After wrapping its tail around the school doctor’s neck, the white strip did not imdiately tighten and strangle him.
Like a cobra that had seized its prey, it coiled its long body several tis around his neck. While the doctor, in panic, scread and tried to tear it off, the upper half of its body arched upward. Its head—lined with sharp teeth and suction-cup-like structures—aid directly at his open mouth and suddenly plunged inside.
“Ahh… mmph—mmphhh!”
His remaining screams were smothered as whatever entered his mouth blocked his airway, turning his voice into muffled, terrified sounds.
No one knew exactly what kind of creature the white strip was. When seized, its surface secreted a large amount of slick, slippery mucus.
Even though the doctor imdiately tried to grab and pull it out from his mouth, the thing was far too slippery—impossible to get a firm hold on, impossible to tear apart, like a strip of tough, elastic leather.
At the sa ti, its head had already broken through his throat and entered his esophagus, sliding all the way down toward his stomach.
The sharp spines at its head were the deadliest spear in its advance. Teeth, tongue, throat muscles, esophageal tissue—any possible barrier was as fragile as paper in front of those spines, easily pierced and forced aside.
anwhile, the countless suction-cup structures along its head served as its shield. They latched tightly onto every surface it passed, like dozens of grasping hands clinging to the inner wall of his esophagus. As a result, every attempt the doctor made to pull it out only caused a horrific, tearing pain—like his own esophagus was being dragged up into his mouth.
It was not a kind of pain a human being could endure.
Very few people could withstand such agony and continue trying to pull the creature out. The doctor was not one of them. His will collapsed at the very beginning, and he failed to mount any effective resistance.
By the ti his mind finally clawed its way back to awareness and he tried to make a desperate, final effort, most of the white strip’s body had already entered him—only a thin tail remained outside his mouth.
“Ugh… mmph… ugh—!”
His throat and esophagus were invaded by a foreign object, and involuntary muscle contractions triggered wave after wave of intense nausea.
The school doctor was overwheld with both pain and terror, tears and mucus streaming down his face in a completely unseemly manner. He hunched over, mouth wide open, retching while desperately using his clothes as a buffer, futilely trying to pull at the remaining tail outside his body.
But most of the white strip had already entered him—how could pulling at just the tail possibly work?
After being tugged back and forth, the tail of the white strip finally and smoothly vanished into the doctor’s throat.
Strangely, during this entire process, none of the other white strips nearby attacked him. It was as if these creatures had so kind of territorial awareness among themselves—once one had latched onto a target, the others would instinctively avoid it and go seek different prey instead.
“Ahhh!”
“Stop pushing! Run!”
Elsewhere on the field, chaos continued.
The white strips that had erged from Gracie’s corpse, despite having no eyes, seed to know exactly where living people were.
Hunting down the fleeing cheerleaders, the white serpents moved swiftly through the grass like subrged predators. When they closed in on their targets, they would suddenly spring upward like wolves lunging at prey.
Objectively speaking, their airborne movent was not ugly—in fact, it was almost reminiscent of flowing ribbons in xianxia dramas from another world.
But once they got close, even the slightest delay in reaction ant being caught by that soft, looping tail around the neck—just like the school doctor—and then having the white strip invade through the mouth.
Even closing one’s mouth tightly was useless, because the head of the white strip was ringed with sharp teeth. It would arch forward, violently battering at the lips and forcing them open.
Even soone with exceptional endurance, no matter how tightly they clenched their teeth against the stabbing attacks, would still not be safe. If they couldn’t get into the mouth, the white strips would simply switch targets—nose, eyes, ears, and even lower “openings”…
Their flat, pliable bodies gave them extre adaptability. Any small gap was enough. As long as their head could pass through, it beca a viable entry point into the human body.
Normally, with the cheerleaders’ training intensity and reflexes, escaping these white strips would not have been difficult. But at that mont, a large number of onlookers had begun pouring down from the stands.
The university stands were old. To reach the field from the seating area, one had to go down stairs and then pass through a long, narrow corridor. The spectators had been crowded along these stairways and passages earlier, completely unaware of the horrifying scene unfolding on the field.
Their mory of the event was still stuck at the mont when a girl performing a cheer routine suddenly collapsed, followed by a massive amount of blood pouring out of her body. Curiosity is part of human nature—especially among Arican college students, who were often idle enough to rush toward anything remotely exciting.
Once this group entered the field, they ford a loose human wall, drastically slowing the cheerleaders’ escape. And just as the people in front began to sense sothing was wrong and tried to turn back, another wave of curious spectators from behind had already surged forward, sealing off the retreat route completely.
“Ughhhhhh!!”
“Help ! Get this thing off—!”
“Stop pushing! Don’t push from behind! There’s a monster up ahead—everyone run!”
In an instant, chaos erupted beneath the stands. So were fleeing, so were already caught by the white strips, so had fallen and were being trampled, and others were simply swept along without understanding what was happening.
Screams, cries, wails, and shouts filled the air without pause.
Misha felt goosebumps rise all over her body as she watched the scene unfold.
Just monts ago, if Everly hadn’t grabbed her in ti, she might have been among the crowd already being attacked by the monsters…
“Let’s go. Before everything completely falls apart, let’s get to my car. At this rate, we’re leaving the campus for the next few days.”
“Mm.”
The two girls turned their attention toward the exit stairs of the stands.
The chaos on the field had already spread upward into the seating area. At this point, it wasn’t just the field—everything in the stands had beco disordered as well. A large number of spectators, terrified by what was happening below, were desperately trying to escape. But there were only a few stairways, and too many people converging on them at once. The result was a massive human bottleneck that only made evacuation slower.
Horror Movie Survival Rule #14: avoid large crowds.
Everly had no intention of squeezing into that ss. Who knew—if they did, a white strip might suddenly slip in among the crowd and start attacking people.
Fortunately, she always rembered Survival Rule #3: identify escape routes in advance. When she first arrived at the university, she had already studied the fastest way out of the stands.
Everly gestured to Misha. Understanding imdiately, Misha followed her lead. One in front and one behind, they moved to the highest section in the middle of the stands and climbed over the railing.
The stands in the stadium were about two stories high at their tallest point. Jumping straight down from here would obviously be dangerous and could easily result in fractures. However, on the upper-middle section of the back wall, there was a window. It led to the restroom area behind the stands and was made of frosted glass, mainly for light.
Directly beneath the window was a narrow concrete ledge, protruding about twenty centiters outward—likely decorative. It was just wide enough for a person to stand on, if careful.
After climbing over the top railing, Everly and Misha each grabbed hold of the bars, lowered their legs over the edge, and carefully shifted their weight downward.
Both of them were tall—close to 1.8 ters. When their arms and legs were fully extended, they could easily reach and step onto the platform below while hanging down.
A quick test, a step down, stabilizing their center of gravity, then releasing their grip.
In just over ten seconds, they were already standing safely on the platform.
Next, they needed to move to a second platform on the lower left. It was an old concrete awning built above the restroom entrance to keep rain out—about two ters long and a little over one ter wide. It wasn’t just usable for standing; it was even wide enough for two or three people to do sit-ups side by side.
Turning sideways, they stood on one foot, stretched the outer leg outward, and pushed off lightly with the inner leg. The horizontal gap between the two platforms was just over a ter—sothing as simple as eating or sleeping for Everly and Misha. A single small jump carried them from the upper right to the lower left platform.
Once both of them had stabilized on the new platform, they were now only a little over two ters above the ground.
From that height, it was easy: they grabbed the edge, slid down along the wall, shifted their weight back, and gave a light jump. With two soft thuds, they landed steadily on the ground.
Perfect—fast, clean, only about half a minute.
Once they were steady, Everly and Misha didn’t hesitate. They strode off quickly, taking a less crowded shortcut and breaking into a run through the campus.
The chaos at the stadium had not yet spread to the rest of the school. Away from it, students were still chatting, dating, walking around with backpacks, or lying on the grass sunbathing—a scene of complete calm.
But neither of them dared relax.
They cut through side paths, reached the parking lot, got into Everly’s Grand Cherokee, and only when the engine roared to life and the car sped out through the campus gate did they finally let out a slight breath of relief.
“Everly, where are we going next? Should we find a hotel and stay for a while?”
Everly shook her head.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to stay outside the city for the next few days.”
“We’re not staying at a hotel?” Misha asked in surprise.
“No. It might not be safe…”
As she spoke, Everly pulled the car to a stop in front of a small convenience store that didn’t seem to have much business. She opened the door and motioned for Misha to get out.
“While things in the city haven’t fully descended into chaos yet, we need to stock up on food and water. I’ll handle that. As for you, go to the pharmacy counter and ask the pharmacist if they have any dication for tapeworm infections. If they do, buy as much as possible. If not, ask for SSU black pills. Make sure they’re the black ones—don’t take anything else…”
In the United States, convenience stores often had pharmacy counters staffed by licensed pharmacists, allowing custors to purchase common dications easily.
“Everly, you an…”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Everly locked the car door and gave Misha a bitter smile.
“I suspect that the white strip-like things that ca out of Gracie’s body… are so kind of tapeworm.”
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