Please Stand By -

And she had no idea what came next.

But as she walked floor by floor, checking offices and cubicles, she realized she was. Seventy-three employees, plus three janitors. All of them in the same trance: eyes moving, lips whispering sequences of numbers. Some sat upright at their desks, fingers frozen over keyboards. Others lay on the floor like discarded dolls. The air grew warmer. The hum deepened.

“Who are you?” Lena gripped her mop handle like a weapon. Please Stand By

“Hello?” she called out. Her voice echoed down the silent corridor.

Please Stand By.

Lena pulled back. She’d worked nights at Meridian Data Solutions for eleven years. She cleaned the toilets, emptied the trash, knew which vending machine gave you two candy bars if you pressed B7. She was not supposed to be the last person standing.

“I just clean the floors.”

“Not yet?”

No footsteps. No keyboard clatter. No distant office gossip. Just the low hum of the ventilation system, now running slower than usual, like a giant breathing in its sleep. And she had no idea what came next

He was whispering numbers. Just repeating them: “9… 14… 3… 15… 13… 9… 14… 7…”