We didn't have any problems arriving to the mal, it was all mostly calm. Now that we didn't have that sobbing kid making sound, it all went smoothly. Outside the mall, there were evacuation posters, instructions on how to 'survive' and things you needed. Mostly, those were the same thing's they wrote a back while when the flu was the 'fashion'.
Neji didn't seem to like the place, neither I. It was dark, a few sun through the windows and, of course, blood. Gladly, one of the stores wasn't much affected by the attacks and we could grab some bags and fill it with water and food, we also changed our clothes. Grabbing some first aid kits and pain pills, we started looking around for survivors.
"You think there could be some ammo around here?" Neji asked me.
"I don't think so, this is a very popular mall –or was– like to have a gun store providing ammo" I sighed "But maybe the persons who came before us did let some"
"Let's just hope we found" He smiled "By the way…you look good with those jeans and the shirt" I had some dirty jeans and a dark pink shirt, with some running shoes. I blushed and thanked him.
"You also look good…with that suit" I responded, looking away from his eyes. He laughed. Like I just said a good joke. Neji seems a very interesting person. "So, what were you doing before all this happened?"
"Well, I was ordering some paper; it got all covered in blood after all. Good thing I had a gun in my desk"
"You're allowed to have a gun?" I asked, foolishly, I had an axe, what did it matter if he had a gun? "Never mind, don't answer that" We walked upstairs, looking in the stores and doors that would cross in front of us. Sadly, no survivors. "Are we the only survivors? It seems sad" I whispered to myself. Neji looked down for a moment, and we both heard some breathings closely to us.
"Be prepared" He whispered, as he walked slowly and silently to the direction. I was behind him, guarding his back from any attack. Again, the adrenaline was rushing through my veins as we walked closed to the origin of those breathings. We were so close…a few inches…
"Aaah!" A girl screamed while tried to attack Neji, but she stopped and realized we were survivors. "Oh! You're humans?" She asked. Her black eyes shined to see us. "Survivors, in other words?"
"Yes" Neji sighed. "I'm Neji Hyuga and she's Sakura Haruno, we came from the building next to the theater; were looking for survivors"
"Ah! Good to know, I'm Kari Uchiha, and he's my brother, Sasuke Uchiha" I started at her, even if she had blood all over her, she still looked good with her long and black hair, her white pale skin, like a doll. I glanced over his brother, he was just as good looking like her, and they looked like twins. "Sasuke is injured while we were killing zombies, are you, by casualty, a doctor?" She said sadly.
"I may not a doctor, but I'm a nurse" I smiled and got out the first aid kit, he had a cut in his chest; she stopped the bleeding and made it easier for me. "It's not infected and he didn't lose much blood, it's only going to take a few days before he gets better" Sasuke stared at me, blankly and looked back at Kari. They both smiled. Only she thanked me, though.
"Thank you, Sakura-san" She bowed "I wish I could repay you, but due the circumstances, we can only kill" Kari smiled and laughed lightly. "So…are you going to leave the city?"
"We plan to" Neji responded
"That's awesome! We also plan to leave the city, and reunite with our family" She responded. "We have been here for 1 day, it's not that much but the place is almost clean, you can stay here and rest if you want"
"Thank you, but we better be going" Neji spoke faster than I-
"Can we have a second?" I asked, they nodded. I grabbed Neji by the arm and walked away from them. "Neji, I think the best thing we should do is stay, we passed through a hard day and we need to rest for tomorrow and have all our energies. Maybe they have that ammo you wanted. Besides, they're going to the same place just like we are, we should totally take them with us, and they might help us"
"…." Neji didn't say anything. He stared to the floor and finally looked at me. "Fine, we'll stay" Walking back to them, we accepted their invitation and passed to the room. It had 2 pillows and some blankets, food, weapons and some ammo. Neji smiled after looking to the last thing.
"Sorry, we don't have much stuff, since we didn't count on finding more survivors, I was just heading to find more food" Kari sighed. "We have ammo if you needed" She said to Neji, like she was reading his mind. "We don't need that much, since Sasuke has a Katana and I have a sniper rifle" Sasuke walked towards Kari and sat next to her.
"Sasuke, you shouldn't move that much, just rest" I said to him, he glared at me darkly and looked at Kari.
"Sasuke, do has Sakura-san says" She smiled, and let him rest on the pillow. "Are you hungry?"
"No, I'm not" Sasuke responded in a monotone voice. "Good Night" He closed his eyes. Kari let some blankets on him and sighed.
"Sasuke has always been like this, but more…since our friends died when the zombies attacked" She explained "They were the only family we had here…our other brother had the luck to go away from the city before all this started. I hope he doesn't come back. Oh well, you must be hungry! There's not much to offer, but I hope you enjoy them" Kari gave us some sandwiches and some water while she smiled. She looked a little sad when she saw Sasuke. I believed that she was like a mother for him.
"Kari, I hope you don't mind me asking, but…why is your family in another city?" I asked, she stared at my eyes for a moment and responded.
"I wasn't born here, neither my other brothers nor my parents. We were born on other city, on New York, that's where my family is currently, I really need to go there since in the radio I had been listening that there were some zombie attacks over there, we were worried at first, but Sasuke became angrier each time, until this happened, he hurt himself. I just really wished he wasn't so explosive." She responded "I don't think you want to talk about me, let' s talk about you!"
"M-me? Oh…okay" I blushed "Well, I'm a nurse, a few hours ago I was just checking on patients and healing them. Suddenly I had a person who felt really bad, I was scared, he presented symptoms that I had never seen before, he bitted a patient and then, they started acting different, like trying to eat each other, I was scared, so I grabbed this axe and cut their heads off" I looked at the axe, covered in blood of countless zombies I had killed, she didn't seem surprised. "After that, I realized that no one was there, I started looking for survivors, I founded Neji"
Neji looked at us when I called his name; he just smiled and finished eating, just like we did. It was twilight and we needed to rest. Kari got up and made us some beds, maybe she didn't have enough blankets, but at least, we had somewhere to rest.
The next morning, Neji and I were the first to wake up, later on, the Uchiha twins. I grabbed my hair in a ponytail and soon, we were ready to leave the place. Kari cleaned up the entire place, helping Sasuke to stay up, we started going out the mall. Once again, it all seemed quiet. Neji was walking to the say pace like me, the other two were a little slowly, but quiet enough to not make any sound. The mall was now a few blocks away from us, now we were entering to another zone.
"Wait!" Kari said, low enough for just to hear "Look over there, the way is blocked" I turned to the place where her finger pointed. She was right, the only exit we had was blocked by boxes, and around it, zombies. What we needed. "There's no way for us to pass" A minute of silence. I was thinking hard for an option, then, Neji smiled and said.
"There is a way" He responded
"How?" I asked
"We need to plant one of those Molotov" Kari and I looked confused "One of those bottles that could burn up the place"
"Oh! I get it! We could make a bomb with enough Molotov's, breaking through! Neji! You're a genius!" I screamed. They moved their hands, trying to get my attention and told me to lower my voice. I blushed. We ran to the nearest store, Kari sniped the 4 zombies that were around the boxes, like she said, 'we don't need more zombies that we already going to summon' Kari and I looked for the Molotov's Neji seemed to need. "Only 2 Molotov's, Neji, but there's some gas here, maybe if we pour it all over the boxes could burn it"
"It's going to take time until in finally burns everything, but it should work"
"A pipe bomb won't help?" Sasuke asked, handing the pipe bomb to Neji. "Something's got to work, you know."
"Thanks" He responded, grabbing the gas and the bombs, we headed to the boxes. It was all quiet again. I just hated that silence, I remember the time's I wished I could have some silence, the hospital where I used to work –Now they were all dead– was always full of persons who kept on talking and talking, breaking the 'quiet-please-rule' and now, they are silent, forever. I sighed, why did this infection started? Who was behind this? For what purpose…? Too much questions, I can't think on them now, I must put all my attention on finding a way to cross, and get to the limits of Iowa.
"Sakura, stop thinking and start helping" Neji said in a bored, monotone voice. I nodded and quickly poured the gas in all the boxes. As I finished, I jumped down carefully trying not to get wet from the gas and then get burn. "Let's go back to the store, Kari, I want you to shoot the Molotov, starting the fire, ok?"
"Sure" She responded, we ran to the store, hiding behind the desks, Kari pointed her sniper rifle to the Molotov and shoot, starting the fire. A horde of zombies were coming thanks to the sound of the explosion, I wasn't that scared like the previous time, now I was excited, happy in a way. "Are you ready?" She smiled "We should get some lights" She hanged us some lamps, as we started to get out of the store and running to the burned boxes.
As soon we got there, the zombies started attacking us. With my axe, already bloody, I cutted through their necks, arms and chest's. Neji, shooting them right through the head, like the other times, Kari was also doing that, but not in close combat, she was taking care of the ones far from us, Sasuke with his Katana, was also cutting heads. As we finished the first 20 zombies, the fire was calming down and we could pass through it. I sighed.
"Finally! Were out of this city!" I said. "Now, where are we going?" I asked. Neji took out a map from his pocket, confused I asked where he got that.
"I got it in the mall, right when we entered, they usually keep maps of the mall and sometimes, the city and country" He responded. "Look, we need to go here, Wisconsin" He pointed to the orange-colored state in the map, I looked around. If we were in Iowa, the closest would be Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota "Were planning to go to New York, it's the safest place right now"
"What about Texas" I asked "I also heard it was safe"
"Yes, but right now, we must go to New york for 2 reasons, Kari's family and the safety of the place. We can't afford to go that far, we don't have much food and water, let's just hope that during the travelling we can find some more survivors, and with food"
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's start!" I smiled, putting our hands together, like a team.
And then, I heard the scariest growl I had ever heard…scarier than the last horde growl, it didn't seem like there was a group of zombies coming to attack us…mostly like one big zombie. And I was right.
A zombie, with huge muscles, deformed, small face and a pink color in his skin, all what I could say, or scream was:
"TANK!"
