Chapter 47: Chapter 47
For a long moment, Nellie didn’t move. She just stood there in the dim light, her back pressed against the cold wall, her heartbeat thundering louder than the rain outside. The air reeked of mildew and rust.
Her flashlight had fallen somewhere near the door when she stumbled in, and now its beam stretched weakly across the cracked tiles, cutting through the dark just enough to show dust floating in the lights path.
She wanted to move...no, she needed to move, but her body refused. Her hands were still shaking, her knees weak from running. "So the monsters that I need to survive against is something like that, sigh, at this point I am not even sure if I should thankful it’s not something scarier, or something worst, but then and again, the night just started.
Nellie pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, trying not to gag as the faint smell of iron reached her again. She wasn’t sure if it was from the lab or from the blood now drying on her scraped leg.
Minutes passed as she stayed there, afraid to go back in the same direction she had came from to even reach this room.
No sound except the rain and the low hum of wind crawling through the cracks of the building was heard, not even the sound of the monster. The creature, if it was even still out there, had sudden gone silent for a while now.
And for this reason, her thoughts raced. "Did it leave? Was it waiting? Could it even think like that?" She hated how her mind kept circling back to those questions. But finally, she forced herself to move. "As much as I would love to stay here, I can’t just stay at a single spot, I need to move."
Her boots scuffed against the floor as she crouched to pick up the flashlight. "Okay..." She whispered. "Okay, Nellie. Think. You can’t just sit here all night." Her voice sounded smaller than she intended. The camera still blinked red on her chest harness, as it was still recording everything. That tiny light gave her some comfort, like maybe someone, someday too would see this footage and know what happened if she did died here, to bad that someone wasn’t from her own world.
She turned her flashlight around the room. The space was small, probably a nurse’s office or a medication prep room.
The walls were the color of wet paper, peeling in long strips, exposing the concrete beneath. A single cabinet hung crookedly on the far wall, its glass cracked, and an old metal desk sat pushed into the corner, covered in dust and old paperwork.
Her eyes flicked to the door again. She didn’t want to open it, not after what happened, but she needed to think. "There has to be another way out of here." She said under her breath, pacing as she speaks. "A back door, maybe a service tunnel, something. There’s always emergency exits in these places, right?" Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on noⅴelfire.net
Her flashlight beam danced as she moved closer to the cabinet. It took some effort, but she managed to pry one side open. Inside were small bottles with faded labels, some shattered at the base. The air that escaped was thick with a bitter, chemical tang.
"Ugh, god, that’s nasty." She covered her nose with her sleeve, her eyes narrowing as she squinted at one of the labels. The print was smeared, but she could make out part of it, "Sedative Type-B Compound."
"Guess that confirms this was some kind of med room." She muttered, setting the bottle down. "Still doesn’t help me figure out how to get the hell out of here." She moved toward the far wall, checking for any sign of a vent or panel. Her fingers brushed against a rusted filing cabinet that rattled when she touched it. Papers were still inside, the edges stuck together from moisture.
Out of curiosity, she tugged one free. The ink had run long ago, but she could still make out a few legible words: ’Treatment schedule, observation window, containment protocol...’
"This is creepy as fuck, somewhat exactly where they even doing in this place to these people?" She questioned herself as her flashlight caught on something just beneath the cabinet, a faint line in the floor. "Ha, is that... She crouched down, brushing away the grime with her hands. "Huh..." She whispered. There was a small, square outline of metal, some kind of floor hatch, but the latch was missing. She pried at it with her fingers, but it didn’t budge. "Damn that is sealed tight."
"Of course it’s locked." She exhaled sharply, stepping back. "Why wouldn’t it be?" Her nerves were still frayed. Every small sound felt amplified in the depth of the silence, her breathing, the slow dripping from a pipe above, the dull groan of wood expanding with the humidity.
Then came a noise. "Whaaaatt... She panic, as somewhere in the distance of this room, she swore she heard something was moving. "Fuck, did that asshole found a way in or something?" Nellie said and froze. Her flashlight beam jerked toward the door, hand trembling.
Nothing moved as far as she can see. But she could feel something almost like a six sense, a familiar a d sick tension crawled up the back of her neck like earlier. It was the sense of being watched.
"No, no, you’re just tired," she whispered, shaking her head. "You’re hearing shit. There is no way that freak can get in here as far as I can see." Still, her hand drifted toward the small wrench clipped to her belt that she sounded earlier. It wasn’t much, but it was something. She tightened her grip on it. As she decided to check the far side of the room, hoping there might be a vent or an old emergency door hidden behind the shelves. She passed under a broken ceiling light as she did, its glass shattered across the floor like frozen raindrops.
The further she moved, the more she realized just how unstable the structure was. The tiles dipped slightly near the center, sagging under her weight. The wood beneath must’ve been rotted through by years of flooding. Still, she had to try to get out of here. She ran her light along the wall, tracing cracks, until she spotted a faded evacuation plan tacked near the corner. The paper was yellowed and water-stained, the ink nearly illegible, but she could still make out a rough outline of the building.
Her finger hovered over the red lines printed on it. "Looks like... yeah, there’s a maintenance hallway behind here." She murmured. "If I could just get through this wall, or...
But just then the floor beneath her groaned. She stopped mid-sentence. The beam of her flashlight flicked down. A line was forming across the tiles, thin but widening. "Wait, wait...no, no, no..."
The sound split the air like a gunshot. The floor gave out beneath her before she could even react. Her scream cut through the dark as the world tilted violently. She fell hard, first through a layer of wood and rusted pipes, then into open air. Her camera jerked wildly, the red light blinking as it tumbled with her.
Until she drop below, and the breath was knocked clean out of her lungs as she hit something solid yet soft, a mound of debris, broken boards, and old insulation.
For a few seconds, she just lay there, dazed, "ughhhh... Groaning in pain and blinking up at the jagged hole she had fallen through.
"...Ow," she groaned once more. Her body ached all over, but nothing felt broken. At least, she hoped not. "You’ve got to be kidding me."
She sat up slowly, rubbing her shoulder. Her camera was still attached to her chest, how it was cracked, but over all still working. The flashlight had rolled off somewhere nearby, its light spilling across the floor in an uneven beam.
She crawled over and grabbed it, wincing as she shined it around.
The place she had landed in wasn’t a basement, rather it look like another floor beneath the initial three. Like the parts of the asylum that had been buried and his here from the public eyes. The walls were unfinished concrete, slick with moisture, and pipes ran along the ceiling in tangled patterns.
It smelled like rot and stagnant water. "Great." Nellie muttered. "Fuck, how the hell do I get out of here now." Her voice echoed faintly, bouncing back distorted.
Her flashlight traced along the room’s edge until it caught a faint glimmer, metal, an old stretcher lying overturned, half-submerged in water. Beside it was a door, heavy and reinforced, slightly ajar.
Nellie hesitated, as she move closer, deciding to start exploring this new place. And each she took made step made a wet squelch on the wet ground. The walls were covered in old mold, and stein with blood. She reached the door and pushed it open slowly. It resisted at first, then gave way with a wet metallic groan.
Inside was another corridor, narrower and darker than before. The walls were lined with old piping and electrical conduits, some still dripping condensation. "Hmm, this is, wow... Nellie said suprise by the sight layed before her.