The air in the ward was thick with disinfectant as Hannah sank into the stiff hospital bed. Her limbs trembled from the fever that hollowed her out. Her body felt heavy, drained by the fever that had burned through her for days diagnosed by dengue.
She closed her eyes, too exhausted to do anything else and let the cool sheets swallow her whole. Too weary to keep them open , and the hum of the ceiling fan lulled her toward uneasy sleep. She was woken by a blurry shadow loomed over her as she opened her eyes, seeing a nurse named Mimi standing by the bedside and gently shaking Hannah's shoulder.
"It's time for your medicine" the nurse said softly, giving a pill and offering a cup of water.
Hannah forced herself upright, swallowing the pill with a sip of lukewarm water. swallowed with effort, her throat dry and raw.
"still aching? any nausea today?"
Hannah nodded faintly. "Just tired"
Rumbles echoed in the distance, Mimi lowered her voice glancing at the window where the chaos happened. "You heard it, didn't you? The city isn't safe anymore. The fighting has reached the outskirts. Even here, we don't know how long the hospital will stand."
Hannah blinked, her fever-clouded mind struggling to process the words. Outside, the world was at war, but inside her hospital room everything smelled of antiseptic and silence, updates about the outside world only through the news on television that hospital room provided.
Mimi studied her with a professional smile. "I'm sorry for ruining the mood and making u panic, I'll be responsible to lightened up the mood, what about i tell u one rumours circulating around patients and nurses to spice up the mood"
"Have you ever heard of the basement below in our hospital? There's rumors that whoever comes out from the basement is completely healed by any sickness they had. Yes, even diseases that can't be cured." smile Mimi excitedly, she's indeed one of the girls who love rumours and gossip to spend her leisure time.
The story piqued Hannah's curiosity, "Does anyone ever tried to go to the basement? it doesn't make sense for anyone to try not to barge in" Hannah quizzed.
Hannah's blunt personality makes Mimi laugh, "Well the thing is, we all don't know the existence of the basement. No one ever saw it." Mimi chuckled.
…BANG, *rumbles
The sudden tremor made Hannah jolt upright on her bed. The IV stand beside her rattled, and the fluorescent lights above flickered faintly.
"What was that?" Hannah's voice cracked, eyes darting toward Mimi.
Before Mimi could answer, the small TV mounted at the corner of the hospital room crackled to life, overriding the muted soap opera that had been playing earlier. A red banner scrolled across the screen :
BREAKING NEWS.
The anchor's strained voice filled the room.
"—the situation at the city border has turned desperate. Civilians are urged to remain indoors. Hospitals are under strict lockdown protocol. We advise everyone to stay calm as reinforcement troops are being dispatched."
The camera briefly switched to a chaotic live feed: smoke rising in the distance, people rushing across debris-strewn streets, and the deafening roar of aircraft overhead.
Hannah's heart pounded.
Mimi pressed her lips together, her earlier playful expression wiped away. "...This is worse than I thought.
The tremor came again, heavier this time—like a warning that the war outside was no longer staying outside.
The second tremor rattled the window frames, and somewhere down the corridor, glass shattered with a sharp crash. Nurses rushed past Hannah's door, their hurried footsteps echoing through the ward.
Mimi's hands gripped the bedrail tightly. "This isn't just nearby shelling… it feels too close."
Mimi slipped her arm under Hannah's, helping her off the bed despite the IV still dangling at her side. Hannah winced, her legs weak, but the urgency in Mimi's grip left no room for hesitation.
The corridor outside was chaos. Patients in gowns stumbled out of their rooms, some carried on stretchers, others clutching at wounds. Nurses shouted orders no one could follow, their voices drowned by the terrifying staccato of gunfire echoing closer, closer.
Mimi urged, half-dragging her as a group of people rushed past. A soldier's scream ripped through the hallway, followed by the brutal crack of rifles. Panic thickened the air like smoke.
They turned a corner, only to freeze—enemy soldiers were already storming through the main exit, their silhouettes stark against the emergency lights. One by one, fleeing civilians fell under the merciless shots.
Mimi was shocked witnessing the terror they're in "This is crazy, this is not a war between governments, this is genocide." as she clenched her teeth watching the horror situations.
Mimi's chest tightened. "There's no way we're going through the exit there…"
Hannah coughed weakly beside her, her body still trembling from the pain. Mimi quickly slipped her arm around Hannah's waist, supporting her. Step by step, she guided Hannah away from the main hallway, their footsteps echoing faintly against the cold, cracked tiles.
"We need to hide," Mimi whispered, her voice breaking between panic and determination. They stumbled through a narrow corridor, lit only by the dim emergency lights flickering in red.
Running away from the rumbling.
Suddenly, as they turned into what looked like a storage wing, Mimi noticed a half-broken door, almost swallowed by the shadows. Without thinking, she pulled Hannah inside. They leaned against the wall, trying to catch their breath.
But the room didn't end there. At the far corner, covered in dust and broken crates, there was an opening—an old stairwell spiraling down into darkness. The air that seeped out was colder, heavier, almost suffocating.
Mimi's heartbeat thudded against her ribs. "i've never seen this place before" she whispered.
They planned to stop and hide there without having thoughts of going downstairs because of the eerie vibes the place gave.
The rumbling getting closer to the door, the scream of the patients getting tortured outside the door becoming closer and closer. The banging of the soldier footsteps checking the door one by one.
At the moment, Mimi and Hannah have the same thoughts making decisions on impulse to go downstairs
With no other choice, the two of them descended, and hurried to the downstairs. The deeper they went, the more distant the chaos above became—until all that remained was silence.
At the bottom, they found themselves standing before a massive, rusted door. Strange symbols were scratched across its surface,
Mimi swallowed hard. "I hope this is the basement we talked earlier and not some spooky storage room."
Hannah tightened her grip on Mimi's arm, she knew Mimi's purpose is just to lighten up the tense atmosphere
"Let's just go inside before the soldier catches us" Hannah groaned.