A human hand shot out of the darkness, reaching out for him. Bruce leapt back, and sighed with relief as the zombie was stuck in a steel cage, unable to leave its new prison.
"What you looking at me for?" Bruce said to the moaning corpse reaching for him. "I"m not letting you out!"
"Such compassion," the tannoy blurted, and Bruce knew it was the bitch who had locked them in the hospital.
Alyssa!
"Originally, I would let him out for the fun of it, but I have a better challenge for you. As you can see, the 8th floor is dead of life, and the armory is quite empty of weapons. It is a pity, that grenade launcher would have been terrific right now." She cackled. "However, I ensured that there was a shell or two for your shotgun. It is just a matter of finding them." She laughed once again, venom in every breath.
"Why are you doing this?" Bruce shouted, looking around him, observing the corpses of two Bandersnatches and a few scientists.
Alyssa carried on talking, as though she did not hear him. "If I was you, I would just head to the 9th floor. Your friend already has."
Bruce cursed her, and looked inside an office. Nothing seemed interesting; just a dead woman holding a picture frame, a few papers scattered across the room and an antique typewriter on a bloody desk. No guns, no ammo, no Misty.
Footsteps.
Bruce ducked behind the desk, and peered towards the doorway. The footsteps grew closer, and soon he was looking at two of the cultists that had chased them. The leader seemed fine, not a droplet of blood on his robe, but the other had a small gash in his shoulder, and was still bleeding.
"Captain," the wounded one started. "It seems to be dead of life here. Should we proceed further up the stairs and to the next test?"
The Captain shook his head. "Not yet, Alexis," he ordered calmly. "It was that thoughtless attitude that caused Seph"s demise."
Alexis nodded, and Bruce raised his eyebrows. One of them was dead, yet they seemed so careless about it, as though it was meant to be.
Come on, he thought to himself. There is a woman who has locked you in an evil hospital, there are zombies running around, you have seen what remains of your copter and you are surprised that these men are unaffected by the death of their comrade?
"It seems we have no other choice," the Captain said. "There is a high chance we can get the survivors, and perhaps the usurper that Heiadross uses to test us."
Heiadross? Bruce shook his head. This was getting stranger by the minute. He heard the footsteps slowly fade away in the distance, and he sighed. With any luck, those men would get killed with their other pal, and he could find Misty and get the hell out of there. He exhaled. What were the chances of it? It wasn"t as easy as it sounded, and he knew it.
"I don"t care," he growled to himself. "I just want to get the hell out of this cesspool!"
At that, he leapt to his feet, and ran for the stairs leading to the 9th floor.

The 9th floor was a blood bath. Bodies were shredded, and full of bullet holes. Whatever had happened here, it had involved a civil feud between the survivors.
Good, Misty thought, stepping over a man"s head.
The only other door was one that led to a giant room with small cubicle offices. The room was stuffy, and the ceiling was covered in a white texture that looked sticky and silky. She knew what it was as she witnessed eight zombies stuck in it, trying to wriggle free.
Spider webs. Giant, sticky, horrible spider webs, obviously made by giant, sticky, horrible spiders.
Taking precaution, she ducked low, trying to shuffle her way to the door labelled "storeroom" at the other end. If she was right, there would be a crowbar to open the door with.
Crunch!
Turning swiftly, Misty pointed her gun at the entrance, and groaned in horror as the Purger"s men approached, minus one of them. Their leader pointed at her, his face emotionless.
"You are coming with us, for the good of Heiadross," he spoke, his voice giving her a chill down her spine.
"Love to see you try," Misty smirked, gripping her gun tightly. She didn"t want to kill him, but if he touched her at all-
A scuttling noise echoed from the Purger"s Captain"s area, and the two men looked around swiftly, trying to spot the source. Misty knew what it was, and prayed it wasn"t nearby.
"Captain!"
At that call, it struck. A giant, black haired arachnid leapt from the ceiling, snatched up the long haired one named the Captain, and shot back to the ceiling. She shuddered as she heard his screams, and blinked in shock as the guy"s partner was knocked backwards by one of the creature"s legs. The man hit the wall, and lay motionless.
Misty wondered if the hit had killed him, but she saw his chest moving. The man was alive for now.
She turned once again and carried on shuffling to the storeroom, breathing lightly to prevent attracting unwanted attention. She moved lower to the ground as she walked under the zombies on the ceiling, the arms reaching out at her. She felt a tug at her foot, and spun her head around, horrified to have a piece of spider web stuck on her shoe. Carefully, she removed the web, using a letter opener on the ground.
She wrapped her hand around the door handle to the storeroom and pulled. Suddenly, the door flew open, knocking her on her back as a zombie with two bullet wounds and a labcoat came fell out, and started to crawl at her. As though it was a trap, the zombies suspended on the ceiling fell to the ground around her, moaning and reaching out to grab her. Shaking like a leaf, Misty gripped her gun and fired twice, destroying the head of the zombie from the storeroom. Before she carried on, she grabbed the key in its hand, only noticing it due to the glint of it.
Quickly, she crawled away, feeling the zombies clumsily pursue her. She rushed herself inside her head, urging herself to get to the staircase before the zombies caught up. As she got to the door, the smell of fresh death hit her, and she forcefully held in the bile rising up her throat. She turned her head, and as the zombies got close the door shut automatically.
She studied the door with curiosity, and as she turned her head her heart leapt with joy. Before her was a man; a man wielding a shotgun and with a stained shirt. The man had black hair which had become scruffy quickly, and had a slight tan. The man grinned and held out his hand for her to grab.
It was Bruce!
Smiling, she accepted his hand, and gasped as he pulled her up easily. She looked around, and noticed something was wrong. She remembered the man who lay still, breathing but not concious. He had been knocked back, and had hurtled through the air into the wall. Now he was gone.
"Bruce, do you know where that man went?"
Bruce blinked and smiled. "You"re welcome." He shrugged his shoulders as she rolled her eyes. "I don"t know. The other guy is over there, wrapped up nice and tight. I take it he is dead by the puncture wounds in his neck."
She decided not to look. "The other man. Did you see him when you got here?"
Bruce shook his head. "Our good friend "The Captain" is the only one I saw when I came here."
"We have to get out of here," Misty said, dismissing the man. "This key should open the door up there."
Nodding, Bruce ran to the staircase, and up the steps to the door. Close behind, Misty followed. Bruce taken the key from her as she got to the top, and unlocked the door.
As it swung open slowly, she started to regret it as they both were staring at the barrel of a grenade launcher, held by an angry woman.

Alyssa was furious. They were not meant to make it. They were supposed to die, like the others. The cultists died, the zombies died, Dr Oldring died; why didn"t they?
"You think you can just get away with this?" she snarled at them, feeling powerful as they dropped their weapons and raised their hands. "You were supposed to die!"
"What is going on?" the man asked sternly. "What is your problem?"
Alyssa felt rage flood her body, and without hesitation, she bashed the girl in the stomach, and sneered as she fell to her knees, coughing and moaning in pain. She was scaring them, she knew it.
"I"ll tell you what my problem is," she snapped, watching Bruce"s face twist in hatred. "Nobody appreciates my work, and you are among those ignoramous". You don"t deserve to live!" She treated him to a grin. "And you won"t. Know why? Because I am going now, and if you dare follow me, I"ll blow your freaking heads off!"
She used her launcher to force them to go inside, the man slowly helping the girl up, leading her away from Alyssa.
"Good people," she mocked. "You got that part right."
Alyssa turned, and started to make her way out when she noticed something. Didn"t the girl have a handgun?
"Stupid bitch," she heard muttered from behind.
Shocked and afraid, Alyssa turned on the spot, about to fire-
- and suddenly she was falling down the stairs, the grenade launcher lost down further flights of steps and into a fire raging below. She hit the floor, and Alyssa cried in pain. Her shoulder was killing her, the pain unbearable. She glanced to see it, and saw a hole in her labcoat, blood trickling out of it. She had been shot.
Before she could respond any further, a blurry shadow stood over her, and with a swift movement of the foot she was out cold.

Bruce stood in shock for a while, the events sinking into his head. They had been led into the room under grenade launcher point, and as the bitch, Alyssa, was about to leave he had grabbed Misty"s handgun, cursed her and fired once, aiming for her head.
However, he had been in a rush, and the shot had been off target. It had been a hit, but not a kill, which was a shame. If there was anything that woman deserved, it was to die.
The coughing of Misty brought him back to his senses, and he helped her up to her feet. She seemed fine; alittle winded by the hit but apart from that she was healthy.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.
"She flinched as she touched her stomach, and groaned quietly. "I"ll live, thanks. Nice shooting, Tex!"
Bruce held back a grin. "Afraid not," he replied. "She is still alive."
"Well," Misty smiled weakly. "We can change that."
As Misty walked to the staircase, she gasped.
"What is it?" Bruce asked worriedly, feeling his spirit sink.
Misty turned to face him. "She is gone!"