The lift is like, 3 floor down?" Sarah said as I looked at the ropes connecting to the lift.
"It dropped during the Awakening," I replied, studying the steel cables. They weren't completely snapped. Two were still hanging tight, angled downward into the darkness where the elevator cabin sat crooked.
Mike stared into the shaft. "You're telling me this isn't some electrical failure. This is because of… whatever just happened?"
"Yes."
He looked at me sharply. "Then explain. Properly."
Sarah turned too, fear and confusion mixing in her eyes. "You knew something was coming. You packed a suitcase. You told us to leave before it happened. Now the elevator's fallen, Mike has claws, I have wings and you're acting like all of this is normal. So tell us what's going on."She said as I just started at her.
"The world just changed," I said. "Everyone fainted because of something called an Awakening. It gives abilities. Mutations. Evolutions. Not everyone gets the same thing. Some people get stronger. Some change physically. Some won't survive what comes next."
Mike looked at his clawed hands again. "So this is… an ability?"
"It's a mutation."
"What about you?" Sarah asked.
"I'll explain everything," I said. "But first, we need to move."
"And go where?" Mike asked, gesturing at the empty shaft. "Because the elevator isn't an option."
"It is," I said.
They both stared at me.
"We both climb down."
Mike blinked. "That's your solution? And why just the two of us."
"Three floors isn't impossible. The cables are intact." Sarah said, still looking into the shaft when something shifted behind her shoulders.
Two large wings extended from her back.
Fully spread — but just enough to clear space. Pale, feathered, and unmistakably real.
She stared at them in stunned silence for a second before flexing slightly as the wings responded naturally.
"…Okay," she whispered. "They really are a pain in the back, you know that?" She said as Mike closed his mouth.
"Okay, only we both are climbing down." Mike said.
.
.
.
It didn't take long for three of us to reach down, with me at the peak physical fitness possible for a human, Mike with a grip of a crab and Sarah with her wings... Well were soon standing in the lift after breaking through its roof entrance.
"Ugh, ahh!" I said as both me and Mike applied pressure, to open the lift and...
"Ha, ha, we did it." He said, panting a bit as I nods at him, looking at the opened lift with emotions unknown how to describe.
This is it... My escape. My escape from both the dog and cat, it took a good amount of thinking when I kept wondering how can I possibly escape from them and it led me here.
"Yea, finally." I said, trying my best not to cry.
Mike too wiped sweat from his forehead and leaned against the bent elevator door. "Man… if anyone ever tells me Monday mornings are boring again, I'm punching them."
Sarah stepped out first, her wings folding behind her back as naturally as if they had always been there. She looked down the hallway cautiously, the red emergency lights stretching long shadows across the floor.
The entire floor looked abandoned once we entered. Office doors stood half open. Papers were scattered across the carpet like someone had rushed out in panic. A faint alarm tone echoed somewhere deeper in the building, but otherwise the floor was eerily quiet.
Too quiet infact and silence means trouble.
Mike stepped out after her and stretched his arms. The claws clicked softly against each other. "Okay," he said, looking around. "So now what?" He asked.
I stepped out last and turned back for a moment, staring at the broken elevator cabin behind us.
This is it.
In the first reset, we never came here but decided to camp out. The result? We were wiped out by a dog monster.
In the second reset, we ran upward trying to escape the dog monster but met the cat instead.
Now we were here, exactly where I had planned to reach away from both cat and dog but also a very special floor.
The floor that led to the maintenance corridor… and eventually the service exit all the way down.
My way out of this hellish building. My way to avoid both monsters. And probably, the only way.
"We head to the maintenance hallway," I said. "There should be a stairwell at the end that leads outside."
Sarah glanced at me. "You're still not telling us how you know all this."
"I will," I said. "Once we're out of this building."
Mike nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Let's move before anything comes after us." He said as we started down the corridor.
Each step echoed faintly on the carpeted floor. The building groaned occasionally, pipes knocking somewhere in the walls. A faint smell lingered in the air — something musky and unpleasant.
I frowned slightly.
That smell hadn't been anywhere else but just here which make this place slightly disturbing.
We passed a row of cubicles where chairs had been knocked over. A coffee mug lay shattered on the floor, its contents dried into a dark stain.
Then I heard it.
A faint scratching sound. Not very loud but constant enough to make me notice it.
Sarah to heard it due to her sensitive ears and stopped walking. "You hear that?"
Mike stopped, as he tried his best to hear with his non existent ears and then nodded slowly. "Yeah… what is that?" He asked as the scratching grew louder.
Soon, we realised that the voice was coming from ahead, from the maintenance hallway as I felt a cold sensation crawl up my spine.
This wasn't right.
This was something in there that was not a part of the previous cycles. Was it because I never came here and what's in there never went up?
Suddenly, rhe sound multiplied quickly.
Something was scratching... Something was squeaking... Then out of nowhere, something small scurried across the hallway ahead of us.
Then another and another as they keep coming out.
Sarah squinted into the dim red light. "Are those… rats?" She said.
At first glance they looked like normal rats.
Then one stepped fully into the light.
It was the size of an average sized dog. Of course before the apocalypse ones.
Its fur was patchy and dark, its yellow teeth long and jagged. Its eyes glowed faintly red as it sniffed the air.
Behind it, more shapes moved. As we finally realised the astonishing number of these rats, they were in dozens.
My chest tightened as I saw this scene.
No.
No, no, no.
This floor was supposed to be exit out of the hell here. I was so scared of those two other threats that I completely forgot to even think that there might be another one waiting for us here.
Mike whispered, "That rat is bigger than my pet dog…" he said as the first rat screeched.
The sound was sharp and violent.
Then the swarm poured out of the maintenance corridor.
Giant bodies spilling across the floor, claws scraping loudly against tile as they rushed toward us.
"Run!" Mike shouted.
We turned instantly.
But the hallway behind us was already moving.
More rats crawled out from under desks and broken cabinets, their bodies grotesquely oversized, tails whipping across the floor.
They had been hiding.
Waiting.
The swarm closed in from both directions.
Sarah spread her wings instinctively and tried to leap upward, but the ceiling was too low. She managed to lift slightly before one of the rats jumped and clamped onto her wing.
She screamed as feathers scattered.
Mike swung his clawed hands wildly, crushing one rat against the wall with a sickening crunch, but two more leapt onto his legs, biting through his pants.
"Get them off!" he yelled.
I pushed with my telekinesis, throwing one rat sideways into a cubicle wall.
Another jumped at me.
Its weight slammed into my chest and knocked me backward.
I hit the floor hard.
Pain shot through my ribs as the creature clawed at my shirt, its teeth snapping inches from my throat.
I tried to push it away with my mind.
Too weak.
My telekinesis barely budged it.
More rats swarmed over me.
Claws tore into my arms.
Teeth pierced skin.
The world dissolved into screams, squeals, and the metallic taste of blood.
Through the chaos I saw Sarah fighting desperately, feathers scattered across the floor.
Mike crushed another rat with his claws but disappeared under a writhing mass seconds later.
My vision blurred.
My strength faded quickly as teeth sank deeper into my shoulder.
So this was the new variable.
Not the cat.
Not the dog.
Rats.
Hundreds of them.
"Get the fuck out of here Adrain!" Sara said, as we all try to fight them barehanded.
"We will all leave together." I said as I watch Mike being slowly torn apart and eaten in the matter of seconds.
"THIS ISN'T TIME FOR YOUR BULLSHIT! JUST GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! WHY ARE YOU SAVING ME ANYWAY! AND DON'T GIVE ME THAT CUZ I AM A GOOD GUY TYPE OF SHIT. IF YOU ARE REALLY THAT TYPE OF PERSON, WE WONT NEED TO LEAVE BEHIND EVERYONE ELSE."
Saying so, she looked at me in the eyes, "WAKE UP ALREADY ADRAIN, WE HAVE BROKE UP, WE ARE NOT TOGETHER ANYMORE."