I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 124: Sheriff, Save Me (Patreon)

Jennifer led Dylan out of the room where she'd drawn his blood.

As they walked, Dylan kept looking around, but he couldn't find anything useful.

The place was strange. Everywhere he looked, there were spotless white walls and identical doors, with nothing else in sight.

He was sure that if he worked here, he'd spend the first few months getting lost because every hallway looked exactly the same.

Even after they reached the third floor, nothing seemed different.

That changed when Jennifer brought him into another identical room, except this one had a bed.

She took a bottle of medicine from a drawer and said,

"In a moment, take the medicine in here. Three hours later, just tell me how you feel."

Dylan asked curiously,

"I thought experiments like this usually required you to sign some kind of agreement?"

Jennifer nodded and pulled a contract from the desk.

"That's normally part of the process, but handling the paperwork takes time. If you don't sign it, we can pay you on the spot."

That didn't sound like a normal experiment at all.

Someone who wasn't desperate for money might choose to sign the contract, but people like that generally wouldn't volunteer for drug trials in the first place.

Left with little choice, Dylan said,

"Forget it, then. I still don't even have money for dinner tonight."

Jennifer nodded, put the contract away, and handed him the pill.

Under her watchful gaze, Dylan swallowed it.

About ten minutes later, Jennifer left the room.

Once he was sure no one was around, Dylan hurriedly spat the pill out.

If he'd waited any longer, it would have started dissolving in his mouth, and then things would've gotten complicated.

He slipped the pill and the medicine bottle into his pocket, walked over to the desk, and took out the contract.

It was covered in dense text he couldn't make sense of.

He tucked the contract into his clothes as well.

Then he started searching the room for anything else that might serve as a clue.

Unfortunately, the place was almost unnaturally clean. Other than the desk, chair, and bed, there was nothing there.

He tugged at his fake mustache, opened the door, and cautiously poked his head outside.

Good. No one in the hallway.

He stepped out, but now that it was actually time to investigate, he ran into another problem.

Every room around him looked exactly the same. Which one was supposed to contain anything useful?

He carefully examined the doors of the two rooms beside him but couldn't find a single difference.

Whatever. He'd just pick one.

Worst case, he'd search every room in the hallway.

Dylan pushed open a door.

The room inside was exactly the same as the one he'd just left.

He opened another. Same thing.

After several more tries, he started getting impatient.

Was this place screwing with him?

When he opened yet another door, things finally changed.

A young man was sitting inside, staring blankly ahead.

When the door opened, he slowly raised his head.

"Is it time to take my medicine again?"

Finally, someone was here.

Dylan breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then asked cautiously,

"Are you here for a drug trial?"

"Yeah. When can I take my medicine?"

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't know. Can I take my medicine now?"

Dylan was taken aback by his answers.

The young man looked perfectly normal, but there was definitely something wrong with the way he was responding.

"Why do you want to take the medicine?"

The young man seemed to think about it for a while before answering.

"I don't know. Someone told me I should stay here and take the medicine, so I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do here. Take the medicine."

Dylan's eyes widened.

This drug could actually control a person's thoughts!

He quickly pulled the camera from inside his clothes and took several pictures of the young man, then tried to persuade him.

"This isn't a good place. You need to get out of here with me."

To his surprise, the young man shook his head.

"No. That person said I should stay here. I want to stay here."

Seeing the young man's mood starting to shift, Dylan stopped pushing him.

The last thing he wanted was for the guy to suddenly lose control, start screaming, and bring everyone nearby running.

After leaving the room, Dylan still felt like he didn't have enough evidence.

At most, what he'd found so far only proved that the company's experimental procedures were seriously questionable.

If he wanted to put the final nail in their coffin, he still needed something decisive.

He decided to keep looking.

This time, he had no intention of searching the rest of this floor. Even if there were more people here, they were probably in the same state as that young man.

At the end of the hallway, he discovered there was a fourth floor.

The moment Dylan went upstairs, he knew he'd finally found the truth behind the company.

Every window on the floor had been completely covered with thick black cloth, leaving only dim artificial light to illuminate the hallway.

The rooms on either side no longer had wooden doors like the ones downstairs. Instead, they were sealed off with iron bars like prison cells.

Dylan cautiously looked into the first cell.

An ordinary-looking man was standing inside.

The man noticed him as well, walked forward, and spoke in an oddly calm voice.

"Could you come over here for a second, sir?"

Curious, Dylan approached.

Without warning, the man lunged forward and reached through the bars to grab him.

Luckily, Dylan had stayed alert and managed to jump back in time.

The man slammed into the bars with a loud bang, but his voice remained eerily calm.

"Bro, do me a favor. I'm a little hungry. Give me a thigh. An arm would work too."

At that moment, voices came from the neighboring cells.

"Friend, don't listen to that guy. He's a greedy scammer. I'll settle for one hand."

"Don't listen to him. I only need one finger."

"Stop arguing. Everyone make your bids first. Once you've worked it out, then ask this gentleman."

Listening to the bizarre discussion around him, Dylan felt his scalp crawl.

Still, he hadn't forgotten why he'd come here.

He raised his camera and started taking pictures.

"Click!"

"Ah! My eyes! What kind of asshole turns on a light in the middle of the night?"

The flash went off.

The man in front of Dylan immediately clutched his eyes in pain and collapsed.

Dylan silently looked down at the camera in his hand.

Then he raised it again.

"Click!"

"Ah!"

He took another picture.

This time, Dylan saw what looked like fresh sunburns appearing across the man's skin.

Heh. This is actually pretty fun.

Dylan started snapping pictures into every cell he could reach.

For a while, screams echoed throughout the floor.

Then a woman's voice came from behind him.

"So this is where you went, sir. Photography is prohibited here. We wouldn't want you frightening the other test subjects."

Every hair on Dylan's body stood on end.

He spun around and immediately took another picture.

Jennifer was standing right behind him.

She merely narrowed her eyes at the flash.

She wasn't hurt at all.

Jennifer casually swatted the camera from his hand.

"I can't let you hurt these children. Don't worry. Soon, you'll be just like them."

Then Jennifer frowned.

She couldn't understand why the man in front of her didn't look afraid in the slightest.

Dylan calmly said,

"I've got someone watching my back. Sheriff, save me!"