FINAL CHAPTER

Current Floor: 8th Floor
(Since it's the last episode, as a gift to all my readers, I'll try to add scene-related images as much as possible)

The eighth floor offered a brief, deceptive sense of relief.

After hours of battling through collapsing stairwells, pulsating roots, and swarms of grotesque creatures, Jungkook, Taehyung, Soohee, Jin, and Namjoon finally paused.

Their breaths still heaved in ragged bursts, muscles trembling from the relentless strain, eyes darting constantly to every shadow.

Dust hung in the air, thick and choking, disturbed only by the faint flicker of emergency lights, casting long, jagged shadows that seemed alive.

The floor smelled of damp concrete, mildew, and something far fouler—an acrid, metallic tang that reminded them of blood long dried.

Days—no, maybe even nights—had passed.

They had lost all track of time.

The building had swallowed it, leaving only a distorted sense of rhythm: fight, move, survive, repeat.

Fight, move, survive, repeat.

Fight, move, survive, repeat.

Fight, move, survive, repeat.

The scraps of snacks they had managed to save, the little provisions they had scavenged from the higher floors, were gone.

Even the vending machines, once a faint comfort, offered nothing now but warm, spoiled remnants.

Soohee picked up a candy bar, the wrapper torn, the chocolate hardened and streaked with powdery white crystals.

She sniffed it and grimaced, tossing it aside.

"We've... been here too long," she whispered.

No one needed to explain further; they all felt it—the gnawing emptiness of their stomachs and the creeping realization that survival now depended on finding something substantial to eat.

"We need to find something to eat," said Taehyung.

"Let's spread out and search for something..." said Namjoon.

Jungkook nodded, still holding his shoulder area, in pain. The blood stopped dripping, but the scar was too big to heal soon.

"Taehyung, you take the north side, find something that we can consume," ordered Jungkook, pointing towards the rows of stalls.

"Namjoon, you take the south wing."

"Jin, can you take the East?" asked Jungkook, and Jin nodded.

"Soohee, you come with me, let's find something on the West side of the stalls," said Jungkook, and Soohee stood behind him.

Jin, Taehyung, and Namjoon moved cautiously toward the far end of the floors where the old food court had once hummed with life.

Jungkook and Sooheee went in the opposite direction, carefully checking each collapsed shop, peering through shattered glass, overturned display cases, and cupboards long abandoned.

Every step echoed hollowly in the cavernous emptiness.

The flickering lights barely illuminated the remnants of the stores, casting the fallen merchandise in eerie, exaggerated shadows.

The food court was a scene of grotesque decay. Tables had toppled, chairs broken, and the linoleum floor was stained with unidentifiable fluids that made every step a cautious negotiation.

Jungkook kicked over a chair, revealing an old Subway sandwich, dry and hard as a brick, yet still recognizable. Soohee picked up a can of soda, its surface rusted and dented, and shook it.

Nothing moved inside.

"Better than nothing," he muttered, and they stored it carefully in a backpack.

Taehyung's side of the floor revealed similar desperation.

A toy store's snack section had long since been picked over, candy crushed beneath doll heads. But behind the counter, he found a sealed packet of instant noodles, still intact, though the aroma was faintly musty.

"This'll keep us alive for a bit," he said, tucking it away carefully.

Namjoon found a tin of powdered milk in a broken cabinet, cradling it like a precious gem.

"We'll need everything we can get," he whispered, his voice trembling.

The quiet terror of hunger pressed down on them like a living weight, sharper even than the threat of the creatures themselves.

They regrouped at the center of the floor, each carrying their meager findings.

No one spoke much.

The silence was heavy with exhaustion and unease.

Every shadow could hide something waiting—an ambush, a new horror, or one of the creatures from above, more cunning and numerous than before.

The noises from the floors below were constant now—a low, pulsing rumble, the sound of hundreds, maybe thousands, moving together.

Even from the eighth floor, it was clear that the lower floors held the most concentrated mass of monsters they had yet encountered.

The sound was not just terrifying—it was a warning.

Soohee opened the tin of powdered milk with trembling fingers.

The thought of cooking, even making a meager paste of noodles and milk, felt almost luxurious in comparison to the previous floors, but it was a fragile hope.

Jungkook surveyed the floor, checking stairwells and doors, assessing the potential paths they would take when the time came to descend further.

Jin leaned against a broken table, his eyes hollow but determined.

"We need to be ready," he said quietly.

"Whatever is down there, it's bigger than anything we've faced so far."

Namjoon set about organizing the small stash of food, dividing it so everyone would have enough energy for the inevitable descent.

Every bite was savored, each mouthful a tiny, bitter victory against starvation, a fleeting reprieve before the horrors waiting below.

The act of eating, simple yet essential, reminded them painfully of what had been lost—friends, safety, time itself.

They were not just surviving the creatures—they were surviving the psychological weight of this new reality.

By the time they finished, the small reserves of food were gone.

The eighth floor, once a haven of simple luxuries, now felt like a precarious, temporary staging ground.

Jungkook and Taehyung shared a glance, understanding without words that what lay beneath would demand everything they had left: skill, strength, wit, and the desperate will to survive.

As they prepared to move toward the stairwell leading to the lower floors, a new unease settled over them.

But they kept going, there were a very small number of creatures on the lower floors, around four to five least per floor.

They were confused.

Shocked.

As they landed on the first floor, gasping for air after running and fighting around seven floors continuously.

"Where are they?" asked Jin, kneeling on the ground and looking around. Also trying to slow his breathing.

No one knew the answer.

"Is that it? Are we safe now?" asked Soohee, looking at Jungkook.

But he said nothing.

"Are all the creatures gone? probably dead? So we can just walk up to our cars... right?" asked Namjoon.

Still, no one answered.

Everyone had questions, but no one said a word to feel better or to rely on some hope.

They finally heard growls.

Not one, not two.

But a dozen more.

Probably hundreds.

The basement was no longer just another floor—it was a maw, alive with movement and sound, teeming with creatures beyond imagination.

Their stomachs are full for now, but their resolve hardened.

The group knew that the fight ahead would not just test their bodies—it would test their very humanity.

And yet, despite the exhaustion, despite the gnawing hunger and the memory of friends lost, they were ready.

They had no choice.

The basement awaited.

Just one more floor.

Survived One hundred and twenty-two floors.

The stairwell spat them out into darkness.

The basement of The Lotte Tower Mall was a cavernous expanse of shadows, low ceilings, and concrete columns that seemed to stretch endlessly.

The air was heavy with moisture and the coppery scent of blood, mingling with the faint smell of oil and rust from abandoned vehicles.

Their flashlights barely cut through the black, the beams trembling with their unsteady hands.

Every step echoed unnaturally in the hollow space, each sound amplified tenfold, bouncing off walls and pillars, carrying the threat of attention.

Jungkook's eyes flicked to the row of cars, their salvation and their trap.

By some improbable luck, Jin's car and Taehyung's Red Mercedes were parked side by side.

Namjoon's car was not to be seen from their view.

The metallic gleam in the dim emergency lights made them almost surreal — temporary islands of hope amid the gloom.

But the vehicles were surrounded.

Clusters of creatures shifted in the shadows around the lot, pale and twisted forms hunching over, twitching unnaturally.

Hundreds of them.

The number was overwhelming — far more than anything they had fought in the upper floors.

Every instinct screamed at them: fight, but flee if possible.

"Okay," Jungkook whispered, crouching low.

"We stick to the plan. Diversion first, then run. No hesitation."

Soohee nodded, gripping her knife, pulse pounding in her ears.

Taehyung, Namjoon and Jin mirrored their stance, fists clenched, eyes darting nervously across the dim terrain.

Every flicker of movement from the creatures made them flinch.

They began their advance carefully, using abandoned crates, fallen signs, and half-collapsed walls for cover.

The creatures were strangely silent compared to the upper floors.

They waited for the moment of attack, watching with unblinking, unthinking eyes. The basement was a different kind of predator — patient, calculating, a force that seemed to sense hesitation and weakness.

Jungkook signaled. Soohee, Taehyung, and he would run to their car, Namjoon and Jin to theirs.

That was their plan.

But first, they needed to distract the horde.

Jungkook's gaze locked on the fire extinguisher hanging by the basement door.

He pulled it free, the metal cold and heavy in his hands, its red surface almost glowing in the flickering light.

He counted silently.

One...

two...

three.

Then he hurled it across the floor with all his strength.

The canister skidded, bounced, and slammed into a concrete pillar with a deafening crash.

The creatures reacted instantly.

Their heads whipped toward the sound, moving as one.

The swarm surged toward the noise, their guttural growls and clicks filling the cavern.

Jungkook turned, grabbing Soohee's hand.

"Now!"

"Run!"

They sprinted for their lives.

Still running.

Closer...

Closer...

Cars are getting closer to their view.

Adrenaline obliterated exhaustion as they barreled past overturned carts and oil-stained floors, dodging grasping claws and snapping jaws.

Soohee ducked under a low-hanging pipe, Jungkook and Taehyung covering her as they barreled toward their car.

Behind them, Namjoon and Jin mirrored the action, fighting off creatures with whatever they could find — metal rods, pipes, crowbars — desperate.

Precise.

Lethal.

Taehyung yanked the door open, Jungkook throwing himself inside after Soohee.

He slammed the locks, the engine roaring to life.

Namjoon and Jin followed the same rhythm, climbing into their car as the creatures reached the cars' positions, swarming the sides, striking blindly, their screeches cutting the air.

Jungkook slammed his foot on the accelerator, tires spinning over concrete and debris.

The cars roared forward, taking turns to get to the basement entrance door.

Left.

Right.

Another Right.

A left.

Breaking through the basement doors into the open air.

Jin and Namjoon are tailing behind.

The city greeted them like another world.

Streets cracked, cars overturned, and skyscrapers twisted with green vines that strangled the architecture like some living force.

Trees burst through sidewalks, roots cracking the asphalt, weaving around abandoned vehicles.

The air was thick with the smell of earth and decay, mingled with distant screams from somewhere they could not see.

Taehyung's hands gripped the dashboard as he glanced back at the mall, his eyes catching the jagged silhouette of The Lotte Tower against the horizon.

The memory of the horrors, the deaths of Mira and Yong, and the nights spent climbing, hiding, and fighting made his stomach churn.

Tears blurred Soohee's vision, thinking the same thing as Taehyung.

Jungkook reached over, squeezing her shoulder gently.

"We're out," he murmured, though the tightness in his chest betrayed him.

"For now. We are safe."

Jin drove alongside them, silent except for the occasional clench of his jaw.

Namjoon sat rigidly, scanning the streets as if expecting creatures to burst from every shadow. Their momentary escape felt fragile, almost a tease of safety.

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"THE COLLAPSE!"