Hospital Escape
“R-really, are y-you the ones who came to rescue us?”
“Yes. You called Lee Min-chul for help, right?”
“That’s right! I told Min-chul to call the police. You’re the police, aren’t you?”
The one among the two who was trembling less, the guy with glasses, answered my senior’s question.
By the way, senior, you can speak in a normal tone after all.
“Yes, we’re the police. So we’ll need your full cooperation.”
“Junior?”
“You heard the broadcast, right? We don’t have much time.”
“What broadcast?”
“You didn’t hear it?”
Attention once again. Visiting hours at the hospital will end in one hour….
The announcement leaked through the gap of the door we hadn’t fully closed.
What kind of hospital sets things up so the announcement can’t be heard once the patient room door is shut?
“Did you hear it?”
“Yeah.”
“The two of you must have heard it too. There isn’t much time.”
I approached not the college student talking to my senior, but the friend who was shaking like he was the one being sued.
“If you keep trembling like that, we’ll have no choice but to leave you behind.”
The hospital does not tolerate patients being discharged.
It was a given that nurses were already searching for the pair with fire in their eyes.
The act of screaming.
The act of running or moving hurriedly.
Abnormal gait.
Any behavior that could draw the medical staff’s attention.
Even if the two kept their mouths shut, they couldn’t escape those three problems.
That was why we had to bring them back to normal before leaving.
At least until they got out of the hospital.
“If you don’t cooperate, we can’t take you outside.”
The moment I declared we wouldn’t take them, the man’s trembling stopped.
He took a deep breath in and out, desperately trying to regain his composure.
“You’re doing well. Just do the opposite of what you’d do during a physical exam.”
College students should understand what that means.
“If you just pretend to be normal….”
His voice had already grown calm.
“If we pretend to be normal well enough, we can get out safely, right?”
“Of course.”
Fortunately, neither rescue target fell into a panic state.
Even at 100 stress, instead of breaking down it felt like a heroic spirit had erupted from them.
We had crossed one mountain.
The problem was that we still had another mountain to climb before reaching our destination.
“Should we cover our faces?”
They had already been classified as patients according to the Eternal Life General Hospital.
Would the medical staff really fail to recognize them even if we brazened it out?
“That’s fine.”
My senior pulled something from her pocket.
“Dolls?”
They were two wooden jointed dolls used as pose references when drawing.
“Hup!”
When my senior set the dolls on the floor, they slowly began to grow larger.
Soon, standing where the dolls had been were two people who looked exactly like the two male rescue targets.
The only difference was that their eyes had no focus.
“If these get caught by the medical staff, we head for the lobby.”
“Is that your ability, senior?”
“Entity.”
“Entity?”
“It’s a tool-type entity. Level 2. Mimicking Wooden Doll.”
Before we entered the hospital, employee B had said something.
‘You’ll stick with me this time too, right? Huh? We recovered an entity thanks to me last time.’
Was he talking about this wooden doll?
The phrasing “stick with me” felt a little off.
“Can you control them too?”
“Simple commands work.”
When my senior closed her eyes and focused, the previously unfocused eyes of the dolls gained strength.
Bang!
The two smashed through the patient room door at incredible speed and sprinted deeper into the ward.
The two rescue targets couldn’t hide their bewilderment at the sight of the fakes running with arms raised in exaggerated motions.
“No time to stand around. Let’s go.”
“Yes. You two, please follow right behind us.”
Smashing the patient room door should have drawn the medical staff’s attention quite well.
Thud— Thud—
As proof, the sound of what had to be a Hospital Public Service Agent’s footsteps echoed from outside.
The hallway we emerged into was clean.
The people in patient gowns who had been there moments ago were nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t want to imagine what kind of reaction they would have shown if we had encountered them with any status other than guardian.
Fortunately, leaving the hallway wasn’t difficult.
The patient room we had been in was fairly close to the exit.
The two rescue targets also stayed calm without any variables, so we reached the lobby after walking only a few steps.
“We did it!”
“I believed in you!”
“As expected of the Gwanak Branch.”
Employees A, B, and C cheered when they saw us.
The three of them stood with arms linked around each other’s shoulders, balanced on one leg.
Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought they had become entities.
“Now we just need to settle the bill!”
“The bill?”
I casually pulled out the response guidelines.
To exit the hospital, discharge procedures must be completed without fail.
The lobby information desk of Eternal Life General Hospital also functions as the billing department, so there is no need to locate a separate billing office.
However, the hospital fees demanded by Eternal Life General Hospital cannot be paid with ordinary currency.
The hospital requires the following as compensation:
Blood
Body parts
Human entities
Animals
Confirmed cases indicate that the hospital prefers targets possessing biological value over monetary value.
Additionally, if compensation is refused or an attempt is made to substitute other goods, the nurse will immediately summon a Hospital Public Service Agent.
Afterward, the subject is forcibly subdued and an attempt is made to collect the demanded level of compensation.
To date, there have been extremely few cases of successful return after forced collection by a Hospital Public Service Agent has begun.
The obligation to pay hospital fees applies basically only to those classified as patients.
Those classified as guardians and visitors are generally not charged separate fees.
Hospital fees are estimated to vary according to the patient’s length of stay and treatment history.
For simple examinations and minor treatments, blood at a level that does not endanger life is typically required.
The longer the stay, the higher the importance and quantity of the body parts demanded.
In some cases, records exist of demands for arms, legs, organs, and similar.
Judgment regarding rescue targets’ hospital fee payment is left to the discretion of the Field Response Team leader.
In this day and age, a hospital that doesn’t accept cards or bank transfers.
How could they possibly run an operation while being so behind the times?
That was what I wanted to say.
“The ones classified as patients are me and seniors A, B, and C.”
“The rescue targets too.”
“I’ll go ask.”
When I approached the information desk, the nurse mannequin lifted her head and stared at me.
“I’d like to settle the bill. Could you tell me the amount?”
“[For everyone currently in the lobby?]”
“Yes.”
“[Please wait a moment.]”
The nurse grotesquely bent her joints as she flipped through documents covered in unrecognizable writing, then looked back at me.
“[Including the patients, four people at 500 milliliters of blood each.]”
Was it because we had only received treatment?
The price for me and the ABC trio wasn’t that high.
If we had been admitted it might have been different.
The real problem was the discharge fee for the two rescue targets.
Depending on how much it came to, we would need to discuss….
“[That is all.]”
“Is that so?”
“[The patients the guardians are looking for were discovered a short while ago and are currently undergoing surgery.]”
The Mimicking Wooden Dolls must have been caught.
“[Visits are not possible today, so we would appreciate it if you could return for a visit next time.]”
It seemed the transformed Mimicking Wooden Dolls were properly fulfilling the patients’ roles.
Once we left the hospital I would have to ask my senior about that entity.
“Thank you. For payment, do we need to go somewhere like a blood collection room?”
“[It will be automatically collected when you exit the hospital.]”
I let out a sigh of relief.
“How did it go?”
“It should be fine. She said payment will be completed through automatic blood donation.”
I had zero intention of mentioning anything about prescriptions.
There was no way the place dispensing medicine prescribed here could be normal.
“[Finally, the hospital director left a separate message for the guardian.]”
The nurse twisted her joints a few times before looking at my senior.
“[‘The same trick won’t work twice.’ He told me to convey that.]”
“Understood.”
My senior nodded and stepped away from the desk.
“Then can we leave now without any problems?”
“[No problems. We look forward to your next visit.]”
I really don’t want to come back, though.
I forced down the words that had risen to the tip of my throat and, supporting the ABC employees, left the hospital.
When I opened the door and stepped out, the original beach appeared before me.
When I looked back, the hospital had vanished without leaving even a trace that it had been there.
“We’ve safely returned… Huh?”
“Whoaaa!”
Sudden dizziness hit me and I pitched forward.
The ABC trio I had been supporting collapsed with me, leaving four healthy men face-planted in the sand.
“Ptooey!”
I turned my head and spat out the sand that had gotten into my mouth.
I wanted to brush the sand off my face too, but I had no strength left.
Maybe I should just lie here until the dizziness passed.
“Want me to brush it off?”
“Yes.”
“Hold on.”
Click.
Choi Yu-na senior took a selfie with me as the background.
“Why are you taking a photo?”
“Survival report and a memory for the team leader.”
“Couldn’t we leave a better-looking memory?”
The two rescued men had tried to get some skinship, gotten caught by the hospital, and exchanged relieved kisses, or so the story went.
There had also been trivial matters like the Chungnam Branch ace ABC trio’s silly antics before we left.
Anyway, inside the Level 3 Eternal Life General Hospital we rescued two people without a single death.
That was what mattered.
As for the somewhat unclear information, Choi Yu-na said she would explain it later, so there were no lingering uneasy parts.
Then it really was the end.
Field Response Allowance has been deposited.
Long live the Bureau.