The elevator descended slowly.

  [11]

  [10]

  [9]

  It was strange. ‘Why is this elevator even working?’ Dong-jun wondered. Before he had reached the rooftop, the entire hospital had been plunged into a blackout. Under normal circumstances, this lift should have been dead.

  Dong-jun opened his palm and stared at the small, capsule-shaped chip the drone had given him. ‘The drone...’

  The elevator came to a halt on the 4th floor. There were no lower floors. He scanned the area; as expected, the power was out here. It was pitch black, but he could guess where they were.

  It looked like a storage area. Large industrial refrigerators and crates of dried ingredients lined the space in front of the elevator. Beyond the door, he could see the glint of stainless steel kitchen equipment.

  Dong-jun cautiously stepped out, pressing his back against the wall and peeking around the corner. Fortunately, no humanoids were in sight. He looked back. The middle-aged man was following slowly behind him.

  The man looked worse than before. Sweat drenched his entire body. Though Dong-jun’s own arm was still trapped in a cumbersome cast, he knew he couldn’t complain. He saw the severity of the man's condition—his shoes were stained so deeply with crimson that their original color was unrecognizable.

  Dong-jun reached out a hand to help, but the man simply shook his head. Dong-jun felt helpless. Looking at the raw skin and blood seeping through the man's shirt, he panicked internally. ‘What do I do? Should I disinfect it?’

  "I'm fine... getting out of here comes first," the man rasped in a low voice.

  Dong-jun moved forward. Since he had to put most of his weight on one leg, he used his good hand to lean against the wall for support. He wanted to move faster—the things on the rooftop could descend at any moment—but the heavy, dragging footsteps behind him told him he couldn't. Every choice felt like an impossible weight.

  As they passed the kitchen, they reached a hallway lined with patient rooms. Still, there was no sign of the machines. It seemed the drone was right; this was a pilot hospital operating without human staff. In a typical hospital, there would have been a cafeteria full of people.

  They reached a fork in the path. ‘Should we take the main elevator? Or the stairs? Right... the power is out. The stairs are the only way.’

  As he plotted their escape, images of the patients captured by the medical humanoids flashed through his mind. ‘What will happen to them? No... stop.’ He intentionally shut down the thought. He already had too much on his shoulders to worry about everyone else.

  But as he approached the emergency exit, a sound echoed from the stairwell. ‘Damn it...’

  The androids were coming down. There was no way they could outrun them to the first floor using the stairs. He pivoted immediately.

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  ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ ‘Hide in a room? The bathroom? Or...’

  He glanced at the man. His face had grown even paler. There was no clear path. Looking around felt like trying to solve a multiple-choice question where every answer was wrong. Then, through the window, he saw something falling.

  Another shape plummeted past. He focused his eyes and realized they were humanoids, jumping down from the upper floors. It was the worst-case scenario.

  ‘Think. I have to think of a way!’

  Ding.

  Suddenly, a sound echoed from behind him.

  The androids had reached the 4th floor. They moved with a perfect understanding of the hospital's layout. Three units began their sweep, splitting up to cover different zones without a single word of communication.

  Patient rooms. Bathrooms. Staff offices. They searched every inch. The ward was silent. Nothing moved. Within two minutes, they had cleared almost the entire floor. Only the final storage closet remained.

  Dong-jun held his breath in the darkness. An android approached steadily. Tap. Tap. The door swung open. Bang!

  But Dong-jun wasn't there. The androids returned to the stairwell and continued to the floor below.

  ‘Sounds like they’re heading down.’

  Dong-jun was actually inside one of the passenger elevators. It was bizarre. The power was still out everywhere else, yet this single elevator had suddenly roared to life. He had scrambled to grab a nearby wheelchair and some saline-soaked towels, hurried the man inside, and pressed the button for the 1st floor.

  "Whew..." Dong-jun exhaled in relief, thinking the crisis had passed. But the moment the doors hissed shut, the power cut out again.

  ‘What?’ Panic surged. He frantically pressed the buttons for the 1st floor, the basement, the 2nd floor—anything. The buttons remained dead. ‘What is wrong with this thing! Move! Move!’

  In the pitch black, with the floor indicator light extinguished, he hammered the panel. From outside, the metallic clatter of footsteps returned. The androids were nearby.

  ‘How did this happen? Why did the power come back just to vanish again?’ He tried to think of a way out. He remembered movie scenes where actors escaped through the elevator ceiling. He looked up at the ceiling tiles. ‘Is that even possible?’ He tried to step on the handrail to reach up, but his foot slipped. ‘Not in this condition...’

  ‘What else...’ As the footsteps outside faded, he jammed his fingers into the gap of the doors, trying to pry them open. But with one arm in a cast, he couldn't get any leverage.

  ‘Think...’ ‘The emergency bell?’ ‘No.’ Pressing that was equivalent to screaming, "I'm right here, come get me" to the androids.

  ‘Ha...’ He couldn't see a way out. ‘I don’t know anymore...’

  He wanted to give up. But he couldn't. He remembered the days he spent writing . The readership was dwindling, and no new readers were coming in. ‘Should I quit?’ ‘Should I just start a different project?’ ‘But I don’t want to give up...’

  The situation felt so similar to those days that a small, bitter laugh escaped him. He knew the truth. Reality was nothing like the story in . The only coincidence was that 'Soan' had appeared, and he was trying to find her. That was all.

  ‘It’s...’ ‘Too hard.’

  Suddenly, the power flickered back on. But the elevator was acting possessed. The light for the 12th floor turned on by itself, and the lift began to soar upward.

  ‘What?’ ‘Why is it going up?’

  It ascended at a terrifying speed. Ding.

  The doors opened on the 12th floor. Dong-jun instinctively dropped into a combat stance, expecting an ambush. And as expected, a humanoid was standing there. ‘Damn it.’

  Just as Dong-jun was about to strike, the humanoid collapsed face-forward. ‘?’

  Behind the fallen machine stood a figure. The man in the wheelchair spoke in a low, weary voice. "I thought I'd be waiting all night, kid."

  "Sorry, old man! I got here as fast as I could!"

  The voice belonged to a woman with brown hair, dressed in tactical gear. In her hand, she held a chip—identical in shape to the one Dong-jun had received from the drone.