Early in the morning of April 14th a slight chill starts to spread through the small openings on the window of a certain inconspicuous hotel room.

Richard tosses and turns on the bed, and feels that the temperature is lower than average subconsciously and pulls his blanket deeper to his neck.

It is approximately 10 degrees Celsius outside and the sun is starting to rise above the horizon. He murmured groggily not wanting to wake up and eventually got up fully to the slight chill that had been spreading.

''The fuck? How is it so cold in here?''

Reaching towards the light switch and turning it on and off again multiple times nothing happens, Richard then realizes the reason why it's so cold in there.

''Did the electricity cut off completely now? Well while it was somehow predictable after the cellphone reception disappeared it still sucks balls.''

Starting to dress up in relatively clean black jeans, Convert high-top shoes, worn out of fashion turtlenecks and his jacket.

While dressing up he quietly whispered.

''Oh how I wish everything was just a bad nightmare... But cold reality just slaps you in the face, spits and doesn't even stop there. Just when you would think the beating is over, the reality unzips it's trousers and...''

Shuddering slightly and hoping that things would soon get back to normal he finally moved on the last two items on the checklist.

He packed up everything that he thought he could carry with relative ease: food, water and such necessities, considering the limits on the weight that he can carry.

''I think I have everything now... Next up the road to safety..''

As the last item on his checklist he opened up his phone and checked the maps application to see possible routes out of the city.

Quickly charting the optimal routes that he could try if something goes wrong, as it was taught early on in pilot school.

The point of no-return where return is no longer an option and have to divert to an alternate destination.

Richard took a few deep breaths and started to psyche himself up, he started to feel insecure and second guess himself.

''Is this the right thing to do? I could still wait for a day or so for rescue.'' But he knew deep within that it would be delusional to expect any help from the authorities.

The time to depart was upon him and he could feel butterflies in his stomach.

**LINE

Richard was not the bravest of the brave and usually he would rather avoid conflict rather than seek solutions.

Under these circumstances he could not show weakness even to himself, or he was sure he would lose more of his self confidence and crumble under the pressure of impending death.

''Aight, let's do this.''He mumbled and started to move his barricade away from the door.

When everything was moved, Richard took his trusty curtain pole and looked outside from the peephole on the door to check whether the way was safe.

The hallway was deserted, by the living and the dead and the only thing that was out of the ordinary compared to before, was that there were few abandoned cleaning carts stationed outside.

Richard equipped his back bag and squeezed the pole until his knuckles turned white.

Holding his breath he opened the door slowly but surely, until he poked out his head to scout possible dangers.

There was not a living soul in sight and Richard heaved a quiet sigh of relief as he started to make way towards the fire exit as he planned earlier to avoid main streets.

The staircase had signs of combat, as there were bloodied footprints and putrid smell coming from a rotting corpse.

Richard entered carefully and silently while facing any threats to himself: One could not be too careful.

'' Had I known that fresh air was luxury, I would have brought cloth pegs for my nose...'' Feeling nauseated he continued braving on.

On the stairway he heard some noise from a lone zombie below and approached it quietly, trying to keep it from noticing him.

There it was, a thing eating up mangled corpses of fellow human beings and it made Richard feel both disgusted and sorrowful how things have come to this.

The only mercy and grace he could show to the former human being was to end its miserable existence.

When this thought came to his mind he immediately decided to act upon it while feeling complicated how quickly the world had changed.

Drastic change so big, that he would be ready to bash someone in the head without guilt and justify it as the law of the jungle.

Sneaking behind the zombie Richard raised up the Curtain-kun and gave a good smack to its back of the head.

''Is it dead?'' Richard thought and remembered that in Zombiepark movie it always told to double tap, so he gave few more solid smacks in.

**10 experience acquired** ''Huh?''

While being bewildered at the ridiculous situation where he had just gloriously smacked someone's head in from behind, experience points started to roll in. ''Guess it's now dead..smack em until you get xp, right?''

Richard felt strange watching the broken zombie's head. It was the first time he has ever done anything like it, but he felt pride in what he had accomplished.

''I CAN DO THIS.'' he exclaimed and prepared to move on to the exit.

When he was just about to walk past the victim of Curtain-kun he heard something move and felt his heart rate shooting up like hell.

Richard turned around and saw the mangled corpse that was being eaten reach out to his legs with its teeth.

Immediately he jumped in fear a few steps backward and started to give Curtain-kun's tough love to the sneaky friend of his.

** 10 experience acquired**

''Jesus fucking Christ, that was close. Mental note to self, smack n then ask. ''

Richard sat down into the stairway steps to calm down his breathing and heart rate and started to wonder what bonuses would the fabled level up bonus bring?

''Forget it, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.'' he mulled to himself and continued his way outside to the fire exit.

The stairway was a comfortable place compared to the hall he would have to cross.

The stairway had natural light flowing from the windows, but the hall had no such luxuries. Electricity had gone out and the hall was connected to elevators,staircase and the dining room/lounge.

While it was a relatively close distance of 20 meters, Richard felt it was similar to hundred meters in the dark.

Richard steeled himself as he felt the entrance to the hall was in front of him. He thought for a moment that the hallway felt like a beast opening its mighty maw to devour him whole, but he still had to do this one way or another.

Based on his observations there were at least 3 zombies whose sound he was hearing, lurking inside and that idea scared him to the bone.

''Do I pick them off by pulling them into the staircase? I have always wanted to pose like Nobi-won and proclaim I have the high ground. Nonono there you go with your shitty jokes again Richard focus, it's no time for stress jokes. It's too risky when I don't know how many there are and it is risky just to break out with speed''

He compared his options, and it became slightly more appealing to just break out with speed. He could save his stamina that way for bad situations, and so he braced himself for the great escape of his time.

''Puuh Phew Puuh Phew okay, let's do this! MMMMLEEEERAAW MJANKINS!'' He yelled in his mind after a few rapid breaths, and could feel adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Richard started to move as quietly and fast as he possibly could toward the exit and hope for the best.

''15 meters...10 meters...5 meters... almost there '' Hoping that the zombies would not be able to react or sense him, he started to open the door.

He felt a slight chill and his spidey senses were screaming that there was a sneaky sleeper zombie nearby him.

Richard pushed the door open forcefully and the sneaky zombie was roused from its sleep.

It grasped his leg and he exerted more and more strength, pulling the zombie with him with his leg towards the outside.

What came to his sight was the (formerly) cute receptionist girl that greeted him when he was first checking in, uniform tattered and name tag dyed scarlet red.

Richard dropped his Curtain-kun on the floor, and started to slam the door into the poor zombie receptionist's hand to escape.

''Let go of me sneaky butt hole, otherwise imma pick up my trusty mate and bash yer head in.'' Richard yelled furiously and kept slamming the door, cold sweat dripping from his back.

After a few more slams with the door, the zombie's hand was mushed out of shape and finally relented reluctantly and let go.

He picked up the curtain pole, turned his gaze toward the hotel and gave a goodbye kiss to this shitty place he was trapped in.

''Adieu, 0/5 stars: Staff physically too attached and violent, cleaning is non-existent and no room service. I would not recommend staying''

Richard gave himself a pat on the shoulder thinking to himself that he is the new king of comedy, and headed towards Northwest without looking back.