Disclaimer: (sighs) Need I say it? Oh alright! I don't own DOD! There! Happy? And Jack's Bullets is made up. Sears has no gun stores so I needed to stick one in here.
A/N: Merci to MorbidMan for the review! Okay, so I left you sitting on the edge of your seat. Chloe's gone missing and when Kimberly hears the gunshots and screams, she sets off to look for her. Will she find the old lady alive? Or just another creature from Hell?
Chapter 5: Saving ChloeKimberly barreled down the hallway until she came to the intersection of all the stores. She turned right, ran past the water fountain and quickly hid behind the corner turning towards The Bay.
She peered down the hallway. She did a quick scan of the area. It was totally deserted. Nothing moved and everything was silent. Except... was that a screech off in the distance? Or was her mind playing games with her?
Kimberly gripped her gun tighter and hurried down the hallway, ducking behind the occasional plant and tree outcroppings. She zigzagged between stores until she reached the large offshoot leading to a smaller intersection that connected The Bay with the rest of the mall. But just as she was heading for the archway, she heard some uncoordinated shuffling coming from the other side.
"Chloe?" she asked nervously, keeping the gun aimed ahead of her.
A groan was her answer, then a screech. Kimberly froze as a Deadling came around the corner with a slightly unbalanced stride. A second later, it was bounding down the hallway towards her, arms outstretched and bloody mouth agape.
Kimberly was so stunned that she just stood there, completely frozen. The creature was only a few feet away from her when she returned to reality and pulled the trigger. The shot blew off a chunk of the monster's skull and it tumbled past her onto the floor.
"Shit", she said quietly, staring at the fallen Deadling. It was mutilated beyond belief. Bite marks decorated its skin and its clothes, remarkably similar to those of a security guard, were in shreds. By the looks of it, this had been a man in his thirties when it was alive.
"Well, now we know where the guards are", she said to herself before becoming serious and slowly entering The Bay.
She rotated around, checking every corner before continuing deeper into the store. She was in the perfume department. But even the perfume couldn't cover that horrible smell, the smell that had emanated throughout her hometown that morning. It was the pungent smell of death and decay. Deadlings were about.
She began to wonder if Chloe was alright. She wondered if she was safe, locked up somewhere in the mall away from these devils. Or if she was one of the deadly hoard. Did she become a meal for these beasts and probably joined her friends and family? Kimberly didn't know Chloe well at all as they had just met, but she still felt a pain in her heart at the thought of seeing her, mindless and relentlessly searching for human flesh. Nobody deserved to die like that, if you could call it dying.
While she was lost in her thoughts, Kimberly didn't notice the movement coming from behind one of the counters, or the disgusting crunching. The Deadling lifted its head, its ratty shoulder-length hair sticking to its scalp and sniffed its favorite smell. It leaped over the counter and charged.
Kimberly screamed and frantically shot at it. Three times in the head and it was down for the count. Kimberly stood there, breathing heavily with a look of shock on her face. All of a sudden, something beeped. She jumped about ten feet in the air before realizing it was her walkie-talkie.
"Hello?" she spoke, her voice shaking a bit.
"Kimberly! Where are you? Over." It was Kent.
"Oh, Kent, I'm so sorry I took off", she apologized quickly, "I just went to look for Chloe. I got worried. Over."
"Forget about it. Where are you? Over."
"In The Bay. I haven't found her, but I did find security", she answered, "They're all... dead. Over."
There was a silence on the other end. "Damn, we're comin' to help you, Kimberly. We don' wanna lose you too", he said, "Over 'n' out."
Kimberly put the walkie-talkie away before walking away from the decaying zombie. She had to find Chloe and fast. She decided to try and phone her again.
"Chloe? Hello? Chloe, answer me! Over", she said loudly.
There was a long silence on the other end. Finally, Kimberly heard a crackling sound. She waited impatiently.
"Hello? ...is this?" Chloe had answered.
"Chloe! It's Kimberly, where are you?"
"I'm... bookstore. Barricaded... might need... many Deadlings... trapped", came her broken up voice.
"I'm coming Chloe! Hang on!" Kimberly said and bolted for the bookstore as fast as possible.
She said there were a lot of Deadlings. Security guards for sure but the mall wasn't big enough to have that many guards. Maybe there were people in here already? But the stores were closed when they arrived. All this thinking was making Kimberly's head hurt.
She heard something break, like wood cracking, and multiple gunshots. And they were very close. It had to be Chloe. Kimberly picked up speed until she saw the crowd of vicious Deadlings trying to push their way inside the mall's bookstore.
"Shit, shit, shit", Kimberly said to herself and aimed at one of them.
She pulled the trigger, killing it and alerting the others. They took a moment to debate about whether they wanted to struggle to squeeze into the store or just run like mad at Kimberly. They headed right for her.
Some fell to the ground as they came, killed by gunshots from inside the store. Kimberly began to back up as she fired. She saw Chloe emerge from the mess behind the zombies. Her clothes were dirty with blood and her hair had fallen out of her bun. Now her gray elbow-length hair dangled down her back and shoulders and she had a crazed look on her face, making her seem like psycho killer.
Kimberly tried to think of how that could be possible, since she seemed like a quiet old grandmother not too long ago, when she heard a loud bang from behind her and watched a zombie's head get blown clean off. She turned around and saw Stacey and Kent running towards her, both toting brand new shotguns. She watched them finish off the seven or eight Deadlings that were left.
"Sorry we're late", Kent said, "Jack's Bullets was havin' a sale on shotguns today. Two for the price of none."
"But, where'd those Deadlings come from?" Chloe asked, approaching the others.
"I have no idea. We barricaded all the doors", Stacey answered.
"Maybe they found another way in?" Kimberly thought out loud.
"Well, if they did find a way in, then we're not safe here", Kent said, "We better go warn the others to keep an eye out for more of the damned monsters."
They all nodded and ran off towards the food court, their senses on overdrive. Kimberly was starting panic a bit, but she swallowed it. Panic was the enemy and would easily get her killed. She had to stay calm.
They reached the food court and found everyone staring at them. Not to mention the fact that they looked as pale as ghosts.
"Mommy!" Jerry cried and bolted towards Kimberly.
She picked him and cradled him lovingly. He was trembling violently. She sat down in chair and rocked him in her arms.
"So? What's going on?" Zander asked Kent.
"There's Deadlings in here", the man answered, sitting down.
"What? But... shouldn't we get to the roof then?" Zander asked.
Kent shook his head. "Nah, not yet", he said, "All the food's down here, plus we got other supplies like flashlights and ammo. We'll go when things get real messy 'round here."
"What do we do now?" Dan asked.
"Dunno, just try and relax, I suppose", Kent said, leaning back in his seat, "Not like there is much ta do."
Kimberly sighed. Jerry had finally calmed down. She wished this was just a dream, a horrible nightmare that she could wake up from. Then everything would be okay. Everything would be back to normal and Monica and her father would be alive. They could all go to the park for ice cream, and laugh and talk together again. But she knew it was just wishful thinking. This was real, not matter how much she didn't want it to be.
A/N: Read and review. Plain and simple.