I'd explain it to you, but your brain would explode.
- Dilbert's Words of Wisdom

"According to the reports I've been sifting through for the past few days, the extermination process has just about been completed," Squall stated, staring into the visual feed that transferred the face of Headmaster Cid Kramer from his office in Balamb Garden. "The team that was stationed to complete the operation is due back to B-Garden as we speak."

"And you're positive the sector has been cleared?" Cid asked in amazement, to which Squall nodded.

"A final sweep was conducted at 2100 hours yesterday. There was little to no monster activity from the city, nor within a 500 mile radius of the city. The continent is clean, and anything found after SeeDs' withdrawl should be easily taken care of by the Estharian soldiers."

"That leaves one less continent to search," Cid agreed. "Trabia Garden is dealing well with the monsters in the northern regeant, and Galbadia Garden has dispatched SeeDs to help organize the monster population along with the Galbadian Army. We may be able to organize a group of our own to the assist with the extermination."

Squall nodded, but inwardly sighed. He hated having to deal with standard procedures as the Commander of SeeD. If anything, he preferred to be in the front lines rather than sit behind a desk and command his men to conduct tasks that, according to regulations, he wouldn't do himself. He didn't become a SeeD to sit behind a desk and look at reports all day. What was the point behind all of his training if he couldn't put it to good use?

Just as he was about to continue the conversation, he heard a beeping sound coming from one of the doors leading to the office. Resisting the urge to sigh in relief to whoever his savour was, he excused himself and disconnected the conversation before heading towards the first door and pressing the button located to his right in order to open it. Immediately afterwards, Rinoa and Quistis rushed in, Angelo not too far behind either one. Rinoa grabbed onto him before putting himself between her and the door, as Quistis stood off to the side. "Close the door!"

"The mechanism closes automatically," Squall said as he raised an eyebrow. There was something in the former instructor's voice that had him concerned. "There's a delay. It'll close in a second."

"We don't have a second!" Rinoa said just as the door began to slide closed.

Just as Squall was about to point out that the door was, indeed closing, when it was about a quarter of a way from being shut, a woman suddenly lodged herself between the gap and tried to reach out towards the occupants of the room. Squall jumped back in shock and Rinoa gestured wildly at the woman. "See?"

The woman was paler than she should have been, her skin was pasty white. Her hair was dark and stringy, but it was her face that had shocked the SeeD Commander. Her eyes were a milky white, and her teeth were nothing but black stubs. She reached out to grab at each of them and for a second, Squall thought that the door was going to jam, when he saw the entrance cut through her mid section before slamming shut. The body twitched for a moment and stayed still.

Just as Squall was about to move towards the body, Rinoa pulled him backwards as the woman began moving again, snarling and snapping as she began to pull herself forward using her arms. Quistis immediately stalked over towards the desk and grabbed a hold of a small paperweight before approaching the woman and slamming the object off the back of her head. The woman lay still and didn't move again.

A moment of silence passed before anyone said anything. Quistis returned the paperweight to its original place on the desk, atop of a pile of papers that had already been looked through, before Squall said anything. Pointing towards the corpse, he was finally able to find his voice. "That…moved…" he muttered dumbly.

"Duh," Rinoa responded, rolling her eyes as the word dripped with sarcasm. "I never would have figured."

"She was cut in half…" Squall protested. "And…it moved."

"Yes, Squall…" Quistis said, folding her arms across her chest. "The world has gone insane. The dead actually get up and walk around biting people."

"Great…" Rinoa threw up her hands into the air before shaking her head. "We've broken his brain. Dead people are wondering around and Squall's brain is broken. Just what we fucking needed."

"I don't believe this…" Squall leaned against the front of his desk for support. He rested his forehead in his hands for a moment before suddenly looking up and staring at Quistis. "They bite?"

"Indeed they do," Quistis affirmed.

"And…" Squall wanted to scratch the back of his head but he was just too dumbfounded. "They move?"

"I think we've established that already," Quistis sighed. "But we don't know why they get back up."

Just as Rinoa was about to say something, the door to their immediate right beeped, causing all three of them to jump. Quistis grabbed a hold of the paperweight once more before Squall signalled for her to put it back down. "I don't think they're smart enough to knock."

After a moment, Quistis nodded in agreement, replacing the paperweight. Almost immediately afterwards, Squall grabbed one of the fold up chairs situated in the corner. Looking back up, he noticed Quistis giving him a look that he knew all too well. Shrugging, he approached the door. "Although, look at what's happened so far."

Quistis nodded in response and Rinoa sat beside Angelo, just in case something were to happen. Squall nodded to both women before disabling the lock mechanism to the door, and waited for it to open.

Fortunately, the only door that seemed to possess a delay happened to be the east door, and Squall stood to the side, Quistis doing the same. The door slid open, and Squall tightened the grip on the chair while Quistis jumped out to cast a spell, before she suddenly stopped. Squall wasn't that quick, and swung forward, barely missing Zell as he ducked but knocking the wind out of Irvine. The Galbadian sharpshooter fell backwards as a result, and a second later, the hallway resounded with a squeak.

Upon realizing what he had done, Squall dropped the chair and offered Irvine a hand to help him up. Quistis assumed her casting stance, and a blue aura of magic surrounded the teenager, healing him in response. Selphie was busy picking herself up off the ground.

"What did I ever do to you, Squall?" Irvine asked, sounding hurt.

"Deal with it later!" Selphie shouted, pushing at Irvine and looking behind. "They're coming!"

Squall looked over Irvine's shoulder and indeed saw more of the dead people heading towards their general location. The four immediately returned to the safety of the office before the door slammed shut, locking out the unwanted visitors.

"Okay…" Squall said, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to remain calm. It failed miserably. "What the hell is going on? They shouldn't be moving if they're dead."

"He still hasn't gotten past this part yet," Rinoa explained to Irvine, who nodded in response.

"Got news for ya," Zell said. "they're zombies."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Well Commander," Selphie said, gesturing towards the side window. "it doesn't make any sense that they're walking around when they don't have a pulse, but that doesn't seem to stop them!"

"But there's no such thing as zombies," Squall argued. "It's illogical."

"They're walking, and they're dead." Zell said. "Seems pretty logical to me."

"Not to mention they want us all for dinner!" Irvine pointed out. "What the hell are we supposed to do? It's like we're up against an army!"

As soon as the question had been uttered, all eyes fell upon Squall. Even the dog was staring at him.

Squall looked to each and every one of his comrades before sighing in exasperation. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"Because you're the commander." Selphie replied meekly.

"And you think I have a contingency plan for this?"

"You have a contingency plan for everything else." Zell pointed out.

Squall ran a hand through his hair. "I don't exactly plan for dead people wondering around trying to eat everything they see."

"Then maybe you should learn for next time," Irvine said with a shrug.

Sighing in exasperation once again, Squall fell into thought, running through every escape route there could possibly be. His thoughts immediately jumbled up as he realized that everyone was still watching him. "I can't think with everyone staring at me."

As soon as the words left his mouth, everyone's gaze averted elsewhere. Even Angelo looked away.

Closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose once more, he began to think rapidly, and dismissing ideas that wouldn't work or were just ridiculous.

There has to be a way around them. From the looks of it, they're pretty slow, so we can outrun them easily. But they have the advantage in numbers, and could easily overwhelm us. The best course of action would be to get out of the building. It's the most obvious plan of action.

Nodding to himself, he quickly gestured towards the door on his left. "Those things are waiting for us on the east side of this office as well as the south west side. We can use the northern exit to get out of this room before they over run it, and take the nearest exit out of here. Maybe even call for help."

It wasn't a good plan, but it was pretty much all they had. They couldn't possibly stay there; those things would break down the doors soon enough, if not by sheer strength then by numbers. Everyone else seemed to think about it for less than a second before nodding in agreement.

Squall immediately headed towards the bookshelf and, upon removing one of the books, pulled out a 9mm automatic, two .45 calibres, and a 5.7mm pistol before placing them in holsters he had inside of his boots, attached to his belt, and one in his jacket pocket. Afterwards, he immediately headed towards his desk and began fishing out more firearms.

Zell shook his head in astonishment. "I thought you said you didn't have a contingency plan for this?"

"No, he's just paranoid," Rinoa pointed out.

Squall pointedly ignored the comments that were being made about him before pulling out three more 5.7 mm automatics and tossing them towards Zell, Selphie and Irvine. Upon finding a 9mm, he handed it to Rinoa, and removed his assortment of throwing knives and handed each of his comrades a package.

"Paranoia sure does pay off, doesn't it?" Selphie exclaimed as she armed herself. "Whenever we need weapons, we just look at Squall."

"That's all I have in my office." Squall explained as he placed spare ammunition clips into his jacket, tossing some over towards the others. "The rest are located in my room, but we're not heading in that general direction."

"This's it?" Quistis asked. Squall nodded grimly in response.

Rinoa suddenly began to snicker, and all eyes turned to look towards her. Upon noticing their gaze, she held a hand to her face, and couldn't help but laugh. "You should have seen the look on your face, Irvine. It was priceless."

Zell's expression exploded into a grin. "Yeah, man. You fell like a sack of potatoes."

"Yeah, on me!" Selphie said, but she was also beginning to laugh.

"Can we talk less and get out of here?" Squall asked, gesturing towards the door. He couldn't believe they were making fun of Irvine's reaction to being hit by a chair at a time like this. "We don't have much time before those doors give way."

"You're right." Rinoa said. "Sorry, I just had to say it."

Irvine sighed. "I'm not gonna be living this down for a long while, am I?"

Quistis patted him on the back sympathetically. "Probably not."

"Didn't think so."

Squall deactivated the locking mechanism on the only door that would take them away from the threat and immediately it opened, allowing the group of six to exit through it. Irvine was the last one to leave as it closed behind him.

The six teenagers made their way single file throughout the corridor, weapons raised and eyes open. Angelo stayed close beside Rinoa as she kept her pinwheel raised. Squall had taken the front, due to the fact that his reaction time exceeded most of his comrades. He held one combat knife in one hand, and the 9mm in the other, the others doing the same.

They walked for a few minutes before coming to a corner, and Squall gestured for the others to stop their movements before approaching it, making sure that the coast was clear.

He held up the gun before slowly counting backwards from three and turning the corner, holding it raised up, but the sight he was rewarded with was not that of a dead creature, but of the three familiar figures that he had grown to know due to his trip to the past.

Kiros, Laguna and Ward stood on the opposite end, their own weapons raised, however Laguna lowered the MP5A3 that he held in his arms. "Dammit, don't do that!" He said, bending down and rubbing at his calf bone. "Damn near scared us to death."

Squall shook his head in response before gesturing towards the others, signalling that it was safe to come out of hiding. Upon seeing who it was, Selphie immediately bounded over towards Laguna and wrapped her arms around his throat. "Sir Laguna! You're okay!"

"Selphie!" Rinoa called out. "You're strangling him!"

As Selphie sheepishly de-attached herself from the machine gunner, Squall shook his head at the display. He had seen the three before him survive a lot of difficult situations out of fluke, and he vaguely wondered how they had managed to survive this.

"Glad to see you guys are alive," Laguna said warmly. "Hopefully you guys can tell us what's going on."

"Best we can figure," Irvine said. "is that people are dying and then getting back up and eating each other."

"Already knew that, I'm afraid," Kiros said, to which Ward nodded. "Persistent guys too. Laguna shot straight through one's kneecap and the guy didn't even flinch."

"Try head shots," Squall said before trying to get his bearings. "They're a lot more effective."

"Ward says 'That's something we can use'," Kiros responded with a nod. Ward mirrored the action.

A sudden thought struck Squall and he immediately realized that someone was missing. "Where's Ellone?"

"I don't know," Laguna answered grimly, his tone laced with worry. "We've been looking everywhere and we can't find her anywhere. It was a miracle we even ran into you guys."

"Maybe she got out already," Zell said helpfully. "Ellone's a smart girl. She's not gonna stick around if she knows it's risky."

"That's what we're hoping," Kiros said. "But you're definitely right about her. She doesn't stick around when she knows it'll get her hurt."

Squall frowned but nodded anyway. He wasn't so sure that Ellone had gotten out, but he hoped that she did. If anything, he'd go back for her if they found out that she was still in the residence, even if he had to fight off the others to do it.

"If you're planning to head this way," Kiros indicated behind himself. "You're out of luck. There are more of those suckers back that way. Our best bet is to go that way." He pointed back towards the way Squall and the others had emerged from.

At this, Quistis shook her head in response. "We just came from that way. There are more of them back there."

"So we go right," Squall said. "It should take us to the lobby."

"Let's hope we don't run into any more of those zombies before we get there," Selphie said, gripping the gun in her hand tightly.

To this, everyone nodded, before proceeding in the only direction they could go in. Squall maintained his position at the very front, this time being followed closely by Laguna. Following the President was Rinoa and Angelo, and directly behind her was Ward and Selphie. Stationed at the end was Irvine and Quistis, who was left following Kiros and Zell.

They walked throughout the curved hallway, making their way towards the lobby when Squall noted movement from nearby. He knew that he might have seen something vital, but due to the tension he might have just seen light reflecting off of a mirror-like surface. Choosing not to cause the others to panic, he chose to keep an eye out for whatever it might have been.

"Hey," he heard Zell whisper to Selphie. "Did you see something?"

At that, he stopped, signalling the others to do the same.

"No, but I think Squall might've," Selphie deadpanned.

"Actually, I saw it too," Kiros pointed out. "I just wasn't sure if it was my imagination or not."

"Okay, new rule," Laguna said after a tense moment of silence. "If anyone thinks they see something, bring it to our attention. Look at what we're dealing with here!"

Even as Laguna was talking, Squall was analyzing their surroundings. He caught movement from his left and directly in front of him, and as they passed a fork, there appeared to have been something there. A sudden realization dawned on him. "It's as if they're trying to ambush us."

"But they don't seem to be that smart," Quistis said. "They only appear to possess the knowledge of basic motor skills, like walking."

"They also follow basic needs, like hunger," Kiros said, to which Ward nodded. "Ward says that even the dumbest predators know how to surround their prey. It expends less energy, and it's easier to capture and eat them."

"Thanks for the mental picture," Rinoa shuddered. Squall mentally agreed with her.

"So what do we do?" Zell asked. "If they're planning to surround us, there's no way out except through them, right?"

"We know what they're planning," Laguna said. "If we changed direction, we'd probably run into the ones that were following us to begin with. There's not much left for us to do."

"So we continue going straight," Quistis said, to which Laguna nodded.

"We're gonna have to. The exit is just down the hall. All we need to do is get down to the first floor and then get out of the building."

"Sounds simple enough," Irvine said. "Then again, rarely anything is that simple."

"Do you have another option?" Squall asked.

"I was just pointing it out," Irvine defended.

"He likes to state the obvious," Quistis explained.

"Then let's get moving before they catch up," Zell said anxiously. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up on their menu."

Just as Squall was about to take a step forward, they heard footsteps coming from directly in front of them. Another set of footsteps came from the left, and soon the group found themselves surrounded by walking corpses.

Everyone stood at the ready, with their weapons raised as the corpses came closer towards the group. Some of them were missing pieces of themselves; others had bite marks all over their faces and arms. One of the walking corpses was dragging itself forward, using the momentum of its arms to propel itself.

A sudden yipping caught everyone's attention, and they turned to where Quistis had jumped into Irvine, after having nearly been grabbed by a creature behind them. Selphie screamed when she spotted movement from the side, and finally, Irvine opened fire on the ones from the opposite side, when one of the corpses had tried to grab a hold of Zell.

Everyone followed Irvine's example and began firing off their weapons, aiming as close to the head as they possible could while fending off their savage attackers, bullets flying and imbedding themselves into foreheads and faces and, in some cases, into torsos.

As soon as one of the .45's clicked empty, Squall threw it into one of the creatures, who had attempted to grab him, and threw his fist forward, crashing it through the corpse's skull. After using the momentum of his foot in order to snap the neck of a second corpse, Squall immediately started treading through the masses, looking back to call attention towards him. "We don't have enough ammunition! Clear a path towards the lobby!"

Just after he had spoken the order, he had to duck due to a stray bullet which ended up flying into the eye socket of a corpse shuffling behind him. The hallway resounded with the sounds of gunshots and the moaning creatures who were trying to flank them at all sides.

Irvine fired into each of the moving monster's skull even as Squall was pulling out the 9mm from within his jacket, providing cover fire. Laguna concentrated his fire power in front of them, firing multiple rounds all at once, each bullet slamming into the body or the head of one of their attackers. Irvine and Squall were both the last out of the corridor, heading down the hall at a dead run, their path having been cleared even as more of the creatures stalked after them.

As soon as they reached the elevator, Rinoa pushed the button even as everyone was panting in exertion. Irvine and Squall rounded the corner before leaning against the wall, trying to steady their breathing as well.

"We should keep moving," Squall suggested, once he was able to form conscious words again.

"Why are we even waiting for the elevator in the first place?" Zell exclaimed. "Everyone knows that the best way down is the stairs."

"Well sorry for sending the elevator up here!" Rinoa exclaimed, losing her temper. "I was sort of thinking about getting out of here alive rather than how fast it would take us."

"Calm down. Both of you," Quistis said, looking down the corridor. "They're coming, but they're slow, so we should take this time to catch our breaths."

Zell shook his head in disagreement. "No, no, no, no! That's the worst thing we could possibly do."

"Zell, they walk as fast as a snail's crawl," Irvine pointed out. "I think we'll be fine for a least a minute."

"You don't get it! In the movies, you take a second to catch a breath, and you wind up dead!"

"Zell, we're not in a movie," Laguna protested.

"Doesn't matter! Never underestimate those things! I don't wanna get bitten by any of those things!"

"Zell, you need to calm down," Kiros said, his arms put up in a defensive position.

"They're coming closer," Selphie warned, pointing down the hallway.

"You calm down!" Zell said as Rinoa moved away from the brawler. "Dammit, this is just like that movie we watched a while ago! Don't you remember? The zombies overran the whole place and killed everyone! And when they killed someone, biting, scratching, that sorta thing, they turned into one of them! I don't know about any of you, but I refuse to eat flesh for the rest of my afterlife!"

Selphie turned to look towards Irvine, the scratches on his face apparent to the rest of the group, and Quistis, rather than try and knock some sense into the martial artist, was strangely quiet, her arms folded nervously in front of her chest. No one spoke for a moment, the only sounds predominate in the area were the slight dinging sounds that came with the elevator counting up to their floor, and the distant shuffling and moaning that was starting to sound a lot closer than what anyone was comfortable with.

Eyeing the rest of his team tentatively, Irvine removed his hat from the top of his head and ran a hand through his bangs before replacing the hat. "Maybe Zell's right. Maybe we should keep movin'."

"At least someone is finally listening to me!" Zell said, throwing up his hands in exasperation as the elevator chimed, signalling that it had reached their floor. "See? The elevator is here, so let's just take it to the bottom floor, and get the fuck outta here!"

Everyone else nodded in agreement, but it was Squall who noticed the door to the elevator opening with multiple sets of hands reaching out to grab the brawler from behind. "Zell!"

Squall darted past the others just as one of the hands grabbed a hold of the blonde SeeD's sweatshirt, preparing to pull him inside. Just before this happened, however, Squall's gloved hand grabbed a hold of Zell's and the gunblader made the effort to pull as hard as he could to pull Zell away from the monsters.

Soon, he noticed that Irvine, Kiros and Laguna were assisting aid, but it didn't seem to matter as the brawler kept being dragged inside, dragging Squall and the others with him. Squall noticed that Zell's hands; the bits that weren't covered by his knuckle gloves, were caked in blood, and despite the fact that his grip was beginning to slip, he refused to let go, tightening it in an almost painful grip. As he continued to pull, the doors to the elevator suddenly began to move towards each other and Squall felt the weight being distributed differently and, against his will, he felt himself being pulled away from the martial artist, his hold beginning to loosen. He tried to tighten his hold once again, only he realized that as the grasp loosened, he was slowly being further and further pulled away. Finally, he was pulled away from the elevator, before the doors could crush him, and was forced to watch as they closed on Zell's horrified face.