Rob carefully moved forward, several yards ahead of the group - enough to leave them a comfortable gap if something happened to him, but not enough to leave them vulnerable if he had to react quickly. He looked over his shoulder and nodded to Lucian who was covering the rear, much better equipped this time. Rob knew ammo was vital for the survival of this group but he didn't regret giving his spare clip to the cook. Now at least it was two of them able to help the others.<br/><br/>The hallways of maintenance were dark, damp, and desolate. The blasts had knocked boxes and furniture around, blood stains and chunks of what looked suspiciously similar to human flesh completed the unpleasant environment.<br/><br/>There had been no hostile activity since Rob had killed the deranged infected Chili. But that had been just minutes ago. The maniacal laughter hadn't repeated itself; in fact, apart from Rob, Luc, and the group of injured civilians nothing was making any noise. They were halfway through to the stairs. Rob kept walking forward, eyes locked ahead, ears on stand-by, heartbeat rate slowed down and kept in check. The high humidity combined with the heavy uniform had made him sweat hard.<br/><br/>Step by step, yard after yard the group was moving forward. Their progress was slow, the sarge had to check every room they were passing by for potential danger. But so far there was nothing. He kept looking back for any signs from Lucian, but he had either missed them or there simply weren't any.<br/><br/>And then they were there - the staircase leading down. It was largely undamaged and except for the knocked out lights it was perfectly passable. Rob stood at the top looking down while the rest of the group caught up with him. "Luc" he said quietly. "I'll walk up front, you walk at the rear. If you can walk backwards, that would be helpful. We'll move down slowly, level after level, until we reach ground. The rest of you, stay behind me and Luc and if something happens, remember - we're walking down a staircase, one kick from any of you and the ferenzi that's attacking you will be rolling down and hopefully cracking their skull. So don't panic! You're not dead yet."<br/><br/>And he made his way down the stairs. The group followed. They were halfway through to the 20th level when the mad laughter broke out again - coming from above. Whoever... or whatever that thing was, it was following them, but it wasn't attacking. Well, sarge thought, I hope Luc blows the fucker's brains out when the time comes. He ignored the whispers and scared looks of the civilians and kept moving down - slow enough not to make the injured strain themselves and suffer.