After seeing the despairing message scrawled on the pillar, Agent Henry Russell collapsed on the spot as if he had been hit by a truck.
Finally managing to gather his wits, he was back to exploring the shopping mall again.
Of course, he had no clue how much time had passed.
All the electronic devices he had on him when he entered were completely dead, and it had been way too long to gauge time anyway. His mind, which had started to feel foggy, was already reaching its limit.
He used to wobble occasionally, but now he was staggering quite a lot. To shake off the haze, he was repeatedly giving himself a splash of cold water so harsh it felt like his skin was peeling off.
“Dammit, my consciousness…”
He bit his lip and muttered some meaningless curses. Ever since he encountered that thing, every time he tried thinking deeply, a headache pounded in his skull, along with some unknown thoughts that plagued him.
Especially since it had been ages since he had eaten anything, his mental state was razor-sharp. If he didn’t let out some of his pent-up feelings soon, he felt like he would go mad before he collapsed.
Fortunately, he hadn’t wandered about this place completely empty-handed.
After the gigantic pillar appeared in the center of the shopping mall, there were new graffiti marks that he hadn’t seen before all over the stores.
Most of them were vague cries for help, asking to be saved, or wondering where the heck they were. They didn’t have much meaning, just a lot of pleas for assistance.
However, among those, there were a few useful tidbits.
‘First off, that strange thing doesn’t show up as often.’
At that moment, he recalled information about the creature chasing him. The graffiti explained that it didn’t always exist in this space; before it appeared, the store lights would start flickering like crazy, and it could never get inside the emergency exit. So, when the lights started flickering, it advised making a run for that exit as fast as possible.
Well, at least that part was all true. After he first escaped from it, he had encountered it several times again, but just as the graffiti indicated, if he dashed straight for the emergency exit, he could easily shake it off.
Initially, he had no idea what caused the lights to flicker and hadn’t even thought of running until it was close, but now knowing the cues, escaping wasn’t much of a problem.
‘And there were definitely hints about escaping as well.’
The clues left by the people who had been there before. The rough messages repeating to look for something orange.
He had no idea what the orange referred to, but all the countless pieces of graffiti he had encountered painted it as his only hope. So, he had been rummaging through this place trying to find something he didn’t even know the shape of.
And finally, now, he was about to check the one place he hadn’t been yet.
‘If nothing’s here either…’
He thought of the negative possibility but shook his head to quickly dismiss it. He could despair later; more importantly, he still wanted to live.
As long as there was hope, he would fight with all his might until that moment came.
When he halted his steps, he found a crumbling set of stairs right in front of him.
It was so destroyed that not even a person could pass, let alone move the debris. This space above the stairs was the only area he had never been to in this location.
‘But if this exists, it’s different.’
He placed the object he had brought in front of him. A shabby-looking ladder, tangled with junk.
Whether it could even be called a ladder was questionable, but at least to him right now, as long as he could get up there, the appearance didn’t matter.
He adjusted his position and leaned the top of the ladder against the wall. Now, he just had to climb up.
With anticipation bubbling in his heart, he was about to place his first foot on the ladder when—
—flicker
Suddenly, the lighting in the entire store began to flicker.
—flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker
“Damn it, showing up at a time like this…!”
Now familiar signs signaling trouble made him grit his teeth and start running. To appear at such a moment was wickedly cruel.
At first, it was a horrifying creature, but now that he was used to it, the anger took precedence.
However, this was going to be the last time. Once it showed its face, it hadn’t returned for quite a long while.
He dashed toward the nearby emergency exit, taking cover there for a moment. Once it turned around, he would climb up there and find something orange and escape from this place.
After running for a brief moment, he finally spotted a familiar red door in the distance.
It was a safe zone where it couldn’t follow him. The emergency exit he had been seeking.
‘Oddly enough, it feels strangely quiet today…’
The flickering lights had returned to normal, and by now, he thought the creature would start shrieking any moment. Yet, strangely, he couldn’t hear that chilling noise tormenting him this time.
Under normal circumstances, this would be highly suspicious. As he gradually turned to check for anything behind him, he confirmed that there was indeed nothing there.
He kept running toward the emergency exit right before his eyes.
So what if it didn’t matter? He had already reached close to the exit, and that thing wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Even if it showed up now, there was no way it could catch up to him.
Perhaps it had even started to give up.
With such hopeful thoughts filling his mind, he reached out to open the door that had come closer in no time.
Well, to be precise, he had tried to reach out.
“What the…?!”
Something black blocked his way in front of the door.
It looked somewhat like a hand, like a branch, and at the same time felt like a twisted hook.
However, the most certain thing was that the moment he saw it, a fierce headache invaded him, and he was hit with an overwhelming urge to vomit.
“Ugh—”
With stomach acid rising, his body lurched forward.
Just looking at that unidentified being rendered him incapable of standing. It was currently bursting out right next to the emergency exit.
“Damn this…!”
Ignoring the fact that he was spilling bile, Henry reflexively turned and started to run for his life.
Why it had appeared right beside the emergency exit, and if that was even possible—countless questions crashed into his mind, but facing that creature left no room to ponder.
To live, he just had to keep running.
‘But where to?’
A crucial question struck his mind. The only place to escape from that thing was blocked right in front of him. Where on earth could he run?
He had no stamina left to run for long after growing weak during his stay here, and if he just kept running, he was fated to get caught by that creature.
‘…Yeah, there’s only one place left.’
The place that came to his mind was the crumbled stairs.
Just before he had to flee while leaning against the ladder, there was no other choice but to go there.
He feared that it might lead him to a dead end, but at least for now, there was no other option but to climb up.
Before long, Henry managed to make it to the stairs.
Fortunately, the ladder leaned against the wall just as before.
―――Aaaah, ah, aaaaaah, aaaaaah, aaaaaah
“Hurry… hurry… hurry…!”
Sweating buckets, he started to climb the ladder.
Sweaty hands, a shoddily constructed ladder, a relentless pursuer behind him.
Nothing about the situation was remotely stable, but thankfully, without the ladder collapsing midway, he was able to grab the railing on the upper floor and finally made it there.
――thud!
“Ugh…!”
The railing was higher than he expected, and he began to hoist his body over it with all his strength.
With a thud, he fell to the floor below.
The pain was enough to make him dizzy, but he had no time to roll around in agony.
The shriek from below was already following closely behind him.
The top floor of this space he had never visited before.
Praying that he would find that orange something here, he ignored the aching pain all over his body and started to look around.
“――――――――――”
Before long, he realized that there was nothing there at all.
