Sia: "But… where are we even going?"
Ahmad: "Away from the basement."
Sia: "We're on the first floor now."
Arjun: "Cafeteria, gym… or any place with routers. We need network to make a call."
Sia: "What's on the first floor of this building?"
Ahmad: "I don't know. Let's get out in the lobby and walk toward the cafeteria."
Sia: "But the cafeteria has glass doors. Let's go to the gym instead."
Ahmad: "Gym is more dangerous. One wrong step and you'll get injured so badly you can't even move."
Arjun: "Then we go to the lobby and walk straight to the meeting area. It has to have routers."
Sia nodded.
Sia: "Okay."
She started crawling forward again.
(Lily stopped at the lobby vent and looked down. All she could see was an empty lobby — glass shattered everywhere, blood smeared across the floor and walls. She was about to push the vent open when a different kind of zombie entered.
This one didn't drag its body. She walked normally, though her nerves were swollen, eyes blood-red, one ear missing, and she held a gun in her hand.
Sia's face twisted in terror as the zombie paced toward the reception desk. Sia gasped softly. The zombie instantly looked up — but the vent was small and dark, nothing visible. Sia crawled backward and pointed down to warn the others.
Suddenly — BANG!
A deafening gunshot smashed into the front vent.
All of them froze. Eyes wide. Hands trembling. Hearts racing.
They stayed completely still as the sound echoed. After a moment, the gun zombie left the lobby. As she walked out, several zombies entered from the corridors — but the gun zombie kicked a few aside to make space for herself to pass.
Sia (lip-syncing): She's gone.
Arjun: What do we do now?
Ahmad: Sia, is the prop-room door closed?
(Sia peeked down again. The door was shut. She nodded.)
Ahmad: Let's get into it. We can't stay inside this vent any longer.
Arjun: Should we really go out now?
Sia: A lot of zombies left. Only a few are there now.
Arjun: But… who fired the gun?
Sia: A girl… a zombie. (Still confused.)
Ahmad: Zombie? (shocked, shaking)
Sia: If we're going down there, then give me Arjun's phone.
(She stretches her hand backward.)
Arjun: Why?
(Sia keeps her hand out, demanding it. He takes the phone from his back pocket and hands it to her. Sia opens the camera, zooms, and clicks a photo of the building's floor outlet map hanging on the wall — blood smeared but still readable. She pockets the phone and prepares to open the vent. The drop is high. No safe way down without a distraction.)
Arjun: Don't use the gun.
Sia: Then what?
Arjun: Throw this outwards.
(He hands her a few bullets.)
Sia takes the bullets, stretches her hand out through the vent opening, and throws them with full strength across the lobby.
The zombies instantly rush toward the sound.
A faint bang echoes from the outside — the gun zombie again — and the lobby zombies run toward that noise.
Sia hangs from the edge, and Lily grabs her wrists tightly to steady her before letting go gently, helping her drop quietly. Sia lands safely. She and Arjun help Lily down without making a sound. Lily rushes to check the prop-room door — still closed. Arjun and Ahmad drop next. All four sprint toward the room and lock the door from inside.