Chapter 35: Chaos on Both Sides

"I don't know but for some reason, this place feels scarier now that Calvin isn't with us," Nicholas commented.

"Stop saying the word, 'scary', man. Now, you're getting me worked up too..." Roy glared right at Nicholas.

"No, I'm not joking! Now that Calvin isn't with us, I feel like the place has become even scarier than before."

Nicholas didn't care about Roy's glare.

"Yeah, right. I think you probably swing that way since you're really starstruck for that brat." Roy mocked.

"What did you say?"

"I called you gay, so what are you going to do about it?" Roy wasn't having it.

Rose who could hear the commotion from behind her facepalmed.

She was wondering if her comrades were really adults or children in the bodies of adults.

"Can the two of you stay away from each other?" Rose abruptly turned around and glared at Nicholas and Roy. Ever since Roy accused Hugo of being a serial killer. Nicholas's view of him changed, he now despised Roy. For him, people that would judge others based on their so-called instincts were retarded and shouldn't really be given any attention.

Roy crossed his arms in front of his chest and turned his head away from Nicholas. He hadn't done anything wrong, yet for some reason, Nicholas seemed to be somewhat angry at him. In fact, he could even feel disdain coming from Nicholas whenever the latter faced him.

Ray could only scratch his head. In situations like this, normally. He was the one that would step forward and stop the fight, but the place really seemed to be scarier now that Calvin wasn't with them. He felt as if he almost couldn't take the fear and that strange sense of being watched from afar by something unknown.

If not for the fact that he had allies accompanying him here in this dark corridor, then he would've already run back to the decontamination chamber and returned to the Administration Block. He'd rather face against those madmen than face the intangible ghosts in this place.

"Look! There are some lights over there!" At this moment, Jane suddenly exclaimed amidst the commotion.

She pointed and when everyone followed her finger...

They saw that there were indeed some red lights coming from the end of the corridor.

Everyone grew cautious.

"Slow down..."

Rose gave her very first command.

"Why is there light at the end of the corridor?" Roy asked.

Nicholas mockingly laughed, "It's because there's electricity in this place!"

Roy rolled his eyes at him, "I know that but why is it that running electricity's only limited to some areas in this hospital?

Nicholas couldn't answer.

Since running electricity was available, then why were there no lights in the entire hospital?

The others thought and pondered about this question.

Until suddenly, Jannette exclaimed, "Could it be because someone deliberately shut off the lights and he is now luring us to where by using those lights?"

Everyone turned to look at her in shock.

What she said made sense and when everyone turned to look at the lights at the end of the corridor once again. The sense of security that they felt vanished. Instead, it was replaced by trepidation.

"W-What should we do? The map here says that we need to go through that corridor in order to reach the next decontamination chamber..." Rose seemed to be panicking as she directed the light of her flashlight into the page of paper that she was holding.

This page of paper came from Calvin.

Before he left, he gave Rose a small map of the entire Hospital Block.

From this map, they definitely needed to go through that corridor in the end before they could reach the decontamination chamber leading to the Medical Ward.

But if Jannette's hypothesis was correct and their enemy was indeed using lights to lure them like moths...

Then, going there was the same as sending themselves into the mouths of lions.

In other words, it was suicide.

"You guys are clearly overthinking, how could there be any enemy there?" Roy had doubts.

"Then, how about you go there and check for us if you're that skeptical of our judgment?" Nicholas sneered.

Roy turned to look at him and frowned, "Fine! But what happens if there really is no enemy waiting for us there?"

"Hmmph! Go ahead and check it first, then we'll talk!" Nicholas wasn't having it. He believed that Roy was too afraid to go to that corridor and check if it was safe for the team to pass through.

"Damn it!" Roy was indeed afraid, he had just realized that he dug a grave for himself. But since he was already this deep, there was no turning back anymore. Sweeping his gaze at everyone, he found out that none of them were willing to spoke for up. It was clear that they obviously want them to place him in danger and check that corridor.

"You guys..." Roy was disappointed with them.

Scarlette could detect what he was thinking and she said, "Why are you not checking it? I thought that you were so brave?" There was an aggravated look on Scarlette's face as if she couldn't wait to see him piss and shit his pants out of fear.

"You... Scarlette... Why are you being like this? Aren't we friends?" He had talked quite a bit with Scarlette and he thought that the two of them were quite compatible. He felt good being with Scarlette. However, he didn't expect that Scarlette was actually looking down on him all this while.

"Sc-Scarlette... Don't be like that... Everyone will be scared if they are being pressured to check on something that may be dangerous!" Jannette commented on the side.

Jane agreed on Jannette's comment.

Zahra had a frown on her face. Everyone's attitude at this moment was quite strange for her eyes. As a medical student, she was more perceptive than others.

But even though she could feel that something was strange, she couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly was different from their attitude at this moment than earlier.

"Fine..." Roy gnashed his teeth.

His eyes flashed with a never seen before insanity.

"If all of you really want me to die that much, then fine!"

Roy turned around and made a break for it towards that corridor.

"Hahaha... He's really running. The guy can run faster than Usain Bolt, he must be about to shit his pants now." Ray mockingly commented.

Nicholas laughed along with him when he heard how Ray mocked Roy.

The two men started laughing and never stopped, eliciting a strange frown from the faces of the others.

"Hahaha..."

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha..."

"H-Hey guys... What is so funny?"

Zahra, Rose, Scarlette, Jane, and Jannette huddled up. Their slightly trembling figures made it evident that they were disturbed on the changes happening within Ray and Nicholas.

"Oh? Why are you not laughing with us?"

"Isn't it quite funny?"

"W-What's funny?" Rose nervously asked.

"Hahaha..." Ray boisterously laughed.

He laughed and laughed and opened his mouth so wide, that the edge of his lips became torn and dripped with blood.

Nicholas laughed so loud that his laughter turned into a hoarse whistling.

The two men collapsed and keeled over onto the ground, yet they were still laughing.

From the looks of it, they would laugh until the two of them died.

"W-What is this? What is going on with them?!" Jane exclaimed in fear.

Scarlette moved to embrace Jane, but the light within her brown eyes was ever so slightly changing. Her eyes didn't radiate any fear anymore. Instead, it was replaced by insanity.

Her embrace around Jane's waist tightened.

"S-Scarlette! What are you doing? I can't breathe!" Jane cried out in pain.

Jannette, Rose, and Zahra turned to look at the three and they saw that there was a hideous smile on Scarlette's lips.

"You can't breathe? You're drowning! How does it feel?"

"It feels good, right?"

"Feeling the salty waters washing over your soul, feeling it inundating every inch of your body as it slowly drowns away your consciousness, and so does your life..." Scarlette's voice turned hoarse and androgynous.

"W-Who are you?! You're not Scarlette!" Zahra who was a close friend of Scarlette instantly noticed this change. She became akin to that of a startled cat as she stood her ground and glared at "Scarlette".

"Who am I? Hehehe... You'll soon find out who I am... After all... After all of these, we are going to be comrades... There. Is. No. Escape! HAHAHAHAHA!" Scarlette wickedly laughed and her hold around Jane's waist tightened even more. Jane started struggling with all of her strength, but it was useless.

Scarlette seemed to have the strength of several adults as she slowly crushed Jane's waist under her powerful grip.

"T-T-The paper! The paper that Calvin gave to us!" Jane desperately shouted at the others.

She felt weak and faint, her consciousness became akin to that of a small boat in a rocky ocean. Although she found it incredulous that she thought of that piece of paper that Calvin gave to them earlier. She was now desperate for any help, even if that help didn't even make sense in the first place.

"R-Right!" Zahra fumbled around and she soon found that piece of crumpled paper.

"I found it!" She exclaimed when he discovered the piece of paper before she hurriedly hurled it at "Scarlette".

"Hehehe... What's a piece of paper going to do against me...?" Scarlette tilted her neck at a painful angle, but before she could even mock the three even further.

Zahra exclaimed, "Release!"

And the piece of crumpled paper that had no power whatsoever suddenly let out a spark.

Amidst Scarlette's constricted pupils, the spark transformed into a great fire that swallowed her entire body in a blink of an eye.