Day One -- 6:35am

I had to find a way to get Brad to safety so I could patch him up. But that loony with the shotgun was stopping us from escaping. Then, I remembered the gun I took from that zombie cop over in Wonderland. I whispered my plan to Brad when he was far enough away.

"Brad."

"Yeah? You got a plan?"

"I do, I do."

"Well then, what is it?"

"I'm going to sneak up on this guy and hold him at gunpoint. That'll give you the chance to get away. I'll hold him until you're gone and then I'll make a run for it."

"All right. Are you sure this is going to work?"

"No. But we have no other choice. This plaza is too small to sneak around him."

"Fine. I'll let y--"

Brad got silent as the footsteps of the man got louder. I ducked low behind the wall and waited for him to pass by. I snuck up behind him and put the gun to his head. I shouted for him to freeze and then ordered Brad to leave. As Brad left, the man turned around and looked me deep in the eyes. He had a dark red beard covering most of his face and dark green eyes. I trembled a bit as he towered over me. He spoke in a deep, powerful voice.

"What the hell you think you're doing with that, son? You are gonna to hurt yourself."

"No I'm not. And if you don't back off and leave, I'm going to kill you."

"I'd like to see you try that."

He lifted up his shotgun and pushed it into my chest.

"Drop the gun now and I might kill you quickly."

"No. You leave or I'll shot you!"

"You're trembling, son. You don't have the balls to shoot me."

He was right. I couldn't shoot him. Something inside me was holding back. And he could tell. I tossed my gun to the ground and gave in. He grabbed me by the arm and threw me to the store. I slammed up against the wall and passed out. Some minutes later I woke up, tied to a store display.

"Morning sunshine."

"Ugh, where the hell are we?"

"Same place we were five minutes ago."

I strained to look around, but my head was tied back. I watched him as he cleaned out the shotgun. I tried to wiggle free but it was no use. There was no escaping my restraints and there was no point in tiring myself out.

"Come one, man. Let me free. Why are you doing this?"

"Why? Because in a situation like this you can't trust no one. Humans are just as dangerous as zombies."

"Look, I'm not here to hurt you. I just came to help my friend and get back to safety."

"Safety? Hah! There ain't no where safe. You must be out of it, son!"

There was no use arguing with him either. After the shotgun was all cleaned out, he knocked over the display I was tied up to and dragged me outside of the store. He grabbed a nearby bucket and emptied it's contents onto the floor in front of me. The liquid spread out and eventually reached my head. By the smell I could tell it was blood. The man stood in front of me, shotgun in hand, and yelled out.

"Come and get it, maggots!"

I heard the moans of zombies as they neared. He let out an evil cackle and took aim. He fired away at the zombies that got too close. The bodies dropped to the floor in front of me. I just watched in horror as he got his thrills. A faint sound caught my attention, footsteps. They were quick, and got louder and louder. All of a sudden the man was thrown back by something. I tried to turn my head, but it was still held back tightly. I could here the sounds of grunting and punches landing. When it stopped, the weight on my head was gone and I could move it. Then, the rope around my body was loosened. "Here, let me help you up." I got up and looked at the mysterious man who rescued me.

"Thank you, man."

"Not a problem. I've seen that man before. He seems tough, but without that shotgun he ain't shit. I heard the gunshots and came running."

"Thanks again, umm…"

"The name's Will Thompson."

"Ah, Will, got it. Hey, where are you held up at?"

"No where. I've just been roaming around, not staying in one place too long. No matter where I've tried to make proof, those damn things still got through."

"Well, I've got somewhere safe for you, but I need you to help me. Again."

"Okay, what do you need?"

"Just follow me to the food court. We need some more supplies back at the Security Room. There are a bunch of other survivors there."

"All right. Let's get to it then."

I led Will to the food court where we gathered supplies. I set up three boxes for us to pack with food. It was rather quiet so I tried starting up a conversation.

"So, Will, what brings you here during this?"

"Well, like any other person, this was the safest place I could think of to escape those zombies. What about you?"

"I'm a photojournalist. I came here when I heard of something big going down. I was supposed to get picked up a few days ago, but the helicopter was shot down."

"Wow. I'm sorry to hear that. There's no other way out, huh?"

"Not really. The city is being blocked off by the National Guard. They'd most likely mistake us for zombies or just shoot us to make sure nothing gets out."

"What do you mean?"

"This has to be something big. I mean, there was nothing about it on any of the news channels. And the NG shot down the helicopter. They don't want any information about what's going on to get out to the public."

"Well what exactly is going on here."

"I have no idea truthfully. The only thing I know is that the chances of us getting out alive are very slim. So for now, I'm just trying to not become one of the undead."

"Right… Right… Oh shit, look out!"

Will screamed at me. But it was too late. Before I could move a zombie latched on to me and dug into my arm. I screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. Will pushed the zombie away and picked me up. "Come on Frank, get up!" I managed to get to my feet. I looked down at my arm, there was a hole in it with blood oozing out.

"Damn it! Let's get this patched."

Will ripped off part of his sleeve and tied it tightly around the hole in my arm. The bleeding stopped for the most part. We had to leave behind one box of food, but that was fine for now. I lead Will to the Security Room. Brad was there and Jessie had already tended to his gunshot wound. He saw what had happened to me.

"My God! What happened?!"

"Damn zombie got me as I was packing a box of food."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, for now I guess. I don't know how long I'll be 'alive' though."

Jessie butted in with some help.

"You'll be fine as long as you don't fall asleep."

"Huh? How do you know?"

"One of the people I came here with was bitten. He didn't turn for a few days until he passed out from exhaustion."

"Great. I'm already tired as it is. I haven't gotten a decent amount of sleep in I don't know how long."

"There is a cure though. As long as you are still human, we can cure you."

"You have a serum for it?"

"Did. I lost it when they broke into the mall. It should be somewhere in Entrance Plaza. But it has probably been kicked around every which way by now."

"Oh. That helps."

"Look, Frank. We'll find that serum. Don't worry. Just stay awake. For now, let me see your arm… Oh dear. Come with me and I'll get that patched up better."

I followed Jessie into the Janitor's Closet where she took out a first aid kit and wrapped some gauze around the bite.

"There. That should stop it from bleeding. I just need you to relax for now. At least until it heals."

"Heals?"

"you know what I mean. Like a deep cut would heal."

"Uh-huh."

I followed her out into the monitor room and sat down on the sofa in there. My stomach rumbled. Brad heard it and brought me a snack. I thanked him and started munching on it. A young man emerged from the door and sat down next to me. He just stared at me for a minute before speaking.

"Hi."

"Hello. What's your name?"

"Fernando. What's yours?"

"I'm Frank."

"Nice to meet you, Frank. What happened to your arm?"

"I was bitten."

"Bitten? By one of them?"

"Yeah."

"So that means you're going to turn into one of them soon?"

"Hopefully not. As long as I stay awake I'll be fine. So, why aren't you in there talking with the others?"

"I don't know. They're all talking about boring stuff like politics and videogame related violence. I just needed a break from that and somebody to talk with about something else."

"Ah, I see. Hey, you want to play some cards?"

"Sure, why not. I'll go get a pack."

Fernando and I played various card games like Rummy and Kings In The Corner for a while. As of now, everything was fine. A few others joined in the games and we played through the day. People joined and left like usual but eventually it was just me and Fernando like it started. I looked at the clock. It read 9:45.

"Damn this day went by quick. Huh, Frank?"

"Heh."

"Well, I'm going to go lay down. Get some sl--… I'll see you."

I chuckled a little as he stopped mid-sentence, realizing what he was about to say. He left for bed. I picked up a nearby magazine and started reading it.

Day One -- 9:50