Chapter 11

“Haa… haa…”

After finishing the barricade, my father moved more furniture to reinforce the fire door of the emergency staircase that he had closed, and then collapsed on the spot, panting heavily.

My mother and I had also joined in the series of tasks, albeit with minimal effort, but most of it was done by my father alone. Seeing him lift heavy furniture with an unbelievable strength, I had never felt so reliant on him.

“Ha, I guess the adrenaline rush is kicking in…”

Saying this with a tired smile, my father stood up. A faint sound of someone knocking on the fire door downstairs could be heard. No one was coming from the escalator side.

“It’s not normal… Normally, they would try to come from the escalator side.”

After saying this, my father checked the barricade again and led us to the back area, saying, “This way.”

He took a keychain from his pocket and inserted the key into the door marked “Staff Room,” then entered and turned on the lights. After putting down the luggage, he immediately took out a first aid kit from the shelf and began to examine my mother’s condition.

Until now, it was too dark to see clearly, but after my mother took off her coat, the state of her arm was terrible, with the flesh clearly torn.

“Terrible…”

I said this unconsciously. My mother, with sweat on her forehead, smiled bitterly and said, “I’m fine.”

While treating my mother, my father tried to call the police and fire department on his smartphone, but it seemed that the phone lines were overloaded and he couldn’t get through. My mother took over the task with her free hand, but she could only shake her head.

“Damn, can’t get through… Kaede, turn on the TV over there. Keep the volume low.”

Following my father’s words, I turned on the TV, and a live broadcast from the scene of the panic was playing.

The reporter said they were far from the center of the disturbance, but to me, who had fled here, those words meant nothing. As expected, the reporter was attacked by a group of people with hollow eyes, as if they had special makeup, and their bodies were covered in blood. The camera seemed to fall to the ground.

The scene quickly switched to the studio, where the anchor, taken aback, tried to cover up the situation by apologizing for the video disturbance.

My father, mother, and I stopped moving and stared at the screen intently.

Then, a man dressed as a security guard stumbled into the studio. His neck was stained red, and the stain had spread to his clothes. When the staff tried to stop him, the security guard bit the staff member’s neck.

Red blood spurted out, and the security guard fell on top of the staff member, sinking his teeth into the face. The studio fell into chaos, with people running around in panic, the camera still rolling. Eventually, the staff member who had fallen earlier slowly got up, and the camera either fell or the cable was disconnected, and the screen went black.

It was a scene that felt like we were watching a movie or something.

A bad feeling welled up inside me, and I slowly turned to my mother. She was staring at the TV with a cold, distant look in her eyes.

“Hey, you.”

“A, ah, sorry. I’m done for now. But we need to get to the hospital soon.”

Thinking that my father had been told he had stopped working, he finished wrapping the bandage and secured it with a bandage clip.

“Thank you. But that’s not it.”

“That’s not it… Did I wrap it wrong? Sorry…”

My mother shook her head and gently stroked her treated arm. She closed her eyes, looked at me, then at my father. Then, with a trembling voice, she said,

“No, that’s not it. Hey, what’s going to happen to me from now on?”