Chapter 2

At first light, I slid two chairs away from the barricade at the conference-room entrance.

Cold daylight leaked through the glass at the far end of the hallway—gray, flat, and lifeless.

The emergency lights were still on, but they felt pointless now. The noise woke everyone. One by one they sat up, faces drawn from a sleepless night, watching me without speaking—until I lifted my pack and swung it onto my shoulder.

Victor reacted first. He straightened on the long sofa, his coat still draped across his legs. His voice was rough, but the habit of issuing orders was intact.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving.” I tightened my holster, calm and matter-of-fact. “First I’m going to the daycare to get my son. Then I’m heading to the city stadium.”

The room went quiet in an instant.

Even Thomas, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, froze and looked up at me.

Victor stared like he hadn’t heard right. “You said what?”

“I’m done waiting for rescue.” I met his eyes. “It’s been three days. Waiting longer is pointless.”

Victor’s face hardened. He stood up, suit wrinkled and hair a mess, still trying to hold onto the posture he wore in boardrooms.

“You can’t leave,” he said. “You’re the security chief.”

“So?”

“So everyone here needs you to protect them.” His voice rose, the way he used to cut people off in meetings. “That’s your responsibility. If you leave, you’re abandoning all of us.”

I looked at him and didn’t take the bait.

He could talk for hours, smooth and practiced. The problem was that none of it was about my son, or a way out, or how we stayed alive. It all came back to the same demand: I was supposed to stay here and keep being the wall between them and the door.

Simon sat up too, straightened his collar, and stepped in with that careful, structured tone he never dropped—even now.

“Victor is right. In this situation, acting alone is extremely risky. We still have supplies for a while. Going out blindly isn’t a rational choice. And in terms of responsibility, you understand this building’s security better than anyone. If you leave, you reduce everyone else’s chance of survival.”

Audrey leaned against the wall, her face pale. “We don’t know what the garage looks like. We don’t know what the roads look like. We don’t know what the daycare looks like. You go out alone, you might not even get there. And even if you do—are you sure your kid is still alive?”

I locked onto her. “Take back that last sentence.”

Thomas blurted out immediately, “Sorry, sorry—she didn’t mean it.”

Audrey frowned at me like I wasn’t trying to reach my son, like I was about to slam my fist through a boardroom table.

“This is reckless,” she said. “Completely reckless. You know what it’s like out there. You’re not making a decision—you’re losing it.”

I looked at each of them in turn and finally saw it clearly.

They weren’t rejecting a plan. They didn’t have a plan. They just wanted me planted at the door, the strongest barrier in the room, until someone came to take over—or until the barrier broke.

I hitched the pack higher on my shoulder. My voice stayed low, but everyone heard it.

“If you want to stay, stay,” I said. “But don’t try to stop me.”

That landed hard. Victor blinked, clearly not expecting me to be that blunt. He opened his mouth to explode, but Simon raised a hand to cut him off.

“Wait,” Simon said. “We need to talk this through.”

I stared at him. “Talk what through?”

“At least hold a meeting and decide as a group.” Simon said it like we still had a projector, coffee, and someone taking minutes. “In this situation, any unilateral action affects the overall interest.”

I almost laughed.

Before I could answer, Marcus slammed his wrench onto the table with a dull thud.

“You want me to type up the meeting minutes too?” he said to Simon, voice heavy. “It’s the end of the world. There are things downstairs that bite people. And you want a meeting?”

Thomas flinched, nearly laughed, then swallowed it.

Grant stood in the corner, arms crossed, silent. He’d been awake for a while, watching, weighing whether I was worth following. But at least he wasn’t treating me like a resource that belonged to him.

Simon’s expression tightened under Marcus’s hit, but he recovered quickly. He adjusted his glasses, looked straight at me, and changed tactics.

“What if we come with you?”

For a moment, nobody moved.

Victor frowned first, clearly unhappy with the suggestion, but he didn’t shut it down. Because he knew the truth: if he stayed here alone, he probably wouldn’t last.

I looked at them, thought for two seconds, and gave the answer.

“Fine.”

Victor’s head snapped up.

“You can come with me,” I said, leaving no room for confusion. “But I’m not stupid. I’m not dying for anyone for free. If you choose to follow, you follow my rules. If we’re moving as a team, I’ll do everything I can to keep everyone alive—on one condition: you do what you’re told.”

Simon asked, “What are your rules?”

“When I say move, you move. When I say stop, you stop.” I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t need to. “No wandering off. No arguing. No dumping your panic on everyone else. And most important—when things go bad, don’t expect me to die for you.”

Victor’s face went cold. “You’re not negotiating. You’re ordering us around.”

“Yes,” I said. “Because out there, titles don’t matter.”

Victor tried one last angle. “What if we pay you?”

“You already pay me,” I said. “That’s my salary. The contract doesn’t say I have to die protecting you. I’m saving my life to get my son back. No amount of money is worth more than him.”

After that, nobody had anything to say.

Thomas sat on the carpet, looking from face to face, visibly torn.

He was the kind of guy who always picked the winning side—whoever had power, he smiled closer. Whoever called the shots, he laughed at their jokes. But after three days, even he understood what was real. Victor could talk. Simon could cite rules. Audrey could complain about order and “proper behavior.” But when the door shook, none of them ever stood in front of it.

He swallowed, pushed himself up, and spoke quietly—but everyone heard.

“I’m going with you.”

Then, like he was afraid he’d back out, he added fast, “At least following you makes more sense than sitting here.”

Victor turned on him with open displeasure. Thomas instinctively hunched his shoulders—the old reflex—but this time he didn’t take it back and he didn’t sit down.

I looked at him, said nothing, and gave him a small nod.

The next second, the sound came up from below—heavy impacts, one after another.

Not one hit. Many. A deep bang, then another, then a rapid sequence of pounding and snarling. The noise traveled up through the stairwell and the pipes, vibrating the glass along the conference-room wall.

Audrey went white. She sprang to her feet and clipped the table corner hard enough to wince.

“They’re coming up?” Her voice tightened.

“Not yet.” I listened, already judging distance. “But soon.”

Simon stopped talking. Something shifted in his eyes. Victor—who’d been preaching duty and order a minute ago—pressed his lips into a thin line, hearing it too.

Another hard crash.

I didn’t waste another second. I walked to the entrance and kicked the chairs aside.

“Grab your things,” I said. “We move now.”

Marcus moved first. He picked up his wrench and threw a pack of water over his shoulder, faster than anyone.

Grant muttered a curse, trying to look like he still had a choice, but his body was already reaching for his bag.

Thomas scooped food and batteries off the floor into his arms, whispering to himself, “I knew it. I knew we couldn’t keep waiting…”

The executives hesitated, faces tight and ugly.

Victor glanced at the door, then at me, and finally bent to grab his bag. Simon followed with a stiff jaw. Audrey was the slowest, hands shaking, but she didn’t dare suggest staying.

From below came another round of snarls—closer this time.

No one asked for a meeting anymore.

I pulled open the narrow gap in the barricade and slipped out first, handgun already in my grip. The hallway was dim and stale, carrying that thick, metallic smell of old blood. Behind me, footsteps rushed in a messy line. No one wanted to be last.

They weren’t convinced by my arguments.

They were moved by the same simple fact: if that door gave way, none of them could hold it.

I glanced back once, kept my voice low.

“Stay tight on me.”