A few seconds of eerie silence passed, then the air instantly filled with a thick, pungent stench of blood.
The few people closest to that man, after a brief stunned pause, began to scream in terror, retreating with frantic limbs, trying to put as much distance between themselves and him as possible.
“What is that?”
“Did he pull out a tongue or something?”
“Oh my god, that’s disgusting…”
“Hurry, go get the Self-Defense Force!”
…
Several others hastily pulled out their phones from their pockets. Although the phone signal was completely cut off, other functions still worked normally—including the flashlight. Previously, no one wanted to waste battery, but now, no one cared. They just wanted to figure out what was happening as soon as possible.
Under the beams of several flashlights, the long, red thing in the man’s hand was fully exposed. The crowd still couldn’t make out exactly what it was, but it seemed to be moving—alive. The blood-soaked red object writhed constantly in his grip like a crimson snake.
Many people were terrified, screaming wildly in panic.
Tang Siqing’s mind flashed like lightning. It was as if she suddenly understood something. While her brain raced to analyze the situation, her hand had already grabbed Zhang Xin’s arm beside her.
At that moment, a similar sound of vomiting came from another direction, followed by a third person, a fourth… Like a chain reaction, the originally quiet reading area quickly filled with spine-chilling retching sounds.
The once safe refuge instantly descended into chaos. As the second and third persons tore open their mouths and pulled out bloody things from their throats, fearful cries erupted everywhere. Almost everyone was awakened—some even jolted awake after being trampled by panicked people rising in a frenzy. Their cries hadn’t yet faded when the overwhelming smell of blood spread through the area.
That intense, metallic blood scent, along with the chaos erupting around them, made those who had faced days of disaster finally realize the severity of the situation.
The screams quickly mixed with agonized wails. People hurriedly stood up, clutching their backpacks and pulling their families away from the vomiting individuals as far as possible.
Some snapped out of their panic and shouted toward the Self-Defense Force members stationed at the temporary medical room across the hall, “Something’s wrong!”
Those closest to the medical room immediately scrambled up and rushed toward its doors.
When the rest area door opened, Tang Siqing dragged Zhang Xin and Zhang Yu away to a nearby corridor. Zhang Yu shielded them, leading them toward the other end of the hall while cautiously scanning their surroundings.
Tang Siqing’s reaction was still the fastest. While others were frozen, dumbfounded by the sight of people vomiting bloody strange objects, she had already slung her bag to the front and pulled Zhang Xin and Zhang Yu to evacuate.
The few nearby people who saw their movement also left the reading area early, but they were anxious and confused, like headless flies. They kept pestering Tang Siqing’s group, asking where they were headed.
Tang Siqing couldn’t answer. It was past midnight, raining outside, and the gray fog monsters could arrive at any moment. Leaving the reading area was purely instinctive—a gut reaction from having read too many post-apocalyptic novels.
The reading area was crowded with tables, chairs, and resting civilians, and there wasn’t sufficient lighting. Once chaos erupted, no matter how severe the incident, the ensuing stampede could easily become the deadliest disaster.
The half-open door was suddenly yanked wide. Several night-watch Self-Defense Force soldiers rushed out from the rest area, faced with utter chaos: the opposite reading zone flickered with flashlight beams, screams drowned out the retching. The noise was louder than the vomiting.
Inside the dark building, the air seemed to explode, thick with unease and the metallic smell of blood.
The soldiers shouted loudly, asking what was going on, but most people had no idea what had happened. Even witnesses like Tang Siqing couldn’t fully comprehend the situation.
But her mind raced, rapidly surveying the surroundings while analyzing the unfolding events.
Was it a mutation?
The first person to vomit had an injury on their arm. Was it because they had been attacked by the red-tongue monster and infected?
But the red-tongue monster hadn’t appeared for several days now. Zhang Xin had already observed the bodies on the first night to check for any signs. If that was the beginning of mutation, why hadn’t anyone else—living or dead—showed obvious changes in all this time?
Now the vomiting kept happening one after another. Were they all coincidentally injured around the same time?
Rather than coincidence, it seemed like they had all suddenly fallen ill at the exact same moment as if by some unspoken agreement!
A mutation can’t be scheduled. So what was the trigger?
What was the catalyst?
Tang Siqing’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gunfire.
Someone had opened fire—not in their reading area three, but in the direction of reading area one. The gunshots made the screams even more frantic. At this moment, everyone had long forgotten the Self-Defense Force’s earlier order to stay quiet.
There were too many people; the chaos was spreading.
“This place is no longer safe!” Zhang Yu said, glancing at Tang Siqing. “Should we retreat to the vehicles first?” Their cars were parked inside the school—some on the field near the gym, others in the open space between the library and the art building.
“The outside isn’t safe either,” Tang Siqing replied quickly. “Let’s go to the first floor. There’s a restroom and an archive room there.”
Because most of the first floor library had floor-to-ceiling glass windows, several panes had been broken during the previous fog. The Self-Defense Force hadn’t allowed civilians to use the first-floor reading area, instead assigning them from the second floor upward.
They also blocked off the spiral staircase, stationed guards at multiple emergency stairwell entrances, funneling civilians through those routes.
But Tang Siqing had seen the floor plans of every level of the library and knew the first floor had many small, cramped rooms, none with floor-to-ceiling windows.
The entire library had been cleared by the Self-Defense Force. Even if the gray fog suddenly appeared, as long as the small room they sheltered in had intact windows, they could remain relatively safe.
“The stairwell over there is closer!” Zhang Xin said, grabbing a few people and running. The corridor was already crowded, so she wanted to get down before others from the reading area surged in.
“It’s too late. We’re on the fourth floor. There are still the third and second floors below. Too many people—” Tang Siqing hadn’t finished, but the others understood.
If such an outbreak happened on the second or third floors, and others had the same idea of evacuating, the stairwells would become the most congested areas. They’d be trapped by crowds above and below, unable to move, surrounded by panicked people, risking being caught in stampedes.
“What do we do then?” Zhang Xin stopped abruptly, anxiously looking back.
“Here!” Tang Siqing pointed to a fork in the corridor, which led to another hallway and, eventually, the elevator lobby.
Zhang Yu had also studied the library’s floor plans and understood Tang Siqing wanted to reach the elevators. “But isn’t the power out in the city?” he asked. They had considered the elevator on the way here but were quickly redirected by the soldiers to take the stairs. The soldiers explained that at night, with the power out, they couldn’t use the lights.
“No, the school has backup power, especially this boarding school. Each building even has its own emergency generator. The Self-Defense Force forbids us from turning on lights to avoid attracting monsters in the dark, but the elevator lighting is on a separate circuit…” She spoke while sprinting down the corridor without pause, leading the group into the adjacent hallway, heading for the elevators at the far end.
The few people who had followed them earlier quickly caught up.
Inside the temporary medical room, several soldiers who had been resting on the carpet forced themselves to stand. Their bodies had felt unwell throughout the night, probably due to their wounds; they’d felt feverish but didn’t want to disturb the other injured.
Now, startled awake by the chaos outside, they immediately felt a suffocating tightness in their chests—a sensation of something blocking their throat and chest. They bent over in distress and uncontrollably vomited.
They didn’t understand what was happening. Their ears seemed deaf to the outside chaos, and their minds briefly stalled. Their entire focus was on their throats, trying desperately to pull out whatever was stuck inside.
No one knew how much time passed before they registered excruciating pain. It was intense, radiating from their chest up to their faces, blurring their vision until the world around them turned blood red.
Still clueless about what was happening, their fingers felt something slimy writhing between them. The object slipped from their grasp onto the floor. Their minds grew foggy; they forgot where they were, what to do, even who they were.
They bent over again, digging even more fiercely at their throats.
It wasn’t over yet—there was still more… to pull out…