The red door in front of him which barred the entrance into the building, which was entirely made out of steel, looked incredibly sturdy.

In fact, it looked so durable that Danny thought hardly any zombie would be able to brute force it open. No amount of scratches or pounding would be able to wreck this solid metal obstruction.

Even so, despite its sturdiness, turtling behind the door was not exactly safe either as it was not particularly difficult to open it the regular way, even for a zombie.

The metal door looked exactly like one of those emergency exits you could find anywhere. There was a simple panic push bar attached to it that would open the door with just a little bit of pressure applied to the bar.

It would not be surprising then, if a zombie managed to open it by chance or by simply bumping into it repeatedly.

‘I wonder if that’s how those two got here in the first place.’ Danny thought silently while looking back to his latest kills.

Therefore, even if there were no enemies on sight, Danny was not entirely safe at the building’s roof. At any time, more zombies could come rushing out of that door, scrambling to get to him.

If, by some reason, Danny alerted the horde of zombies waiting on the ground floor to his presence, triggering them to chase after him, then there was a good chance that they would manage to get all the way to the roof and through the emergency exit.

Since that was the case, he could not afford to wait. He needed to start moving and proactively cull their numbers while he had the element of surprise on his side.

Whilst most of the massive horde of undead was still unaware of his presence, Danny wanted to find a secure location inside the building to fall back to in case things turned sour.

He also wanted to find a choke point or a decent enough place to battle the unstoppable waves of zombies. Somewhere that would allow him to make the most of his strengths while mitigating his weaknesses and disadvantages.

Just like the 300 of Sparta against the thousands of Persians, Danny needed to become a rock in the path of a sea of enemies. He needed to be an immovable obstacle that blocked their way and forced them to fight him with smaller groups at a time instead of instantly overwhelming him with their massive numbers.

The key to victory this time around was to impose his own terms in the following battles and pressure his enemies into adhering to them.

Placing his ear against the door, Danny patiently waited, listening to see if he could identify any enemies on the other side.

Sadly however, his attempt at scouting proved to be fruitless, as he failed to discern any sounds coming from the other side. Be it because the door was too thick, or because there simply wasn’t anything there, the only way to know for sure was to open the door and see for himself what awaited him behind it.

Picking up his hammer from its holster on his belt, Danny twirled it a couple of times in his hand, seeking comfort in the weighty feel of his tried and tested weapon while his other hand rested atop the push bar, waiting to open this pandora box and see what horrors lied within.

Then, Danny took a deep breath to ready himself before lightly pushing the panic bar and opening the door.

The creaking noise the door incessantly released as it was progressively and slowly opened sounded terribly loud in his ears, even if in reality it was not that noisy.

It was just like when you arrive at your own home in the middle of the night, trying your best to make as little noise as possible to avoid waking up any other residents of the place while moving around.

No matter how much you try, every step you take, every door you open, every single action you make sounds deafening to your own ears.

That does not mean that you are actually being noisier than usual, or that the house itself is conspiring against you to make as much of a commotion as possible. It is just that you are much more conscious of any sounds around you, making them appear louder than they actually are.

An illusion brought forth by your state of mind.

Not that understanding this truth brough any comfort to Danny in any case.

After opening the door just a sliver, Danny waited with bated breath to be suddenly swarmed by zombies. Waiting motionlessly there and listening to any possible commotion coming from within the building that his actions might have invertedly caused.

However, as the seconds passed, no enemies presented themselves. It appeared that either there were no zombies on the other side of the door or they had failed to notice Danny.

He could not tell which case was true though, since the area behind the doorway was completely dark, impairing his vision and preventing him from garnering any further details.

The only thing that Danny could make out from the pitch-black darkness, was that there were stairs leading downwards in there. The room appeared to be an emergency stairwell that connected to all of the building’s floors, allowing any of its occupants to hastily leave the premises in case of an emergency.

… not that it had made much difference to the former living residents of this place. They were wiped out all the same.

Normally, this kind of emergency exit would be lined with lights that were powered by a dedicated generator in case there was an electricity shortage, however, it was no surprise for Danny that those lights failed to turn on.

By now, any power sources or countermeasures the building had in place to deal with such scenarios must have run out of fuel for a long time already.

It had been weeks since human society had devolved into chaos, and quite some time ever since the survivors that dwelled here were hopelessly killed off. Without anyone left to resupply whatever emergency generators there were with fuel, the machines simply stopped working after a while.

Unable to see more than a couple meters ahead of him, Danny gently started to close the door once more, cursing silently in his head its loud groaning and creaking all the while, before finally shutting it closed.

He then dropped his backpack on the roof’s floor and begun rummaging its contents. If he wanted to explore the confines of the building, then he had to do something about the overwhelming darkness first.

Fortunately, he had come prepared.

Soon after he started going through his bag’s contents, Danny found what he was looking for – a shoulder-mounted flashlight. It had been good thinking on his part to grab this piece of gear at Hank’s settlement warehouse when he traded his goods. Now, the crippling darkness that awaited him would not hinder his progress as much.

After attaching the device to his left shoulder, Danny tested it to make sure it worked properly, turning it on and off and moving his arm wildly to see if it would not suddenly fall off mid-combat.

Satisfied with the results, Danny opened the red door once more and went inside.

Once the door closed behind him, it was as if he had entered another world. The sound insulation of the place was very good. Danny could hardly hear the rain falling outside from the inside of the stairwell.

Now that he was isolated from the outside world, Danny could faintly hear shuffling and groaning coming from down below. It seemed that he was not the only one in there.

Fortunately, his enemies appeared to be at the very bottom of the stairs, which allowed Danny to enter the room unnoticed. His improved hearing also granted a small advantage over his enemies as he had detected them while still hidden.

Even so, Danny knew he would not be able to silently kill his opponents without fighting them.

It was impossible to sneak up all the way to his foes without alerting them, as any moves he made, and any steps he took, would echo through the enclosed area. The closer he got to the bottom of the stairwell, the easier it would be for the undead that dwelt there to notice him.

Aware that a fight was unavoidable, Danny started making his way down carefully and methodically. Shortening the distance between himself and his opponents, while cautiously measuring his steps.

The uneven footing of the stairs would make the battle harder for him, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Traditionally, any battles fought in uneven terrain would favor the party who stood at the higher ground – in this case, Danny.

That was because the higher ground would make it easier for anyone standing there to strike their opponents left at a lower position on the head – a weak point of any human. Of most living beings on Earth, in fact, as they would most likely be downed after a sufficiently strong blow to the head.

In addition to that, anyone fighting from a lower height would be more encumbered and would tire faster, as gravity itself would work against them. Unleashing attacks, defending and even moving was way harder from down-up than the other way around, making it more draining in terms of stamina to combat a higher positioned foe.

On top of that, fighting against gravity would mean that your strikes would be weaker than normal, while the strikes of your opponent would be stronger, making it a double disadvantage.

However, all those advantages previously mentioned were negligible when fighting the undead.

They felt neither fatigue nor pain, so it was pointless to consider stamina when talking about them. At the same time, the zombies never defended themselves, so it made little difference whether or not hitting them on the head was easier.

For Danny, who already had tons of practice on fighting the undead and could reliably control where his strikes landed, the benefit brought by the terrain elevation was trifling at best. If anything, the uneven footing might even get in the way of delivering his blows as intended, given that it added an extra element of unpredictability to the fight.

On the other hand, the downsides of fighting in such a place were significant.

The irregular ground made it considerably harder for Danny to dodge any incoming attacks without tripping or outright falling down. That was incredibly detrimental to him, given that much of his combat style hinged on his ability to dodge his slower enemies.

In fact, in most of his battles against zombies so far, Danny was hardly even touched by his undead enemies before they got killed. Normally, Danny would dance around his clumsy opponents, avoiding their flailing arms and reckless lunges, and ultimately strike them where it mattered before they could even put-up a fight.

However, it would be hard to deal with them the same way he was used to this time around.

The limited range of movement he would have when fighting there, as well as the high risk of missing a step when moving too much and the terrible consequences that would follow losing his balance or tripping down, meant that Danny would be forced to deal with any zombies he encountered in the stairwell head on.

There was no two ways about it. He would have to abandon his usual hit and run strategy in favor of a more straightforward approach. After all, jumping around the stairs, and in a such poorly illuminated location to top it off, was a sure recipe for disaster.

He could only place his trust on his newly bought armor to tank any hits that the zombies manage to get past his guard while trying to put his enemies down as quickly as possible.

Thinking like that, Danny went down the stairs, his steps echoing through the room as his feet touched the concrete floor.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap*

It did not take long after he started making his way down for the prowling creatures at the ground floor to take notice of him. With primal growls and threatening snarls, the zombies that lied there started rushing upwards from down below.