Chapter 111: The Tenants Awaken

Chapter 111: Chapter 111: The Tenants Awaken

The moment the five of them stepped beyond the twelfth floor, the atmosphere changed.

The sounds from below were no longer distant. They were everywhere. Footsteps pounded against polished floors and doors slammed open.

Voices collided with one another as screams were heard.

Some were sobbing, begging for help.

Someone else was shouting for a police officer.

Another voice repeatedly demanded that someone call 911.

The tenants had officially awakened.

To anyone else, that would have been a good sign.

Unfortunately... Penelope and her group knew better.

Kai glanced down the stairwell.

"Guess our peaceful days are over," he mumbled.

"Good times always come to an end, Kai." Ben sighed as he patted his shoulder.

"Get ready," Erik said.

"For?" Kai asked as he frowned.

Penelope looked at him as though he had just asked the most ridiculous question imaginable.

"For Santa to come."

Kai blinked.

Killian chuckled softly and shook his head.

Penelope sighed. "Kai, it’s obvious Erik meant get ready for the end of humanity to start."

"Oh." Kai shrugged. "I thought we were already ready for that."

For a few seconds, none of them spoke. The five continued down the stairs. The farther they went, the louder the building became.

A door slammed.

Someone shouted from the hallway below.

"Does anyone know what’s happening?!"

"I don’t know!"

"Where’s the security office?!"

"I tried calling them! My line is not working!"

"Then call the police!"

"I already tried! My line isn’t working either!!"

Penelope exchanged a glance with Erik.

The panic was spreading faster than they had anticipated.

Another door opened.

A woman’s trembling voice echoed through the stairwell.

"Why isn’t the Television working? There is no news being broadcast!"

"It isn’t just the television!"

"What do you mean?"

"My phone has no signal either!"

"Mine doesn’t either!"

"What’s happening?!"

The voices continued overlapping as more residents stepped into the hallways.

Some sounded frightened.

Others sounded irritated.

A few were still trying to convince themselves that there had to be a reasonable explanation.

Penelope couldn’t blame them.

They had only just woken up.

For them, this was still a strange morning.

For her...

It was the third day of the apocalypse.

Kai leaned slightly over the railing, listening to the growing chaos below.

"They really don’t know anything."

"No," Erik replied.

"They don’t."

Ben glanced toward them.

"Do we tell them?"

Penelope thought about it for a moment.

"Would you believe us?"

Ben fell silent.

Kai scratched his chin.

"If someone told me yesterday that the dead were going to start eating people..."

He paused.

"...I’d probably tell them to get some sleep."

Penelope looked at him.

"You’d probably make a joke first."

"That too."

Killian chuckled softly.

Kai glanced toward him.

"See? Even Killian agrees."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You laughed."

"That doesn’t mean I agree."

Kai looked offended.

"You’re taking away my evidence."

Penelope shook her head.

"Focus."

Kai immediately straightened.

"Right."

The joking expression slowly disappeared from his face.

Because another scream echoed from below.

This one was followed by several hurried footsteps.

Then silence.

The five stopped walking.

Penelope’s hand instinctively moved toward the katana at her waist.

Erik reached for his pistol.

Ben tightened his grip around the crowbar.

Kai shifted the fire axe from his shoulder.

Killian remained at the front of the group, his eyes fixed on the stairwell below.

No one spoke.

Then...

A man’s voice echoed through the building.

"HELP!"

Penelope’s expression changed.

That wasn’t confusion.

That was fear.

Real fear.

She looked toward Killian.

He gave a single nod.

"Keep moving."

The five continued down the stairs.

This time...

They moved faster.

Because the people below had finally awakened.

And the world was about to show them why that was the worst thing that could have happened. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The five continued down the stairs.

The closer they got to the lower floors, the louder the commotion became.

People were no longer simply asking questions.

They were shouting.

"What’s happening?!"

"Someone needs to call the police!"

"Why aren’t the police here yet?!"

"I don’t know!"

"Everybody needs to calm down!"

"How are we supposed to calm down when people are screaming?!"

Penelope exchanged a glance with Erik.

This was exactly what they had expected.

The residents were frightened, but they were still trying to understand everything through the world they knew.

Police.

Hospitals.

Emergency services.

Someone would come.

Someone would fix this.

They hadn’t realized yet...

There was no one coming.

As the group reached the tenth floor, several residents suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairwell.

A middle-aged man stood closest to the door, still wearing a wrinkled dress shirt as though he’d only just gotten out of bed.

Behind him stood several other tenants.

A young couple.

An elderly woman.

A mother holding her crying son.

All of them stared upward.

Their eyes immediately landed on the weapons.

The man’s expression hardened.

"Who are you?"

Killian stopped.

"We’re residents."

"Then why are you carrying weapons?"

Kai glanced at his fire axe.

"This?"

He lifted it slightly.

"It’s for emergencies."

The man looked at him incredulously.

"An axe is for emergencies?"

Kai nodded.

"Very serious emergencies."

Penelope shot him a look.

Kai immediately lowered the axe.

"Sorry."

The elderly woman stepped forward.

"What happened?"

No one answered immediately.

A loud crash suddenly came from the hallway behind them.

Everyone turned.

A man stumbled through the open doorway.

He was covered in blood.

His clothes were torn.

One arm hung awkwardly at his side.

A woman screamed.

"Oh my God!"

The injured man lifted his head.

"Help me..."

Several residents immediately moved toward him.

"Sir!"

"What happened to you?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Someone call an ambulance!"

The man took another unsteady step.

His movements were strange.

Too stiff.

Too slow.

Penelope’s expression changed instantly.

"Don’t."

The residents stopped.

The middle-aged man looked at her.

"What?"

"Don’t go near him."

The man’s face hardened.

"He’s injured."

"I know."

"Then help him!"

Penelope shook her head.

"Stay back."

The injured man suddenly lifted his head.

His eyes were cloudy.

His mouth opened.

A low growl escaped his throat.

The mother holding her child stepped backward.

"What was that?"

The man suddenly lunged.

The nearest resident barely had time to scream before the creature slammed into him.

"GET IT OFF ME!"

Chaos erupted.

People screamed.

The mother grabbed her son and ran.

Someone fell against the wall.

Another tenant froze completely.

"What the hell is wrong with him?!"

The creature bit into the man’s shoulder.

Blood sprayed across the hallway.

"HELP HIM!"

Killian moved first, before anyone could react.

"Move!"

He grabbed the injured resident and pulled him backward while Erik stepped between them and the creature.

The zombie lunged.

Erik raised his pistol.

Killian did the same.

Neither man hesitated.

Neither needed to speak.

Their bodies moved on instinct.

Muscle memory.

Training that had been buried beneath years of ordinary life suddenly resurfaced as though it had never left.

The creature opened its mouth and lunged forward.

Bang!

Bang!

Two gunshots erupted almost simultaneously.

The bullets struck the zombie directly in the head.

One from Erik.

One from Killian.

The creature’s body stopped mid-stride.

For one brief second...

It remained standing.

Then its knees buckled.

The body collapsed heavily onto the polished floor.

Thud.

Silence.

Absolute silence.

No one moved.

No one spoke.

The residents stared at the corpse lying only a few feet away.

A dark pool slowly spread beneath its head.

Erik kept his pistol raised.

Killian’s weapon remained steady in his hand.

Neither man lowered it.

They waited.

One second.

Two.

Three.

The creature didn’t move.

Erik’s eyes remained fixed on the body.

Killian’s gaze swept across the hallway.

Clear.

Only then did Erik slowly lower his weapon.

The silence lasted another heartbeat.

Then—

"What the hell?!"

A woman screamed.

Someone stumbled backward.

"Oh my God!"

"He shot him!"

Another resident pointed toward the body with a trembling hand.

"They killed him!"

"They just murdered that man!"

"No!"

"He was alive!"

"He was trying to get help!"

The hallway erupted.

People began shouting over one another.

Some screamed.

Others backed away from Erik and Killian as though they were the ones who had become dangerous.

One elderly man stared at the body in disbelief.

"You shot him in the head!"

Erik’s expression remained completely unreadable.

"He wasn’t human anymore."

"What are you talking about?!" the man shouted.

"He was injured!"

"He needed a hospital!"

Another woman began crying.

"Someone call the police!"