Chapter 18.3: A World Without Exit III


    <em>You are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead, you are dead.</em>


    <em>Dead.</em>


    <em>Dead.</em>


    <em>Dead.</em>


    The doctor sneered and ttered, shaking his head.


    Hyuga approached me, extending a broken finger in the wrong direction


    Before I knew it, I was rolling on the cold pipe bed, crawling on the floor, and fleeing from the hospital room, leaving the lunatic doctor and Hyuga behind.


    Even my bones shrieked as every part of my body ached. I kicked the floor of the corridor with deadly force despite my state; more precisely, I should say that I was driven by the desperation that surfaced under immense pressure. No matter how much it hurt, I waspelled to move my body. To support my staggering legs, but to get as far as possible as well. While putting half of my weight on the wall, I searched for a way out of this world of madness.


    Wherever you go, its futile.


    Even hearing the doctors voice behind me, rife withughter, wouldnt deter me from stopping. Because


    The footsteps of Hyuga, who was dragging her flesh and blood from the hospital room, were unarguably heading toward me.


    No lighty at the end of the corridor, and the blue-green light of an emergency door or the like was flickering suspiciously. I felt no presence of life at all. This was identical to the devastated hospital ward depicted on television.


    Although the sound of her footsteps wasnt fast neither was I moving all that swiftly. If this kept up getting caught would eventually be inevitable. That was an ominous situation, that much I knew. Should that happen


    In my mind, I pictured BADEND in red letters like a game screen.


    What should I do? What could I even do?


    I strained to turn my inoperative thoughts around.


    Should I go somewhere and hide


    Butwhere to where to hide!


    Directly next to me was a door simr to the one I had just run out of but in another hospital room.


    Mustering up my courage, I turned around The shadow seemingly belonging to Hyuga was still nowhere in sight.


    Perhaps I could make it through


    With a ray of hope, I put my hand on the door, but as soon as I noticed the namete of the hospital room on the wall diagonally over the door, I let go of my hand and almost lost my bnce.


    W-What the hell


    Room 404, Hanging


    Hanging


    The text was too disturbing that I dragged my feet to get away from it.


    Something was off, what was this?


    Then, as if to confirm it, I reached the hospital room a few meters away and looked up diagonally above the door as well.


    Room 404, Jumping


    Strange.


    Room 404, Ingestion


    Room 404, Submerge


    Room 404, Charcoal Briquette


    Room 404, Bleeding


    It was way too strange. This was not normal. All the rooms I reached werebeled with words that shouldnt have been written there.


    Through the doorway, a low moaning sound sent a shiver down my spine, forcing me to swallow down my courage to step into the room. Imagining that the door might open on its own and drag me in before I could even scream, I stuck to the wall by the window.


    Where I was no longer mattered; I was not likely in the slightest to grasp the world even if I did figure out where I was. The trigger, wrenched by fear, bounced back.


    The moment Iid eyes on the fire extinguisher in the corner, I reached out with my arm to carry it up. With all my might, I smashed it against the ss window right next to me.


    Over and over again.


    Aaaaaaahhhh!!


    Fourth floor? Who cares about that?


    As long as I could get out of here, I would rather jump off the building.


    It was jet-ck with no moon, stars or anything to be seen, and I hit the ss window with a fire extinguisher. I did it so spectacrly that I was gasping for breath, and yet


    Why wont it shatterrrr!!


    Not only did it not fracture; it didnt even reveal the slightest crack. The fire extinguisher mmed to the floor, apanied by a sound of despair.


    Whats going on


    The window, which was unscathed, did not budge even when pushed, yanked, or violently pounded upon; it was securely fixed in ce. Rather than being a window, it was more like a decoration.


    It couldnt be


    After quickly making my way along the wall and reaching the nurse station, I went to the elevator that was there as expected, hit a series of buttons, and stepped inside.


    It couldnt be With a nasty hunch, I turned my attention to the control buttons.


    My prediction, which I hoped would not be wrong, was spot on.


    No way For real


    In utter shock, I banged my fist on the elevator, and the inside shook from the recoil.


    There should be buttons for close, open, and from the first floor to the top floor. And yet


    Before my eyes, there were no buttons for close and open, no buttons to ess the first floor, and no buttons to ascend to the top floor.


    All I found was 4. 4, 4, 444444, out of the ten buttons, all of them were 4.


    This was the fourth floor and all the buttons that existed went to the fourth floor so no matter which one I pressed the result would be


    Like it was a matter of course, there they were, buttons full of 4. As I stared at it, cold sweat trickled down my forehead and onto my chin at an rming rate.


    After stumbling out of the elevator, I fell to the ground in front of the nurse station and sank onto the sofa.


    On the other side of the station was a staircase. I couldnt even summon up the energy to go that way anymore. No matter where I went, it would be the same anyway, because there was no ess to the upper floor or the lower floor.


    There was no way out.


    Whatever I struggled to do, escape was futile. I was perfectly trapped. In this world of madness.


    Ah I lifted both of my fists to my chest, clenching them.


    If this was a dream if it was a bad dream, please wake me up. Awaken me this instant


    God, Buddha, or whoever was there. Please awaken me from this nightmare.


    Even so, the situation remained unchanged, despite how firmly I clutched my head and prayed. There was no sign of waking up from the dream.


    The only pains that were as distinct as everlike a whisper reminding me that this was realitywere the agony in my extremities and the excruciating pain in my right eye that threatened to gouge out.


    A sense of hopelessness and danger that I have never felt before. A sense of loneliness beyond the lovely expression of helplessness. When all of them merged and forcefully swelled up inside of me, I feared I would erupt at any second, and that was when it happened.


    The nurse station phone rang.


    My panic tolerance was at the lowest level. It was probably a good thing I didnt scream, but I had no time to brace myself for the unforeseen events that kept striking one after another, and my beating heart was at its limit. Even if I burst at once, it wouldnt be surprising.


    At the counter, though, the phone kept ringing. At this timing It was the kind of production style that was typical in horror films.


    In this situation it was inevitably better not to pick up the phone, no matter which way I thought about it.


    I didnt want to pick it up. Even though I truly felt so from the bottom of my heart, the phone rang incessantly.


    In short, this must be an indication that I should pick it up. Did this mean that it would keep ringing until I picked it up?


    The fear I felt was overwhelming, perhaps I was temporarily high on everything. My pulse was throbbing overly and I was enveloped in a strange heat.


    Realizing in the corner of my mind that this was the peak of panic, I reached forward with my arm and picked up the phone, drawing my body back slightly.


    What was ensuing? What wasing next


    Hello


    []


    []


    [Masa is it]


    That voice was


    Kinoshita!?