All Chapters of The Sanctuary of 17B: Chapter 31
- Chapter 35
35 chapters
Chapter 31: Descending the Stairwell
"Keep your hands on the handrail and your eyes on the step directly beneath you," Dimas muttered, his voice echoing flatly against the frost-rimed concrete walls of the stairwell."I can't see my own boots, Dimas," Siti whispered back, her breath pluming in a dense, white cloud as she carefully guided her eldest son down the pitch-black landing between the sixteenth and fifteenth floors. "The flashlight beam is dying.""Conserve the batteries," Pak Joko grunted from a few paces ahead, his boots scraping heavily against the frozen concrete. "We aren't even halfway down yet. If the light cuts out on floor eight, we'll be navigating by echo."Alina reached out in the dark, her fingers brushing firmly against Dimas’s jacket sleeve to steady herself as they rounded another sharp, brutal corner of the stairwell. "How many flights did you say are left, Dimas?""Fourteen," Dimas replied, not breaking his rhythmic, deliberate pace. "Just keep moving. If we stop to count, the cold will settle i
Last Updated : 2026-10-03
Chapter 32: The Mid-Building Encounter
"Hold up," Pak Joko whispered, raising a gnarled, trembling hand to signal a halt on the concrete landing between the eighth and seventh floors."What is it? Did you hear something?" Dimas asked, freezing instantly, his fingers tightening around the splintered mop handle while his ears strained against the heavy, suffocating silence of the stairwell."Not heard. Look," Joko pointed a crooked finger toward the heavy fire door of Unit 8B, which stood slightly ajar, a sliver of eerie, pale blue light cutting across the dark stair landing. "Someone didn't lock up on their way out."Alina stepped up beside Dimas, her eyes narrowing as she peered into the crack of the open doorway. "That's not normal. Everyone locked their doors during the first wave. Why is that one wide open?""Only one way to find out," Dimas muttered, pushing the heavy metal door inward with the tip of his weapon.The door creaked on frozen hinges, swinging wide to reveal an apartment frozen in a state of violent, chaot
Last Updated : 2026-10-03
Chapter 33: Breaking the Lobby Threshold
"Clear," Alina whispered, sweeping the heavy-duty flashlight beam across the abandoned living room of Unit 8B.Frost clung to the overturned coffee table and frosted windows in jagged, crystalline sheets, but the room was completely empty of shadows. The hastily abandoned apartment looked like a snapshot of panic: half-packed duffel bags spilled across the linoleum, and a heavy thermos sat abandoned on the kitchen counter beside an unwashed mug."They didn't pack," Pak Joko said, stepping gingerly past the threshold and leaning heavily against the wall. "They dropped everything and ran downward. Look at the front door."The main exit of Unit 8B was kicked inward from the hinges, splintered wood hanging like broken teeth."They broke their way out when the elevators failed," Dimas noted, stepping into the kitchen and testing the weight of the abandoned thermos. He unscrewed the cap, catching the faint, stale scent of lukewarm coffee. "It’s lukewarm. Someone was here hours ago, maybe ev
Last Updated : 2026-10-03
Chapter 34: The Pale Morning
"Drink it," Dimas said, shoving the thermos into Siti’s trembling hands before she could even process the offer. "The kids need the warmth, Siti. We aren't carrying dead weight down another eight flights."Siti didn't argue; she popped the lid and guided her youngest son to take desperate, small sips of the lukewarm, metallic-tasting coffee, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and gratitude. "There's... there's actual sugar in this," she whispered, her voice cracking as the warmth hit her chest."Whoever left in such a hurry didn't care about their pantry," Alina said, sweeping the beam of the heavy-duty flashlight across the cluttered counter and pulling three unsealed protein bars from a grocery bag tucked beside the sink. She tossed one directly to Pak Joko and cracked another open for herself. "Eat. Fast. The air in here is stale, which means the ventilation shaft is blocked somewhere below us."Pak Joko chewed the dense, sticky bar with slow, deliberate bites, his rheumy eyes f
Last Updated : 2026-10-03
Chapter 35: The Walk to the Outskirts
"The glass is too thick to kick," Dimas said, his shoulder pressing hard against the frosted pane of the front lobby doors. "We hit it together on three. Pak Joko, stay back with the kids.""My shoulder is tougher than it looks, boy," Pak Joko rasped, already stepping up beside Dimas, his cane clattering against the frozen tile. "Count it down before I freeze to the floor.""One," Alina said, positioning herself right behind them, her hands gripping the heavy thermos like a bludgeon. "Two.""Three," Dimas grunted.They slammed their combined weight forward with a sharp, synchronized crack. The tempered glass didn't shatter inward; it fractured into a thousand icy spiderwebs before collapsing outward in a cascade of glittering, frozen shards onto the empty street.The raw, biting air rushed in instantly, carrying the smell of wet asphalt, old snow, and absolute emptiness."Keep the children behind us," Dimas commanded, stepping carefully over the jagged threshold of the shattered frame
Last Updated : 2026-10-03