"Can you stand?" Li Xu struggled to help Ma Wei to his feet.
Ma Wei staggered, stomping his foot hard, but it didn't help. He could feel the numbness in his lower legs slowly spreading downward.
"That stuff in the bucket is toxic — probably some kind of chemical cocktail that reacted when mixed together." Ma Wei had stopped studying after high school, so he didn't really understand the science behind it. All he knew was that the place he needed to be right now was a hospital. "Li Xu, didn't your hand touch that stuff too? Is it any better?"
Li Xu raised his palm. The large red patch on the palm of his hand had already spread, looking rather frightening. "I only got a little bit on me, and it's already like this. Your whole shoe got soaked — yours has got to be way worse than mine. We need to get out of here."
They abandoned the bucket. Li Xu supported Ma Wei as they made their way toward the edge of the corpse pool. They hadn't even climbed out when a splashing, clattering sound erupted from the hole behind them — something was climbing up.
At the same moment, the tool cabinet in the corner of the room began to tremble, as though someone was hiding behind it, trying to push it aside.
"What the hell is happening?" Li Xu's face went pale with panic. He scrambled out of the corpse pool and grabbed Ma Wei's arm. "Move! Those things are coming!"
He hauled Ma Wei with both hands, dragging him out of the pool.
The strange noises inside the room grew louder and louder. The creature in the hole was accelerating. The cabinet doors in the corner burst open from the shaking, and rusty iron chains came clattering down.
Li Xu pulled Ma Wei out of the corpse pool, and the two of them abandoned all thought of anything else, stumbling toward the door in a mad dash.
Their flashlight beams swung wildly in every direction. The underground morgue had become even more terrifying. Their only thought was escape, and they had just rushed to the doorway when a man's face suddenly thrust out from the darkness!
"Shit!"
Li Xu was in front. He wasn't the bravest to begin with, and under the beam of the flashlight, that man's face appeared deathly pale. Even more horrifying were his pupils — radiating a cold, sinister chill that made the body feel as though it were freezing solid.
The face had appeared without any warning. With absolutely no time to brace himself, Li Xu was so terrified he nearly jumped out of his skin. He stumbled back three or four steps, slamming straight into Ma Wei behind him.
Ma Wei's legs were already going numb — it was hard enough walking on his own. The sudden impact from Li Xu knocked him off balance entirely.
The two of them tumbled to the ground in a heap, their panicked voices echoing through the underground morgue.
"I saw it!"
"There's a face at the door!"
"That thing is right outside!"
All their attention had been fixed on the hole in the center of the corpse pool and the cabinet in the corner. It had never occurred to them that the real danger was coming from the doorway.
Their only way out was blocked. Li Xu screamed and kicked frantically at the ground, clawing his way deeper into the room with his hands and feet.
Ma Wei still hadn't registered what was happening. He'd been scared out of his wits by Li Xu, not daring to even raise his head, crawling after him in a blind panic toward the back of the room.
The room wasn't large. There wasn't even a place to hide. The two of them pressed themselves against the farthest wall, and in each other's eyes they saw a glimmer of despair.