Dave looked at the plumes of smoke rising to the sky and watched the limping forms moving about the roads.
Jason smiled a little bit, “I spy with my little eye…something beginning with the letter Z!”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Zombie?”
“Sounds about right.”
Both friends noticed that there were no cars on the road at all. Not even parked.
“This is kind of freaky, Jay. Where are all the cars?”
Jason stood quiet for a second.
“Well, maybe they all went to the mall, OR, while trying to skip town, they ran into THAT traffic jam…”
Jason motioned to the distant highway that led out of town, it was a bit far off, but they were able to see all the outlines of several cars, all stopped in their place.
Dave was able to make out a corpse that was on it’s knees and half eaten beginning to stir.
“Geez, Jay. Ever think, why is this happening here? Why couldn’t it be somewhere else? Why us?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that we have to get to the evacuation site and get the hell out of here.”
“You’re right. Do you think things will ever go back to the way they were before all of this?”
“America usually sorts all shit like this out, dude. I wish it were somewhere else, but before we think about that, we need to survive.”
“I’d like to think everything will go back to the way they used to be”, Dave replied. He looked out the window and saw a group of the creatures biting into a corpse. He was a bit concerned at how jaded he had become to the sight already. He thought of how it could have been him. He was lucky that he wasn’t alone in the house when the monster got inside, or else…
“Dave! We’re almost here! Look alive, man.”
“Alright.”
A few minutes later, the friends pulled into the mall parking lot. The huge lot was littered with zombies milling around. Some were missing arms, others were staring at the sky, and more were banging on a few of the cars that were in the parking lot.
Dave noticed movement inside of one of the cars.
Jason turned off the car and the sound of the engine going quiet had Dave look at the ignition key out of reflex. They both nodded at each other and stood in the car observing their surroundings.
Looking at the rear window, Dave noticed a silhouette of what appeared to be a young girl locked in a silent scream and moving around the car in a pattern of desperation.
“Oh shit” were the only words Dave could mutter. Jason held him back as Dave tried to leave the car and help the shadow.
“Dude, come on, we can’t take all of those. You know we’re gonna get all their attention if we leave”, Jason painfully said.
Dave nodded. His friend of over ten years always knew what to say.
Dave sat down with a sullen look on his face, thinking of what to do. Just then, the friends both jumped at the noise of glass shattering.
One of the ghouls had broken through the window and reached inside, it was promptly joined by other hungry monsters.
The screaming made both friends wince and close their eyes hard. They heard the woman’s feet kick the metal frame of the car. They couldn’t make out what she was screaming. Her noises only acted to call more of the ghouls over to her.
Dave looked up in time to watch two of the zombies pulling at the woman’s leg. Her screams only grew louder and louder, pulling more of them to her. They began to grab at their next meal. Dave watched as two of the zombies pulled off her lightly tanned leg. He watched her silhouette recoil back in a terrible scream. He watched her try to pull back the severed leg.
Dave heard the door of the car pop open and he felt a hand grab him. He jumped and looked over.
“Come on, now’s our chance!”, Jason said with urgency.
Both friends grabbed their weapons and got ready to make a dash for the mall.
Dave couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene of the now weakening girl still trying to grab at her leg. She was watching it be eaten by the zombies that grabbed it while others tried to get at the rest of her.
They both left the car. Most of the zombies in the area were distracted by their noisy meal. The friends ran by many of them
Keeping their bats ready, they ran through the lot, passing the woman in the car. Jason caught her reaching towards the both of them as they ran by. In that split second, Jason’s heart sank at the futility of her situation, but deep down, he was grateful. Her sacrifice caused them to live for a while longer.
He was glad Dave didn’t see that.
The woman’s screams were getting weaker and her movements were slowing down. They needed to get to the mall. Fast.
“We need to hurry, before we lose our distraction!”, Jason said with urgency.
Dave nodded. They both ran as fast and quietly as they could. Their running would have looked funnier to an outside party, but to them, it was all about staying alive.
The glass doors of their new temporary home grew closer and closer as a few of the walking dead seemed almost oblivious to them. Others hungrily limped towards the screaming car.
Jason stopped to look back and saw the woman weakly reaching the stumps that used to be her legs. She was painfully looking at the ghouls eat them right in front of her. Jason caught sight of a zombie pulling at her outstretched hand. He felt a sharp pull and quickly drew the bat.
It was Dave.
“Come on, it’s open! And put that thing down!”
Jason ran in, unable to shake the sight of the woman.
The mall was dark. Barely any light was getting through it’s huge windows. The friends stood quiet, but it was hard since they could still hear the zombies beating on the car where the woman was. It was only a matter of time before the zombies discover anyone else who may be hiding in the other cars in the lot. Jason grabbed his pocket and felt Dave’s car keys inside of them. They were still there. He smiled a little bit at this.
“So, now what, Jay?”, Dave asked
“I’m really not sure, but while we’re here, maybe we can find something useful”, Jason said. He began looking around the mall, holding on tightly to the bat.
Dave pointed to a flickering sign.
“And this?”
“And this, could be very, very handy.” Jason ran his finger up and down looking at the directory.
“Well now, I think we should get some new clothes, don’t you think?”, Jason said.
They both looked down at their disheveled and old clothes.
“Yeah, that could work”, Dave replied, holding in a little bit of laughter.
It was good for the both of them to laugh a bit. It took some of the tension of the situation away slightly.
“Alright then, that’ll be our first stop, and whoa, hey now. Check this out.”
“What?”
“Tanzili’s Gun Emporium, top floor.”
“I love it, it’s a toy store for grown-ups!”
“Alright, let’s get some new threads and get us both some new toys.”
“This pleases me, dude”, Dave happily said. “Come on, my clothes smell like ass.”
“Well, we have the Bulls-Eye men’s clothing emporium on the bottom floor. Clothes first, guns later?”
“That sounds about right to me”, Dave instantly replied.
They heard faint noises; several fast steps in the distance.
“Shit man, you think we’re alone in here?”, Dave asked quietly.
“No, let’s keep quiet and make this quick, and just in case, be ready for anything.”
The steps were still far away. They sounded too coordinated to be from anyone who had already died and returned hungry.
They walked down the escalator, slowly as not to make any noise. Their first stop was to get themselves out of their smelly and sweat covered clothes.