02/10/2026
CHAPTER 5 — THE BLACKOUT FLOOR
Riverview Senior Living was completely dark.
Eva spoke through Nolan’s radio.
“Riverview lost all cooling.”
“How many?”
“Forty-two adults on the upper floors.”
Nolan looked at the dead elevators.
“Then we use stairs.”
Jace adjusted his rescue bag.
“Which floor first?”
“Seven.”
The seventh-floor hallway felt hotter than outside.
An elderly woman sat against the wall.
“It feels hotter in here.”
Lena crouched beside her.
“Sit low. Water is coming.”
Jace looked down the corridor.
“We start room by room.”
The woman grabbed Lena’s wrist.
“My pills are in Room 712.”
“You are not staying alone.”
“I need them.”
Jace nodded.
“I’ll get the bag and come back.”
Theo reached the backup generator.
He tried the starter.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
“Generator is dead.”
Mara looked toward the stairwell.
“Elevators are done. Stairwell first.”
Nolan pointed toward two residents carrying oxygen equipment.
“Move the oxygen patients now.”
Theo opened the generator housing.
“This wasn’t serviced recently.”
“How recently?” Nolan asked.
Theo checked the tag.
“Eight months overdue.”
Mara shook her head.
“Perfect day to learn that.”
Lena checked another resident.
“Headache?”
“Yes.”
“Nausea?”
“A little.”
“Any chest pain?”
“No.”
“Good. You’re still leaving.”
The woman smiled weakly.
“You people are bossy.”
“That means I like you.”
Jace returned with the medication bag.
“Room 712.”
“Thank you.”
“Now we walk.”
Eva came through again.
“Room 719 still isn’t answering.”
Mara and Nolan reached the door.
Mara tried the handle.
“Locked.”
Theo arrived.
“Master key?”
“Doesn’t work.”
Mara looked closer.
“Door’s chained from inside.”
Nolan stepped back.
“Then we breach it.”
Inside, an elderly man lay beside the bed.
The portable oxygen concentrator was dead.
Lena rushed in.
“Sir?”
His eyes opened slightly.
“I thought nobody heard me.”
“We heard you.”
He tried to smile.
“Eventually.”
Nolan looked at the powerless machine.
“How long was he without oxygen?”
“Unknown.”
Lena placed a mask over his face.
“Stay with me.”
Then a woman in the next apartment began pounding on the wall.
“Help!”
Jace opened the door.
Another oxygen patient.
Then another call from downstairs.
Cooling room failure.
Then a resident with chest pain.
Then someone collapsed in the stairwell.
Nolan looked around.
“One outage turned this whole building into forty emergencies.”
Mara nodded.
“And the generator should have prevented it.”
Theo joined them.
“It would have.”
“What happened?”
“Old fuel. Dead starter battery. No maintenance.”
“So heat didn’t break the backup.”
“No.”
“It exposed that there wasn’t really a backup.”
Eva’s voice cut through the radio.
“Station 14, I’ve got a call from inside Riverview.”
Nolan frowned.
“We’re already here.”
“I know.”
“Which room?”
“I don’t have a room.”
“What do you have?”
“A whisper.”
Eva turned up the line.
A faint voice came through.
“…please…”
Eva leaned closer.
“911, can you speak?”
Nothing.
Then a soft sound.
Tap.
Tap.
Eva’s expression changed.
Someone inside Riverview was calling without being able to talk.
And according to the location trace, the call was coming from the same seventh floor they thought they had already cleared.
