Book eller talidentifiering - Byggnaden är faktiskt ett rymdskepp [duplicat]

"Shipshape Home" av Richard Matheson , som ursprungligen publicerades på juli 1952 Galaxy , som du kan läsa på Internetarkivet .

Historien börjar med Ruth, berättarens hustru och klagar på att vaktmästaren ger henne "krypningarna":

Her eyes narrowed. "You listen to me," she said. "That man has some design in being here. He's no janitor. I wouldn't be surprised if . . .

"If this apartment house were just a front for a gambling establishment. A hideout for public enemies one through fifteen. An abortion mill. A counterfeiter's lair. A murderer's rendezvous."

Ruth hittar motorerna i källaren och visar dem till sin man:

I felt a little detached from reality. East 7th Street, I told myself again. An apartment house on East 7th Street. It's all real.

I couldn't quite convince myself.

We stopped at the bottom. And I just stared. Engines, all right. Fantastic engines. And, as I looked at them it came to me what kind of engines they were. I'd read about science too, the non-fiction kind.

De befinner sig låsta i sin lägenhet. De försöker komma undan:

"The engines!" Ruth suddenly cried. "They're starting them!"

"They have to warm up!" I made a wild guess. "We can still get out!"

I let go of Ruth and grabbed a chair. For some reason I felt that the windows had been automatically locked too.

I hurled the other chair through the glass. The vibrations were getting worse.

"Quick!" I shouted over the noise. "Out the fire escape! Maybe we can make it!"

Slutet:

And then the sky, which was growing light, grew dark. My head snapped around. Women were screaming their lungs out in terror. I looked in all directions.

Solid walls were blotting out the sky.

"Oh my God," Ruth said. "We can't get out. It's the whole block."

Then the rockets started.