Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Science Fiction

Chapter 3:

Getting off an empty escalator, I found myself on the upper levels of the mall, with no one around. This is bad, a horrible feeling washed over me. 
"Hello?" I heard a voice.

Swerving around to see a medium aged, blond man standing outside a shop. We stared at each other for a few seconds before he stuttered, 
"We are the only ones on this level." 
"What do you mean?" 
"No one is here."

The mall was filled with hundreds of people before, then realizing that the shouts and screams were now filled with only dead silence. I stared down the flight of escalators before me, lights were flickering, but no one in sight. 
Suddenly, I saw movement, slow at first, then a man emerged from the shadows, but he wasn't human, at least, not anymore. His eyes were pure white, mouth drooped weirdly to the side and he rushed toward me. His skin was grey with blood dripping from the wounds on his arms and chest, he pounced on me, falling on my back, I hit my head onto the ground and a sudden throb of pain travelled through me. 
"Get off me!" 
I screamed as he swatted at me, mouth opened, trying to bite me! Holding him at arms length and using all my strength to push him away. I reached for a metal piece on the ground and with all my might I pushed it into his chest, blood spilled out, but his grip was still tight on me. I felt my heart pounding against my chest, deafening me from his deep growls.
"Help me get him off!" I shouted in the direction of the shocked blond man, staring at me struggling with this, zombie. It was like a movie come to life, using the metal pole, I jammed it between his eyes, a sickening sound of bones breaking forced a bile into my throat, 'don't puke, don't puke,' I swallowed it back down. But the zombie lay on top of me, motionless. 
"GET HIM OFF ME!!" 
I screamed again, this time the blond man rushed forward, pushing the zombie off me.

Standing up, I swatted at my chest and rubbed my arms, trying to wipe away the blood of the zombie, the thought of me killing someone washing over me, 'he was already dead,' I thought to myself, 'I just killed him again,' the bile rose back up at the thought, bending over, I puked my lunch onto the blood stained tiles of Slide Mall. 
Regaining my composure, I brushed pass the blond man into a shop which looked like it wasn't ready to be opened to public. It was scarce, a few posters hung on the walls, empty glass cases stood in the middle of the shop.

"What's your name? I'm Kon."
"Charlotte." 
I answered, not looking at Kon while searching the shop.
"What are you looking for? What's going on out there?"
"Zombies, there are zombies out there."
"How- what... What's going on here?" 
Ignoring his question I didn't have an answer to, I continued searching behind the counter and around the shop.

"What are you looking for?" Kon asked again shakily.
"Weapons."
"I own this shop," his voice a hint of arrogance. 
"Then get us things we can defend ourselves with." My tone sharp, my heart was beating with anticipation. 
"Why?"
"Did you not see what happened to that man out there? We need to protect ourselves."
"I'm not going to kill a human." 
Kon protested, standing his ground. 
"They aren't human, did you not see? That was a freaking zombie out there! And there will be many more in this building." 

Kon was now thinking about what I had said, then pointing at the door which had 'staff only' painted on it. 
"There are a few display swords and medieval weapons in there, I was going to run a hobby shop." Sadness sipping out of him, before he continued.
"They aren't for combat, but they could still do some pretty bad damage."
Nodding, I ransacked the store room, pulling out two samuri swords and an axe. Shoving the axe at Kon who reluctantly took it from me. 
"This is the exact replica of Bloodaxe axe." Kon said, carefully holding the axe in both his hands, "there were only 500 made in the universe." 
"I'm sorry you couldn't have opened this shop up." I said, attempting to sympathise with him despite the grave situation. Kon gave a sad smirk, turning to the front door.

I crept slowly to the entrance of the shop. The were voices coming from outside.
"Humans!" Kon exclaimed, rushing over as I pulled him back to close the shop door enough for to peek out. 
"Shhh." 
A zombie appeared at the escalator, followed by four other, people? No, those were not humans, at least not the other three. A girl between the zombie and three others was human, her eyes frightened, fearful. An older lady had her fingers dug into the girl's arm, she emitted a sense of evil.
"Something isn't right Kon, stay put."
I peered from the ajar door, trying to hear what they were saying. 
"You have no where to go now." 
The older lady said to the girl. She was in a white dress, no shoes, her dress torn from her waist down. The old lady seem to be the leader of the pack, giving orders to the other two. But what was curious, was the zombie which scouted the front, it wasn't attacking them, why? 
"There's a submachine in the basement, we need to get to that." 
I whispered to Kon who seemed terrifed by what he was seeing. 
"But, we can't leave her there."
Kon said looking at the girl in white and the other three. 
"We got to save them from that zombie." 
Without hesitation, he swung the door wide open, but just as he was about to step out, I tugged him really hard and pushed him against the wall, 
"Does it look like those people are unsafe? Do you not see? Those three are with the zombie!" 
Loud whispering to Kon, but it was too late now, they saw the door swing open, whether or not they saw us it didn't matter, they were going to check it out. 

I stood right behind the door with the swords in both hands, ready to stike the first thing that came through. A head popped in as I pushed against the door, getting the head of the zombie stuck, Swinging the sword in my right, completely severing the head of the zombie. Out of the corner of my eye, Kon stood, frozen in fear.
"If you don't want to die, fight!" 
Angry this time, no point hiding, they already knew the zombie was dead, the old lady will be sending the other two to check it out. We heard a howl and the two others turned into rabid dogs, barking and howling on their fours. 

Placing my hands on my sides, stepping out into the open. I couldn't deny that I was just as frightened as Kon on the inside, but I couldn't let it show, I mustn't.
"Let the girl go!" I shouted from across the hall, the two dogs growling at me, waiting for their orders. The old lady pointed at me, and the dogs rushed toward me, I stood my ground, calculating my options, ready to strike. 

Kon held his axe with both arms, trembling, the dog on the left was a few steps ahead of the other, side stepping, I brought down the sword, but the dog was fast, I'd only slashed it's body. It ran pass us, both dogs on the front and back of Kon. Again it charged at us, I wasn't going to miss this time. I swung the swords in a cross just as it pounced at me, cutting it's head off as it's headless body fell onto the ground. The other dog jumped on me knocking me to the ground. The other dog jumped, knocking me to the ground as I dropped the sword in my left. 

Kon swung his axe at the dog, slicing it into half, it whelped as I pushed it off me. It's dying body flopping on the ground before it stopped. 

Scrambling to stand up. We turned to look at the old lady, who had a wide grin spread across her face. 
"You're not bad." 
She said staring into my eyes, I held the stare.
"Thanks," I said nonchalantly. 
"What's your name?" 
"Not your business."

She let out a laugh, so loud, I was sure there'd be more zombies appearing behind her. 
"I'm Ms Gray." 
"Well Ms Gray, you're going to let that young lady go, or I'll be forced to hurt you." 
She burst out laughing again, this time my hands on my skin standing. 
"Even if I died today, there'll be more of me." 
We stood unmoving, waiting for each other to make the first move. But the young girl was now leaning to the ground, her knees buckled and she fell. Ms Gray had released her grip, letting the girl fall face first. 
"What did you do to her?" 
Kon shouted, rage replacing fear in his eyes. He took a step toward them, but the girl pushed herself off the ground. Her arms and legs in positions I never thought possible for a human, she looked more like a spider. She spun so quickly toward Ms Gray, even she didn't have time to react before the girl jumped on her, slamming Ms Gray on her back. She placed both hands on Ms Gray's head and twisted it a 180 degrees. When she got off Ms Gray's lifeless body, the back of her head was what faced her front body.
The girl turned to us, her long hair obscuring any view of her face, but an eye peeked out, staring right at us. 
She turned and scrambled off back where they first came from and disappeared from view. 


Chapter 4:

Footsteps and growling were heard from the direction where the girl crawled off to, zombies were approaching. 
"Kon we got to go, now!"
Pulling him at the arm, as the outline of a zombie appeared. 
"Now!" 
I urged as Kon turned, grabbing my the arm, leading me to an escalator at the other end. 

"We got to get to the submachine." 
I said approaching the directory on another level. 
"We got to go there," pointing at the opposite end of where we stood. 
There were three zombies approaching, these were a group of originally bigger in size people, they were slow and we managed to bring them down in a matter of seconds. 

As we attempted to pass the first flight of escalators, another two zombies headed toward us, Kon kicked the first one back down the escalator, as I slam dunked the second, with the only sword left in hand I stabbed into it's head. The sounds attracted more zombies, they were coming each end of the escalators above. 

Bolting another level down, we realised that we were stuck, at least a hundred zombies were on the ground level, with more above us. Ducking into a shop, we bolted the glass door with whatever we could find in the shop. Zombies were already heading our direction. We were stuck. 

"What do we do now?" Kon asked, panting from all the running. 
"I don't know." 

Gun shots rang through the mall, the zombies outside the shop fall to the ground with bullet holes in their heads. A soldier in a uniform I've never seen before appeared, peering into the shop, seeing our shocked faces.
"Com'on, come with me."
He said, signalling for us to follow him. 

It was good to see another human with a gun, who seemed to know what he was doing. Even though his helmet shielded his face, I could tell from his tone and body language he wasn't anything like Ms Gray. 

"Who are you?" Kon asked trailing behind the soldier.
"I'm Lieutenant Bennet." Bennet said looking around, taking wide steps ahead.
"There's only one of you?"
"No, four."
"That's comforting." The sarcasm flowing out of Kon obvious, "you know there are hundreds, probably thousands of zombies around right?"
Bennet ignored his question, but kept moving. 

A loud screech sounded in the mall, through the speakers overhead. Bennet stopped in his tracks, his gun to his chest, his grip around his gun tightened. 
"Run!" He shouted, a group of zombies growling came from all direction, 'they are coming.' 

I followed Bennet and Kon who were running ahead, they turned a corner, but I kicked a fallen chair, falling forward, landing on the ground face first. I let out an involuntary groan, turning over my shoulder I saw the zombies only seconds away. Shutting my eyes, waiting for death.