Disclaimer, etc., in the first chapter

Day Ten

Xander struggled out of his bed. He levered himself up with his crutch and hopped over to his cart. From there, he reached out with this crutch and lifted the bag of weapons from his bedside and placed it next to him in the cart.

He turned the key on the cart and headed out into the mall, driving toward the gunfire. He dropped his good hand from the wheel, reached into the bag and pulled out the shotgun. He held the gun between his knees and loaded shells into it as he drove. He glanced over the railing, but didn't see any zombies.

Xander drove past the food court and saw everyone who was left either firing a gun, reloading a gun or trying to brace something against the door.

"Out of the way!" he yelled. As Sam, Luis and Erica dove out of the way, he sped his cart directly into the hallway, knocking over a couple of zombies as he drove. He raised his shotgun and fired directly into the face of one of the creatures, splattering its brains across the hallway. He fired twice more, clearing out enough room that he could maneuver the cart.

Xander jerked the wheel hard, hit the gas, flipped it into reverse and slammed the cart back against the door. He pulled up his shotgun and fired again, and then, with considerable pain, began to crawl out of the cart. He soon found himself being dragged by Sam and Dean as Dawn provided covering fire, holding the zombies at bay.

"That should slow them down," Xander said. "At least act as a bit of a road block. How long has this been going on?"

"Five minutes," Dean said, plugging another monster in the head. It landed on the concrete floor with a loud crack, and the black ooze they had all come to expect leaked out under Xander's cart. The cart, though, seemed to be confusing the zombies, at least for the moment.

"Well," Xander said, leaning back against the railing. "Anybody got any bright ideas?"

Luis raised his hand. "I had a thought."

"Don't keep me waiting," Xander said.

Luis pointed to the railing Xander leaned against. "Well we got this big pit, right? Just a whole floor we're not using?"

Xander nodded.

"So?" asked Dean.

"So we use it," said Luis. "Knock out the railing, get some stuff up here to… to block their path so we funnel them to the edge. Then we all get on the other side to draw them nearer and…" he whistled, miming going over a cliff with his hand.

Dean, Dawn, Sam and Xander looked at each other.

"Stupid?" Luis asked.

"No," said Sam. He scratched his head, his hand next to his eyes to keep him from looking in one particular place. "But it's missing something."

"What?" asked Erica.

"Bait," said Dawn, looking directly at Erica. "Somebody's going to need to be inside the barricades, so they're not trying to go left or right."

"Bait?" asked Jerry.

"Yeah," said Xander, keeping his eyes solidly on the floor. Dean nodded, and turned to the railing, his eyes dragging slowly.

Luis caught on quickly and looked away.

Allison looked around at them. "What? Why is nobody looking at – oh," she said. "Shit."

"Now look," Xander said, "we're not doing this unless you're completely comfortable with it."

"It's okay," said Allison. "I could do this before I got strong."

"Really?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, well, it took a while, but I could climb a rope."

"And now?"

Allison smiled. "Wanna time me?"

She climbed down the rope to the first floor.

"Hey do me a favor," Xander said. "Jump as high up the rope as you can before climbing."

Allison shrugged. "Can't hurt. Ready?"

"When you are," Xander said. He didn't bother timing, and smiled at Allison's startled 'whoa!' when, on her jump, she managed to grasp the edge of the floor. Allison pulled herself up, grabbed the rope to haul herself up the railing and swung herself over the top.

"Wow," she said.

"Yeah," Xander said. "Well, you'll get better."

"Hey!" Dean shouted from the other side of the gap, as he blasted another zombie in the face. "You kids done fuckin' around? We got zombies here!"

Allison smiled at Xander and sprinted around to the other side. She helped Dawn over the edge of the barricade they had set up, then joined the brothers Winchester on the other side. Xander watched as Sam ran her through the plan one more time. Allison was nodding rhythmically and focused.

"If she gets hurt," Jerry said, drawing Xander's attention. Jerry was kneeling next to the chair they had dragged up for Xander. "If my baby gets hurt, I'm going to kill you."

Xander reached into the bag next to his chair and pulled out a pistol, which he offered to Jerry. Jerry's eyes widened in surprise, and he accepted the weapon

"The safety's on, so you'll have to disengage that," Xander said. "And remember to squeeze the trigger, don't pull it. And watch out for the recoil. It's a big gun, so it could hurt. You're gonna want to aim center mass." Xander pointed to his chest. "It's not as immediate as a head shot, but it's a lot easier unless you're right up next to me. And you don't want to be right up next to me. Although it actually might not be that bad. Shoot a cripple. Have fun with that.

"Now when you are killing me for getting your daughter injured while saving our lives, I want you to remember the look that is on my face. Imprint it into your memory, and take joy in it. Because when Dawn finds out that you've killed me, she's going to feed you to the zombies, and when they're biting into your flesh, you can remember that and think, 'Yes, this was all worth it because that bastard is dead.'"

Jerry stood beside Xander, his face red with anger and his knuckles white from gripping the gun.

"I get that you're worried and I'm sorry, but I know a lot more about this than you do, and I don't have the time or energy to coddle." He snatched the gun back from Jerry roughly. "And don't make threats unless you're prepared to back them up."

Xander dumped the gun back into his bag as Dawn, Luis and Erica arrived from the other side. Dawn noticed Jerry's neck, and the awkward silence.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "You're on the rifle, right?"

Dawn nodded. "Yup."

"Got it loaded?"

"Yeah."

"Planned your sight lines?" he asked.

"Yes, I have."

"Checked that your –"

"Xander?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Fair enough."

Dawn set up her rifle, then signaled over to Dean that everything was ready. The brothers took a couple of minutes to kill or disable all the zombies in the hall, Dean hopped into Xander's cart and unblocked the hallway. If the zombies couldn't get through quickly enough, they had thought, they might not follow Allison, and instead try to climb the barricade.

The plan was to allow enough in so the flow would, eventually, slow to a trickle, then kill them off and re-barricade the entrance. They didn't know how long it would last, but it was the best they had.

Dean and Sam arrived on the other side of the gap.

"Any time, now," Dean said. "Aaaaany time."

A moment later, the first zombie appeared. Followed by a second, and, too quickly, a third and fourth. Allison lashed out and sliced the head off the first zombie. A geyser of blood shot from its neck stump, and the body flopped to the floor. That was, apparently, enough to catch the others' attention, and they started ambling after her in earnest, and behind those initial few were dozens upon dozens more.

"Allison!" Xander yelled across the gap. "Back up!"

Allison nodded and backed up to the edge of the floor, where the railing had been knocked down. She reached out and decapitated another zombie, then turned and jumped down onto the first floor, and backed a few feet away from the ledge.

Everyone held their breath.

The first zombie fell, cracking its head open on the concrete floor. The second followed suit nicely, as did the third and fourth.

"That's good," Xander called down to Allison. "Come on back up."

"Oh, God," said Erica, as Allison hauled herself over the railing.

"What?" asked Xander. He looked where Erica was pointing and nearly lost his dinner. Crawling along the floor on the other side of the gap was a baby, no more than a few months old, skin falling off its face and the dark ooze dripping from a gash above its eye.

"Oh my God," said Dawn, paling as she took in the sight. "Oh, we… that can't… I…"

Sam stepped up next to her. "Here," he said, taking the rifle from her. "I'll do it."

She smiled weakly at him and nodded.

Everybody turned their heads and plugged their ears as best they could. A moment later the rifle barked.

"It's done?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah," said Sam. "But the sight's not any better. Worse, maybe. With the um. Splatter." There was a thud.

"Oh God, what was that?" Erica asked.

"The baby," Sam said. "It fell. Over the edge."

"Fell?" Xander asked, turning his head back. "How?"

Sam pointed at the trail of blood that led over the edge of the floor, the trail that started where the baby had been. "There was another zombie… right behind it. It kind of… kicked."

Luis clapped his hand to his mouth and started toward the bathroom.

"No, stop. Allison, grab him!" Dean yelled.

Allison reached out and grasped Luis by the arm. He rushed to the railing and vomited over the side, splashing a few zombies in the remnants of that night's MRE. When he was done spitting out the vileness, he turned to Dean. "What the fuck, man?"

Dean shook his head. "Can't risk it. They followed Allison over the edge. We don't know why. It's possible they were heading for us over here, our scent or something. If someone goes off in a different direction, they could draw the zombies away, and they might start working on that barricade… which is fragile enough as it is."

"So, what?" Erica asked, massaging Luis's arm where Allison had gripped it. A bruise was already starting to form. "We just stay here?"

"For now, yeah," Dean said. "Until we think we can re-block that hallway."

"Which could be hours," Jerry said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, everyone," Xander said, sliding out of his chair and onto the floor. "Get comfortable. I guess we could be here a while."

Dawn sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Erica did the same with Luis, and Allison with Jerry.

The Winchesters glanced at each other, and Xander broke up laughing.

Dawn woke to the sound of glass shattering. She sat up slowly and looked across to their zombie corral, but the flow of zombies had all but stopped. She stood slowly, walked over to the railing and looked down at the first floor. The zombies were, for the most part, wandering aimlessly.

"Over there."

Dawn jumped and looked behind her. Allison was standing there, pointing to an entryway on the right. "They've broken through there," Allison said.

Dawn looked, and sure enough there were more zombies flooding into the mall.

"I think we can close up over there, though," said Dawn. "They've slowed down enough."

Allison joined Dawn at the railing and looked at the zombies. "This isn't going to end well, is it?"

Dawn shrugged. "Can't really tell. Truth is, we probably can't hold out here more than another couple of days, maybe three. When Xander wakes up, he's going to say we need to build a blockade that blocks off the stairs to the roof and as much of the food court as we can."

"Why the food court?"

"Because more than beds, more than clean clothes, more than electricity, people stay calm and relaxed and think better if they have access to food."

"Really?" Allison asked.

Dawn nodded.

"How do you know stuff like that?"

Dawn shrugged. "This group that Xander and my sister work for… well, run, kind of. They're all over the world, and Xander spent about two years in Africa. I read a lot of his reports, and the best tool he ever had was food and water. People can handle a lot of hardship if they've got a full belly."

"Some people would argue that it's not much of a hardship if you've got a full stomach," Xander said from behind them. Allison and Dawn turned. "But then, they weren't surrounded by thousands of zombies."

"When did you wake up?" Dawn asked.

"Me and Buffy running the council. Which isn't true, by the way. Giles, Robin and Willow are much more involved in the day to day running of the council. Buffy and I are more like… situational consultants."

"You just believe that, sweetie," Dawn said, smiling.

"What's the sitch?"

"They're breaking in downstairs."

Xander nodded. "I figured that wouldn't be too far behind. Allison, would you wake the brothers and get them to help you block up the hall over there. Make it secure, but try to keep some of the larger pieces out."

"Why?" she asked.

"We're going to need another blockade," Xander said. "Stairs to the roof, and as much of the food court as we can manage."

Dawn nudged Allison with her elbow. "See?"

"Do you guys hear that?" Allison asked. She looked up at the sky.

Dawn and Xander looked at each other. "Um. Hear what?"

"It's like a… whistling sound like something –"

Something black and vaguely human shaped fell through the skylight. It whizzed past them and slammed into the mall floor, pulverizing a few zombies and exploding on impact like a too-full water balloon, spraying blood and bone shards everywhere. The sound woke everyone else up.

"Falling," Allison finished, her face much paler than it had been moments before. "Real fast."

Xander hopped over to the railing and glanced over the side. He looked at what was left of the clothes the falling man had been wearing. He dug deep in his mind and called on every ounce of experience with the weird, wacky and just plain messed up.

"What," he said, "the fuck?"

End Chapter 14