Chaos reigned everywhere; Taylor was preoccupied with refueling and, guided by the car's navigation system, located a nearby gas station.
Taylor was the first to disembark, swinging his baton to crush the skulls of two surrounding zombies—Eric had already knocked down another, her hand throbbing painfully from the impact.
While Taylor filled the tank, Eric ventured inside the station to scavenge for gasoline.
The station was eerily devoid of zombies. Six sealed barrels of fuel stood stacked in a corner, and with no one demanding identification or permits, she helped herself.
On the office desk lay paper and pen, along with two bags of French bread and a bottle of water, all of which she gathered. Emerging again, Eric clambered onto the car's roof to survey the scene. Across the way, she spotted zombies descending the stairs of a residential building and warned, "Are you ready? The undead are beginning to converge."
"Almost done," Taylor replied, withdrawing the pump nozzle. "Get in!"
The three, accompanied by the NPC youth, resumed their perilous journey. The car battered its way forward, approaching ruin. Blood smeared every surface; Dennis was violently car sick and, upon stopping, scrambled from the vehicle, collapsing to the ground to quell his nausea.
"Ugh!"
"How can you be worse now? The seaside air is so fresh," Taylor quipped, puzzled. Eric guided the NPC from the vehicle and turned toward Dennis, only to find him seated, utterly terrified.
"What's wrong?" Had something frightened him?
Dennis, choked with sobs, could only tremble and point toward the tire. Eric looked, seeing nothing at first, then knelt and finally noticed.
Clutched within the wheel was a zombie's head, crushed flat like a meat patty, its mouth still moving.
A wave of nausea rose within Eric; she fought back the urge to vomit.
Taylor stepped out, covering his mouth as well. "No wonder the steering felt off—it's this head jammed under there. Ugh, the more I think about it, the more I shudder. Let's get out of here!"
The seaside was dotted with resort buildings—shops, hotels, and inns.
The beach bore grim traces of zombie attacks, strewn with belongings dropped by fleeing tourists.
The sea breeze gently swung wooden doors, producing a steady creak.
"It seems clear of zombies here. Likely, they've gathered at the island's center in search of sustenance," Eric observed.
They located a zombie-free inn, and after a thorough inspection, the group finally relaxed and rested.
After a brief respite, Eric rose to scour for supplies, unwilling to squander any chance to bolster their resources.
She and Dennis fanned out, while Taylor guarded the NPC. The pair returned laden with food, water, and first aid kits. Thanks to Eric's supermarket expertise, provisions were plentiful. Both Taylor and Dennis, ravenous from their ordeal, devoured their finds greedily. Eric feigned hunger, eating sparingly and savoring an apple as she questioned the NPC.
Yet he remained reticent.
"We've left the hospital. Will your family be able to find you?"
The young man replied indifferently, "If they look, they find me; if not, then not."
Eric's eyes flickered as she posed another question: "Do you know the monster on the rooftop? Why is its tongue so long?"
At last, his cold demeanor shifted.
"You know it, don't you?"
He looked at Eric with an expression far more animated than when she had threatened him in the hospital room.
"You know it," she stated with conviction.
Determined to pry the NPC's lips open, Eric studied his face and continued, "Do you realize how formidable that monster is? Its tongue is immense and elongated. At first, I mistook it for a tentacled beast. I never imagined its tongue could split—and nearly pierced my shoulder through and through. It was agony. You seem so genteel—how could you know such a deadly creature?"
Deliberately repeating "monster" raised the NPC's ire. His suppressed fury erupted like molten lava, and he shouted, "Rui is not a monster! He's just ill! Ill!"
"I apologize for my ignorance and for offending Rui. I meant no disrespect," Eric promptly said, dousing his anger. His lips parted in embarrassment; upbringing made him regret losing his temper with a lady, now mollified by her apology. Sheepishly, he lowered his gaze. "It's—it's alright. You did not mean it."
Dennis gaped with a mouthful of bread.
Taylor subtly gave Eric a thumbs-up.
Eric's expression turned apologetic: "Thank you for forgiving me. My friends and I are innocent in all this—we came here merely to travel, never anticipating such horrors. We long desperately to return home, so my emotions were unsteady. I truly regret any offense caused."
The young man's shame deepened; he knew better than anyone why this island had fallen into ruin.
"…Please, no more apologies. I understand your plight—I, too, yearn to return home." He summoned the courage to reveal the truth, gazing at Eric with pity: "You may never leave. As I said, you have been tainted; they will not permit your departure."
Eric had little desire to explain too much to the NPC. They were gamers; the notion of "leaving" was beyond his comprehension. Her sole concern was the arrival of the plane.
"But surely you can leave? When will your plane arrive?"
The young man did some quick calculations. "Counting from the day of the incident… the plane should arrive tonight. It usually flies directly to the hospital, but Rui has mutated. The moment the plane lands, it may be attacked."
Taylor seized upon this. "So we have to kill that monster first?"
The young man immediately glared at Taylor.
"We can lure Rui away first," Eric interjected swiftly, attempting to soothe the young man. "You know how to lead Rui away, don't you?"
Taylor scratched his head. "Your Rui wouldn't attack you, right?"
The young man shook his head sadly. "In its current state, Rui has forgotten me. It would attack me along with anyone else."
"And the doctors and police in that building—they were all… attacked by Rui?"
The young man nodded. "I didn't realize at first. I… had fallen asleep. When I woke, the doctors and nurses caring for me were gone. Before I slept, I heard them say Rui was in trouble. They probably went up to the seventeenth floor to find Rui. At that moment, I knew Rui was beyond control. If you hadn't taken me away, honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to leave. I was content to be with Rui."
Yet you still want to live, or you wouldn't have complied so meekly.
Eric vaguely understood why they were trapped in the hospital. They needed to "unlock" this NPC, then the "helipad," and finally the "plane" scenario.
"What can lure Rui away?" Eric inquired.
"Rui used to love fish; now, I suppose… it craves human flesh," the young man said sorrowfully. "But I imagine it still remembers my scent. It used to follow me most of all."
Suddenly, a milk carton fell from Dennis's trembling hands. Mouth agape, he pointed outside, stammering: "Th-That… tentacle, that tongue… Is that your Rui? It's really following you, ahhhhh!"
Eric glanced outward and indeed saw several tentacles waving near the nearby bar, seemingly sensing the scent of living beings in the air. She sprang up, grabbing the NPC to his feet, while Taylor likewise hoisted Dennis with one hand.
"Let's go, quickly!"
After less than half an hour's respite, they resumed their desperate flight.
They had rested on the inn's rooftop and dared not use the front door when fleeing. Exiting through the back, Taylor spoke rapidly: "That car was nearly wrecked. Find another!" They had planned to rest before searching, but who could have foreseen the tentacled beast had followed them?
"I spotted a car nearby. Follow me!" Eric brandished a key.
This was no mere consolation; she had truly located a vehicle with keys and fuel. She had considered stashing it in the supermarket as a spare, but the vast pile of dinosaur meat crowded the space; one car there was as much as it could hold.
"That's great! You're reliable, girl!" Taylor rejoiced.
As the engine roared to life, the tentacles reached the inn. Perhaps sensing a stronger familiar scent, they retracted swiftly, and the massive, pliant form behind them struggled to move forward.
Beside the bar, a soft, massive creature rested against corrugated iron—it might have once been a cat or dog. Crawling on all fours, its tail wagged with excitement. It should have been swift but was encumbered by an enormous head, a gaping mouth croaked a grotesquely mutated forked tongue. When the tongue extended, the beast was nearly immobilized.
Only once the tongue retracted and pressed upon the ground to support its head could it move, and then its speed increased noticeably.
Rui, guided by the familiar scent, rampaged through the inn, wreaking havoc on the first floor, surging to the second. Its tongue stretched into the third floor, gouging a large hole at the very spot the NPC had sat, then writhed about aimlessly.
The revving engine prompted the tongue to stiffen like a serpent ready to strike, then snap back swiftly.
In the next instant, the tongue repeatedly pierced the stairwell walls, probing the air with heightened excitement.
Rui unleashed an elated roar, its massive form moving downward toward the back exit.
This time, Eric drove.
"It is fortunate that Rui pursued us," she calmly analyzed. "From our arrival at the shore to the moment it caught up took about forty minutes. By skipping the step of luring it out from the hospital, we can now evade it, hoping to endure until nightfall, when the plane arrives, allowing direct access to the helipad."
Taylor, settling into the car, mirrored this thought with growing optimism: "Indeed. We were just agonizing over how to draw it out. Now it has come down on its own. The building with the helipad should be safe! We can stealthily roam the island until nightfall when our rescue arrives."
In stark contrast to Eric's hopeful demeanor, the NPC's mood darkened noticeably. He cast a lingering, reluctant glance backward toward the vehicle, unwilling to break eye contact.