Who will Survive?

The group of young adults kept running down the stairway. It wasn't long before the ladies caught up to John who was weakened from the toilet experience.

Seeing that the monster didn't chase them, they paused in place and took deep breathes to recover their energy while waiting for Gu Hao. Not long after, Gu Hao caught up to them, out of breathe.

John who was more physically fit recovered faster and commanded, "Sh*t! I didn't expect those sh*t to be real. Go! Let's get the f**k out of here! No time to rest, if you are slow, don't blame me for driving off without you!"

With that, John swiftly jogged down the stairs. Lena panted as she grabbed Alice who was still crying, "Comon Alice, don't worry, we will be alright. Let's go."

With that, Lena led Alice down the stairs as quickly as she could. Gu Hao took a couple more deep breathe before he followed still panting, "Man, after I make it back alive, I will never complain again if my father forces me to go through his police training."

Continuing down the stairs, Gu Hao could hear John holler, "You all are so slow! I'm already at the next floor's doorway. You all better hurry up or I'm leaving you all behind."

Gu Hao frowned and gritted his teeth in anger. If it weren't for him needing to sneak out without being found out by his father, he would have driven his own car here, but now he had to deal with this jerk for a ride. Gu Hao promised himself, "Never again."

It wasn't long before Gu Hao finally got to the next floor's doorway. He shown his flashlight on the doorway as he continued down the stairs. Suddenly, he froze in place as he stiffly called out, "Everyone, you might want to come back and take a look at this ..."

Lena and Alice who was not far ahead paused in place as they glanced back. Lena asked with a frown, "What's wrong?"

Lena then glanced at the lit up doorway. Then, she saw the sign denoting the floor of the doorway and gawked with her mouth opened. Then, silence descended between the trio. Hearing the silence above him, John glanced up from below and hollered, "I counted it, we are almost there, what the f**k are you all stopping for?!"

The flashlight illuminated the frightened faces of the trio, causing John to have palpation in his heart. He furrowed his brow before swiftly deciding to go back up the stairs to take a look. Glancing at the illuminated doorway, John finally saw the floor sign right by the doorway. On it, it was clearly engraved floor 9.

"Impossible! We are clearly going downstairs! How did we go upstairs?! That's unscientific!" John yelled in horror.

Gu Hao's face was pale as he replied, "Can the thing you just saw be explained by science?"

John's face paled even more as he whimpered, "No, this can't be happening. I shouldn't have come here! I want to go home! It's all your fault Hao! Why did you want to come here!"

"Blame me?! Who was the one that was acting all brave earlier?! Who was the one that said that anything can be solved by his muscles?!" Gu Hao yelled back in frustration.

"Muscles? What the f**k can my muscles do against a monster like that?! Sh*t, I don't want to die here!" John howled angrily.

Alice's sobbing grew louder as she held onto Lena who now had a stiff face. Lena gritted her teeth as she said, "Hush Alice. It's not the time to cry or it might attract danger."

Alice hurriedly held back her sobs as she buried her face onto Lena's bosom. Lena hugged her and patted her back as she stared at the two unreliable men, "Right now we should be figuring out how to get back to the first floor instead of wasting time complaining here."

John also quieted down as he looked around in fright, afraid that his yelling attracted something. Gu Hao took a couple of breathes before calming down and began to ponder how to get out of here. It wasn't long before he came up with a simple, no-brainer idea.

"Since going down means going up, why don't we go up. Perhaps, we will actually go back down," Gu Hao suggested.

Lena glanced at him, "Are you sure that is going to work?"

Gu Hao replied, "Better than standing here or going down even more right?"

Hearing this, John snapped to attention and hurriedly went up the stairs as if he was grasping his final hope. Lena nodded to Gu Hao and comforted Alice before following along. Gu Hao gritted his teeth and held up the rear. Although he knew he was unreliable with his strength, his father had taught him that it's a policeman's duty to protect the citizen in a time of crisis. Although Gu Hao didn't have a firm heart of duty, but he still felt that this was the right thing to do inwardly even though it might be dangerous. Of course, being at the front can be as dangerous as the back, but no one can tell until the danger comes.

The four adults silently marched up the stairway. The only sound they heard was the echos of their footstep. Suddenly, Gu Hao frowned before glancing back in confusion. Turning back, he took a couple more steps as he closed his eyes in focus before calling out, "Everyone stop."

Hearing him, a burst of steps echoed in the stairway as everyone gradually came to a stop while staring at him in confusion.

"W-What now?" John couldn't help but whimper.

Gu Hao frowned at the silence of the stairway. He then lightly took a couple of steps upwards until he caught up to the ladies before stopping. The sound of footsteps echoed in the stairway and finally faded away as he stopped next to the ladies. Gu Hao opened his eyes wide in terror as a sweat drop rolled down his face. He glanced back down the stairway and aimed his flashlight back, but saw nothing.

Lena glanced at him with worry as her face paled, "What did you discover?"

Gu Hao stared at her before responding with a weak voice, "I'm wearing sneakers, and they are not made of metal. I made sure to take light steps so that there should be no possibility of making any foot step sounds. Don't you think our footsteps are too loud?"

As if realizing what he meant, Lena also stared back downstairs in terror. Alice shivered in her arms as she muttered, "P-please, no more."

John backed up the stairs slowly as he stuttered, "You are just imagining things right? Tell me you are Hao."

Suddenly the footsteps echoed in the stairway once more. Gu Hao stared at John who stopped backing up immediately. Then, Gu Hao shown his flashlight down the flights of stairs while squinting his eyes. Looking at the normal, old concrete stairway, Gu Hao didn't notice anything different, but in the far distance, Gu Hao faintly noticed traces of shoe prints on the stairway, as if someone had stains on their shoe whilst they climbed the stairway. Gu Hao's eyes shrunk into a bead. He glanced at his foot and noticed no traces of shoe prints. Then, he yelled out in horror, "There are traces of shoe prints, and it's not ours!"

"Heeeee!" John cried in horror and began to sprint up the stairway.

"Wait!" Gu Hao wanted to stop him, but it was too late.

With John going up the stairway, Gu Hao watched in horror with the ladies as they saw the shoe prints appearing step by step up the stairs as if there was someone invisible slowly chasing them.

"F**k! Run!" Gu Hao yelled before grabbing on to Alice to help Lena with the burden.

Then, the trio dashed upwards as fast as they can. Watching John's back get further and further upstairs, Gu Hao glanced back to see the shoe prints slowly getting closer and closer. Not only that, blood red foot prints began to appear on the walls of the stairway as if to signify the time is coming. Gu Hao did not want to know what would happen if that invisible existence caught up to them. He panted as he yelled towards John, "John! Slow down! It's catching up to us!"

As if he didn't hear them, John screamed in horror before sprinting even further, causing him to trip and fall in pain. This allowed Gu Hao and the ladies to catch up a bit. Turning around, John saw the trio along with the blood red foot prints on the wall. He squealed in fright and scrambled up the stairway on all fours. Seeing a door, John hurriedly shoved it open and dived in.

Turning around, he saw the trio in despair who were charging up the stairs. Gu Hao yelled, "Hold the door for us John! We are almost there!"

Seeing the blood red foot prints all over the walls that were slowly spreading over. John's brain short circuited. He hurriedly grab the door and slammed it shut. He then, held onto the door with his hands and body to keep it shut.

"F**k! You piece of sh*t!" Gu Hao howled in despair as he saw what John did.

The trio finally made it to the door, but it was shut in their face. Gu Hao tried to slam the door open with his body, but he was not as strong as John. Gu Hao patted the door rapidly with his hands as he glared at John through the small window, "F**king open up John! Ahhhh!"

"N-No, I'm sorry. I don't want to do this. Don't blame me ..." John muttered on the other side of the door repeatedly with his eyes closed.

"Open up you b*stard!" Lena yelled in despair as she also patted the door while glaring at John through the door.

As the bloody foot prints grew closer, Gu Hao cursed one last time before pulling Alice who was staring blankly at the bloody foot prints, "Go! Go! Go! F**king climb for your life!"

Lena pulled on the other side of Alice and yelled, "Alice! Wake up! Run or we will leave you behind!"

The fear of being left behind woke Alice up and she screamed before she also put her strength in scrambling up the stairs. The trio ran up much faster than before, but the bloody foot prints were still slowly growing closer.

Suddenly, the bloody foot prints stopped as if its owner has stopped in place. The trio continued upstairs in fear without realizing this. Suddenly, a loud thud echoed in the stairway as if something was slamming hard against a door.

On the other side of the closed door, John suddenly felt a strong force hit the door, almost knocking him over. He screamed in fear as he opened his eyes wide. Seeing nothing through the window except bloody foot prints, John screamed even more. He rammed his body onto the door and did his best to keep it shut, "GO AWAY! PLEASE! GO TAKE THE OTHERS! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Thud! Thud! Thud! After a couple of strong slams on the door, it stopped. John cried in relief as he happily said with a face bordering insanity, "Yes, that's right. There's three others out there. You can go to them. Just leave me alone. Leave me alone."

As if agreeing with John, the echos of footsteps gradually faded away as if its owner continued up the stairway. Slumping down to the ground with his back on the door, John happily giggled to himself as he was glad he survived. His laughter suddenly ceased as he heard the creaking of a door opening right by his side. John's head slowly turned over and stared as some white joss paper floated out of room behind the opening door. Seeing what was inside, his eyes opened wide in despair.