Author's Note: I'm going to post five chapters today since I feel like that's an adequate number to get a feel for the author's writing style and whether you as the reader would like to keep up with my story. I hope you all enjoy it though :D

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12:19 a.m. April 24, 2015

Sarah followed me out of the laundry room and I led the way through the door back towards the stairway I’d passed on my way to the elevator earlier.

I turned back towards her and whisper, “Probably best to keep to the stairs rather than the elevator…also, watch your back. They almost caught me off-guard earlier...” She nodded in understanding.

I took an extra second to really look at her. She looked a lot more stressed compared to when I’d seen her no more than twenty minutes ago which is completely understandable since it’s not every day you get attacked by toxic goblins wielding swords.

I place my hand on the door knob, but before I open it I turn back towards Sarah and say, “I’ll protect you. I promise that you won’t die.”

I saw a hint of relief flash through her eyes and her body immediately became less tense. Before she could say anything, I seriously nod to her and make a ‘shush’ motion with my hand. My hand turns the handle of the door and I open the door slowly with my shoulder.

Looking on the other side of the door I see only the stairs leading up to the higher levels. No monsters in sight, but it still sounds as if a lot is happening above us if the screams are any indication. Staying on high alert, I hold the sword I’d gotten from the goblin out in front of me and push past the door and onto the stairs with Sarah close behind.

Walking up the final steps to the first floor landing, I look through a rectangular window in the door leading into the lobby and instantly wish that I hadn’t.

Forcing the rising bile in my throat down, I continue to look at the ripped up pieces of what appeared to be a large number of people strewn about across the lounge. It was hard to tell the exact number because the whole lobby was littered with random body parts and covered in blood. The couches, carpet, and large glass windows of the dorm were stained with dark red blood and the smell of iron drifted through under the door in front of me.

“Alex, is it safe?” Sarah hesitantly asked.

“…” I continue to look at the dismembered bodies and blood going into a daze as my head spins out of control from disbelief and shock.

“Alex…?” Sarah worriedly asks seeing that I’m zoning out.

“…We need to go further up…I live on third floor. Come on it’s not safe here.” Taking one last eyeful of the slaughter on the other side of the door, I led the way up another flight of steps.

Stopping next to the second floor door, I press my ear against the wood of the door. I can hear muffled shouts, screaming, crying, loud cracks of wood splintering, heavy breathing and growling.

My face became a shade paler as fear struck me.

‘That doesn’t sound like it’s just goblins…’

All the noise was currently coming from this floor while the noises above sounded more confused rather than pained.

“Alex, we need to help them. Those people need us!” Sarah loudly whispered snapping me out of my fear.

“Sarah…we can’t save everyone. I’m sorry. It seems as if whatever is in the building is doing a floor by floor sweep of the dorm…” I began to shakily explain.

Tears threatened to fall from Sarah’s eyes…

“…Look, we either need to go upstairs and prepare ourselves with more people or leave the dorm and attempt to survive outside. I’d much rather put up a fight on the third floor or possibly even the fourth than face any unknown dangers out in the city. In here we have a chance to survive until help comes…but I’m not going into the second floor to throw my life away on a suicide run.” I finish explaining and the resolve to survive no matter what shone through my eyes.

She nodded as tears fell from her eyes.

I looked at her with pity.

‘A lot of people in the world aren’t really mentally prepared for situations like these. Hell, it’s all I can do to keep my own head on straight. If I wasn’t so worried about protecting Sarah and figuring out what in the hell is going on, then I might have been shivering in fear somewhere.’

On the inside, I was extremely grateful for Sarah having been put in danger so that I could come and save her. It made this transition from normalcy to life and death a lot easier since I’ve already had a small encounter and now I had someone to protect.

‘But compared to whatever I was hearing on the second floor…I’m not sure if I can handle it…’

Putting a halt to my thoughts, I continued climbing the stairs up to the third floor and Sarah quickly followed. As we reached the third floor door, I pushed it open and was immediately met with the sight of a large group of my floor mates congregating in and outside of the hall’s lounge which is in the middle of the floor’s hall.

Seeing my bloodstained clothing and the crying girl behind me, everyone instantly quieted down and looked at me expectantly.

I swept a glance across the group of people. I recognized probably half of the people there and pointedly looked at the ones I knew.

“…Look…I’m sure you all have a lot of questions, but we need to go up to the fourth floor to regroup. Like now. Because I’m not sure how much time we have until they finish with the second floor…” I spoke slowly but clearly with a hint of urgency in my tone.

Everyone looked at me confused and loud chatter broke out across the room all directed right at me.

“Alex, who’s blood is that!?” screamed a girl from my right.

“You’re gonna need to give a better explanation than that if you want anyone to go anywhere” spoke a tall, overweight man.

“Alex, when’d you get a sword!?” yelled my roommate from within the crowd.

And then it came out.

“Who are they?” A short black haired girl that I didn’t recognize worriedly asked me.

A flash of fear crossed my face as I thought back to the short life and death situation I’d had mere minutes ago and how it may not be the only one I’d have to survive before this blood filled night ends if the sounds from the second floor were any indication.

The room quieted down once more and waited for my reply.

‘It’d be better if I only have to do this once…’ I quickly thought.

“If anyone wants any answers, then you’ll meet me in the fourth floor lounge in less than three minutes. Also, do what’s good for you and grab anything that can be used as a weapon…” I waved my two foot sword in the air. “Get everyone up there. And please. I do mean everyone.” I said in a serious tone thinking about all the dead on the first floor and currently dying people on the second floor.

“But why should…” the overweight upperclassman from the crowd once again tried to ask, but not before I could cut him off.

“If you can’t wait for an explanation, then by all means you can stay on this floor and wait for the answer to come up here and tell you itself. I doubt it’ll be a long conversation.” As I said this, I directed my hardest glare at the upperclassman for all of one second, turned on my heel and began jogging down the hall towards my room dragging Sarah along with me.

The people I’d left behind stood frozen for all of half a second before bursting into action. Most made a mad dash to their rooms to wake roommates or find something useful to fight with. Others completely forgot about grabbing anything and rushed through the door I came through to go up the fourth floor. Others chose to exit through the doors placed at both ends of the hall and use the stairwells located there.

I reach my room and pull the door open to find my suitemates playing Madden on their Xbox 360.

“Hey Alex, what’s up with all the noise” one of them asked me without turning his face from the screen.

“Yeah, it sounds like something crazy is going on downstairs. Is there some sort of party going on?” the other asked while also keeping his focus on the game.

I almost entertained the notion of telling them in a light-hearted manner that all was well and monsters were just overrunning the dorm. Instead, I just stood there waiting for one of them to look at me.

Realizing I hadn’t answered, they each turned towards me to see my bloody clothes and sword and jumped out of their seats with panic evident on their faces.

Before they could assault me with a bunch of questions, I calmly said, “I’ll explain upstairs in the lounge, just get up there quickly and gather everyone you can.”

I walked into my room and felt my roommate pass by me heading for his golf clubs in the corner of the room. “Oh, you may both want to grab something that you can hit stuff with! Seriously, this is a really bad situation!” I shouted from my room to my suitemates.

My suitemates knew I wouldn’t lie to them so they went about finding weapons although reluctantly as they didn’t want to really be involved in anything violent. I walked towards my closet and rummaged around for a couple seconds before coming out with my tennis racket.

“Here…” I said passing the racket to Sarah. “Should help you out better than that dagger since it’s got some reach to it.”

I turned towards my roommate and jokingly say, “It’s a shame that this is probably the only real action those clubs of yours will see all year.”

Laughing my jibe at his golfing skills off, he walked out of the room with his whole golf bag saying, “Shit, I needed the practice at some point.” He was followed out by my suitemates and they all turned to enter the stairs at our end of the hall to go up to the fourth floor.

Glancing sideways at Sarah, I motioned with my head towards the door and we walked out and into the hallway. Shutting the door behind me, I dropped down and placed my ear on the ground listening. I heard the same muffled screaming and more banging noises.

‘Hmmmm, they’re probably unable to break through the doors quickly’

Grimacing slightly I thought back to my earlier explanation to Sarah about not being able to save the people on the second floor.

‘It’s not that I don’t want to save them…I just can’t do it alone. I’ll do my best to save as many of you as I can once I get everything situated. Just hold on’ I silently promised.

Standing up, I notice that the entire third floor was now completely silent and with a nod, Sarah and I rush to follow my roommate and suitemates up to the fourth floor.

Once we reached the fourth floor hallway, I could see a group of about twenty people at the middle of the hall stuck outside of the lounge due to a lack of space. Thinking about the ongoing casualties below us, I knew that I had to make this explanation quick so we could help as many people as possible.

I dashed down the hall towards the crowd, intent on making it into the lounge where everyone could see and hear what I had to say. Upon seeing my bloodstained clothing and small sword, a path was opened for me to enter the lounge.

Squeezing through with Sarah, I climbed onto the nearest table while waving my blade around to gain everyone’s attention.

There were probably around eighty college students around me in the lounge not even counting the ones outside the door and I briefly wondered how the hell this many people had fit in here, but I digress.

Upon seeing me, the people from the third floor who knew me instantly made shushing noises to everyone around them and in moments all eyes were on me and the whole place went silent waiting for me to speak.

The weight of having all their eyes on me makes me nervous for a moment, but after taking a deep breath I say as loudly as possible, “There is a threat to our lives tonight!”

As if to emphasize my words, the building began to shake causing many people to fall over before things stabilized.

‘What the hell was that? Did it come from outside??’

As everyone was grumbling in pain from having fallen over or getting fallen on, I kept on speaking.

“It may seem hard to believe, but our dorm is being overrun by monsters! Like the type you’d see in a movie or video game…listen, we need to choose between either barricading ourselves off up here and waiting for help or going down to the second floor to help any survivors by fighting off the monsters! Remember, those people downstairs are humans with lives of their own and they’re being killed! We can save them…it’s the right thing to do!”

As I spoke, I saw many people looking skeptical and the tall upperclassman from earlier once again looked as though he were about to cut me off to ask why they should believe me.

Pointing my sword at him, I said in a deathly quiet voice, “I swear to God if you ask me how I know any of this is real I’ll end you myself.” He quickly shut his mouth and fear rose to the forefront of his eyes.

“As everyone can see…!” I continued loudly, “...there’s a lot of blood on me because I fought some of them, killed them and saved her!” I pointed at Sarah.

“And I doubt anybody could just find this…” waving my sword in the air “…lying on the ground! Considering we all go to this school, I know that none of you are stupid so what do you think that tremor a minute ago was? So just trust me so we can figure out what to do next!” I finished.