With a last ditch effort I sprinted across the narrow hallway to the office door. The splicers were making their way down the hall. This was a risky move, but they would have seen me. The door was stuck and panic set in.

I raised the crowbar I was using as a weapon and wedged it in the door, quickly pressing my weight against it slamming the door open. I had barely enough time to catch it before it slammed against the wall. The splicers were close. I could hear their unintelligible conversations. Stepping inside and quietly closing the office door I looked for a place to hide.

There was a rather large window to the hallway. Shadows were coming down the hall and in a last ditch effort I ducked beneath the window. Shadows moved across the window and I covered my mouth trying to remain as quiet as I could. This place was a living hell.

The zombie stories I grew up on were nothing compared to the splicers. Splicers had full mental capabilities. They were just mutated and insane. Seeing a single splicer makes me relieved that I faced the societal suicide when I refused to use plasmids. It was worth every name and every party.

The shadows and voices stopped. I peeked out the window. They were past the hall I was in. A sigh of relief escaped my lips. The window had blinds and I quickly drew them most of the way, leaving a crack big enough for me to see a shadow if another group of splicers goes by. It was nice to have a refuge, even if it was just a small office.

Examining the door, there was a lock that I turned. I jammed the desk chair under the knob for good measure. For the first time in a long time I felt somewhat safe. Turning around, I glanced at the office. It wasn't in horrible condition for being abandoned. The paint had only barely started to peel. The only furniture in the office was a filing cabinet, the desk and the chair holding the door shut. I set my pack on the ground and sighed with relief.

Today's accomplishments seemed small, but they were huge. I managed to go through one of the biggest Splicer hot spots to scrounge up what little food was left in the area. There is not a lot of food left down here. I had gathered about a month's worth of food, scrounging everywhere I could. There just wasn't a lot left. What other possible survivors hadn't got, the splicers had.

I sighed once more and began to unpack my belongings. This office will be my refuge until I nearly run out of food. Peering out the window, I carefully moved the desk up against a wall and laid my sleeping bag and pillow across the top. My extra clothes, food and water went into the filing cabinet drawers. What few other belongings went into the desk drawers. All that lay in those drawers were a couple bottles of alcohol, a diamond necklace that belonged to my mother, various pens and pencils, two notebooks, a journal and a few books that I've gathered along the way.

With a sigh of what came as close to contentment as possible escaped my lips as I laid back on the sleeping bag. I reveled in the somewhat safe feeling as I closed my eyes and slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.