We moved cautiously towards the quad buildings double doors, and peered inside. The body was that of someone who had turned, but the blunt force trauma delivered to their head suggested they would not be a threat anymore. Even so I held the knife in my hand while I kicked its leg to test for a response.

This door led into a lobby and then into a long corridor with a high ceiling and double doors at either end. We turned right, and beyond the double doors turned right again past the Jeremy Bentham wax model exhibit. This led us into the central staircase where there was one level below and more levels above.

I peered over the bannister looking both above and below. We could not see any movement, but after a few moments we heard a distant repeated thud. It was too muffled to know what the cause of the sound was.

I motioned to go upwards and we ascended the wide stairwell. There were windows in the stairwell and we paused to look outwards, but the windows had obstructed views and gave us no additional knowledge of the safety of the campus.

The thud continued and seemed to be becoming louder and more distinct as we arrived on the first floor landing. We had agreed that our goal was simple. A locked room and access to a bathroom.

We paused momentarily listening to the thud and entered the first floor corridor. It was a long linear corridor with multiple thick wooden doors leading off it into rooms beyond. We moved along and tested each door as we went. All were locked and felt strong enough to survive a hammering.

We ascended to the next floor. Here the thud sound was stronger still. We cautiously entered the corridor and looked down its length and found the source of the noise.

It was someone in a security uniform. Both of his arms ended in stumps at the elbow where bone pushed out through the gnawed flesh that remained. The creature stood in front of the door that was half way down the corridor.

It was stood on unsteady legs, pulled back its head and then violently butted the solid wooden door. From the blood splatter across both the door and its head it seemed to have been at this activity for a while.

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Mina held out her hand and I gave the second knife to her. We had spoken at intervals during the morning of our need to always be ready to run, but equally both us needed to be able to fight. So far I had done whatever it had took to stay alive, and Mina was aware that she had to adopt the same policy. She had not engaged a zombie in combat before, but perhaps now was the perfect time.

The armless shambling creature before us lifted back its head, and then drove it forward again into the door. We both stealthily approached along the corridor, and whether due to it being dazed by the repeated concussive shocks to the head it seemed oblivious to our presence.

Mina stood a couple of feet behind the zombie and braced herself. I could see her hand tense around the handle of the blade as she raised it to shoulder height. The zombie pulled back its head, and stopped. It paused and then swivelled its head to look at us.

The security guard had been an older black man. His forehead was caked in both dried and fresh blood, and his eyes were red rimmed and glassy. His lips pulled back from his teeth as he saw us and his dismembered body turned to face us.

“Now, Mina”, I said.

But she had frozen and could not move. The zombie bumped into her and they both clattered to the floor with Mina underneath. The zombie was biting her through her coat on her shoulder while Mina screamed. I grabbed the back of the creatures shirt and pulled but he would not release her, and so I pulled my knife.

I could not plunge the knife straight down into his head for fear of stabbing Mina, and so plunged it in sideways over the ear. It was not a killing blow, but it was enough to get the zombie to stop biting. As he relaxed his jaw I grabbed his clothing again and tore him off her.

Without arms to right himself the zombie floundered on his back. I knelt over him, pressed one hand down on his throat to stop him moving, and then drove my blade through the top of his skull.

Mina had clambered back against the wall of the corridor with her hand to her shoulder screaming in fear. I went to her and knelt beside her. Her eyes were wide open in shock. I moved my hands to the top of her coat to unzip it. Her hands reached up to block mine.

“Let me see” I said.

Her hands fell away. I unzipped her coat and gently pulled it away.

“There’s no blood”, I said.

“What?” said Mina looking back at her shoulder.

She rolled her t shirt up to the shoulder blade. There was a very distinct swollen red bruise where the creatures teeth had gripped her skin, but it had not tore the skin or penetrated it.

“I’m not going to turn?”

“No!” We hugged.

Behind us the door to the room where the zombie had been trying to gain entry opened. A young anglo Indian woman stuck out her head. “Help us, please. My friend. She’s been bitten.”