Sam and Leandra looked at each other for a second and then took off running in the direction that the scream had come from. The sound echoed through the area a second time as they bolted out into center section of the mall, looking around wildly. Metal grates were pulled down over most of the stores, blocking their entry. "Sam, where—"

"This way!" Sam said urgently, and ran into the closest open store—a toy store. Once inside Sam began looking down all the aisles to the left while Leandra went right.

"Oh God—Sam, over here!" Leandra yelled. Sam ran over and saw that she was crouched down over the body of a young woman. Blood was splattered all over the place, and the woman had deep bloody gashes all over her body—but she was alive.

As Sam knelt beside Leandra the woman looked at him in the eye. "G-get..me…o-ut of here…" she pleaded.

"You're going to be okay." Sam told her, digging around in his pack for some first-aid supplies. "We're going to help you."

"T-this…is some…kind of n-nightmare, right?" the woman said, and coughed heavily, blood spilling out over her lips. "It's j-just…a bad…dream?"

"Listen to me," Sam began, "You're going to be fine, it's not even that bad."

"It's j-just…a…dream." The woman repeated, staring straight ahead as though she hadn't heard him. "N-nightmare…just…a…n-nightmare…I'm gonna…wake up…s-soon."

Leandra's eyes glistened with tears. She gently brushed the woman's hair away from her face with one hand. "Yeah." She whispered soothingly. "This is just a dream." A tear fell from her eye. "You're going to wake up soon…it'll all be alright."

The woman smiled at her and sighed contentedly.

She drew one last shaky breath and then her head fell to the side lifelessly, eyes staring vacantly at nothing. Leandra gazed at her for a moment and then let out a sob and screwed her eyes shut.

Sam placed a hand on her shoulder. "Leandra…"

"We should have saved her." Leandra choked out.

Sam shook his head. "There was nothing we could do here without taking her to a hospital." He assured her.

"Why was she even here?" Leandra moaned. "She shouldn't have been here…"

"We don't know why any of us are here." Sam said softly.

"I know, but—"

On the other side of the room, something heavy dropped to the floor. Sam's hand tightened on Leandra's shoulder, and the two kneeled there motionless, barely daring to breathe. "I'll go check it out," Sam breathed in her ear, standing up and walking away slowly.

Leandra quietly took her gun out and sat there, holding her breath. All of the sudden something huge slammed into the shelf to her right, knocking it over onto her. Leandra screamed as the shelf and everything on it landed directly on top of her, flattening her to the ground. Her gun flew out of her hand, coming to rest out of her reach underneath all of the toys.

"Leandra!" Sam shouted. He ran over to help her but an invisible force slammed into him from behind, causing him to fall forward painfully. He pushed himself into a sitting position, looking around wildly, but he couldn't see anything.

"Sam!" Leandra yelled frantically from under the shelf, "Sam get this thing off of me! I—I can't move! It hurts!"

"I'm coming!" he assured her, and moved to stand up. Right before he did, the floor in front of him made a strange sucking sound.

He froze and looked down. Less than a foot away from him, a pasty, oval shape was sticking out of the floor. Sam blinked, confused, and stared straight at it—

It opened its eyes, and Sam jumped to his feet. Huge, round eyes with blood-red pupils watched him for a moment, motionless from the floor.

Sam took a step back. "Leandra…"

"What? What is it?" she asked anxiously, unable to see anything from where she was trapped under the heavy shelf. "What's going on?"

All of a sudden the creature rose up from the floor, easily stretching to the height of the tall ceiling. It towered over Sam, long arms positioned to seize him at any second.

Before Sam could do anything it lunged at him. He yelled in shock as it grasped him around the neck and flung him across the room. He flew into a shelf and fell painfully to the floor.

"Sam, what was that??" Leandra shouted. "Sam!"

Sam heard more sucking noises all over the room and opened his eyes to see dozens more pairs of bloody eyes glaring at him hatefully from near the floor, waiting. Sam realized that he and Leandra were greatly outnumbered by the creatures, and without stopping to plan anything he ran over to where Leandra was trapped and tugged upward on the shelf to free her. "Leandra, we have to get out, now!" he said urgently, managing to pull the heavy unit up about a foot, but before she could crawl out another monster wrapped its hands around his throat, lifting him off the floor as it squeezed the life out of him. Sam choked as his air supply was cut off and desperately tried to pry the creatures bony hands from around his neck. His feet kicked uselessly beneath him—he couldn't breathe—his vision began to darken—

Sam reached into his pocket and fumbled around until he found a knife. He took it out, and with every ounce of strength he had left he stabbed the creature through the head.

The monster let out an enraged screech and disappeared back through the floor, dropping him, his knife still deeply embedded in the side of its forehead. Sam landed with a heavy thud on the tile floor gasping for breath, his vision spotted and blurry. All he wanted to do was lie there and breathe, but he could hear all of the monsters bellowing angrily all around him and he knew that he didn't have a second to relax. He managed to climb shakily to his feet and took hold of the shelf trapping Leandra for a second time, "Leandra…push up…while I pull…" he gasped and pulled, feeling as though he were going to pass out any second. Leandra pushed upward as hard as she could, and felt the shelf slowly rise up until there was a gap big enough for her to squeeze through. She crawled out holding her gun, and Sam gratefully let the shelf fall to the floor with a slam.

Leandra stared horrified at Sam's battered appearance for a moment, and then slowly moved her wide hazel eyes to look around the room. About ten of the creatures towered above them, motionless, their eyes clearly expressing an intention to kill. "Sam?" she whispered shakily.

Sam just stood there beside her concentrating on breathing, trying to force his vision to clear. He had lost his gun when he had been thrown across the room, and he knew that he didn't have time to get his other weapons out of his pack. "We have…to get out of here…" he gasped, still trying to force air through his lungs.

"How?" Leandra whimpered.

"I have no idea…how good are you with that gun?"

"Not good enough…"

Sam looked around. They were standing near the back wall of the store, and all the creatures were blocking their way back out into the center of the mall—but there was a small door at the back of the store several yards away…

"Back door…" he whispered. Leandra's eyes met his and she nodded, trusting him completely. "Run for it…in 3, 2, 1—NOW!"

Sam and Leandra bolted toward the back door. Sam made it first and threw it open, but before Leandra could enter one of the monsters grabbed her wrist. She spun around and shot it twice in the throat, blood splattering all over her face and upper body, and when it let go she jumped through the door—

Sam slammed it behind them, locked it, and spun around. His flashlight was still clipped onto his jeans, and he quickly took it in his hand and looked around the room. It looked as though it had once been where all the merchandise was kept, but now it was nothing but a bunch of dusty shelves. The monsters were pounding furiously on the other side of the door, and Sam knew it wouldn't hold for much longer. He and Leandra took off running, looking for another way out.

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