Decker’s eyes flare to life. Ideas and thoughts burning brightly enough that I can almost read them.

“Don’t tell the others.” He says after a short silence.

“Yes sir.” I reply.

Curiosity burns in me wondering why he doesn’t want the others to know of this. However, I don’t want to upset Decker and I don’t know if asking why would annoy him. I know asking my dad a question would generally annoy him.

“This is huge. Like majorly huge.” He says, talking to himself.

He shakes his head and returns to filling the sink with water.

“For now don’t mess with that menu. Let me think about it for a bit. For now we should continue collecting water.”

I return to filling the sinks with water. Only stopping when the sinks are full. Steaming rises from the crystal clear pools of water.

I wonder how sanitary the sinks are and if we really are going to drink from them. I mean while none of the water has touched my hands I feel as if just being in my presents is toxic.

Dried flecks of blood that I know aren't mine coats my hands. I’ve rubbed the worst of it off but my skin has been stained a dark red from the muck. Just looking at my hands makes my skin crawl. I really need to shower soon.

We go through each floor filling all the sinks. Decker and I finish before Andy and Agila filling the containers with water. So we take a portion of the empty containers and fill them up. After a few hours there are no more containers.

Afterwards we pack as much of the containers in the fridges as possible. The ones we can’t fit in them we pack into cupboards with paper towels covering the tops. With the job done Decker turns off the generators plunging the building back into silence and darkness.

We all reconvene back on the seventh floor. Decker hands out food while being weirdly silent.

“What are we going to do about food?” I ask.

Decker looks at me then to the pile of dwindling food in front of us. The plan of scouting the restaurant across the street crosses my mind. Something about the idea makes me feel like it’s urgent. Like we need to get on it as soon as possible.

“We should get onto that. The sooner the better.” Angila says.

“Weren’t you and Decker going to loot the restaurant across the street?” Andy asks me.

“I think we should go and at least take a look at it today.” I say.

Decker checks the watch on his wrist and then heads to the nearest window. He looks at the sky for a moment before turning back to us.

“Joel and I will go across the street to scout out the restaurant. If it’s all clear Angila will come over and start taking back as much food as she can carry.”

Decker turns to Andy.

“You will stay by the kitchen door. Ready to unlock it and let us back in. In case anything goes wrong. We’ll leave you a radio but don’t use it unless you see a level twelve or higher zombie out in the street.”

Decker turns to me.

“Get ready, I'll meet you in the lobby in about five minutes.”

With the plan set we all leave to our own areas. I head down to the lobby first. I carefully pick my way behind the security desk. There in a cupboard I find a black of black gloves. I grab a few pairs and put them in my pocket. Then I take another and put them on.

Decker steps out of the staircase into the lobby followed by Angila and Andy. We make our way to the kitchen and then to the door leading to the street. Peering through the glass reveals no zombies on the block.

“Is everyone ready?” Decker asks.

We all nod. Decker unlocks the door and hands his master key to Andy along with the radio he had. I make sure the radio I have is still on my belt.

Decker pushes the door open and walks out onto the street. As he does so I notice Angila giving him a weird look. The kind that I imagine you’d give to a loved one as they leave.

I file the look away as something to think about later. I push out onto the street with Decker finding it just as empty as it was last night. My car sitting to my right looking like the piece of crap that it is.

My mana expands out of me as I activate my Magical Sonar. We turn north and round the corner onto Everett street. The restaurant is across the street on the corner of Everett and Second.

We cross the street quickly crouching as we do so. The entrance to the building points to the corner of the block and is closed. Above the door in fancy writing is the name of the restaurant ‘The Corner Bistro’. Decker tries the door only to find it locked.

“Got anything to open this door with?” He asks me.

“I do but it’s loud. There’s a side entrance on Everett.” I say.

The restaurant’s side entrance is usually always open even late into the night. The restaurant doesn’t close until midnight or so and the workers spend hours cleaning the building. It’s part of the reason why they get their deliveries so late.

We walk up Everett street finding the pale green door that is the side entrance. A piece of wood holds the door just slightly ajar. Decker turns to me in confirmation that I’m ready to go in.

I take a second to feel around the entrance behind the door. Nothing out of the ordinary jumps out at me but just looking at the door causes the weird tingle in my mind to sound off.

I feel compelled to go in there but to also turn and run. I shake the feeling from my head before nodding at Decker’s unasked but implied question. Decker opens the door and we enter the kitchen.

The first thing I notice is the smell. To describe the smell as death is a disservice to the smell. So rancid and rotten that my eyes water and my throat burns. Even the lobby and garage aren’t this bad.

The kitchen is dark, the only light coming from the open door. As soon as Decker lets go of the door it starts to close. The only source of light quickly vanishes, plunging us into darkness.

I push out a small orb of mana to illuminate the room. The kitchen comes to life in an eerie faint blue as steely metal structures reflect blue light back at us.

The kitchen seems to have been abandoned in a haste. Food and cooking utensils spot the ground and countertops as if they were dropped midway through use. Blood coats the ground, dried enough that it doesn’t feel sticky to walk across.

Two doors lead out from the kitchen. One leads to a set of stars while the other leads to the dining room of the building. Decker leads me to the dining room first. As soon as the door opens my body tries to vomit.

If the smell in the kitchen was death then the smell in here is death’s toilet after eating something foul. My light floats out illuminating a horrific scene of bodies strewn about in varying states of dismemberment.

The doors leading to the street are blocked by a table. As if the people in here didn’t want something getting in. However by doing that I guess they trapped themselves in here with something worse.

However, despite the absolute carnage displayed in here not a single zombie can be found. I look at Decker trying to read his emotions but again I can’t. It’s as if he’s put up a mask or something.

“There’s nothing in here, let's check upstairs.” He says finally.

We leave the dining room and I feel relief almost instantly when the door to the room closes. Something about how the bodies were left tickles the back of my mind. Leaving me with an ominous feeling. However, I don’t want to think about them.

We walk to the other door in the kitchen and crawl up the wooden stairs. Being a three story building I was always curious what was on the upper levels of the restaurant. The second floor greets us with what appears to be offices.

I assume this is where they do the business aspect of running a restaurant. Processing orders, managing menus and employees, or whatever requires paperwork. Along with the office space is a bathroom and what I guess would be an employee break area. It has a few lockers lining the wall with name tags on them and a large table with cheap looking chairs in the center.

This floor doesn’t hold anything of note for us though. And seems weirdly vacant of blood. Maybe whatever committed the sins that happened in the dining room didn’t come up here or there was no one up here to be dismembered like the poor souls on the first floor.

We press on to the third floor which I quickly realize is a living space. As we walk through the floor I can feel a pressure pushing back on my mana. The pressure is weird to describe as it doesn’t feel like a physical object. More like the presence of dense mana that isn’t mine.

As we check the rooms the feeling that something bad is about to happen grows in me. A bedroom reveals a baby crib with blood splashing the crib and walls. Decker investigates the room before exiting it and closing the door behind me. I inveistage another room, finding a couch and a tv set up against a far wall.

We clear a bathroom and make our way to the final room on the floor. We crack the door open revealing a tall figure standing in the corner. The blue light creeps across the floor showing blood pooling the floor underneath the bed. Two people lie on the bed having all their limbs chopped off and a cavity in their chest where their hearts would be.

At the noise of the door creaking open the person in the corner snaps his attention around to us. Bloodshot pale eyes fall on us sending a shiver down my spine. Black veins bulge across the exposed skin of the muscular person. A silver object catches the blue light of my orb and I notice that the thing is holding a butcher’s knife. My eyes snap to the red light above the thing’s head.

Zombie Butcher

Level: 22

HP: 115/115

My heart races as my mana bruns white hot beneath my skin. The air catches in my throat. Decker's hand grabs my shoulder as he turns to run from the room. The zombie roars louder and more fierce than any other zombie that I’ve encountered.

I turn and follow after Decker. My feet racing through the floor and down the flight of stairs. I hear something like glass shattering behind me as I run. With the fear of the zombie on my heels I don’t turn to investigate, I just focus on getting out of here.

Practically jumping down the stairs we make it to the first floor kitchen in seconds. Decker vaults over the metal structures in the middle of the kitchen, heading straight for the door as he does so.

I race around but stop in my tacks as Decker flies past me back towards the stairs. The zombie stands in the doorway having just kicked the door in and clean off its hinges. Looking behind me I see blood dripping down Decker’s face as he sits on the ground against the wall only feet away from me.

My attention returns to the zombie butcher before me. It’s eyes glaze over to me as a grin appears on its face. A sound akin to horse laughing emanates from it, sending shivers of fear down my back.

Just looking in it’s eyes I know that it can kill me easily. It’s faster than me. Stronger than me. Out levels me by nearly ten levels. A zombie barely two levels above me nearly killed me. There’s no way I can fight this.

The zombie butcher seems to be able to read the defeat I feel. As it’s smile grows even wider showing blackened yellow teeth.

I’m going to die here. That’s what the whisper in the back of my head was telling me. It was warning me not to come in here. All it will take is one good strike and I’ll be like Decker.

I’m not ready to die. I don’t want to die. There’s so much I want to experience in life. I was only now truly starting to live. For so many years I hated my life and myself wishing so badly for it to just end. I only recently started to feel like I might truly like living.

Only recently have I started to feel as if I’m not some weakling to be preyed upon by others. Like I have the strength to finally be my own person. To be a predator that doesn’t shrink into a shell at the first sign of danger.

I glance back towards Decker. The first adult to make me feel like I have value. Like my ideas and questions aren’t something to be scared to voice. He doesn’t get mad at me for asking questions nor does he get mad at me when I do something he doesn’t like.

I’ve known him for barely 24 hours yet he’s treated me better than my father ever has. And he’s here about to die because I kept pushing for us to come here.

His death is going to be my fault. Mine. Maybe my mom had the right idea by never coming back for me. Maybe I’m just bad luck. Just my existence brings pain to others.

I don’t want him to die. Not because of my actions. If anyone here is going to die it’s going to be me. Decker’s been leading our little group since it’s formed, keeping our needs in mind the whole time. He’s put himself into danger for me and the others. The world would be a worse place without him. But without me, it’ll probably be a better place in all honesty.

If I’m going to die here it’ll be making sure that Decker survives. I face the beast before me. It exudes an aura of power that pushes in on my own.

My mana pulses in response to my desire. It burns bright and hot in me. The usual warm lake in my core is a lake of fire coursing through every inch of my body. I glow a bright blue as the lines crossing my skin burn brighter then they have ever before.

If I’m going to die this thing is dying with me.