Midnight
The steel doors shook again beneath another violent impact.
BOOM.
Dust rained from the ceiling while the old hospital ward trembled around them. Outside in the underground hallway, the drowned continued whispering softly through the darkness.
Some cried.
Some laughed quietly.
Some begged to be let inside.
And every single voice sounded human enough to make the fear worse.
Nora Vale sat perfectly still beside the overturned medical cabinet while her pulse hammered painfully inside her chest.
The drowned weren’t mindless monsters.
God.
That was the terrifying part.
They remembered enough humanity to imitate it.
Another slam bent the steel doors inward farther.
BOOM.
A wet cracking noise followed afterward like bones scraping against metal.
Elias slowly stepped backward from the entrance while gripping the shotgun tightly.
“They know we’re scared,” he whispered quietly.
Kai looked horrified.
“How does that sentence keep getting worse?”
Nobody answered.
Because suddenly—
the lights above the ward flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then died completely.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Selene gasped instantly.
“Oh my God.”
Only the faint red emergency light from the hallway beneath the doors remained now, painting the underground ward in dim blood-colored shadows.
And somewhere deep below the island—
something roared.
The sound rolled upward through the earth itself.
Massive.
Ancient.
Not remotely human.
The entire floor vibrated beneath them.
God.
Nora physically felt the noise inside her bones.
Kai whispered shakily into the darkness:
“That thing under the island is real.”
Elias’s voice emerged quietly from near the far wall.
“Yes.”
Another roar echoed underground.
Closer this time.
Then all the whispering outside the ward suddenly stopped.
Complete silence replaced it.
Heavy.
Wrong.
The silence felt worse than the screaming.
Jace slowly raised the flashlight toward the doors again.
“Why did they stop?”
Nobody answered.
Then came a sound from directly above them.
Footsteps.
Heavy footsteps crossing the ceiling slowly.
Not drowned footsteps.
Something larger.
Every step made the pipes above groan loudly.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The thing above them stopped directly over the center of the ward.
Silence followed.
Then—
dripping.
Black seawater began leaking slowly through the ceiling cracks onto the floor below.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Selene backed away immediately.
“No.”
Another drop landed.
Then another.
The dripping grew heavier.
Faster.
Like something soaked stood directly above them.
Then suddenly—
a hand burst through the ceiling tiles.
Everyone screamed.
Pale fingers clawed violently downward through the collapsing panels while black seawater poured into the room.
Another arm punched through beside it.
Then a face.
God.
The drowned creature forced itself through the ceiling opening upside down like a spider crawling from inside the walls. Its neck bent completely backward while its black eyes stared directly into the ward beneath flickering red light.
Then it shrieked.
The sound exploded through the room.
Elias fired instantly.
BOOM.
The shotgun blast tore directly through the creature’s face, throwing black blood across the ceiling.
But the drowned didn’t die.
It only screamed louder.
Then more hands burst through the ceiling.
Another drowned began forcing itself downward beside the first.
Then another.
Kai physically stumbled backward.
“Oh we are SO dead.”
The steel doors exploded inward at the same time.
Drowned flooded through the hallway entrance screaming violently while water surged across the floor beneath them.
Too many.
God.
Far too many.
The ward erupted into chaos instantly.
Jace swung the fire axe into the nearest creature hard enough to split its shoulder open while Rowan smashed another drowned backward with a metal IV stand.
But even injured—
they kept moving.
Bones snapped loudly back into place.
Broken limbs corrected themselves.
The drowned climbed across walls and ceilings unnaturally fast while seawater flooded deeper into the ward around everyone’s feet.
Selene screamed as one nearly reached her from behind.
Nora grabbed a rusted surgical tray instinctively and slammed it directly into the creature’s face.
Its jaw shattered sideways.
Then slowly corrected itself with wet cracking noises.
God.
Nothing here stayed dead.
Elias reloaded frantically while shouting over the screaming.
“THE SERVICE TUNNELS!”
“What?” Jace shouted back.
“There’s another exit below the hospital!”
Another drowned lunged toward them across the flooded floor.
Kai kicked it backward desperately.
“WHY DOES EVERYTHING HERE HAVE MORE LEVELS?”
The ceiling suddenly cracked loudly overhead.
Everyone looked up instinctively.
Big mistake.
The entire ceiling bulged downward.
Like something massive moved through the floor above them.
Then came another roar.
Not from the drowned.
Something bigger.
Closer.
The drowned froze instantly.
Every creature inside the ward stopped moving for one horrible second.
Then all of them slowly turned upward toward the ceiling.
Fear crossed their faces.
Actual fear.
God.
Even the drowned were scared of whatever moved above them.
Then chaos exploded again.
But this time—
the drowned weren’t attacking anymore.
They were fleeing.
Several creatures scrambled violently back into the hallway while others climbed upward through the broken ceiling trying desperately to escape.
One drowned shoved another aside in panic before disappearing into darkness.
The ward suddenly fell silent except for distant screams echoing underground.
Kai stared after them in disbelief.
“Did the monsters just get scared?”
Elias looked genuinely pale now.
Then softly—
almost like he dreaded the words—
he whispered:
“It woke up early.”
The floor beneath them trembled violently.
Another roar shook the underground hospital hard enough that cracks spread across the walls around them.
Then came a sound from somewhere deep inside the tunnels below.
Footsteps.
Enormous footsteps.
Slowly climbing upward toward the ward.