I
The Calm
Bacon sizzled in the kitchen as the morning's sun crept through the window, filling the room with light.
"So when are those eggs coming?" Jake asked with fork in hand, staring down at an empty plate.
"You're just a typical teenager aren't you? Eating the whole kitchen out… and why is it that you never wanted to eat when you were a baby? I'd always have so much trouble-"
"That's because I was a baby mom, and you were shoving green goop in my face, now c'mon, I need to be at school in half an hour."
"Its Saturday, Jake." His father informed.
"… Oh, well then that means Saturday practice is in," he checked his cell-phone, "an hour and a half. Will you drive me dad?"
His father turned a page of his newspaper and cleared his throat. "I suppose."
"Cool, and dad, you're reading yesterdays paper again by the way."
Jake's father looked up at him, with his face still in the newspaper. "You've got to be kidding me, this is the third time in a row that damn kid gave me late paper!" He closed the paper and slid it across the table.
The front page had a large black and white photograph of white trucks with biohazard symbols on the side doors. The trucks were parked next to a small wooden hut. Above the picture read "Epidemic Crisis in East Asia"
"Dad, what was that article about?" Jake asked as he pointed at the front-page picture.
Jake's father picked up the paper and squinted his eyes as he examined. "Oh, some disease breakout in China. I guess it was in some small village in the middle of nowhere. The article says a riot started once medical teams got there and they had to send in the police. A couple people died."
"What happened to the villagers?"
"I don't think the article mentioned anything about them, they were probably thrown in jail, I don't know read the article." His dad said as he handed the paper to Jake.
Jake picked the paper up, and then set it down. "Are you kidding me? It's Saturday. I'm not reading anything unless I have to."
Jake's father shook his head as the mother walked into the room and slid sizzling bacon and eggs from her pan onto three plates. She sat down at the table after returning the pan to the kitchen."Eat up Jake, you're going to need all your energy for tomorrow's tournament"
"Yeah, if I go." Jake said, knowing what was going to come next.
"Why wouldn't you be going?" Jake's father asked before he ate a spoonful of eggs and ketchup.
"I don't know… it would be nice to have a break for once." Jake said as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He knew they were going to get on his case again. They always did. Every time they all sat together for a meal his parents would get on his case about his future.
Jake's father clenched his jaw. "Well, you're still planning on wrestling in college aren't you?"
"I told you, I don't know yet. How many times are you going to ask me that?"
Jakes parents both wanted him to wrestle in college. He had become a gifted wrestler since he first set foot on the mat almost twelve years ago. Since then he had won tournament after tournament in high school and had placed in the state championships in merely his freshman year. He had started receiving college scholarship offers in his junior year and from his junior to his senior year he had received a total of four scholarship offers from all over the nation. Both of his parents knew he had great potential to both achieve in college through wrestling and scholastics. They had tried to nudge him into making a choice about his life after high school. In fact, they tried too much to nudge him in the right direction. Jake didn't really listen to them anymore; instead, he would get annoyed whenever his parents brought up college.
"I'm thinking about joining the Army, they have wrestling teams there too."
"Honey, people die in the army."
"Yeah and people die trying to cross the street, what's your point, mom." Jake pointed out simply in retaliation. Before she could answer him, Jake shot out, "Do you guys have to bug me about this right now? Its too early, can we talk about something else?"
Silence fell upon them as they finished their breakfast. Jake finished and headed upstairs to his room. He slid a dresser drawer open and grabbed a pair of shorts, a shirt, his wrestling shoes, and headed back downstairs and past the dining room.
"I'm ready." He told his father before walking into the garage.
Jake watched the traffic pass by as the four door SUV headed for the high school. He and his father rode in silence until they were about a block away from the school's gym.
"So, are you really considering joining the Army? Because I really don't think -"
"Dad," Jake interrupted. " I really don't want to talk about this right now." He said as he leaned over and turned on the radio
.…riots reported in eastern-
Jake flipped the station.
…military has been deployed-
Jake leaned over and switched the radio off.
"Two stations and all of them are a different report of something violent after another."
"Well, what if they were all the same story?"
"I doubt it. I mean, don't they have to have original stories that no other group has so people will listen to them?"
"Yes, that is true, but if there is something important taking place, news groups tend to cover the same story."
The car pulled up at the school and Jake got out and turned back and looked at his father, "Ill call you and tell you what I'll be doing after practice." He said as he shut the car door.
"Alright, hey maybe after practice we can-" his fathers voice died down as the car door slammed shut. Jake slung his gym bag over his shoulder and didn't look back even after he had heard his fathers words before the car door muffled them.
Those were the last words he and his father shared.
II
Then There Were Two
The car drove off as Jake walked into the gym. He pushed open the large, blue double doors leading into the locker room with ease, threw his gym bag aside and started removing his clothes. Bare-naked, he stepped onto the metallic silver scale. Red stars on the digital display blinked once… twice, then displayed his weight. 133.6.
"Shit," he thought, "looks like ill be running in sweats today."
He was over a pound and a half over his weight. Being a wrestler, he needed to maintain his weight by eating healthy and exercising. Whenever this approach failed, he would turn to not eating or drinking and layering himself with as much as five or more sweats, thermals, and plastic jackets. Then, he would go into an indoor poolroom where it is hot, and run in circles for as long as it takes to drop the weight. Sometimes it would take him minutes to sweat out the weight and sometimes it would take hours.
One to two pounds wasn't that big of a deal to him. A practice session at one hundred percent effort while wearing sweats would do the trick. After all, a practice session would always include live wrestling for an hour or so and doing wind sprint after wind sprint for conditioning. His best friend and teammate, Evan, walked into the room and threw his gear in the general direction of his locker.
"How much bro?" Evan asked
"One point six over."
"Damn, looks like someone went hog-wild last night."
"I had breakfast."
"Ah, well, crap that out and you should be able to call it good." Evan said as he punched Jake in the back.
"Now get the hell off of the scale."
Jake hopped off and started suiting up as Evan stepped onto the scale. After blinking twice, the scale read 120.
"Looks like I'm spot on."
"Bastard." Jake remarked with envy.
"Yeah, you know you love my body." Evan said sarcastically as he started to flex. His six abdominal muscles hardened and his pectorals broadened. "Bitch, see? I have man tits, and not the gross kind either!" He boasted.
"Ha! Yeah, Mr. 'I can only bench 150'. I can bench like thirty over that!" Jake teased and began to crack a smile.
Despite their banter, Jake and Evan were the two best wrestlers on the team. Both were extremely well conditioned had tremendous muscular strength in comparison to their weight.
A whistle pierced the air from outside of the locker room and both suited up and ran out to the mat room. Practice was a typical one, consisting of sprints, live wrestling, and more sprints. After practice everyone headed to the showers. After checking a second time, Jake found that he was finally on weight.
"So, when are those Japanese exchange students getting here? I wanna date one of those foreign chicks, I hear they're hella easy" one wrestler said as he set his towel on a post and stepped into wide open, tiled shower room.
"They aint comin'" another person replied from across the shower room as he lathered shampoo into his hair. "The school canceled the exchanges. They said that the avian bird shit has really started to spread down there."
"How do you know that, man?" A kid said as he was drying off by his locker.
"Because my parents were gonna host a kid at our house. and its all over the internet man, they're roiting and everything because the government is just killing people that have it because its so contagious, don't any of you watch the news?"
"Fuck that, its Saturday!" Jake said jokingly before a couple kids started to laugh.
He threw on a pair a Levi's and a collared shirt and plopped down on a couch at the end of the locker room next to Evan.
"So bro, wanna go to the mall?" Evan asked.
Jake pondered why. "What for?"
"Gotta go down to the gun shop up there by Woodland Mall."
"Oh yeah, your Glock right? You're actually going the the competition? You know thats on the day of the Lynden tournment right?"
"Yeah, well coach can kiss my ass, Ive never been to a Glock exclusive tournament before."
"Hell yeah ill come, I still can't believe you're gonna pay $2000 to just participate."
Evan began to chuckle. "Shit, I'll be walking away with six k and thats if my dad and I take third."
He jumped up from the couch and started stretching out his arms. "And we've never been placed under second, hence the trophies all over my room. But in the meantime, lets get outta here, the malls gonna be crowded soon."
"Yeah dude, good point." He said as Evan extended his arm and helped Jake up.
Both kids hopped up and headed out of the locker room and to Evan's car. Evan dug in his gym bag for his keys and unlocked the door after finding them.
"Lets roll." Evan said as he put on a pair of sunglasses and began to smirk.
Jake snickered. "Dude, that was so lame of you."
Evan laughed in unison. "Yeah I know." He stuck his key in the ignition and turned. The Honda roared up as Evan pressed on the gas and flew out of the parking lot, down the road, and onto the highway dodging and weaving between traffic the entire way to the gun shop.
III
Glock 32
The arms dealership was in fact a couple blocks from the mall. The door swung open and the two walked in. The air smelled of cigarettes and the lights were dimmed. A slightly overweight man wearing a camouflaged hat walked out from the back room as a bell attached to the door rang. He wore a dirty wifebeater that revealed his hairy belly, which hung over his belt line.
The man recognized Evan immediately and bent over and reached for a stapled stack of papers with a grunt.
"You're gonna have to have to fill out these final release forms before we can do the actual transaction." The man threw the papers down onto the dusty display case in front of him.
Evan snatched the papers and began to fill them out after the man handed him a pen and walked into the backroom, out of sight. Ten minutes passed by as Evan scribbled his name on paper after paper, not bothering to read what he was signing for. He already knew why he needed it for anyways, he could care less about the terms he was signing for.
Jake placed his elbows onto the scratched display case. "So." He said, trying to get the attention of the storekeeper.
"Do you have knives here?" Jake tried to project his voice this time.
He received no answer except for the rustling of what seemed to be boxes in the back room.
"Hello?" Jake said louder.
The man poked his head out from the doorway between the show room and the back, Jake repeated his question.
"No, sorry, they have some knives at the mall a few blocks down from here. A buddy of mine works there, tell him you were over here looking for knives, tell him Joe wanted you guys to see the special stock" The man said as he winked a Jake. "You're eighteen right buddy?"
"Yeah, eighteen last month."
"Good, he can send you home with something today, unlike these firearms, takes days to process someone 'till they can take 'em away."
"Yeah, that kind of sucks, but then again, my dad would flip if he knew I had a gun anyway, so ill settle with a knife, I guess."
"Yeah but.." the man reached down under the cash register, and came back up with what looked like a police issued shotgun. He hoisted the stock on his hip. "A knife isn't gonna protect you from this bad boy."
Jake sighed. "I can't wait until I move out, I can live under my roof and own and do what I want. If it weren't for them, that thing would be in my hands and not yours."
The man nodded attentively as Jake began his rant.
"Its like, every day that they ask me where I'm going to college next year. I give them the same answer every time and they ask again the next day like I changed my mind or something!" Jake held two fingers up to his head. "They drive me so damn crazy. I'll seriously just go live in a box rather than put up with their shit!"
Evan's pen clicked. "Amen, bro." He walked up to the counter. "Now lets see that gun of mine."
The man went into the back room and returned with a black cardboard case the size of a shoe box. Evan's face lit up as the man pulled the box open, revealing the jet black firearm.
"Here it is, your Glock 32. This one here fires a .357 caliber, which you can buy here. I also sell magazines designed for this weapon, they hold 13 rounds. Holsters designed for this gun are carried here as well."
Evan became a kid in a candy shop. "I want four boxes of 100 rounds each." he demanded. "And a laser sight attachment, and I'm going to need four mags, can I get them pre-loaded?"
"I can get you everything but the pre-loaded magazines." The man said, blown away by the Evan's knowledge of this weapon, more-so perplexed about how deep his pockets are. Evan was purchasing over 2400 dollars of equipment.
The arms dealer reached up for an overhead and picked out several boxes of bullets and set them next to the register before returning to the back room.
"Jesus Christ dude, are you preparing for World War Three or something?"
Evan grinned and looked at Jake. "Thats not even going to be enough for the tournament, but i have some bullets at home so its all good."
"So what the hell is the laser sight for?"
"I looked online and checked the requirements for the torunament, they said lasersights are legal and you wouldnt believe how much they help."
The man returned from the back and held up two leather gun holsters. "Around the waist or across the chest?"
"Waist and does it have mag attachments?"
"Yeah, it comes with six magazine pouches across the back of the belt."
"Sexy." Evan said as the man began to ring him up.
"That's… twenty seven thirty eight and thirty four cents." The man said as Evan whipped out his wallet.
"No problemo." Evan pulled his debit card out and swiped it at the terminal next to the register.
The man put all of Evan's merchandise into one large, brown paper bag.
"Good luck." Said the arms dealer as the two walked out of the shop.
They were going to need it.
IV
Fish in a Barrel
The two walked up to the car as Evan popped the trunk open and threw the brown bag in.
"Keep a look out."
Evan removed a pistol clip from its case and opened a box of the .357 bullets.
Jake did as he was told and kept his back to the car and watched as people drove by, keeping a look out for the police or individuals who became too curious. He glanced back after time to see Evan finish loading one clip and placing it into the groove next to the weapon itself.
"Hey, isn't that illegal man?"
"Chill, its criminal if it's loaded." Evan slammed the trunk shut.
"My dad always talks about when he pulls people over and they have guns in the car but he cant charge them for anything becuase theyre not loaded. So i think we're fine here."
"Whatever man, lets go check out that knife place the gun dude was talking about."
"Sounds good, what the hell do you want a knife for anyway?" Evan asked as they began to walk down the parking lot and across the street to the mall.
"I've been looking at butterfly knives online. They look cool, I wanna check them out at the store."
"Yeah like you need it!" Evan balled up his fists and held them up and swung at Jake jokingly. "You've got your dukes!"
Jake smiled and punched Evan in the arm. "Yeah but how about some brass knuckles? Say hello to my super-dukes beeatch!"
The two buddies laughed as they walked into the parking lot of the Supermall and past the rows and rows of cars that eventually led to the large doors at the entrance. There was a continuous stream of people going into the building, and a current of people leaving the building. Jake and Evan fought their way past the entrance and to a general map of the area. Jake scrutinized the geometric squares that created a large map amidst the crowds of people. He put his finger over a red dot exclaiming YOU ARE HERE.
"We're here so…" his finger moved four squares to the left and one up, representing the top level, and four stores to the left of the red dot.
"Blades and more, must be it."
They turned around and headed towards the nearest escalator which was a couple feet away from them.Jake nodded and pointed after reaching the top of the automated staircase.
"There it is." The shop was directly across a long walkway.
"I wonder if they have those opal plated butterfly knives, have you seen those? They look hella tight."
They began crossing the glass walkway.
"Sounds like a chick's knife to me man, you want a margarita with your blade?" Evan began to laugh at the thought.
"Hey, fuck you, opals are awesome, I almost bought my girlfriend an opal-"
About halfway across the catwalk and in mid-sentence, Jake was interrupted by a shrill scream that rose above the commotion in the mall. The monotone died down with the scream. Silence fell upon the entire mall. Jake and Evan turned toward the sound they just heard. Both confused as to what was going on, they watched from fifty or so feet away as a crowd form a circle around a convulsing woman. Several people began to mass around her as her arms and legs twitched in a continuous motion. Her head jerked back and forth on the floor as blood began to spatter from her mouth onto the tiled mall floor. Enough blood for Jake and Evan to observe the with the naked eye. The Woman let out a skin crawling moan before her convulsions ceased. Her arms and legs rested awkwardly around her body as red began to seep from her right eye socket and eventually her left. It crawled down her face and met with a stream from her mouth and formed a collective pool on the floor.
Jake, with his hands shaking, reached into his pocket, removed his cell phone and dialed 911. "Uh… a woman here is hurt at the Woodland mall…I dont know... yes an ambulance." He hung up. "What happened to her?"
"No clue." Evan whispered, unable to take his eyes of the motionless Woman.
A middle aged, well dressed man pushed his way through the crowd and to the Woman.
"Step back! I'm a doctor! Give her some room! Step back!"
The crowd complied and the circle around her widened by several feet. Whispers erupted throughout the crowds. The mall had died. All attention was now focused on this Woman. All eyes and ears observed as the man bent over towards the body and placed his index and middle finger on her neck. He glanced at his watch before he leaned over to her face and held his right ear up to her mouth.
"She's needs to go to the hospital now! Someone dial 911!"
The Doctor exclaimed. the man split her eyelids apart with his fingers and peered inside.
The Woman's pupil contracted.
A confused look shaped on the man's face and he opened his mouth as if to speak. A black and red grease like substance burst from the Woman's throat and into the man's face. Another vomitus explosion followed as the Woman's limbs began to flail.
"Its in my eyes!" The man screamed as he rolled onto his back.
Two security guards with nametags on fought their way through the crowd. One had the name Ostyn on his nametag and the other had the name Trevor. The Woman again let out a long, high pitched wait that echoed through the mall and caused some people to start fighting their way out of the crowd. Crawling on her hands and knees the Woman cocked her head back and let out another wail that caused the mall to erupt in fright. The Doctor started to convulse as the security guards grabbed for each of the Woman's arms. They forced her down to her back as she turned her head towards Ostyn's arm and sunk her teeth in. He let out a feeble yell as the Woman peeled a long strip of flesh from his forearm to the palm of his hand, revealing the muscle from his arm to the veins of his wrist. The crowd erupted in screams.
"What the fuck?!" Evan gasped as he and Jake kneeled down and peered through the glass wall of the catwalk.
They both felt the instinct to run for an exit along with the crowds. But they also had an overwhelming urge to stay and watch this event unfold. They were petrified, unable to blink, unable to take their eyes off the scene. Another cry pierced through the screams. The Doctor vomited across the floor in front of him. Crowds of people darted past the four in conflict in an attempt to reach the exit. Several people ran past safely but one slightly obese, teenage girl wearing black pants and a "666" sweatshirt attempted to dart past the vomiting man. She slipped on the fluid being sprayed all over the floor. The Doctor, now on his knees, lunged for the girl and pulled her down by one of the several chains which were hanging from her pants. He bit into her shoulder after vomiting into her face and mouth as she tried to shout for help.
Ostyn slumped over in a pool of his own blood beside Trevor, who was now on his back with the ravenous Woman on top of him. He had his hands placed underneath her jaw in an effort to push her face away from his body. The Woman's fingernails dug into Trevor's arms as her mouth snapped shut at him repeatedly. Her lips were curled back revealing two rows of red covered teeth. Ostyn stood straight up and uttered a howl before vomiting red and black all over the floor, some of it flowing into the side of Trevor's face and hair.
Ostyn took off into a full sprint towards a crowd of numerous young children and parents huddled behind a large pane of glass of a toy store window. They all watched in horror as he jumped head first into the window, shattering it and landing on small girl before sinking his teeth into her face as she screamed for her mother. Her mother did indeed pull Ostyn off of her daughter, along with the girl's left cheek. The enraged man spat the chunk of flesh into the mother's face before digging his nails into her throat and biting her bottom lip off as she screamed in pain.
Several pops echoed above the cries as two men in baggy clothing tried to gun down the newly arisen Obese Girl. Six rounds went into her chest as she angrily reached out with her hands towards one of the men. He dropped his weapon as the Obese Girl bit into his inner forearm, tearing away a strip of flesh and knocking him over from the momentum she build up while running towards him.
Several bloodied women and children surged out of the toy store, all vomiting and wailing. They ran towards a massive crowd forming at the mall exit, like a pack of wolves.
"We've got to get out of here!" Jake said after watching Trevor and the Woman both arise together and run towards a huge crowd of people trying to make their way through what seemed to be a tiny exit in comparison to the gigantic mass of people around it.
We need to find a way out from up here, because we sure as hell can't go down there!"
"Look for a fire escape or something!" he shouted over the chaos."Or a way onto the roof!"
The two dashed across the catwalk, above the nightmare below. Through the glass they ran over they could see people being torn apart by these things with their bare hands. They were killing anything, everything. And what they killed was coming back to kill everything and everything as well. It seemed that for every step they took they heard another inhuman roar come from below them.
"There!" Jake pointed at a metal door which read, ROOF ACCESS, twenty feet away from them further down the catwalk and past an escalator.
They ran past the escalator, to the door and Jake turned the knob.
"Fuck!" Jake stepped back and slammed his foot into the door. He stepped back and kicked again, becoming infuriated.
"Move." Evan dug into his pockets and removed a small knife and began digging it into the space between the door and it's handle.
He soon gripped the handle with both of his hands and wrenched back towards his body. Jake could hardly hear the words coming from Evan's mouth as he struggled with the door. The inhuman roars seemed to start outweighing the screams of terror towards the entrance of the mall, where Trevor, The Woman, and the several children and parents had run.
Jake spotted a little girl's corpse being carried up from the escalator about ten feet away from him.
"Hurry up!" He pushed as he peered over Evan's shoulder.
The doorknob had popped off and was hanging down from the door secured by two bolts.
"The doorknob is off but I can't get the bolts off!" Evan screamed as an attmept to overpower the cacophony of the mall, he then began to yank at the knob.
Jake peered behind him and watched as the female body at the top of the escalator begin to pull itself upright, using the railing along the walkway. He pulled Evan out of the way quickly and lined himself up parallel to the door. He rose his foot and smashed it into the doorknob with incredible might. The doorknob hung limp and rotated from side to side from the blow. He kicked again, this time at the hole where the knob used to be. The door flew outward and smacked the wall that made up the narrow stairway corridor. Jake reached back and pulled Evan by the collar of his short, yanking him into the room.
"Look out!" He hollered as he stumbled up the staircase in front of Jake. Looking behind him in fear.
The reanimated body raced towards them, mouth wide open and arms outstretched and reached the doorway before Jake kicked the door again. This time sending it swinging outward and colliding with the girl, sending her tumbling backward. Jake and Evan hurried up the staircase where it led them spiraling up. They came across the door at the top of the last staircase, unlocked this time, they hurried through and slammed the door shut behind them. An angered wail rose from the bottom of the winding staircase now below them. The sounds of sirens, screams, roars, and glass shattering symphonically echoed through the air as the two ran to the edge of the roof and peered over.
The parking lot was in complete disarray. There was a steady stream of people climbing out of the shattered windows and doorways throughout the exit area. The enraged were dotted among them. People scattered away from these individual and sometimes grouped enraged figures clumped within the people trying to make their way to their cars. The clusters of the enraged grew rapidly within the crowds as they would all lunge out for a victim and pull their prey under, creating yet another to add to the steadily growing hoard. Some of the frightened people got away from the massive crowd, only to have their faces smashed into the car they were trying to get into.
A police car twenty feet ahead of the building was overridden with several of these figures climbing over it in an effort to get to the lone police officer standing behind it, using it as cover. The man backed up slowly with his hand on his weapon, which rested in its holster. His other arm sprawled in front of him. A man without a lower jaw ran directly past the car and collided into the officer's side at full speed and wrapped his hands around his neck. The officer drew his pistol and fired repeatedly into the man's chest to no affect as an ambulance raced onto the scene.
The back of the automobile swung open as two paramedics jumped out and ran towards the crowd with equipment in hand, looking for someone to help. They were greeted immediately by six of the mutilated by means of gnawing and strangulation. Four more of the enraged jumped into the back of the ambulance as its wheels began to cry against the pavement before taking off behind a wisp of black smoke.
The man behind the wheel jerked it about causing the ambulance to dodge past a cluster of smoking cars piled up at the exit ramp, and collided with a semi truck in the busy mall avenue. The semi truck collided with four cars motionless behind a stoplight. Six cars, forming two rows, slammed into the back of the semi truck, in front of the mall exit. This in turn, fashioned a cork for the rest of the people still trapped in the parking lot. The enraged inside the back of the ambulance climbed out and began to ravage those wounded in the car wreck.
Several people inside their cars at the exit were now canned fish.
A small horde converged onto them and began slamming their fists into the glass of each stranded car. After shattering a windshield to a car, one of the enraged reached in, grabbed the driver by the hair, and pulled him out as several others began to gnaw on his flesh.
The door behind them slammed and a dent formed outwards as Jake and Evan watched four more people were dragged out of their cars. They could hear the little girl's hungry grunts and roars as she repeatedly slammed into the door.
"The gun store is back there." Evan said as he pointed to the south, directly behind the chaos in front of them. Jake legged Evan up onto a pillbox beside them, which was a few feet higher than the ground they were standing on. Evan reached down and helped Jake climb up.
They examined the situation taking place between them and the gun store parking lot, where Evans black Honda lay waiting. The southern mall parking lot was littered with bodies; ready to arise at any time. Several of the enraged scattered around patrolled the area, checking the abandoned automobiles periodically for signs of life. At the western end, among the scattered corpses and limping enraged, a little dead girl followed what looked like a grown woman, perhaps her mother. Oddly enough at the eastern end among the enraged were two bloodied teenagers, dragging on next to each other, one male, and one female.
"We need to go around them and get into that car, fast." Jake said as he pointed to a route towards the right end of the parking lot, away from the enraged.
Evan hopped down from the pillbox and walked to the edge of the roof, spotting a drainpipe that looked sturdy enough for them to perhaps climb or slide down. Both climbed down as quickly as they could. Evan went down first and waited as Jake slid down after him. They both scrutinized the parking lot now at eye level.
There were several rows of cars stretching all the way down the lot, except for the occasional gap where nobody had parked.
Jake figured that if they picked two rows of cars to run between, one without any of the enraged in, they could simply sprint down a straightaway between two rows of cars all the way down the parking lot, across the street and to the Honda. The only problem was there wasn't any row without the enraged lumbering around in. Several of them walked and limped throughout the cluster of cars, like a group of pranksters dotted through out a corn maze. Except these pranksters wanted to rip any normal persons' limbs off.
"Down this line." Jake gestured to an empty route between two rows of cars, far away enough from any of the enraged. "Don't stop and don't look back-"
"Look." Evan interrupted. "See it?"
Jake leaned over and scrutinized a man with a nasty neck wound and a bloated stomach. He wore a sky blue sweatshirt that struggled to conform around his belly which continued to expand. The man attempted to lean against a green minivan as blood began to stream down his legs turning his dirty jeans a browned red color. A pool of red formed around the man's boots as his sweatshirt turned red around his stomach. a cancerous lump formed against the mans chest and grew steadily until it began to writhe from underneath. The man's sweatshirt began to tear around his stomach and the writhing shape grew rapidly on his chest.
Screeching wheels behind them broke their concentration. Followed by the sounds of several sets of boots marching together against a hard surface. A strange radio mutter filled the air followed by a distinct walkie-talkie "in" - "out" sound. Screams and wails from the northern parking lot pierced Jake and Evan's eardrums, the enraged must have spotted these people, whoever they were. Machine gun fire erupted and rose above the sounds of screams. The fire kept on for nearly a minute and a half before it began to die down. car alarms, glass shattering, and the displaced wail here and there were the only sounds Jake and Evan could hear now. The radio chatter began again and traveled with the sounds of boots into the mall itself. Roars erupted yet again followed by unwaivering machinegun fire.
Jake and Evan took off in full sprint between the two long rows of automobiles that stretched all the way down the parking lot.
"Don't look back!" Evan yelled as several coarse roars rose behind them, followed by footsteps and grunts which traced the two's path.
They raced past the cars, dodging the occasional truck that narrowed their path slightly. Waves of the enraged, in an effort to dismantle Jake and Evan, slammed their bodies into the cars that separated them from the two. Some slipped through the gaps between cars, coming out behind Jake, who was a few feet behind Evan. One stepped through a gap behind Evan, cutting Jake off, he was surrounded now. Evan didn't look back as he kept on at full speed. Without hesitation, Jake stepped onto the bumper of one car and propelled himself onto the roof of another and now hopped from roof to roof. One of the enraged behind him lunged at Jake to no avail as it simply smashed it's head through the passenger side window of an automobile which Jake was running on only moments before. Evan reached the end of the sanctity of automobiles after dodging three pickup truck beds. All six of the enraged behind him failed to maneuver around as easily as Evan did and now were stuck in between truck beds, trying to get at Evan, almost like a cluster flies bouncing from wall to wall, trying to get out of a window.
Jake hopped off a pickup. Evan fumbled in his pockets for his keys as he approached the car.