David walked over to the large creature that was over 8 feet(~2.4M) tall, it was laying on its stomach, a smoking steel rod was stuck in its head. David looked at the dead ghoul, then looked around at the control room.

 

“I need to secure this place, as best as I can at least.” David muttered.

 

With the Ghoul dead this place would soon have other undead attracted to the carcass. Although he was tired and worn out, he needed to ensure his safety while he took care of looting the wing and butchering the ghoul. David walked to one of the desks he had stood on, and kicked the leg of it a few times until it snapped off.

 

“Alright, I have a club for now.” David muttered. 

 

Walking over to the door that led to the ward he woke up in, he pulled it closed. David then looked at the two hallways that led to the wards he hadn’t been to. He made a note to search the wards later, but for now, he began to slowly make his way towards another ward. It only took him one turn to see another similar door which he also pulled closed. Seeing how the Ghoul had seemed to be able to use the doors, his theory that it had been one of the staff was becoming firmer in his mind.

 

“I will need to check this out later, I also need to see what is in the laundry room.” David muttered.

 

Walking towards the final ward, he saw a similar scene and pulled the door closed.

 

“Alright, let’s see if I can clean this place up.” David muttered.

 

David walked over to the control room, the first thing he did was make his way to the dead ghoul. He grabbed the spear sticking out of the back of its head and pulled it through. The inside of the head was empty, this is where its soul fire would have been if the spear had not dispersed it.  David also turned and looked at all of the assorted bones inside the desks in the middle of the control room. David reached down and grabbed the purse and turned the body over, the light in its eyes had gone out.

 

“Time to find your stone, we already know it isn’t in your head.” David muttered.

 

Using the blade that was fixed to the baton like a knife, he began to cut into its stomach. The moment he did a lot of gore began to fall out, but something shiny caught his attention.

 

“It’s the stone from the Wight, it hasn’t been digested yet!” David said in excitement.

 

David reached into the gore and happily pulled it out before he kept cutting. The magic stone from the Wight was the size of a marble, it also showed signs of corrosion. The stone was a bright white almost bone like that seemed to shine in every single solar of the rainbow-like a pearl.

 

“It’s really cloudy,” David sighed “It looks like the Butcher Ghoul had already digested a lot of it.”

 

David could only use it once or twice, it would not be useful in an enchantment. Remembering the walking corpses near the door of the laundry room, a plan began to form in his mind. These thoughts were interrupted when he found the Butcher Ghoul’s magic stone attached to its liver. This one was three times the size of the first one and it was see-through like a milky white glass. David looked at it and made a note of the rings that could be seen inside the magic stone. It had three rings with the fourth forming, it was about to step into the mid-tier.

 

 “It was just like I thought, I got really lucky.” David sighed in relief.

 

David stabbed the blade back into the ghoul's head, then made his way towards the infirmary he couldn’t loot the other day, he began searching through the various drawers and shelves. He found a lot of different types of pills, he had no idea what most of them were, it was also too dark to read them with the limited light coming through the windows. Opening a bottle he took a sniff and recognized it immediately.

 

“This is rubbing alcohol!” David said happily.

 

David found all kinds of useful items like hydrogen peroxide, different ointments, and a large variety of pills. David took all of these items and placed them inside a blanket that was laying on one of the destroyed debs in the infirmary and moved them with him into the next room. This room was an infirmary with several desks. David walked over and began to check the cabinets and drawers but he did not find anything useful walking over to the desks; the first one he tried was locked.

 

David had the wire that he used as a pick before he made it into a safety for the baton, fishing around he found a paperclip and used it to tension the lock on the desk as he started picking it.

 

“Come on!” David muttered. “Oh you piece of shit, stop resisting.”

 

Click!

 

David smiled as he unlocked the desk, and pulled open the bottom drawer. David’s jaw dropped from what he saw, and he almost started crying.

 

“This was the guy who kept all that snack food, it looks like it was the stuff that didn’t fit in his desk!” David said happily.

 

This desk had three drawers and the owner had carefully sorted it. Beef and protein snacks were kept in the top drawer with can’s in the middle. The final drawer which was the largest was reserved for a large assortment of cookies, brownies, cinnamon buns, honey buns, and various pastries. David never thought he would be so happy to see food like this again, his last roommate had lived almost exclusively off things like this. These looked like things that were all bought from dollar stores and gas stations.

 

David happily added this to the blanket he had filled with things from the infirmary. Walking over to the other desk he began to rifle through the drawers but he could not find anything useful. This desk wasn’t even locked, and it was filled with different types of cables for connecting electronics.

 

“This guy was probably one of the techs.” David muttered.

 

David looked into the hall and saw that there were four more rooms, he knew one was the safe room, one was the break room, and one was the camera room. Walking over to the safe room, he set the bag filled with spoils in the corner. This room had a slightly bigger window, and he emptied the blanket and began going through the rugs.

 

Topical cream!

 

David quickly began to properly clean and bandage his wounds, he felt much better after he finished this. David then decided to make his way to check the last room in the hallway. When he looked through the doorway, what he saw was a collapsed stairway.

 

“Ah, this is how you get upstairs.” David said as he walked forward and looked up the shaft and saw the closed metal door.

 

David realized there was nothing else useful in the area, walking to the collapsed hallway he began to realize that there must have been another passageway that was blocked under the rubble.

 

“If the Laundry room doesn’t have a way out then I will need to find a way to the second floor, or see what state the yard is in and see if I can get through the fence.” David muttered as he made his way back into the safe room. “This whole area must have been sealed, and some undead came in through the yard, probably a Corpse Mother.” 

 

David sighed as he hadn’t found any useful paperwork. Currently, he could hear the walking corpses banging on the furnace through the ducts. David looked at the chair leg in his hand, he began to carefully size it up.

 

“Time to make some new weapons…” David muttered in contemplation.

 

-

 

The Aztecs used to use a club that had obsidian shards fitted into the wood to act like a saw. It was called a Macuahuitl, and David had created his own version of it using the desk leg and the various Butcher’s blades that were stuck in the walls. David had filed slots into it and fit the blades in using adhesive, he had also created several more single-use knives.  Looking down the end of the duct, David decided it was time to take care of the group of zombies down there. Until this area was completely secure he would not be able to rest and start training. 

 

David got on his hands and knees and began crawling into the duct, now that the Ghoul was gone, these walking corpses would be easy to deal with. All he had on him were the knives and some chemicals. Making his way into the metal room below the furnace he reached up and undid the tape he had used to plug the gas line. He then reached up deep inside and began to tightly tie it off.

 

“I don’t want to risk this exploding, or the laundry room will be completely sealed off.” David muttered. 

 

Reaching over to the latch, he undid the tape and metal banding that kept it closed. Looking around the little room he spent his first night in, he didn’t feel any sadness at all.

 

“It was so uncomfortable.” David muttered. Reaching behind him he grabbed the large bottle of alcohol behind him and began to douse the inside of the metal room with it.

 

David began to pound on the furnace to rile up all of the walking corpses around the furnace. David smiled as he heard them start screaming and roaring as they pounded on the furnace harder and more frantically. David grabbed the toolbox and carefully pulled it away from the roof of the furnace, he then turned to start crawling down the duct. A few moments after he started down the duct he heard the door to the furnace creaking open.

 

“Shit! That was too fast!” David muttered in anger, as he grabbed the other bottle of alcohol and started crawling down the duct.

 

David heard a roar and heard the first walking corpse begin scrambling into the metal room under the furnace. He could then hear the sounds of more and more of them start piling in. David suddenly felt a chill and started crawling faster. Just as David reached the end of the duct he felt something reach for his ankle and barely missed. As he began dragging himself out and tossed the empty bottle of ethanol to the side, a rotted hand reached forward and grabbed his ankle, taking a firm hold.

 

“Damn!” David cursed, as he turned and began kicking out with his other leg.

 

David used his arms and began trying to drag himself from the duct, but the hand had a really firm grip. Lashing out with his other leg he felt his heel firmly connect with something, and he was able to pull himself forward a few inches. Just as he pulled his leg back to swing out again he felt something bite into his trapped leg.

 

“Ow fuck!” David roared out as he began driving his heel into its head, finally kicking it off him.

 

Managing to pull his waist out of the hole that was made by the Butcher Ghoul, he turned and grabbed one of the knives he had prepared with an enraged expression. Driving the blade right into the forehead of a walking corpse wearing doctor attire with blood on his face. This was the one who had grabbed hold of him and bit his leg. David then kicked the dead creature back into its fellow undead. Pulling his legs out of the vent, he turned back around and used his finger to begin tracing a symbol on the ground.

 

Flame!

 

He did not need any kind of powerful rune this time, flame was something that anyone could cast and had a very low cost. It was mainly used to light fireplaces on Edea. What David did not expect was that most of the alcohol he had been pouring had already evaporated, as well as the gas he had spilled while tying off the gas line. This meant that the fire he had expected to consume the walking corpses that were following him did not happen, instead, he created an explosion.

 

Booom!

 

Fire, heat, and pressure were fired out both sides of the duct, and David heard the various grates along the way go flying off from the pressure. The explosion sent a wave of pressure that launched David out of the room and into the hallway. He was covered in smoke and was coughing violently. Looking around he felt his vision was shaking, and he could hear ringing. David made his way back into the safe room and saw thick black smoke coming out of the duct. Grabbing the club he crafted, he peeked into the tunnel but had to pull his head back.

 

Cough! Cough! Cough!

 

David could feel his throat tightening and was forced to start digging through the wreckage for his inhaler. Just as he grabbed it he heard roars coming from the hallway. These were roars and sounded like they came from walking corpses.

 

Did that blast clear the rubble?!

 

David found his inhaler and took a puff to relax his throat. Standing up he grabbed the club and got shakily to his legs. The growls and groans of the corpses were loud, even with the ringing in his ears. David made his way into the hallway, holding the grip of his club, he was forced to limp slightly on the leg that had been bitten. Looking towards the end he saw a corpse that was walking with a gait. 

 

It got the fuel line…

 

The corpse was on fire, it wasn’t even paying attention to David. Taking a firm grip on the handle of his club he swung it like a sword. All of the Butcher’s blades were positioned into a line, and he had filed the wood down to be thinner like a sword.  The blade bit into the neck of the walking corpse, and tore through it, sending the flaming head flying. David stepped forward and saw another flaming corpse coming from down the hallway. 

 

“Damnit, I started a fire! I need to move quickly!” David told himself, as he swung the bladed club again and killed another walking corpse.

 

Making quick work of the four other corpses that survived the blast, he looked at the thick smoke coming out of the furnace. The section of the hallway that the Butcher Ghoul had been clearing was blasted open by the pressure. Looking around the furnace, he could see that flames had erupted through the entire hallway, even the window by the laundry room was blackened slightly. Walking forward over the remains of the corpses that once filled the hallway, he stopped and looked out of the window. Looking out the window he could see the airfield, and what he saw was not a welcome sight.

 

“There are thousands of them out there… no wonder there was a Wight and a Butcher Ghoul in here.” David muttered as he saw all of the corpses shambling around.

 

A large group of them were being drawn to the building he was in due to the smoke and the sound. David sighed out in anger as he realized just how bad his situation was.

 

“This place did fall, that means Peterson and NORAD will be gone as well.” David said in anger. “Colorado Springs had almost half a million people in it, I need to get out of this area.”

 

David felt exasperated as he saw all of the undead shambling around outside, he then turned and approached the laundry room door. Grabbing the handle he felt that it was locked, and it wasn’t a very difficult one either. Kneeling, he pulled out the pick and tension tool and got to work. In less than a minute he had it unlocked and stood back up as he took up his club. Pushing the door open with the tip of the club, a small bit of light was coming in from a window.

 

“It stinks!” David muttered.

 

On both sides of the walls were washers and dryers, In the center were also more machines for processing laundry. The floor was wet, and he could smell sewage. On the other side of the room, he saw a large, dirty pile of laundry.

 

Is that a head?

 

David stepped forward as he thought he could see blonde hair. Walking over to the clothes, he used his clothes to lift the laundry and revealed an incredibly emaciated female body wearing scrubs.

 

Is she dead?

 

David reached forward with his foot and gave her a few shoves, he was worried her eyes would open and show soul fire. David crouched down next to the emaciated body, and reached down for her face, he was going to check her eyes.