Ethan, Chris, and Henry slept straight through from dusk until nearly midnight, finally dragging themselves out of bed at 11:50 p.m.
By then, Henry had fully recovered.
The three of themâplus one catâmade their way up to the rooftop.
The iron gate to the dormâs rooftop was still locked, untouched. No one else had been up here.
They pried it open with a barbell bar, slipped inside, and shut the door behind them.
Finding a clean patch of concrete, they lay down and waited for the Nine-Star Dipper to appear.
Right on cue, at exactly midnight, the constellation lit up the sky.
Having gone through this once before, they slipped into the rhythm quickly this time.
Pumpkin, curled up nearby, lifted her head and stared at the stars, eyes wide and unblinking.
That strange, pulsing energy began to seep into their bodies again, slow and steady.
Down below, thousands of zombies tilted their heads skyward in eerie unison. The night grew still.
Most of the remaining humans had already collapsed into exhausted sleep.
After a few days of trial and error, people had started to notice a pattern: by the second half of the night, the zombies would quiet down, no longer actively hunting. That window had become humanityâs only real chance to rest.
Just like the night before, Chris and Henry alternated between watching the sky and dozing off. Ethan, though, stayed locked in place the entire time, eyes fixed upward.
At 5 a.m., the Nine-Star Dipper faded from view.
Ethan felt another surgeâhis strength jumped by over sixty pounds. Chris and Henry each gained a little over twenty.
The three of them, with Pumpkin in tow, headed back downstairs. Once inside their dorm room, they locked the door behind them and collapsed into bed.
This time, they woke around 9 a.m.âearlier than usual. They had work to do. Big work. They needed to find a way out of here.
"Ethan, those zombies down there havenât moved an inch," Chris said, peering out the window at the sea of undead. His scalp prickled. "How the hell are we supposed to get out?"
"If theyâre not leaving," Ethan said, voice low and steady, "then we kill them all. Use the stairwell to grind them down, one by one."
They couldnât stay trapped here forever. They had to get out. Had to get stronger.
"But the stairwellâs too narrow," Chris argued. "Once weâve got, what, a hundred corpses in there, itâll be completely blocked. How long would that even take?"
"We split up," Ethan said. "One person handles the killing in the stairwell. The other two drag the bodies into the dorm rooms next door. Slow and steadyâweâll clear them out eventually."
Chris and Henry exchanged a look, then nodded.
"Hey, Ethan," Chris said, "didnât you say there were four girls upstairs? Why not ask them to help move the bodies? We do the killing, they handle the cleanup. Wouldnât that speed things up?"
Ethanâs eyes lit up. "That could work."
Henry groaned. "You guys are dreaming. You really think those delicate little princesses are gonna haul rotting corpses around? Theyâll scream and slam the door in your face."
Ethan smirked. "Heh. Give âem a few crystal cores, and theyâll do more than haul bodies. Hell, theyâd probably dissect them if we asked."
"Shit, youâre right," Chris said, smacking his forehead. "Canât believe I forgot about that."
"Alright, letâs go. Pumpkin, stay here or go do your own thing. If you see anyone else, keep out of sight."
"Meow," Pumpkin replied, then bounded down the hallway, leaping from railing to railing until she vanished from view.
"You think sheâll run off?" Chris asked, a little worried.
"Doubt it," Ethan said. "If she was gonna bail, she wouldnât have risked her neck to save us yesterday."
"Good point."
The three of them made their way up to the sixth floor, stopping in front of a dorm room with a tightly locked door.
Ethan stepped forward and knocked.
"Who is it?!"
Inside the dorm room, the four girls jumped at the knock, eyes darting toward the door, tense and wide-eyed.
"Weâre the ones who came into this building yesterday," Ethan called through the door. "Open upâwe want to talk."
The girls exchanged glances. In each otherâs eyes, they saw the same thing: understanding, and fear.
"What do we do, Grace?" one of them whispered, her voice trembling. She was petite, with a sweet, doll-like face. "Theyâre really here, and I... I donât want to be under their control. I donât want to just... spread my legs and obey."
Grace took a deep breath, steadying herself.
"If itâs fate, we canât dodge it. And if itâs trouble, this door wonât stop them anyway. Open it."
"...Okay."
A short girl tiptoed to the door and cracked it open.
The moment she saw the three blood-soaked men standing outside, she flinched hard.
This was Patterson Hallâstrictly female dorms. The guys hadnât found any clean clothes that fit, so they were still wearing the same gore-splattered outfits from yesterday.
As the door swung wider, Chris and Henryâs eyes lit up. The girls werenât just decent-lookingâthey were stunning. Especially the tall one. With that face, she had to be the campus queen.
That tall girlâGraceâstepped forward, polite but guarded. "Hi. What can we help you with?"
Ethan didnât even blink. "Weâre clearing out the zombies downstairs. If youâre not busy, come help us move the bodies."
"..."
The four girls stared at him, speechless.
Who the hell just walks up and asks women to haul corpses?
If they werenât so sure these guys were dangerous, they mightâve slammed the door in their faces.
Grace clenched her jaw, forcing a smile. "Um... I donât think weâd be much help with that."
"Ah, thatâs a shame," Ethan said, sounding genuinely disappointed. "I was planning to give each of you two crystal cores for helping. But if youâre not interested, weâll handle it ourselves."
He turned to leave, motioning for Chris and Henry to follow.
"Wait!"
The girlsâ reluctance vanished in an instant. Eyes wide, they surged forward.
"Are you serious?!" one of them blurted.
"Of course. No reason to lie," Ethan said.
"Weâre in!" they chorused, practically bouncing.
"Great. Letâs go," Ethan said, already heading for the stairs.
As they followed, one of the girls leaned toward Grace and whispered, "Can we really trust them?"
"Theyâve got no reason to trick us," Grace replied, her voice low but firm. "And this... this might be our shot."
They reached the fourth floor. The stairwell was packed with corpsesâbloated, mangled, and reeking. The girls went pale, but none of them threw up. After all, it was the apocalypse. Theyâd seen worse. Theyâd survived worse.
Ethan pulled four crystal cores from his pocket and handed them over casually. "Here. Consider these a down payment. Once you absorb them, youâll be strongerâmakes moving bodies easier."
Heâd dug these out of the very corpses piled in front of them. They werenât useful to him or the guys anymore, but wasting them wouldâve been stupid.
The girls stared at the glowing cores in his hand, stunned. He was just... giving them away?
This was the stuff people killed for.
He really was rich beyond reason.
Hands trembling, they took the cores. "Thank you... thank you so much."
To Ethan and the others, these mightâve been spare change. But to the girls, they were lifelines.
Mutated zombies werenât easy to kill. And they never came alone. Without enough manpower, you didnât stand a chance.
As the undead grew stronger, the odds of survival for ordinary people shrank by the day.
To these girls, each crystal core was practically a miracle drug.
"Alright, enough with the gratitude," Ethan said. "Eat them. Then start hauling."
"Right!"
The girls quickly wiped the cores clean and popped them into their mouths.
As the energy surged through them, they each reached Tier 1.
Without needing to be told, they got to work.
Sure, moving corpses was disgusting. But with crystal cores on the line? Totally worth it.
Ethan and the guys didnât sit around either. They helped drag the bodies into the empty dorm rooms nearby.
As they cleared the stairwell, the next wave of zombies came charging up.
Ethan, Chris, and Henry stepped forward to handle the killing.
The girls kept hauling the bodies away.
It wasnât glamorous, but it worked.
And for now, at least, they made a damn good team.
...