Jungkook raised the steel rod higher, signaling Taehyung and Soohee to stay behind as he crept closer. The air was heavy with the scent of old food, vinegar, oil, and, among other things...

When he reached the counter, the faintest shuffle echoed from within the counter. Not claws. Not the wet dragging of the creatures. A soft murmur was heard.

"Who's there?" Jungkook whispered, his voice firm but not loud.

Taehyung, with a metal rod, and Soohee, with an extinguisher in hand, stood behind Jungkook, ready to strike whoever or whatever would jump forward.

The shuffle froze. Then, a whisper, faint, hoarse came out "Ple... Please don't... hurt us."

Soohee gasped softly and stepped up beside Jungkook. "Human," she mouthed.

Jungkook lowered the rod slightly but didn't let his guard down. "We won't," he said slowly. "We're not infected. Just trying to get out."

A small hand appeared first, trembling. Then a young woman peeked through the gap of the sliding panel behind the counter. Her face was pale, streaked with dried sweat and grime. Her hair clung to her forehead. Behind her, a man crouched in the narrow kitchen space, clutching makeshift weapons. One had a broken bottle wrapped in some dirty cloth, the other a metal skewer.

"Please," the woman whispered. "We... thought... everyone was gone."

Taehyung's throat tightened. Seeing other people, actual survivors, made everything both more real and more terrifying.

"We were at the cinema," Jungkook said. "We just got out. What happened here, outside?"

The woman, whose name was later shared as Kim Mira, shook her head slowly. "We don't know. It was normal, and then... when we came out, everything changed. Power flickering started. No signal. And then those things came. We ran up here two nights ago."

Soohee stiffened. "Nights? It's been hours since we entered the movie."

The other man, a tall, gaunt guy with blood on his sleeve, rasped out, "It's not hours. It's been days. We've been hiding here for two days."

The air seemed to drain out of Jungkook's, Taehyung's, and Soohee's lungs.

Jungkook shook his head slowly, trying to process it. "That can't be. It hasn't been that long..."

But the look in their eyes said otherwise.

"What if we didn't notice anything strange when we came in?" Taehyung spoke up.

Jungkook didn't know how to answer him.

Everyone went silent.

The tall guy and Mira had been surviving on leftovers in the food stalls, bread, chips, and bottles of water. They had barricaded themselves with trays and overturned counters, creating a makeshift wall behind the subway booth. They probably missed the storage room containing canned goods.

Jungkook, Taehyung, and Soohee stepped inside. The space was cramped, but it was warm. Human. Alive.

"Are you going down?" Mira asked, her voice low, almost fearful.

"We have to," Taehyung replied. "Our car's in the basement. It's the only way out."

The second man, Kim Namjoon, let out a bitter laugh. "Down? Do you even know what's waiting down there? Those things are crawling all over the lower floors. We tried once... we barely made it back up."

"Then what?" Taehyung asked. "Hide here forever? wait for them to find us?"

Mira's eyes dropped to the floor. The silence that followed said everything.

Jungkook scanned the shelves behind the counter. "We need weapons. Real ones. Anything sharp or hard. We can't make it 122 floors down empty-handed."

Everyone nodded in sync, agreeing.

Namjoon opened a small drawer and tossed out what they had collected. A few kitchen knives, metal skewers, and a mop handle sharpened to a jagged point. Not exactly military gear, but they would have to do.

Soohee picked up a kitchen knife, turning it in her hand. Its handle was sticky, but the blade was still sharp. She didn't want to know what the sticky substance was. She tucked it into the strap of her bag.

Jungkook strapped the steel rod tighter in his grip.

The air in the room grew still again. They all heard it, a faint echo from somewhere below. A dragging, clicking sound that made everyone jump.

"They don't climb this high," Mira whispered, "but they will come."

Jungkook met Taehyung's eyes. "We move at first light... if light even exists out there."

Taehyung nodded. But in his gut, he knew, they didn't have time to wait. The mall wasn't safe. It was just quiet. And quiet in this new world didn't mean safety.

It meant waiting for something or someone to break it.

The 122nd floor should have felt familiar.

It was the floor they'd walked through just hours earlier, vending machines glowing faintly, laughter echoing from the theater crowd, Taehyung teasing Jungkook for buying too many snacks.

But when they stepped through the stairwell door now, it felt like stepping into a tomb.

The air was colder here. The silence was no longer still, it felt stretched, like something was listening from just beyond the edges of the shadows. The vending machine lights that had flickered earlier were completely dead now, their screens black, glass cracked in places. The soft hum of electronics was gone.

Soohee's breath fogged faintly in the air, even though it shouldn't have been that cold.

She looked around slowly. Every corner of this floor screamed familiarity, the bookstore sign at the end of the corridor, the same vending machine where Jungkook had bought a chocolate bar, but everything had been touched by something she couldn't name.

The bookstore door hung off its hinge. Books lay scattered like bones across the floor, pages damp and crinkled. The toy stall near the railing had been smashed, dolls lying face down, their porcelain faces cracked into pieces.

Mira hugged herself unconsciously. "It looks...old."

"Yeah," Jungkook said softly. "Like no one's been here for years."

Minutes ago, in their minds, at least, they'd been here surrounded by life. Now, the floor felt like it had aged decades.

They moved slowly, handmade weapons ready, checking every corner. Mira. Soohee and Namjoon followed from a distance, behind Jungkook and Taehyung, their faces pale, wide-eyed.

Taehyung stopped near a cracked mirror on the wall. His reflection looked distorted under the weak red light. Older. Tired. He touched the glass, and it was icy cold.

"Jungkook..."

He turned. Taehyung didn't have to say it. He felt it too.

HELLO LOVELIES, PLEASE READ MY STORY, COMMENT ALL YOUR THOUGHTS, VOTE, FOLLOW AND SHARE THIS AMONG YOUR FREINDS TOO!

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