April 17th. 8:00 AM.
Day three.
Jae-min hadn't slept. The white light on the roof had stopped flashing at 4:00 AM. Wait for it. Then nothing.
The temperature outside was minus sixty-nine degrees. Inside the bunker, it was eight degrees. Cold enough to see your breath.
He sat at the dining table. Rifle disassembled. Phone on the table beside him.
The screen was lit.
Not by the monitor. Not by the Morse code.
By the building group chat.
Shore Residence 3 — Building B — Residents Group437 members
The chat was moving faster than Jae-min had ever seen it. Usually, it was dead. Complaints about the HOA. Questions about the water bill. Someone asking if anyone had seen a missing cat.
Now it was a waterfall of panic.
[Mrs. Santos - Unit 1305]: HAS ANYONE HEARD FROM THE MANAGEMENT? THE POWER HAS BEEN OUT FOR TWO DAYS.
[Mr. Perez - Unit 1208]: My phone is at 2%. I can't charge it. Does anyone have a generator?
[Anna - Unit 1410]: THE WATER IS FROZEN. EVEN THE PIPES IN THE WALL. I CAN'T COOK. I CAN'T FLUSH. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING.
[Mr. Villanueva - Unit 1002]: How long is this cold supposed to last? This isn't normal. This isn't a typhoon. Something is very wrong.
[Grace - Unit 1312]: My husband went to the lobby yesterday to check the fire hoses. He hasn't come back.
[Grace - Unit 1312]: Please. If anyone has seen him. He was wearing a blue jacket. His name is Roberto. Please.
Jae-min scrolled. The messages kept coming. Hundreds per hour.
[Mrs. Dela Cruz - Unit 1415]: THE COLD IS GETTING WORSE. MY WALLS ARE FROZEN. I CAN SEE ICE FORMING ON THE INSIDE OF MY WINDOWS. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? ITS APRIL.
[Marco - Unit 1320]: Has anyone tried the stairs? Mine are frozen shut. I can't get down to the ground floor.
[Julie - Unit 1205]: I tried. The fire escape is a block of ice. My fingers stuck to the railing. I lost skin when I pulled them free.
[Anonymous]: People are dying.
[Anonymous]: Who is dying? How?
[Anonymous]: The old man in 1401. They found him this morning. Frozen solid in his bed. He looked like a statue.
[Mrs. Dela Cruz - Unit 1415]: OH GOD. THATS MR. REYES. HE LIVED ALONE. NOBODY CHECKED ON HIM.
[Anonymous]: My baby won't stop crying. She's so cold. I wrapped her in every blanket we have but she won't stop shivering. What do I do? Someone tell me what to do.
[Anonymous]: Burn paper. Anything. Create heat. Huddle together. Block the windows with whatever you have. Mattresses. Blankets. Cardboard.
[Anonymous]: We don't have cardboard. We don't have anything. The stores are closed. The roads are iced over. We can't go anywhere.
[Anonymous]: I knocked on my neighbor's door. Unit 1308. Nobody answered. I looked through the keyhole. They're frozen. Sitting at the dinner table. Forks in their hands. Food still on the plates.
Jae-min stopped scrolling.
He looked up. Ji-yoo was standing behind him. Reading over his shoulder.
"Oppa."
"Yeah."
"How many?"
"Forty-three dead so far. In this building alone."
Ji-yoo closed her eyes.
Alessia walked over. Sat down. Wrapped in a blanket. She looked at the phone screen.
"Can we help them?" she whispered.
"No."
"We have supplies. We have food. We could—"
"No." Jae-min's voice was flat.
"We can't just watch them die!"
"Yes. We can. Because if we open this door, we die too."
Alessia stared at him. Blue eyes wide. Hurt.
"You're asking me to sit here and do nothing while people freeze to death ten feet away from me."
"I'm asking you to survive."
"Is that all that matters to you? Survival?"
"It's all that matters to anyone. You just don't know it yet."
Alessia flinched. Like he had slapped her.
Ji-yoo put a hand on Alessia's shoulder. Shook her head slowly.
"He's right," Ji-yoo said quietly. "If we open the door, we lose the heat. We lose the bunker. We lose everything. And then we're just another frozen body in the hallway."
Alessia looked at Ji-yoo. Then back at Jae-min.
"So we just... hide?"
"We wait," Jae-min said. "We wait until the weak die. We wait until the desperate kill each other. And then we deal with what's left."
Rico walked over. Leaned against the wall. Reading the chat over Alessia's shoulder.
"Building B is holding," Rico said. "Better than A and C. A has already had two fires. People trying to stay warm. The sprinklers are frozen, so the fires are spreading. C is worse. Someone broke into the storage room on the fifth floor last night. Stabbed a man over a can of beans."
Jae-min scrolled to the newest messages.
[Anonymous]: WHO BROKE INTO UNIT 501? THAT WAS MR. CRUZ'S FOOD. HE HAD THREE KIDS.
[Anonymous]: Desperate people do desperate things.
[Anonymous]: It's not desperate. It's murder. He had a knife. He STABBED Mr. Cruz. Over BEANS.
[Anonymous]: His kids were crying. They hadn't eaten in two days. What was he supposed to do?
[Anonymous]: NOT STAB SOMEONE.
[Anonymous]: Wait. Listen. Does anyone hear that?
[Anonymous]: Hear what?
[Anonymous]: Something on the roof. Footsteps. Heavy. Multiple people.
[Anonymous]: Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.
[Anonymous]: What's on the roof?
[Anonymous]: I don't know. But I can hear them through the ceiling. They're moving. Fast. Organized.
[Anonymous]: IS IT THE GOVERNMENT? IS HELP COMING?
[Anonymous]: The government is dead. Haven't you been watching the news? Manila is gone. The whole country is dark. Nobody is coming.
[Anonymous]: Then who is on our roof?
The chat exploded. Dozens of messages per second.
[Anonymous]: HELLO?
[Anonymous]: IS ANYONE THERE?
[Anonymous]: I SAW THEM. THROUGH THE STAIRWELL WINDOW. THREE MEN. BLACK GEAR. MASKS. THEY HAVE GUNS.
[Anonymous]: Oh fuck.
[Anonymous]: Oh FUCK.
[Anonymous]: ARE THEY POLICE?
[Anonymous]: Police are dead. I saw the police car outside. Frozen solid. Cop inside. Hand on the radio.
[Anonymous]: THEN WHO ARE THEY?
[Anonymous]: Military? Special forces?
[Anonymous]: They're not here to help.
[Anonymous]: How do you know?
[Anonymous]: Because one of them just broke into Unit 1412. I heard the door splinter.
[Anonymous]: Unit 1412? That's the Reyes unit. But Mr. Reyes is dead.
[Anonymous]: They're not there for Mr. Reyes.
[Anonymous]: Then what are they looking for?
[Anonymous]: US.
Jae-min stared at the screen.
[Anonymous]: What do you mean "us"?
[Anonymous]: They're going door to door. Checking every unit. Looking for something.
[Anonymous]: Looking for what?
[Anonymous]: I don't know. But they skipped 1413. 1414. 1415. 1416. 1417. 1418.
[Anonymous]: They stopped at 1418?
[Anonymous]: YES. They stood there for a long time. I could hear them breathing through the wall. Then they moved on. To 1420. Then up the stairs.
[Anonymous]: Why 1418?
[Anonymous]: Who lives in 1418?
[Anonymous]: Some guy. Korean-Filipino. Works at a logistics hub. I don't know his name. He keeps to himself.
[Anonymous]: Wait. Didn't he have construction done? A few weeks ago? That big steel door?
[Anonymous]: Yeah. The building manager complained about it. Said it was against code.
[Anonymous]: He built a bunker.
[Anonymous]: What?
[Anonymous]: HE BUILT A BUNKER. IN HIS APARTMENT. BEFORE ALL THIS HAPPENED.
[Anonymous]: How would he know to do that?
[Anonymous]: He didn't know. He couldn't have known. Nobody knew. This wasn't supposed to happen.
[Anonymous]: Unless he did.
The chat went silent.
Jae-min set the phone down.
Ji-yoo was pale. "They skipped us. On purpose."
"They know we're here," Rico said. "Naraka. The men in gray. They've been watching us since before the freeze. Now they're looking for us."
"Why didn't they breach?"
"Because they can't." Jae-min looked at the blast plates. "This door is rated for a forty-pound breaching charge. They don't have the tools to crack it. Not yet."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait."
"Again with the waiting."
"It works."
Rico looked at the phone. The chat was exploding again.
[Anonymous]: THEY'RE BACK ON THE ROOF.
[Anonymous]: How many?
[Anonymous]: FIVE. I saw five. They have a box. A big metal box. They're setting it up over the stairwell.
[Anonymous]: What kind of box?
[Anonymous]: I don't know. But it has antennas. And a red light.
[Anonymous]: Are they trying to communicate?
[Anonymous]: Maybe? The red light is blinking. Like a heartbeat.
[Anonymous]: I hear something. A hum. Coming through the ceiling. Faint. But there.
[Anonymous]: I hear it too.
[Anonymous]: What is it?
[Anonymous]: I don't know. But it makes my teeth hurt.
Alessia looked at Jae-min. "They're setting up equipment on the roof. Right above us."
"I know."
"Are they trying to get in?"
"No. They're trying to listen."
"Listen to what?"
Jae-min stared at the ceiling.
"Us."
The chat kept moving. Panic. Fear. Confusion.
But Jae-min wasn't reading the panic anymore.
He was reading the patterns.
Naraka wasn't attacking. They were preparing. Setting up surveillance. Establishing a perimeter.
They were waiting for something.
The same thing he was waiting for.
The question was: who would make the first move?