Chapter 3 — Midnight Snake Knocks On The Door

PART 7 On the other side of the radio, a series of chaotic sounds immediately rang out. The sound of chairs falling, the sound of metal colliding, the sound of people cursing, the sound of people shouting to close the door. Then there was a heavy crash, like something was crashing into the door. Once. Twice. Three times. The banging sound stopped. Next was the voice of the security captain, both low and urgent:

"Lin Vi, it blocked the door to the first floor surveillance room. This thing swallowed the security officer who went missing before, swallowing both his body and the radio, so it was able to interfere with our communication channel..."

"That's not true, not only that. While attacking downstairs, it was able to approach the door of the surveillance room, and could also imitate the voices of many different people. Do you understand what that means?"

I understand. It can imitate the voices of many people. It can make us suspicious of each other. It can make me unable to distinguish whether the person talking on the other end is actually the security captain or not.

“How do you prove that you are really you?”

I held the radio tightly, my voice was calmer than I expected. The security captain was stunned, then quickly said:

"Last month you spilled the formalin jar in the herbarium in area C. I helped you clean it up. At that time you said you would pay for it, I said no need. Only the two of us know about this."

It's real. I've never told that story to anyone.

“Okay, I believe you.”

“Lam Vi, listen carefully.”

The security captain spoke very quickly.

“This thing has two characteristics. First, it can imitate the voices of those it swallows. Second…”

The sound of impact rang out again, more intense than before.

"Second, it is very vindictive. It remembers who has hurt it, and also remembers who has helped it. In the records, it is clearly stated that number 7 shows clearly close behavior towards those who once fed it. As for the experimenters who used to electrocute it..."

He didn't finish. But I understand. It remembers. It remembers everything. In the past three months, I have been assigned to feed the experimental animals in the third basement three times. Every time, I stand on the roof of the glass room, open the door, release food, and then pour live white mice inside. It recognized me. From the moment he started knocking on the door, he knew the person inside was me. It didn't randomly choose my room. It came to find me. PART 8 In the hallway there was another noise. This time it wasn't the sound of dragging a heavy object, but a lighter, more rhythmic sound. It's like someone is tapping on the wall with their knuckles. One hour. One hour. Another sound. Start from the end of the hallway, getting closer and closer. Every time you finish typing, it will stop for a few seconds, like it's waiting for something. I know what it's waiting for. It wanted us to think it had left, then open the door to see the situation outside.

“What's the situation in the hallway?”

The security captain asked over the radio.

“It's knocking on the wall, from east to west. It's almost at my door.”

“Absolutely do not open the door.”

“I don't want to die that bad.”

I said that with my mouth, but my hands were still shaking. Not because I was afraid of being eaten, but because I suddenly remembered something. Last month, while feeding it, I squatted on the roof of the glass room for a long time, watching it slowly swim inside. Its body is too long, the room is glassy too small. It can only roll in circles, like a black river that can never find a way out. I looked at it and suddenly felt it was very pitiful. Locked underground, experimented on, forced to eat white mice that he probably didn't like. That day, after work, I went to the supermarket to buy a bag of raw fish. While on duty at night, I secretly released fish through the door to feed them. It doesn't eat right away. It lay still in the water, looking at me with those horizontal human eyes for three minutes. Then, it bowed its head, took a fish in its mouth, then tilted its head back to swallow. That movement doesn't look like a snake. Like a person swallowing food. I don't tell this story to anyone. Because if you arbitrarily feed unapproved food to experimental animals, you will be fined if it is light, if it is heavy you will be fired. I can't pay three hundred thousand yuan.

“Lam Vi, what are you thinking?”

The voice of the security captain pulled me back to reality.

“I was thinking, maybe it wasn't hostile towards me.”

The other end of the radio was silent.

“What did you say?”

“I said, maybe it didn't come to kill me.”

I stared at the door, a crazy thought appeared in my head.

“When knocking on the door, it did not directly hit the door. With its size, the rotten wooden door of my room could not last more than three seconds.”

“But it didn't stab. It just knocked on the door. Knocked very politely.”

"Lam Vi, don't do anything stupid..."

“Captain Truong, I have a plan.”

PART 9 My plan is simple. If it really misses me, if it doesn't have any hostility towards me, then I'll try to walk out. If it was just waiting for me to present myself to the door, then I would have just died twenty minutes earlier. The armed police were thirty minutes away from arriving. With the destructive power of that thing, this door cannot hold for that long. Instead of passively waiting to die, just take a bet.

“You're crazy.”

The security captain commented bluntly.

“Maybe so. But do you have a better way?”

He doesn't have it. I stood up from the corner, moving my stiff legs. I stuffed the walkie-talkie into my shirt pocket and put my phone in my pants pocket. After that, I opened the room window a small crack, leaving a way out. Even though jumping from the second floor probably wouldn't kill me, if the situation wasn't right, this was my only chance. Having finished everything, I walked to the front door. The knocking just stopped right in front of my room. Three hours. Glass. Glass. Glass. Polite just like a hotel staff.