It was the first time that Ignacio had tried approaching the charred remains of what was left of the dorm building.

The third floor was gone entirely, the second floor was in shambles, and the first floor looked burnt beyond recognition. Still, the rubble was there, and the building was approachable...

He had to know. He had to know if there was anything left.

The zombie swallowed hard, before moving in the building through a hole in the wall that might've once been a doorframe. A quick glance around revealed that he had indeed entered a bedroom, but whose bedroom was this? It looked a little charred Spartan, but that might've just been because of the fact that most of the building had burned to the ground...

What was that on the floor?

Ignacio ventured over to the rectangular-shaped object and picked it up, bringing it closer to his face so he could blow the ash off it. Looked like a some pages of a notebook... glued together at the side? The rest of the book had probably charred completely before the fire ended.

Perhaps knowing from too many Whodunit books that this would definitely be a clue, he peeled it open and headed for the less-charred middle page in an attempt to read what might be inside.

Jibberish. What did that even mean... math. There was math in here, he recognized that as a factorial or something... This had to be Arastoo's old notebook. Ignacio had never known him too well; really, the most that he had known was that the man was a math genius. He was a red-headed one, too. Seemed fairly nice, but also seemed too absorbed with his mathematics. Perhaps, Ignacio was holding all that was left of him.

All that was left of the local mathematics genius was in his hands.

He cautiously ripped the page from the rest of the charred pages and folded it carefully so it didn't snap, before placing it in one of his sweater pockets. If it was the only thing left of a man Arastoo, it was Ignacio's responsibility to hang onto it. And perhaps if he was still alive, someday, Ignacio could give it to him. It was a charming thought, and made Ignacio grin so typically as he moved outside of room ARA-1.

If he had entered into the first room, then his room was all the way down and at the corner. Putting his blinders on when it came to the other rooms for the moment, Ignacio ran forward as fast as his undead legs would take him, soon arriving at his own room.

The door was closed, but Ignacio lifted a leg and smashed it into the door. It smashed open all too easily (further proving that this building had no integrity; staying in here too long would be a bad idea, probably) and Ignacio stepped inside.

The room was so ... barren.

Just like Barren Pines.

"I used to live here," mumbled Ignacio, in amazement. This charred room, this barren room... used to be full to the brim of hobby-materials he had once gotten bored of. His lab station was over on his desk... he had been taking something apart before the Jigsaw incident, before the play rehearsals. But there was nothing there except a few bits of dust. His bed had a few pieces of charred blanket left on it, but he didn't want that.

The charred blanket wasn't his. Not in its current state.

He dared to venture over to what was left of the burnt dresser and pull a drawer open. Casual clothes. Video gaming shirts, sweatpants, a barely recognizable dirty magazine that he had swiped from Lucas just to see if he ever noticed... Ignacio chuckled, moving his clothes to cover the magazine. (Really, no one needed to know he had one of those in his dresser, right?) But as he moved the clothes, he found what he was looking for.

The envelope.

The note from his parents, with their pictures...

It was still there.

Immediately, he swiped it and put it in his other pants pocket. He didn't need to know the words; he would read it later. For now, he just wanted to have it. It made him feel an extra pang of hope within his heart, and he wanted to keep that hope burning and alive.

He needed to keep moving.

Ignacio said one last goodbye to his old home before walking back in the direction that he had came, deciding that he would be best off using the familiar exit to the building. But he took the blinders off this time. This time, he chose to look from left to right, taking in all the old rooms. HEN-18... Lucas had always been right across the hall; too bad they weren't still. GRA-11... That was where Grayson had once lived... BEL-6 made him scoff; damn that douchenozzle for all that it was worth but... even so, being called Nacho Cheese Araya would totally make him feel good right now. At least it would be some semblance of normalcy.

And then he saw it. CRO-4. This was Riff-Raff's room, right? Because he was addressed as Azzo at some point, by Sailor... Virgin or whatever she was calling herself. What called to his attention the most, though, was the note on the door his eyes soon caught.

'Here Lies Melody.'

No, no, "NO!"

Melody couldn't be dead. Lucas was alive, sort of, so Melody had to be too. Melody had to be too. She had to be. He beat on the door in hopes that someone would answer and tell him that this was all a joke. Sweet Melody. She always had a smile, always had beautiful music to play. She was always so tolerant even when he randomly wandered off and got distracted by the lilac trees or the pawn shop. If Lucas was someone he could always have fun with, Melody was always someone he could lean on.

And she was dead.

For the first time since he was reawoken, he felt his eyes burn. No, no, no... Helplessly, he smashed his hand against the door again, knowing she wouldn't but hoping she would peak her head out the door and say it was some kind of ploy to fool the zombies. But nothing came. Nothing ever came.

His eyes burned and his heart wept, and he remained crumpled on the floor for several moments.

But another voice came from within, ordering him to get up off the floor. This was no time for weeping. This was time to discover humanity again. This was time to discover who was behind this and destroy them. This was time to contact his parents. This was time to return Arastoo's belongings to him. This was time to resurrect Melody. This was time to team up with Lucas (and not to kill all humans). This was time to declare war.

With a newfound determination, Ignacio stood up and nearly stormed out of the hole in the wall he had found.

This was time to declare war.