Nobody looked back.
The stairwell made that easy. It pulled everything upward—their breath, the heat, the smell of blood, the little sounds people made when they were trying not to fall apart. Rosa's cart banged over each step with a heavy metal knock that carried up the shaft and came back thinner a second later.
Joshua kept Nia tucked high under his chin and climbed.
She had cried herself down into those weak, ragged little sounds babies made when they were almost out of strength. Her face was hot against his neck. Every so often her fingers clenched in his hoodie and let go again.
Below them, the landing they had left behind vanished around the turn.
Abeni stayed there anyway.
He could still feel her looking at him.
The old man in the brown coat stumbled on the next flight and caught the rail with both hands. The nurse nearly ran into him from behind. Priya got a hand in the center of the man's back and shoved him upward before his knees could decide anything stupid.
"Keep going."
Nobody answered her. They just climbed.
Lucía and Idris had Rosa's cart tilted at an angle now, front wheels lifted while the rear wheels thudded up the steps one by one. Rosa gave a weak, damaged sound every time the cart hit hard. Lucía's mouth stayed set. Idris had both forearms braced under the side rail, neck cords standing out.
Hoodie kid kept the crawling woman moving with her arm over his shoulders. Her bad leg dragged on the steps and caught twice. Tomasz squeezed past both of them on the inside curve when the stair widened enough, trying to gain three feet that meant nothing.
Joshua saw it and kept moving.
The air changed again before they reached the top.
The warmth thinned out. The smell of detergent and hot machinery gave way to old carpet, stale cold air, dead freon, polish, and something faintly sweet rotting somewhere farther in.
Idris hit the top landing first and shoved at the service door with his shoulder.
It opened inward.
The upper corridor beyond it was lit.
Not brightly.
Enough.
Housekeeping alcoves. Beige walls. hotel-pattern carpet runner laid down the center over concrete. Ice machine recessed into one wall. A drinks cooler on the far side stood dark and dead. Service signage hung from the ceiling with arrows for linen, maintenance, guest tower access.
The corridor forked twenty yards ahead.
One branch bent left past a housekeeping station and a row of room-service carts.
The other ran straight toward a steel fire door with a faded placard bolted beside it:
MAINTENANCE OFFICE — UPPER LEVEL
"Push," Priya said.
Lucía and Idris got Rosa's cart through the doorway and let the wheels settle onto the carpet runner. The sound change alone made Joshua's skin crawl. Everything here moved quieter. Softer. Like the floor wanted to keep secrets.
The surviving college boy came through next and hit the wall with one hand, half-bent, trying not to throw up. The teenager had stopped crying out loud and gone into that worse, trapped kind of silence where each breath sounded borrowed. The businesswoman kept one hand locked around her wrist.
Joshua stepped into the corridor last except for the old man and the nurse.
He waited one second longer than he should have.
Nothing came through the stairwell below them.
No voice.
No footsteps.
No metal scrape.
That was not better.
He turned and pulled the upper service door shut. The latch caught with a small click that felt too small for what it was supposed to do.
"Can it lock?" Priya asked.
Idris was already at the handle. He twisted, tested, looked at the badge reader on the wall.
"Needs authority on this side too."
"Rosa?"
Lucía didn't wait for more. She dragged Rosa's badge hand up from the cart rail and slapped the card against the panel.
The panel stayed dark.
Rosa's head rolled weakly toward the wall and stopped there.
Idris took the badge, wiped blood off the strip with his thumb, and ran it again.
A green light blinked once.
The lock engaged with a heavier clunk than the stairwell door had.
Nobody relaxed.
Joshua shifted Nia onto the other shoulder for a second and bounced her lightly.
She gave one tired cry, then another.
His arms were starting to burn.
He kept her there.
Priya pointed at the far fire door. "That's it."
Idris nodded. "Looks like it."
"Looks like," Tomasz said, breathless. "You don't know?"
Idris turned and looked at him long enough that Tomasz's mouth shut by itself.
The old man in the coat slid down the wall near the service door and sat before anyone could stop him. The nurse followed him halfway, then caught herself and stayed crouched with both hands over her face.
Priya saw them and went cold all over again.
"No. Up."
The old man shook his head without looking at her. "I can't."
She took two steps toward him.
Joshua said, "Leave him two seconds."
She looked back at him.
"He'll sit longer."
"He'll fall if you force him right now."
She hated that he was right, and that was fine with him.
Lucía crouched at Rosa's cart again. Two fingers at the neck. Palm against the cheek. She pulled her hand back and looked at the blood drying across her own knuckles.
"Talk to me," Priya said.
Lucía didn't answer right away.
"She's here," she said finally. "That's what I got."
"That's enough."
Lucía looked over at the landing they had climbed away from like she could still see through three walls and a turn.
No one said Abeni's name.
Hoodie kid eased the crawling woman down against the base of the drinks cooler. She hissed through her teeth and grabbed at her own thigh. The surviving college boy had both hands on his head again. The teenager stood because the businesswoman was still holding her upright and not because her own legs had any plan.
Joshua walked halfway to the fork and stopped.
The corridor hummed faintly.
Not electrical.
Breathing.
The upper-service air moved in little currents against the side of his face. Something farther down the left branch clicked once, then went quiet. Not a footstep. Something mechanical cooling or waking up. Hard to tell.
He kept his eyes on the fire door marked Maintenance Office.
The carpet runner in front of it was darker in patches.
Not from design.
Traffic. Damp. Maybe blood. Maybe something else ground into the fibers and left there.
Nia made a thin little noise and burrowed her face harder under his jaw.
"You're still here," he murmured.
Her hand opened once against his chest.
Idris came up beside him and kept his voice low. "If the office is live, maybe there's another terminal."
"Maybe."
"You hear anything?"
Joshua listened.
The upper corridor held itself very still.
Then, from somewhere behind the left branch, came a soft service bell ding.
One note.
Like a room-service cart had hit something metal.
Joshua's shoulders tightened.
Idris heard it too.
"That left side go anywhere useful?"
"Housekeeping rooms. Supply. Maybe tower service access."
"Maybe."
"That's what the signs say."
Joshua glanced at him. "Signs been honest all day?"
Idris didn't answer.
Priya joined them, eyes going from the left branch to the maintenance door and back again. "We go straight."
Lucía said from behind them, "Rosa can't take another stop."
The old man in the coat dragged himself back to standing with the wall helping him. The nurse got up slower. Her face looked hollowed out now, like even crying had become too expensive.
"Then straight," Priya said.
The service bell dinged again.
This time from farther in.
Not closer.
But enough to let every person in the corridor know it was real.
Tomasz looked left. "What is that?"
"Not our problem," Priya said.
He did not like that answer. Joshua didn't either. That did not change anything.
They moved.
Lucía and Idris pushed Rosa's cart straight up the corridor toward the maintenance door. Hoodie kid got the crawling woman up again. The businesswoman pulled the teenager with her. The surviving college boy followed because not following was worse. The old man and the nurse stayed in the middle now, moving in broken little bursts.
Joshua stayed ahead of them by a few steps.
The carpet runner muffled the wheels too much. He could hear other things now. The whisper of dragged rubber. The nurse's breath. Nia's small cries. The rustle of housekeeping plastic on the carts lining the walls.
Halfway to the maintenance door, one of the guest-room doors on the left branch eased open.
Just an inch.
No one was near it.
Joshua stopped so fast the others checked up behind him.
The guest-room door stayed where it was.
Open that inch.
Dark inside.
A strip of colder air spilled into the corridor.
Nobody spoke.
Then the door opened another inch on its own.
The service bell dinged for a third time.
Not from the room.
From farther down the left branch again.
Joshua looked at the gap.
No light inside. No movement. Just a room holding itself open enough to say come look.
Priya came up on his shoulder. "Keep moving."
Lucía and Idris pushed the cart.
The wheels rolled.
The old man looked at the guest-room door and crossed himself.
The businesswoman pulled the teenager's head against her side so she wouldn't see it.
Joshua kept pace with the cart and did not look into the room again.
As they passed, something breathed inside it.
Not loud.
Human-sized.
Close enough to the opening that Joshua felt it on the side of his hand.
He moved faster.
The corridor narrowed toward the maintenance fire door. A badge reader sat beside it. Another access box. Another chance for the building to make them earn one more ten feet.
Idris reached it first and swiped Rosa's card.
Amber.
Then red.
Lucía made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like pain turning into hate.
"Again," Priya said.
Idris swiped again.
Red.
He flipped the badge. Slower this time. Green flashed once, then died.
"Come on."
He swiped again.
Nothing.
Joshua turned and looked back down the corridor.
The guest-room door they had passed was open wider now.
Farther back, the upper-service door they had locked at the stairwell still looked shut.
The service bell did not ring again.
That was worse than if it had.
Nia started crying harder.
The sound ran down the corridor and touched every closed door on the left branch.
Then, from the room they had just passed, a woman's voice said softly:
"Can somebody get her?"