She shook her head.  “First, I’m going with you.  No telling what’s up there, and I’ve already had to save your ass once today.” A wink took the sting out of her words.  “Second, you won’t have to carry it down.  It’s mostly rope.  Just lower it down.”

He did an exaggerated facepalm.  “Another good call.  What would I do without you?”

She poked him in the gut. “Well, in about three days you’d be getting shat out by that lanx.”

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, he replied, “I’m assuming we’re gonna need some tools to disconnect that pulley?”

“Yup!  There’s a maintenance shop on the lower level.  Let’s go.”

She led him to the nearest stairwell and down one floor.  They passed by the morgue, and he made VERY sure that door was secured.  Beyond the visions of walking corpses, he didn’t want any more critters getting in there and consuming whatever bodies might be inside.  And very soon, with the power off, it was going to start to smell.

In the maintenance shop, they found at least two of every kind of tool Allistor could imagine.  Metal wrenches, channel locks, sockets, power tools, hammers, and hacksaws. There was even a massive wooden workbench that made him drool, and two portable, folding workbenches next to two extendable ladders. They also found several large canvas duffle bags.   He discovered a few spools of wire and thick twine that would help him secure stuff on the trailer if the rope didn’t do it.  And one entire wall was stacked high with bags of salt for winter.  After filling four bags, there were still more tools Allistor wanted.  And in the corner, he found an actual anvil!  Dreams of Weaponsmithing danced through his head.

“We need something to carry more of these things in.  Something big, preferably with wheels.  I want to take as much as we can.  Hell, I’ll even take these metal shelves if I can.”

Amanda tapped her chin.  “There are the steel autopsy tables in the morgue.  They’re on wheels and have a shelf underneath.  We could pile these bags on there.  They’d make good rails on the trailer, too.”

He shook his head. “Bigger.  Heavier.”

She shrugged.  “We’ll have to look around.”

He grabbed a socket wrench, channel locks, a hammer, and some pliers and they made their way to the roof.   With his improved strength and stamina, the walk up the seven levels from the basement to the roof was almost effortless.