Ted carefully looked over the Compu-Core. Okay. So. What have we learned here?

First was the fact that everything wrong with this building was the cores fault, going by the descriptions on it. Mac-Heads? Created by the Core. Ted going greed-crazy? Core amplifying his greed. This thing was a hazard.

And, worse, going by the level, it was one of the WEAKER ones. Ted shuddered when he imagined what a STRONG core would be like.

I probably only survived because I entered by window. If I had entered by the ground floor...

Right. The thing needed to be destroyed. Ted considered smashing it here and now and being done with it.

No. Bad idea. Thing could be radioactive for all I know, or explode. After all, Ted had read science fiction before, and if there was anything he knew, it was that strange alien things ALWAYS blew up when damaged.

He mulled it over before deciding his plan. Ted raised the Compu-Core into the air...

And dashed it against the ground, intending to shatter the thing into a million pieces, consequences be damned. After all, the only other alternative was to carry it with him until he found a suitable way to dispose of it, and considering it could affect his mind, he DOUBTED that was in any way safe.

Unfortunately, the thing simply bounced against the floor, unharmed.

Ted groaned. Right. That left one option. He picked up the Compu-Core and put it into his backpack. He'd figure out a better way to destroy it eventually.

He crept out of the office and blinked.

In front of him were a pack of dead Spider-Macs. He walked over to them and kicked them, noting both the lack of movement...

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

And the fact that the entire office had gone dark again. The core had created them. Did taking it kill them?

...That didn't make sense. The core was still present in the building, it was just in his backpack. Its influence should still be affecting the place! It should...be...affecting...him...

When I touched the thing, I came to my senses. Did I somehow disrupt its connection?

Ted was begining to feel a headache coming on. He had a core, he'd figure out how to destroy it eventually. Worst came to worst, he tied it to a brick and dropped it into the sea.

Right. First, grab his grappling hook from the roof. Ted walked to the floors stairwell and entered the roof, looking around, and grimaced. Corpses. Multiple corpses.

Human corpses.

Looking them over, Ted noticed that their skin was almost...shriveled looking. Dehydration. They must have fled up here when...when all this went down. It wasn't hard to guess what went down after: they spent the next few days effectively trapped on the roof by the Compu-Cores monsters, slowly dying of thirst and exposure.

Teds mouth formed a hard line, and he carefully stepped over the corpses, walking to the wall his grappling hook SHOULD be. Spotting the telltale metal, he quickly walked over, picked up the hook up, and quickly reeled the rope back up.

Right. Next order of business, scout out the surrounding area from his new vantage point. He looked at the school next door, noting that the rats were gone for now.

He glanced down both sides of the street. Most of it was smaller stores and houses, none particularly relevant except two:

The first was a grocery store, one he had stopped at in the past. I could probably raid that for food. Even if the perishables have gone bad, it probably has plenty of canned food. It was probably monster infested, but at this point, Ted was accepting that as the norm, not the exception.

The other was on the complete OTHER side of the street, and was a home improvement store. Okay, definitely stopping by there. Get some lumber, some metal, some better tools...

Would they have a generator? Ted hoped so: it would let him utilize conveniences such as power tools and other useful things.

The question was where to stop first. Ted mulled it over for a bit, then decided to visit the home improvement store. Use it to kit out the school, in case Ted had to stay there for the long haul.

He looked up and down the street again. Empty. For now. Right. He'd need to be quick. Ted walked back to the roof entrance, giving a brief, melancholy look back at the bodies scattered about, before making his way out of the building.

He had things to do.