Hey guys, Nether Lord Hades here with the first offical chapter of Crimson Dawn! Before we begin though, there's some stuff I'll need to clarify first: As this book is set in Singapore, there will be use of what is known as Singapore Engilsh or Singlish. Terms and definitions will be provided in a Singlish dictionary at the end of this chapter for those of you who do not understand.
Now, without further ado, let's get on with the first chapter!
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, 6/11/15, 5:30PM
"Whoa, this is so cool leh!" My friend, Ben Yick runs out in front of me. I don't know why, it's only the Esplanade and it's a mile away.
"Come on lah, it's not that cool," I say, shaking my head. Even though the way the Esplanade tops off the nighttime skyline of Singapore is neat, it's not amazing.
Even the Penang Twin Towers seems more interesting than this.
I fail to see what's so special about it, all of us have been here before. There's really nothing for him to be excited about.
"Ben, I don't see what's so special about the Esplanade lah. We've all seen it before," my friend, Pui Leng Choon comments from behind me. I turn and look at her.
"You think we should follow him or not?" I ask.
PL shakes her head. "No lah, there's no point. We all know Ben can be an idiot sometimes."
"True." I smirk.
Pui Leng laughs. "Should we wait for Ben to stop staring at the Esplanade or not?"
"Maybe. Maybe not." I say.
"I'll kick Ben's ass if he doesn't hurry up!" PL jokes.
The only reason we're at Marina Bay Sands is because of a Secondary 4 excursion, a 'end-of-year treat' after all our exams. The excursion was quite expensive. Ben and I managed to earn enough money to come, while PL was able to front the money outright.
PL and I start walking towards a bench nearby and sit, tired of waiting for Ben. We're not even supposed to be on the streets this late, at least I don't think so.
"I wonder how someone can be so stupid leh," I comment.
"What do you mean?" PL asks.
"Ben, he's the definition of stupid." I tried not laugh as I said this.
Pui Leng smirks. "Ya, sometimes I just don't how he can be such a idiot leh!"
Ben suddenly returns.
"Guys! Guys!" he basically shouts.
"What is it lah?" I ask.
"Wah'ppen leh?" PL questions, sounding concerned.
"Just..." He tries to catch his breath. "Come with... me."
He runs off in the direction he came.
"Should we follow him or not?" PL asks.
I nod. "Ya, might as well lah."
We start after Ben.
"Wah lau," Pui Leng complains. "Why do we have to run?"
"Ben's the one who should be complaining about running, not you lah," I retort, well aware of PL's rigours martial arts and endurance training.
Granted, she is someone not to be messed with unless you wanted to end up in hospital with more than a few broken bones.
We suddenly run into Ben outside what appears to be an electronics store.
I note the big flat screen TV my friends were all looking at.
For some reason, there was a breaking news report on.
"Attempts to reach the centres of disease about how to combat this new mutant strain of Ebola known as LQP-79 have been fruitless so far and the World Health Organisation fear it's already become a pandemic." The newscaster was saying.
"What the hell is she talking about?" I ask.
"Ya, what is it?" Pui Leng seconds my question.
"Just keep watching lah," Ben says.
"We now go live with Nathan Ong from our sister station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. How's it look out there, Nathan?"
The camera switches to show a reporter in the Kuala Lumpur CBD.
"From the looks of things here, the Infected haven't been as big of a problem here. The Armed Forces seem to have the situation under control..."
The reporter's voice blanks from my mind. Infected? Did he just say Infected? As in zombies?
I turn to my friends. "Guys, did he just say 'Infected'? As in-"
"Zombies?" Pui Leng finishes.
Ben just nods.
What? I've joked before about a zombie apocalypse, but I don't recall actually wanting to be caught in the middle of one.
"They don't actually mean that, do they?" I ask, but my friends ignore me, their eyes glued to the screen.
In background, behind the reporter, I could just make out the uniforms of Malaysia's millitary patrolling the streets for the apparent undead, armed with semi-automatic M16M1 assault rifles. A Pendekar main battle tank drives in the background, a soldier manning the turret.
All of us are silent.
This is serious shit. The military's being sent out to fight them.
"Wah lau, they are serious leh." PL mutters, her gaze transfixed to the screen showing one of the Infected pouncing upon and ripping a solder to shreds before he could even scream or open fire.
The soldier, now one of the Infected, got up and started attacking nearby people."Did you guys see that or not?" PL asks in disbelief.
"Ya, he turned into one of Them in less than ten seconds!" Ben exclaimed.
The picture shifts again to show the woman newscaster from before in the Singaporean station.
"Several other counties aren't faring as well as Kuala Lumpur. Bangkok is under widespread siege. The Thailand Special Forces is currently attempting to evacuate survivors which may prove difficult."
A short video clip of the chaos in Bangkok is shown. People run like lunatics away from something, which I assume are the Infected.
"Singapore is safe for the time being although it appears that the virus is approaching. Beijing is in a similar state, but Shanghai it is completely engulfed in chaos."
Another video clip rolls, this time showing buildings in Shanghai on fire. Then another video cuts in and shows several city blocks in a huge inferno.
"This is so bad," Ben says.
"They're kidding, right?" PL asks.
The three of us were speechless. We kept watching the news report in silence.
"Numerous states and countries across the globe are also in various stages of distress. The U.S. has maintained order, while Xiàn has gone up in flames much like Shanghai..."
"We've just been told that Moscow has gone silent.
There are also reports of widespread looting in Paris and Rome..."
"What should we do leh?" PL asks.
"First, we need weapons to fend off the zombies lah," I tell my friends, pointing out the obvious.
"Maybe..." Ben spins around. "We can go to the Kopitiam over there on the opposite side?" he suggests, pointing towards a food court opposite the TV-displaying store.
Yeah, great idea, Ben. Let's just casually chill out in a food court while a zombie apocalypse is at our fucking doorstep.
I open my mouth to protest, but PL cuts me off. "Good idea lah, Kopitiams have TVs and maybe the people in there know what's going on." She turns, starting to walk towards the Kopitiam. Ben and I follow.
That's actually not as stupid as I first thought. Regardless, I don't think the Infection has reached Singapore yet.
"This is crazy, right?" I say, but no one answers. There's a loud shout and I look to my left to see the other two, but they're frozen in place, facing my right. "Guys, what's wrong?"
Ben is the one to respond as he raises a shaking finger. I look to where he's pointing and my eyes widen too.
A Singapore Armed Forces Humvee is speeding down the street, running over a couple pedestrians along the way. People start screaming.
"What the hell are they doing?" I murmur.
"That can't be legal leh," PL observes.
The Humvee is still mowing down people on the streets, and here we are, standing like total dumbasses in its path.
"Move out of the way lah!" PL shouts, pulling Ben and I off the sidewalk. It seems Ben already has the same idea and grabs my shirt while we're on the road.
It's total chaos. People are flying, literally and not literally, trying to get out of the way. A body that was tossed up in the air by the Humvee slides right in front of us. It's mangled and bloody.
Resisting the urge to throw up at the gory sight, the three of us dash across the street, several people smacking into us. There's a guy on the ground, wailing in pain. He seems to have broken his ankle, but I can't grab him. Someone else runs on the guy, smashing his face into the road.
I feel a tug on my sleeve and I feel the urge to throw up. I look up and the Humvee is right in front of me.
The vehicle's lights temporarily blind me, causing my eyes to shut. The next moment I can feel myself flying and my back slamming onto the ground. Was I just hit?
I open my eyes, seeing Ben and Pui Leng sprint over.
"You okay or not?" PL asks, worry written all over her face.
"I feel like my head was just ran over by a truck!" I complain.
"You just were!" Ben laughs, but was silenced by an icy glare from Pui Leng.
I turn my head to see the Humvee smash into a street lamp, the engine smoking. Military vehicles shouldn't be that prone to damage so easily...Wow, this is crazy. I just saw twenty, maybe more people just get killed.
"Ryan!"
I turn back around, Ben being the source of my name. I scramble to my feet. Something's tugging at me though. I turn towards the Humvee.
There's something wrong with that Humvee, especially if it just started mowing down civilians. We're not North Korea, so it's scary. I don't think the government would've been given orders to kill fellow Singaporeans, especially those who aren't infected.
I don't know why I'm walking towards the military vehicle now, I really don't.
"Ryan!" Ben yells. I hold up my hand as I keep walking. People bump into me as they scatter about, trying to get to safety.
"What on earth is he doing leh?" I hear PL ask.
"I need to know what caused these guys to drive like it was GTA," I call to my friends.
I reach the side of the Humvee, propped up on the bent street lamp. This thing really managed to do some damage.
Blood soaked the windows, making it hard to see inside, maybe I should check the front...
Standing on the front driver's side tire, I peer into the windshield. I see a smashed up face behind some more blood.
"Ryan, come on lah," PL shouts, barely audible above the commotion. "Get over here leh!"
I ignore her and peer deeper into the vehicle. Its occupants are dead, it seems. But if there's one thing I know about zombies, it's that you need to kill them by destroying the brain. A viable killing tool is a gun or some other weapon, and the Singapore Armed Forces have weapons, so...
I hop off of the tire and walk to the door, my hand shaking as I raise it to the handle. I grip the handle and pull.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" my friends shout.
The driver's body rolls out of the seat, mangled and surreally decomposed. I think I'm gonna throw up.
A torrent of partially-digested food and bile forces its way out of my throat. The vomit covers the dead Serviceman's face.
I hear countless rapid footsteps as I try to catch my breath after throwing up all over the dead army guy's body.
"Wah lau leh!" I hear PL say as she places a hand on my back. "What were you thinking lah?"
"Weapons, we need weapons."
"Why lah? No good survival story starts with the survivors having weapons. Besides, the military'll have it all under control soon leh." Ben pipes up.
I shrug him off. "Doubt it lah, this isn't a horror movie."
"Ya Ben, wake up your idea, can or not?" PL waves her other hand in front of his eyes.
I step over the corpse and peer into the car's interior. Blood cakes the seats and windows, the man in the passenger seat still moving.
He's moving! But he's just smacking his face on the window, groaning. The dome light is illuminating his face, which is deathly pale. Is this guy Infected?
He seems oblivious to me, so I decide against bringing attention to myself. Even if I did, the noise outside should keep him distracted until I find what I want. I look around the front, but there's nothing of interest. I back up and shut the door, coming face to face with Ben.
"Let's go lah," he says, taking my arm.
"We will once we get weapons, be patient can or not?" I yank my arm away and open the back door.
The overhead light comes on again and the back is not as bloody as the front, thankfully. Where do they put the weapons in a military Humvee? I swear it's in the back.
There's one! What is it, a M16S1 assault rifle? I don't care. I grab the part of the rifle that's visible and pull it out. There's a magazine inserted, Good thing it didn't accidentally fire.
I back out with the M16 in hand and look to my left. The dead solider is still lying there, military vest and all. They usually have magazines in their vests, don't they?
"What are you going to do with that?" Ben asks.
"I'm going to shoot you if you don't shut up lah." I joke.
He immediately shuts up.
I bend down next to the Serviceman, setting the M16 down next to me. I rummage through his vest, and sure enough, he has some magazines. Four, to be exact. Better than nothing.
I then grab around his thigh, where other weapons normally are. I touch metal, grab hold, and yank, pulling out a sheathed combat knife with what looks like a standard six millimetre blade and a pair of spiked brass knuckles which I give to PL. She slips them onto her hands, the seven-inch steel spikes in between her fingers gleaming in the sun.
I keep the knife in my pocket.
I then feel around the fallen soldier's body again, retrieving a M9 machine pistol with five spare magazines. I stand up, sliding the M16 mags into my pants pocket and grabbing my new M16 by the carrying handle.
"Here," I hold the M9 out to Ben.
He hesitates. "Ryan, this is wrong lah."
I slide the pistol and its ammo into my free pocket. "Then don't complain when some Infected is eating your flesh for dinner."
Ben smiles despite the situation, holding out his hand. "Give me the gun lah."
I grin, glad that he gets my point. Sliding the pistol out of my pocket, I hand it to him, grip first.
He takes the M9 from me and flicks off the safety, aiming it near me.
"What are you doing leh?" I ask. Why is he aiming at me of all people?
"Look behind you lah," he says.
I turn my head to see what he's talking about. Surely it can't be anything.
"Ughhhh..."
What the hell?! The body, it's moving! And it's grabbed my leg! But how? Unless...
I grip the M16's carrying handle tight and use my free hand to hold the rifle's grip. Using all of the force I can, I raise the gun up into the air and bring the butt down on the puke covered skull. A sickening thud ensues, brain matter and skull fragments mixing in with the partially-digested food.
"Freaking asshole," I mutter as I hand Ben the five M9 magazines still in my possession.
He takes them and shoves them into his pocket, wiping away the vomit.
We make our way towards the food court, Ben's M9 lazily hanging by his side, my M16 in hand and PL at the ready with her new brass knuckles.
I sling the carrying strap over my right shoulder, that way the rifle hangs by my right hand.
I look behind us to see some guy have the same idea I did. He opens the door and a zombie lunges at him from behind, grabbing hold and feasting on him. That poor guy getting his face eaten off, I don't wish that on anybody. Now I wish I shot it.
We duck into the Kopitiam. Ben quickly closes the door behind us as we walk further into the food court. There are several people nervously sitting at tables scattered around the place. I notice Catherine Li and Matthew Tay from the school excursion are sitting at a table in the far corner. They see the three of us walking towards them and Catherine waves at us.
"Where did you get those leh?" Matt calls out.
"SAF Humvee crashed outside," I say.
"You stole from the military?!" He asks incredulously.
"It wasn't stealing, it's called trying to survive." Ben says, a stupid grin plastered across his face.
"Especially not when the solder we got these from is Infected," I add.
"Infected Servicemen?" Catherine asks.
Ben and I nod.
"I thought everything was fine mah?" She says.
"Just one soldier," I say. "I don't think it's that bad lah." I then pull the sheathed combat knife from my pocket and hand it to her, knowing that she was deadly with one as she trained in armed combat.
"Oh ya, sure," Matt walks to one of the many windows and looks out. "Shit..."
"What is it leh?" PL asks, curious.
"Take a look for yourselves lah."
The four of us walk to the window and look out.
The sight is horrific. In the five minutes or so since PL, Ben and I came inside, the streets have gone from a site of chaos to a gruesome dinner hall. Infected shambled around the streets in their weird gait. Some people are too stupid to run, thinking instead that shouting would help.
There's a young Malay woman who knocked an Infected off of some guy, likely her boyfriend or someone close, and she's caressing him. He inches up and takes a chunk out of her jugular. I turn away to avoid seeing the blood and cover my ears to try to block out her screams. The other people in the Kopitiam look at the window, concerned.
I slide the M16 off of my shoulder and grab the carrying handle. These people could use help.
I pull the rifle up and grab the grip, but Matt stops me.
"Save your ammo lah," Matt tells me.
"Why? I've got a hundred and twenty rounds! One headshot each and I could clear this street!"
Matt just sighs. "Unless you want to attract a bigger horde with that noise, go ahead lah. I won't stop you."
I glare at Matt, even though I know he's right. It's just unnecessary attention...
Matt turns away from the window. "Eh, uncle," He waves a nearby waiter over. "Turn on the TV, see what is going on, can or not?"
The waiter nods and fumbles with a remote, clumsily pushing the power button. No matter the channel, news reports will be on. Sure enough, they are.
"There are reports from Australia regarding the outbreak of the LQP-79 there as well, more than one thousand have been victimised or reported missing in Brisbane so far." The newscaster's hair looks frayed. This is serious if even the news teams are getting this stressed.
"The governor has called for a-"
A gunshot rings out, causing the reporter to look to her right. The cameraman moves the camera's angle to face where the shots came from. An Australian ambulance has its back open, ready to load two body bags in. The body bags start to rise but another shot is fired, going through one of the body bags. A third shot is then fired, going through the other bag.
"The military have started to open fire! I don't know what's going on, but-"
The reporter is cut off by screaming and the camera falls to the ground. God knows what happened there. One thousand or more dead, Infected or missing in an Australian community alone... the entire cities of Shanghai and Xiàn in flames...
"...Cuba, Havana is lost and the people are revolting in the streets..."
"What are we going to do leh?" Matt asks, slumping down next to me.
"Dunno lah," I say.
Catherine goes back to the window and looks out again.
"What's happening?" Ben asks.
"Of course nothing good lah," came the muffled reply. "It's slowly getting better, but slowly getting worse at the same time and some of Them are surrounding here." She backs away from the window. "I think I'm going to throw up lah."
Poor Catherine, she must've seen someone get eaten.
"Shit..." Matt mutters from behind me.
"I'm getting something to drink," Catherine announces. "You guys want anything or not?"
"Ice Milo," Ben says.
"Glass jelly drink," Matt said.
"Green tea," PL replies.
"You leh?" Catherine looks at me.
"Don't worry about me lah, I might get something later myself." I tell her.
"So how? We need a plan," Matt says as Catherine leaves to get the drinks from the vending machine.
"Agreed." I say.
"Getting the shit out of here would be good lah," Ben says.
I sigh and the rest of my friends just ignore him knowing it was impossible with the number of Infected just outside the door.
My gaze drifts back up to the TV. Australia, Thailand, France, Italy and Russia each lost a major city. Russia lost its capital, as did Italy and France. America maintained order, so that should be reassuring, right?
"Ryan, you're looking as if you're taking responsibility for something, you okay or not?" Matt's voice breaks my thoughts.
I shrug and rub my eyes. "Ya, I'm just thinking lah." The M16 is tiring my arm, so I pull it up and set it on the counter.
Just then, Catherine gets back and hands out the drinks.
She sits back down next to me, sipping on her own drink through the straw.
I glance at Ben and notice that he's sipping on his ice Milo but not talking. This was kind of disturbing, especially since he usually very talkative, but I think Ben's just in shock. It doesn't surprise me, really as he has always been pretty kiasu.
Now that I think about it, he's paler than usual.
"You okay or not?" I ask him.
He looks at me, his eyes fearful behind his black-rimmed metal glasses, "I'm fine lah," he responds.
I knew he was trying not to worry any of us so I didn't push it.
"You guys want me to go out and clear those Infected or not?" Catherine questioned.
I knew just how skilled she was with a knife but we couldn't risk it.
"It's too risky leh." I say.
"Then what ah? Stay in here and kena get screwed when we can do something about it?" Matt says.
Catherine suddenly gets up, knife in hand, her face set hard.
"What are you doing leh?" I ask.
"Getting us out of here," she replies
"Don't be stupid! You'll get killed!" I protest.
"Don't worry lah, I'll be fine." She walks to the door and briefly peers outside before flinging open the door.
The Infected catch her scent almost immediately, closing in on her position just outside the door.
An Infected lunges at her, it's jaws open revealing bloodied fangs and jagged broken teeth.
Catherine wasted no time in driving her new combat knife straight though it's skull causing the Infected crumple before her, dead for good.
She then turned, stabbing another Infected though the eye, gore and infected brain matter splattering all over her clothes and hair.
Spinning around, she stabbed an Infected that got too close, her knife going right though its eye socket.
Catherine then followed up by whipping around and skilfully skewering another Infected's brain and sending it smashing into a wall, both Infected comrades dying alongside each other.
She raised her knife again, continuously swinging at the Infected. She quickly turned around, killing those that were behind her, getting a few more with another swing as well.
She continued to spin around in a circle, her knife was a deadly blur of sliver that spelled death for any Infected that came into contact with it, the blade piercing their skulls and tearing though their brains. After a few minutes of repeating, there were only one Infected left, and I could tell she was exhausted from all the killing.
She leant down to catch her breath, her back turned to the last remaining Infected which tackled her to the floor from behind.
I thought Catherine was dead, but she stopped the Infected from biting her by twisting around and grabbing its jaw, dislocating it with impressive strength.
She then threw it off before plunging her knife into its head, splattering a whole bunch of brain matter, blood and some other unidentifiable disgusting fluid onto the already bloody concrete pavement.
Catherine came back in, shutting the door behind her, the other diners looking at her in awe.
A guy who couldn't be much more than a year older than us was staring at her like a pervert but quickly averted his gaze as Catherine shot a death glare in his direction.
She sat back down next to me, pulling out a comb from her bag and running it though her long silky black hair, attempting to get as much blood out of it as possible while she sipped on her ice lemon tea.
"What now leh?" Matt questioned.
"We should get supplies and find somewhere to stay for the night lah." Ben says.
"My grandparents have a house around here, we could stay there," I point out.
Catherine nodded, "Good lah, but what about supplies leh?"
"We can go to the Marina Bay mall near here for supplies, there's a NTUC there we can go to for food." I tell my friends.
"So what should we do now lah? Go to your house first or go to the shopping mall?" Pui Leng asks.
"Not sure leh...what do you guys think?" I question.
"We should go check out the shops and get supplies first, makes more sense right?" Catherine says.
She rummages in her bag for a while before pulling out a notepad and pen, writing something on the notepad before sliding it across the table to me.
"Uh, I can't read your writing..." I tell her, squinting at the words on the page.
"What lah? My handwriting that bad meh?" She questions.
"Ya, you got doctor's handwriting mah." Matt laughs, peering over my shoulder.
"I just wrote down what we need to get when we visit the shopping mall later lah," Catherine said. "Basic stuff like advanced first aid kits, clothes and extra food plus bottled water."
"Are we going now or not?" Matt asks as he shoulders his bag.
"Ya, I suppose..." I grab my M16 by the handle and sling it over my shoulder.
Without another word, the five of us stand up and head out the double glass doors.
We didn't talk much on the way there, we all had many thoughts and personal worries swirling around in our heads and we also didn't want to attract any more attention than needed from the Infected. A couple hordes came at us but they fell before our weapons quickly.
We walked through the bloodstained hallways of the mall until we found the NTUC grocery store. As we entered through the manual push door, Catherine tapped me on the shoulder, forcing me to look at her.
"I have something I want to ask you leh." Catherine tells me.
"Go ahead lah." I invited.
"You got that gun from a dead Serviceman, correct or not?" She asked, worry etching her voice.
"Ya, why?"
"Can you tell me what he looked like? My dad's obviously a Serviceman in the SAF. I just want to be sure lah."
"He was quite short, middle aged and had short spiky hair." I described, remembering the Infected I had seen in the Humvee.
Catherine sighs with relief. I wish I could have known that same relief. I didn't know if my mum and sister were okay as they had gone to one of my sister's school fencing competitions while my dad was currently serving in the Army fighting
against the Infected like most other Singaporean men, leaving me to take care of myself.
I talked to Catherine a little more while everyone finished getting what they needed.
"Clothes store now, correct or not?" I asked as we headed out of NTUC.
The girls nodded and skipped ahead, leaving Ben, Matt and myself behind pushing the cart full of supplies.
We entered the clothes store. It was a huge place with two floors and a ton of changing rooms. Everyone looked at Matt for what to do next. He sighed and glanced at me for help.
"Matt, stay here with our supplies." I say. "PL and Catherine, you two check the bottom floor changing rooms then move on to the main part of the bottom floor, Ben and I will look upstairs." I coordinated. Ben and I ran up the broken escalator.
I grabbed a mannequin and swung at an Infected wandering up there. I could hear fighting downstairs, but no screaming, which I took as a positive sign that the girls were doing fine by themselves. The Infected I was fighting fell and I smashed its head with the base of the mannequin.
I nearly slipped on some blood, but caught my balance and swung at another one. The mannequin broke and bits of plastic embedded themselves in the one I was trying to kill. The force didn't knock it over. Now I was weaponless, other than my M16 which I didn't want to use.
Luckily, Ben came to me and smashed it's skull repeatedly with his pistol until it crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
We were clear upstairs.
We then quickly ran back down to check on Matt and the girls, in time to see Catherine skilfully finish one of Them off as it approached Pui Leng who had her back to the approaching Infected.
"Is that it?" I asked.
"Ya, that's it." Catherine said, as she wiped the blood from her knife before sheathing it.
The men's department was on the upper floor. Matt, Ben and I rushed upstairs.
I grabbed two pairs of jeans, a single red polo shirt when I wanted to put some effort into my appearance, some comfortable-looking sleepwear and five T-shirts with designs I liked. I'd also taken several pairs of comfortable socks, some multipacks of fresh underwear and some shoes for practical purposes. One pair of shoes for comfort when walking day-to-day, and a pair of boots for hiking. I had also taken three hoodies, one black, one dark blue and one dark green.
PL had also found and taken a second shopping cart for all of the clothes we would inevitably end up with, but we couldn't take it up the broken escalator.
The other guys came back wearing new stuff. Matt was wearing a plain black T-shirt and dark blue jeans. Ben was wearing a blue T-shirt and beige shorts. He'd also found a new pair of glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses that looked pretty cool. They were struggling with the clothes they weren't wearing as they had more then I did. We then walked back down the escalator.
"Are you girls ready or not?" I called down.
"Nearly lah! We're in the change rooms, wait and we'll show you guys what we got." Pui Leng called.
I found the shopping cart right beside the escalator, getting Matt and Ben to dump their new clothes in along with mine.
Catherine came out first. She wore black jeans, black combat boots and a black long sleeved t-shirt. She looked stunning. I just about fell over at the sight of her.
Pui Leng then revealed herself. Her fringe had been swept across her forehead and behind her ears instead of coming down the middle of her face now. She wore a white t-shirt and a dark blue skirt that looked similar to our school uniform for girls. It was open on one side, which gave her mobility.
"Wow...You both look amazing." I said.
Ben started to get a nosebleed while Matt nodded, speechless.
"Enough drooling, let's go lah." Catherine said.
I shook myself conscious and tried not to look at her too much. She noticed and smiled at me. We put the rest of the clothes in carrier bags and put them in the cart.
As we walked towards the exit, my eyes fell upon a weapons store. I ran in.
"Just a minute guys! I'll catch up!" I called.
I looked around before spotting a double headed battle axe, I grabbed it off the wall and strapped it to my back. I then hastily grabbed a L115S1 sniper rifle with extra ammo for Matt before running to catch up with the others.
I tossed the rifle and ammo to Matt who caught the box of spare ammo and the rifle grip first, strapping it around his left shoulder.
"We need a place to rest for the night lah, we definitely won't make it to your house before night." Catherine says to me, glancing at the setting sun.
"We could go back to the hotel lah." I suggest.
"How far is it leh?" Matt questioned.
"About ten minutes walk lah." I reply, starting to head in the hotel's general direction.
"Sounds good lah, let's go." Matt nods at me.
Singlish dictionary:
Lah
The Singlish term 'lah' is used at the end of a sentence as an intensifier used like a fullstop in a sentence.
Leh
Yet another Singlish tag, similar in usage to "Lah", most often tagged at the end of a question.
Meh
A Singlish tag similar to 'leh' which accompanies questions. Adds a slight tone of incredulity.
Wah lau
A Singlish term similar to 'Oh my God'
Uncle
A Singlish term similar to 'Sir' or 'Mister'
A/N: Well, that's Chapter 1 for you. Hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you all in the next Chapter. If you have any questions please PM me. Bye for now! -NLH.