After dodging a couple more weird looking people, I finally reached Not Quite Naked.

I ran inside the store and noticed Jonesy being attacked by the dressing room.

"Valerie! Help!" Jonesy cried.

"Hold on Jonesy!" I shouted.

I ran towards the nearest object I could find.

I picked up a pole from a dismantled clothing rack and ran towards the monster attacking Jonesy.

"Take this!" I screamed and smashed the pole on his sides.

The person let go of Jonesy and made his way towards me.

"Run!" Jonesy shouted.

"I tried to run away but someone caught my leg and I tripped to the ground.

The monster grabbed my leg and was going to take a good bite at me.

"No!" I grabbed onto my pole and kept hitting it but it wouldn't let go.

Just when his mouth was close to my leg, Jude showed up and smashed the monsters head with a mannequin's head.

"You leave her alone!" Jude shouted.

"Jude!" I was so glad to see him.

"Val! Are you okay!?" He asked, grabbing my hand and helped me up.

I couldn't help but to hug him.

I am really grateful to have him come and save me.

"I'm just glad you guys are okay." I said, trying to stay calm.

"Are you two okay?" Wyatt asked me and Jonesy.

"Yeah. We're okay. But what on earth is going on!?" Jonesy shouted in confusion.

"That what I'd like to know. These people are nuts!" I shouted.

"I wonder what's happened to all these people." Wyatt asked.

"I have a theory dudes and dudette." Jude spoke as we looked at him.

"What is it?" Wyatt asked.

"You see, this is just like one of those horror movies I watched. It's where people becomes undead." Jude answered.

"You mean, like zombies?" I asked nervously.

"Yup. Zombies" Jude said, nodding his head.

"So these people are undead zombies!?" Jonesy shouted.

"This is bad..." Wyatt said quietly.

All of a sudden, my phone started ringing.

I checked the caller ID and it said 'Nicki'

"Hello?" I answered.

"Valerie!? Where are you!? I need help!" She screamed.

Nicki sounded really frightened over the phone.

"Nicki!? What's going on!?" Where are you!?" I shouted.

"Khaki Barn! Dressing room! Attacked by creepy zombiefied clones! Heeelp!"

With that, the phone call was dropped.

"Nicki!" I shouted.

"What's happening?" Jonesy asked.

"We need to get to the Khaki Barn! Nicki's in trouble!" I said in a panic.

"We gotta go save her!" Wyatt shouted as he motioned us towards the store entrance.


Once we got to the Khaki Barn, we saw that inside was full of zombies.

"Where inside is she!?" Jonesy asked.

"She's hiding in the dressing room!" I said, pointing towards the direction where most of the zombies were.

"Quick! You go to Nicki. I'll make a distraction!" Jude said.

"A-Are you sure Jude?" I asked nervously.

"Don't worry. It'll only take a sec." Jude smiled towards me then ran past all the zombies for them to notice him.

Doing so caused them to move away from the dressing room and I ran towards the door.

I opened the door to see Nicki holding a clip board as a weapon.

"Valerie!" She shouted in relief and hugged me.

"Nicki! So glad you're safe!" I said, hugging back.

We got out and ran towards Jonesy and Wyatt.

"Watch out behind you!" Wyatt shouted.

I turned around to see the zombified clones walking towards us.

"Oh crap! Don't let them bite you!" I yelled, warning Nicki.

Just as one of them was close to biting Nicki, I grabbed the clipboard from Nicki's hand and threw it at her head.

Doing so caused the undead clone to actually be dead.

"Woah.." Nicki said in shock.

"Let's go!" Jonesy shouted towards us as we continued to run away.

Nicki took the chance to bring down the store gates and locked the door.

"Wait! Where's Jude?" I asked nervously.

"Here I am!"

Jude popped up behind me, escaping from the gate just in time.

Once Nicki officially locked the gate, we sighed in relief for a bit.

"That was close." Nicki said.

"At least that will hold off some of them." Wyatt said.

"Jude, are you okay?" I asked worriedly.

"I'm alright. At least the plan worked." Jude answered.

I sighed and smiled.

I don't know what I'd do if something happened to Jude.

"Have you guys tried calling Jen or Caitlin?" Nicki asked.

"I haven't." I said.

"I tried calling Jen but she's not picking up the phone." Jonesy said.

"Same here for Caitlin. It's just going straight to voicemail." Wyatt said.

"Then let's head to the Penalty Box. I'm sure Jen is still there." I said.

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

With that, we all slowly and quietly made our way to Jen's job.


We all hid behind the fake bush to scope out the Penalty Box.

We could see Jen hiding inside the timeout box with a zombified Coach Halder trying to reach for her.

I noticed a box of new hockey sticks not too far away from the entrance for us to grab.

"Guys. I have an idea." I started talking. "Those hockey sticks would be good for weapons. If we grab them, we have to hit their heads, that's the only way. We hit Coach Halder's head and save Jen!"

"Good idea Val." Jude said as he quietly grabbed the sticks for us.

With that, we each grabbed one and approached the coach.

Jonesy struck Coach Halder's head which made him officially dead.

"Are you alright Jen?" Wyatt asked as he freed Jen out of the timeout box.

"Boy am I so glad to see you guys. I thought I was going to be some sort of human bait." She said as she sighed in relief. "What is going on though?"

"We don't know ourselves." Jonesy answered.

"I would answer but all of this happened to me in a flash." Wyatt said.

"Yeah. I know the clones were in the middle of nagging, and the next minute, some girl came in and bit them." Nicki said.

"I had a guy attack me at work. Good thing I freed myself fast enough or I would've end up like them." I said.

"Uhm dudes and dudettes." Jude spoke. "I believe we're forgetting someone."

We all paused and looked at one another until we realized who we forgot.

"CAITLIN!" We all shouted in unison.

Just then, my phone vibrated, it was a text message from Caitlin.

"You guys, I just got a text from her." I said as I reached for my phone.

"What does it say?" Jen asked.

I opened the message and read it out loud.

"Help me! Talon is acting weird and is suddenly attacking me!"

"Oh no! Talon has become one of them!" Nicki shouted.

"We need to save her!" I screamed.

"Where is she?" Waytt asked.

"I don't know, she didn't write in the message." I answered.

"The movie theater downstairs!" Jen shouted. "She mentioned something about watching a movie with Talon during her break!"

"To the movies!" Jonesy shouted.


As we made our way to the movie theater, we found Caitlin throwing popcorn at the undead Talon.

"You guys! Save me!" Caitlin shouted.

"Hold on Caitlin!" Jen shouted as she gripped onto her hockey stick and knocked Talon to the ground.

I grabbed Caitlin's hand and dragged her away.

"Let's go Caitlin!" I said, yanking her hand.

We all took off and ran off as fast as we could.

"Good bye Talon! I'm sorry! I love you!" Caitlin cried towards the fallen Talon.

"Now's not the time Caitlin!" Nicki lectured.

"But, this is like my break up with him!" Caitlin said as she started to tear up.

After running for the next couple minutes, we finally rested by the escalators.

"Just. How many. Of them. Are there?" Jonesy asked through each breath.

"I don't know man." Wyatt answered, catching his breath. "I hope we can get out of here though."

"That's if we can." Jen said.

"Val! Behind you!" Jude shouted.

Before I could react or speak, I turned around to see an Albatross & Finch worker grabbing my arms.

"Hey! Let go!" I said, fighting back.

"Oh no! Valerie!" Nicki shouted as she held onto me.

"Don't worry, I'll save you Val!" Jude called out as he picked up an abandoned skateboard.

Jude was about to whack the zombies head until someone else did the job.

The zombie let go of me and dropped to the ground.

I looked up to see who saved me and it was none other than Ron the Rent-a-cop.

He was holding his night stick and then pointed it towards us.

"Speak maggots. Dead or alive?" He asked threateningly.

"Thanks for saving my life Ron!" I said in relief.

This caused Ron to lower his stick.

"I see you maggots are all alive." He said.

"Yes. We're still human!" Jonesy shouted.

"I'm so glad to see you" Wyatt said.

"Quiet maggots!" Ron said as he held his finger to his lips then spoke quietly. "They can hear us."

We all zipped out mouths shut.

"We can go to my office. That'll keep us safe and we can call for back up." Ron said quietly.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Jen whispered.

"Single file behind me maggots." Ron said quietly.

We all lined up and started following Ron.

Jude tapped my shoulders as we were walking.

"Are you okay Val?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah. I'm fine. What about you?" I whispered.

"I'm good. As long as you're okay, then I'm okay." He answered.

We both exchanged smiles and I couldn't help but to blush.


As soon as we reached to Ron's office, he immediately locked the door and barricaded it with tables and chairs.

"So what now?" Jonesy asked.

"We call for backup." Nicki said.

Just as Ron reached for his radio and made the call, the power went off.

Everything was dark and a bit hard to see.

"W-What just happened?" Caitlin shrieked

"The power went off." Wyatt answered.

"One of those maggots must've touched the power switch." Ron said annoyed.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

Ron was silent for a minute but then spoke.

"Listen maggots. I have a plan." He said. "The control room is on the other side of the mall. We'll need to split up. Half stays here, half goes there."

"Whose going where?" Jude asked.

"I for one am going to the control room." Ron said. "Whose with me?"

"I am" Nicki said with confidence.

"Nicki?" I looked at her worriedly.

"Don't worry about me. It'll be a piece of cake." She said with a grin.

"If you say so." Jonesy said sarcastically.

"Oh and I volunteer Jonesy." Nicki said, crossing her arms.

"What!?" Jonesy said in shock. "I-If I go, then Wyatt goes!"

"Hey! Who said I was going!?" Wyatt said in shock.

"Alright then it's settled." Ron said. "The rest of you stay here and guard this room. If those maggots shows up, you hit their heads."

"No problem Ron." I said.

"Good. On a count of 3, you will move those tables and chairs out of the way and block it again once we leave." Ron said, ordering us around.

"You got it dude." Jude said.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Jen asked.

"I'm ready." Nicki said.

"I'm not.." Jonesy sighed.

"Me too." Wyatt whined.

"Too bad you guys, you have to do it." Caitlin said.

"Okay everyone," Ron looked at each of us.

"1...

2...

3!"

Jude, Jen and Caitlin moved the tables and chairs out of the way as I opened the door.

This gave Ron's team the chance to step out of the office.

As soon as they left, I quickly shut the door and we pushed everything back to block the entrance.

Unfortunately, the zombies must've heard our loud movements and made their way towards Ron's office.

"Oh no! They found us!" Caitlin cried. "Oh I wish Talon was here!"

"Well there is no more Talon. Think about how you'll survive Caitlin!" Jen said, stating the facts.

"What do we do Jude?" I asked, worried about our currently situation.

"Chill dudettes. In one of those zombie movies I saw, the survivors were stuck in a room like this, and they fought back." Jude said.

"Then I guess we will fight back." Jen said, grabbing her hockey stick.

"Right on brah!" Jude said.

We all held onto our hockey sticks and stared at the door until a voice came around us.

"Listen to me maggots!"

It was Ron's voice coming from somewhere.

"What is that coming from?" Caitlin asked.

"There!" Jen pointed at Ron's desk. "There's a walkie-talkie!"

I grabbed the talkie from the desk and pressed the button.

"Ron?" I asked

"Good. you're all still alive. Let me talk to the skater boy." Ron said.

With that, I handed the talkie to Jude.

"This is Jude dude." Jude answered. "Haha. That rhymes."

I couldn't help but to smirk.

This guy sure finds some humor in a crazy event like this.

"Jude! This is no time to fool around!" Jen shouted at him.

"Sorry." Jude apologized.

"Listen. We are in the control room but the switch does not work. I need you all to grab my keys from the drawer and come to the control room." Ron ordered us.

Caitin looked through the drawer and found the keys.

"I got them!" She shouted.

"The bad news is we're surrounded by zombies." Jen said

We would practically hear the zombies pounding on the door.

"It's alright guys. I'll distract them while you all head towards the control room." I said.

"But Val, it's too dangerous. I'll go instead." Jude said.

"No Jude." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "I need you to protect Jen and Caitlin."

"But.." Jude protested.

"No buts. All I'm going to do is run around and distract. That will give you guys plenty of time to get to the control room safely. I'll be there once I am in the clear."I told him with a smile.

"You're brave Valerie." Caitlin said, respecting my choice.

"Fine. I better see you at the control room." Jude said, looking at me.

"I promise you. I'll be extra careful." I said with my fist on my chest.

All of a sudden, Jude grabbed my arms and pulled me into a hug.

It wasn't one of those friendly hugs, it was more of a massive bear hugs.

I could feel my face getting hot.

I've never been this close to Jude before.

"Please be careful Val." Jude said as he let go of me.

"Don't worry. I will." I said with a slight smile.

I grabbed my hockey stick and moved the tables and chairs out of the way.

I opened the door and looked at the zombies around me.

I used the stick and banged on the floor to catch their attention.

"Dinner time! Come and get me if you want fresh flesh!" I screamed

I jumped a couple feet away and whacked a few heads to create some space.

With that, I started running the opposite direction.

I noticed all the zombies going after me which gave Jude, Jen and Caitlin enough time to escape safely.

Knowing my job was done, I continued running and knocking a few more heads.

Now all I have to do is stay safe and get to that control room in one piece.