“Dead Frequencies”
The storm followed Elias all the way back to town.
Not naturally.
It stayed behind him.
Like something chasing the ambulance through the dark.
Elias gripped the wheel tightly as the familiar lights of Ashvale appeared ahead.
Gas stations.
Closed diners.
Streetlights flickering yellow in the rain.
Everything looked normal.
Which somehow made it worse.
Because none of this felt real anymore.
His eyes kept drifting toward the GPS screen.
Blank.
Dark.
As if nothing had happened.
But the phone call—
Daniel’s voice—
That had been real.
Elias reached over and turned the radio on again.
Only static answered.
He immediately shut it back off.
No chance.
Not tonight.
The ambulance rolled into Saint Mercy Hospital’s rear bay at 3:01 A.M.
The second he parked—
the storm stopped.
Not weakened.
Stopped.
Rain vanished instantly.
The silence hit harder than thunder.
Elias slowly looked through the windshield.
The parking lot was dry.
Bone dry.
No rainwater.
No puddles.
Nothing.
His breathing became uneven.
“What the hell…”
A knock hit the driver-side window.
Elias nearly jumped out of his skin.
A woman stood outside holding a coffee cup.
Dark hoodie.
Messy black hair tied back.
Sharp eyes.
Late twenties.
Nurse Maya Bennett.
She stared at him suspiciously.
“You look like you saw God.”
Elias opened the door quickly.
“Maya.”
“You’re late.”
She frowned immediately.
“Jesus, you okay?”
Elias stepped out slowly.
His uniform was soaked.
Mud stained his boots and pants.
Maya blinked.
“…What happened to you?”
Elias looked around the dry parking lot again.
“Was it raining?”
“What?”
“Just answer me.”
Maya stared at him for a second.
“No.”
A cold feeling settled into Elias’s stomach.
“That’s impossible.”
“You hit your head or something?”
He didn’t answer.
Because he noticed something else.
There were scratches on the ambulance.
Long grooves across the metal.
Deep enough to expose steel underneath.
Maya noticed them too.
“…Those weren’t there earlier.”
Elias swallowed hard.
No.
They definitely weren’t.
One of the scratches curved unnaturally.
Almost like handwriting.
Maya stepped closer to inspect it.
Then froze.
“…Elias.”
“What?”
Her voice dropped slightly.
“There’s blood in there.”
Elias turned.
Inside the ambulance—
muddy footprints stretched down the rear compartment.
Not his.
Too long.
Too narrow.
And leading toward the closed back doors.
Something was inside.
The realization hit both of them simultaneously.
Maya backed away instinctively.
“Tell me that’s from a patient.”
Elias didn’t move.
Slowly—
carefully—
he reached for the rear door handles.
Every instinct screamed not to open them.
But he had to know.
Maya grabbed his arm.
“Wait for security.”
“No time.”
“What does that even mean?”
Elias pulled the doors open.
The inside was empty.
No patient.
No creature.
Nothing except overturned equipment.
And words.
Written across the interior wall in black liquid.
HE STOPPED
Maya stared.
“…What the fuck?”
Elias felt his pulse hammering in his ears.
Because the letters were still wet.
Dripping slowly downward.
Maya took a shaky step backward.
“Okay. Nope. Absolutely not. I’m calling someone.”
“Don’t.”
“Elias—”
“No one can know.”
She looked at him like he’d gone insane.
“You think I’m keeping THIS quiet?”
Elias grabbed her wrist harder than intended.
“Maya.”
She stopped.
For the first time—
he realized he was genuinely afraid.
Not of monsters.
Not of roads.
Of sounding crazy.
Because once he said it aloud—
everything would become real.
He slowly released her arm.
“I saw Daniel.”
Silence.
Maya’s expression changed instantly.
Not fear.
Pity.
“…Elias.”
“He talked to me.”
Maya looked away briefly.
Daniel had disappeared three years ago.
Everyone knew the story.
Search parties.
Police investigations.
Nothing.
No body.
No evidence.
Eventually people stopped bringing it up around Elias altogether.
“You need sleep,” she said softly.
“I know what I heard.”
“Grief does terrible things to people.”
“It wasn’t grief.”
Maya sighed.
“Okay. Fine. Then tell me what happened.”
Elias opened his mouth—
and stopped.
Because he sounded insane even to himself.
A road that didn’t exist.
Faceless things in the woods.
A dead body wearing Daniel’s face.
He laughed bitterly.
“Yeah. Forget it.”
Maya folded her arms.
“That bad?”
“You have no idea.”
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then the ambulance radio crackled loudly.
Both of them flinched.
Static filled the compartment.
Then a voice whispered:
“Don’t trust the hospital.”
The radio shut off.
Maya stared at Elias slowly.
“…You heard that too, right?”
Before Elias could answer—
every light in the garage went out.
Darkness swallowed the bay instantly.
Maya cursed under her breath.
Emergency backup lights flickered red overhead.
The world turned blood-colored.
Then came the sound.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Dragging.
Somewhere deeper inside the hospital corridor.
Maya grabbed Elias’s arm tightly.
“Security?”
“No.”
He didn’t know how he knew.
But it definitely wasn’t security.
The dragging sound continued.
Closer now.
Something scraped against the wall.
Metal screamed softly.
Elias reached into the ambulance instinctively and grabbed a trauma flashlight.
The beam cut through the red darkness.
Empty hallway.
Wheelchairs.
Supply carts.
Nobody there.
Then the hospital PA system crackled alive overhead.
A woman’s voice echoed through the building.
Monotone.
Emotionless.
“Code Gray.”
Pause.
“Road contamination detected.”
Elias slowly looked upward.
Maya whispered:
“…What did she just say?”
The speaker crackled again.
“Please remain inside designated safe zones.”
The dragging footsteps stopped.
Then—
a patient screamed somewhere upstairs.
Not a normal scream.
Pure terror.
Several more screams followed immediately after.
Maya jerked backward.
“Oh my God.”
The lights flickered violently.
Then all at once—
every monitor inside the ER began flatlining.
BEEEEEEEEEEP.
Dozens of them.
Simultaneously.
Elias’s blood turned cold.
Because he knew what that meant.
Not one patient.
All of them.
The screams upstairs abruptly stopped.
Dead silence replaced them.
Maya’s breathing became shallow.
“…What’s happening?”
The answer came from behind them.
A voice.
Soft.
Male.
“Too late.”
Elias spun around.
An old man stood near the ambulance bay entrance.
Hospital gown.
Barefoot.
IV tube dragging behind him.
His eyes were completely white.
No pupils.
No iris.
Just white.
Maya recoiled instantly.
“Sir, you need to—”
“He opened the road,” the old man whispered.
Elias froze.
“What?”
The old man slowly pointed at him.
“They can smell you now.”
The backup lights dimmed further.
The old man smiled unnaturally wide.
Skin cracking slightly at the corners of his mouth.
“Run before the intersection notices.”
Then his neck snapped sideways.
A horrible crack echoed through the garage.
The man collapsed instantly.
Dead.
Maya screamed.
Elias rushed forward instinctively and checked for a pulse.
Nothing.
Gone.
But something else caught his attention.
The man’s wristband.
Patient Name:
Harlan Cross.
Admitted:
Elias stared at the date.
That couldn’t be right.
Maya backed toward the hallway shakily.
“We need to leave.”
She was right.
Every instinct told him to get out now.
The radio crackled again.
Daniel’s voice returned.
Urgent this time.
“Elias, listen carefully.”
Elias grabbed the radio immediately.
“Daniel?!”
“You crossed during opening phase.”
“What does that mean?!”
“You were seen.”
Static hissed violently.
Then:
“The roads are waking up again.”
A loud bang echoed upstairs.
Then another.
Windows shattered somewhere inside the hospital.
People started screaming again.
Maya shouted from the hallway:
“Elias!”
The GPS screen inside the ambulance suddenly lit up again.
A new road appeared.
Not Route Zero this time.
Route 9 — Saint Mercy Line
Status:
INFECTED
Below it—
a countdown began.
00:09:58
Elias stared at it.
“What the hell is that?”
Daniel answered immediately.
“Once the timer reaches zero, the road fully connects.”
“Connects to what?!”
Static swallowed the response.
Then came one final sentence.
“Don’t let them anchor.”
The line died.
Upstairs—
something massive slammed against the ceiling hard enough to shake dust loose.
Maya looked like she was seconds away from panic.
“Elias, MOVE!”
Then the hospital doors at the far end of the corridor slowly opened.
Darkness stood behind them.
Not metaphorical darkness.
Actual darkness.
A moving black shape deeper than shadow.
And inside it—
dozens of pale faces opened their eyes.
Watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.
The countdown continued.
00:09:21
Elias grabbed Maya’s wrist.
“Run.”
And the darkness started moving toward them.