The stairwell door did not simply break.
It folded inward under weight.
The first infected forced through halfway before being struck down, but the second and third bodies jammed the opening wide enough that brute strength alone would not hold it. The guards fought with bravely barely not panicing, but the numbers from the pressure behind, erase it quickly.
The rooftop had lost it's structure in less than ten seconds.
Screams shattered whatever human being remained. Some ran toward the opposite end of the roof without direction. Others pushed toward the maintenance ladder that security had earlier dismissed as too exposed. The strong-boy faction tried to hold a defensive arc, but even they understood this was not a battle to win only to delay.
Josh did not waste time watching the collapse,
He pulled Mira by the wrist not violently, but firmly enough that she understood directly while following his movement,
"We're leaving through the east wing," he said.
That direction was not random.
When he had mapped the rooftop earlier, he noted that the east side connected to a lower annex building through a reinforced glass corridor two floors down. The drop from the roof to the annex windows was survivable if executed correctly. It was Risky, but structured.
Main stairwell: compromised.
Maintenance ladder: exposed and predictable.
Central roof: turning into choke point.
East side windows: high risk, low traffic, lowest crowd interference.
He chose the option with fewer variables.
That was the first veteran instinct avoid the crowd.
Although he was in this body, he still had the experience of his last life as he thinks.
He still can't understand how he came into this hellhole.
They moved along the perimeter wall, staying low to avoid drawing attention from either the infected or panicked students. Twice, people collided into them blindly. Josh adjusted angles instead of fighting the momentum.
Fighting crowds wastes energy and balance.
Behind them, the rooftop defense line collapsed. The infected spilled outward in chaotic motion, attacking the closest targets without strategy.
Josh did not look back.
Looking back costs him his attention and distract him, even like this he is already feeling pressured.
The east edge came into view. A narrow maintenance ledge ran below the roof lip, about a meter wide, with a vertical drop of two floors to the annex windows. The glass panels below were reinforced but not shatterproof. He had noticed hairline cracks earlier from structural tremors.
Distance from roof edge to annex window frame; roughly three and a half meters outward, two floors down.
Survivable if he can pass through safely, Fatal if misjudged.
He stopped just long enough to evaluate wind direction and surface texture. Concrete dust made footing unstable.
Mira looked down and inhaled sharply.
"We're not jumping straight," he said calmly.
"We descend to the ledge first."
"How?" she asked.
He did not answer verbally.
Instead, he focused inward.
Aegis responded....
Shadow Thread ready.
Duration: short burst.
Cognitive strain moderate.
The ability was not like teleportation. It could influence the ability to distort the immediate attention patterns of low-intelligence entities and momentarily redirect their focus. Against infected, it created hesitation and misalignment.
Against humans, it created brief perceptual dizziness or pains.
He activated it subtly.
Behind them, two infected that had spotted their movement hesitated, turning slightly toward louder prey instead.
It bought seconds.
Josh swung himself over the roof edge first.
He lowered his body carefully until his hands gripped the outer lip and his feet searched for the narrow ledge below. His boots scraped once against smooth wall before finding purchase.
"uhhh," he grunted quietly. "slowly."
He dropped onto the ledge.
The space was tighter than it had appeared from above. Concrete crumbled slightly under his weight. If too many people followed, it would break.
He looked up. "One at a time."
Mira swallowed, then followed his movement exactly as he had shown lowering instead of jumping. For a terrifying second her foot slipped on dust, and her body swung outward.
Josh reacted instantly, one hand releasing the wall long enough to catch her wrist mid-swing. His shoulder screamed from the sudden load, but he stabilized her before gravity could take her.
"Don't look down," he said evenly.
She didn't.
She corrected her footing and landed beside him, breathing hard but controlled.
Two other students one of the strong boys and, unexpectedly, Augustus Silar himself had reached the edge and were assessing the same route.
The politician's eyes met Josh's for half a second.
"Is it viable?" Silar asked bluntly.
"Yes," Josh answered. "But not for many, it's one at a time."
Silar nodded once, then motioned for the stronger student to go first.
The strong boy descended, less controlled but stable. Silar followed with surprising competence, slower but deliberate.
Above them, infected reached the roof edge, drawn by movement.
The annex window was still two floors below.
The next step required lateral movement along the ledge toward a cracked vertical seam where the building façade jutted outward slightly, reducing horizontal jump distance.
The ledge narrowed halfway.
Josh moved first, sliding sideways with back pressed to the wall. The concrete edge crumbled again beneath his boot. He adjusted weight distribution immediately more heel pressure, less toe pivot.
Veteran instinct: Move cautiously but verbally focused.
Halfway across, a chunk of ledge broke free under his right foot.
For a split second, gravity took him.
His body dropped a dangerous half-meter before his left hand slammed against a wall seam and his right knee caught the remaining edge,Below him was open air.
Mira's breath caught audibly.
He did not panic.
He didn't dare panic as his strength wained.He shifted weight inward, exhaled once to reset muscle tension, then pulled himself back onto stable section.
Behind them, infected leaned over the roof edge, arms grasping blindly downward. One nearly toppled, falling past them and crashing to the ground two floors below with a wet impact. The sound made the others more agitated.
They had seconds.
Josh reached the façade seam.
From here, the annex window was diagonally below and right. Roughly two meters outward.
The Glass were intact.
He reached inward again.
The sword materialized in his hand with familiar weight, drawn from the infinite vault seamlessly. He did not swing wildly. He calculated.
One controlled throw.
He angled the blade downward, targeting the already cracked corner of the reinforced glass. The sword struck with precise force. The glass fractured outward but did not fully shatter.
"Not enough."He cursed internally.
He sheathed the blade back into storage instantly no time for showmanship then made the decision veterans make when calculations narrow.
He jumped outward but not blindly, diagonally downward with body angled to absorb impact through shoulder roll.
He hit the glass with his forearm and shoulder combined. The weakened panel shattered inward under combined momentum. The force sliced through his sleeve and cut his forearm shallowly, but the roll carried him inside the annex corridor rather than straight down.
He hit tiles hard.
Pain flared along his side.
But he was inside.
He rose immediately and turned.
"Now!" he shouted upward.
The strong boy followed first, landing heavier and nearly missing the broken frame. Josh grabbed his collar and dragged him fully in before he slipped back out.
Mira jumped next.
For one horrifying moment, her trajectory angled too far left.
Josh lunged, catching her by the waist mid-fall, both of them slamming against the inner wall as glass fragments rained down. The impact drove air from his lungs, but he held her steady.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, breath shaking but alive.
Silar came last. Older, but precise. He misjudged slightly and clipped the frame, tearing fabric from his sleeve, but made it through with assistance from the strong boy pulling him inward.
Behind them, the ledge collapsed completely.
Chunks of concrete fell into the darkness below.
If they had delayed thirty seconds, it would have killed them.
Inside the annex corridor, emergency lights flickered dimly. The main campus building still roared with chaos behind thick walls.
Josh assessed quickly.
Infected presence in this wing: low.
Structural integrity: moderate.
Ground-level exit through east courtyard: possible.
He wiped blood from his forearm, unfazed.
Mira was still looking at him, not speaking.
He met her eyes.
"I said we're not staying here we keep moving to find a way out of here." he told her quietly.
Outside, chaos consumed the rooftop.