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Chapter 24:

I don't remember when I fell asleep, but I remember it being an uncomfortable sleep. Images of the spider monster would flash through my mind, making me toss and turn all night. The last image I see is the monster jumping towards me, just before I wake up. I sit up quickly, breathing heavily as I do. I try to focus on my surroundings, reminding myself that I was safe, at least for now.

I then realize that there was a lot of noise going on. There seems to be music playing over the building's PA system. I begin to panic, wondering if the music would attract more monsters to the building.

My fears only grew worse when I heard the mechanical sound that belonged to the building's security gates. They were being opened.

Jumping up from my place on the ground, I rush out of the daycare center and into the main hallway. It's there that I see the daycare owner, pulling down the barricade that guarded the security gates. The security gates were slowly rising up from the ground.

Along with the music in the air, I can now hear Eun-hyuk's voice. "Survivors. The first floor is safe now. Come to the first floor, we'll be safer together."

I don't hear the rest of what he says as I rush forward to try to stop the barricade from coming down. The others run over as well, trying to hold back the daycare owner who is trying to break through the wall.

I realize that it's too late to save the barricade. We should focus on getting the gates to lower down first. Grabbing hold of the rising bars, I try my best to keep them from going any higher. It works a bit but just barely. Still, the gates rise.

"What's going on?" I hear. I turn, seeing Eun-hyuk, he's looking at all the mess around us, now realizing what's going on.

"Look. Look. Look. My daughter's here! She's here! Please, just let me go get her!" The daycare owner begs. She rushes up to Eun-hyuk, showing him something on her phone.

"Someone, close the gates," Eun-hyuk says.

I don't take even a moment to think. I run down the hall and into the security office. However, I realize that I don't know how to lower the security gates.

"Damn it!" I yell, knowing that I couldn't do anything to help.

I rush back into the hall where everyone is watching something outside the building. "I don't know how to work the damn gate. Someone else needs to close it." I say. I stop talking when I see the army soldier running out of the building. I look outside, seeing a female student in a uniform running toward the building. That must have been the daughter of the daycare owner.

I stand frozen, watching as the girl and soldier grow closer together. Just a bit more and the soldier would have reached the girl. However, just as the soldier reaches his hand out to the girl, they both stop in place. At first, I'm confused, until I see the giant tentacle sticking through both of their bodies.

I gasp in both shock and fear as the bodies are lifted into the air before being drained of blood. The bodies are then carelessly thrown to the side. As if they were nothing but scraps of garbage.

Time seems to stand still as everyone takes in the scene before us.

"She could still be alive you know." A voice says. With a look of confusion, I turn and see the mysterious man who arrived last night. What kind of person makes suck a comment during a time like this?

"I did it, I closed the gate" Someone else yells from somewhere in the hall. With that, the gates start to lower and I run into action.

I help Eun-hyuk to lift a filing cabinet into places the gate continues to lower. However, my heart almost stops when something smashes through the cabinet doors. Eun-hyuk pulls me into him, holding me as close as possible.

We both stare at the moving tentacle that is inches away from our faces. It flails around a bit more, almost touching me. I feel Eun-hyuk take a step back as he holds me close still. The tentacle disappears and the rest of the building's residents rush to barricade the gate once more.

Eun-kyuk and I stand frozen. Still processing everything that just happened. Pulling away from Eunhyuk, I take a step towards the cabinet. I can see a hole going straight through the cabinet, the monster's tentacle-like tongue was strong enough to break through the metal cabinet like butter. I was so close to dying just now.

I then think about the soldier and the female student who both just died. If we would have just helped sooner, they might have both stayed alive. And the girl would have been reunited with her mother.