( CHAPTER THREE ; LITTLE MISS RED )
You were boiling water for your cup of noodles when you heard the same faint banging noise again. At this point, you were getting sick of it and your morning had been ruined. Not to be dramatic or anything but if you heard the same thing for minutes straight, you'd probably get mad too, especially since it was also creepy.
You put on some casual clothes quickly and went out of your apartment room while walking to the same apartment yesterday.
While you were on your way to the door, you noticed Yi-Hyun and the legal "Comet Man" from yesterday in front of the unit's door, probably complaining about the noise too.
You were about to speak up when the doctor pulled out a girl beside him who looked extremely nervous. "I couldn't tell you yesterday, but my wife is ill. She keeps throwing things and yelling."
Finally having a chance to speak up, you opened the gap on his door more and knocked on it, gaining everyone's attention. "Then who is she?" You asked and looked at the girl who he was obviously having an affair with.
He looked at you nervously, "She's a consultant at my wife's dermatology clinic, and she came to help us because she's worried." He explained quickly while his voice cracked a little. He patted the back of the woman beside him, waiting for an answer but all he received was silence. "My wife took a sleeping pill, so she'll be fine."
"Does she happen to bite or scratch by any chance?" Yi-Hyun asked which made you turn to him with a confused look on your face, this wasn't Train to Busan or anything so what was he playing at? He looked at you for a second looking a bit offended at the look you were giving him and whispered to you "what?" before turning back to the doctor.
"It's not that bad. She just gets sensitive from time to time. We won't cause any more noise. I'm sorry." He said while quickly trying to close the door, but was stopped by you putting your hand on the door to hold it open and Yi-Hyun blocking it with his foot.
"What is it?" The doctor asked the both of you while you looked for anything suspicious. Your eyes landed on the edge of his sleeve, which was stained with dried blood. It would seem the detective beside you saw it too because you both looked in the same direction for a few seconds. "Well.. What's the name of that dermatology clinic?"
The doctor ended up giving Yi-Hyun the name of his wife's clinic and shut the door while the other man with the both of you left first. "Did you see it?" You asked, looking straight at the door.
"There's something suspicious going on in there, don't try to investigate and stop Sae-bom from doing so too. And don't be going around playing detective's sidekick." He said and left you alone while he went back to his apartment.
"Ouch, do I look like a damn babysitter?" You shook your head while walking back to your apartment to do whatever.
All of a sudden when you were just about to open your door, your phone started blowing up from the notifications flooding it. "What the hell.." You tried to look at what the new fuss was about when you saw a clip of a man in a container.
"Is anyone there?" The guy on the clip moved in deeper into the room and showed multiple bodies stacked together in what looked like a freezer version of a morgue, suddenly the clip cut, and somehow all the bodies were stretching abnormally. "They're not humans. None of them are." The guy said while his voice was shaking.
You finally opened the door and went into your living room to turn on the news.
"The footage you just watched was obtained exclusively by us. I repeat. The footage, exclusively obtained by our broadcasting station, was recorded by an anonymous informant who snuck into a secret government facility and filmed this with his phone."
It wasn't the first time you'd heard about something related to a new disease which was called "Mad Human Disease". You remembered the question Yi-Hyun asked the guy earlier and now you were realizing that the situation may be just getting worse. You barely had groceries so you had to stack up on that just in case another lockdown happened again.
"-Mad Human Disease, which makes patients bite people and drink blood, does exist." Ok, now at this point you were starting to panic, you were worried about your family and friends especially because you were away from them.
"The government may be concealing this. This is the only evidence we have for now. The informant had been out of reach after sending us the video." That specific sentence made you fully realize that something shady was going on and this disease was more serious than you thought.
You went to the supermarket and brought some money with you to stock up and buy groceries, one reason being your fridge was empty, and the other was just that you were probably paranoid about the news. But still, it was better to be prepared than sorry.
You went into the small supermarket and took a shopping cart while putting lots of necessities and food in it. You went to pay the cashier when she looked at you with a questioning look because you looked like you were about to seclude yourself from the whole world with all this food and hide away until you die.
"Ah, I just moved in, sorry if this looks like too much.." You explained while smiling at her awkwardly, she just smiled back and told you that this wasn't something unusual and she had been quite used to it because of the previous pandemic.
You were walking back to the building and it would seem you walked in on some unwanted drama. It was Sae-bom and two unknown people who have been standing close together near a warning picture of Sae-bom kicking down the stone block from the other day, but her face was blurred.
You furrowed your brows and snatched the picture from the wall and tried to hurry and walk away but the fancy-looking woman stopped you.
"And who are you?" She asked, looking a little dissatisfied with what you had just done. "I live in unit #202 on the second floor, need anything?" You wanted to make the conversation quick and just leave, not wanting to interact with the woman. "A public rental..." She said slowly looking a little disgusted.
"Yeah?" You asked, now standing in between Sae-bom and the other woman, the three of you look at her with a questioning look. "You know the doctor who lives in Unit #601, right?" She turned to Sae-bom and asked her about the doctor who had been making noises now and then.
"She's having a hard time because of people randomly visiting. Her husband said she canceled her appointments and is lying sick in bed." She explained to us. "Did they say that?" Sae-bom asked not convinced.
"They were stomping every night, I can make a complaint whenever I want to, right?" You said, gaining the attention of the woman in front of you. "Young ladies.. The noise doesn't follow certain directions." Now two more people were joining and watching the conversation you were all having, clearly curious about the commotion.
"-We don't know which unit is making the noise." She finished and the new old woman went near us and handed out posters to everyone except the girl on your left who looked away. "Don't fight and come to church. God knows everything."
You took this as your cue to escape while still having Sae-bom's poster in your hand slightly crunched up, the woman was gonna stop you from leaving but the sweet old woman didn't stop talking. You went into the elevator and the last thing you saw was her giving the poster back to the old woman.
Now you were home, organizing everything you've bought when that same specific noise resurfaced again. You were contemplating what to do, but you remembered what Yi-Hyun told you.
"There's something suspicious going on in there, don't try to investigate and stop Sae-bom from doing so too. And don't be going around playing detective's sidekick."
You guessed your friend was probably already there because her apartment was only one floor under the doctor's apartment, which meant you had to hurry. When you got there, you saw the doctor standing in his apartment with no sign of Sae-bom.
But the main thing that caught your eye was the lady in a bloodied light brown robe behind him who looked like a devil who had been unleashed to earth.
It wasn't long before the doctor ran and he accidentally bumped you on his way, making you fall into the floor butt first, to say you were scared was an understatement, but the lady drenched in blood, fortunately, didn't seem to care about you and ran past you.
You quickly stood up and saw Sae-bom exiting the bathroom. "(Y/n)!" She shouted with a concerned tone and held your hand quickly to chase the doctor and the lady who left, probably playing a brutal game of cat and mouse.
Your friend held a pillow in her left hand while your arm was on the other. While you were both on your way to the stairs, you saw people gathered together with the old woman from earlier sitting on the floor.
You didn't have a chance to help and ask the poor lady if she got hurt or anything because Sae-bom was practically dragging you with her. You both reached a door with blood smeared on it and Sae-bom quickly opened it, revealing the woman in front of you. It was looking straight at Seo-Yoon which made your panic rise even more.
Sae-bom snuck into the woman and put the pillow on her face so she couldn't do more damage while you quickly ran to Seo-Yoon, but the bloodied lady knocked Sae-bom off of her and went after you making you stumble into the floor with her body on your back.
She was close to biting your nape, but Sae-bom quickly reacted and pulled the woman off of you while you turned and pushed the red woman so you could distance yourself from her, which made the red-skinned monster go after Sae-bom, but this time, she was the one on the floor and the only thing separating her and the woman was the pillow she desperately held.
Seo-Yoon was pressing the elevator buttons asking for help extremely terrified. You stood up quickly to help Sae-bom but the doctor pushed you into the wall. Just in time, the elevator opened and revealed Yi-Hyun, who went to aid Sae-bom quickly.
"You.." You stared at the doctor who had just pushed you, preventing you from helping your friend with a mad face while he had a scared look on his face. You sat up quickly and punched him in the face, which got Yi-Hyun's attention who went to the both of you quickly to stop you from hurting the terrified doctor even more.
He went near you and the doctor, saying some things to him that you weren't able to catch because of the Adrenaline in your veins. It was when he punched him in the chest that got your attention and you gave out a laugh to the doctor who deserved it.
The emergency response team came and Yi-Hyun told them to come here to go and help the doctor who was struggling to breathe. "He must be shocked by his wife's injury."
You went back into your apartment to try and calm yourself down while Yi-Hyun told you and Sae-bom that he was gonna investigate the apartment of the married couple.
You sat down and watched the news. "Here is the announcement on Mad Human Disease. Our organization has found out that there were patients biting people at nursing homes and homeless facilities, and while analyzing the patients, we found out that Mad Human Disease really does exist."
You buried your face in your hands while sweat was dripping from the side of your forehead. You went inside the bathroom while the news was still playing so you could hear it.
"Based on the analysis, it's assumed to be a type of mutated virus." You stared at your reflection in the mirror and then the little blood stain on your hands from when you were trying to get the woman off of your back. "Once the disease occurs, the patients only attack humans, try to bite their necks, and claim to have an extreme thirst before the symptoms occur."
You went into the kitchen to grab yourself a bottle of water. You weren't prepared for what happened today, and you couldn't imagine how traumatized
Seo-Yoon must've been, but she was a brave girl so you worried less.
"If you have any of these symptoms or find someone who shows such symptoms, please call the "CDSCHQ's main number right away." You turned off the television and took a quick bath because you were scared some of the blood would still be dried onto you. Changing into a more comfortable outfit, you went to bed, praying that nothing bad will happen anymore.