Chapter 106 - The Calm Ends – Part II

Chapter 106: Chapter 106 - The Calm Ends – Part II

Only the distant hum of the building’s ventilation system echoed softly through the concrete shaft stretching from the first floor to the twenty-fifth.

Kai slowly exhaled.

"Maybe someone just dropped a table," he suggested quietly, more hopeful than convinced.

Erik didn’t answer.

Instead, he stepped closer to the steel railing overlooking the open center of the stairwell.

The condominium had been designed around a large hollow atrium. Every emergency landing overlooked the floors beneath it, separated only by polished stainless-steel railings and evenly spaced emergency lights recessed into the concrete walls.

Normally...

Sound traveled surprisingly well.

Children laughing near the lobby could often be heard several floors above.

Neighbors arguing over parking spaces.

Someone practicing the piano.

A dog barking from a balcony.

The building had always felt alive.

Today...

The silence between every sound felt heavier than the sounds themselves.

Erik leaned forward ever so slightly.

His eyes carefully searched the lower landings.

Nothing.

Every fire door remained shut.

No shadows moved beneath them.

No one climbed the stairs.

No one descended.

Yet...

He knew someone was there.

A loud slam suddenly echoed from somewhere below.

Not a gunshot.

A door.

Heavy.

Forceful.

The sound ricocheted through the stairwell before gradually fading.

Another followed seconds later.

Then another.

Each one came from a different floor.

Kai frowned.

"They’re opening their apartments."

"They’re leaving them," Erik corrected.

Penelope slowly joined him near the railing.

From the sixteenth-floor landing, the floors beneath looked almost identical.

Cream-colored walls.

Brushed metal railings.

Dark walnut fire doors.

Everything appeared perfectly ordinary.

If she ignored the sounds...

She could almost convince herself nothing had happened.

A woman’s voice suddenly drifted upward.

Muffled.

Panicked.

"I told you we should’ve left yesterday!"

Another voice answered immediately.

"And gone where?"

The argument continued for several seconds before the words dissolved into unintelligible echoes against the concrete walls.

Kai quietly rested the axe handle against the floor.

"...You know."

Penelope looked toward him.

"What?"

"I’ve been wondering something."

His tone had become thoughtful.

"I wonder if anybody actually read my notes."

Penelope blinked.

"Your notes?"

Kai nodded.

"The ones Erik and I left after clearing each apartment."

A faint smile appeared on Penelope’s face despite everything happening around them.

"The survival guide?"

"The masterpiece."

Kai corrected immediately.

"I worked very hard on that."

Erik glanced sideways at him.

"You spent five minutes writing it."

"It was an inspired five minutes."

Penelope couldn’t help laughing softly.

The sound felt strangely comforting inside the increasingly tense stairwell.

"I still remember the first line."

Kai folded his arms expectantly.

"Go on."

She cleared her throat dramatically.

"Congratulations."

Kai’s grin widened.

"Excellent opening."

"We have officially entered the zombie apocalypse."

"I wanted to start with honesty."

Penelope shook her head, smiling despite herself.

"I honestly thought you were joking."

"I was."

Kai shrugged.

"But I was also trying to keep people from getting eaten."

His smile gradually faded.

"After Erik and I finished clearing an apartment, I’d tape one to the inside of the bedroom door before we left."

Penelope’s brows lifted slightly.

"The bedroom?"

Kai nodded.

"That’s where most people would’ve locked themselves in."

His voice softened.

"If I was trapped inside my apartment..."

"I would’ve hidden in the bedroom too."

The words lingered between them.

Unspoken.

All three of them thought about Emma.

Locked safely inside a bathroom while her mother stood guard outside until her final moments.

Kai quietly looked away before continuing.

"I figured whenever someone finally worked up the courage to open that bedroom door..."

"...the first thing they’d see should be instructions."

Not panic.

Not confusion.

Something useful.

Penelope looked at him differently.

She had laughed when she’d first read that ridiculous note.

Now...

She realized how much thought had gone into it.

"You left one in every apartment?"

Kai nodded.

"Every apartment from the twentieth floor down to the sixteenth."

His expression slowly changed.

Almost as though another thought had just occurred to him.

"...Wait."

Penelope immediately understood where his mind had gone.

"The fifteenth through the tenth..."

She looked toward Erik.

"Killian and I cleared those."

Erik nodded once.

"You didn’t leave notes."

She slowly shook her head.

"No."

Her voice carried quiet regret.

"We were more focused on making sure every apartment had actually been cleared."

Kai rubbed the back of his neck.

"I guess I never thought about it."

"You couldn’t have," Erik replied calmly.

"We divided the building."

Kai looked back down through the center of the stairwell.

The shouting below had become noticeably louder.

Families.

Couples.

Children.

Different voices overlapping until individual conversations became impossible to distinguish.

His joking expression disappeared completely.

"So the people below us..."

"...never got the warning."

Neither Erik nor Penelope answered.

Because they had reached the same conclusion.

For the past two days...

Every resident who had survived behind a locked bedroom door on the twentieth through sixteenth floors had eventually found Kai’s note.

Ridiculous.

Sarcastic.

Almost childish.

But informative.

They had learned that the infected were drawn by sound.

That the head was the only reliable target.

That the growling wasn’t coming from frightened people anymore.

Most importantly...

They had learned they weren’t losing their minds.

Everything written on that single sheet of paper had prepared them for the moment they stepped outside their bedrooms.

The residents living on the floors below...

Had stepped into the hallway knowing nothing.

A blood-curdling scream suddenly tore through the building.

This one wasn’t muffled.

It echoed violently up the open stairwell, followed almost immediately by several more voices shouting over one another.

Kai instinctively tightened both hands around the fire axe.

"We need to help."

Erik didn’t disagree.

But neither did he move.

His eyes remained fixed on the lower floors.

Listening.

Thinking.

Calculating.

"There are too many people."

Kai looked at him.

"So we call the others."

Erik finally turned.

For the first time since the screaming had started, his decision came without hesitation.

"We regroup."

Penelope nodded immediately.

"Killian."

"And Ben," Kai added.

"If people are flooding into the hallways, three of us won’t be enough."

Erik slid the pistol back into its holster.

"Exactly."

Whatever was happening below them...

It was no longer a problem for one team.

It had become a problem for everyone living on the upper floors.

Without another word, the three of them turned toward the stairs leading upward.

This time...

They didn’t walk.

They ran.

The echo of their footsteps filled the stairwell as they climbed toward the twenty-fifth floor.

Behind them...

The screams continued.

Only now...

They were getting closer.