"Why do I feel something is not right? According to the person who gave me the information, this building was already cleared. Did he lie to me? No... what would he get from that? I even promised him forty percent of whatever we found. No, no... maybe I'm just overthinking it. I should focus on the real problem, how to carry all these things back to the settlement," Manu thought.
Then Manu carefully searched the house, but he didn't find anything useful. He walked toward the window to see the view. The window had no metallic rods, it looked as if they had been forcefully pulled out. From there, he noticed that only a few tall buildings remained standing everything else was destroyed. The buildings that were still standing were covered with climbing plants, their thick stems wrapping around the structures.
Manu's eyes then caught a particular building. Its condition was far worse, full of cracks from top to bottom. He stared at it.
"After everything, Srini and I should visit that place," Manu thought.
"I think everything has already been taken from this house. Let's check the other one," he thought again.
Manu moved toward the second house on the third floor, but as he got close, a foul smell hit him. It was coming from inside.
"What is this smell? I've never smelled anything like this before," Manu thought.
He tried opening the door, but it was stuck. Manu pushed harder, adding pressure. Slowly, the door creaked open with a long sound:
"Creeeaaak... Grrrreeeiiikkk..."
The moment the door opened, the foul smell grew stronger, so dense it was unbearable. Manu covered his nose and mouth with his hand. But what he saw next was something he had never seen in his life.
Meanwhile, Srini had reached the fourth floor. The floor was almost empty—no walls, only pillars. At the corner, there was a small room with a window beside the door.
"Whooooshhh... I didn't think climbing one floor would be this difficult," Srini said, catching his breath.
He stood up straight and looked around. From one side, he could see the ruins of the destroyed city. From the other side, he saw the massive group of buildings known as the Apartment.
"You wait... I'll take everything from you. Until then, don't let anyone clear you out," Srini muttered in a low voice.
He started walking toward the small room in the corner. As he stepped forward, his foot landed on something dark brown to black in color, with yellowish stains around the edges. When he pulled his foot up, a jelly-like black substance stuck to his slipper.
"What is this... Yuck! Did someone really have to shit here?" Srini exclaimed.
"At this place... on the top floor? Such disgusting people! When will they ever learn to stay clean?" he muttered angrily.
He rubbed his foot against the floor again and again to get rid of it. After four or five tries, the sticky substance finally came off.
"I thought today was my lucky day... but this is the kind of thing only an unlucky person has to face," Srini thought, and continued moving toward the room.
The door was closed. Srini tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"Let's see through the window. If I find anything useful, I'll break the door. If not, it's not worth the effort," Srini thought.
He walked toward the window. As he got closer, the same foul smell from before hit his nose.
"I bet someone from a previous raid team had stomach problems and turned this floor into their toilet," Srini grumbled, holding his nose.
Closing his mouth and nose tightly, he leaned forward and peeked inside the window. This one still had metallic rods . The room was small. Some things were scattered across the floor, and at the far end, there was another opening shaped like a window, but without any metallic bars across it.
Then Srini suddenly heard a noise inside. His eyes shifted upward. Something was moving at the top of the room.
When he finally looked clearly, he froze. His whole body trembled in fear at what he saw.