Grey slowly moved forward.
Every step was measured, breathing cautiously controlled.
The dagger remained firmly held in his hand as his eyes constantly swept across the darkness ahead.
He couldn’t afford another mistake.
Not after what had just happened.
Moments passed.
And Grey proceeded with caution, as he walked through the torn-up halls of the school hostel.
After that earthquake, the structure of the school was almost unrecognizable.
Walls had been torn apart.
Floorboards had been shattered.
Pieces of concrete and debris littered the hallways.
The lights flickered sporadically in some places, their weak illumination doing little to push back the darkness.
Other parts of the hall were simply pitch black.
The elevator of the building had crumbled down into a grotesque bend of twisted metal, partially buried beneath piles of rubble.
There was no way he could use it.
So Grey resorted to the stairs.
Each stairwell only covered two floors before leading to the third, where one would need to walk down the hall to reach the next stairwell.
Grey’s room was on the sixth floor of the building.
That meant he would generally be forced to move twice through the halls.
He stopped at the door after climbing up the first stairwell.
Or rather...
Where the door was supposed to be.
He paused at the opening.
There was no door.
Instead...
There was a body of a student.
His face was recognizable.
Grey had seen him before, but he held little to no importance to him more than a passerby.
So he was only faxed by it a little.
The student’s body had been shattered by something immensely strong.
His torso was twisted unnaturally, his limbs bent at horrifying angles, and his clothes were soaked in blood.
His body had been torn apart.
Judging from the state of the corpse, this student had clearly been eaten alive not long ago.
Grey’s eyes narrowed in disgust.
His grip tightened around the base of the dagger as he pressed his back against the cold wall of the stairwell.
He slowly leaned forward.
Then...
He peeled into the hall.
It was a total horror.
The ground was littered with blood.
Mangled corpses were scattered across the floor, some missing entire limbs while others had been reduced to little more than chunks of flesh.
Many of the light bulbs were missing, leaving large portions of the hall completely swallowed by darkness.
But that wasn’t what made Grey shiver.
Standing over the bodies...
Were about five zombies.
Two of them were skinny, their bodies gaunt and unnaturally thin.
The other three were quite hefty.
One of them was especially large.
And that particular zombie was still digging into the guts of a dead boy, its back turned toward Grey.
That was the closest one to him.
’Damn it... Five of them against me. I’ll die if I’m not careful.’
Grey thought as he took a deep breath.
He needed to be careful.
Very careful.
His fingers tightened around the dagger.
Then...
He lunged out from his hiding place.
At full speed, Grey closed the distance between himself and the fat zombie.
The zombie barely had time to react.
Grey raised the dagger high overhead.
Then, in one fatal swoop, he drove the blade deep into the skull of the monster.
The dagger pierced through bone.
A low growl escaped its mouth as its body convulsed violently.
Then...
It collapsed onto the corpse it had been devouring.
Dead.
At this, the other four zombies’ heads jerked toward Grey.
For a brief moment, everything was silent.
Then—
A row of growls and roars echoed through the halls as all four charged at Grey at once.
"Here they come!"
Grey gritted his teeth as he encountered the first zombie.
The monstrosity swung its claws violently toward his throat.
Grey jumped backward, narrowly evading the first attack.
The claws sliced through the air just inches from his neck.
Then the zombie dove toward him.
Its rows of bloodied teeth snapped shut, aiming directly for Grey’s flesh.
But Grey was faster.
More precise.
And smarter.
He sidestepped at the last possible moment, completely avoiding the zombie’s charge.
Then he twisted his body and drove the tip of his dagger into the ear of the beast.
The blade sank deep.
Far enough to pierce its brain.
The zombie’s body jerked.
Its claws twitched once...
Then went limp.
Dead.
Grey shoved the body of the zombie aside.
And turned toward the remaining three.
They were charging from the same direction, packed closely together.
’I can’t take on three at the same time.’
Grey’s face contorted as his eyes darted from left to right, desperately searching for anything that could get him out of this situation.
There was no time.
No time to think.
No time to plan.
In the end...
He went with his instincts.
Grey bolted back toward the stairwell he had come from at full speed.
The three zombies immediately followed.
Their heavy footsteps thundered against the ruined floor as their growls echoed through the hall.
They were gaining.
Closer.
And closer.
Grey reached the stairwell and curved around it instantly.
But at full speed, his body was thrown into the wall.
"Ugh!"
Pain shot through his shoulder.
But Grey didn’t let it slow him down.
He jumped down two stairs before swiftly turning back toward the doorway.
Just as he predicted.
The zombies followed.
The first one entered the stairwell at immense speed.
Its momentum was too great.
Its body slammed into the wall with tremendous force.
The impact stunned the zombie for a moment.
Just a moment.
But Grey did not waste it.
He lurched forward.
Both hands gripped the dagger as he drove it into the eye socket of the zombie.
Deep.
Deeper.
Until the blade disappeared into its skull.
Red blood spewed from the ruined socket.
The zombie convulsed.
But before Grey could pull his dagger free, the next zombie came flying into the stairwell.
It slammed directly into the corpse of the first.
The force threatened to wrench the dagger from Grey’s grasp as both zombies crashed into the wall.
Grey groaned through gritted teeth.
The impact rattled his entire body.
But then...
The zombie turned toward him.
It had already recovered from the daze.
Its milky eyes locked onto Grey.
Then it lunged.
Its hands stretched toward his shoulders, intending to grab him and pull him closer so it could sink its teeth into him.
Grey’s life flashed before his eyes.
He remembered the struggle against the first zombie.
How difficult it had been to escape its hold.
How close he had come to having his face torn apart.
He wasn’t going to escape another hold.
Not with how tired he was.
Not after everything he had already endured.
Grey groaned.
Then, once again...
He dove forward.
Straining every cell in his body, he charged directly into the zombie’s range.
One second.
Just one second.
That was all it would take.
One second would decide whether he would die here...
Or...
Survive.
Grey screamed at the top of his voice and struck.
His dagger lodged deeply into the forehead of the zombie just as its fingers brushed against his clothing.
The monstrosity convulsed.
Its milky eyes surged within their sockets.
Its mouth opened wide, releasing one final, guttural growl.
Then...
Its eyes went black.
The zombie’s legs throbbed.
Its body lost all strength.
And it fell.
As its body crashed onto the stairs, Grey’s heart seemed to fall with it.
His eyes trembled in their sockets.
His breathing stopped and his entire body froze.
Because as he stared at the horror before him...
He realized something.
The final zombie was still there.
And it was much larger than the others.
Grey slowly lifted his head.
His eyes widened.
"No..."
That was the only thing that escaped his lips.
The hefty, fat zombie’s large frame was already bearing down on him.
It had jumped down from above.
Its enormous body blocked out what little light remained in the stairwell.
There was no room, distance or time to avoid it.
There was no dodging...
No escaping...
Nothing he could do.
Grey could only stand there.
And brace himself for the encroaching death fall.