Chapter 13
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 13Anomalies (4)
Kim Hyun-soo and Jong-hyun decided to rest on empty beds and follow later. Although it was a ward running to the extremes of discomfort with dead bodies all around, they weren't hostile, so they could feel at ease.
"Were you really attacked by that blue flame man?" "Yes. He says he was." "He says?" "Uh… actually, he doesn't have any injuries. Deleting the photo he took is all there is. He just got terrified all by himself." "So you mean he acted up on his own?" "Something like that."
Jong-hyun looked at his friend groaning while lying in bed with a feeling of half pity, half worry. Of course, it was a fact that he suffered a lot mentally. According to the diagnosis, the cause was accumulated mental fatigue, and they said he would get better if he rested comfortably for a few days. In reality, Kim Hyun-soo recovered earlier than expected.
"But to think he'd foam at the mouth and faint just from hearing about it……." "You guys still have the thought of coming to shoot urban legends after an incident like that?" "Ah⋯ we do the occult group because we are originally that kind of kids. Going to abandoned houses again even after seeing a corpse during an abandoned house exploration, infiltrating restricted areas even knowing it's dangerous."
Do these punks think they have multiple lives like a game? However, their unyielding attitude was exactly like a journalist tenaciously hanging onto a single news item, so it was hard to look at them pathetically.
"⋯You guys just stay here." "I said it earlier, but when Hyun-soo wakes up, we'll go help."
It would be more convenient if they just waited here instead of coming. But thinking about it coldly, it is also a fact that he needs their help. The knowledge of urban legends they know is quite useful in a situation like this right now. Having heard information related to hospital urban legends from Jong-hyun, he is slightly relieved. Memorizing it is another issue, though.
"But who obtained that information?" "I told you, the internet." "I mean, who found out this kind of information and uploaded it to the internet."
Jong-hyun, turning a surprised gaze, took a thinking posture as if he hadn't thought of that. He wrinkled his chin and shrugged his shoulders.
"Y-yeah? I haven't thought about it up to there." "You don't know either. …There's a lot of this kind of information on the internet?" "Yes. But since it's all fiction anyway, usually only otakus like us memorize it." "Those otakus became helpful?" "I guess so."
It means someone is leaking information pretending it's a fictional creation. Yet no one knows who the initial leaker is. The information spreading here and there just spread through someone else's gossip until it became the present.
"Anyway, I get it. I have to go find my wife, so you guys rest here." "I'm sorry we couldn't be of help." "What do you mean sorry. The help was already overflowing."
It really was a lot of help. As he was leaving the ward, Jong-hyun, who followed him out, asked.
"You said the blue flame didn't attack, right?" "Yeah. Why?" "Then there's a possibility it's a beneficial anomaly."
Using the expression 'beneficial' for a monster like that is nonsense itself. It feels exactly like hearing the bullshit that a starving wild beast is actually kind.
"As long as you don't attack, it will leave you alone, Jong-seo-ssi." "I got it, so go inside. Otaku."
These punks were itching to tell him even one more thing. Even saying their knowledge became a very big help to someone, it seemed a sense of responsibility even dwelled in their excited information exchange. Since they seriously spoke of contents that made him wonder what they were talking about when he listened, it was a bit awkward for him as a listener.
He left the 6th-floor ward and moved to the emergency exit. As he walked down the stairs, he suddenly patted his cheeks.
"It hurts…."
Of course it hurts. Because it's not a dream. It still hasn't hit him that this is reality.
The general hospital he normally went to just fine was actually a hotbed for crime kidnapping missing persons. And inside it exist anomalies that cannot be human. This space he is in right now is also not the real world, but straddles an unidentified alternate world. It's a place where one could be brainwashed or die from a single mistake.
"Fuck……."
A TV program host suddenly appearing and playing a prank, it was a hidden camera. He wished someone would tell him that. He knows it's too late and nonsense now. It's just because it's hard to accept it as it is.
A reality that overturns existing common sense. An immense mental fatigue that makes no sense presses down on his shoulders.
He finally understands what it means for a person to go crazy. Until now, if someone said they were going crazy, he only thought of it as a level of being out of one's mind. The expression 'gone crazy' truly had to be used in moments like this. This is going crazy.
"Keu-heuk."
He acted confident and nonchalant in front of the young men, but pretending has its limits now. He is madly afraid. If he had his way, he was to the point of wanting to give up on his wife. Even the instinct wanting to run away is clamoring. Going further, lacking the confidence to face this terror, he even comes to think of ways to end his own life.
"Keu-heu-heuk."
Of all things, to think he would cry out of fear at this age. Just what did he do wrong to be trapped in this hell. What wrong did his wife commit to become the scapegoat of this kind of hell. Why did the worst situation come to their family.
"Stop… stop it. You fucking bastard. Let's stop."
The more he thinks only negative thoughts, the more negativity rides on negativity and bites its own tail to drag on. He further loses the will to escape this reality. Let's get a grip properly. After roughly wiping the tears gathered around his eyes, he strode down the stairs.
5th floor. According to normal common sense, the 5th floor should appear. Since he went down from the 6th floor, it's the 5th floor. Because from an Earth perspective, that is the normal concept of numbers. However, even though he definitely went down to the lower floor, what was written on the wall was '7th floor'.
"……Don't bullshit me."
Don't play around. Why did the number go up.
"I said don't bullshit me!"
He ran down the stairs. Thump, thump, he ran down two steps at a time making sounds, but what appeared was instead the 8th floor.
"Heo-eok… Heo-eok… Heo-eok…."
He went down to the lower floor yet again. He has no time for this. There is no guarantee his wife will be alive once the surgery begins. He can't be tied down here!
9th floor.
"…9th floor?"
Say something that makes sense. This hospital only goes up to the 8th floor. If there is a 9th floor, that should be the rooftop.
"Why is there a 9th floor."
Let's do reverse thinking. If he does this, wouldn't the number go down if he goes up instead? He put his thought into action. But heartlessly, the number became the 10th floor.
"You f-fucking bastard! Stop messing around!"
How far up do you intend to make me go before letting me go? I have no time to be doing this here right now. Let's find another way.
Click.
He tried opening the 10th-floor door.
"Hah?"
What appeared when he opened the door was a hallway. A hallway stretching straight out with no end in sight. The distance made no sense, enough that he had to forget the structure of the hospital he originally knew.
He closed the door again, slumped down on the spot, and organized his thoughts. Let's not fall into a panic. Let's act calmly.
"There's the urban legend the kids told you about, isn't there. Think back. What did Jong-hyun say?"
He fumbled through his memories. There must be an escape method among the urban legend stories Jong-hyun told him.
-An eternal staircase can appear. A structure where even if you go down the stairs, the floors go up. The escape method is easy. Try playing spot the difference.
He has to find the different part. He found the emergency exit indicator lights that exist on each stair floor. As soon as he saw that the direction of the emergency exit was reversed, he moved his steps to the upper floor.
"If it's a wrong structure, to the upper floor. If it's normal, to the lower floor."
It's a success. The floor number that had only been increasing dropped to the 9th floor.
"Hoo, hoo. G-good. I can get out."
It's not a difficult urban legend. If his memory and observation skills are good, escaping is no problem at all.
"He said it gets cleared if I just make it to the floor I was originally on."
If the emergency exit is backwards, go up. If normal, go down. For Park Jong-seo, a former active journalist, it's a simple task.
8th floor⋯ 7th floor⋯ 6th floor. He arrived at the original 6th floor. An escape? The moment he went down one more floor with a relieved heart.
"Huh?" "Ah?"
A familiar face was standing in front of the 5th-floor stairs looking at a file folder. A white coat and neat attire. A kind impression and upright smile without a single hateful flaw visible. He, who adjusted his round glasses, cast a surprised glance and muttered.
"What's this? You… how?" "Lee Dong-hwa?"
Lee Dong-hwa. Park Jong-seo's longtime friend, and a doctor at the current general hospital. Yes, it's just Lee Dong-hwa. Not some anomaly, but his friend Lee Dong-hwa. That's why it's even stranger. Why is he here?
"Hey. You… why, huh?"
His head feels dizzy again. Why is he here? If it's a normal doctor, it's a time he should have gotten off work a long time ago. Was he perhaps on night duty today? No, wait, even if he was on night duty, this isn't the hospital, but an anomaly world taking the appearance of the hospital. Why on earth is Lee Dong-hwa here.
"Why are you here?" "What did you say?"
Lee Dong-hwa, shaking his head vigorously, frowned.
"That's what I should be saying. Why are you here of all people? And where did you get that coat?" "I infiltrated to find Ye-eun." "Your wife? Why are you looking for your wife here? …You don't still believe in urban legends, do you?" "It's not an urban legend!"
Perhaps because feelings of gladness and relief came at the same time. Park Jong-seo ended up raising his voice without realizing it. The startled Lee Dong-hwa almost dropped his file folder.
"Fuck… I said it's not an urban legend. I, I almost died just earlier, and just now I almost got trapped in the emergency exit. And anomalies are running rampant in this hospital right now."
As if lamenting, and as if confessing. Park Jong-seo, whose suppressed pent-up anger poured out on its own, wiped his flowing tears. Perhaps because of the tears of a friend he deemed would absolutely never cry. Lee Dong-hwa quickly examined Park Jong-seo's pupils, placed a hand on his neck, and did a brief diagnosis.
"You're cold… and your pupils aren't adjusting. You are in a state of severe fatigue." "Let go."
Park Jong-seo, who shook off his friend's hand, calmed down a bit and then asked.
"Now it's your turn to answer. Why are you here?" "Is it strange for me to be at the place where I work?" "This place right now isn't the hospital you know! It's a hospital of anomalies! Answer me. Why are you here?"
And then he changed to a cold gaze without Park Jong-seo himself realizing it.
"I checked Ye-eun's records on the 6th floor earlier." "……." "Did you know?" "Jong-seo-yah. You look severely anxious right now." "I'm serious, so answer quickly. I'm asking if you knew." "I'm the one who's serious. Would there be a way I wouldn't know if Ye-eun was admitted to the hospital?"
That is also a valid point. Did he suspect his friend as an accomplice because his emotions became too intense? Suddenly, he felt pathetic about himself for not even trusting his friend.
"More importantly, what is an anomaly?" "It's in urban legends. Things that are not human." "Things that are not human? …Hey, Jong-seo-yah." "I know I seem like a crazy bastard. But up until earlier, I saw it and was even threatened." "…Haa, I get it for now. I'll try trusting your words. You're saying something dangerous is in the hospital right now, right?"
As Lee Dong-hwa went down to the lower floor, Park Jong-seo also followed behind. Park Jong-seo spoke to Lee Dong-hwa's back as if begging.
"Dong-hwa-yah. I'm in a hurry right now." "You didn't see Ye-eun, right? You only saw the records?" "Yeah. So we have to go to the operating room. To the 4th floor." "Operating room? Why there?" "It said she was scheduled for surgery. We have to go before things happen."
Lee Dong-hwa, who looked back with a scowl, slowly began to look at his friend with distrust. However, he didn't push him away and opened the 4th-floor door himself.
"I'm wondering what I'm doing right now."
They pass through the 4th-floor hallway. The moonlight from outside the window illuminated the pitch-black hallway, but he felt a questionable feeling.
"The operating room is over there for now." "Wait a minute…."
Park Jong-seo, who urgently ran towards the window, saw the scene outside the window and was left speechless.
"I, I can see the city?" "It's a hospital in the city, so of course you can."
Beyond the hospital's main gate. The city is spread out. Because it was the dead of night, not a single light was turned on, but the city is clearly visible.
"N-no. The city shouldn't be visible…." "Jong-seo-yah?" "I'm saying the city shouldn't be visible! The anomaly world should be visible!"
If it's like this, what about Ye-eun? How is he supposed to save Ye-eun? Are you saying they abruptly kicked him out of the anomaly world without warning? It shouldn't be like this. It's not like they're toying with a person!
"Don't bullshit me!" "Hey! Park Jong-seo! Calm down a bit!" "Operating room. Where's the operating room? Hurry, the operating room!"
Lee Dong-hwa, with a fed-up expression, eventually guided him to the operating room. However, the operating room they arrived at was completely empty. An operating room with a clean interior, without even surgical tools, pitch-black because the lights weren't turned on. It's a vain feeling. A feeling like he missed it right before his eyes.
"See? Ye-eun isn't here, is she." "…Send me back." "What?" "Send me back to the anomaly world again. I have no time to be doing this! Ye-eun is in danger!" "Hey. Park Jong-seo."
Lee Dong-hwa, getting slightly angry, scolded him with a firm voice.
"Do it in moderation now. Saying only incomprehensible things by yourself, and only getting angry." "……." "I'm not just saying empty words, you're really serious right now, you know? Are you sleeping properly? How many hours have you slept in a week?" "…Send me back." "Right, I'll send you back home. Get up."
Park Jong-seo, biting his molars, leaned against the wall, got up, and came out of the operating room. He didn't feel any special sensation when he entered, but to think he wouldn't feel any sensation when he left either. It's not like they're playing with a person.
Isn't there any way? A way to return again. A way to enter the anomaly world again. A way… a way…. Or what if he actually didn't leave…….
"Hey… Dong-hwa-yah." "What?" "So why are you at the hospital."
That question again. Lee Dong-hwa let his shoulders droop as if losing strength.
"Is it still strange that I'm at the hospital?" "Who were you waiting for on the 5th floor?" "……."
Lee Dong-hwa's face stiffens. Park Jong-seo glared at Lee Dong-hwa with wide-open eyes.
"That file folder… can I read it?"
It was Lee Dong-hwa who shrank his arm back as if hesitating, but he soon handed over the file folder. The file folder received with trembling hands. There, the list was written as 'Scheduled for surgery: Kim Tae-ho, Lee Ye-eun, Kim Hyun-soo, Kim Jong-hyun, Park Jong-seo'.
His mind goes blank. It's shocking enough that the name Lee Ye-eun is written, but seeing his occult friends' and his own name written as well, his vision went black with a dizzying sense of despair. Anger towards the sense of betrayal that came after the shock.
"Lee Dong-hwa… you fucking bastard!"
He threw the file folder and immediately grabbed Lee Dong-hwa by the collar. As expected, looking closely, it is indeed Lee Dong-hwa. But an expression and impression that seemed to have changed. Facing his cold gaze, he had the thought that this wasn't the Lee Dong-hwa he knew.
"Are you… really Lee Dong-hwa?" "Right. Lee Dong-hwa." "But why?" "What do you mean why. Because it's been over 5 years since I died."
5 years? He died?
"What do you mean 5 years. Just this morning you were with me……."
Ding!
The sound of the elevator ringing, cutting off his words. Out of sheer surprise, the hand grabbing his collar ended up loosening.
The nurses with white powdered faces still coming out as the elevator opens. The hospital beds they are dragging out. On the hospital beds that got off side by side from the two elevators, there were familiar faces.
"Uwaaaak! Ahhhh!" "J-Jong-seo-ssi! Jong-seo-ssi! Save us!"
Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Jong-hyun being dragged out tied to the beds. On the other bed, another missing person, a man named Kim Tae-ho, is deathly pale and gasping for breath.
The remaining bed. Lee Ye-eun, whom he had been searching for so anxiously, was there.
"Ye-eun-ah!"
She doesn't answer, perhaps having fainted. She, sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed, truly looked like a patient before entering the operating room.
"Please move the last patient too." "You son of a bitch!"
The moment Lee Dong-hwa's cold words ended. Two paramedics who had approached at some point suppressed and bound Park Jong-seo in a single breath.
Like that, four people tied to hospital beds and one person bound with ropes. Five people enter the operating room. It is not the operating room checked earlier. It has changed into a wide operating room like a university lecture hall.
A dome-shaped tiered structure where observers look down. A total of four beds were set up side by side on the center platform at the very bottom. Since there was no bed for him, only Park Jong-seo was seated in a nearby observer seat so he could see well. In the meantime, Lee Dong-hwa, who changed into surgical scrubs, steps up onto the platform.
"We will now begin the demonstration surgery."
The nurses and other doctors densely packing the observer seats send cheers and applause. With every single one of them having bizarre appearances. Lee Dong-hwa, who maintained a normal human form. His appearance blurred, and ultimately transformed into a bizarre appearance exactly the same as theirs.
"Ah… No……."
Park Jong-seo was looking at them with a devastated feeling. The fact that the friend he trusted was actually an anomaly. The fact that he was on the verge of losing his wife right before his eyes. He had searched so desperately, yet he is helplessly captured and faces the crisis of losing everything.
Lee Dong-hwa holding the scalpel handed by the nurse. Trembling those bizarrely enlarged eyes, he devotes himself completely to his work exactly like a mad doctor.
"You guys are pathogens. Before you infect other patients, I will save humanity."
He stands in front of Kim Tae-ho. There was no anesthesia. As the scalpel approached his open chest, Kim Tae-ho, who had been quietly enduring all along, had a seizure and screamed.
"Uwaaaak! Ahhh! No! I'm not a patient! I'm not a pathogen either!"
Kim Tae-ho lifts his head up. Park Jong-seo, who happened to be seated there, saw Kim Tae-ho's eyes crying out pitifully for help amidst despair.
"Save me! Save me! Save me! Please don't just watch and save me!"
He wants to save him. That is his true intention. But there is nothing he can do. The scalpel smoothly slices down from the center of his collarbone to his chest.
"Kkeu-aaaaaaak!" "I will not lose people anymore! This is a surgery for humanity!" "Kkeu-aaak! Kkeu-eu-euk!"
Late blood gushes out from the smoothly sliced chest. The smoothly overflowing blood was a much too unrealistic sight. Slicing open a person's chest while they are alive. And that victim is still glaring with wide eyes and screaming.
The chest opens left and right. The breastbone and internal organs drenched in blood. Kim Tae-ho, who still couldn't die and had tears pouring down, couldn't even scream anymore and only glared at the ceiling with a stiff face.
"Pathogens. These are all pathogens! Look at this! Jong-seo-yah! This is exactly what pathogens are! I'm telling you these are inside your bodies!"
Lee Dong-hwa was engrossed, as if it felt like a speech. Dynamic exactly like a part of a play, he brought a liquid contained in a glass bottle and opened the lid.
A harsh chemical smell vibrates enough to entirely fill the operating room.
"I…! I must do it! Only I can save you! Because I am a doctor!"
The liquid pours onto Kim Tae-ho's internal organs. An extreme stench that cannot be described with words spreads in all directions. A person's internal organs crumble, discolor black, and melt down right before his eyes.
"Keu-reu-reu-reu-reut. Kkeuk. Kkeu-geut. Kkeu-geu-geu-geuk."
Kim Tae-ho, who was spewing bloody foam, ended up dying painfully with his eyes rolled back. A terrible murder. A cruel scene. Yet Lee Dong-hwa prides himself on this being a wholesome surgical scene.
As if it looks like noble work. Lee Dong-hwa put on a deeply moved expression even with his bizarre features.
"Please incinerate it. Please incinerate it quickly so the pathogens do not spread further."
The nurses drag Kim Tae-ho's bed and go outside. And the next opponent.
"Dong-hwa-yah…! Dong-hwa-yah! Stop it! Dong-hwa-yah!"
Park Jong-seo struggles to get up from his seat. The paramedics press down on his shoulders and arms, but Park Jong-seo shouted anxiously despite such touches.
"Dong-hwa-yah! Please! Don't touch Ye-eun! Just kill me instead! Dong-hwa-yah!"
Lee Ye-eun, still lying down without a single movement. He opens the front of her clothes, who isn't even bound. After picking up a new scalpel, Lee Dong-hwa cast a glance at Park Jong-seo.
"I can't do that. I must kill the pathogens." "Dong-hwa-yah! Please… I'm begging you please. What wrong did Ye-eun commit for you to do this?" "You guys are pathogens, aren't you! And I'm a doctor. I must fulfill my duty. That way people won't get infected and die."
Lee Dong-hwa's attitude was firm. Rather, it was a tone of not understanding Park Jong-seo shouting at him to stop. Like a twisted belief trusting that he must do this, and that it is the right thing to do.
Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Jong-hyun, who had been trembling right next to them, couldn't hold it in either in the end. The two people burst into crying and shouted.
"Heu-uh-uh-uhng! Help us! Please help us!" "Help us! Please! Someone please help!"
No one reacts to their cries. Park Jong-seo, who wanted to shout for someone to save them just like they did, helplessly watched the scalpel slowly falling towards Ye-eun's chest. The moment he would lose his wife to that mad doctor without being able to do anything.
It's blue. A blue light is seen. A flame brightening the dark operating room entrance.
The blue flame man walking in is seen. Park Jong-seo shouted at the anomaly he feared more than any of those guys.
"Help!"
It was an instant. The operating room was covered in blue flames.