Chapter 30: Run!

The flood within the basement of the Administration Block wasn't really that deep.

At most, it was only about waist high.

Entering a small crevice at the bottom of the stairs, the group found themselves standing in a room with six lockers big enough to fit two people. Opening the lockers, they conveniently found some coat hangers for their hospital gowns.

They needed to keep these hospital gowns clean.

Calvin explicitly told them to do just that and none of them dared to shrug any words that he was saying at this point.

When they were done keeping their things in order...

They were finally ready to descend into the Flooded Basement.

But before that happened, Calvin gathered the newbies for another meeting.

"The depth of the water in the flooded basement can reach up to waist height. I want you all to be aware of this so that you won't unnecessarily panic when the waters suddenly get too deep. Also, if you feel something strange touching your skin. Don't be too surprised. Just ignore it, don't even look at it. Just ignore and focus on the task at hand."

Calvin sternly warned.

"What do you mean something strange touching our skin?"

Jannette who had always been a clean freak due to the nature of her work shivered.

"The basement is connected to the sewers. The floodwater is stinky and dirty. What's more, since we are in a mental asylum with monsters roaming through the entire facility. Who knows if what will drift in front of you in the water is mere fecal matter, what if it's a severed head? I want you to expect that something like that would happen at the least..."

"I can't let you panic while in the flooded basement."

Jannette gasped in fear. But she didn't say anything.

She knew that they needed running electricity before they could explore the eastern part of the asylum.

Gnashing her teeth, she swore to endure all of these and have a great meal and beer once she was out of this place.

Calvin could see the determination on Jannette's face, so he didn't say anything anymore.

Turning to look at the others, he explained even further. "The waters in the flooded basement will slow us down. But it's not generally a problem as long as we can take our time. Unfortunately, we will be in a race against time once we descended into the basement."

"Why?" Hugo asked with a frown.

"There may be a patient, or even patients roaming through this flooded basement the size of a school gym."

"A patient?" Hugo's eyebrows scrunched even deeper.

Calvin could see that Hugo misunderstood, so Calvin further explained, "No, they are not as strong as the Benevolent Father and that big fat bastard, but they are still dangerous. I think you can handle them with your experience, Hugo. But the problem is if you fight against them, who will defend the others?"

"Furthermore, I expect them to have weapons such as cleavers, steel bats."

Calvin let out a sigh, "Hopefully, there's only a single patient roaming through the flooded basement. If there are a lot of them, then that would be a problem."

"A problem?" Medea raised an eyebrow, "So, you are not saying that it's impossible?"

"Of course, not! We can still do what we need to do even if there are a dozen patients roaming through the flooded basement." Calvin was quite confident of his claim. The patients of this mental asylum may be madmen and relentless on their pursuit against their enemies, but since their mental faculties were affected.

They were only moving according to their instincts.

In other words, they could be read like a book.

Given enough time, Calvin could plot their routes in his small notebook and create a plan according to the routes of those patients.

"How confident are you with that claim of yours?" Hugo asked.

"Ninety-percent. Minus ten percent because of Murphy's Law." Calvin casually replied.

"Murphy's Law?" Hugo seemed to be astounded upon hearing a new term.

Rose explained to him, "Murphy's Law states that what can go wrong will go wrong. In other words, one must always have contingency plans for all sorts of situations."

Calvin nodded his head in agreement.

"Isn't that the same as saying that we will absolutely fail this mission?" Philip furrowed his eyebrows and complained.

Calvin turned to look at him and bitterly smiled, "Don't be so pessimistic like that, man. All right, how about this. I will go and descend there first to check the situation. For now, I want you all to study this map that I made. Upon descending into the flooded basement. We must turn these cranks to fire up the generator for the eastern side of the asylum."

"The order doesn't matter, but we must absolutely turn on the generator at the center of the flooded basement before electricity can return. Otherwise, just turning those cranks are useless."

"A-All right..." Nicholas received the small notebook from Calvin.

Calvin took one final glance before he descended into the flooded basement.

A splash rang out, but as soon as Calvin took the next step. No sounds could be heard anymore.

"Wh-what happened to him? Why can't we hear him anymore?" Rose said in a panic. She even peeked out of the room to take a look at the direction where Calvin disappeared, but she couldn't find any traces of Calvin.

Hugo stared at her and said, "It's fine, you don't have to worry. He will be fine. Just believe in him."

Rose nodded.

She was still worried, but since she knew that there was nothing that she could do anymore other than wait. She closed her mouth and stood still.

The others started studying the map that Calvin gave to them.

Calvin drew a small map on a page of his small notebook.

At the center of the map was the word, "generator", enclosed in a circle. Situated on the four corners of the map were four doors. However, only two of them were marked with an, "X" mark. In other words, from these four doors, they only needed to go through two doors and turn the cranks in those rooms before they would go to the generator at the center.

The map was simple enough to understand. Calvin's minimalistic writing showed its prowess at this moment for even the so-called "muscle-head" Hugo understood what he was trying to imply.

Calvin also placed some important warning notes at the bottom of the map.

One, they must never move in haste. Moving in haste would create splashes that were basically the same as announcing your location to the patients roaming through the flooded basement.

Two, they must move in a certain formation.

Those that must be protected must stand at the center of the formation. Calvin specifically mentioned Zahra, Jane, and Scarlette so that the newbies wouldn't quarrel against each other in case their ugly natures were revealed. Philip had the urge to announce that he also wanted to be protected but upon seeing Calvin's declaration.

He couldn't do anything other than close his mouth in shame.

Brrr!

While the newbies were studying and memorizing the map that Calvin had made.

A loud booming sound akin to that of a chainsaw being started suddenly rang out.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Splashing sounds rang out from the flooded basement.

"Hiee!" Jane gasped in shock.

Hugo hurriedly stood in front of the doors. He assumed a fighting stance with both of his legs spread wide and his arms prepared in front of him, but when the doors were opened. The person that appeared in front of him was a bedraggled Calvin running as fast as he could while shouting.

"Run!"

"Run to the bathroom in the left corridor!"

"Run!!!"

His panic-stricken voice shook everyone to the core.

In the very next moment, everyone fumbled and ran like mad to where they came from.

"Curses!"

"Eat the flesh, season it well with salt and pepper. Burn the bones like firewood!"

"You can never escape! Oh, no one can escape!"

"God help me!"

"Be still! Take your penance! Let the flesh rot and the bones be burned!"

As soon as the newbies reached the stairwell.

The door leading to the flooded basement was torn open by a kick from one of the patients.

Then, after him...

Came several more patients as they made a mad dash towards the stairwell, running after the newbies.