Sweat rolled down Levi’s back. His breath came ragged. Every step ached, his legs on the verge of giving out. Blinking sweat out of his eyes, he let out a dramatic sigh and sagged back against the railing. “So…many…I’m dying…”

When nobody reacted to his performance, he grumbled under his breath at himself and hauled himself off the railing, clawing his way upward once more. His goal slowly grew closer, the ceiling of the stairwell edging nearer and nearer with every floor he traversed. This close, he could make out the ceiling access hatch, above even Alpha’s floors. He leaned out into the hollow of the stairs, eyeing Alpha’s floors just in case, but as expected, not a single door opened into the stairs. Bare concrete walls climbed to the access hatch high overhead.

“Figures. Who needs the goddamn fire code when you’re supergodking,” Levi grumbled. Heaving a deep breath, he kept climbing.

At the ninetieth floor, he lifted his badge. The reader didn’t respond.

Levi clicked his tongue. He put that badge down and pulled out another.

Still no response.

Frowning, he went to his third badge. At last, the reader lit up, and with a click, the door unlocked.

“Third time’s the charm,” Levi murmured to himself, stepping inside.

He stepped into the back of an office building. Grey cubes stretched out as far as the eye could see, from the wall to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Each cube bore tiny signs of personalization; family pictures hung on the wall, potted plants reached stunted leaves toward the light, and here and there, little knick knacks, office toys, and joke items sat on high shelves.

Levi made a face. “Literally kill me.”

Glancing around, he climbed up onto one of the cubes and pushed a ceiling panel aside. Above it, a tray of cables snaked through the ceiling. Clearly labeled hot and cold water pipes crept along toward the toilets and the break room. Above that, a concrete ceiling blocked the way.

Unperturbed, Levi dropped back down. Following the pipes, he found his way to the break room, then climbed onto the counter. Again, he pushed the drop tiles away. “If I know plumbing…”

Holes cut through the concrete where the pipes passed through. Not small holes, perfectly fit to the pipes, but large ones, slightly overlapping as they cut and re-cut the holes for the pipes. Big enough for a skinny person to squeeze through.

Levi grabbed the pipes and shimmied his way upward, dragging and kicking his way up the hole. The raw-cut concrete scraped at his shoulders, then his hips. He conformed his whole body to the pipe and kept going, snaking up into the sky.

On the other side of the pipe, he found himself in a narrow space between walls. Putting the pipes to his back, he ran his fingertips over the wall, gently tapping the drywall. “I wonder where this comes out?”

One tap rang out particularly shallowly. Levi pressed a palm to the wall, pulling back his arm. “Let’s find out!”

He punched the wall. A hole opened up in the drywall, and he peered through.

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Fabric. Rows and rows of fabric. Shoulders and sleeves, suits and shirts, pressed trousers and ties.

“Nice,” Levi muttered. He kicked hard, breaking through the drywall. White dust rose up in the space, chokingly thick. Grimacing, he lifted his shirt over his nose and mouth and kept going. At last, his feet knocked against nothing, and he bent. Unable to curve over in the narrow space, he slid his legs out, putting his butt to the floor, then inched forward on his hands, slowly lowering his chest through the hole, dragging himself forward on the other side with his legs.

“Remember, kids, when spelunking, always enter tight spaces with your legs first! Otherwise, someone’s going to find you stuck ass-up when you realize seventy percent of your strength is in your legs and your arms just aren’t going to cut it.”

Taking a break to wriggle down and put his shoulders on the floor, Levi shook his head at no one and muttered, “Besides, no one wants to be found ass-up in a cave. It’s bad enough when you’re alive, but imagine your corpse presenting crusty starfish to your rescuers. Nah, man, nah.”

With one last wiggle, he popped through the hole and out onto the other side. Levi took a deep breath of the relatively-fresh air, then turned around. White dust coated the items on the floor, but it was nothing a quick brush-off couldn’t fix. Moving quickly, he dusted off the ephemera on Alpha’s floor, then stacked it all up in such a way that the larger items blocked the hole in the closet.

“Every fifteen-year-old’s patented go-to,” Levi said, crossing his arms and giving a nod in satisfaction. “With this, we’ll answer the age-old question: does Alpha fall for the same shit as a middle-aged housewife?”

His return plan set, he turned to the closet’s door. There, he paused, then slowly eased the door open, only to find himself in the depths of an enormous bathroom. Levi shook his head at himself. “Right. Because who wouldn’t have heard me literally breaking down the wall? Would’ve had to be sound asleep. Or drunk.”

At the door to the bathroom, he peeked out again. This time, a hallway with lush carpet and a few doors greeted him. To the left, the space opened up into a well-lit living room, where a television still played the nightly news.

“Or listening to the television, I guess,” Levi amended slightly more quietly. He inched down the hallway. At its end, he put his back to the wall, then slowly peered out at the living room.

Empty. The television played for an empty couch with a single, perhaps-too-well-defined dent.

Levi snorted, shaking his head at himself. “Besides, Alpha lives alone. Probably.”

The living room opened up into a kitchen, the whole space facing a massive picture window that gazed down on the city and the verdant forest winding through it from above. The vista angled away from Old Town, conveniently cutting out the decaying buildings and crime-ridden docks. Naturally. Alpha wouldn’t gaze upon his failures. Dwell on the wins and forget the losses. How like you. Levi chuckled under his breath.

Lifting his chin a little, Levi looked past the living room and kitchen. A cabinet barely obscured his view of the front door, but wiggling left and right a little, he managed to see it. The apartment stretched no further. He backed away, unwilling to spend too long in sight of the picture window. As unlikely as it was that Alpha might glance over and see him, that risked a little too much for his tastes.

Back through the hallway. He gently nudged open each door, peering inside. Dark rooms awaited him, none occupied. One held a gaming computer and an assortment of consoles and controllers, all facing an enormous television and two curved monitors. The next room contained trophies, both the typical kind, all gold and marble, and the serial-killer kind, bits of rubble and half-destroyed masks. Levi clicked his tongue at that room and walked on, moving to the next room.

The door swung open, revealing another parlor-like room, neatly set with a couch and television. Levi went to close the door, then paused. He stepped inside. Crossing the room, he counted his steps, then backed out to the game room and did the same. Frowning, he returned to the second room. At the far end, he pressed his hands against the wall, then put his ear to it and knocked.

Ktang. Hollow. Metallic.

Levi’s eyes widened. He grinned. Walking along the wall, he traced his fingers along it, feeling for a seam. Nothing. Smooth drywall under his fingertips.

“I guess the entry isn’t here,” he muttered to himself. He turned, gazing out the door at the final door remaining, the one at the far end of the hallway.

Levi took a deep breath and let it hiss out from between his teeth. “Time to be a bedroom invader.”