Cornered [1]

The address he had received seemed to indicate that this Care Hospital was only a few blocks away from Běijíxīng Hospital.

Xiajun still took a cab, though, because the sky was quickly being enveloped by grey clouds and he didn't want it to start raining on the way. He gave the piece of paper to the driver and they carried on slowly, nothing but the cab's engine roaring in their ears.

"Ey. . ." the old driver interrupted Xiajun's thoughts. "You sure you wanna go here?" He lifted the small piece of paper and tapped it.

"Why do you ask?" Xiajun enquired.

The driver didn't say anything for a few moments and continued to drive the car in silence.

"Nothing," he muttered eventually.

Xiajun sat back, a frown plastered over his face. He didn't like it when people hid things from him. But he figured the old man might have read wrong for a moment, since old people tended to have poor eyesight.

After a while, the cab came to a stop and Xiajun looked around in puzzlement. "Is this it?"

The driver turned around in his seat and gave Xiajun a hard stare. "Your address seems to be deep somewhere in that street," the man pointed to a narrow road going off to the left, "and I dare say you'll have to go in by yourself since my car can't go in. That will be 80 yuan."

Xiajun paid the fare and got out, grazing his umbrella on the gravel. This neighborhood. . .he had never been here before, but it reminded him of the uncomfortable alleys of Baiyun.

With a deep breath, he proceeded to the left until he was enveloped by the street's shadows.

"How can a hospital even be here?" he muttered to himself as he avoided a murky puddle of water and soon stepped over something that looked like a mound of cement. The further he went, the darker it became. On both of his sides were houses that seemed to be either abandoned or to be inhabited by surly individuals peering out at him from their door cracks.

Xiajun referred to the piece of paper in his hand and looked around. "Um. . .there is not a single hospital in sight." At that moment, a gunshot was fired in the distance and a flock of birds scattered in the sky. Xiajun covered his ears as they rang violently from the shot. "What the f**ck. . .?"

He looked around, his eyes wide in alarm. From all around him, men dressed in black emerged from the shadows, closing up on him like animals. Xiajun gripped the handle of his umbrella and held it in front of him like a sword, but he knew it would be no match for the guns all of them had pointed at him.

"Get back!" he yelled. He understood now. How had he not noticed before? This whole 'Care Hospital' thing. . . it was just a barefaced lie to lure him to an abandoned street.

That man behind the front desk. . . Xiajun cursed himself for not noticing the urgency in his voice, and the way he had kept sneaking nervous glances at him as he had called CEO Wu.

Sh*t.

Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t.