Incubator
Incubator
A crushed information sign lying on the floor.
The text written on it was the first impression of the 4th floor that greeted us.
[4th Floor: General Newborn Nursery / NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) / Rooming-in Preparation Room / Nursing Room / Pediatric Clinic]
A squelching sound came from the soles of my military boots as I stood, trampling the sign.
The blood-red fragments that had filled the elevator were already stuck to the floor, taking on an unpleasant, viscous consistency.
"......Haa."
I stepped out of the elevator, gasping for air.
As the soft radiance of the Halo shining above my head pushed back the darkness of the 4th floor, the scene unfolding before my eyes was a different form of hell, one that operated on a completely different level from the chaos of the 2nd floor.
"Be careful. The floor is all......."
Owl Bear Elder warned in a low voice, sweeping the floor with his shield.
Just as Elder said, there wasn't a single intact spot on the hallway floor.
Torn baby clothes, smashed baby bottles, and bloodstains stretched out, climbing up the walls and continuing to the ceiling.
Traces that vividly showed how the swarm of small Mimic Beasts that had attacked the elevator earlier had swept through this place.
"......Fuck."
It wasn't a very pleasant sight.
If anyone thought this was pleasant, wouldn't they just be a psychopath?
'...I almost envy psychopaths.'
Of course, I don't know if even they would be fine in this situation... but at least they'd be better off than us.
"The smell is different."
Min Ah-ji, who had followed me out, pinched her nose and furrowed her brow.
"If the 2nd floor smelled like rotten blood earlier, this place...... it's a mix of the smell of blood, spoiled milk, and that fishy scent like amniotic fluid, so I can't breathe."
"It must be because of those things."
Orc Mister pointed the muzzle of his K3 Machine Gun at the floor-to-ceiling window on the right side of the hallway.
The sign on that spot, where the glass was half-shattered, read [General Newborn Nursery].
We maintained our guard and carefully peered inside the Newborn Nursery.
Dozens of small cradles were toppled over like dominoes, and they were empty inside.
No, to be precise, only clumsily left-behind flesh and bloodstains proved that someone had been there.
'...Those monster bastards that poured into the elevator earlier.'
I didn't even have to ask where those small Mimic Beasts had popped out from.
The children who should have let out their first cries as humans had been stripped of their skin by immortal monsters and reduced to a horrific Colony.
An emotion I couldn't tell was anger or sadness pressed heavily against the pit of my stomach.
But there was no time to be lost in sentiment.
"Check front, left, and right as we move. Our target is the Incubator that has nested near the emergency exit. There may be remaining Mimic Beasts, so maintain thorough all-around security."
Captain Kim's dry voice broke my train of thought.
His voice had sunk even colder than when he shot the Mimic Beast that had taken the form of his wife on the 2nd floor.
That dryness, as if he had forcibly sliced away his emotions, looked precarious, but for now, I had no choice but to trust and follow him.
We slowly advanced along the hallway.
At the end of the hallway, where the light of the Halo didn't reach, darkness as thick as ink was still coiled.
The signs for [Rooming-in Preparation Room] and [Nursing Room] appeared one after another.
The thick, soundproofed doors were bizarrely bent, as if they had already burst open from the inside.
Sseuk-.
Yoo In-ha slid her tail to block the open gap of the Nursing Room door.
Her pupils slit vertically as she checked for signs of life inside.
"......There is one inside."
"Is it a small one?"
"No. It's an adult...... judging by the size, it's a female type. But...... it's doing something strange."
Something strange.
The image of the Mimic Beasts I saw on the 2nd floor, bizarrely imitating their behavior from when they were alive, flashed through my mind.
I adjusted my grip on the Glock and peered into the Nursing Room over Yoo In-ha's shoulder.
A soft light illuminated the pastel-toned sofa inside the Nursing Room.
And a horrific silhouette sitting on it.
It was a Mimic Beast wearing a patient gown.
The facial part of the skin had already been torn away in places, revealing raw, red flesh, but the thing was acting with a tender gesture as if it had the whole world.
What was held in its arms was not a baby.
It was a piece of a small Mimic Beast's corpse, wrapped in diapers and baby clothes, with its entrails sticking out.
"Uu... Aa......."
The thing was letting out a bizarre humming sound like a lullaby through its torn lips, pretending to nurse the blood-clotted remains with its own shriveled breast.
At the sight of that tragedy, which seemed to maliciously twist and display the noble instinct of maternal love, disgust welled up from within me.
"......."
I looked at Captain Kim without a word.
Captain Kim was clenching his teeth so hard his jaw muscles were bulging. He flicked his finger and nodded at me.
We need to save grenades for the battle with the Incubator.
I gave a short nod toward Owl Bear Elder and Seo Do-yoon, who were standing behind me.
Understanding my intention, Seo Do-yoon shoved the barrel of his K3 Machine Gun through the gap in the door and immediately pulled the trigger.
Tu-du-du-du-du-du-duk!
The ear-splitting, loud gunfire struck the narrow hallway.
The mercilessly poured 5.56mm bullets literally tore the pastel-toned sofa inside the Nursing Room and the body of the Mimic Beast that was imitating horrific maternal love to shreds.
"Kieek-!"
Owl Bear Elder, with his shield in front, rushed like a beast toward the thing that was rolling on the floor, riddled with holes.
The heavy Sledgehammer that cut through the air mercilessly crushed the thing's head like a watermelon.
Squelch.
Without even being able to finish its death throes, the Mimic Beast that had been imitating horrific maternal love was reduced to a shapeless lump of meat.
"Clear."
At Elder's low report, we moved our feet again.
The [Pediatric Clinic] across the way was firmly closed.
Dark red bloodstains sprayed like paint over the penguin sticker on the wall, which was called the "president of elementary school kids," hinted at the tragedy that must have occurred inside.
Fortunately, there were no signs of life detected by Min Ah-ji's sense of smell or Elder's hearing, so we quickly passed by that place.
It was around then that the structure of the hallway began to twist deformably.
"The space is distorting again. The slope of the floor seems to be surging upward, and the tiles on the walls are mixed as if swirling."
Seo Do-yoon muttered, brushing his hand along the wall.
The hallway, which should have stretched in a straight line if it were a normal building, was bent as if someone had squeezed and twisted it with a giant hand.
And at the end of that bizarrely bent hallway.
Where the light of my Halo barely reached, two heavy iron doors were firmly closed.
[NICU - Neonatal Intensive Care Unit]
And beyond those iron doors, the emergency exit, the only exit on this floor, should exist.
Thump-.
Thump-.
Owl Bear Elder suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The feathers sprouting all over his body were not just standing on end, but trembling.
"......Do you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
When Captain Kim asked in a tense tone, Elder stared at the iron door, tightening his grip on his shield.
"The sound of a heart. No...... it would be more accurate to call it a heartbeat. Hundreds, thousands of tiny hearts are beating simultaneously like one giant pulse. From beyond that iron door."
At those words, Captain Kim swallowed dryly and carefully gripped the iron door handle.
Kkigigigigik-.
As the heavy iron door opened with an unpleasant friction sound, the soft light emitted by the Halo above my head pushed back the darkness inside the NICU.
And we had no choice but to freeze in place and hold our breath.
"......That is the Incubator."
Orc Mister muttered as if he had lost his soul.
The center of the intensive care unit. In the place where small, sterile incubators should have been lined up, a mountain-like, massive lump of meat was coiled.
It was a horrific wall of flesh created by dozens, no, hundreds of small Mimic Beasts being crushed and tangled together into one.
On the surface of the massive fusion, numerous small limbs were sprouting bizarrely and flailing about.
Hundreds of blood-colored baby faces were gasping as if screaming silently, with their eyes rolled back.
It was just as Owl Bear Elder said.
Every time that massive Colony repeated its hideous pulsation like a single heart, the rotten amniotic fluid and blood pooled on the floor surged and rippled.
"......It's more horrific than I heard."
I hadn't seen any visual data on the Incubator.
The reason was that the soldiers who had suppressed the Incubator had given up on testifying.
I understood that feeling.
Look around.
The team members were all pale, looking at that bizarre and blasphemous creature.
But in the midst of that, I.......
Wung-wung-.
I can feel the Halo holding onto my mind so it doesn't collapse.
It was also shining brighter than ever, to a degree incomparable to before.
The darkness around me is being pushed back. I realized belatedly what this bursting power was granting me.
The courage to face and oppose that thing, and the compassion to ultimately save it.
And this power has an explosive nature that even I cannot control.
It is too self-righteous a power for only me to receive its effects.
'...If everyone here could receive this power.'
The light of the Halo spreads widely.
I saw the particles of light permeating into the others.
"......This is."
Only then did the others hold their heads, and their pale complexions returned to normal.
Seeing that, I was certain.
As long as I am here, the others' minds will not collapse either.
"Everyone, prepare for battle. Let's see if we can save those children."