Chapter 10: Why Isn't It Daylight Yet?
Chapter 10: Why Isn't It Daylight Yet?
After saying that, Anran puts her phone back into her pocket, feeling uneasy. She leans on the bed frame and slowly makes her way to the door. Behind her, Hu Zhen continues to ask her about what kind of trouble they might be in, and Bed 18’s delicate girl is now lying on her bed, crying softly.
Annoyed, Anran ignores Hu Zhen and Bed 18 and quietly opens the door. She stands inside the doorway, staring at the dimly lit hallway. The people moving back and forth in the hallway seem even more stiff, adding to her growing sense of dread. She can’t bear to stay in the room any longer without finding out what is going on.
“By the way, have you noticed? It’s already 11 a.m., but why is it still dark outside?”
A voice comes from behind her; it’s Hu Zhen speaking. She is lying on the bed, frowning, and turns to look out the window, which still looks like a dark, rainy night. The streetlights, powered by solar panels and wind turbines and controlled automatically by a computer, should have turned off at 6 a.m. Instead, from the hospital room, it is pitch black outside, as dark as night with no visibility.
"Ah!!!"
A scream comes from Bed 18, clutching at Anran’s heart like a sharp claw. Irritated, she turns around to look at Bed 18, only to see that Bed 18 now has enough strength to sit up. The woman is blaming Hu Zhen, who is still lying in bed:
“Don’t say that! It was only after you mentioned it that I noticed. It’s so scary, so frightening. I need to call my husband.”
After saying that, she gets out of bed, rummages through her bedside drawer for her orange phone, and begins calling her husband.
Strange! Anran mutters in her mind about Bed 18, then turns back to continue observing through the crack in the door. The people in the hallway are still moving back and forth, as if they are corpses taking a stroll.
Anran’s heart races as she slightly opens the room door, covering her stomach and slowly walking out in her postpartum slippers. Feeling uneasy, she goes back and tightly closes the room door behind her, making sure Hu Zhen and Bed 18 are securely inside.
She carefully observes the people walking back and forth. They look even more disoriented than before, with the veins on their foreheads fully bulging, and yellow phlegm flowing from their mouths as they walk.
The lights in the hallway flicker on and off, casting an eerie atmosphere throughout. Anran, still unaware of the severity of the situation, keeps her head down and silently moves forward. She plans to head to the elevator and find her daughter in the neonatal department.
As she walks, step by step, she passes through a darkened section of the hallway. From an open room, a loud chewing sound echoes through the quiet hallway, resembling the sound of a large animal gnawing on bones. The noise makes Anran freeze in her tracks.
She stares in horror with wide eyes, sweat covering her face, which sticks to her hair. Slowly turning her head, she sees in the unlit room a man hunched over a woman, tearing at her like a beast!
Indeed, tearing!
The woman on the bed is still alive, having just given birth, her head wrapped in a cloth. Her throat has been bitten through, blood gushing out. She desperately kicks and beats the man on top of her, and the chewing sound is emanating from her body.