Dan went out into the apartments decked stairwell with his gun drawn and his hunting pack over his shoulder. Taking a moment to sight up and down the stairs to make sure it was clear, Dan headed downward to the first floor. He hadn't really thought about it, but the wooden stairway that he was on would be the perfect trap for someone to grab his feet. Thankfully he got down to the ground floor without any problems, but what greeted him on the first floor was insanity. One of the apartment doors was open and blood and light was flooding out into the hallway. To make matters worse smoke was coming down the hallway blocking his vision from the parking lot.

Slowly walking down the hallway to the open door Dan slowly began to peek into the opened apartment. A dead body, that appeared to have its neck ripped open and in torn nightgown made Dan pause for a moment. It had been the single mother that he occasionally helped during the evenings when returning home from work. "Shit!" Dan whispered. He kept looking into the apartment, his mind urged him to keep making his way to the truck, but his balls told him to go in the apartment and get the kid.

Dan took a step across the threshold making sure to keep check on the body every now and again. As he stepped over the woman's head and he realized that he should have brought his K-bar to put through the woman's brain. Deciding to not risk a shoot being heard, Dan walked past the body into the living room. Cluttered with dolls and a little kids table set next to the blue faded couch, Dan swept the room making sure nothing was moving. Seeing that the room was clear he moved to dining room and saw a small table with a laundry basket on it. "Damn, you were doing laundry..."

Dan walked to the hallway and heard a soft thump thump, as if something was hitting a door. Looking down at the carpet, he realized that the blood trail was leading to the bathroom. Following the blood trail, Dan saw the bathroom door closed and heard the soft thump against it. Swallowing, Dan prayed it wasn't the little girl behind it.

Dan walked down the hallway seeing that the master bedroom door was opened. Doing a quick check, it was clear. Looking at the opposing closed bedroom door, Dan began to wonder if he wanted to even see what was behind it. Dan slowly turned the knob and opened the door. A soft pink night light filled the room. The child's bed showed used bedding, but no sign of the girl. Dan not sure how to enter a childs room with a loaded weapon, he called out softly. "Hello... its Mr. Dan from the second floor. Is anyone in here?"

A soft whimper came from under the bed. Shuffling back and forth, Dan called out again, "Its ok. I am here to help you. I just need you to come out please."

"I's afraid Mr. Dan." Dan released a breath that he hadn't know he was holding. Moving into the room and closing the door. Dan went down to the floor and pulled back the covers. A small girl with blonde hair and wearing pink 'Dora the Explorer' PJ's looked back at him scared and holding a unicorn tightly to her chest.

"Hello there!" Dan realized that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember the little girl's name. "See everything's ok... Your mom asked me to help. Remember, she would ask me to help you with the groceries." The girl nodded. "See... so I need you to grab some clothes and put them in a backpack. You have a backpack, right?" Once again, the girl nodded and started to shuffle out from under the bed.

"Mr. Dan, is mommy ok? I heard a bunch of screaming." Dan stopped for a moment and looked away from the girl. He needed to get her the hell out of here.

"Yeah, someone was hurt and your mom was helping them. Come on now, we don't have much time before we have to leave." Dan watched the girl throwing blue jeans, shirts, socks, and underwear into a quick pile. The whole time the girl was holding her unicorn and Dan was thinking about what was going on outside. The child's backpack contained maybe one or two sets of clothes, so Dan brought down his own pack and began tossing the child's clothing into back pack. The girl unsure of what else to do grabbed a coloring book and colored pencils.

Looking into her face, Dan knew he wasn't going to be able to argue with her about the book and pencils, so he shoved them in his pack and then said, "Ok sweetie, you have your unicorn and coloring book. Now when I open this door I want you to hold my hand, and keep your eyes shut. Don't open them and don't say a word, until I say it's ok. I might have to pick you up and if I do, then I need you to put your face in my shoulder and hold on as tight as you can. Ok?" The girl nodded and Dan got out his gun placing it under his armpit. Waiting for her to close her eyes, Dan grabbed her hand and steady himself.

"God! I don't know if you are listening or if you are even real, but I need some serious fucking help. Just... please, whatever you can spare, I know there are plenty of others you need to save, so any help would be welcomed. Amen." Finishing his prayer, he opened the door and pulling out his gun he looked down the hallway. He waited a few seconds making sure that he didn't hear or see any movement. Slowly, he began to walk making sure that the girl was keeping up with him. As he approached the bathroom door, the soft thump soon started up again, but this time it seemed a little more urgent. As Dan walked out into the living room, he did a quick scan and realized that the girl's mother was no longer on the floor. Dan picked up the girl and held her tight.

Moving quickly out the door, Dan realized the smoke had become thicker as the truck fire was now a full blaze. People were starting to open their doorways and Dan realized that he needed to get moving. Running as fast as he could through the smoke, Dan got out to the parking lot without a problem. But as he cleared the smoke he saw three people huddled around another on the ground. A male that was shirtless and in boxers looked up at Dan with a blood mouth filled with red meat. Dan immediately pulled up his gun and spoke, "Cover your ears, sweatie!"

By the time, the girls hand raised over her ears. The three Zombies had jumped up and started running towards Dan. Dan took as best aim as he could and fired a round into the first Zombies dome, but then he had no more time. Firing in quick succession, Dan had to fire six more rounds to put a single bullet in each Zombies head. With his ears ringing, Dan ran up to his truck and put the girl down. She was crying loudly as Dan holstered his gun and pulled the keys from his pocket. Opening up the door, Dan picked up the girl and shoved her into the cab of the truck. She was screaming about a car seat, but Dan was noticing the bloody corpse that the three Zombies were chewing on starting to move. Closing the door, Dan walked over to the corpse, pulled out his gun, aimed at its head and pulled the trigger.

>You have been awarded 14 GC.

>Speak 'Shop' to spend your Galactic Credits.

>Speak 'System ID' to view your statistics.

>Speak 'Wallet' to view your system property.