Rats are never nice
The fire exit dangling in front of the group was just a flimsy-looking ladder that ran down from the apartment roof all the way to the ground.
Being on the ninth floor it looked quite scary to climb down that thing which was supposed to be a legitimate fire escape.
"Umm… Who wants to go down first?"
Lu Chen nervously asked as it was getting dark outside and nobody knew if there were any other surprises waiting for them, particularly not the good kind.
"Now, who is the useless one?" Alex scoffed and stepped forward.
She confidently volunteered herself and started climbing down the ladder that was simply attached to the outer wall of the building with no other guardrails and no support.
The other three, as well as one cat and one dog, nervously watched her take one step at a time and carefully climb down the rungs of the ladder.
At least the ladder felt pretty sturdy and she didn't have to worry about the damn thing breaking off abruptly.
But the peace and calm did not last long.
As Alex descended to the third floor, she suddenly started hearing loud squeaking noises.
She immediately looked down on the ground to find a sort of black mound forming at the base of the ladder.
Alex continued to climb down a couple more rungs to get a closer look at the mess on the ground.
But then she stopped.
As Alex watched the slightly moving black mound, a loud shriek escaped her mouth.
She could now see glowing dark red eyes staring right back at her, not just one or two but dozens of them, maybe hundreds?
Rats! Or maybe mice! And lots and lots of them!!
And the worst part was, they looked several times bigger than their usual size and seemed very violent.
Alex started hyperventilating. This was all too much to digest!
The black mound was also rapidly growing in size with the rodents continuously collecting one after another.
Where are they coming from?? Alex panted heavily with her head and vision spinning.
The other three were anxiously waiting at the top for an all-clear signal from Alex.
Watching her frozen still on the ladder, they couldn't help but wonder what was wrong.
And weirdly, the woman who was frozen still for almost an entire minute or more suddenly started frantically climbing back up.
"Fuck Fuck Fuck"
"There are… There are … rats down there" Alex screamed as she climbed back onto the ninth floor at record speed.
Beads of sweat were dripping on the floor from her shivering unstable body.
"Rats? Sigh. You girls really do get scared by the tiniest little things."
"What are a few rats gonna do? Scratch your pretty face?" Lu Chen insensitively mocked Alex.
The enraged woman bit down on her lips. "Why the heck am I stranded with these stupid brats??" She cursed her bad luck.
"They are not exactly rats, asshole. They looked like one but they were... they were much bigger." Alex stammered.
"They were three or maybe five times as big, but were completely black with glowing red eyes and grizzly spines on their skin."
"WE CANNOT GO DOWN THAT WAY."
"If you don't believe me, feel free to try your luck and head down. Hmph."
Giant-sized rats?? This was real life and not some fantasy world. How could giant-sized rats exist?
But then again... humans have superpowers now...
So Su Yan had no other choice but to give Alex the benefit of the doubt and believe whatever she was describing.
Besides, she didn't really have any motive to lie to them.
"It's getting dark outside. Maybe it is best for us to stay inside the apartment complex tonight."
"We have food and everything here to keep us alive for now." Su Yan suggested, but his face had a pensive look.
"Surely you must be joking? We can't go back to our floor. I don't want to face that thing which was banging that door."
"What if it was another giant rat or some other giant animal? It is definitely still lurking around."
"And I don't know how long the door will hold." Alex protested.
The outside might be dangerous, but inside the apartment complex was dangerous as well.
The group dumbfoundedly stared at each other not knowing what to do.