I moved through the basement and found nobody else was down here. It made sense, there was really only the one classroom and then some maintenance spaces and lab rooms that hadn’t been used in several years by the look of things. I did manage to grab a hammer from one of the maintenance rooms though, so I had some form of defense at least.

I moved to the elevator and pressed up and went about awkwardly looking around while I waited. I was about to go do this thing, I guess. I pointedly ignored the body of the thing I killed earlier as it sat near the end of the elevator row.

“So, whatcha doin?” Amelia asked a bit sarcastically.

“Well, I figured it’d be best to start at the top and work down floor by floor.” I guess she just wanted to know the plan.

“That’s great, really a solid plan, but remember when I said tech didn’t really work anymore?” I could hear the smirk…

“No elevators?” I asked.

“No elevators.” She chuckled.

“Well, fuck me then. Time to get my steps in I guess.”

I headed to the stairs and slowly but surely made my way up to the seventh floor. The upper floors were mainly peoples research labs, with the classrooms or teaching labs really being on the third floor and below. I went and poked my head into the first lab near the stairwell and nobody was there. I went to the next room and found it empty as well.

“I don’t suppose you can just tell me where people are or are not? That’d make this go a lot quicker.”

“Sorry, no can do Mark-a-roo. I can tell you that I sense people nearby, so the floor isn’t cleared, but that’s about it. I’m not omniscient or anything so can’t give specifics or spot out exactly where they are. Not yet at least.” She joked.

I shook my head and kept going until I reached the final room at the end of the hall, “Knock knock, anyone home?” I jokingly said to make this process feel less silly.

“Oh! Finally! Are you here from campus IT? Nothing is working!” A middle-aged researcher by the name of “Dr. Alexandra Priel,” according to her door tag at least. I’d never met her so guess she was more on the micro-bio side of things.

“Yeah, well, no. I’m not from IT but I am here to help, I think.” I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to say.

“What…what do you mean?” Dr. Priel took a step back at my awkward introduction.

“Well, how do I say this…” I tried to think

What are you doing? Amelia’s voice popped into my head now that we were around others.

What do you mean? I’m trying to get her to join my sub-world thing. I thought back, probably looking constipated to Dr. Priel.

No, no convincing, just think ‘Claim’ and let the system do the rest. We don’t need to convince every single person every time, imagine that long-term, millions, billions of people? Or even just soon, one of the stadium lecture halls? Amelia replied, almost disgusted sounding. How was she okay with all of this…

I thought ‘Claim’ and sure enough, Dr. Priel disappeared.

“Finally. I thought you were just going to waste more time.” Amelia chimed in. “The floor is empty now by the way, time to move along!” she really wanted to clear this building...

I kept making my way through the floors and didn’t try to stop and talk anymore until I reached the second floor.

“Hold up. Trouble.” Amelia said. “I feel a couple of the ‘others’ on this floor so get that hammer ready.”

Fuck fuck fuck! I may have been able to catch that first one accidentally but now I was supposed to take one at least two more, and on purpose? This seems ill advised. I cracked opened the door from the stairwell and slowly looked out into the hall. Everything seemed quiet so I started walking toward one of the larger lecture halls, my fingers flexing tightly around the haft of the hammer, which is when I started to hear it. The sounds of shouts and screams that had been buffeted by distance and the sealed doors now started to bleed through. I rushed forward and entered the room only to be met by chaos.

There may have been only a couple initially, but I was now looking at five of the things, looking rotten and disheveled, trudging toward the rest of the near hundred students that were still in the classroom.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Why didn’t they try to just leave? I thought toward Amelia.

Who knows, panic begets more panic and I doubt after seeing those things many people remained calm.

She had a point. I’m still not sure why I wasn’t freaking out more. I mean, I mostly accepted my insanity, but the past half hour or so has kind of pushed that idea away. While I was considering, one of the things attacked another student and pulled him to the ground, his screams quickly being silenced by the sound of viscera being pulled from his body, before the creature stood once more, now bloodier than it had been a moment ago.

“Everyone get back and push them away if you can!” I shouted as I moved to cut off the closest thing…rotter? Sure. It was a better name than just ‘other’ anyways. The majority of the room was scattered along the back rows of the stadium style seating. As I ran up the aisle, I noticed the bodies of the professor and several students scattered about, having already fallen victim to the rotters before I arrived.

I reached the first one and reached my hammer back before bringing it down with a crack as it shattered the rotters skull. Its body dropped lifelessly to the floor.

Oh shit. Claim! I can’t believe I forget to that when I entered…

Nope. You need to clear the room of rotters first! Amelia reminded me.

“GET OFF MEEEEE!!!” I heard a scream from another student.

“Fuck…” I saw her fall and jumped over a row of seats to reach her but as I did I saw the rotter press in on her chest until the sound of her ribs cracking echoed through the area and the rotters hand punged directly inside of her and crushed her heart. Her clothes reddened as blood gushed from the open wound.

I was too late and all of my tiptoeing cost these people their lives… how many more died because I was going too slowly down the floors… I quickly smashed the rotter with the hammer, but it became lodged in the rotters head and I lost my grip as the rotter slumped to the ground on top of its most recent victim.

As I went to pull it out, I was tackled from behind as a rotter I hadn’t been paying attention to wrestled me to the ground. It swung a bit wildly at me and struck me in the collar bone which I could feel shatter from its strike.

“Fuck fuck shit fuck!” that fucking hurt. The worst I’d done in years was stub my toe on the corner of a table and this was a touch more painful than that…

I did my best to hold the rotter off me, with some success even, but I needed that hammer if I was going to finish this, and there was still another rotter out there somewhere. I looked to the rotter that I had just killed, the hammer handle sticking straight up into the air, I reached as best I could but it was on the side where my collar bone had broken and every movement was a new dose of pain throughout my body. I saw someone’s legs move and hoped it wasn’t the other rotter. Thankfully, a student squatted down and yanked the hammer free before putting it in my hand.

The rotter was reaching for me head, which was now scratched worse than when my uncles cat, Precious, decided it didn’t like me, but with hammer in hand I reached and clocked it in the side of the head. For as strong as they seemed to be, their bodies were certainly flimsy enough when struck. I rolled it off of me and got to my feet.

“Thanks” I said, finally looking at the girl that passed me the hammer. She was about 5’6”, maybe 5’7” and in yoga shorts and a sweatshirt that everyone seemed to be wearing. She had dirty blonde hair to her mid-back and her hazel eyes were wide, still in shock of everything that was happening.

“Watch out!” I shouted and tried to push her aside to no affect as the final rotter in the room reached up and grabbed her throat from behind before squeezing. I saw her eyes bulge and then dim as her body slacked and small stream of blood dribbled from her mouth.

“You piece of shit!” I screamed as I rounded on the rotter and knocked it to the floor. I got on top of it and swung again and again, my hammer striking it and ripping blood and bone and brain from its body, spreading them around the room with each strike.

If I’d only been a little quicker! If I’d accept that this was actually happening and not just a bad dream, but the worst dream. If I’d just acted! Each swing was another lament of what I should have done but didn’t.

“Hey, Mark, that’s enough…” I heard Amelia speaking softly and came back to myself. The rotter now just a bloody mess.

I turned to the rest of the people in the room and they stared back at me not sure if they should be happy I took care of the rotters, or scared that I was still there.

“Claim.” I said aloud… but nothing happened. “Amelia, why isn’t it working?”

“Well, they aren’t zombies or anything, just to be clear. But sometimes, when an other, be it a rotter or something else, kills someone, there is a chance that the dead will turn into some form of creature themselves…”

“What’s that have to do with…” I started as I heard shuffling next to me and the girl who had saved me slowly rose. Her skin now gray and her eyes hollow, just like the other rotters.

“Dammit… God dammit…” I stood and looked at her, or at least what used to be her. “I’m sorry.” I sighed as I swung the hammer once more and she slumped back to the floor.

Claim. I thought and the rest of the room emptied as they went to whatever sub-world they were kept in.

“I know that was a lot, but the building is now clear and can be claimed in its entirety once you step outside.” Amelia spoke calmly enough, but I could hear there was more to be said.

“Alright, I’ll head out.” I made my way back down the seating through the classroom and out the door, into the hallway.

“I don’t need to check any of the other rooms?” my voice came out dry, even to my ears.

“No, the rest of the rooms are empty. Everyone on the first floor must have made it out, and the rest of the second as well.”

I nodded and made my way to the stairs. The first floor had more signs of the chaos that must have ensued after everything changed. I was surprised I hadn’t seen it on any of the floors above, though I guess I didn’t really get a good look on the second floor. Papers and backpacks were scattered about, a few water bottles littered the floor. There was blood on one of the glass doors leaving the building, but no sign of a body. I took in the scene as I made my way out of the building. When I reached the street there were still people running around, scattering as they tried to escape campus.