Mathew’s words voiced out and then disappeared, replaced by the constant and everpresent noise of the ongoing battle.

Now that the horde was properly thinned out, the pendulum returned to its usual job, pushing those few zombies remaining down the gap.

“I see…” Nadia muttered. She hung her head down. The hold of her fingers over Mathew’s arm weakened.

“For now, I can only say I’m sorry,” Mathew whispered, putting some weight on Nadia’s shoulders to make her sit down.

‘Sorry, but I have to do this,’ Mathew thought as he turned around.

The young man didn’t stop there. He moved forward, his weapons ready in his hands.

‘Well, I don’t think I can do it if I hesitate,’ Mathew thought, looking over the edge at the swarming river of the zombies.

Even now, after all the explosions and the hammering, some of the zombies still managed to keep swarming the corridor.

‘Then let’s do it all at once,’ Mathew decided.

He closed his eyes and took one long breath. And then, he rushed forward.

With just a few steps, Mathew managed to get enough momentum to make the jump. The gap between the edge of their level and the floor below wasn’t big… But for a human, making the jump wasn’t an easy feat either.

“Off we…” Mathew hyped himself out as he rushed towards the edge. “GO!” he shouted, knocking himself up.

Mat pulled his knees up, looping over the mass of the zombies that gathered below. And after just a single second, his feet touched the lower floor.

Tssk.

Mathew could hear the plaster crumbling away from the many cracks present in the building’s structure. But so far, the floor held on.

‘Let’s begin,’ Mathew thought, fixing the hold of his weapons.

A swing to the right.

Mathew’s ax broke right through the skull of a zombie. He then swung his sword, cleanly cleaving another zombie’s head out.

Bit by bit, Mathew moved through the floor.

He would finish any zombie that he could afford to, leaving them for harvesting later. Yet, most of the time, he had no other choice but to focus his full attention on warding off the ongoing attacks.

‘This is pretty tough,’ Mathew thought, grinding his teeth against each other.

It wasn’t that each of the zombies was much of a threat. It was their sheer number that made the operation difficult.

“Just…” Mat swung his ax sideways. Yet, as he had no time to turn its blade around, he used the back of the weapon to cave the skull of yet another zombie in. His blade then cut at the arm that reached out for Mat from behind…

The blade got stuck.

Mat wrestled his hand, attempting to free the weapon.

It wouldn’t be a disaster if he were to lose it, but it would definitely mark the end of the easiest phase.

Math continued to move forward, dealing with the zombies he encountered on the way.

Step forward. Step backward to dodge. Another step to the back to avoid a group of three undead. A forced lung three paces ahead to escape from the zombies reaching out for his head from the side.

BOOM!

The noise of the shoot rang in Mathew’s ears, causing him to waver for a second.

What was supposed to be a support ended up as a hindrance.

‘Fuck,’ Mat cursed in his thoughts, shaking off the surprise. ‘I forgot about that guy,’ he thought, glancing over at the officer standing at the edge.

The position of his pistol clearly indicated who was guilty of the distraction.

But now that Mat recalled this part of the strategy, he moved his attention back to the only task that he had.

To advance.

The prime time for harnessing the stones has yet to come. But for it to happen, Mathew had to cull the numbers of the horde even further.

‘More,’ Mathew thought, swinging both of his weapons sideways.

‘More,’ Mat called out in his soul when two loud bangs took two zombies off his back.

“More,” Mathew muttered, getting into the rhythm of the zombie killing.

“MORE!” the young man groaned when a zombie cleaved at his side, leaving a bloody bruise where its sharp, broken nails cut Mat’s stomach open.

‘Fuck,’ the young man thought, taking a step back and a breath to calm himself down.

‘I can’t let myself get into the heat,’ he thought, gritting his teeth. He then took another retreating step.

It was only a small injury. But it also marked the end of Mathew’s forward adventure.

“Kill them all!” Mathew shouted, not even turning back. And then, a barrage of shots fell most of the zombies around. And in the few seconds that followed, the gunshots cleared out all of the zombies remaining in the corridor.

‘Now!’ Mat raised his eyes on the officer at the edge. But this time, he didn’t even need to call for any order.

“Get them stones, now!” the officer shouted, hurrying his people up.

What followed could only be called magnificent.

‘Wait, isn’t this bad?’ Mat thought, a sudden thought making his face freeze. Then, his eyes moved over to the cracks that caught his attention before.

Then, two things happened simultaneously.

First, the police squad landed on the floor. And then, the already exhausted material it was made off… just gave up.

BOOM!

The sound, many times stronger than the explosions before, shook the air within the corridor. And just like this, nearly half of the floor that made up the level broke off and crumbled down.

The rubble crushed onto the floor below, its momentum big enough to shatter the next floor as well.

For two more times, the hellish noise shook everyone that heard it, only for many tons of destroyed concrete to bury the brave police squad.

‘Fuck…’ Mat cursed under his nose.

It was already a blessing for the building itself to keep on standing. But it didn’t lessen the shock of watching those experienced veterans go out all at once.

‘Wait,’ Mathew raised his eyes, refusing to accept the two things that this changed.

He raised his eyes… but he couldn’t see the negotiating officer anywhere over the edge.

Just like the rest of his team, he jumped down to help gather the cores. And now rested somewhere below all the ruble that most of the floors in the building turned into.

But that was something that Mat couldn’t influence any longer. Who died was dead. It was a simple truth, but one that turned out to be insanely hard to accept and adapt.

Still, that left Mathew with one problem.

Because all the routes that he intended to take to return to the floor above were now gone.

And to make it all even worse, the screeching scream of a monster suddenly filled the devastated building.