บท 58: 2.27

"Are you sure Will and Leo are this way?" I asked nervously as we closed the door to the dorms. I was staying in the fire exit stairwell. Outside and inside I could hear the cry of people either killing or dying.

I was envious of Ty's System. I knew he was receiving orders each time we moved from one hiding spot to another. How old was he? Was he as strong as Lixin had been? I could only pray he was.

If I got my System back could mine have done the same? The whole way there my sword had stayed sheathed as I'd watched Ty take care of each zombie that noticed us.

I was just grateful that I had taken them and a backpack everywhere I went, though that had been at Will's persuasion. I needed to remember to take better care of this brother.

"Yes, the tenth floor," he replied in a hushed voice. That was the floor I had taken a room on to avoid Noah. I wondered why they were here instead of in the meeting room. Were they looking for me?

"Can your System sense the zombies? Mine couldn't?" I whispered as Laura took what looked like an inhaler. It was my first time seeing someone so unhealthy in this new world. Even the elderly and kids seemed better than the way Laura wheezed.

"Tell your System to look for concentrations of the virus, the majority of these have the nuclei in their brains, just remember not all of them will, and don't rely on your System too much," he lectured like an old uncle, then stroked Laura's back.

That sounded like a great plan if only System would answer me back.

"You see the thing is, mine sorta," I scratched the tip of my nose, feeling embarrassed, "I think it switched off."

Considering the circumstances I stopped caring if Laura overheard me, so long as the zombies dotted around the building did not.

"We'll sort that out later," Ty stood tall and drew his longsword. Not being able to see clearly in the dim light, I nervously drew both of mine, looking up the stairs.

Ty raised three fingers, I assumed he meant that there were three of them ahead.

Four floors up we finally found them, stooped over a fresh corpse, tearing it apart.

I had no need to step in, as Ty dealt with them in a few blows, catching them off guard in their feeding frenzy.

I'd spent too long behind the walls. The sight, the smell, and my nausea were in overdrive. I could only swallow the burning vomit back down my throat and focus on taking one step after another.

On the seventh floor, the door burst open, and two girls ran past us, leading a zombie to follow. Being closest to the rear I pierced the sword through the zombie's eye just as it reached out to grab Laura's backpack pulling her to fall.

"Shit, you okay?" The taller of the two women asked Laura, coming back up the stairs to help out. I ignored the panting women stooping over Laura to help her up, to quickly shut the fire exit door hearing footsteps too close for comfort.

"Quiet and follow," I told them both, finger raised to mouth. Neither woman held weapons, how were they still alive? It was then I realised one of them wasn't wearing a backpack, but a baby carrier with a cosily sleeping toddler nestled in.

"Is the kid okay?" I whispered as we began to go up the stairs again to the woman carrying the child, then cursed at myself internally for being distracted. This was the youngest survivor I'd met to date.

The woman sheepishly nodded her head, one hand protectively reaching to touch the bundle on her back. I pulled on Ty's sleeve to get him to wait before taking off my bag and pulling three of the largest kitchen knives I had in my space, passing them to each of the new women, then lastly to Laura. "Just in case," I whispered, before turning to eagerly reach the tenth floor.

On the tenth floor, I waited for Ty to open the door, knowing he was conversing with his System about what was on the other side. He raised his hand to gesture two fingers, then seeing my nod he opened the door silently.

The two dead were lingering just outside of my room's door.

"Left," I said, drawing both of their attention. I found a sense of trust in Ty as I ignored the one on the right, knowing he would take care of it. Dipping low to knock the left zombie to the ground before turning to place my left sword through its chest to the floor, pinning it there.

It reached up to claw at my leg, stopping just as it touched the thick cotton joggers due to my right sword piercing its skull.

"Hannah," Will did not care about his noise as he opened the door to see me cleaning the sword on the elderly female zombie's clothes. They'd been a survivor not so long ago, I was certain I recognised the face as being one who'd wished me good morning at breakfast.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked, seeing the group of seven people hanging out in my room. "Ah, Holly, thank fuck," I squeezed past Will through the door frame and gave her a tight hug.

"Han, are you that mad at me?" Will looked almost ready to cry when I turned around. Shit, he was supposed to be my brother. Were you really that mad at him Hannah?

"No, no," I let go of Holly to quickly stop the bear of a man from crying in front of his team.

"Holly said you were taking a nap," Will explained, still not letting go despite the faint growls of the dead in both stairways.

"Get in," Noah's cold voice brought Will back to his senses and he dragged me into the room where the others had already entered. The door closed directly behind us, I took note of who was in the room. It was Noah, Will, Leo, Holly, Tommy, and his sister, Sofia who was around my age, and their little brother Lucas, who looked around eight but I vaguely remember someone saying he was ten.

"Where's the rest?" I asked Will, glancing out the window at the chaos below. The outdoor lights were all still on, giving clear scenes of the brutal tearing of limbs below. I couldn't see a single living person, just the zombies and their meals.

"Following the evacuation plan," Noah replied for him, his tone sounding even colder than before, "which you would know about if you'd attended at least one meeting."

Wait, who was the big brother supposed to be again?

"I was ill," I shrugged and glanced at him with narrowed eyes, after all, I was pretty sure I was ill all because of him and his dumb penis.

"You okay?" Will and Holly asked in unison.

I blushed, feeling guilty for the lie.

"She's fine," Ty interrupted, then turned to Noah, "so, what evacuation plan?"