After barricading the window, Ali took one last glance at the securely closed entrance of the hall before making his way to the open stairs that led to the floor above. He ascended silently, each step deliberate as he focused on any sounds that might drift down from the upper levels. His sharp ears picked up the faint echo of footsteps shuffling above him-slow, dragging movements that could only mean one thing. 'I can hear footsteps ahead, slow and uncoordinated... most likely more zombies,' Ali thought as he approached the door leading to the second floor.
At the top of the stairs, his gaze fell upon a dried puddle of blood near the threshold. It had clearly been there for a long time, marking the spot where someone had likely died in the early days of the outbreak. Ali quietly pushed open the door, making sure not to alert the zombies inside. He peered through the gap and spotted a lone male zombie wandering aimlessly between shattered desks and the debris of what had once been a bustling office floor.
Silently, Ali moved in behind the creature, his presence unnoticed. With a swift, practiced motion, he placed the handle of his quinque against the back of the zombie's head and clicked the button, causing the longsword to extend, piercing the undead's skull with a sickening crunch. A gaping hole formed as the blade emerged from the front of its head. Ali yanked the sword free and, with a light shove, pushed the zombie's lifeless body into a pile of broken desks, purposefully creating a loud clatter.
The noise was enough to stir the remaining zombies on the floor. From behind overturned furniture and collapsed cubicles, multiple undead began to rise, drawn toward the commotion. Ali didn't wait for them to gather. He charged at them with lethal precision, cutting down twelve more zombies in rapid succession. The quinque in his hands moved like an extension of his body, each strike swift and deadly. Blood splattered the walls as the creatures fell one by one, unable to put up any resistance.
After clearing the immediate area, Ali methodically checked each room on the floor. His movements were quick, but he remained alert, searching not only for more zombies but also for any signs of recent human activity. Finding none, he walked back to the stairwell, closing the door behind him before marking it with a quick slash of his sword to indicate the floor had been cleared.
As Ali moved toward the next set of stairs, he paused halfway up. His eyes fell on a faded map of the building that was taped to the wall. The upper half of the map, detailing the higher floors, was crossed out with thick strokes of paint. Only the first ten floors remained barely legible. But that wasn't what caught Ali's attention. In the bottom corner of the map, he noticed something far more telling-small, fresh spots of blood.
Ali crouched and ran a finger through the bloodstains. He rubbed it between his fingers, feeling its consistency before bringing it up to his nose to sniff. "Human... at most five to six hours old," he muttered to himself, wiping the blood away on the least stained part of his already filthy clothes.
His expression hardened as he stood, eyes scanning the stairs ahead. He heard the slow, shuffling steps of a lone zombie descending from the third floor—a female zombie stumbling clumsily toward him, drawn by the scent of fresh prey.
Ali waited calmly at the base of the stairs, his gaze cold and calculating. The zombie, overwhelmed by its ravenous hunger, lost its balance and tumbled down the steps in his direction.
Before it could hit the ground, Ali moved. His quinque flashed through the air in a series of swift horizontal slashes, neatly cutting the zombie into three pieces. The head, torso, and legs fell at his feet, still twitching, the severed head gnashing its teeth in a futile attempt to bite him. Without even looking down, Ali reversed his grip on the longsword, driving its tip into the zombie's skull, silencing it for good.
Ali then turned his attention to the door of the third floor, which was firmly shut.
From behind it, he could hear the frenzied scratching of undead claws on wood, accompanied by the low, guttural moans of the zombies trapped within. Calmly, he approached the door and tapped on it lightly, provoking the zombies inside.
The creatures responded with loud, desperate moans, pressing themselves against the door. From the sounds alone, Ali could pinpoint their exact positions.
With that knowledge, Ali raised his longsword to the height of the noise and stabbed through the wall, skewering one of the zombies directly in the head.
More of them piled against the door, attracted by the commotion, and Ali continued his assault, thrusting the blade through the door and walls in quick, deadly strikes. When he was done, the once-intact door was riddled with holes, and through them, Ali could see the seven corpses of the zombies he had just dispatched.
Satisfied that the immediate threat had been neutralised, Ali tapped on the door again, but no further sounds came from within. He broke the lock and pushed open the door, allowing the bodies of two zombies to slump out onto the landing.
With a quick flick of his wrist, he tossed the corpses back into the room and stepped inside to make his rounds.
The floor was eerily quiet, and after a thorough sweep, Ali confirmed that there were no remaining zombies or anything of value. The place had clearly been looted long before his arrival. 'Looks like every floor of this building has been picked clean, who am I kidding this entire fucking world is empty' he thought with mild annoyance at the choice of world he was sent to, as he exited the room, marking the door just as he had on the previous floors.
'Ok, let's put some effort into this shit and be done', Ali thought.
Without wasting any more time, Ali sprinted up the stairs to the next level. The door was already wide open, and he burst inside, moving with blinding speed as he cut down six zombies before they even had a chance to react. His blade danced through the air, slicing through their decomposed bodies with ease.
Within moments, the floor was cleared, and Ali closed the door behind him, marking it like the others before heading to the next floor.
Floor after floor, Ali moved like a whirlwind of death, exterminating the undead with cold efficiency. By the time he reached the eighth floor, he had cleared five floors in under five minutes. The last zombie on this floor crumpled to the ground, the longsword still lodged in its skull. As Ali prepared to leave, something caught his eye.
A thin streak of fresh blood, smeared across the side of an open closet, stood out starkly against the grime-covered walls. His sharp eyes followed the trail, noticing more small drops of blood leading out the door. 'Fresh blood again,' Ali noted, his instincts on high alert. He bent down and examined the drops, his mind piecing together the movements of whoever had left them.
'Whoever's blood this is... they were careful but inexperienced. Moving with stealth, hiding under desks, behind doors... amateurish, but still cautious,' Ali thought. His gaze followed the trail as it led up the stairs to the ninth floor, fresh blood marking the path upward.
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