Chapter 268: Not Opening That Door

Hanchuan watched the man wedge the broken shelf beneath the door handle.

On the corridor camera, a woman hurried toward him. One of her shoes was missing and a strip of bloody cloth was wrapped around her hand.

She reached the door just as it closed, catching its edge with her good hand, trying desperately to keep it open.

The man shoved harder. Her fingers disappeared from view, and she stumbled back as the door slammed between them.

Jingwei pressed the microphone button.

"There’s another stairwell at the far end of the corridor," Jingwei said, watching the woman turn toward the speaker. "Go past the elevators and take the door on your left. Stay away from the broken wall."

She looked behind her, searching through the dust.

A younger woman had reached the opening from the neighboring building and was struggling to pull someone across. The injured woman hurried back to help her.

On the other screen, the man beside the blocked door lifted his head.

"You can take them upstairs if you want them," he shouted, looking for the camera. "We’ve got enough people here."

Hanchuan reached past Jingwei and lowered the sound from that landing.

They had given the newcomers a way out. He wasn’t going to spend the morning arguing with a man who had just tried to shut a door on someone’s hand.

"Show me the other stairs," Hanchuan said. "Make sure they can get through before we send anyone else that way."

Jingwei changed the view.

Dust covered the steps, but the landing was clear. A ceiling panel lay across the open doorway, and the first man to arrive kicked it aside before waving to the people behind him.

Beside Hanchuan, Shichen let out a breath.

"That stairwell is farther from the impact," Shichen said, keeping one hand on the plans spread across the table. "They need to get above the damaged floors, but they can do it from there."

Hanchuan looked toward the separate screens showing their own entrances. Both remained empty. The reinforced doors were closed, with no sign of damage around their frames.

"Leave those where we can see them," Hanchuan told Jingwei. "The public floors are still open above the damage. Nobody needs to come through ours."

Zhiyi had drawn a chair closer to Shichen and was comparing the water readings.

Her hair kept falling forward when she bent over the tablet, and she pushed it behind her ear twice before Hanchuan reached for the tie around her wrist.

She lifted her head as he slipped it free.

"Keep looking," Hanchuan murmured, gathering her hair at the back of her neck. "I can do this without making you stop."

Zhiyi leaned back enough to give him room. He tied it loosely, letting his fingers rest against her neck for a moment before she reached up to touch his hand.

"The water on the far side is rising now too," Zhiyi told him. She turned the tablet so he could see both readings. "The wreckage has changed where it’s flowing. We’ll need to watch both sides."

Hanchuan studied the numbers, then the images beside them. Their supplies and living floors were still well above the water, but the rooms people had occupied that morning were filling with debris.

"How much room do we still have?" Hanchuan asked Shichen.

"Plenty above the water," Shichen replied. He rubbed his forehead before continuing. "It’s the damage below that I need to understand. I don’t want anyone going back into the rooms along that side yet."

Hanchuan nodded and stepped away from Zhiyi’s chair. "Then we’ll stay here until you’ve checked what you can. We have food and water in the inner rooms."

Zeyu glanced toward the closed door, then back at the monitors.

"I’d like to know whether the kitchen’s intact before we start eating emergency rations," Zeyu said. "There was a whole breakfast in there."

"The corridor camera shows broken dishes, not a missing floor," Shichen answered, turning one screen toward him. "Give me a little longer before you go looking for the eggs."

Zeyu pulled out a chair and sat. Hanchuan could see him trying to settle, one foot moving beneath the table while he watched the vehicle bay.

The next stretch of waiting passed with the rain beating against the wreckage outside.

Small pieces continued falling from the neighboring building, but the larger slabs stayed where they had landed.

Shichen checked each available view, returning several times to the same corners and doorways.

Qinghe brought water from the cabinet at the back of the room. He placed a bottle beside Zhiyi, then handed one to Jingwei, who opened it without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Most of them are across," Jingwei said. "There are two still coming through that room."

Hanchuan moved closer. A man knelt at the broken edge of Jinhai’s corridor, reaching toward an older woman who had stopped halfway across the wreckage.

Her coat had caught beneath her knee. She kept tugging at it instead of moving forward, while the slab beneath her shook each time the water struck it.

The man crawled out far enough to catch her sleeve.

Hanchuan watched him pull until she freed the coat, then helped her over the broken wall. They fell together onto the corridor floor.

Neither stood immediately, but the man reached back and dragged her feet clear of the opening.

Qinghe lowered his bottle, following them with his eyes as they finally made their way toward the stairs.

Behind the pair, a length of railing shifted. It slid down the wreckage and disappeared into the water, taking a curtain of smaller debris with it.

The path they had crossed narrowed to a tilted slab with bare metal protruding from one end.

"They can’t keep using that," Shichen said, leaning toward the screen.

Jingwei warned the neighboring building through the exterior speaker. Hanchuan couldn’t tell whether anyone heard him.

No one appeared at the broken opening, and rain washed steadily through the empty room.

Then the screen showing their west entrance changed.

A man stepped onto the landing below the outer barrier, bent beneath a large backpack. He looked up at the camera before beckoning to someone on the stairs.

A woman followed with a bundled blanket in her arms, then another man carrying a heavy tool bag.

Jingwei set down his water and reached for the controls, but Hanchuan rested a hand beside his.

"Let them see the sign first," Hanchuan said.

The man with the backpack read it, then tried the handle anyway. When the door didn’t move, he stepped aside for the man with the tools.

Hanchuan watched the bag settle onto the landing. Its owner unfastened the straps while the woman moved back down a step, keeping the blanket close to her chest.

"Now tell them," Hanchuan said, his eyes on the man reaching into the bag. "They can return to the public floors, but they aren’t opening that door."