[Win – 8:50 a.m.]
Four of us.
Four weapons made from an orchestra's grave.
And one hallway flooded with death.
Palm wipes his forehead, hands trembling from exhaustion or genius — I can't tell.
Kao spins her triangle-axe with terrifying calm.
Lin cracks her neck and tightens her grip on her halberd.
I nod once.
"Let's end this concert."
[8:52 a.m.]
We unbarricade the door.
The wave floods in — Basics and Screamers, crawling, biting, snarling.
They're faster now.
Hungrier.
Like they remembered we exist.
[8:53 a.m.]
Lin charges first.
Her halberd swings wide and high — cleaving a Basic zombie through the top of its skull, slicing into the brainstem.
It drops instantly.
Kao follows, swift and brutal — her axe jams into the mouth of a Screamer mid-scream, silencing it forever.
Palm jabs two Basics in the neck with his trumpet-dagger, ducking between them like a dancer with death as his partner.
I smash a spiked flute into the back of a zombie's head.
CRACK.
The body seizes and collapses.
We're moving as one.
Breathing as four.
[8:56 a.m.]
Then it happens.
A Screamer lunges from a side door — Lin reacts fast, turns to strike—
But another zombie grabs her from behind.
Too late to pivot.
It scratches her arm.
Hard.
She SCREAMS — not loud enough to be suspicious, but loud enough that we all turn.
Kao throws her axe — and it lands square in the back of the biter's skull.
Lin shoves the corpse off, panting, blood running down her sleeve.
"I'm fine,"
she snaps.
"Just a scratch."
None of us question it.
We should have.
But we're too focused on surviving.
[8:58 a.m.]
We make it to the second stairwell.
Bodies on the steps. Some twitching. Some too still.
Palm hacks through one with the trumpet blade.
I duck and slam a flute-shiv through a half-rotted temple.
Kao doesn't speak.
Her mouth is tight, her hands precise.
Lin is slowing.
She holds her bitten arm like it's sore.
But she still fights. Still leads.
[9:02 a.m.]
We finally spot the rooftop sign.
Third floor. Last stairwell.
Steel door. Padlocked from the outside.
But more importantly — empty space.
No zombies.
Just wind.
Sky.
Hope.
___________________________