Drew was the first one running up the stairs once shit has truly hit the fan, he went up the stairs up as quickly as possible, reaching the third floor before anybody else could even get past the stairwell door. He held onto to his crowbar once he heard more screaming and gun shots coming from below. As he reached the fourth floor he started to catch his breath, why did this building have so many floors?

Drew slumped against the wall of the stairwell which gave him a good look of the next floor and the floor below him so he won't be caught off guard if any of those zombies start lumbering towards him. After a few moments of waiting and listening to the people several floors below him panic and barking orders at each other, Drew pulled out his cellphone, nothing still. Drew sighed, He stood back up and started slowly going up the stairs, only a few more floors and he'll be on his floor, where he can barricade and hideaway long enough for things to blow over enough for him to sneak out of the apartment. He armed his crowbar and put it in front of him as he walked, so he can protect himself if a zombie jumps out of a corner or jumps out of one of the rooms.

All characters still in the lobby, particularly Nicholas Greyson.

Nicholas Grayeson's rifle rang like a dinner bell, its powerful .223 rounds tearing into the flesh of the dead, shattering their knees and sending them sprawling to the ground. The shots echoed across the streets beyond the apartment building, contesting the airwaves with weapons of similar design for dominance.

Scores of infected, stumbling around without purpose, suddenly froze. Their gore stained features looked over towards the apartment building, and though they couldn't smell the living from where they were, their rapidly evolving ear drums focused on the faint sounds of the healthy, yelling at each other as they fought to establish some kind of order.

As one, the body of infected started to head towards the apartment building, but a dozen of them - Stage Twos - sprinted forwards in a disorganised, blood crazed charge. They shrieked, screaming bloody murder with virus-laden lungs. They came from all walks of life; some had been lawyers, some had been cops, others were soccer moms and cab drivers. In death however, all were united by a singular purpose, their past lives now a blurry foot note in their primitive, undead minds.

The sprinters ascended the steps, and launched themselves into the lobby. A spatter of gunfire knocked a few of them to the ground, but the remaining nine eyed their prey with dull, lifeless eyes. Their dimmed vision focused on Nicholas, seeing him with a kind of tunnel vision. As one, they advanced, jumping sofas, pot plants and coffee tables to get to him.

Behind them, a hundred paces away, forty of their slower, lesser developed brothers started to ascend the steps up towards the lobby.



Madison Ripley

Jay had been a Labrador in his living existence, a faithful beast to his loving mistress, the old crone Jodey Gillingham - the building's miserable, old cow of a woman. However, a few days previous, he had the misfortune of coming into contact with a rather aggressive homeless man, who had attempted to mug Jodey whilst she was out on her moning walk. Jay was a good dog, strong and vicious for a Labrador, and he fought back the aggressor. The vagrant had bit him though, and Jay had howled like a frenzied wolf at the time, but thanks to his bravery, he and his mistress escaped.

None of that meant anything to him, not any more. Jodey was a skeleton, clad in a crimson jelly - Jay's final farewell to her, when he turned. He'd been locked in her apartment for three days, unable to bark thanks to his dead soft tissue, but able to hiss, not unlike a snake. He could smell the healthy beyond the door, and he could almost taste their scent. However, the door posed a serious problem to a creature of Jay's limitations.

Or rather, it did, until the virus mutated, thickening his skull by an inch.

The sound of people screaming, the racket of gun fire, broke Jay into a frenzy. He threw himself at the door, as he had done several times over the past few days, but where he normally bounced back, this time the wood splintered. Again, and again, Jay repeated his desperate attempts to break free of his prison and to appease his appetite. Eventually, the door gave way, and he crashed through into the hall beyond.

Immediately he was in the midst of a surging tide of the healthy, half of them painfully oblivious to him, the other half painfully aware. A woman shrieked as Jay jumped up, chomping at her neck and landing on the floor with a lump of her throat in his mouth. Then he turned, just as a middle-aged man with frizzy hair tried to beat him away with an old fashioned cane. Jay was most displeased, he lunged at the man's leg, and took a lump from it.

The exodus from the lobby turned into a stampede, as those who were beyond Jay's reach continued to flee upwards, whilst those who stood in front of him started backing back down the stairs. Jay eyed a particularly flamboyant healthy, carrying an axe. She was screaming at those around her, tryign to urge them on, not realising why they were stalling. Jay galloped forwards, like a miniature horse, before leaping at his prey.

Madison Ripley just about caught a glimpse of Jay, as he sailed through air towards her at heart-stopping speed, his once black coat a motley quilt of red and white.

Wright started to push people up the stairs when the priest called for him. Coming down, he saw the marine. Oh great, one of those hotheads. He distinctly recalled the line of national guard going down before the final line rested with - or more accurately, charged at - his division. There were some marines in there, too, and this guy had all the lookings of creating the same problems.

His fears were confirmed when the marine-armored guy started shooting zombies with high level weapons, the noise echoing painfully in his ears. He seemed to be drawing more monsters than killing them, and the situation behind him had become so chaotic that he had to move behind a desk to get any sort of peace. He was elbowed on his way there; right in the spot where his chest had hit the steering wheel.

With a hand on his chest and a crowbar in the other, he yelled at the marine. “Put a silencer on that thing or get a crowbar, now we have more problems to worry about!” His Glock had 8 rounds left, and he would only use them if the lobby was getting too overwhelmed. As it was, there were zombies charging in, one of them making a disgusting snorting sound. He was able to send that one falling flat with his crowbar, but couldn’t reach the other four charging right at the marine, not to mention others behind those, and the horde going up the stairs. “If you have a grenade, we might need it now!” he yelled.

He had missed the baby minecraft zombie zombie dog that was flying at the firefighter’s face, still watching the worsening front.

A couple hours ago at his job place

The usual sounds of the busy streets were outmatched by the music coming from the radio next to Aadan. The sounds of the cash register as it crashed open and he put in the cash. "Here you go. Twenty dollars and fifty-six cents, sir." he said as he was given a nod by the man and he soon left the store. He left his position at the counter to check on the shelves in the candy aisle, that aisle was always in a big mess. Teenagers and young children also came to the store often than adults as it was nearby one of the schools.

After he got the aisle to look good enough, he suddenly heard screams and running coming from the downtown area. Aadan walked back to his counter fast and checked the counters for the gun, that his boss got for the protection of the store. He looked at his gun for a second as he heard more screaming and an explosion, all coming from downtown. The owner of the store, his boss, came out of the backdoor with a shocked and confused look on his face. "What's going?" he questioned as he walked towards the register and looked at the windows with Aadan.

"I am hearing screaming and I just heard an explosion a couple seconds ago." Aadan said as he was still hearing screaming now he heard police sirens and gunshots. Well, the outbreak finally reached to the city. He knew that this day was coming, he just didn't want the day to come. The music suddenly stopped and the sounds of the emergency broadcast started up. "Oh no." the owner said he opened the register and then reached for his gun in his back pocket. Aadan looked confused at him as the owner was doing that. What was he doing? Why was he doing that?

Suddenly, the screaming were closer to the store and the owner said to Aadan, "Listen to me, grab the money and get out of here." Aadan looked confused once again as he said take the money. "Why?" the only word that Aadan could of thought to this mess as the screaming and the gunshots were getting closer. "Because, I am your boss!" the owner shouted once more as he walked towards his room and turned to Aadan once more and said, "Go back home and hide. I am such that the government will come for us."

A faint promise to tell, but it gave the owner some sense of hope. "Thank you sir for doing this. Stay safe." Aadan said as he got the money and put them all into his pockets and ran towards the door. With his gun, he knew that he could shoot someone if that person came any closer and he opened the door and saw the chaos that was happening.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Present time

Aadan couldn't go to the lobby as he was still recovering from the events that happened just a couple hours ago. The gun was next to him as he sat on the bed and looked at the window of his apartment room. Then, he grabbed the blinds and moved them to cover the window. Aadan knew that he didn't need to see the shit outside. Once more with his gun, he got up and grabbed it as he put it in his back pocket. He walked to the door and opened as he walked out of his home and into the hallway. He was finally going to the lobby as he began to walk for the stairs, but then he heard glass breaking and then screaming.

Aadan frozen in place as he realized that the inflected were in the lobby. Oh God, the people in the lobby. he thought as looked at the doors that led to the stairs. Aadan then ran back to his room in hopes of avoiding the inflected. Once in his room, he closed the door and locked it to make such that none was going to get in. Of course, it wasn't enough, according to Aadan as he moved his nightstand in front of the door. He got his gun from the back of his pocket and aimed it at the door, waiting for anyone to enter his room.

John didn't want to screw the man's aim up, but he recognized the need to go. Talking in the soldier's ear, he said, "We need to back up the stairs!" Glancing up, he saw that they were on the second flight of stairs between the ground and second floor. "We can back away, and block off the stairwell!" Swinging his cross as a sprinting infected reached him, the satisfying crunch made the priest's face a little more calm. He had to appear brave, and calm, for his flock. God would provide. The now-lifeless corpse dropped to the ground in front of him, and twitched before stilling. The Sargent had also taken one out, but there were still quite a few still after the marine. Suddenly, a shrieking noise came from upstairs, and several shrill shouts, and terrified screams followed. Looking at Erik, he said, "I'll go see what happened! You stay safe down here!", and to the marine, "Remember, come back up and barricade the stairwell!"

Taking the stairs three at a time, John's grip on the cross hadn't wavered since the first infected came through the front window. When the crowd saw him approach, they parted like water, and started babbling about a demon dog, Old Man Jackson getting hurt, and a woman getting totally eviscerated. As he reached the second floor, he saw a rotten-looking dog leaping at a firewoman, who was holding a dull axe. Leaping into action, he swung the cross, halting the dog's forward movement, but not much else. Looking at the firewoman, he said, "Stay on your toes." As the dog writhed on the ground for a fraction of a second, attempting to regain its footing, John turned to the running people, going back down the stairwell, and said, "Run! Go to the third floor!" Looking back at the dog, and hearing the gunfire and ghoulish screeches downstairs, he said something to the firewoman that most anyone would be surprised hearing come from a priest. "Let's fuck this bitch up!"

The bloody police officer mentioned something about a silencer and having grenades, but he paid no attention to that as he had none.

The holy priest murmured something about helping him, but Nicholas heard his footsteps as the priest eventually ran upstairs to help make the movement safer and faster.

A passing girl watched him before when he killed the others, making mental notes Grayeson suspected about him.

The foreign photographer said something off-hand about his comment to the priest for “securing” the lobby, but Nicholas knew he would understand soon enough.

Everything started slowing down as Nicholas returned his attention to what was unfolding before him. After those initial bursts of gunfire, he noticed more rampant movement outside and coming towards the apartment building. Knowing the situation was getting dire, he dropped to a knee and steadied his aim before sending some lead down range to appearing creatures. These were slightly faster than the child he recently put down; but he knew the gunfire would draw more of them soon. Watching the bodies of the deceased fall back as they were sailing into the air, he immediately stood up and started back pedaling up the stairs. His rifle still trailed down range to the oncoming onslaught till he bumped into someone; causing him to release the rifle and draw his sidearm to whoever/whatever he bumped into. Seeing it was just a scared, old man who was having trouble going up the stairs; Grayeson turned back to the front and kept an eye on the slow-moving horde.

“Get the old man upstairs officer, I’ll barricade the stairwell with whatever I can manage to use.” Nicholas quickly ordered, calmly yet firmly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of two long benches that could slow down the creatures. Returning his sidearm to its holster, he grabbed ahold of the bench and dragged it across the pathway of the stairs. Quickly following up with the other and stacking on top of the other, Nicholas started back pedaling with his rifle back in his hands. When he bumped back into the old man, he made a note to stop for a moment to take another knee. Rifle trailing back down the winding staircase, he started utilizing his situational awareness to what else could be utilized as a barricade. A small statue carved from stone to his right seemed like the next obvious choice. Lowering his rifle, he quickly but carefully lowered the statue to the steps and rolled it into the benches. Watching it roll right into place, securing the benches a bit tighter; he kept his “eyes” searching for anything else of use. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught glimmers of flashes from far off explosions in the city, popping in quick flashbacks of wartime at night. When he finally snapped back into “reality,” since he thought it was all still a dream; he slowly started backing up the stairs. The sounds of screams and a loud crash erupted from above, causing his eyes to raise upwards for a moment then back to the stairs below him.

“What the hell is going on up there?” he asked himself.

Madison Ripley

---

With another push, Madison directed a young teenage couple toward the end of the hall, where the stairs to the upper floors were. She waved, feeling slightly pleased as the crowd began to surge faster, freeing up more space for her to direct the people. Maybe her coming out wasn't a bad idea, her skills letting her help get these innocent people to safety.

Her gibbering laugh and stuttering voice were hidden beneath the uproar of the crowd. So loud in the hallway that she barely even heard the splintering of the door further on down the hall, accompanied by the screams of panic. She held her axe at her side, hand gripping just below its head, as she continued to wave and direct people. She almost didn't notice when Jay, the dog owned by Jodey from a few doors down, leapt at her like a beast from a horror story. The flash of red and white in the corner of her vision, whether or not she screamed, was upon her in an instant.

She should have stayed inside. Inside was safe and not filled with scared people and rabid canines.

A flash of gold from her other side quickly swatted the dog to the floor, and succeeded in almost giving her a heart-attack. An older man stood beside her, yelling at the others around as well as her. She could only nod, fear snatching away her voice. Her gaze went from crazed to steely as the dog leapt at her again. In a reactionary movement, her other hand went to the haft of her axe, bringing it up in front of her horizontally. The dog's jaw went high, aiming for her throat, but it was stopped short. Madison struggled with it, her labor-honed muscles working hard to keep the slobbering beast at bay.

It took a few moments for her to attempt to twist the dog to the floor, axe handle now at its neck to keep its terrible jaws away from her. Panic began to grip at her heart as she did the only thing she could think of. She raised her boot clad foot, leaned forward and brought the boot back down towards its chest, putting her weight behind it as much as her balance allowed. The first stomp returned a series of cracks that made her stomach turn.

"BAD." Stomp. "BAD DOG." Crunch. "DOWN." Squelch. "DOWN, BOY." Snap.

Lucy's room
Three Towers Apartment Complex

Lucy was in her room, designing away at her computer, her hand deftly controlling the stylus as it roamed around the tablet. She had a glass bottle of Coca-cola beside her, and pleasant and relaxing classical music playing in the background from her radio. She was drawing away, coming up with concept arts for a particular project. Taking occasional swigs from the bottle of cola, she half-listened to the soothing music played in the background, with her television on, despite her not watching any programme. She found that a combination of both helped her mind to relax as well as to concentrate, enabling her to focus on the task at hand.

The regular soap opera that was showing at same time every day was interrupted by an emergency news broadcast. That caught her attention. Swivelling around on her chair, she navigated its wheels closer towards the TV. The news broadcast was going on about some virus outbreak affecting the entire world. Scenes filtered between continents around the world, from Asia to Europe. The reporter had also mentioned that the dead were returning as the living dead, and Lucy could sense the fear and panic in his voice.

A loud commotion which seemed to be coming from the directions stairwells grabbed her attention. She could hear people shouting and talking in raised voices through her door. The voices were then accompanied by bursts of cracking gun shots. Curious by what the commotion could be about, she grabbed her aluminium baseball bat resting by her bedside, and open the door, peering out.

The noises she heard while she was in her room were not amplified several times, and it seemed the entire apartment complex had degenerated into chaos. She walked down the stairs, peering down as she looked onto the commotion happening below. When she reached the main area where the rest of the surviving building occupants were, she gripped her bat firmly as she studied the mayhem.

The dead had indeed risen and were fighting back.

Present Time, Three Towers Apartment Complex, Second Floor Hallway

Alas, Timothy had promptly been ignored and more bullets had been fired. That was a very intelligent course of action; attracting zombies AND sending everyone into a panic. It was so brilliant that it blew his mind. Though he was thinking this, he had been among the first to run up the stairs the moment that 'soldier' began spraying his bullets.

Which of course led him to this situation. Since he was at the front, he had been among those who made it pass what seemed to be a zombie dog. That was very fortunate of course because otherwise it could have been him instead of a man he recognized as his neighbour three rooms down and a random woman from the church.

It wasn't as if he wanted to stay and watch the scene but at the same time continuing up the stairs meant leaving the main crowd and something like this could happen in the upper floors except with much less people around. He was NOT doing that. And didn't someone say they had to barricade the second floor?

Anyway, he could've swore the dog was Jay. No, he was confident as he had played with the dog several times.

Thankfully though, now it was dead... or deader thanks to the firewoman crushing it over and over with her boots. Oh god that was disgusting.

"Madison! I think he's down already," said Timothy. He had met the firewoman several times in the lobby before and caught her name through some small talk. "We should start barricading the stairway with stuff from the rooms!"

Three Towers Apartment Complex, Stairwell to Second Floor Hallway

Things just got from bad to worse. Apparently, she began to reconsider her prior approval for more weapons on the healthy side - because obviously it attracts even more deathly freaks to the party. With what seems to be a 'horde', perhaps an overstatement - but it seemed fitting, of zombies as if frenzied from days of hunger now blindly charging towards Sue's general direction, it was perhaps time that Sue made use of her legs.

Heck, it -is- time to leg it.

She turned away from the two who were ecstatically holding the line and began making her way upwards. Now that the crowd has began to lessen, she swiftly cramped herself into the tail of the frenzied tenants. Screams were even more rampant at this point, with murmurs of what seemed to be Jay mauling the tenants were audible even from the ground floor.

Jay, the large and lovable Labrador - the canine companion of whom Sue intimately refers to as 'Auntie Jodey'. Auntie, being a term from where she grew up with in her time in Southeast Asia, is commonly used to refer to older female acquaintances, regardless of blood relations as a sign of respect.

Now, Sue remembered how Auntie Jodie helped her around when she was still blindly trying to accustom herself to the American way of life. Not to mention that Jay was ever so approachable and fun to play with. She cherished their time together. But now that screams of tenants about the rampaging Labrador nearly brought her disbelief. She had to see it for herself.

Sue then pushed and shoved, just the rest of the other tenants as she raced upwards. However her 'objectives' were slightly different - in that she wanted to know what had happened to good ol' Jay.

And as she arrived to the scene panting from the effort of climbing, a beastly creature that barely resembled the once lovable canine was seen leaping in midair - right towards a firewoman who seemed a little too distracted to notice. It was when what seems to be a flash of black that dashed in between and unleashed a downward strike with all his might - the beastly creature's attempt to strike was foiled. The priest had taken action just in the nick of time.

A visceral strike indeed, as the thump of the beast when he landed on the ground was audible almost equal to the gunfire downstairs. To which the firewoman soon regained her senses and countered another quick attempt by Jay. This time however, it ended gruesomely with the firewoman's victory.

Sue imagined that she could handle the gore, but with what was left of Jay thanks to the relentless stomps of the firewoman sent shivers down her spine. In fact, she almost puked with the putrid smell now wafting from the grisly canine corpse. Looking away trying to keep her mind distracted, she noted that one of the tenants suggested to start blockading the stairwell.

Sue needed some air with what she had just witnessed. Apparently the proximity of things really mattered. The mauling of the poor woman in the lobby did not affect her much due to the relative distance and that the woman still resembled a human - but with what she has witnessed up close accompanied by the gory remains of Jay...The air became stuffy - to which she thought it would be a better idea to stay away from the crowd at this point.

"I-I could help..." Sue spoke up with her right arm raised while the other cupping her mouth, as she volunteered to aid in the effort. In fact, she just wanted to get a breather.

After barricading the door, Aadan looked at the door as he heard more screaming coming from the lobby. Gunshots also rang out loud as the roars of the inflected were many. He kept looking at the door until he sighed in disbelief that this apartment—his home—was getting overrun by the inflected. The choice of sitting here until he became one of them or go out of his room and try to find a way to help save his home. He walked to the door and started to move the bookshelf away from the door until he heard braking sounds.

That must be the dog, that one of the tenants had. Aadan had forgot the name of it as he wasn't around the apartment much, because of work and college. Then, he heard sounds of a woman yelling at something as sounds of crushing were coming from outside. The dog must of been inflected and the woman in question killed it. After that tasteful event, he then heard a man's voice said to the woman that it was 'down already' and said that they need to barricade the stairway. The doubt was now in surface as he didn't want to go out there and get bitten; but, he wanted to save his home.

So with his gun in his right hand, he slowly unlocked the door with his left. He grabbed onto the knob and slowly twisted it as he heard another girl's voice saying that she wanted to help. And then, he opened the door and walked towards the group of people. He saw a firefighter, an Asian woman, and a white guy as he exited out of his room. Aadan looked around at the group and said to them, "I heard that you need something to barricade the stairway. My room is unlocked and there has to be something that can be used to barricade it with."

He sighed as he looked at the dead dog and said to the group, "Since I got a gun on me, I will be the lookout. In case, any infected animals decide to attack us."

Aaden

As Jay's skull was crushed under the impressive force of Madison's fireboots, all eyes fell upon the broken body of the turned animal. So many questions! The news had skimped over the issue of animal infection, and this certainly put a new perspective on things. More gun fire below added to the building tension, but it was also enough to restart the upwards exodus of Three Tower's residents.

Aaden left his apartment with the best of intentions, to lend his assistance to his beleaguered neighbours. Unfortuantely, Aaden hadn't been present when Jay had ripped a woman's throat from her neck. As Madison and John put the animal down, they too had forgotten the peril.

With a ryhtmic spasm and a gasp, Elaine Fletcher, a 29 year old elementary school teacher, opened her glassy eyes. Aaden's leg was close at hand, and Elaine grabbed it with an ironclad grip. Her jaw opened, and congealing blood from her neck wound sloshed out onto Aaden's feet as she went for a fatal bite.

The Lobby

The Stage One infected poured into the lobby like a celebrating football team back late from the local bar. They stumbled and staggered, tripping over themselves as they surged towards the stairs. They could both smell and hear their prey, and their excitement drove them against the benches. Frustrated, they pushed against them, groaning in dismay that their meal should be withheld. The benches creaked and buckled under their weight, and the statue wobbled with each convulsing shove of the dead. It would not hold for long.

Outside of the apartment building, more of the infected were coming, brought forth by the continuing gun fire. They numbered a hundred, slinking out of every dark corner the night had to offer. Most of them were stage ones, but a few stage twos broke from the masses, intent on being the first ones to savour the impending meal.

As he waited for a reply for the group outside his room, he felt something grabbing his right left. He looked down and saw an inflected lady that was going to bite his leg. Then, time seemed like to stop as he realized that the inflected lady was going to bite his leg. Should he let the lady bit him and basically kill him or try to fight in this new world? He made his choice as he gripped his gun and aimed for the lady's head. As he was ready to fire, he let out a hellish scream and got ready to pull the trigger.

"FUCK~!" he shouted that word out loud as he pulled the trigger. She soon let go of his leg as the bullet entered her head. The blood from her head went all over Aadan's clothes, from his pants to his shirt. It was covered in blood, not a whole lot of blood; but, it was noticeable enough to ask questions. He was breathing heavily as he began to walk backwards away from the lady. Plus, his ears were still ringing from the gunshot. Questions began to surfaced his mind as wanted to know how did she got into the hallway? Why was she inflected? Is there more inflected in the apartment? So many questions that would have to wait as he saw the lady moaning, stating that she was still alive.

The smell was horrible as he felt like he was going to throw up, but he held the smell and looked at the body. He didn't want to waste his bullet on the lady and dropped his gun as he saw the golden cross. It was nearby the dog as it looked like it didn't have any blood on it. He wasn't such that he could use it without getting disgusting looks on his face from the other people. But, he didn't care because that wasn't a kind young lady anymore. It was a fucking zombie that's willing to eat anyone.

He walked towards the cross and grabbed it as the lady was crawling towards him, still moaning. Then, he kneel down and held onto his cross. One hit only. That should end her life. As she was coming closer, he gripped onto the cross and whispered under his breath before he slammed the cross into her head.

Lord, please forgive me for doing this.

After he was done, he immediately slammed the cross onto the lady's head. Only one good hit was needed to kill the lady for good. Of course, his eyes were close so he wouldn't have any doubts about not doing it and he wouldn't have to see the blood coming towards his face. He felt the blood touch his face as he felt disgusted with his self for doing this. But, he didn't want to draw any more attention than there has to be with the gunshots coming from the lobby. Aadan got back on his feet as he opened his eyes and saw the now dead lady. He backed away from the body and turned to the group as he said to them, "Give me a minute to process this. Then, I will be on my guard to protect you guys."

He sounded like he was going to collapse onto the ground and break down, but he held his emotions as he talked towards the group. He said that he was going to be in his room and think of what he did. Then, he opened the door and walked to his couch and sat on it as he was thinking of what just happened. Soon he sat down, he covered his bloody face with his hands and sighed heavily. Aadan wondered why he came out of his room and help, but now he can't back down and he killed his first zombie.

Aadan knew that it was going to be a difficult road to get used to killing the inflected and making harsh decisions; but, he was going to try either if he dies. He was willing to change in order to survive in the new world.

Drew has finally reached the top floor of the apartment building, he slowed down to catch his breath. He cupped his hands on to his knees, and after a few breaths he digged into his pockets to look for his apartment keys. Which he found in a matter of seconds, he walked out of the stairwell and into the hallway that lead into the other apartments on the floor. His room was at the end of the hall he silently walked down the hall with his crowbar in one hand and the key with the other. He sighed aloud, it looks like he's alone on this floor, for the moment, he wondered if anybody has made it to their rooms, like that girl or that priest. Maybe he should've stayed with them, but he knew that would've been stupid to do, he only had so much time to get away safely and barricade his room enough so no zombie can claw off his flesh and he becomes their lunch.

As Drew put his key into his lock he glimpsed at the window out over the city and he happened to glanced down to the streets.
"Oh my god." Drew uttered in horror as he seen the large amounts of zombies shambling and clawing towards the apartment. Drew quickly opened his door but instead of going in he went towards the stairwell, Drew has to tell them to stop using their guns and warn them of the huge horde coming there way, he only had a short time to warn them and to get back in his room.

Going down was so much faster than going up, he was practically jumping down to each landing at this point, he reached the fourth floor and he looked down below him and he seen that the crowd was going crazy and panicked stricken. Drew sighed deeply to calm himself,

"Hundreds of zombies are coming this way!" He yelled, he glanced up the stairs, "We have to keep going up and barricading as we go!"

Madison Ripley

---

With her boot firmly planted between the mutt's ribcage and back legs, Madison finally let up with her assault as poor Jay ceased squirming. This dog had always hated her, and she hated it. Nipping at her when she tried to pet it, growling and snapping when she spoke to Jodie. To say that it gave her a charge when she stuck the head of her axe between its destroyed cranium and its withers to separate the two, well, that would be barbaric. It took everything she had to not break down into a screaming, crying fit. Spurred on only by the idea of survival, she straightened out, making a noise akin to a whimpering piglet as she stared around at her surroundings. From the crowd she heard a yell that made her stomach turn.

"Hundreds," Her heart skipped a beat as she considered the possibility of so many of the infected, "...coming this way!" All of them sieging the apartment complex. Every angle, every way. All clogging up the lobby and spreading from there. Like a house fire. Her ears listened on as best they could as she scrabbled back into her room to grab the rest of her suit, with its thick gloves and protective jacket, as well as her mask and bag. Canned food, bottled water, first aid kit, her phone and her stun gun. All of it went in the bag that she slung over her head and on her shoulder.

Coming back outside, she locked the door once more and deposited the key into her bag. Don't want any intruders, right? She tried her hardest to chuckle at herself, but nothing gave. She was too riddled with panic, eyes darting along the floor to find Jay still laying there, separated from his cranium as she left him. The crowd had all but moved on, but from here she could hear gunfire.

"We have to keep going up," Just like anyone would do in a crisis on the bottom floor, "...and barricading as we go!" Her earlier thoughts of a house-fire returned in full, alarming force. Going up and away from the crisis always means being trapped by the crisis. She slammed at her forehead with her palm.

"Stupid. Stupid, stupid. No. No." With a swivel, she ran to the stairs and shouted up them. Someone would hear her. "If we k-keep going up, we'll get trapped on the roof!" She had seen it happen too many times during her service. She began to search desperately for a way down to the ground, but she didn't leave her apartment very often when she wasn't resting at the station, so much that she had forgotten if this place even had a fire-escape. She was only on the second floor though, there had to be some way to get down. She was too young to have a final stand.

As John watched, the firewoman finished off the dog with little trouble, and he turned his attention back abruptly, at the sudden appearance and taking of the cross by a young Native American man. He was confused for a second, and then said, "Hey, what are you doing?" , but quickly realized what was going on. Running over as the young man put down a female, who had recently turned, he heard the back end of what he said. Reaching over his shoulder to grab the cross gently, he took it from his hands, and comfortingly, said, "It's alright young man, she's down." Patting his shoulder, he said, "These are no more than shells, corpses. It is no sin to put them to rest."

Another young voice came along with the sound of footsteps on the stairs, telling them that they needed to keep going up. Skeptical, John was about to speak up, when the firewoman frantically interjected. John nodded, as if what she said made sense. "We can't keep going up, but we do need to get some distance between the hundreds of infected and ourselves." He turned to the stairwell and shouted, "Erik! The plan has changed! We are only going up a few floors! Meet up with us on the third floor!" John would go, to try and keep the people from panicking.

Three Towers Apartment Complex, Second Floor Hallway

The sequence of events passed by as if it was an elaborate prank made to scare the wits off her - and to top it all off, the announcement of hundreds more converging towards the building. No thanks to all the ruckus everyone's been making. But what concerned her most at this point, wasn't the incoming horde of undead, but of the recent reanimation of the lady. She had personally witnessed it once in the lobby, and now it happened again. It's all happening just like any zombie flick 'predicted'.

"H-hold on!" Sue paused for a moment, looking at everyone within her proximity straight in their eyes. "B-before we do anything, were anyone of you injured or bitten by...That, or that?" Sue pointed at the grisly remains of what was once Jay then at the corpse of the recently animated lady.

"Check yourself, any scratch marks? Bite wounds?" Sue urged, with her tone slightly calm given the situation as she looked at every one of them as they began to check themselves. It was not long before she spotted what seemed to be a blood trail on the ground leading upstairs, where the majority of the panicked crowd had retreated to.

"Look!" Sue pointed at the blood trail, hoping that they understood the severity of what a blood trail implies. Looking back towards the group, she spoke up again, "Now, I am hoping that it's not blood from someone that was bitten, nor am I sure what happens to those who was, but I do remember the news saying that the infected needs to be segregated." Her eyes darted towards everyone's faces, hoping to catch an affirmation that they had understood what she was trying to tell them.

"W-wait. I saw it, old man Haskell who lives in the fourth floor, he was bit by the dog!" A middle aged man spoke up as he peered out from his apartment unit, not far from the stairwell. "I saw it...I was hidin' back ere', with all the ruckus goin' I went outside! I came out to look! Then I saw Haskell givin' the mutt a good whack with his cane, but that nasty mutt took a bite outta his leg!" The middle-aged man continued, as he tried to assure those of what he saw by retelling how it went.

"Someone should check on the old man, keep him segregated..." Sue suggested, hoping that someone would take up the task.

"Oh, and uh...Try not to use your guns...We don't want more to show up..." Sue quickly reminded the group, what with the most of them being extremely trigger happy. She was hoping that there was an alternative to dispatching the threat with firearms, what with the ground floor going off like a bass in a rave party.

"Hundreds of zombies are coming this way!" There was a slight pause, quickly followed by "We have to keep going up and barricading as we go!"

"Shit... this won't hold against ten of these things for long, how will it stand against more?" Nicholas asked himself, his eyes searching for more to barricade with.

Nicholas stood from his position and looked over the railing, taking note that it was taking time for the creatures to traverse the stairs. Returning his attention to finding additional items to hold back the coming horde, his eyes came across one of the nearby rooms. Shouldering his rifle, he quickly made his way to the left side of the door and reached out to the doorknob. Slowly turning it till it became free, Grayeson shouldered his way into the room and started checking the corners. Though it was relatively dark, there was a nearby lamp that illuminated the room enough to see there was no threat. Moving from the living room towards the kitchen, clearing it, then on to the other rooms as well to ensure there was no danger. When all was clear, he turned his attention to the furniture inside the living room. Releasing his grip on his rifle, allowing it to dangle from his plate carrier; Nicholas grabbed one end of a love seat and drug the couch outside of the apartment and out into the stairwell. Quickly maneuvering the seating into place, he returned to the apartment and grabbed additional chairs and a table to help reinforce their "wall" of sorts. When the apartment was barren of anything he could move on his own to secure the stairwell, he locked the door of the apartment from the inside and closed it tight. Turning back to the stairs, he quickly made his way up to the scene that was playing out before. On the floor, lay a half-demolished hunk of meat that once resembled a pup and a woman with her skull crushed inward.

"I see this situation is handled." Nicholas said, a tone of satisfaction trailed off his southern accent.

Overhearing someone mention about limiting the use of firearms, he simply nodded. Gunfire or any loud, sudden noises drove the creatures to their position immediately. How he managed to forget his "dream" was like a video game, evaded him but he knew better now than to unconsciously use his weapons. Switching his rifle to SAFE, he loosened his grip to show he was willing to take the subtle approach if it meant keeping everyone else alive.

"I've barricaded the entrance to the second floor from the first with some furniture. We need to continue moving and see if there is a viable way out of this frying pan." he spoke out, agreeing with the people wanting to move. "And there is no way to the ground floor besides the elevators, bad idea. Or using the decrepit fire escapes, which leads to the droves outside which want to eat us all." he quickly reminded the woman not wanting to continue on to the roof.

She was right, Grayeson knew that with every fiber of his being as a Marine. Getting trapped into one position without any support is as much a death sentence in war, as it is in this situation. But unless they have a way to the next apartment building over, they were sitting ducks at the moment.

Timothy heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that the stairs were barricaded... and then he felt his heart crack upon hearing the next few words he said because Timothy understood what he was trying to imply; abandon the building.

He wanted to burst out and explain how illogical of a decision that was but he stopped himself. Firstly, getting into a rage didn't help with anything. He learned that the hard way dealing with petty city customers. Secondly, he didn't really want to be the one shouting at the person with a gun.

"Umm, Mister... whoever you are," said Timothy. He hadn't lived at the apartment for long and this was the face of a person not familiar to him. "Can I explain to you why there are many better alternatives to abandoning ship?"

Part of it was that Timothy didn't embrace the idea of running out into the open but there were logical fallacies to the idea of finding a new location to set up base. "First of all, we're not going to realistically be able to relocate anywhere far away. What point is there shifting two blocks down?" That was one of the many reasons. "Second, heard what the guy at the top said? The streets are bustling with 'em. We attempt to run out in a group this big, someone dies. For sure." Timothy swallowed his saliva as his throat started drying up. "Most important of all, whose to say the ideal location we find isn't already inhabited by people? You'd think they'd haven't already barricaded their place and would accept a group as big as us? Hell, we might even draw them all to new place like that police sergeant did to ours."

"The best thing to do, is to fortify those barricades -use wardrobes or whatever and make literal temporary wall- and wait it out. No more guns, no more screaming... no more attracting them. Hear all the screaming on the streets, let the infected go to them. We have food in our kitchens. We know the streets around this area. This apartment is the best place we'll ever find."

Timothy gulped. Talking to an armed and dangerous man in a zombie apocalypse did wonders to his nerves.

"Flank right!" he was sitting in his large gaming chair leering over his keyboard. The stupid squad has gone through the no mans land area of the city lovingly called 'sniper valley'. It was great, nobody could mess with this game. It had everything you would want in a shooting game with no strategy extending from a class system that makes each guy more over powered then the next or destructible walls that don't get destroyed. Even the campaign on the game was great, a solider fights a war but gets betrayed and has to fight to clear his name. How did they ever think of that, visionary.

At this point he was taking down C that was surrounded by multiple players that were RPG dropping, when all of a sudden a vast majority went afk, then left. He was still moving, everyone else was still kicking yet the guys he knew were based around the hospital and outer-city areas were all gone. With that his room lost power, nothing better then a generator that doesn't work or mains that cut out. Walking out his small apartment he could see only devastation. Trotting down he found a small group of people in a room barricading the stairs "HEY! I need them to get to the street. The generators bust!" These people were weird, they were carrying guns and weapons. Strange town.