Be the Light

2. The Smear

TW: graphic blood and gore in the second half of the chapter, minor vomit

This book will have 20 chapters btw!

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Alert though he didn't know what to expect, Wooyoung followed Yunho down the corridor. The earlier loneliness was forgotten as his senses strained against the stench of the second floor. Nothing became everything and the overwhelming assault on Wooyoung's stomach made him queasy and on edge. Ready to shoot at everything even remotely suspicious if only it alleviated him from this torment, Wooyoung levered his rifle against his shoulder.

The others shared his stress. Before, they had been forlorn and curious about this place. Now, with the added information that this had also been a hospital, death seemed to lurk in every corner that had once been devoid.

"Shit, is this what hospitals smell like?" Mingi groaned as he thrust the nearest door open. More beds lined up there and they were bare of all sheets and blankets. Some of them were specked with rusty stains and mold discolored the walls in creeping . It wasn't sanitary, but it was the best they could do while the world sank into ruin.

"Not ours," San uttered back. His brows were drawn into a line as he braced against the smell. Not even caves full of fouls smelled this bad. For many years, Wooyoung thought the rotting odor of death was the worst smell his mind ingrained, but he was wrong.

"It shouldn't smell. Any scent that leaked out a long time ago should have disappeared in the air. Is it a gas leak? That might be dangerous." Seonghwa contemplated in his bag. Clueless, Jongho clutched him close. Yeosang's face was green, and he accepted the glove Yunho handed him to smother his airways.

This smell wouldn't kill them, but it made Wooyoung's knees wobbly and mind woozy. Whatever it was, he hoped they could chuck it out of the window and use it to ward off the fouls. 

San guided them deeper into the facility. More corridors branched off and despite the agony, the group tediously searched the next room. Since the scent seemed to hang anywhere behind those curtains to seal it in, it was impossible to locate its source. Or was it the building itself that smelled?

The next room looked like a toolbox. A leaning chair dominated its middle, and trays could be rolled around to tug in the various equipments. Pliers, syringes and other absurd metal tools that looked vaguely like Jongho's mechanical items, yet so much more shiny, laid around. The cabinets were stocked with medicines, and San stared at a bag full of bandages that was just sitting in a corner.

"Huh?" Wooyoung made as he pulled a drawer open. Pill bottles with various labels and fistfuls of cotton pads to soak up blood.

"Why is downstairs looted and over here is paradise?" Yunho followed the train of Wooyoung's thought. They only sparingly scavenged the dubious drawers. Most of these things, they were well stocked on, but Mingi rifled through the medicines like a madman to find anything that might help Jongho. A moment later, their leader gulped down a painkiller Seonghwa approved of. It did whatever in his blood that might slow down the creeping growth of the fungus for a few hours. 

"Probably since the stench warded everyone off," Yeosang muttered. He pocketed a few tools but didn't tell them what he needed them for. Hoping they could help Jongho, Wooyoung let him.

"Let's hurry. I want to get the fuck out of here and get Seonghwa to his computer," Mingi gritted. He rushed past them to secure the corridor and Wooyoung's stomach agreed. No need to stay in this place for longer than necessary.

Though this situation was bizarre. The fouls would have no interest in loot, but raiders would have checked the entire building before leaving. If they fled from some danger, it might mean there was a hole somewhere after all that let the infected in.