(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 4 Injury, Death, Plans

Back when the world was right and the only thing anyone worried about was high gas prices, Elisha's parents were Veterinarians. They had a small but steady business on the east side of West Haven. It was their constant persuasion that got her into the family business, she herself had wanted nothing more than to be a fashion designer and had even went so far as to send out applications to many colleges that taught such things.

In the end however, she did end up working for them all summer, months before everything went downhill for mother earth. It was there that she learned how to stop bleeding and dress bad injuries. She also learned another very important thing while working there. She learned how to keep her cool while the animals nipped at her and yelped when being worked on. So when she saw the wounded people that had stumbled along she knew that she would be needed.

The first thing she did was send for Mary, because in her mind the little girl Rae Ann didn't need to see what was going on. Tyson was good enough to take Rae Ann and send her off with Mary to another part of the mall while Elisha and Jake patched up who they could with what little they had.

"What was all that noise downstairs?" She asked as they hurried to the food court.

"There was a mail truck, it crashed into the mall. It started shooting gas out everywhere and james accidently ignited it by shooting a gun." Jake said wearily.

They walked up to the first of several tables that were being lined up by Hope and Tyson. The first person to be layed down was Jeff, who looked almost dead. He was bleeding from the ears and nose badly and to Elisha it looked like he might have been worse off than the rest of them. She checked his pulse which was beating irradically and then she checked his eyes. Both pupils were dilated. She knew that he was either in deep shock or close to death. Examining his body, she found that he had multiple broken bones.

"Try not to panic." She said to herself as she moved to the next table.

Drake was moaning and she saw to her surprise that he was badly burned on most of his torso. She grabbed a pair of scissors and began to cut his shirt open. There were blisters and burns all over his chest as well as a few pieces of glass and metal. She pulled some of them out and began to put salve on as much of his chest as she could. She then began to put gauze on it and then instructed Jake to give him some painkillers.

Mike sat on a chair looking somewhat coherent and a little angry. She decided to check on James before she even had a look at him. Tyson suddenly stopped her.

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" He asked her suddenly.

"My parents worked as veterinarians, I know a little bit from that." She said and moved onto James who was still screaming.

She tried to move his hand away from his eye but he struggled against it. In the end she had Tyson hold him down and Jake pry it away from his face. Blood was coming out in slow gushes. She saw a piece of metal the size of a three year olds pinky sticking out of his left eye. She also saw that the eye lid was tore.

"This is going to hurt." She said and quickly yanked the piece of metal out.

James began to scream and thrash around for a few seconds and then went limp. She checked his pulse and found that his heart was still beating. She looked at the others and then began to bandage his eye as best as she could.

Hope began to wipe blood off of her wound as best as she could. When she managed to wipe enough away from her cheek, she put a bandage on it. She looked over at Elisha and felt somwhat envious that the girl was able to do something for the wounded people.

"I want to try and help." Hope said.

"Okay, could you look over Victor's wounds while I tend to Mike?" She asked.

Hope nodded and walked over to where Victor sat. She began to examine him and found the bite wound on his upper shoulder, just shy of his neck. They looked at each other and Hope knew what he was going to say.

"I was bitten." He said.

Hope felt a lump form in her throat and ignored him. She began to dress his wound when he shrugged her off. He stood up and looked at the others then walked over to the escalator. They all watched him quietly as he pulled out a handgun and checked it.

"I'm going back down there to finish some business. I won't be coming back up here. By the off chance one of you happens to venture down there and see me...well see me dead, kill me. I don't know how if I'll be able to do it myself." He said and then climbed the wall of debris.

Jeff suddenly began to have convulsions and gave a shallow breath dying from the injuries he sustained. Hope put a blanket over his dead body and began to cry as the others worked on each other. In the end there were only painkillers and penicillin left in the bag that Hope only filled the day before.

Everyone heard Victor shooting his gun downstairs, his war on the dead only lasted fifteen minutes and then everything went silent. Within two hours the whole building was filled with dreaded silence. No one said anything at all. Hope retreated to her little home and cried on her bed until Mary and Rae Ann showed up. Mary was also visible shaken by the incident and held Hope soothing her in a motherly tone until she managed to compose herself.

"Poor dears." Mary said as she sat up with Hope.

Finally off in the food court James began to sob loudly. He was crying about how he screwed up everything at first, then he cried about how badly his left eye hurt. Hope heard Tyson say something to him in a low murmur. Then there was silence again. even Rae Ann sat quietly on a chair holding her teddy bear and sucking her thumb.

Eventually it got dark outside and everyone that was still in good health tried their best to bed down. They decided it would be best to check on Drake every few hours and set up a watch for him. Elisha was the first one to watch out for him. Hope, Rae Ann, and the others all slept in the furniture store that night.

Glen

"So cold in here." Glen said through chattering teeth.

He got up and stumbled blindly to the gate that held him in the store. He looked out and saw the walking dead stumble around looking like confused drunks. He remembered hearing a loud boom, so loud that it shook the very mall in it's foundations. He let out a loud squeeky laugh and began to cough.

"Good for you damned losers!" He screamed out into the darkness.

His stump was beginning to ache badly, so badly that he thought it would drive him insane. But when it wasn't hurting he started to feel cold again. He walked up to the counter and began rummaging through it. As he sat there throwing things over it he found something that seemed to be of interest.

"Oh my God." He muttered as he put his hand over his face in disbelief.

Hidden behind a pile of old catalogues was a sawed off shotgun. He let out another laugh followed by a fit of coughing. He remembered that a friend of his, Eddie Howard, said he was going to sneak that old thing in and put it behind the counter. Glen never believed he would ever do such a thing, but to his surprise the gun sat there in the back of the counter. Glen picked it up and examined it. It was a double barrel sawed off shotgun.

He began to smile some more and then brought it up to the gate that was holding him inside of the store. He began to kneel down searching for the padlock that the others put on the latch and found it.

"There you are." He said gleefully.

He pointed the gun at the lock and curled his finger around one of the triggers. His vision was starting to fog up a little but he could still see well enough to shoot the lock off of the latch. He took aim and with a deep breath, squeezed the trigger.

There was a deafening roar followed by a loud clanking sound as the lock was ripped away from the latch. Glen still smiling lifted the gate up and ran clumsily out of the store into freedom. He saw several zombies staggering around in the mall. One of them to his surprise was the dork cop that chopped his arm off. He laughed as he saw the older man stumbling around lifelessly.

He gave a half hearted kick and planted his shoe firmly on the seat of the dead cops pants sending him forward and crashing hard into the tiled floor. That sent him into a fit of laughter which in turn gave him an idea. There was at least six more zombies locked in a closet in the back of the store he was just in. He went back and unlocked the door opening it slightly before running off.

"That'll teach you bastards to mess with me!" He yelled.

He began a slow decent up an escalator near the back to open an elevator. He wanted to lead the zombies into the upper floor and let them roam up there. It would be fun to watch as the survivors fought their way out of that kind of predicament. He made it up the escalator and was almost to an elevator when he heard someone behind him. Without looking to see who it was, he turned and fired his last round at the shadow.

Mary

Mary was having a dream, in it she and Bill were sitting at their table in their old home eating supper. Suddenly there was a loud boom, and Bill looked up at her. She smiled getting up from the table.

"I'll get it dear." She said.

Suddenly she was awake. She looked up and saw Hope and Tyson looking at her with concerned eyes. She sat up blinking and then looked around the room for a minute.

"Did the other one die?" She asked.

"No, we think Glen found a gun." Tyson said.

"Oh dear me, what are we going to do?" She asked.

"Well, I was going to take Mike and Jake and have a look around to make sure nothing is wrong up here. Hope here was wondering if you'd maybe stay here with the little one and watch her until we get back." He said.

She nodded and then got up to go be with Rae Ann. As she sat down at the foot of her bed Mike walked up to her and handed her a gun.

"Oh Heavens no, I couldn't shoot it." She said looking at it uneasily.

"I think it would be best if you took it ma'am. Glen might come here and try to do something. I'm not saying he's the one that fired off a round, but it is a possibility. After all he was doing a lot of hollering down there." Mike said.

Mary grabbed the gun and then put it on a bedstand. She watched as the others left and then sat back down at the foot of the little girls bed. She had an uneasy feeling all of a sudden. She kept glancing out into the dimly lit hall at every noise.

"Don't be so jumpy." A voice said.

Mary, startled, turned to see where it came from. Drake lay in a bed near the front of the store. He was all bandaged up and in pain but aside from that he was okay. She walked over to where he was sitting and got him some water. He drank from a bottle she handed him and then handed it back to her.

"I'm still here, you don't have to worry." He slurred.

Since that afternoon they kept him heavily medicated with painkillers. Earlier he had been in severe pain and almost went into shock. He seemed somewhat better now that he was high. She brushed his hair back from his brow and then put a cool rag on his forehead.

"I'm a cop, or I used to be until all this happened." He said.

She looked into his half open eyes and saw sadness behind them. Somewhere close by James moaned in his sleep.

"Do you want to hear something?" He asked her.

"Sure." She said quietly.

"I had a beautiful girlfriend and when she was being attacked by those things, I ran like a coward." He whispered.

A single tear fell from his eye and he swallowed hard. She could tell that he wanted to tell her more but he hesitated at first. She patted him on the head and then he looked at her.

"If it wasn't for Victor I'd be dead right now. Only he wasn't known as Victor when we were on the force. He was called Seargent Mears. He and Kenny found me and Mike over at that road block on fifth street. Remember? It was all over the radio and the news. It was an attempt to hold off those creatures. They kept coming though, one right after the other. Then Vic and Kenny grabbed me and Mike and we all ran back to the precinct. Hid there for a few weeks, only going out to get food." He muttered.

She got up and checked on Rae Ann, who was still sleeping soundly. Then she went back to check on Elisha, who was laying on a recliner chair. Mary put a comforter over the girl and then went back to look in on Drake. She saw that his handsome face was unscarred by the fire that had burned some of his upper body. He was passed out again, probably nodded off from all the pills he was given.

She heard someone comimg down the hall and peeked out just in time to see a shadowy figure walk off towards the food court. Must be Tyson, she thought as she went back to the little girl and sat in a chair near her bed. Suddenly she heard a loud pop, followed by a murmur. There was silence then a loud booming laughter. It chilled her bones to hear such laughter and she recognized who it belonged to. Glen was out after all.

"Someone has to talk some sense into that man." She said to herself and got up.

She saw him working on unjamming the elevator that was near the food court and approached him. His back was turned to her and she could see with mild surprise that he now had a stump where his left arm once was. They really did cut his arm off, she thought.

Lying on the ground not four feet away from Glen, was the body of Jeff. The school teacher that shot her poor husband Bill in the head. The thought never occured to her that anyone could turn into one of those things that walked a floor below. At least anyone that hasn't suffered any serious head injuries and most of Jeff's appeared to be from his torso.

"Young man this crap is going to stop!" She said.

He jumped and turned around and she felt chills suddenly sweep up her spine. Glen looked nothing like the man she had been around the last few weeks. That Glen was healthy and full of color. This Glen, was pale with dark circles under his eyes.

His eyes.

She saw that they had mild cataracts over them. He looked as if he were dying right before her own eyes and suddenly fear tightened it's grip over her. He looked at her for a second and then fell to his knees and started to cry.

"Mary, look what they did to me! They cut off my arm!" He wailed.

She could hear Tyson and the others approaching her and she felt relieved. She backed away from Glen until her lower back felt the guard rail. She took a look behind her and saw the lower level of the mall. There were a dozen zombies stumbling to and fro down there.

"What in heavens name..." She trailed.

Glen suddenly stood up and smiled until all of his teeth seemed to jut out from his mouth. She saw a look of insanity in this smile and she knew that he was going to do something bad. She put a hand over her mouth as he got closer to her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jake running but couldn't tell how close he was.

"Mary, Mary, Mary..." Glen tisked.

Suddenly without any warning she saw the ceiling and then felt herself falling. It wasn't a long fall, but very short. She didn't feel her head when it slammed into the tile on the first floor. Nor did she feel it as her spine snapped in several places even though she was still alive. She stared at the ceiling that seemed to be miles away. Her vision started to grow dim and as she felt her chest start to hitch, her confused mind gave her one complete thought before she died.

I'll get the door Bill, you just finish up your dinner.

Hope

They all saw Glen push Mary off the railing. Hope let out a scream as she heard the old ladies bones snap. She looked down over the railing and saw Mary laying in a slowly forming pool of blood staring lifelessly up at the ceiling. Jake and Tyson were chasing Glen.

"Get that bastard!" Tyson screamed.

Jake held up the shotgun and fired a round off catching Glen in the lower right calf. Hope watched as he howled and fell to the ground twisting up in a ball of pain. He was roughly ten feet from where they stood and even from that distance he smelled of decay.

"Do you guys smell that?" Jake said as they approached him.

"Son of a bitch is still infected isn't he." Tyson said and walked over to where he lay.

Glen was shuddering and his stomach was tensing up and then relaxing over and over. His breathing was becoming shallow, and his body looked rigid. Hope knew that he was becoming one of the living dead and felt very fearful.

"Someone should shoot him before he gets the chance to change completely." Mike said.

Tyson nodded and grabbed his handgun placed it to Glen's head and pulled the trigger. There was a loud POP as the gun went off and Glen stopped moving altogether. They grabbed his body and threw it over the railing where it landed near a fountain with a loud thud. Several zombies walked to where it lay and began feasting on it.

Tyson looked at the others and then down over the railing at the living dead that was slowly populating the mall. He walked off towards the food court and sat in a chair. He looked as if he were ready to give up. When Hope and the others approached him, he tried wave them off. When he saw that they wouldn't leave he looked up at them and spoke.

"How many of you honestly think we still have a chance staying in this place?"

None of them answered.

"I have to say if we do, it's a very slim one. I don't want to die in a place like this... not in a place like this." He said and slammed his dark fist into the table.

"What should we do?" Mike asked.

Tyson looked up at him and then ran a hand along his bald head. He let his shoulders slump and then he looked down at the ground. For a moment it looked like he was going to just stop talking altogether but then he spoke again.

"I think we should try to leave the city and make a run for the mountains." He said.

"The mountains?" Jake asked.

"Well, yeah man, look at it this way. Do you think those clumsy ass things can climb up a steep route? Well, I'd imagine some of them might be able to do it, but a lot of them would probably just end up fallling all over the place. Plus there ain't that much out there, it's less populated and there might even be a cabin or something for us to stay." He began to say.

"How do we get out of this city though, I mean we are damn near in the middle of it and that is one hell of a long walk out." Mike countered.

"We just try to be careful I guess. I don't know, what do I look like Mr. Wizard?!" He grumbled.

"We have to get supplies first, canned goods, and water should be our first concern." Hope spoke up.

They all looked at her and then back to Tyson.

"Yeah, water and food, what else? Anyone?" He asked.

"Well if we're going to the mountains, maybe some tents if we can't find a cabin out there?" Jake said.

"I can't believe you idiots want to risk trying to leave this city! How many people do you think died trying to attempt the same thing all of you want to do?!" Mike said angrily.

"Hey, I'd rather die trying to get out of this place then wait around to become one of those things down there." Tyson said pointing towards the lower floor.

"What about Drake? You can't just move him around, besides the poor bastard is so out of it he wouldn't even be much help." Mike said.

"Doesn't look like he's going to be much help anyway considering his condition." Tyson said.

"Why fight against this? We should all be in this together Mike, besides we need everyone. If you haven't noticed we've lost three good people in the span of twenty four hours." Hope reasoned.

Mike suddenly began to think about it and after a minute or two of thinking, he spoke.

"If you guys can plan this out good enough, then I'll go with you." He said.

"Okay we will, starting tomorrow morning." Tyson said.

Deep inside, Hope felt a little better. At least we're going to attempt to escape this hell hole, she thought. They all walked back to the furniture store, Tyson waking Elisha up to fill her in on what happened while she was sleeping. When he suggested that they leave for the mountains she agreed that it would be best and then went to tend to Drake and check on James.

Down below them more zombies began to walk into the mall. Out back near the garage the fire was almost completely out. More out of luck than anything else. As Hope lay next to Rae Ann she began to wonder how many of them were in the mall. Twenty? Thirty? Maybe more. She knew that tomorrow there would be more making their chances at escaping the mall just as slim as escaping the city. She closed her eyes and fell asleep thinking about this.