The traffic from the upper floors became increasingly congested inside the apartment complex. A few floors were conveniently devoid of monsters allowing for a few confused people to wander the stairwell at semi orderly pace. That was soon interrupted by a few screams from above, followed by some very scared, and very bloody, looking people pushing past them. The infectious panic spread inciting a mob of people to run down the stairs. Those in the east stairwell were the unluckiest. They came across the monsters sooner. Many people ran straight into the hungry mouths of the monsters, that tore them to shreds. Scared and in a panic, those who witnessed the first deaths tried to run back up the stairs, but met resistance from the flow of traffic. Being push by the mob that didn’t know what waited at the bottom of the stairs, another group of people were fed to the growing massacre. Those who made it down the stairs first, died. The number of zombies in the stairwell quickly grew, but a few lucky individuals ran into the nearby hallways to escape.

On the fifth floor of the apartment complex, Mary Ann and the three remaining members of the original group, were currently being cornered by a flood of people from two sides. Failing to make it very far themselves, the four people were swept away by the flow of the crowd. Crying and screams could be herd as from either end of the hall, signaling that the monsters weren’t hidden within the chaos.

“W-what do we do now?” The old woman asked before be shoved from behind. Luckily one of the three men she was with caught her before she feel.

The grumpy man shook his head helplessly, finally starting to show fear. “We..we can, try to find a room to hid in.” He suggested.

“WATCH OUT!”

“RUN!”

The screams got louder as a few a zombie found it’s way in from one of the stairwells. The blood gushing from the neck of a young woman showed the wound to be fairly recent.

“Quickly! This way.” Running into the nearest apartment, the four were joined by a few others. With each second that passed by, more and more zombies began to flow into the hallway.

Unfortunatly, the small apartment the group chose wasn’t entirely free of monsters. Seeing a bloody trail leading up to a twitching dead body next to a window, the team froze. “It’s turning! Quickly! Lets get rid of it before it finished!”

Suddenly Mary Ann ran forward in a panic, giving the dead body a wide berth. Unlocking the latch that was keeping the window closed, the woman quickly waved the men over. Taking the hint, the cranky man ran forward, struggling to pick up the violent dead body. Motivated by necessity, a few more people approached to help shove the dead body out the window.

“Quickly! One..two.. THREE!” Five people worked together, sliding the body head first out the window. Just as the Zombie started to growl, and thrash around, the newly turned undead disappeared out the window.

“That’s it!” Inspiration hit the former leader, Giving Mary Ann a pat on the back. “This could save us! If we can get rid of the bodies before they turn, and barricade the doors, we just might survive!”

Looking around at the few familiar faces, and the strangers, the group came to an understanding. Running back out into the hall, the new group of residents started to execute their new plan.

---

“..aug! Damn it!” Though the two hadn’t sustained any serious injuries, Rein and Takeru still ended up getting the wind knocked out of them. Feeling something heavy on top of him, Takeru opened his eyes and looked down. This brought him face to face a wide eyed boy, who also seemed shocked he had landed on top of the college student. “...y-you ok?”, He asked.

Realizing he was still on top of the other, Rein’s face quickly turned red. He scrambled to get off of the older male as he replied. “Y-yeah! I’m fine! You?!” Sounding a little too enthusiastic, Rein turned away embarrassed.

“Wow, you two really know how to make an exit.” A low laugh came from the side, bringing the other two’s attention back to Takeru’s girlfriend, who looked amused. Feeling a little awkward, the man got up to embrace his girlfriend, but was stopped by her hand. “We don’t have time for that, we have to hurry.”

Seeing the four zombies trapped on the third floor balcony, with no way to get down, the team of three started running around the outside of the building. Taking the lead, the Niomine confidently lead the others toward their destination. At the same time, she explained where her car was parked.

“The stairwell I entered from is right around the corner, which happens to be the eastern end of the parking lot. I managed to park right in front of the door. The emergency exit for the basement parking lot is right next to it.”

Just as she finished, the three of them rounded the corner of the building. Sure enough a beefed out truck sat next to the two doors, just as she described. Elated that this morning’s adventure was finally coming to an end, the teen let out a huge sigh. Seeing Niomine’s battle hardened look, and Takeru’s relived expression, made Rein feel a little sad. Though they only knew each other for about an hour, he knew he would miss these two people. They worked well together. Though Takeru wasn’t exactly ready to face the new world, Rein was sure that Niomine would prepare him for what lay ahead. It’s a shame that somebody so beautiful had to go through such horrors. Unfortunately this couldn’t be helped. Misfortune doesn't discriminate. A pretty face wont stop, or even slow down, a Zombie. Or any disasters for that matter. But matter how desensitized Rein was to disasters, it still came as a shock when a falling dead body suddenly crushed the young girl into the ground.

Time stopped as blood shot up into the empty space, that Niomine was just standing in. A gargling moan creeped up from from the zombie biting into the neck of the girl it just killed. Had they really not noticed this zombie creeping up on them? A muffled thud sounded next to the two boys, bringing Rein out of his stupor. The first to act, he quickly brought his attention to the space above them. A couple of windows were open above them, one which had zombie hanging out of it. Two pairs of hands were struggling to push the undead through the small opening. The people, from the fifth floor, were shoving zombies out of the windows, not realizing that there were people below. The reason the three of them hadn’t see any zombies approach, was because they were dropped on top of them.

“Those bastards!” Realizing what was going on, Rein reacted by stepping forward and lashing out with his crowbar, sending the zombie on top of Nimoine’s body flying back. But after taking one look at the girl’s distorted body, and her lifeless shocked expression, he knew he was too late. Another couple of bodies hit the ground around them. “Run inside! Quickly!”

Grabbing onto the dumbstruck Takeru, the teenager pulled the other toward the basement door. “...No, NO! NIOMINE!” Takeru quickly ripped his arm out of the other’s hand as he tried to run to his girlfriend’s body, but the youth was quick to restrain the other.

“Let me go! NIOMINE!” By now more undead were blocking the way to the girl’s corpse, and only more bodies were raining down around them. Forcing himself to use all his strength, Rein struggled to keep the older male from walking into certain death.

“Let go! Let me go you Bastard! NIOMINE!” Having had to use some strategic footwork, the teen tried to get Takeru to cooperate, but before he could react, the older male unceremoniously kicked him in the stomach, sending him rolling toward the emergency exits. Seeing Takeru duck under the reach of an attacking monster, Rein was forced to let the man go. Turning to the basement door beside him, the teen quickly went to work prying the door open with his crowbar. Just as Rein managed to get the door open, he jumped inside, turning just in time to get one last look at the scene he was leaving behind. Rein’s last image of the couple, was of Takeru holding Niomine’s body, crying in agony, and surrounded by approaching zombies. Then, the door shut, enveloping the teenager in darkness.

---

Where were you when the world ended? This is a common question people will end up asking each other around campfires. For some reason humanity had a way of remembering every detail during times of crisis. This wouldn’t be any different for Frank.

Another zombie stumbled through the halls of the quiet movie theater. Without anything to distract them, the zombies seemed to lose the drive they show when they there is a free lunch near by. This zombie in particular spent the last couple hours hanging out in front of second theater. Suddenly so distasteful elevator music started playing in the room it was loitering in front off. As if regaining a spark of it’s former self, the zombie quickly, and purposely entered the auditorium in search of it’s next victim. Just as the undead disappeared into the room, a large shadow quickly ran to close the door behind the monster, cutting it off from the rest of the theater. A few short bangs came from the other side of the closed door, drawing the attention of the few other zombies still in the theater, but the large man had already disappeared behind a door labeled, “Staff only.”

Frank tiredly climbed the stairs to the second floor of the movie theater, entering the dark projection hall. Seeing the large man return, an excited voice came from a nearby chair. “Did you get!?”

Frank smiled, giving a thumbs up to the brunette. “All set. The entire building is completely sealed, so there shouldn’t be any more monsters coming in from outside.”

“Great...but now we have to figure out a way to get rid of the ones already in the building.” A red hooded teen’s snide remark came from the other end of the hall. After the near death of being strangled by one of the monsters, Randy had developed a few dark bruises around his neck. He hadn’t been able to say much, but the little he did say, wasn’t very helpful.

“Don’t worry, I got a plan for that too.” Frank assured, feeling a little embarrassed by the position he found himself in. Working at a movie theater often forced the man to work with a lot of teenagers, so talking to these two wasn’t anything new. But he never had to manage any of those kids. He had always worked under the assumption that if he left them alone, they'd leave him alone, and it usually worked. So now, having these two look to him for direction, and support, was a little weird. Not to mention the strange sense of bravery and leadership he was displaying, he was a little confused by his own actions.

“We can use the same tactics we used just now in the other theaters to lure, and isolate the remaining Zombies. I have enough parts from some old metal shelving that we can use to make spears. Once that’s finished, we can stab at the dead from the safety of the port windows we shine the projectors through. We don’t even have to get to close to these things to kill them.” Frank easily explained the step by step plan he already had laid out.

“After we’ve secured the hallways, we can use the cameras to figure out where any lingering zombies are located. By then we’ll have access to the concessions stand. There plenty of food and water there. That should last us until help comes.”

The two teens nodded their heads in understanding, but sure enough they still had questions. “Are you sure somebody will come?” The girl asked hesitantly.

Frank just smiled before lying, not very convincingly either. “Absolutly.”

Seeing the uncertain look on their faces, the older man just let out a sigh. “Well, either way, things will work out…”

The room got quiet again. Seeing as he didn’t have much else to say, the bearded man started to walk off in search of those metal polls he left lying around last week, but before he could get to far the girls stopped him again. “Sir? What’s your name?”

“Frank. You?”

“Pam.”

“Randy.” The boy offered, refusing to be left out of introductions.

“It’s nice to meet you both. Just sit tight. We’ll make it out just fine.”

Pam quietly sat back down, watching Frank work. “Thank you, Frank.”

---