A/N: this is actually for Wednesday update. with this, I'm back on the schedule track! for now

XG 91 - The 7th floor

The elevator was no go, so the team went straight to the fifth floor using the emergency staircase. No zombies could be seen and they safely arrived on the fifth floor.

Other than two zombies locked inside the medicine pickup area, they easily arrive at their destination with no trouble.

Their group members each have their own backpacks and they assume the hospital will be packed full of zombies so they brought more weapons and their simple version of the first aid box.

As for storage to store the medicines, thinking they will use up at least half of their bullets from their backpack, there should be enough space to store the medicines. But in reality, they had not even emptied the first round of bullets.

Their backpack was still full!

"Beom Seok, how's the situation at your other end?" Kang Xunsu communicated through the walkie-talkie.

"Engaging!" The word was accompanied by fierce growling sounds of shooting.

"Tsk, their backpack will be lighter than ours," Kang Xunsu grumbled. He did not bother Beom Seok any further.

"If only Yuna is with us," Wong Xue Guo lamented. It was tested that Yuna's crayon-like figures could act as storage but its space was limited to 100 kg per crayon-like figure but the dog crayon was only limited to 50 kg. They were unsure how that number came up as it does not match the 'body figure' estimated weight, even in their normal human self.

Even with this walking storage box, Yuna was unwilling to cooperate with the researcher for long, just like a child with a short attention span and thus they were unable to correctly determine her full potential. Any ideas to force Yuna to cooperate in a rather harsher means were stopped by the directors.

To keep the base coordinated and trusted by people, they must not ever cross the line between dedication to their goal and sacrificing humanity for their goal.

"We just have to find something else to carry the medicines. Move quickly and we can help Team B faster," Chen Yibo said.

"Pick out what we need, place them in a box first. Put it aside and we will return for them when we are ready to leave," Kang Xunsu ordered.

"What if we had no time to return for the medicine?" Wong Xue Guo questioned. It would not be unreasonable to assume things would get heated up later and they would need to step closer to the afterlife just to get out of this hospital alive.

"We will see when that time comes. In the worst-case scenario, we will just wait for the next trip to pick them up."

"Our lives come first," Vihaan insisted and no one disagreed.

"Vihaan, break down the door," Kang Xunsu said and readied his aim.

Wong Xue Guo knew Vihaan's ability, but this was the first time she saw his ability. With a touch of his palm, the door crumbled away like ashes. It was even quicker than when the fire was burning papers. He only needed to pull his hand away and the crumpling immediately stopped.

No one was inside the room.

Other than Choi Yerim that immediately went to read the bottle labels, they choose boxes or bags that have handles to hold so that their hands would be free. It was also important to consider the bag would not spill its contents from rough movement.

By the time they finish sorting out the medicines and placing them at a safe spot, Team B had finished looking around the first floor. Both teams meet up at the stairway on the first floor to discuss their next move as they had found a more detailed map of the hospital.

Sinnyeom hospital was not the largest in this town but it still had ten floors.

"It's impossible to do confidential experimentation with patients on the same floor without fear of getting caught. It's likely to be around where they keep patient records on the 7th floor and there's no patient ward on that floor," Jackson rationalized.

"But we can't really guarantee it's really on the 7th floor."

"I'd rather try it than waste our energy going through every floor."

Team A was still full of energy but Team B had already fought their way to clean up the first floor. It does not take all half of their energy, but when knowing they would need to do the same for ten floors, it could easily cause them to cry.

Kang Xunsu took in the unwilling expression of Team B and finally sighed. "Okay. We will go to the 7th floor first. If we don't find anything there, we will have to search every floor."

A guy in Team B took in a sharp breath as he prayed that they took the right gamble.

They rushed up to the 7th floor using the staircase that was strangely free of zombies, only leaving behind smelly stains of human liquids. But the further they go, the more unsettled Wong Xue Guo feels with how silent the place was other than their footsteps and breathing.

There was nothing to be so apprehensive about, but something in her just felt uncomfortable and wanted to go back down.

"I got a bad feeling from the 7th floor," Vihaan said with a worried expression as they reached the 6th floor.

"What feeling?"

"It's hard to describe, but I don't like it."

"Afraid?"

"Not really. It's something manageable, but it's still a dangerous feeling."

They stopped when they reached the 7th floor, where they could not hear anything from the other side.

"Why is it that Vihaan's feeling makes me think we got the right place?" Beom Seok said grimly and adjusted his gun.

"No matter what's in there, we need to get what we are here for. Jackson and Yerim, stay close to us," Kang Xunsu said and nodded at Vihaan to take the lead.

Beom Seok counted down with his finger and as soon as it reached zero, Vihaan opened the door to the 7th floor.

What greeted them was complete darkness that had Wong Xue Guo's heart rate shot up like a rocket. Why was it dark? It was still morning, with plenty of sunlight that could enter from the window. It could not be a sudden eclipse, right?

Chen Yibo pulled out a penlight, followed by some members from Team B. Flashing light around would expose them, but they could not move forward in the dark with their limited night vision.

Wong Xue Guo eyed Kang Xunsu, who was not ruffled by the darkness. He had played plenty of horror games before where monsters would jump at the player from the dark, so his mind was quite steady.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for Wong Xue Guo, who was frightened by the game before. Suddenly, she got the urge to volunteer to stay behind with rubbish reasons such as helping keep an eye on their back.

"Xue Guo, you good?" Kang Xunsu knew really well that she was far from good yet still poke at her sore spot.

"I have no choice, don't I?" Wong Xue Guo gritted her teeth and then mumbled unhappily. "It's too dangerous."

"Our life is full of danger."

Wong Xue Guo gave him a glare, her gaze telling him to fuck off.

"Stay close to me," Chen Yibo assured her after seeing she was afraid.

"I will keep you safe, little miss!" Hong Yan promised.

Really, what else could she say to their kindness? "Thank you. You also need to be careful."

"I don't see any windows on this floor," Vihaan suddenly said as he peered into the dark corridor.

"You can see?" Beom Seok asked in surprise.

"Yeah, better than I used to." Other than gaining supernatural ability, he also got physically stronger, faster self-healing speed and now discovered his eyes could see better in the dark.

"What else do you see?" Wong Xue Guo asked. In her opinion, this floor without any window was really suspicious. By now, anything out of the ordinary was always suspicious to her.

"Several doors and a different layout than the fifth floor. I think I saw some zombies standing still near the walls."

Hearing the last sentence had Wong Xue Guo's back crawling. Squinting into the dark as if to find the mentioned zombies, she softly asked, "They should have seen us by now. Why aren't they coming at us?"

The staircase was pretty bright so only the blind would miss them, not to mention they were flashing their torchlight around.

Did the zombies change their settings again?

"Get ready. We will be going in. Everyone use your torchlight." Danger will be everywhere and they could not assign certain people to be their light holders. Everyone will need to fight.

Just like how it did previously, Vihaan agreed to enter first. It was a lie to say he was not afraid. Gaining his ability increased his endurance to fear, but with it came the fear of expectation. He could feel his group members relied on him if they could not face their enemy confidently and he was afraid they would be disappointed if he made a mistake.

Their torchlight was not the expensive type, so the distance it could reflect was not far. They would need to get closer if they wanted to flash look at what was there at the other end of the corridor.

Everyone was consciously holding their breath as they one by one stepped into the dark corridor. The zombies that Vihaan had mentioned were caught on the flashlight, but they were not moving.

"Fucking hell. Those might not be zombies," Kenny in Team B commented when his flashlight stopped at one of the figures that Vihaan had guessed to be zombies.

The figure had their head smashed into the wall and there was a large gaping hole in the middle of their chest where there used to be a heart. Other figures were in the same state and the sight of it creeped them out.

It was certainly not done by a human being.

Just as Wong Xue Guo, the last person to step into the dark corridor, her heart suddenly tightened, her instinct telling her something was staring at her. She had yet to move her torchlight to survey the area with her own eyes when something fell from the ceiling.