He took a keycard from the pile and led his companions to the first-floor entrance, watching for any signs of danger.

The elevator was broken, and power was doubtful in this heavily damaged hotel, where even the walls were hollow, likely from a mutant in the first wave of chaos and terror.

"Is the door even working? Will the keycard work?" Mildred asked, her body standing to his left as she watched the entrance keenly.

"Mmmm, the light is dim, but it seems this place has a backup generator or something.. I am not an expert, though, so let's avoid the lift; one has been crushed, and the other might not be far off the same fate."

Samantha began to close the doors, just in case. She didn't want zombies inside, and then any threats entering from outside, her quick wits caused Alex to nod with a smile seeing her putting several thick wooden and steel bars into the door, blocking any entrance for a short time at least.

"Let's go; check the left side of the rooms; I'll check the right side; shout if you need help. Don't be brave okay?" Alex added an order to the words, making sure they wouldn't get carried away, he would rather lose his arm than these girls.

Alexander knew he couldn't let his guard down despite his confidence. His two beautiful women were not as powerful as he was, and he always needed to protect them.

He scanned the room with his sharp eyes, ensuring no hidden dangers were lurking in the shadows.

Pushing through the doors, the trio entered the first-floor hallway; the carpet was filled with dark red stains, thankfully being black with gold trimming; it wasn't too obvious that the floor was soaked in blood.

Thanks to them being ghouls, the nasty scent that might make humans hurl or become nauseous wasn't an issue for the group.

If anything, the smell was like a mother's cooked Sunday roast.

He stood at the first rooms, one to the right and the other left, with small doors with 001 and 002 on the number plates.

"Okay, remember, make sure you take care of yourselves; these don't seem to be guest rooms but rather employee stay-in rooms," Alex said after looking through the faint glass window, unable to see with detail, but the distorted view showed him the inside layout.

The room was small and cramped, with a rotten bed of dirty mess on the bed, where a corpse lay, or rather a humanoid shape.

"I'm going inside, be careful."

"Mmm... let's be quick!"

"Be careful, Alex..."

Alex ignored his Vesta and entered the room without hesitation; the room seemed to have been ransacked already, with several discarded clothes scattered about. And underneath the bed was the body of a small child, slightly mouldy bread and some rancid meat on a small plate, while the emaciated corpse above the bed seemed to be the girls starving mother.

'Neither became a zombie... but how horrifying must their last moments be? How did they die...?'

There were no signs of struggle or any wounds he could see. He didn't want to disturb anything, so he moved away from the bed and stepped over the body to get to the adjoining room door.

Another small room, much like the first one, with a single bed, this time with a woman lying there, her eyes closed as if she had fallen asleep.

She was dressed in the same way as the girl, but it looked like she was wearing an old dress and seemed to be the woman's older daughter; across her neck was a clear bruising and signs of trauma between her thighs; this girl was likely to have been killed only recently.historical

On her jacket was a badge, similar to the work badge that Mildred had kept in her belongings despite being practically naked when they met.

"Oh no... is this her colleague?"

He knelt beside the bed and examined the badge, turning it repeatedly.

"It's not a company name or logo, just a symbol... maybe a family crest or something from a work-related event?"

A sudden thought struck him, and he quickly reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and search for the symbol.

"What are you doing?" Mildred spoke behind him, her face looking at the first two corpses blank; now, she was becoming more of a ghoul. These sights were common to her, although it wasn't the same for the woman in the side room as she stumbled forward, placing a slightly heavy hand on Alexander's shoulder.

"Alex... that girl... She's the one that was with me before I met you..." A quiet, gloomy voice came from Mildred's lips as she stepped forward, her hand closing the swollen eyes of the woman, ignoring the look of pure terror and deformed jaw before seeming to tidy up her appearance. Alex could not see any extreme emotion from Mildred, which made him worry even more.

'Was she a friend? Did she help you? Or was she one of the assailants?' His mind thought, filled with countless questions and worries.

"Mildred, what happened to her? What did they do to her?"

"She was abused, Alex. They took her virginity one by one.... and despite her acting submissive... they still killed her."

He looked at the pretty woman, wondering why they would have killed her, his eyes trying to examine the body without being too rude, only to notice a small scratch along her wrist. Still, it was one from metal, not a zombie, as there was no rotten flesh, no bubbling wounds and puss.

"It seems they thought she became infected..."

"But why? Why kill her?" She asked him, her eyes now more animated and wet.

"They probably thought she was a zombie and could spread the infection to others. But why would they think that?"

"Maybe because of the scratch on her wrist." Alex continued as Mildred held her hand, leaning her body against Alex's shoulder, seeming to hold back her shuddering body.

"No, they were too small for a zombie bite. Besides, zombies don't have metal nails. It must have been a human who attacked her and then tried to cover it up with the zombie attack." Mildred insisted, her voice more passionate and filled with emotion.

"Well, it's not like we can ask them, right?" Alex replied, wanting to act as a voice of reason. "Let's go check the other rooms."

"Yes, yes... but please, be careful."

"As always."

The next room, 103, was empty.

However, room 105 contained a young man sitting on the bed, staring at the ceiling, or rather a young zombie with no legs and chained to the bed, his broken jaw letting out low groans, as they seem to have broken his neck, but either failed to damage the brain or they were too scared of him lashing out and escaped.

"Nothing here either, only rotten items... is there something different? How our world changed... things seem to rot faster, bodies and corpses are performing transformations that can take weeks or months in days..." Alex thought to himself as he looked out the doorway, seeing that only 2 rooms remained, 106. The end room, 107, seemed to be for the manager or evening staff and was a larger room; from the window, it seemed to be a shared room with at least 6 beds inside.

'Let's wait for those two....'

Crack!

Suddenly the door split in two; before he could react, a strange extended limb, filled with blood, puss, and fleshy bulbs, smashed into him; the length seemed to be over 3 metres as he rolled along the ground, the bloody carpet scraping and splashing over his body.

"Fuck..."

"You two! Don't leave the room!" He shouted, as the wooden door shot from the hinges, flying through his hair with a rapid rotation towards his face; lowering his body, he slashed out with a rough and brutal swing of Eien, crushing the doors into a wood chipping with a loud bang as they burst from either side of him entering room 104 and 103.

While the creature dashed out of the room, running along the walls at an extreme pace, its face with two long whiskers, which were what smashed into Alex; the thing was like a deformed dog, with thick muscular limbs and a furless body; it's deformed sound more like a maw, split into four parts with countless sharp teeth and two tongues as it charged towards Alex, with bloodthirsty eyes.

Alex lowered his stance, holding Eien tightly, as the first Mutated animal appeared.

'Come to daddy, you little freak, tonight we will eat barbequed dog!'

"Eien!"

His sword flashed, slicing through the air and cutting off one of the tongues, causing the beast to stumble and fall backwards, but it quickly got back up, shaking its head and snarling at him.

"You little fucker! How does my beloved sword feel? Can you feel that obsessive and burning love as it eats away at your disgusting body?"

Alex felt excited, the first time using Eien since it was upgraded properly, the black flames beginning to bubble and flicker from the blade, something that the old man added just for him; his body felt light, and he felt like Sarah was beside him, the pent up moments where they fought alone in the dojo on Saturday nights, half-naked just hitting each other with all they got.

He became more violent, his body dashing forward, using the wall as his leverage, running along it to intimidate the zombie dog, showing the fucker he, too, could use the walls!

"Wuuuurf!"

Growled the dog as flames began to sear from the tongue torn off, its mouth forming smoke.

"Oh? Scared...?"

Suddenly, he realised the truth, as several gleaming eyes began to shine in the darkroom 107.

"Fuck!"

"Okay, girls, get out here; we've got a fiesta!" Alex took back his order, looking at the 7-8 dogs as they limbered their bodies, drooling with sticky wet slime, watching him with their deformed faces.

Their bodies moved closer, sliding across the floor with their sharp, deformed claws eyeing their prey with beady eyes.

'I fucking hate dogs... cats are so much cuter!'