"We're almost there, hurry up!" Ace called, not bothering to look back at her blonde friend. The girl only breathed heavily, her chest buring from all the running she was doing. They'd been running for quite some time and the fatigue was starting to get to her, which caused her to fall behind the group a bit.
It'd been a day or so since they'd eaten, which didn't help Miranda's situation. She and her group had been in such a hurry to get to the mall and to the Evacuation Center that they didn't have time to stop. She groaned a little, the sound of her stomach growling could almost be heard over the horde.
She refused to stop, however, because of the sizeable horde of zombies chasing after her. It wasn't a huge group; maybe in the thirties or fourties, but she didn't have time to count them all.
Jayson was, as always, a few feet ahead of the girls. His legs worked as hard as they could to carry him to his destination, the muscles tensing with each step. 'Thank God for the track team.' he thought to himself, smiling slightly.
His high school track team had a pretty vigorous work out, which he surprisingly enjoyed despite the hard work. Each time they practiced, he and his team would do the usual warm up exercises, followed by a long five-mile run.
Looking to his left, he saw a large green tent set up in the mall parking lot. It had the CEDA symbol on it, but it looked abandoned. He got a quick look at the inside of the tent, and was shocked to find blood and decomposing bodies inside. 'What happened here?' he thought silently, running past the tents.
"Hey, there's the back entrance!" he announced, spotting the large red metal door. "Come on, Miranda!" he encouraged, flashing her a crooked smile.
"Easier said than done!" she yelled back at him, lengthening her stride to keep ahead of the horde. Unfortunately, the blonde lost her footing and landed face first on the gravelly road. She groaned and looked back at the oncoming wave of infected, but didn't have the strength to pick herself up.
Ace, who'd heard the blonde fall down, stopped and turned around. "Shit." she cursed, reaching for a bile bomb to distract the horde with. Tossing the jar at the horde, she heard the glass shatter as it landed right in the middle of them. The foul-smelling liquid splashed onto a few of the nearby infected, and Ace watched as the infected turned on one another.
Taking the opportunity, the brunette jogged back and picked up her collapsed friend, helping her to get to the mall entrance. Jayson was already waiting at the door, shooting a few of the zombies that were still attacking each other. After the two girls got inside, Jayson followed and shut the door behind them.
Miranda was put down on the small, tattered mattress that laid in the corner of the room. Ace helped Jayson to quickly move an empty shelving unit in front of the door, as a sort of makeshift barricade. The dirty blonde-haired boy looked back at Miranda with concern, watching her try and catch her breath.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sitting down next to her on the mattress.
"Yeah, i'm fine. Just need a few minutes to catch my breath." she stuttered, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"I think we should all take this time to eat something." he suggested, taking off the black backpack and setting it down.
"Good idea." Ace replied, looking over at Miranda. "I think she could use something." she continued, grabbing a can of pinto beans and pulling the top off it.
Jayson pulled out a can of kidney beans and handed them over to Miranda, who smiled gratefully at him. She opened the can and started eating, not hesitating to show how hungry she was.
Jayson just sat and enjoyed the quiet, not feeling very hungry. He couldn't help but wonder about CEDA and whether or not they were still somewhere in the mall. However, Miranda was determined to find her brother, and he didn't want to plant any seeds of doubt.
~XXX~
After resting up a bit, the crew opened the door that led into the mall. Jayson went ahead, holding his fire axe tightly in his hands as he checked. Once he saw that it was clear, he signalled for the girls to follow. Suddenly, a farmiliar growl echoed off the walls of the building.
"Where is it?" she asked, looking around for any sign of the creature. The growl was heard again, louder and more intimidating this time. Miranda saw a flash of blue, and she looked over just in time to see Ace get knocked into a puddle of fresh blood.
Jayson began to panic when he watched Ace struggle against the creature, gripping his fire axe tightly in his hands. He wanted desperately to help her, but the fear he felt was almost crippling.
Miranda's hands shook as she held her gun up, pointing it at the creature that was pinning her friend. The hooded zombie snarled at the girl, about to cut her open with it's sharp claw-like fingers, but the blonde survivor shot him in the side. Howling in pain, the creature jumped off of Ace and a few feet away.
However, it wasn't finished yet. It howled again, launching itself at the survivor, hellbent on killing her. One final shot rang loudly through the air, and Miranda squeezed her eyes shut. Opening them again, she saw the infected laying dead on the ground. She gave it a light kick just to be sure, before putting her gun away and helping Ace to her feet.
"Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem."
"Hey guys, a little help over here!" the blonde girl turned quickly and saw Jayson surrounded by a horde of zombies.
Cursing to herself, the blonde pulled out her pistol again and started shooting the infected in the heads. She cleared an opening just big enough for him to run through, and he took the opportunity without hesitation. Joining Miranda at her side, Jayson pulled out his own gun and the two of them opened fire on the crowd of zombies, not stopping until their bodies were all piled up on the ground.
"Nice work." Ace commented, walking over to join the two.
"Are you alright?" he asked, putting his gun back into it's holster.
"I almost died, but other than that i'm peachy." he flinch a little at the way she delivered her response. He'd known her for a while, but still hadn't gotten used to her constant use of sarcasm.
Just then, they heard loud screams and moans of the infected echo off the walls of the building. "What the-?" Jayson started to say, his eyes widening in shock. He saw zombies pouring from many parts of the mall, tripping over debris on the floor and falling down the escalators.
"What do we do?!" Miranda asked, readying her gun. Jayson was about to suggest that they fight, but Ace cut in before he got a chance.
"We can't take them all. Come on, up there!" she exclaimed, pointing to the broken escalator to their left. They followed her without a second chance, rushing up the escalator as they tried to get away from the infected.
They made their way onto the second floor and wandered, still finding any trace of the Evac Center that was supposed to be there. They didn't discuss it, but they were all worried about what they were gonna do.
A sudden shaking caused the survivors to stumble to a stop. "What-?" Miranda asked, trying to keep herself steady.
"What's going on?!" Jayson looked around, not sure why the ground was shaking. 'Is it an earthquake?' he thought to himself, gripping the handle of his fire axe tightly.
Suddenly, they watched a pair of blue double doors break off their hinges and fly through the air toward them. Ace grabbed the two survivors by their shirts and pulled them down onto the ground, feeling the gust of air that came with the doors flying overhead. Miranda looked up in time to see a large, very muscular infected barreling through the doorway and toward them.
"W-what?!" she breathed, staring wide eyed at the creature. Jayson stood up from his spot on the ground and tried to scramble away from the monsterous Tank. The monster ripped a large piece of the flooring, letting out a mighty roar as it raised the chunk of concrete over his head and right at Ace.
Without thinking, Jayson threw his fire axe down and pushed the brunette to the ground, falling down with her. The special infected started heading straight for the two survivors, and Miranda noticed this. Pulling out her AK 47, she opened fire on the large beast and started running backwards.
"Hey, ugly!" she screamed, her heart pounding faster when it turned to look at her. "Yeah, you! Ugly!" she taunted, reloading her gun with another clip.
Enraged, the Tank changed course and started running after the blonde. 'Shit, guess I didn't really think this through.' she thought, turning the corner and trying to stay ahead of the creature. Jayson and Ace climbed to their feet, rushing to catch up with the blonde survivor. They fired their sidearms at the creature as they ran, but he didn't seem the least bit distracted.
The bullets that embedded themselves in the Tank's flesh seemed to have no effect, because it continued to chase after them. "Come on, keep running!" Miranda called, leading the group as they ran from the special infected.
Jayson ran as fast as he could to keep up with the others, but the Tank was pretty fast. With it's size, he didn't think that the creature would be able to keep up so well. It picked up another large piece of concrete and threw it at the retreating group. It sailed over their heads, slamming into the wall next to them.
"Damn that was close!" Jayson commented, not stopping for anything. He noticed a gas can laying on the ground in front of him, raising an eyebrow as he thought of a plan. The Tank stopped running, smashing it's meaty fists and letting out a frustated roar. Jayson took the opportunity and picked up the can, turning to throw it behind them.
"Shoot the can! Shoot the can!" he called. Firing a few rounds at the can, he missed every single shot. Ace's pistol bullet was the lucky one, piercing the gas can and causing it to explode. The flames from the explosion licked the skin of the Tank, and it let out a pained cry as it tried to put out the fire.
The flames were more effective than they would have thought. The special infected let out a final roar as it fell forward onto it's face, finally dead.
Jayson slowly sat down on the ground where he'd stopped running, looking back at the large corpse. He was breathing hard as he dropped his pistol and let the shock set in.
"You alright?" Miranda asked, crouching down to pat the man on the back.
He shook his head slowly, looking up at her with his green eyes. "What did we do to deserve all of this?"
"I don't know. But I do know that we can't give up now." she replied, standing up and holding her hand out for him to take. "Come on."
Jayson sighed and rubbed his face before taking her hand and standing up. He flashed her a slightly crooked smile, thanking her for the help. Their hands lingered there a little longer than they should have been, and Miranda could feel her face flush slightly. Miranda cleared her throat, before retracting her hand and looking up at the dirty blonde-haired boy.
"If you ladies are done, can we get going?" Ace called to her teammeates, guesturing with her rifle.
The man looked over at Ace and rolled his eyes before grabbing his pistol off the ground. He looked around or his fire axe, which was nowhere in sight, sighing in disappointment. Looking over at the two girls, he asked "So, where to now?"
"There're still a few floors of the mall to explore. If CEDA is here, we need to fine them." the brunette explained, turning and walking toward a staircase on the other side of them.
Jayson rolled his eyes, mumbling something about taking orders from a girl, but followed her anyways.
~XXX~
"Well, what do we do now?" Jayson asked, leaning against a wall.
"We need to get out of here. Find a car and get to the highway."
"Where in the hell are we supposed to find a car?"
"I've been seeing signs all over the mall. They have Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s stock car on the ground floor somewhere. If we can get it running, we can take it." Ace explained, and Jayson sighed.
"Alright, i'm in." he agreed, walking back over to Ace. "We should get going now, though. The sooner, the better." the brunette nodded in agreement, before looking over at Miranda.
"You ready?" the blonde was hesitant at first, but agreed to the plan after a moment. They wasted no time making their way down to the ground floor in search of a vehicle.