After reentering the building I head to the second floor gym lockers. Once inside I conjure a floating orb of mana to illuminate the dark room.

  I take my backpack off, setting it on the sink counter. I take out it’s contents and spread them out. At the sight of clean clothes my skin itches to be rid of the blood and gore covered garb I currently wear.

  Unable to resist the urge I tear the disgusting rags off my body and throw them away in the nearest trash can while setting my utility belt and it’s contents aside. After doing so I make a mental note to retrieve them and set them on fire. My off duty clothes consist of cheap jeans, a black long sleeve thermal shirt, and a sleeveless hoodie.

  Once clothed in something clean I almost feel like a new person. We’re going to need to go out and find more clothes for us. It can’t be sanitary to wear the same thing over and over especially when blood and muck has become commonplace.

  I take a second to examine myself in the mirror. My brown hair is caked with blood and looking greasier than it’s ever been. Along with clothes we’re going to need to figure out a way to keep up our hygiene.

  Through the mirror I see brown eyes staring back at me. Usually I don’t make a habit of examining myself in a mirror like this. But something in the back of my mind tickles compelling me to take a closer look.

  As I do so I see something in my eyes. Looking deeper I realize that they’re glowing just barely. I pull the orb back into me, plunging myself in darkness. However it’s not complete darkness. My body gives off an ever so faint glow. Is this a side effect of mana?

  The itch in my mind fades leavin me in the dark and feeling weird. Ever since the start of this I’ve been having those weird feelings. As if someone is whispering in my ear but I can’t hear them. In all honesty I’m not a fan of it. It feels wrong somehow.

  I pack everything else back into my backpack and leave the room. I head up to the seventh floor and place the ramen packets in the pile of food. After that I head to my little conference room and lie down. Sleep over takes me quickly.

  “Get up Joel.” Decker says.

  His voice breaks through my sleep waking me up. Sun light stretches across the floor through the windows. While not super bright it’s bright enough to make me wince.

  “What time is it?” I ask

  My words come out slow and deep as I have yet to fully wake up. I blink out the last bits of sleep as Decker answers me.

  “It’s eight in the morning. We’re about to start collecting water.”

  I sit up stretching finally ridding myself of the haziness that sleep leaves me.

  “Where did you get the clothes?” Decker asks.

  I freeze, unsure how to answer. Fear starts building in me as I worry that Decker will be mad at me. I swallow my fear. In my experience not answering is worse than answering.

  “My car.” I let out.

  My voice is high pitched and quiet. In stark contrast to how it was only a moment ago.

  Decker eyes me for a second then shifts his gaze to my pack. For once I’m unable to read the emotions behind his gaze. As a talent that I built up over my whole life of having to tiptoe around people, I’m left even more worried at not being able to read him.

  “Did you get into any fights?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you get hurt?”

  “No.”

  Silence befalls us and stretches on into eternity. It’s only broken by a wistful sigh from Decker.

  “I’m sorry” I say, figuring that if he’s upset it won’t do much to appease him. However, it makes me feel a little better about unintentionally upsetting him.

  “Don’t be. But I don’t think it’s safe for us to be going out there alone. If you got hurt we wouldn’t know until it was too late. Or what if a high level zombie got inside. Did you lock the door behind you? I know you’re tough but right now isn’t the time to be risking your life.”

  Decker’s words feel like daggers being thrown at me. Decker moves towards me causing me to flinch back.

  “Hey what’s wrong? You’re not in trouble. I just want you to think things through a little more. Or run them by me first.” He says

  Decker moves to stand before me, placing a hand on my shoulder. He kneels before me looking into my eyes. Making me realize that I looked away from him, either in fear or embarrassment.

  “Hey kid. It’s okay I’m not mad at you and you’re not in trouble.”

  His words sound forign to me but I understand their meaning. I’m just not used to hearing them directed at me. I’m not in trouble. Is that even possible?

  “Come on, let's go eat and talk about the things we need to get done today.” Decker says.

  His words break the spell my spiraling thought process had on me. He stands taking his hand off my shoulder. He leaves the room only stopping and looking back when he realizes that I haven’t followed. He motions with his head to follow and then gives me a warm smile.

  I stand and follow after him to the area where all the food is. He hands me some more leftovers as I sit down. The other two were already eating in silence.

  They must not have worked closely with one another. There’s an awkward air of unfamiliarity around them. This entire group if I’m honest. The only one to be unaffected by the air seems to be Decker.

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  “Alright so the priority for today is securing as much water as we can in as little time as possible. So after eating we’ll search the building for any kind of container. Bowels, cups, tupperware, anything that can hold the water. Then we’ll go and plug all the sinks in the building. After that I’ll head down to the garage and power the generator. Joel will be in the fire command center in case anything happens with the alarms. He and I will have the radios. If everything goes off without an issue then Andy and Angila will start filling containers while Joel and I fill up all the sinks. Any questions?” Decker says

  “What will we do if something goes wrong?” Andy asks while gesturing to Angila.

  “Honestly you guys won’t know if anything is wrong unless the building’s alarms go off. In that case keep a weapon at the ready. Joel or I will run up and get you to help secure the building again.” Decker says.

  Andy seems annoyed at the prospect of having to help secure the building. I ignore it already having profiled him as someone kind of lazy.

  With no other questions we finish eating. I go back to my room and retrieve my utility belt from my pack and slip it around my waist. It’s an annoying model where a velcro belt slides through the loops of my pants. Then three straps buckle the actual utility belt to the velcro belt.

  I grab the tire iron and try to find a spot on my belt for it. The tire iron slides through the loop that kept my baton secure on the belt. It’s a little loose but the bend in the metal prevents the thing from sliding out of the belt.

  A few jumping jacks later and I feel confident that the tire iron won’t be going anywhere if I don’t want it. With that done I take a second to ponder if I’ll need my backpack. There’s nothing in there I need so I leave it in the room and leave.

   We all start our hunt for containers. Each floor after the seconds has a quase kitchen area with two sinks and lots of mugs and bowls. We set out the bowels and mugs to be within reach of the sinks. Afterwards I raid the kitchen of all pots and containers.

  The hunt took a few hours and was boring to work on. Part of me itched to go back outside. I realize I’m kind of growing addicted to hunting the zombies. I don’t know if it’s that I get joy from killing them, a prospect I’d rather not think about, or if it’s the leveling up aspect.

  We regroup on the seventh floor after plugging all the sinks in the building with duct tape that Decker found. Decker hands me a radio and sends me to the fire command center while Andy is sent to the tenth floor and Angila to the third.

  Once in the command center I turn on the radio and wait for Decker. Moments pass in silence and I quickly grow bored in the dark room. I conjure a ball of energy to give the tiny space some light.

  “Can you read me? Over.” Decker says.

  “I can. Are you at the generator? Over.”

  “Yeah, about to power it on. Be ready. In three. Two. One. Now.”

  The lights in the fire command center flash on. I hadn’t noticed but the building was silent like I never experienced. The constant white noise of the building’s fans and other hidden machinery had stopped when the power cut out. Now that it’s back, so are they.

  My eyes scan all the electronics throughout the room waiting in anticipation for anything to go wrong. After a few seconds of nothing my spirit rises, figuring everything has gone smoothly.

  “Any issues? Over.” Decker asks.

  “None that I can see. Over.”

  “Alright then start on the bathrooms on the first floor. I’ll run up and help you shortly. Over.”

  “On it. Over.”

  With that I clip the radio to my utility belt and race to the bathrooms in the hallway with the security locker and the bike room entrance. Once inside I hold my hands under the sinks activating the handle free water.

  After a minute I hear the door open and watch Decker walk into the bathroom. He makes his way to the two sinks next to the ones I’m filling and places his hands near the sensor.

  We stand in silence for a bit. Long enough that I finish the two sinks I’m working on and head to the last two.

  “What’s with the gun?” He asks.

  I jump at the sudden noise. After registering what he asked I look down at the metal on my hip.

  “I got it from one of the armed officers' lockers.”

  “Why haven’t you been using it? Out of ammo?”

  “Kinda. I never found any for it.”

  “So then why did you grab it?”

  “I didn’t realize there was no ammo for it until I already had it.”

  “Why do you still have it?” He asks.

  I shrug my shoulders.

  “I guess I forgot I had it.”

  “I see. Still it’s not a bad idea to keep it on you. You never know when it could come in handy.”

  The conversation comes to a halt as Decker’s sinks fill up. He leaves the bathroom to head to the girls room on this floor. Soon my sinks are full and I follow him.

  “So I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear anything in the garage before you passed out?” Decker asks.

  “No. Like what?”

  “Something about a safe zone and you having ownership.”

  “Safe Zone?” I ask.

  At my words my vision fills up with a familiar blue light. However, instead of my stats or anything else that I’ve seen, a window with a 3D map of the building appears in my vision. At the top is the name of the building, ‘Northern Gas Offices’. Underneath it is “Owner:” and my name. Next to the names are the symbols for a pencil.

  On the left side of the screen lies lines of text in a similar fashion to my personal stats. Things like the number of occupants, floors, doors, bathrooms, sinks, and so much more. The list even gets cut off at the bottom of the sections. However, looking at the bottom of the building’s stats section causes the information to scroll up revealing more and more information.

  On the right side of the holographic map of the building is a menu called ‘Building Shop’. Next to the title of the section are two letters. K and P with a colon next to it and the number two hundred and thirty four following it. Underneath is a list of different categories. Living room, Dining room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Workshop, Defense, Library, and more.

  At the bottom of the screen is a section of blank empty space. However, when I focus on aspects of the menu a description fills the space. For example when I focus on the ‘KP’ part the section fills with ‘Total kill points’.

  “Joel what’s wrong?” Decker asks.

  His words snap my attention from the screen. It disappears from sight leaving me confused.

  “Um. I don’t know. I think I got a new screen.”

  “What kind of screen? Does it have to do with the words that echoed in the garage when we finished fighting?”

  “I don’t know. I think so. It’s like a building management tool.”

  I bring the screen back up by thinking of the words Safe Zone. With it up I explain what it looks like to decker. Trying to leave as little out as possible.

  “So what pops up when you focus on the Bedroom section?”

  “A whole bunch of bedroom items like beds, dressers, desks. Some of them look really weird. They all have a KP requirement.”

  “How many Kill Points do you have?”

  “Over two hundred.”

  “Is it enough to purchase anything?”

  While looking through the bedroom section I find many items I can get. After a few moments I find a cheap night stand. It’s basically just a flat piece of black painted wood with four legs. It’s priced at just five points.

  “There’s a nightstand for five points. Should I get it?” I ask.

  “Yeah, try it.”

  With his permission I purchase the nightstand. A prompt opens up asking where I want the nightstand to be placed.

  My focus turns to the map of the building in the center. The map shows a level for each floor and focusing on a floor brings up a top down view of the floor. I mentaly select an area next to me in the bathroom and confirm that’s where I want the night stand.

  A sudden tug breaks my focus on the screen in front of me. To my left a large black orb the size of a mini fridge appears out of nowhere. The temperature in the room plummets as I feel as if the orb is pulling me into it. Then it vanishes leaving the ugly cheap nightstand behind.

  “Jesus did you do that?” Decker asks.

  Decker stands with his sword in front of him pointed at the night stand. His face is pale and eyes bugging. He looks to me for confirmation.

  “I think so.” I say