Chapter 13: 13 Sudden Reversal

13 Sudden Reversal

After obtaining his new badge, Li Ang, having parted ways with the Bandaged Woman, immediately carried his “Big Gun” into the mall beside the hospital, heading straight for his chosen shooting position, while the Red Brick Road Hospital had already become another hell on earth.

In the first-floor lobby, once bustling with people, most had been swallowed by the cold floor tiles; the weak patients too exhausted to move could only desperately stretch their arms upward, helpless.

Looking across the entire lobby, it seemed as if countless struggling people had been mixed into the cement—arms everywhere, frantically reaching upward, their grasping fingers rising and falling like a living painting of hell.

Due to the carpeting, which prevented direct contact with the floor tiles, the situation in the fourth-floor intensive care ward was slightly better—the patients there had not yet been swallowed.

But seeing the condition of the corridor outside, neither patients nor nurses dared step beyond the carpet’s edge, fearing that stepping outside its “protective” boundary would cause them to sink into the floor tiles like those patients in the corridor.

This cannot continue!

Watching the patients sinking deeper into the corridor, the older nurse glanced around and, spotting the window, suddenly brightened:

“The window! We can get out through the window!”

“Yes! Yes! We can jump down!”

Hearing her words, the young nurse, whose right-hand skin had been torn off, shuddered violently, as if infused with some mysterious power; she stood up directly from the carpet, her expression ecstatic:

“It’s only the fourth floor! If we’re lucky, jumping down won’t kill us!”

“Wait… cough! Wait! Don’t jump!”

Hearing the young nurse’s words, Anna on the bed propped herself up and hurriedly spoke to stop her:

“Bed sheets, curtains… cough… and the sofa fabric! If we tie them together and secure them to something sturdy…”

We can climb down safely!

“I’ll do it!”

Understanding Anna’s meaning, the young nurse was overjoyed; ignoring her injured right hand, she ripped down the curtains in two swift motions, then rushed to the bedside and roughly dragged the still-coughing girl off the bed.

“What are you doing!”

Unprepared for such an act, the older nurse quickly steadied Anna, who nearly fell, and glared at the young nurse:

“She’s still sick! And if it weren’t for her stopping you, you’d have jumped out already!”

“I… I’m just trying to get us out faster!”

Though aware she had gone too far, the young nurse was clearly terrified by the bizarre situation outside; she tied the bedsheet to the curtain with her bloody hands, speaking incoherently:

“I… I’m getting married next month! I don’t want to die! It’s… too terrifying! This… this is demonic temptation! I absolutely refuse to die here!”

“Wait! Don’t go down yet!”

Seeing her tie one end of the “rope” to the corner cabinet nailed to the wall and toss the other end out the window, ready to leave, the older nurse cried out in alarm:

“There’s another patient! This girl is critically ill! She can’t grip the curtain! We must lower her first before we go!”

“Who cares… oh no!”

Under the older nurse’s furious stare, the young nurse suddenly remembered that if she descended, those upstairs could still untie the “escape rope”; her grim expression shifted, and she forced a nervous, awkward smile:

“I meant… my hand hurts, I’m afraid I can’t hold her… Look! Don’t worry! Once I’m out, I’ll immediately find someone to come back and rescue you!”

After saying this, before the other two could react, the young nurse grabbed the curtain covered in bloody handprints and scrambled out the window.

She began slowly descending.

“….”

That bastard!

Watching her colleague abandon them without hesitation, the older nurse gritted her teeth and muttered a curse, then helped Anna, who was still coughing, to the window, soothing her gently:

“It doesn’t matter that she left. Child, listen: I’ll tie one end of the curtain around your waist, then slowly lower you. Try to grip any protrusions on the outer wall—be careful not to fall directly…”

“AHHHH!”

At that moment, a terrified scream erupted from outside; startled, the older nurse leaned out—and was utterly shocked to see the young nurse who had just descended now stuck halfway into the second-floor exterior wall!

No—better to say she had been swallowed by the hospital’s outer wall, just like those patients in the corridor.

“Save me! Save me!”

How can I save you? Last time I could pull you back—but this time, I truly can’t…

Looking at her terrified colleague below, the older nurse let out a long sigh, her eyes filled with deep despair.

If the hospital’s outer wall can also “eat people,” then this last escape route is likely sealed—do we really have to jump? Even if I could gamble and risk falling to see if I’d die, what about this kind-hearted girl still ill beside me?

…

“Dong dong dong.”

As the two inside the ward were at a loss, the glass door of the intensive care ward was suddenly knocked on.

“You’re Anna, right?”

After confirming the room number, the Bandaged Woman’s gaze locked onto the sickly girl and strode over, speaking succinctly:

“I’m your brother’s colleague. I’m here to rescue you.”

Brother?!

Hearing the Bandaged Woman’s words, Anna’s anxious expression eased slightly.

Good—since she came to rescue me, my brother must be safe! But… why does my brother’s colleague dress so strangely?

After sizing up the tall woman wrapped in bandages, wearing a strange mask, Anna gripped the older nurse’s hand and asked cautiously:

“Miss… uh… if possible, could you also rescue her? If it weren’t for her taking care of me…”

“Okay.”

After glancing at the older nurse, who also looked hopeful, the Bandaged Woman said nothing more, simply nodded, then led both women to the window—and…

“Hmm?”

Seeing the young nurse already half-swallowed by the outer wall, the Bandaged Woman frowned and turned back to ask:

“She’s with you? Should I save her?”

Hearing this strange woman in the black mask might save her, the young nurse on the wall beamed with hope and pleaded desperately:

“Yes yes yes! We’re together! Please—tell them! Tell them to help me!”

Looking at the young nurse’s pleading eyes, the older nurse, who had just been filled with fury, sighed. She was about to speak when she felt her hand squeezed tightly.

“No.”

The older nurse was stunned—the kind-hearted girl who had once risked letting patients into her own ward now shook her head without hesitation.

“She tried to abandon us and escape alone. If saving her isn’t dangerous, please save her out of kindness—but if it’s risky, don’t bother. Just rescue the woman beside me.”

“I understand.”

Glancing at this girl who, even amid bizarre emergencies, remained calm, rational, and clear-headed, the Bandaged Woman smiled and nodded, then took the curtain hanging by the window, tied it around the older nurse’s waist, gripped the windowsill firmly, and extended her arm outside.

To the shock of the three women watching, this mysterious Bandaged Woman—stronger than any human should be—used nothing but pure arm strength to lower the older nurse, weighing at least fifty kilograms, straight down without touching the outer wall at all.

After glancing back at the room’s situation, the Bandaged Woman unwrapped the bandages from her wrist, wrapped the medicine packets, tied them to the IV stand, and carried the astonished Anna out the window together.

“Go find your brother!”

As she slowly lowered Anna, the Bandaged Woman leaned out and called gently:

“He’s safe right now, just across the…”

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Four nearly simultaneous explosions drowned out the Bandaged Woman’s voice—the corner cabinet securing the curtain’s end shuddered violently, and all four bolts nailed into the wall snapped clean out!

Amid the older nurse’s hysterical scream, Anna plummeted downward, while the metal corner cabinet, weighing over one hundred and fifty kilograms, followed the curtain rope and crashed thunderously toward the Bandaged Woman’s back!