"Who in their right mind would come to a place like this in the middle of the night? If we don't leave now, we probably won't have time later." Li Xu quietly shifted his position, moving away from the hidden passage behind the cabinet.
Ma Wei picked up his flashlight and shone it into the passage to confirm
The two moved in perfect sync, neither speaking a word again, supporting each other as they left the room.
The corridor seemed to have changed somehow compared to when they first entered. They vaguely felt certain parts were different from before, but couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed.
Li Xu walked ahead with his flashlight, while Ma Wei turned on his phone's built-in light and followed behind.
"Be careful. There could be more than one monster down in the underground morgue."
The scene before them was like the highest-difficulty escape game imaginable for Ma Wei and Li Xu. They had to contend with corpses that had come back to life, monsters that could appear at any moment, a psychopathic killer armed with a weapon, and all manner of unknown traps.
"Li Xu, should I just throw my phone away? Carrying it makes me feel like that guy will call again." Ma Wei held his phone, feeling deeply unsettled. His mind had conjured the image more than once: Chen Ge dragging the Skull Crushing Hammer, wearing a terrifying grin, calling him. Just thinking about it sent shivers down his spine.
"Keep it. It's our only way to communicate with the outside world. But remember to switch it to silent mode—don't let a call give away our position at a critical moment." Li Xu thought more ahead; caught in danger, he seemed to have tapped into potential he didn't know he had.
Ma Wei changed his phone settings after hearing this, and the two hugged the corridor walls, retracing their steps.
Turning the corner and passing Warehouse No. 8, Li Xu, who was in front, paused. "Did that person open this door? Didn't we close all the doors when we left?"
A sticky residue clung to the iron door handle, and a thick scent of formaldehyde wafted from inside. Li Xu raised his flashlight and glanced in. His eyes immediately went wide.
"What's wrong?" Ma Wei sensed something was off and leaned over to look.
The glass containers inside were all still in their original places, but the cadavers within them were completely gone!
Li Xu's legs began to tremble. He shone his flashlight on the ground. On the concrete floor, several wet trails were clearly visible, leading out of the room and into the corridor they were standing in.
"Those... 'people' got out. They're in this corridor now." Li Xu swallowed hard, slowly moving his flashlight beam, worried he might suddenly illuminate something terrifying.
"Should we keep going forward?" Ma Wei felt uncertain. His legs were weak; he couldn't run fast. If they encountered danger, he could only stay put and wait for death—that was what despair was to him.
Li Xu hesitated too. The pitch-black corridor hid corpses that had crawled out of glass containers, along with various unknown dangers. If they stayed here, they'd have to face that madman whose danger level was arguably no less than the monsters'.
"Let's keep moving. If we sprint, we should be out of here in about ten minutes if nothing goes wrong." Li Xu took Ma Wei's phone. "The guy with the hammer probably didn't come out. I'll call the police first, then contact the security outside."
Li Xu dialed. The emergency call connected, and someone answered, but the signal was severely interrupted. He couldn't make out a single complete sentence.
"That shouldn't be! Even though we're underground and the signal is bad, it shouldn't be so bad that we can't even reach the police!"
Something down in the underground morgue was interfering with communications. Helplessly, Li Xu had to give up.
When it rains, it pours. He felt like he'd encountered every possible misfortune today.
"Let's head out first. If we run into a monster, we can always retreat." Li Xu helped Ma Wei along, forcing a bitter smile. "The only good news for us right now is that the guy with the hammer and the morgue monsters don't seem to be on the same side."
The flashlight beam illuminated the path ahead, and the two picked up their pace. As they passed by Warehouse No. 8, a faint sound came from inside.
There was no way they dared go in to investigate now. They lowered their heads and pretended they hadn't heard a thing.
The corridor stretched long and endless. After running past Warehouse No. 7, they reached a fork in the path. Standing between the two diverging tunnels was a dark figure.
Short in stature, very thin, it seemed to be holding something in its hands.
Ma Wei nudged Li Xu's arm. "Should we go past?"
Li Xu was also indecisive. He felt the underground morgue was unusually lively today.
Slowly raising his hand, he lifted his flashlight, directing the light onto the figure ahead.
Draped in a loose white coat, with black hair hanging down, the figure standing at the fork was a little girl.
Her head was bowed, both hands cradling a rotting, foul-smelling apple.
This eerie sight made both Li Xu and Ma Wei freeze, not daring to make a rash move. They stood rooted to the spot as waves of cold washed over them.
Bathed in the light, the girl slowly raised her head. Her features were sweet and lovely, giving the impression of a very quiet, introverted child.
She had light brown eyes, her gaze fixed on the apple in her palm, as if she wanted to taste the rotten, spoiled fruit.
Her skin was delicate and smooth, her features refined, her appearance cute. The girl stood in stark contrast to the rotting apple. But what was baffling was the look in her eyes as she gazed at the apple—a look of inexplicable longing.
The bright light from the flashlight made the girl frown slightly. Her small nose twitched gently, as if she smelled something fragrant, and she slowly looked up.
Her light brown eyes turned toward Ma Wei and Li Xu. The corners of her mouth lifted, her thin lips curving into a faint arc.
The smile was innocent, carrying neither goodwill nor malice, like a child who had found a toy she fancied.
The smile on the girl's face grew more pronounced, but apart from that, she showed no other unusual behavior. The child seemed to be acting entirely on instinct.
"Her hair and clothes are wet, and her skin tone looks off. Do you think she crawled out of one of those glass containers?"
"I don't remember seeing a girl in those containers when we went in just now."
"Wasn't one of the containers open? I suspect she's the one who got out of there."
The girl's stare made Ma Wei and Li Xu's skin crawl. The thought that she might be a corpse made them even more terrified, and their bodies instinctively retreated.
The girl remained standing still, but strange sounds echoed from other directions down the corridor. Wheels rolled along the white-painted corpse transport channel, and inside nearby Warehouse No. 7, several morgue drawers emitted loud bangs, as if whatever was locked inside was trying to get out.
The smell of formaldehyde in the air grew even thicker. Ma Wei and Li Xu had little time left to choose.
"Going deeper is a dead end! Heading out gives us a slim chance!" Li Xu clenched his teeth, grabbing Ma Wei's arm. "Let's risk it! We'll rush out together!"
"Okay!"
The two made up their minds. Like beasts driven into a corner, they prepared to fight for their lives!