A/N: This is Monday's release. No other excuse than forgotten about it. ORZ

XG 95 - Ate their heart as 'gratitude'

Even if they wanted to spend a whole day resting, they knew they had to move.

Among them, the one with the most serious injury was Kenny, who was being shot innocently, and Hong Yan, who had helped Wong Xue Guo intercept the big guy's attacks. His muscular back and arms were decorated with blue blacks and who knows if his bones fared well? If he does not have a tough body, he would have long ended up as a broken man.

"If little miss took those attacks, you would have died," Hong Yan explained truthfully when he saw Wong Xue Guo's lingering eyes on his wounds.

Wong Xue Guo gave him a short, formal bow. "I'm sorry that I could only say thank you. I will do my best not to be a troublesome burden."

Hong Yan laughed and lightly flinched when Kang Xunsu accidentally pressed a little harder when he stuck muscle relief patches all over his back. "I can't wait to see a stronger little miss! Boss will be proud!"

Chen Yibo sighed in relief when Wong Xue Guo's mood visibly became better.

They decide to leave things on the seventh floor behind since they will need to pass by this floor when they go back down. There was also no way they would be lugging the generator around.

Before going to the eighth floor, the sub-team led the rest of them to look at another room they had found, whose thick door was ripped apart from the hinges. Inside was bloody, with corpses in lab attire sprawled around the place. Their death was gruesome and all of them with a large empty hole on their chest.

Their proud creation had woken up from death and ate their heart as 'gratitude'.

Jackson's flashlight stopped at the white bed with broken straps in the middle of the room. "That large bed belonged to that Frankenstein. This place is where the scientist conducts the experiment. I have taken everything that I deem important."

"I can't believe they dare to do human experiments inside a hospital," Kenny murmured in disgust. "How do they manage to hide this from the public?"

Wong Xue Guo took out her own mobile phone and snapped pictures. It was not for collection purposes, but more to share them with her parents to see if they get anything from it.

It was unpleasant to stay in the experiment room for long, so they moved to the next floor. The eight floors have windows, which brightens the entire floor. Yet strangely, it was peaceful with clean floors and walls, no sign of damage. The only unusual thing was the lack of electricity and silence.

Every door was closed, so if they wanted to see what was inside, they had to open it.

Hyunjin tested the closest door to them. It was unlocked and only when they opened the door could they smell disinfection and the odor of dead bodies. With both scents mixed together, the smell was weird and freaking unpleasant.

With a scrunched-up face, Hyunjin stared enviously at the masked duo. Holding his breath, he examined the entire room and the only dangerous thing was the dead corpse lying peacefully on the hospital bed with an empty IV drip still attached.

"They must have been left to die after..." Changbin shivered n terror. "Could it be the rest of the room...?!"

"So... the big question is, which is the experimented corpse and which is an untouched, natural dead corpse?" Wong Xue Guo eyed the body.

It was not her hobby to look at corpses and she treated them all as equals. She does not even know the differences in cause of death between them. In her eyes, this corpse and Yuna's father looked the same. But what she did notice was that this corpse looked more peaceful than Yuna's father when they left the world.

"Let's check other rooms first," Kang Xunsu suggested.

Being the last to exit, Hyunjin closed the door after they left the room, and did not notice the body on the bed opening their eyes.

As they feared, every room was unlocked with dead bodies inside.

"What should we do now?" Vihaan asked after entering the tenth room. "Should I destroy the bodies?"

"Search for any room that needs authorized personnel. Maybe there will be patient records in there that will give us a clue whether they were experimented or not," Jackson suggested.

"Do that then."

"Captain, something's wrong!" Kenny suddenly called their attention. He was pointing at the door with his gun with an alarmed expression.

Beom Seok quickly went to his side and looked at what frightened his group member. His pupil shrunk and the grip on his gun tightened when he saw the bodies they had seen from the rooms they had entered earlier were now lining up facing the direction of the room they were in.

It was honestly creepy as fuck. Especially when they were just standing still, staring straight at them.

"This is just like a horror movie," Changbin cried in a low voice and inches away from the door. If they had not closed the door, could those dead bodies outside have then stepped in?

The dead body lying on the bed inside the ward they were currently in suddenly opened its eyes but was immediately shot in the heart by Kang Xunsu. When the body still moved even after being shot in the heart, he shot all the main points until the body could no longer move towards them.

"Shit! Could it be that they are all experimented on? Fucking shit!" Hong Yan cursed.

"But they did not die after being shot in their heart," Changbin said uneasily.

"Brother Xunsu..." Wong Xue Guo slowly raised her hand and pointed at the dead body on the bed. "You could have picked this one to bring back to the base with us. Now we will need to pick one from the mass outside."

Kang Xunsu's eyes twitched at the little princess' complaint. "I will personally secure one, okay?"

"Uh-huh."

Kang Xunsu pinched Wong Xue Guo's cheek for being cheeky.

"We had only opened ten rooms, but it looks like every dead body on this floor is out to greet us," Jackson murmured. "They must have either gathered here because they heard us, or been called to gather by those we had peeked into their room."

"But why are they not moving?" Choi Yerim whispered to her boyfriend.

"Yes, that's strange," Jackson agreed. "They were not like the zombies we had encountered before. Maybe they were just like Frankenstein, able to think how to trap their prey."

"Will they wait until we open the door?" Vihaan asked.

As if answering Vihaan's question, the crowd of dead bodies started to move and crowded the front of the room they were hiding in. Fortunately, the corpse outside does not know how to open the door and could only bang the barrier with their body. But the bad thing was, they only have one exit. To leave the room, they had to face the crowd of dead bodies.

They would have blocked the door with furniture if they did not need to use the door later.

Kang Xunsu clapped his hand. "Same rules, people. Don't get bitten. We don't know what strange reaction we will get if we get bitten by those experimented corpses. You too, Vihaan."

"Check your guns. I don't want any of us to experience technical error and die from it," Beom Seok added. "Aim straight at their heart. If that doesn't work, shoot their hands and legs until they stop moving."

Hyunjin sucked in a painful breath. "It will eat a lot of our bullets."

Lee Son-Dong clapped Hyunjin's back. "Better losing bullets than our lives."

"What if we cut their nerves?" Hyunjin asked.

"Then you try it. After that, remember to tell us," Lee Son-Dong replied kindly and earned a light punch on his upper arm.

They also do not know what those dead bodies were experimented with and whether they have healing ability or not. What a headache.

"Our backup team is on their way, so survive until then," Kang Xunsu added solemnly.

"We got a backup team?" Wong Xue Guo asked in surprise.

"Yeah. They think this hospital might be very dangerous so they assigned another team to help out after they finish their assignment."

"Oh." Wong Xue Guo nodded and then asked casually, "Why don't we let Vihaan create another exit? Make a hole at the wall and we can cross to another room."

"... Fuck, my brain must be slow," Kang Xunsu mumbled with a fierce glare. Everyone's expression resonates with Kang Xunsu's words, except for the smiling Chen Yibo.

Choi Yerim let out a relieved sigh for escaping the need of participating in a large-scale attack. Her not-up-to-par shooting skill was forcefully learned in just two days and her twisted leg will not fare well.

Enlightened, Vihaan quickly went to the other side of the wall and created a small hole to peek first. "It's empty."

"We will move quietly. Jackson, do you know the layout of this floor? We will move straight to the authorized personnel room."

Jackson pointed at the right side of the room. "We need to move ahead. If I guess correctly, it might be at the end of the corridor."

"Please start moving? The door will not hold any longer," Changbin pleaded as he eyed the rattling door in fear. They had moved chairs to block the door, but it still does not look safe.

The other room was empty and Lee Son Dong quickly locked the door as soon as they stepped into the next room. It was a good choice because the dead bodies outside had some weird senses and immediately knew they had moved room and went to harass the new door.

"They must be sensor type!" Hyunjin said.

Fortunately, the doors were sturdy enough to stop the dead bodies, allowing them to escape from one room to another without facing them.

"Vihaan, are you tired?" Wong Xue Guo asked.

"A bit," Vihaan admitted and rummaged for another energy bar from his bag.

"Try to bear until we reach the right room. You can just leave the hole smaller. We can crawl in. After that, leave things to us." Kang Xunsu patted Vihaan's tired back.

Much to their relief, Jackson's guess was right. This room has an especially thick door with no small window on it.

Kang Xunsu sighed and slid down to the floor. "Let's hide here and wait for the backup team to arrive. We will fight together then."

Jackson, Choi Yerim, and Chen Yibo hurriedly search for any important documents as they were the ones knowledgeable in the field. The others in the group were only here to kill zombies and protect them.

Equally tired out, Wong Xue Guo sat down beside Kang Xunsu. "Huuuuh. Brother Xunsu, will the backup team arrive with a bang and go bam bam bam, killing everything they see?"

Kang Xunsu laughed at Wong Xue Guo's childish words that result from her exhaustion mixed with frustration. "Maybe. It suits their style."

"Then you won't get to keep one alive, right?"

The laughter died off. "Shit."