A Fight to be Human (discontinued)

The Voice of the Fallen

I looked at my brother's corpse one final time, his body mutated, no longer resembling a human, with branches and yellow flowers growing out of it, and I swear I could almost hear him whispering to me... but I knew he wasn't here... not anymore. I recalled that fateful day when those horrors from beyond the veil broke into our reality, taking over the bodies of those corrupted by the influence of the gods, and the gods made their announcement to humanity...

...

It was the 5th of November and Shinwoo and I were in his office at the Seoul National University Hospital. Frequently, to escape the grimness of my job, I came to the hospital Shinwoo worked at during my downtime, and every time I did, I'd ask him to tell me about patients he'd recently treated.

Shinwoo and I were the complete opposite in many ways, but that was what we admired about each other. He was a doctor who healed the sick and dying, while I was a grave keeper who comforted families visiting the graves of the departed. He was talkative and loud, while I was quiet and preferred to listen.  Shinwoo never knew how to cope with death, but I was there to teach and comfort him, and I never knew the true beauty of life until Shinwoo showed me.

"Oh, Shinwoo, didn't you mention that you were helping examine a patient with some new sickness?" I asked him as I stirred my vending machine coffee with a plastic spoon.

Recently, a local priest had fallen ill with a mysterious ailment and was transferred to the Seoul National University Hospital for examination. The priest claimed to have intense headaches, and during his stay at the hospital, his skin became increasingly more and more deformed, turning almost pitch black in certain areas.

"Yeah, Pastor Lee," Shinwoo responded, sipping on a mug of fragrant herbal tea. "Hell, I shouldn't even be telling you this, but we've had experts from across the country examine him, and we've gotten fuck all out of it. Whatever disease he has, it's getting worse and worse by the day with more people falling ill, and we don't have a single clue as to what's causing it."

"Sounds like some spooky shit, even for me," I said, pretending to shiver. "I'm sure something will come of your efforts eventually, though."

Shinwoo snorted at my remark and was about to speak before an out-of-breath nurse hurriedly opened the door.

"Doctor Baek," she panted, "Pastor Lee's condition is destabilizing fast! Something's happening to him- no, to all the patients!"

Shinwoo jumped out of his seat and dropped his mug, causing it to shatter and spill tea all over the floor, and ran out of the office, rushing to the room the patient was in. I hurried out of the office and saw that the entire hospital was in a state of utter chaos, with doctors and nurses frantically running.

"What the- what's going on!?"

It started with one guttural scream, and then another soon followed, then another... soon, a cacophony of warped voices shrieked in unison, and all of a sudden... it stopped. I and the other visitors looked around the hospital, wondering what had happened. Had the hospital staff managed to stabilize the patients' conditions?

Unfortunately, it was not as I, and perhaps countless others, had hoped...

I heard a woman scream and the sound of glass shattering behind me, bringing me back to reality. I quickly turned around to see a nurse pinned to the ground by a humanoid creature with what appeared to be a pair of dove wings on its head, covering its face. It let out an ear-piercing scream as its wings opened, revealing countless eyes underneath them and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

"T-the patients... they're turning into monsters!" One of the doctors yelled as they and a group of others ran out of the ICU, shoving bins and carts holding equipment behind them, hoping to obstruct the path of the beasts.