The hallway was alive with panic.
Boots pounded against metal. Screams bounced off the walls.
Voices tangled together into a single, frantic noise,
"God, please – please don't let me die!"
"Move! Move!"
"Keep running – it's right behind us!"
" Get the f*ck out of my way, out of my WAY!"
No one listened. There was no plan, no reason, just motion and chaos. The sound of metal grinding behind them, the retracting tiles, became the rhythm of death itself.
Linus ran. Thought and reason came second or not at all. Survival came first.
His breath tore through his chest, each inhale sharper than the last. His throat burned, his ribs ached, his legs screamed. Sweat blurred his vision, but he didn't dare wipe it away.
No one was built for this.
It was a nightmare, and they were living it, live in 4k resolution.
But Linus didn't stop, he couldn't. The only thing waiting for him if he stopped was death.
The air was cold and thin, tasting of iron, fear and desperation.
Someone tripped ahead of him, a man, older, wheezing.
"Wait! Wait, please!" he shouted, reaching out to no one.
Linus instinctively jumped over him, survival outweighing morality and values. He hated himself for it, but he had to survive.
The floor beneath the man hissed and slid away, and the scream that followed was cut off cleanly like a switch being flipped.
Don't think, keep running.
A shove from behind nearly sent Linus sprawling. A man shoved past him, panic turning his face animal. Someone grabbed at his shoulder, using him for balance, then shoved him aside. An elbow cracked against his cheek, sending pain flaring through his skull. He tasted blood, but he didn't care.
The girl from before, calm, quick – was already far ahead. Her movements were fluid, precise, controlled.
How the hell is she so fast? Linus thought bitterly. How is she doing it?
But it didn't matter right now, as his life was at the mercy of the floor and his will to survive.
Then a voice cried out from somewhere upfront, raw and desperate:
"There's light! I see light ahead!"
" I see it too!"
"Hurry, its not far, we can make it!"
Guess the hallway wasn't endless after all.
Hope surged through the crowd like fire. People screamed and pushed harder, trampling the slow and stumbling. The flickering white lights above them began to glow brighter, revealing the end of the corridor – a chamber. Smooth metallic walls. Wide, open. Salvation.
The first few reached it, collapsing inside, gasping for air. The girl also reached there.
The rest followed, a stampede of terror.
Linus ran harder, ignoring the fire in his lungs.
The metallic tiles behind them began retracting faster. The grinding metal turned frantic.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
He was almost there. Ten steps. Maybe less. The chamber glowed ahead like safety itself.
Then - click.
The tile metallic tile beneath him jerked. The metal shuddered under his boots.
No, no, no!
Three rows of tiles still separated him from the chamber.
Someone screamed, another stumbled and fell. Linus didn't stop to think.
His mind went blank. His legs moved before reason could intervene.
He jumped.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The floor vanished
Air rushed past his face. The black void swallowed everything behind him.
He wasn't jumping over ground anymore – just darkness, cold and endless.
And as he hung there between one heartbeat and the next, the only thought that tore through his mind was simple and cruel:
There is no guarantee that any of us are making it out of this nightmare.
Clang!