Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 365

Five Vital – Episode 366 (365/502)

366. The Changed Atmosphere of the Hospital

“Why are the lights off today?”

Moreover, at least one of the two guards should be awake, so the lights being off was strange.

Toc- toc-

After knocking, Tae-kyung immediately opened the hospital room door and went inside.

As the hallway light illuminated the room, Tae-kyung was shocked by what he saw.

“Th-this is……”

Inside the room, the prison guards were sprawled on the floor, seemingly unconscious.

Even more surprising was that one of the two guards was stripped of his clothes and shoes.

“Hello?”

“……”

“Guard?”

“……”

“Hey!”

He tried to wake them repeatedly, but, unsurprisingly, neither of them responded.

“Guard!”

Tae-kyung raised his voice and physically tried to wake them by lightly touching their cheeks and shaking their bodies.

“……Ugh.”

Then, there was a reaction, but they didn’t get up.

Tae-kyung instinctively knew that they were drugged with sleeping pills.

Judging that he couldn’t leave things as they were, he straightened their postures and got up.

And as soon as he saw the handcuffs dangling on the bare bed without inmate number 1137, a thought flashed through his mind.

Escape!

The abnormally sleeping guards, the ownerless handcuffs, and one person stripped of their clothes.

Finally, the darkened hospital room all pointed to the escape of a prisoner.

“Ha! How could this happen……”

He was confused as to how a person with handcuffs on his legs could have disappeared without a trace.

Yellow name tag, inmate number 1137, name Yoo Hyuk-jin.

A long-term prisoner, he was a model inmate known at Yeon Son Prison, praised by both inmates and guards.

But that was only inside the prison.

No matter how model a prisoner he was, the fact that he was a murderer who had killed someone in the past remained unchanged.

Such a prisoner had disappeared from a hospital treating patients.

Currently, he didn’t know whether he was outside or still inside the hospital, so he couldn’t help but feel a sense of danger.

He couldn’t rashly move without knowing the situation.

“Hey! Wake up!”

“Ugh!”

“Ugh……”

The most urgent thing was to wake them up.

They were more awake than before, but the guards were still drowsy, as if drunk or having undergone a sleep endoscopy [a procedure where a camera is used to examine the inside of the body during sleep].

Looking at their condition, it seemed they had taken a large dose of sleeping pills.

“……!”

Thinking it was impossible to handle this alone, Tae-kyung was about to press the nurse call button at the station, but he changed his mind and quietly took out his cell phone.

If the station nurse moved, patients might find out about this.

If that happened, it would be a matter of time before all the patients in the hospital found out, causing confusion and making the situation more difficult to control.

And if Yoo Hyuk-jin hadn’t managed to get out of the hospital yet, he judged that causing a commotion would only help him.

Of course, reporting to the police was also important, but he thought it was best to assess the situation first.

-Yes, Director.

“Nurse Lim, listen to me quietly from now on and just answer.”

-Yes.

“Don’t admit any new patients until I instruct you to. If 119 [Korean emergency services number, equivalent to 911 in the US] calls, say there are no doctors available for surgery, and don’t accept outpatient or emergency room patients. And have patients who have finished their treatment use the main entrance as much as possible, and if they have to go to the parking lot, have an emergency responder accompany them to their car. Finally, bring two packs of N/S (normal saline) to Yoo Hyuk-jin’s hospital room quickly.”

-Yes, Director. I understand.

Nurse Lim Jung-sook moved quickly, and Tae-kyung soon called Team Leader Choi.

“Team Leader, it’s me.”

-Yes, Director.

“Immediately move the head of security to the back door, and Team Leader, take charge of the front door. Do not admit any new patients until further instructions. I’ll tell you the reason later. And have medical staff and employees stay in their respective places and minimize movement.”

-Understood.

Finally, Tae-kyung asked the station nurse to manage the patients so that they would not come out into the hallway.

Everything was strange, and he felt that something had happened. But Nurse Lim Jung-sook and Team Leader Choi, as well as the employees who received the message, did not ask what was going on.

The employees trusted Tae-kyung entirely as the director, as a doctor, and as a colleague, and believed and followed everything he said.

Also, Tae-kyung had often talked about how to respond to emergencies that could occur in the hospital during morning meetings, which also had an impact.

Shortly after-

Creak-

“Director?”

In less than five minutes, Nurse Lim Jung-sook rushed into the hospital room with two packs of N/S.

“What happened……!”

Lim Jung-sook, who was about to ask what was going on, helped Tae-kyung, who was moving the prison guard alone.

Since the senior guard had already been moved to the cot, she quickly moved the junior onto the bed.

“Guard?”

“Eh……?”

Because Tae-kyung kept waking them up, they were more responsive than before, but still drowsy as if drunk.

“Why are you both like this?”

“I think they took sleeping pills.”

Tae-kyung injected the two packs of N/S (normal saline) that Nurse Lim Jung-sook brought into the guards in turn.

This was because the saline solution would dilute the sleeping pill components in their bodies.

“Why suddenly sleeping pills? Oh my! Patient Yoo Hyuk-jin!”

Lim Jung-sook, who was out of her mind, realized that inmate number 1137, Yoo Hyuk-jin, was missing, and she had a sense of what had happened.

“Director, patient Yoo Hyuk-jin, could it be……”

“I think that’s probably right. I came to see Grandma Jung Ki-ok a little while ago and saw the lights were off when I looked at the hospital room from outside. Something was strange, so I came straight in and saw the bathroom was like that, and both of them were asleep.”

Lim Jung-sook, hearing Tae-kyung’s words, walked to the bathroom.

“Be careful of the floor.”

“My goodness! What is all this?”

The toilet lid was open, and the floor was slippery with oil.

“Director, isn’t this cooking oil?”

“I’m not sure, but it seems to be body oil.”

A little while ago, Tae-kyung touched the slippery bathroom floor and the intermittently dropped liquid on the hospital room floor and smelled it, realizing it was oil.

“Nurse Lim, I’ll go to the management office.”

“Are you going to check the CCTV [closed-circuit television, also known as security cameras]?”

“Yes. I need to know Yoo Hyuk-jin’s whereabouts.”

“But with the oil on the floor and the two of them like that with sleeping pills, wouldn’t someone have helped him?”

“I think so too.”

Considering the situation in the hospital room, it was difficult for Yoo Hyuk-jin to leave the hospital room alone.

“Please contact me as soon as they wake up.”

“Yes, Director.”

Tae-kyung ran straight to the management office. But for some reason, the person in charge was not there.

“Director?”

Just as he was about to call on his cell phone, the person in charge called Tae-kyung from behind.

“What’s going on?”

“Can I see the CCTV?”

“Of course. Which way…… Ahem!”

The employee, who yawned in the middle of speaking, pressed his forehead and continued.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sleepy today. I wash my face and I’m still sleepy. Director, where would you like me to show you?”

“Show me the side where the single room at the end of the second floor ward is visible. The time is from now……”

The employee, who searched the time Tae-kyung said, quickly turned the recorded video and showed it.

“Wait! Turn that back again.”

In the quickly passing video, he could see a person coming out of the hospital room.

“There, can you zoom in on that person?”

“Sure. He’s wearing a hat, so you can’t see his face completely.”

“……!”

He was wearing clothes similar to the prison guard and covered his face with a hat, but Tae-kyung knew he was Yoo Hyuk-jin.

“This time, show me the videos of the front and back gates.”

“Yes, Director.”

Now that he had confirmed that Yoo Hyuk-jin had left the hospital room, he also needed to confirm whether he had left the hospital.

“……!”

But something was strange. He couldn’t see him at the front and back gates. He had clearly left the hospital room, but he didn’t see him leaving the hospital.

He checked again and checked again with the employee, but he couldn’t see him.

Of course, he took off the prison guard’s clothes and wore them, so he may have changed into other clothes once again in the meantime, but he didn’t think so.

Many of the patients and medical staff did not know his face. He didn’t think a fugitive in a hurry would bother to change his clothes again.

“There’s a CCTV in the hallway going down the stairs from the ward we saw earlier, right?”

“Yes, Director. There is. Would you like me to show you?”

“Show me the video at a similar time.”

“Huh! Why is this happening?”

The employee who clicked on the video was very embarrassed. And Tae-kyung, who saw the screen, couldn’t help but be embarrassed.

“What’s going on?”

The CCTV that should have been showing the stairs was showing the wrong place. Of course, the recorded video was useless.

* * *

At that moment, Oh Chang-gyu, who had helped Yoo Hyuk-jin and was heading to the emergency room after being in the staff lounge, felt strange.

He definitely felt that the atmosphere of the hospital was different from before.

It felt like even the air was heavy.

The expressions of the reception staff, who had been full of energy, were calm, and Team Leader Choi was guarding the front door instead of the security guard.

“Dr. Oh?”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Team Leader Choi, who made eye contact with Oh Chang-gyu, called him.

“Where are you coming from?”

“Ah, I had a bit of stomach discomfort, so I was lying down for a while and I’m going to the emergency room. Nurse Lim told me to rest if I wasn’t feeling well.”

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“If possible, don’t leave your post and refrain from moving unless it’s a special occasion.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Oh Chang-gyu, who turned around after saying hello, was sure that something was wrong when he entered the emergency room.

“Yes, officer. It’s difficult to perform surgery right now, so we can’t accept the patient. I’m sorry.”

“What’s going on? Are you not accepting patients?”

Oh Chang-gyu asked the station nurse, who had just hung up the phone.

“Ah! Dr. Oh doesn’t know.”

“What?”

“We’re not accepting patients right now. So, if 119 calls, we have no choice but to guide surgical patients to other hospitals.”

Come to think of it, there were empty beds compared to usual. This was because patients who had been treated were leaving and new patients were not being accepted.

“Why? Why suddenly……?”

“Dr. Soo said it, so I don’t know that far.”

After the nurse finished speaking, he saw Lee Chan-hee closing the door connected to the hallway. It was very rare for that door to be closed.

“I’ll go to the bathroom.”

“Yes.”

Oh Chang-gyu entered the emergency room bathroom with a bad expression.

Thud-

He went into the last stall and locked the door, thinking for a moment.

‘Did they find out that Hyung-nim [a Korean term for ‘older brother’ used to show respect and closeness, often used between non-related men] left?’

Of course, he thought that the hospital staff would find out that Yoo Hyuk-jin had disappeared over time.

Yoo Hyuk-jin thought the same way. But he was a little embarrassed because it seemed like they found out sooner than expected.

He wasn’t sure what was going on yet, but he definitely knew something was wrong.