“Hold on? Why are you guys panicking?”

Having held in his questions so far, due to the others rushing him through the building, Takeru couldn’t keep his confusion about the current matter. He was surprised nobody thought of pulling the fire alarm sooner. Motioning him to look out the window, Rein impatiently explained.

“A lot of people don’t know what’s going on yet, and a fire alarm is going off. The first floor is flooded with zombies, so what do you think will happen?”

“Oh. Shit.” Realization dawn on the man’s face as he watched the zombies below stumble through broken doors, back into the building.

Hearing any kind of alarm is bad during the end of the world. Not only does noise attract the undead, but in situations involving large groups of people, it causes panic. Trying to escape while stuck in a crowd of panicking people is even more dangerous than fighting a few zombies. This situation was much worse than both of those combined. When the few hundred residents wake up to the sound of the emergency alarm, they would do the one thing they were taught to do in this kind of situation. Leave the building. These people were now headed for their doom. Sure enough a loud scream could be herd coming from the east stairwell.

The three people immediately doubled back into the hall, running back the way they came in. Having already scouted out the way before, they were less weary of the empty apartments. Though once they made it to the western stairwell, they paused. Waiting for a moment, they listened for sounds on the other sides. Unfortunately, the fire alarm made it difficult to hear anything. Since they didn’t hear any screaming, yet, the group exchanged a couple of quick glances. Readying their weapons, Rein counted to three before kicking the door open. Just as he thought, the zombie from earlier was lying in wait behind the door. The force from the door caused it to tumble down the stairs, snapping it’s neck on the way down, killing it. With one less danger in their way, Rein took the lead in running down the stairs. Hearing some commotion from above, most likely from more people evacuating the building, the teenager started to pick up the pace. Turning the next corner, Rein suddenly found himself face to face with another zombie.

“Duck!”

Hearing the warning from behind, Rein quickly dropped to his knees mid run, sliding right into the monsters legs. This caused it to fall forward, just as a metal bat lashed forward to meet the monster’s face, striking the center of it’s skull. The flawless timing of these two actions, caused the undead to instantly lose it’s life, and it’s head. A feat not so easily done when a body was fresh, the head ripped from the zombie’s body, bounded off the concrete wall, and fell into the gap between the stairs, leaving a bloody trail everywhere.

“Knock out!” Rein’s celebratory cheer incited a grimace from Takeru, and a small smile from his girlfriend.

The three continued like this as they headed to the next floor, staying ahead of the panicking mob above them. A few screams echoed as more people came across the dead body on the seventh floor, hopefully deterring them from descending any further. Unfortunately, that wouldn't stop the crowd for long. Having been lucky, the three didn’t come across any more zombies as they reached the third floor. They didn’t dare do go any further however. Quieting their steps as they approached, Niomine looked over the edge of the railing to see if there were any zombies. Sure enough a mob of undead sat waiting two floors below them. Though some of the newly turned undead could make it up stairs, at a snails pace, most couldn’t. The few zombies this group had come across on the stairs, were a special cases. Almost all zombies turned by the sunrise had an accelerated growth. While it took a normal zombie a day to figure out how to use it’s limbs, it only took hours for an accelerated zombie to figure it out. These were later deemed 1st generation zombies. The fact that these zombies showed no signs of being able to climb stairs, was a small blessing.

“Well at least that will stop the others from going all the way down….hopefully.” Niomine mused.

Rein finished checking the inside hallway for the third floor. Giving the ok, the three quickly went in.

“Run to the south eastern apartment!” Rein urged as they ran down the hallway. The boy bolted into one of the other apartments, “I’ll meet you two there. Grab as many sheets as you can!”

The one bedroom apartment Rein entered, looked much like his own, but this one held a simple set of furniture that made the place look inviting. Unlike his place, that looked like a squatter had set up home, this apartment belong to a person who cared to keep up appearances. Ignoring the, strange, amount of pink, Rein entered the bedroom. Quickly stripping the bed, in one quick motion, Rein balled up the floral sheets into a ball.

“THUMP!”

A loud sound brought Rein’s attention over to the closet beside him. Despite the loud alarms from the hall, the room seemed to of gotten eerily quiet. Heart pounding, the teen stay deathly still, doing his best to keep his eyes on the semi closed door. Slowly moving backwards, Rein made as little noise as he could. If he could just get back out into the living room, then…

“Crash!” Bumping into a small end table, a glass lamp toppled over, breaking into a thousand pieces.

“….”

“BAM!”

A small figure forced it’s way out of the closet, long gray hair covering a wrinkled and pale face. Facing the direction of the noise, the ghoul lunged in Rein’s direction. Rounding the corner of the bed, placing it between himself and the new monster, he readied his weapon. The zombie let out a frustrated yell as it bumped into the bed, but continued to pursue the other. Lashing out with the crowbar in his hand, Rein impaled the curbed end into the monsters head. Blood spattered across the boy’s face, and stained the bedsheets in red. Angered, the zombie screamed, swiping at the metal bar now impaled in her head. Unable to pull out the crowbar from the monster’s skull, Rein reluctantly let go of the weapon to distance himself from the other. Pushing forward, the zombie started to walk around the bed, forcing Rein into a corner. With only a balcony to escape to, Rein was forced to make a choice. Tangle with the monster, or escape. His choice was soon decided for him when another, larger, zombie entered the room. He might have been able to take on one, but it was suicidal to take on two alone.

“Fuck off lady!” Kicking the cheap Sadako imitation in the stomach, Rein covered his head with the bed sheets, before throwing himself through two glass doors. Ignoring the sound of tearing, as glass shredded the blankets, Rein ran to the edge of the baloney, stepping up onto the railing. Though the apartments were small, there were still a considerable amount of space between each awning on the building. Even the most athletic of people wouldn’t think of trying to jump from one apartment to the next. Looking down at the ground, two floors below himself, Rein spared a glance at the approaching undead. Taking a deep breath, Rein stepped off the railing, and onto a small widow ledge.

---

The group from the seventh floor wasn’t doing much better in the chaos. Having only made it half way to the sixth floor before the fire alarms started going off, the group was met with panic. At first, most of the group did their best to stick to the plan. Save as many people as they could from the monsters on the six floor, but a few cowards were already headed down the stairs to escape. Unable to stop them, the rest, Mary Ann included, stepped into the chaos of the sixth floor. Monsters and people were running through the halls in a panic. Some people, who just wanted to leave the building, walked right into the ambush waiting in the east stairwell. A small group of zombies devouring the intestines of an old man at the other end of the hall. This sight alone caused others to run screaming in the oposite direction, but that didn’t save them fro the occasional monster that were let out of their neighbor's apartments.

Seeing a woman being pinned down by a zombie, a few remaining men quickly jumped forward to save her. After a short struggle, and a cracked head, the monster was subdued. They managed to kill the zombie, but the woman was already dead. Mary Ann, having long lost any trace of the woman that caused this mess, tried her best to stop the few people trying to escape out the stairwell. Unfortunately no one believed her when she said it was even more dangerous than where they were at now.

“What are we suppose to do?! They’re going to get killed!” The old lady turned to her compatriots, who could only look on helplessly.

“We can’t do anything, but...maybe this can be out chance to get out of here? Those monsters cant take on a whole building if we all try to get out at once.” The cranky leader just clenched his teeth in anger, completely lost on how this plan went so wrong. Just then a few screams came from the west stairwell. One of the men who had waited outside the sixth floor came rushing in.

“They're at the bottom! There’s a whole mass of monsters laying in wait at the end of the stairs!” The chilling news left the remaining group speechless. Looking to the east stairwell, where the group of zombies is even more dense, the residents realized they were trapped.

“What are we going to do now?” Mary Ann whispered helplessly.

---

One of Rein’s least favorite situations to be in, is a high place. Though the survivalist didn’t quite have a fear of heights, Rein had still seen his fair share of accidents. Strangely, those few people who live past dooms day, all developed a bad habit of performing stupid stunts in the after life. It wasn’t clear if it was due to necessity, or a side affect to the constant exposure to adrenaline, but everybody seemed to prefer to perform crazy stunts, rather than confront a zombie. Though it made sense to take these risks in later years, when zombies got stronger, the trend started pretty early on in the apocalypse. Thanks to this sudden rise in risk taking, Rein got to witness his fair share of falls. More often than not, the fall would cripple the person, leaving them prime targets for zombies. If the person was lucky, the fall would kill them, which was a preferred alternative to zombie food.

Though the balconies were too far apart from one another to jump, there were still three windows between each one that someone could be scaled. Hugging the pane of the first window, Rein lightly stepped away from the moaning undead reaching out to him from the patio he just left. “I can’t believe I’m doing this...again.”

This wasn’t the first time the boy had scaled these walls. Recalling an incident from last time, the survivalist remembered a time the residents were tasked with looking for supplies. Some of the apartments had been barricaded shut making it impossible to enter from the hall. It was these apartments that the young man, and a few other individuals were tasked with breaking into. Trying to cross the gap between balconies, much like the boy was now, Rein had nearly fallen. Luckily one of the others had the smart idea to tie a rope to him encase he did fall. Though nobody had died at that time, it was still an experience that the teen had vowed never to try again any time soon. Who knew he’d be pushed into performing the same stunt again in this life, only without the harness.

Steeling himself, Rein continued forward, sliding his feet across sill. Reaching the end of the first one, the boy swung his furthest leg out, and pivoted. Right leg firmly placed on the next window ledge, Rein now faced the wall, hugging it. Holding his breath, Rein now had one foot on each sill. Legs spread wide, he was now balancing over the gap between the two windows. “This isn’t so bad.”

Taking a deep breath, Rein pushed up with his left leg, pivoting again until his back was toward the second window again. Sweating, Rein was forced to adjust his weight before continuing. “Just one more. At least the two drones finally shut up...”

Sparing a glance, Rein looked over to the balcony, the larger of the two zombies still lingering. “Huh… looks like the old hag, decided to go….back….inside.”

“Crash!”

A bloody limb busted through the glass between Rein’s legs. Losing focus, Rein quickly spun around and gripped onto the window sill, saving himself from falling, but instead he came face to face with the wild eyes of granny undead as he held on for dear life. Feeling the old woman grab onto his shoulders, Rein realized he was more in danger of being dragged back through the window instead of falling. Helpless, the boy was now worse off than he was earlier. Kicking his legs against the wall, Rein did his best to find some sort of foot hold, but was disappointed. If he couldn’t get some kind of leverage soon, then he was at the mercy of the zombie, now holding him up. Pulling him up slowly, the gray haired lady brought the boy closer to a bloody mouth. Having at least his upper arms free, the boy barley kept himself from being bitten by holding the zombie’s neck. “Fucking damn it!”

Infuriated by the situation, and a little mad at himself for letting things go so far, Rein kicked up against the wall one more time. This time, he started pushing against it. Seeing the black handle, of the crowbar, still sticking out of the zombies head, Rein freed one of his arms and grabbed onto it. Finally getting a little bit of leverage, the teen started pulling the old lady zombie out of the window. Maintaining this momentum, Rein climbed over the top of the zombie, pushing her head down as he went. Barley pulling himself back up, on the window ledge, he stomped down on the back of the zombie, trapping it half way out of the window. Holding on with one arm, and grabbing onto the crowbar with the other, Rein kicked down on the zombie’s head, dislodging it, and half the zombie’s scalp. Pushing the monster the rest of the way out the window, the monster fell.

Hearing a thud, Rein quickly ducked through the window, and back into the building. “Fuck this shit,” He breath heavily. There wasn’t time to rest though, for their was still one zombie loitering around in the apartment. It was most likely on it’s way. Taking in his surroundings, Rein realized he was in the kitchen of the one bedroom apartment. With only a wall separating it from the living room, Rein had a clear view of front door, and the bedroom. Stealthily running across the floor to the bedroom door, Rein could hear the still grumbling zombie on the balcony. It looked like it decided to stay outside after all. Reaching out for the door handle. Rein quietly shut the bedroom door, locking the beast inside.

---

The youth ran back out into the third floor hall. He could now hear a few screams from the other apartments. Some people had entered the hall, and were now running around in a panic. A couple people pushed open the west stairwell door, fleeing from a couple of zombies. Paying no attention to the kid with the blankets, the two women ran into a nearby apartment, sealing themselves inside. They left the stairwell door wide open for more people, and zombies, to flood into the hall. Another scream, from the east stairwell this time, signaled that a few more people had just run across the zombies on that side of the building as well. Things were really getting out of hand now, causing Rein to feel worried. Why was this happening? Running into another apartment for another set of sheets, the teen thought about how differently things were playing out compared to last time.

During his last life, at this time, Rein wasn’t escaping. He was sleeping. That morning the teen had slept through his alarm, failing to get up for school. By the time the teen woke up, most of the residents of the building were already aware of the sudden calamity. After joining together, the residents moved cautiously, taking hours just to connect with the groups from the lower floors. But despite the slow pace, things weren’t nearly as dangerous as things were now. There was no chaos, no panic, no fire alarm...and no giant zombie horde waiting at the bottom of the stairs. This second apocalypse hit this residential building a lot harder this time around.

Was it all because of him? Thinking back over his actions these last couple hours, Rein couldn’t figure out what he did to cause such a deadly butterfly affect. If anything, his actions should of saved more people, not cause a massacre.

Wading through the chaos of zombies, and panicking residents, it was fairly easy to make it to the meet up spot at the end of the hall. For some reason the few zombies in the hall seemed a little too preoccupied with those screaming, and running away, for them to notice he was there. But that didn’t stop him from staying alert. With the other two already in the agreed upon location, Rein saw that the couple had managed to scrounge up another five bed sheets, making more than enough for what the boy had planned. Slipping into the apartment, Rein closed the door behind him before locking it, barricading themselves from the chaos outside. Niomine was already preparing to tie the bed sheets together, aware of what he was planning. Rushing over to help, the teen took the opposite end of the makeshift rope and started to tie a few knots together.

“How far away is your car?” Rein asked the girl.

“It should be parked just around the corner from where we are now. We could run there in about two minutes.” She explained. “What are you gonna do about yours?”

Rein had said he was headed to the parking garage. She assumed it was because he had a vehicle waiting there, but with everything going on, it would be nearly impossible to get to it safely.

“I can’t get to it from inside. So I’ll have to enter through the side door. I’ll fallow you guy’s down, but we’ll split up once we make the corner.” Finishing the rope, the two quickly brought it over to the balcony before tying it to the railing outside. A loud bang could be herd from the front door of the apartment. “Quick!”

Taking the initiative to go first, Niomine skillfully scaled the wall of the building. The lethal beauty lowered herself a few feet before dropping thee rest of the way down into the grass. Making sure the coast is clear, the girl turned back to the balcony she’s just left from. “Common, Takeru! It’s safe.”

Already urged forward by Rein, Takeru carefully lifted his leg over the third floor railing. Another loud bang resonated from the front door again, only this time the door ever so slightly gave way.

“Go!” Just then a final bang echoed as the front door flew open, letting in a large man fallowed by two zombies. Takeru quickly fumbled over the side holding onto the makeshift rope for dear life. The two zombies bit into the fighting man, who retaliated by pushing back against the corpses, and knocking them over. Seeing the dire situation unfolding before him, Takeru tried to reach out for the teen left behind. “Common!”

Just then the bleeding man turned toward the balcony, noticing the two escaping. Wide eyed in a panic, the man rushed toward Rein screaming wildly in a panic. “Out of my way!”

Intending to push the kid aside, the man ran toward the balcony to escape, the zombies struggling to chase after him. Just when he was about to run Rein over, the youth fell to the floor tripping the man. Much like the zombie from earlier, a pair of small feet expertly pivoted the male up and over, the momentum sending the other man head first over the balcony railing. Disoriented, the man fell, narrowly missing Takeru, who was still clinging to the side of the building. A scream, and sickening crunch, came up from below. The man’s head hit the ground snapping his neck, before breaking open, releasing blood and brain matter.

Not wasting his time, the small youth quickly got up from the ground, ready to confront the two zombies still in the apartment. When Rein turned to see how close the two corpses were to reaching him, he was shocked to find that there were now four zombies in the room instead, most likley attracted by the noise. Slamming the balcony door into the face of an approaching corpse, Rein quickly jumped toward the railing. In one fluid motion, the youth rolled over the railing, while grabbing hold of the rope, causing both males to collide into one another. Takeru had yet to descend past the next balcony, when the teenager came tumbling over the side, forcing the older male to lose his grip. Panicking, Takeru unknowingly grabbed onto the only thing withing reach, the small boy that had just flew into him. Unable to hold the extra weight, Rein also let go of the rope. In a mess of limbs the two fell a couple of feet before stopping and bouncing off the wall of the building. It was pretty hard to figure out who had stopped their decent, but it slowed the two just enough to save them from falling to their deaths. Unfortunately the makeshift rope couldn’t hold, as one of the knots slipped. The two then dropped the last few feet, and hit the ground.