บท 22: Problem (V)

As the body smashed into the wall and the head rolled to the side. Mark slowly turned towards Denton, still on the ground with the rod in his hands. Stretching his hand out, Mark pulled Denton up and looked over at Mona.

Standing up, Denton exhaled in relief at the very close call. He didn't expect the zombie to jump on him and couldn't evade in time. He could only try his best to keep it away using the rod he had and hope one of the 2 notices his predicament.

"Ok! Now that we are done here. What's the next route to the underground parking lot?" said Mark, turning towards Denton as he noticed no more zombies.

"Oh! Yes, there are 2 ways for us to go to the parking plot beneath. One is to use the elevator, and the other is to use the stairs on the other side, the one you used to come up to the 15th floor." replied Denton.

Mark went into deep thought after this. He took a seat on a stair and kept the machete beside him. The best plan was to take the elevator. But it is also perilous. It makes too much sound and could attract every zombie below before they even get out.

The stairs were a longer route. They had to stealthily make their way across through the large lobby on the floor and get onto the stairs. They also had no data on the zombies inside the stairs on the other side.

After thinking for quite some time, he got up and said, "Ok! Let's take the stairs on the other side of the lobby. The elevator can make too much noise and attract attention."

Both of them nodded and Mark slowly went towards the door out of the stairway into the hallway. He slowly opened it and stuck his head inside. He slowly observed the number of zombies in the hallway and found it to be only 5.

Mark was pleased and surprised at the number of zombies. He expected at least 8 zombies within the hallway as the 1st floor is expected to have a huge number. He slowly closed the door and turned towards both of them and nodded.

"There are 5 zombies outside in the hallway. We can take them out with relative ease, so don't panic." Lastly turning towards Denton, who nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Mark slowly opened the door once again and quietly came into the hallway followed by Mona and Denton. Denton slowly closed the door behind him and nodded his head at both of them.

Mark looked at Mona and Denton and signaled Mona to come with him while asking Denton to remain behind. Leaving Denton behind Mona and Mark made their way to the nearest 2 zombies.

Arriving behind their backs, at the count of three both of them sliced the heads off in one go with no noise. Not to attract any attention from the zombies left, they caught both the head and body of the zombie they killed and slowly placed them down.

Mark looked at Mona and continued on forward after noticing she was all right. The next 2 zombies were to the side leaning on the walls. Making it quick both of them sliced their heads off like the previous ones.

The last zombie was near the entrance of the hallway. It looked like a former security guard looking at the hallway and big structure which was almost double the size of Mark's lean body. Mark quietly made his way towards it with Mona behind him just in case.

As he reached he slowly brought the machete down for the instant kill but to his surprise the sword did not even cut through half of the neck. He tried to pull the machete back, but the zombie turned back making his hand leave the handle.

The zombie raised both its arms going for a loud growl before Mona sliced its head off from the other side of his. Mark quickly reacted and turned backwards to support the huge body on his back before it could fall down. He slowly placed it down and took the machete which came out as the head sliced away.

He turned towards Mona and nodded acknowledging the nice assist at the correct time. They turned back towards Denton and Mark waved his hands indicating him to get closer now that the zombies were dead. Denton quickly made his way over reaching both of them and all three of them went near the edge.

Mark was first and peeked out towards the lobby. He had a loss of words noticing the number of zombies in the hallway. There were clearly more than 40 zombies in the hallway alone. He slowly observed the positions of the zombies trying to formulate a plan to get across the lobby without facing many of them.

After observing for a few minutes, Mark turned back towards Mona and Denton behind him and said with a grave face, "This is going to be tougher than I expected it to be."