As the door swung open, sunlight shone through a huge hole in the roof and wall. Keeping a careful eye on the deteriorated floor and ceiling, I edged into what had once been a waiting room. Two pigeons burst into flight, their noisy wingbeats making me jump as they flew to safety.
Exhaling slowly, I examined the ceiling, which was hanging down in some spots, and laying on the floor in other areas. The floor seemed sturdy enough, and I knew nothing had collapsed in the rooms below, so I kept going, ready to jump back at a moment's notice.
I didn't get far before I stopped and examined the piles of twisted metal and wires that used to be part of the roof, deeming it unsafe to try and go deeper into this area when I was unsure how solid the floor was. The last thing I needed to do was be responsible for a building collapse.
If there was any equipment in the back rooms, it would have been crushed by falling debris and soaked by numerous rainstorms. I backed out and checked nearby rooms, confirming the destruction wasn't confined to just one area.
The floor farther down the hallway was warped and twisted. The carpet hid whatever the supports underneath were doing, but I trusted it about as much as I trusted Trent to not ask questions when we returned.
I returned to the stairwell and went to the second floor, pushing open the firedoor and calling out, "Are you on this level?"
"Yes. Did you find anything?"
I walked down the hallway, letting my footsteps fall heavier. "A lot of looted rooms and a collapsing roof. You?"
Light shone around a corner before Daniel came into sight. "A couple of small things that were overlooked when the room was ransacked, but nothing we're searching for. Feel like heading over to the university and seeing if any of their lab stuff was left behind?"
"Might as well. We're not finding anything here."
I headed back the way I came, knowing Daniel didn't like people behind him in dark places, especially Nightstalkers. The light from his flashlight shone around me as he followed me down the stairs and outside.
With a quiet sigh of relief, he turned the light off. "It's a bit of a walk to the university."
"Your other option is fetching the truck and trying to drive through this." I gestured at the road, where vehicles were caught in a series of bumper-to-bumper roadblocks as far as I could see. At least a dozen zombies were visible, so plenty more were around and willing to form additional barriers.
"Point taken," he said as he started jogging.
We wove our way through the streets, avoiding the zombies who decided to give chase. We were going faster than the regular zombies, but a Runner had already spotted us and was beginning to catch up. I vaulted over a car to deter it, and it tried to climb over before finally going around.
Without breaking stride, Daniel ripped the mirror off a truck and threw it past me. I glanced back as the mirror hit the Runner square in the chest and knocked it over.
"Thanks," I murmured, making a mental note of that trick. It had never occurred to me to use vehicle parts as ranged weapons. Stones and socket wrenches, yes. Depriving cars and trucks of no-longer-essential parts, no.
I vaulted over another car so Daniel would be the clearer target. He could have the joy of dealing with annoying ferals. If I happened to learn a few more tricks while watching, even better.
Apart from vehicles, zombies, and an occasional flock of pigeons, the city streets were deserted. The buildings had been at the mercy of the weather with no repair or cleaning for years, and they were starting to show their age. I didn't see any that were leaning yet, but in the distance, some had been blackened by fire.
I eyed up a bicycle, wishing its tires hadn't been flat. Riding a bike probably would have been easier than our fast-paced jog, assuming I could actually find a clear path where I didn't have to jump over something.
The minutes dragged on, prompting me to ask, "How far away is it?"
"We're over halfway there," Daniel replied, proving he knew where he was going. "I think I can see some of the buildings from here."
I had no idea what this university even looked like, so I didn't bother staring at the distant buildings. We'd get there when we got there. Then we had to hope it hadn't been looted too thoroughly.
My nose alerted me to another scent trail. "There's a Nightstalker around somewhere. Feral, so I don't think it will be a problem unless we find its hiding spot."
"With so many buildings around, the odds of it being inside the University are slim."
We kept jogging. An overgrown park was my first clue that we might have reached our destination. The second hint was when Daniel slowed down and said, "There's a biosciences lab around here somewhere, but I'm not sure if it was in the nursing or pharmaceutical building. Some of the other buildings might have lab spaces as well."
I raised an eyebrow at the various buildings on the campus, all of which had several floors. One building had all the ground floor windows boarded up, some of which had been torn off by a strong Runner or Nightstalker. At least the walls and roofs were intact.
"We could be here all day," I muttered. I shook my head, and at normal volume, said, "Why don't you check that newer-looking building? It probably had some fancier stuff. I can snoop around the other places."
"That works for me. I can smell that a Nightstalker has been around. Can you tell if it's in one of these buildings?"
"The scent is over a day old, so I don't think its den is nearby."
With a reassured nod, he headed toward the fancier building, leaving me the joy of exploring the rest of the campus. Woo-hoo. A self-guided university tour. Just what I always wanted. Not.
I jogged down the cracked sidewalk toward the nearest building. Around me, regular zombies wandered among the saplings and plants that grew with zero respect for the landscaper's original design.
When I opened the unlocked door, several zombies greeted me with hungry growls. I returned the welcome, baring my teeth to back up my threat. They parted to let me into the hallway where the floor still bore dark brown streaks of old blood.
The students had likely been evacuated or sent home during the early days of the apocalypse, but some had tried to hide in the large buildings. I wasn't sure I wanted to see what kind of carnage was in the boarded-up building. I'd save that one for last and hope I didn't need to enter it.
Fortune shone on me, and a large map was plastered on the wall. I went over to it, curious to discover which areas I could skim through and which would require a thorough investigation.
I frowned at it while mentally berating whoever made it for not including important details like which rooms might have lab equipment. A few labels looked promising, so I yanked the map off the wall and began jogging down the hallway.
Most of the doors I passed were open, revealing old brown smears on the walls and floors. I didn't see any bones, although the zombies might have eaten them after all this time.
The doors had windows, so I didn't even have to open the ones that were closed. As was to be expected, there were several classrooms and meeting rooms. I checked a few rooms that had looked promising on the map, but the empty counters and cabinets showed that I wasn't the first person to come here.
I sighed and resigned myself to a long, fruitless search, only to pause when I saw a room with several bookcases full of books. A couple of books lay on the floor, one of which was gracing me with a real picture of a heart being dissected.
It wasn't equipment to help unravel a virus's secrets, but these books were probably something Ironwind Stronghold hadn't managed to find in the rural libraries. I went into the room to take a closer look.
I ignored the ones about medicines, figuring that knowing where the liver was located might be a bit more important than a drug that the world probably wouldn't see for another forty years or so.
I quickly flipped through each book and kept anything that looked advanced or something that Nina might find interesting. A few books on drug interactions and viruses also joined the growing pile.
It took me some time to work my way through each shelf, and I had a sizable pile by the time I was done. There was no way I was going to be able to fit fifty or sixty books in my backpack, so I left the stacks on the floor and went back into the hallway.
I continued checking the rooms, both for the equipment I was supposed to be searching for as well as anything capable of holding all the books. A small sign marked the janitor's closet, and when I opened the door, my eyes landed on the janitorial carts.
The stacks of toilet paper and bottles with dried-out residue piled on the cart got tossed on the floor. I took a few garbage bags and stashed them in my backpack in case I needed them later. With the carts now empty, I pulled two into the hallway and left them for whenever I returned.
The nearby rooms didn't have anything of interest, although more and more zombies were starting to trail after me, recognizing my search as a hunt, although they didn't realize that I was hunting for very different "prey".
I found the stairwell and began jogging up the stairs, slowing down when I saw that the top had been barricaded.