They had finally made it to the mall. Granted, it was infested with infected and CEDA obviously bailed out, but they made it. There were no plan B's after this point. It was hit and run to get to the mall Atrium and see where they could go from there. They were lucky enough that the owner of the gun shop cleared the path so they could get here in the first place.
It had been a few hours after they first made it to the safe room, everyone resting and patching up what needed to be fixed. Everyone grabbed supplies they needed; not everyone was lucky enough to grab a bottle of pills or an adrenaline shot, though. They had to make due with what they had, and that's how they'd keep on rolling.
Rochelle was sitting along side the wall, cleaning off the only sniper rifle that had been on the table with an old cloth. Nick was wiping down his Magnum, and Ellis picked up an assault rifle. Coach had long since taken to napping beside the rear safe door, having been attacked by a Boomer earlier and having the horde on him like flies to honey. A few zombies outside the door groaned and Coach shifted into a more comfortable position.
"I think we should head out soon." Rochelle stood up, moving over towards the barred door that let them see out into the mall. Posters were peeling from their places on windows, and every shelf and glass case was emptied out. The straggling infected didn't even pay her any attention as they limped by the door lazily.
Ellis was the next to get up, mumbling something about how long they'd have to wait to get to a real evac center. "Guess I'll jus' wake the big guy up, then." He moved over to nudge Coach awake while Nick kneeled down opposite to the safe door.
"Watch out, Rochelle!" A shot rang through the small room, effectively waking up ex-teacher and causing the woman to stumble back to where Nick was crouched down. "They can still reach you through the bars, you know." He stayed crouched, one knee pressed to the dirty ground as he shot a few more infected that strayed by the door. This, in turn, alerted the other zombies near by and it successfully brought an entire horde straight to their door step.
Ellis left Coach to gather his bearings, crouching next to Nick on his free side and pulling out his assault rifle. Rochelle also crouched down, the three all focused on the red door in front of them. Shots of varied magnitude echoed from the room, bodies dropping outside the door and dark, coagulated blood oozing down the chipped red paint. One zombie managed to get it's arm stuck in between the bars, so when Rochelle blasted it's head off with her rifle it just hung onto the window with it's dead weight. Coach didn't join in their group assault, picking out a shotgun from the table and counting up his ammo to take with him. Soon enough, the horde outside the door was gone and a slow trickle of blood was seeping into the room from under the door.
"Well, that's just gross." Rochelle murmured under her breath, taking the back of her hand and wiping her face off. Infected blood shown on her dark skin, and she idly wondered if they were prone to getting infected through body fluids. She shook her head. If it was like that, they would have long been infected as soon as they had left the hotel.
"I'll try t'get this door open fer you guys.. Jus' gimme a minute." Ellis got up, propping his gun beside the door and hefted the bar up. He let it clatter to the ground before giving the door a rough shove with his shoulder. The door budged only a few inches, a pile of limbs showing through the crack he had made. "Didn't look like that many when we was shootin' 'em..." He gave another rough push to the door, successfully opening it enough to squeeze outside. Nick held the door open with his foot, motioning for Rochelle to grab them some extra ammo since they spent a good bit just a few moments before.
"Ya know, that was purdy cool back there. I mean, we was all crouched down and looked like some of them people from the movies; shootin' people 'n shit? I dunno. Kinda feels like we're cheatin' the zombies. It was cool, though. Say, kinda reminds me of the time my buddy Keith was in the mall 'n they wouldn't let him-"
"Not the time, Ellis." Nick shot him a cold look.
The mechanic merely shrugged and grinned with a meek, "Okay."
The long trek through the mall wasn't an easy one, but by the time they got to the mall Atrium... The group was sure Ellis had attracted every infected in town with his loud exclamations of hoping to see Jimmy Gibbs and his stock car before they left. Either that, or he scared them away with that loud mouth of his.
It would have broken his heart to see the man he so adored turned infected, but luckily they didn't have to face that this time.