Ethan didn't waste a second. He crouched beside the twitching corpse and plunged his fingers into the shattered skull, digging out the crystal core nestled inside the Tier 5 zombie's brain. It came free with a wet squelch, gleaming red and pulsing faintly in his palm.
"Back to the stairwell!" he called out, already turning.
The others didn't hesitate. They fell back fast, retreating through the gore-slicked hallway and into the narrow stairwell they'd used as their fallback point.
Chris and Sean, who'd taken the least damage, instinctively took up positions at the entrance, holding off the few stragglers still lurching after them. The rest of the group collapsed against the walls or slumped to the floor, breathing hard, blood soaking through torn clothes.
They'd gone all in to buy Ethan the time he needed. And it showed—every one of them was cut up, bruised, or worse.
