abnormalities."

"Really? Trying to scare us in the middle of the night?"

"I’m serious. Hospitals have high death counts, and the more people die, the more Abnormalities show up, right?"

"Cut it out — that’s bad luck talk. Let’s talk about something actually interesting." The man dropped his voice. "Did any of you pick up anything... good out there this time?"

"Nothing. Bad luck this run."

"I don’t buy it. Come on, spill — look what I’ve got..."

Before the words were even out of his mouth, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small metal box.

Xiang Yi recognized the material instantly. It was the same as the metal containers He Dong had used to store Blood Crystal Clusters back when Xiang Yi was still in prison.

The man flipped it open. Inside sat a single fragment of dark gray keratin.

"The hell is that? A fingernail?"

"An Abnormality’s fingernail. The military only wants intel, not physical samples — but plenty of other people will pay good money for something like this."

"Nice find. But honestly, I really didn’t pick up anything this time. It’s not like we can get up close and personal with an Abnormality the way the military does. Scavenging this stuff is pure luck."

"Boring. Shi Tie, what about you?"

The tallest and most powerfully built of the three spoke up. "I did find something, actually. Just not sure if it’s worth anything."

He pulled out his own metal box and opened it. Inside was a black stone, roughly the size of a normal person’s fist — though sitting in Shi Tie’s palm, it looked a size smaller than it actually was.

"What is that? Never seen it before."

"Me neither. But I figure it’s got to be useful for something. The shape’s too regular, and the material doesn’t feel like ordinary rock."

The other two leaned in for a closer look, then nodded, agreeing with Shi Tie’s assessment.

But in a spot that no one in the room — not even Xiang Yi — was paying attention to, the fragment of Abnormality fingernail suddenly twitched, just once, in the direction of the black stone.

A faint dusting of dark gray powder fell from its surface, caught by a draft, and drifted away down the stairwell below.

The three men didn’t linger on the third floor for long. They soon headed back down together.

Xiang Yi waited a while longer, holding his position until the people from the floors above had finished their sweep and made their way down as well. Only then did he slip out from his hiding spot and head for the upper floors.

He’d caught every word of that conversation, and he now had a fairly clear picture of who these people were.

On the surface, they were a Scavenger crew — but not the ordinary kind. They were contracted by the local military to investigate Abnormalities, chart their locations, and occasionally collect samples from them. That was how they made their living.

Which meant they were essentially mercenaries. Maybe not the most polished professionals, but far more dangerous than he’d assumed.

That ruled out any chance of lifting food or medicine from them. Keeping his distance was clearly the right call.

Still, it gave him pause.

Xiang Yi had assumed Abnormalities were the kind of thing that lurked in the shadows — tucked away in hidden, out-of-the-way places. He hadn’t expected them to be so openly present near populated areas.

Which meant the walls at the city’s edge, the severed sewer line, the abandoned districts outside — all of it could very well be because of Abnormalities.

This world was more advanced than the one he came from, more "future" in every sense — but it was also a great deal more dangerous.

If he was going to be operating outside the city again, he’d need to be just as careful as these Scavengers. Maybe more so.

Second floor of the hospital.

The squad leader had returned to where the tents were clustered and called everyone together for a headcount.

It was a ritual he enforced every time they made camp. His crew had always hated it, but he’d never stopped demanding it.

"All camp personnel accounted for — three on the second floor, three on the third, three on the fourth. Everyone’s here."

"The three from the first floor just got back. What about the three who went underground?"

Someone ventured a guess. "Maybe they got turned around down there? It’s pitch black — you can’t see a damn thing at night. At least up here you can find your bearings."

The squad leader shook his head. He unclipped the walkie-talkie from his belt and, rather than speaking into it, pressed a sequence of buttons.

A rapid buzzing suddenly came from someone’s hip nearby. That person quickly grabbed their own radio and pressed a few buttons, bowing their head apologetically. "Sorry, wrong channel."

Everyone’s attention returned to the squad leader.

His walkie-talkie had gotten no response.

He didn’t try again the same way. Instead, he used the elevated access on his unit to force-open the channel shared by the three who’d gone underground, overriding it directly.

Static crackled through the speaker — something was interfering with the signal.

The squad leader’s expression darkened. He turned up the volume.

Scritch... scritch...

From the other end of the line, faint and barely audible, came the sound of shoes dragging weakly across a floor.

The squad leader switched the radio off.

"Everyone, break down the tents. We’re heading back to the city tonight."

"Take your gear and wait at the hospital entrance. If something happens, the deputy leads the group out first."

"First floor crew, third floor crew — you’re with me. We’re going down."

"If we can pull them out, we do. If we can’t, we leave."

CRACK——

BOOM——

Two massive impacts rang out in rapid succession from the stairwell leading underground on the first floor, swallowing the rest of the squad leader’s words.

Everyone rushed to the railing and peered down toward the first floor.

But before any of them could make out what was happening below, a woman’s scream tore through the air from one of the tents directly behind them.

Several people spun around.

One of the tents was drenched in blood — wet, still flowing, spreading across the fabric.

Under the glow of the tent’s light, it looked utterly horrifying.