Chapter 4
I wiped away cold sweat as I moved my legs. At first, the pain was so intense I couldn’t even maintain proper balance. But as I moved slowly, it became manageable to walk. Though I had to drag one foot and limp along.
“Is anyone here!?”
Seeing no trace of people in the hospital, I raised my voice first. With desperate hope that someone would respond.
But my voice, raised to its fullest, bounced off the walls, echoed around, and quickly faded. There was no reply, and as my shadow flickered on the stark white walls, my hair stood on end and I felt goosebumps. It felt like I’d transitioned from a disaster movie to being the protagonist in a horror film.
To shake off my anxiety, I moved forward one step at a time while leaning against the wall, when my leg caught on something and my body froze. Sweat trickled down my spine.
“…Ah, damn it.”
What caught my foot was a blanket. A blanket that had lost its owner and lay abandoned, wrapped around the tip of my foot. I crouched down and untangled the blanket. Seeing the bloodstains at the edge of the blanket gave me chills, but I closed my eyes tight and threw it far away.
My feet, stiff with tension, began to ache as if they were going numb. As I slightly moved my feet to prevent cramps, I felt like giving up entirely. But thinking about the child left alone with a sick mother, I couldn’t rest even if I wanted to.
Just in case, I took out my phone from my pocket, but when I saw the pitch-black screen, a groan escaped me involuntarily. I carefully took steps again, just like before, and shouted once more.
“Is anyone there? Please answer me!”
But like earlier, the only response was my own echo. I grabbed my head and pondered. If I couldn’t find anyone to help inside the hospital, there was only one choice. I had to go outside to seek help and save the child’s mother. But… I didn’t have the confidence to leave the child behind and go far.
Given the situation, my longing for human contact grew stronger. Even if not someone who could provide treatment, if there was someone in better physical condition than me, I could ask them to help move the woman. With a life hanging in the balance and no certain solution, everything felt frightening.
Just then, I heard a very faint sound. It was an extremely small sound, comparable to the rustling of paper. Normally, I would never have heard it, but given the circumstances, even such a small sound reached my ears loudly.
Startled, I began searching for the source of the sound. I flung open rattling doors and carefully moved, avoiding the various tools scattered on the floor. Fortunately, this corridor stretched out in a straight line, so finding the source of the sound wasn’t too difficult.
– …no… please!
“Is someone there!”
It was definitely a human voice. In my excitement, I shouted without thinking. But then it occurred to me that this voice might be coming from a radio or TV. Seeing the smashed TV in the waiting room somewhat alleviated that concern, but there could still be intact TVs elsewhere.
“……”
After I shouted, silence descended on the interior of the hospital. It was a chilling silence where you might even hear dust falling. I felt the weight of the silence pressing down on my shoulders. Mixed in that silence was the expectation and hope I had briefly held, along with disappointment that was twice as intense. I turned away from the room I had peered into while limping.
Bang bang bang bang.
If not for the urgent knocking on the door grabbing me, I would have done so. Forgetting my aching leg, I practically threw myself at the door.
– Help me!
It was a woman’s voice. I pressed close to the door and spoke to her.
“Are you hurt? Are you alright?”
– I’m not hurt. But the doctor…
Doctor! My mind brightened at the voice beyond the door. If someone in a hospital would be called “doctor”…! I don’t think I was this happy even when I first heard a voice. While raising my injured leg to the machine blocking the door, I hurriedly asked:
“Is he badly hurt?”
– No. He’s not injured, but his body is trapped under a refrigerator. But I can’t push the refrigerator away with my strength alone…
Her words confused me a bit. Trapped under a refrigerator but not injured? I had many questions, but since I would soon see with my own eyes anyway, it seemed better to open the door quickly rather than waste time asking more questions.
I lowered my head to look at the machine that had fallen to the floor. In front of the door, a machine that appeared quite heavy was standing like a totem pole. I tried to pull it. If even a small gap could be created, the woman behind the door and I could work together to open it more easily. But my damn leg prevented me from putting strength into my hands, and I gritted my teeth with determination as I pulled it.
“Damn it! Please just move!”
I cursed at the machine blocking the door. The machine that had once saved many lives and helped countless people was now nothing more than scrap metal threatening people’s safety.
Kigigigigik-
As I put strength into it while resenting the stubborn machine, as if it had finally heard my complaint, the heavy machine finally moved. At that moment, I let out a small cheer. It was also a moment when the black body of the scrap metal looked a bit pretty.
– Is it working now?
“No! Please wait a little longer!”
Breathing heavily, I pushed my body into the gap that had opened. There was enough space for a person to barely crouch, but not enough for someone to pass through the door.
I sat down and placed my uninjured leg against the machine. The machine rattled as I applied pressure with my foot. But since I had used up all my strength in the first push, and couldn’t support myself properly with one leg, I couldn’t exert even half of my usual strength.
After catching my breath briefly, I placed my foot on it again and was about to exert all my strength when something black loomed over me.
“Ahhh!”
– What’s wrong!
Startled by my scream, the woman pounded on the door and shouted. The atmosphere inside the door became chaotic, and the woman seemed ready to throw herself against the door to lift it. Only when the banging door made my body shake did I come to my senses and addressed her.
“It’s okay! I was just surprised…”
– What?
“I was just surprised because there’s another person here.”
– Another person?
The woman’s voice brightened. Finding out there was another person should have been good news for me too, but due to my pounding heart, I couldn’t properly welcome the other person.
Who wouldn’t be startled when someone suddenly appears when you thought you were alone? In the chaotic, empty hospital interior where even the air had turned cold, I truly thought a ghost had appeared.
The other person, unconcerned with my reaction, walked briskly over and placed his hands on the machine.
“Ah, thank yo-“
Before I could finish my greeting, the machine rose up. The man had simply lifted the machine. Seeing him easily lift and push aside something of considerable weight, I gaped.
“Is there anything else to clear away?”
The man extended his hand to me while dusting off the powdered stone from the machine. Unconsciously nodding, I took his hand. His hand, rough with dust, was larger than mine. I had some confidence in my height, which exceeded the average, but the man’s eyes were much higher than mine. Even if my leg was fine and I was standing straight, I didn’t think our eye levels would be any closer.
After standing up with his help, I explained the situation to the man and opened the door. Then a nurse with tear-stained eyes brightened upon seeing us, grabbed my hand, and led us inside. A middle-aged doctor pinned under a refrigerator greeted us with something not quite a greeting.
“Do you have something like a lever?”
I was a bit taken aback. As the nurse had said, the doctor seemed too composed for someone trapped under a refrigerator. The doctor even raised one hand and waved it around; I let out a nervous laugh and crouched beside him.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere…?”
“I’m not. I’m very healthy. Just a bit uncomfortable.”
The doctor tapped the floor with his hand and pointed to a spot. There was something white in the gap where the refrigerator had settled. It seemed that it had created space between the doctor’s body and the refrigerator, preventing injury. Nevertheless, he appeared to be stuck and unable to get out. The large container seemed to have taken the impact instead of the doctor and was now heavily cracked. It looked like it would break immediately if any pressure was applied to the refrigerator.
I leaned in closer to check the doctor’s safety and discovered something soaking his white collar. At first, I thought it was blood and felt my bones chill, but the dark liquid had a very familiar smell.
“…A side dish container.”
“I was lucky. Who would have thought a side dish container would save my life?”
The doctor looked at me and grumbled complaints that weren’t really complaints. Stories about how it was good that his life was saved thanks to a hobby he took up in his old age, but how the food had no taste and was ignored by his family and hospital staff. Or how he couldn’t gauge the size of the container and ended up buying an unnecessarily expensive and oversized one.
I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled. He seemed… quite talkative. To have the presence of mind to talk like that in this situation. As the doctor said, the side dish container helped, but I also thought the absence of a typical belly or flab for someone his age might have played a role in saving his life.
While a lever would be useful as the doctor suggested, there was nothing in sight that could withstand the weight of the refrigerator. The most reliable method would be for the man and me to lift it together, but my leg made that seem impossible.
The refrigerator was visibly large. Truly, it was nothing short of a miracle that just one side dish container, even if sizeable, had supported the weight. And the miraculously surviving doctor was lying there, casually wiggling his fingers, oblivious to his surroundings. What an optimistic person. I took off my sweaty hat and asked the nurse:
“Is there anything useful we could use?”
“Well… maybe an IV stand from the patient rooms?”
“Would it be sturdy enough to hold?”
“I’m not sure. This refrigerator is quite heavy.”
“So I just need to lift this?”
While we were deep in conversation, the man who had been silent until now spoke up. The doctor’s eyes widened as the man approached, his footsteps echoing.
“There was one more person? Then why don’t you two try lifting it together?”
“…That would be difficult. I’ve injured my leg…”
I tapped my still-aching leg. The doctor’s face, which had brightened a bit, darkened again. He tried to encourage me by saying we just needed to find something before the side dish container collapsed, but I couldn’t smile back. The man watched both of us for a moment, then placed his hands on the refrigerator.
“I think I can do it alone.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
