Chapter 8
Chapter 8
The two of them sprinted toward the building. Behind them, the iron gate groaned under the strain, making a tremendous racket.
“Hehe… You closed the gate… but we’ll still find you…”
“Heeheehee, little piggies… See you soon…”
With death closing in, Li Wei’an had a sudden flash of inspiration. She grabbed Qingshui and veered right. “Over there! There’s a fire exit!”
They raced through the darkness. Li Wei’an dragged Qingshui up a narrow flight of stairs along the wall. At the top stood a heavy fire door marked “FIRE EXIT.”
“Stop!”
Qingshui yanked Li Wei’an to the ground. The madmen had already caught up! If either of them so much as poked her head out, the mob would descend on them and tear them apart!
Li Wei’an squeezed her eyes shut, scarcely daring to breathe. They were trapped against the wall. If the madmen spotted them, there would be no escape!
“Lalala… Where are you…”
“I’m so… lonely… Make me… feel good…”
After waiting for a while, Qingshui leaned close to Li Wei’an’s ear. “Crawl quietly.”
Li Wei’an nodded. Inch by inch, they wriggled up the stairs. The cold, hard steps dug painfully into their stomachs, but neither dared to stop.
Once inside the fire escape, they quickly rose and gently pulled the door shut behind them. The passage was bathed in the ghastly white glow of emergency lights, with concrete stairs spiraling upward.
“The shortest route to the broadcast room on the second floor goes through the large conference hall in the middle,” Li Wei’an whispered as they hurried up the stairs, her breath unsteady. “But Lin Hao said we couldn’t go near it…”
“We’ll assess the situation first,” Qingshui said.
They reached the second-floor exit. The fire door had a small window in it. Qingshui turned sideways and peered through at the narrowest possible angle.
One glance was enough to make her hold her breath.
That was no conference hall. It was a party thrown by hell itself.
Through the gap, she could see a massive crystal chandelier hanging in the center of the high-ceilinged hall. But instead of crystals, strings of soft tissue, half an arm, and a still-dripping head now dangled from it. They swayed like wind chimes with the movements of the crowd below.
At least thirty or forty “madmen” had gathered in the hall.
They were reveling.
One male madman wore a suit, though his shirt had been torn open to reveal a chest covered in scratches. He was waving a length of spine ripped from some unknown victim like a conductor’s baton while humming an off-key song.
Around him, seven or eight madmen held hands in a circle, dancing a grotesque waltz. Their feet stamped through blood deep enough to cover their ankles, sending thick ripples splashing outward.
In one corner, several madmen were pinning down someone who had not yet drawn his last breath. His abdomen had been cut open, and they were pulling out lengths of soft viscera and tossing them into the air like streamers. Every time another length flew up, the surrounding madmen erupted into shrill laughter and applause.
“Another one! Intestines! I want intestines!”
“Heeheehee… His liver’s still moving! Give it to me! Give it to me!”
Farther away, several madmen were “decorating” the walls. They pinned mangled limbs to the honor wall with thumbtacks. Beside them, someone had scrawled a crooked message in blood: “Outstanding Little Piggies Exhibition.”
A long-haired madwoman crouched beside a fallen companion. Smiling faintly, she slid her fingers into the other woman’s eye socket, gouged out an eyeball, and gently placed it in her mouth.
A nauseating madness permeated the entire hall.
The madmen’s obscenities mingled with human screams, rising and falling without end.
Despair poured into their spines like ice water.
Qingshui slowly backed away and shook her head at Li Wei’an, whose face had turned white as paper. “We can’t go that way. Crossing the hall would be suicide.”
Li Wei’an’s lips trembled. “But… the broadcast room is at the end of this floor…”
Qingshui frowned. “Is there another route?”
“The third floor.” Li Wei’an closed her eyes and searched her memory of the Administrative Building’s layout. “If the building has a square ring layout, we should be able to take the stairs on the other side of the third floor down and come out right by the broadcast room. That would let us avoid this hall entirely.”
“Let’s go.”
It was their only option.
They retreated into the fire escape and continued upward.
They reached the third floor.
It was pitch-black beyond the fire door. All the emergency lights on this floor seemed to be broken. Only the faint green glow of an exit sign barely traced the door’s outline.
Qingshui tightened her grip on her combat knife and listened carefully. It was silent outside. Even the distant revelry from the hall had faded to a muffled blur by the time it reached them.
It was too quiet.
Qingshui gently eased the door open a crack.
Outside was the third-floor corridor of the Administrative Building. Offices lined both sides, most of their doors tightly shut. Smears of blood dragged across the floor and disappeared into the darkness.
“Quickly.” Qingshui slipped out, with Li Wei’an close behind.
Keeping against the wall, they hurried forward. Their goal was to reach the staircase leading down at the far end of the corridor.
After covering a dozen meters or so, Qingshui caught a glimpse inside an open office as they passed.
A crimson figure lay across a desk, with another equally crimson figure embedded in its body.
Qingshui stopped dead and raised a hand. Li Wei’an had seen it too, and her breath caught.
The two slowly backed away, hoping to slip past without making a sound.
Just then, the figure lying on the desk slowly turned its head.
It had the face of a middle-aged woman, her mouth split into a grin that stretched all the way to her ears. Slowly, she looked toward them.
Then it opened its mouth, and a strange laugh bubbled from its throat. “Hello, students. Do you need… a teacher? Your teacher’s here… I’m right here…”
The next second, the same manic giggling erupted simultaneously from behind every closed office door on both sides of the corridor.
As if answering.
As if awakening.
“RUN!” Qingshui roared.
They sprinted toward the end of the corridor!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Something began battering the doors from within. Wood splintered and the panels buckled. The rasping growls turned into excited shrieks of laughter, multiplying and drawing closer by the second!
“Students, open the door! Open the door! Ahahahahaha!”
“Heeheehee… They came right to us… Kekeke…”
They still had twenty meters to go, but the first door had already shattered. A madman in business attire lunged out with a wide grin!
“Do you need any help, student? Ahahahaha! I can take care of it for you!”
Qingshui twisted aside. In the same motion, she drove her military spike into the side of its neck, gave it a wrench, yanked it free, and kept charging forward!
More doors burst open! Madmen poured out from every direction!
The corridor was blocked in an instant!
Front, back, left, right! Crimson figures were closing in from every side!
Li Wei’an desperately swung her fruit knife, slashing one madman’s arm, only for another to tackle her from the side! It opened its yellow-toothed mouth and bit down toward her face!
“Get off her!” Qingshui kicked the madman away and hauled Li Wei’an to her feet.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Then Qingshui spotted a bright red fire-hose cabinet on the corridor wall.
Water.
An idea flashed through her mind.
“Cover me!” Qingshui dragged Li Wei’an toward the cabinet and smashed the glass with one punch! The cold hose and nozzle lay inside.
She spun the valve open as fast as she could!
“Qingshui!” Li Wei’an’s voice cracked with tears. The madmen had nearly surrounded them completely!
Gritting her teeth, Qingshui put all her strength into it!
Creeeeak-BOOM!
A high-pressure torrent blasted from the fire hose! The tremendous recoil threw Qingshui backward, but she clung desperately to the nozzle and swept the bowl-wide jet-powerful as a water cannon-across the oncoming madmen!
WHAM!
The first few madmen were blasted off their feet by the violent current and slammed into walls and doors.
Everywhere the jet swept, bodies went flying! The madmen shrieked as some were knocked down and sent skidding several meters, while others were swept right out of the building!
In an instant, the corridor became a raging channel! Bloody water, chunks of flesh, and dust churned through the air, blurring everything from sight!
“Go!” Qingshui roared. Clutching the nozzle, she swept the torrent wildly from side to side as she pushed forward! The high-pressure jet carved out a temporary path!
Li Wei’an scrambled after her on hands and knees. Splashing through the rising water, they raced desperately toward the end of the corridor!
The stairwell was right ahead!
Qingshui aimed the nozzle at the last few madmen blocking the stairs and blasted them down the stairwell, then tossed the nozzle aside.
“Downstairs!”
They charged down the steps and reached the second floor!
Beyond the fire door was a short, silent corridor. At the far end stood a door marked “Broadcast Room.”
Fresh bloody handprints covered the door, along with dents from repeated impacts.
But at that moment, a “joyous” party was raging outside it.
They had arrived.