Proud to be a Coward
Act I: Chapter 3
After finally having enough rest and regaining the energy and motivation to stand up, I decided to plan out what to do next. I wore the backpack and kept all it had with me. The journal greatly emphasized how monsters now ruled the city, and after much observation of the hospital I was in, I decided not to discredit it completely.
Plus, I don't have a home anymore anyway, so if the journal is true, then it should be past September already, which makes my rent way past its due... so I might as well live as if it's the end of the world.
As I walked around the ground floor, I was perturbed by the idea that I was bedridden for nine months, or maybe even more… Not to mention waking up healthy (well, as healthy as I was before heading into a coma anyway, still quite underweight...). Whatever, to distract my head, I listed down essentials I might need in the empty remaining pages of the journal; the bulleted list goes as follows:
- Food
- Water
- New, more comfortable clothes
- Any form of cellular device or communication
- People
Considering the hospital I'm in is pretty big, I figured it should have a canteen somewhere for food and water. I planned on looking for water bottles and canned goods in the hospital's canteen, hoping it had a pantry somewhere. As for clothes, I'll just scavenge anything I can find along the way.
Thankfully, the hospital's elevator had signs and notes written beside its buttons stating which floor each facility was stationed on. Seeing as the canteen was said to be located on the 5th floor, once more, I was facing the stairs. My mortal enemy. I gathered up my drive and motivation, and after a well-fought battle, I finally made it back up the 5th floor.
The canteen was kind of easy to find; it had a giant sign pointing towards it on the way. Thinking about it now, after spending hours in this building, I'm finally starting to realize how effective exposure therapy is. I've grown quite used to the smell of rusting iron and the yucky feeling it gives after being stepped on, and the cracks and holes don't really bother me anymore, much less the debris. I just have to be careful and watch my steps.
Entering the canteen, I felt my heart and mind shut off. I had finally seen my first human body, but they could barely even be called bodies. Many, many lying scattered across the floor, each missing a head and a few limbs. Some were still bleeding, blood seeping off their necks through their visible vertebrae, and at the center of the room was a stack full of these corpses.
My chest felt like it was getting pierced, and my heartbeat grew louder and louder as I was almost about to puke. Cold sweat trickled down my back, and a paralyzing chill seeped into my bones. A gnawing dread twisted in my gut, mixing up my organs, and my hand started shaking once again… No, it wasn't just my hand. It was my whole body. I knew I had to move; the fact that some of them were still spewing out fresh blood meant that the kill could be fresh. Something could be coming, the thing that caused all this, but I couldn't move; I couldn't even take my eyes off the scene.
And finally, after being stunned for what felt like an eternity, I heard something. Footsteps. Footsteps so powerful I felt the ground I was standing on shook. (Thinking back on it, it was just my imagination.) Nevertheless, I got scared, no, terrified. I knew I should've run away, but I didn't want it to hear me and start chasing after me. I tried finding a hiding spot, but there weren't any. No small spaces to fit in, no hidden rooms, no possible covers… except one… I dove into the stack of corpses in the middle of the room.
I submerged my body within these putrid corpses, positioning myself to be at the bottom of the stack with a very low belly crawl pose, hoping they would give me camouflage. As the footsteps of whatever was approaching grew louder and louder, I adjusted the corpses a bit, creating small gaps for me to peek through. Through these gaps, I was able to see a bit of the hallway at the other end of the canteen.
I couldn't take my eyes off that hallway, expecting that's where the monster would come from. Then, all of a sudden— silence. Not a single sound went past my ears. I closed my eyes and listened to every noise I could possibly hear. The beating of my heart, my blood running through my ears, the corpses' blood dripping. Unconsciously, I started praying again; I prayed that whatever it was had gone away, that it was all in my head, and I would wake up either in front of my computer, writing my book, or dead and next to God.
I opened my eyes, and there I saw dead pale calves, skinny as bones, and arms touching the floor, standing before the mountain of dead corpses. I could tell the creature was tall, with how big his extremities were. This immediately reminded me of Tago and how pale and big he was. I got scared thinking I could've fucked myself over because I looked at his limbs.
Is that the reason why he's the last monster recorded? Did Tago kill the author of the journal here? Or did the author of the journal manage to run away…?
I thought about the journal and remembered it claiming that Tago is similar to an animal. He only attacks humans if his face is seen. It also stated that Tago rarely moves. He prefers keeping his face hidden by facing a wall, covering it with his arms, and staying completely still in an attempt not to be seen.
Does this mean he wouldn't mind if I walked past him with my eyes closed..? I was afraid, too afraid. I wanted to give it a try, but was it really that simple? I only have one chance at this, and if it fails…
—Maybe I should just wait until he leaves..? I gave myself time to think; he wouldn't be coming after me as long as I didn't move from this spot. And after much contemplation, I made a final decision. I'll wait. From my point of view, I could see a hanging clock directly past the creature's current position behind the food containers between the monster's legs. The time was 1:23 pm, and until it passed 1:45 pm, I would not be moving from this exact spot… Unless something happens that urges me to do so.