“Well, here it is. Bulls-Eye” , Jason said pointing his bat at the sign.
Dave tugged at the door.
“It’s locked.”
“Hey, I saw this in a movie once. Stand back”, Jason said excitedly.
A bench suddenly flew through the large paned window of the shop and slid a few feet.
“There dude, instant entrance”, Jason said, while cleaning out the glass around the bottom with the bat.
“Whoa, how did you do that, Jay?” Dave was in awe.
“Well, remember all that protein I’ve been taking and all that time at the gym?” Jason replied.
“Yeah?”
“Nothing to do with it, that bench is light and isn’t bolted down.”
“Ass.”
They both climbed in through the glass keeping an eye out for any movement.
“Think that exploding window brought any zombies over?” There was some fear in Dave’s voice.
“No. We didn’t see any on the way here. We should be okay. Whoa! Check this out!”, Jason replied while pointing at the hat rack. “We could always use some hats, and well, we have the end of the world discount!”
Dave put on a golfer’s hat.
“Hey look! I look like a jack-ass!”, Dave said to Jason.
“Yeah I know! And that hat doesn’t help.” Jason said mockingly.
“Ass.”
“Oh man, check this out!” Jason put on a suede black cowboy hat with a chin strap. “Now THIS is fucking awesome! Here, there’s one for you, too!” Jason handed Dave a similar hat, only in brown.”
“I love this thing!” Dave said while stroking the brim of the hat.
“We need more than hats, Dave”, Jason said. “Let’s see what we can find.”
The friends spent a long time going through the aisles, throwing shirts on the floor, unfolding pants, and generally being any retail employee’s nightmare, if there were any left to be annoyed with them, that is.
Jason put on a tight, solid black t-shirt with a pair of good-fitting, dark washed boot cut jeans. He topped it off with a brown, hard cloth jacket with many pockets. He found a pair of brown sneakers to top it off with.
Admiring himself in the mirror, he called to his friend. “Dave! Find anything, yet? We need to keep moving!”
Dave crept out from within the aisles wearing light washed jeans, white sneakers, and a brown torn jacket which barely covered the form fitting “#1 Grandpa” shirt.
“Oh my God, Dave, seriously?”
“What!? It fits and I crack up whenever I see this shirt!”, Dave quickly replied.
“Well, if you insist. We probably won’t be coming back here anytime soon, you know.”
“I’m good, Jay”, Dave replied with seriousness in his voice.
They both took a look at their clothes, that looked much older than they really were, while they stood looking lifeless on the store’s floor. It was a poignant moment for them. There would be no coming back to the store. They both walked out quietly
“Jay! Let’s head to Tanzili’s Gun Shop!”, Dave broke the silence.
“Come on. Let’s go. I need something loud that goes great with this outfit”, Jason said.
Walking up the escalator slowly, the footsteps they heard earlier were much more hurried and accompanied by some noise. All they could make out were muffled voices and the sounds of something soft getting pounded.
“Jay?”, Dave quietly said.
“Just keep quiet for now. We don’t need any needless confrontation. Let’s just stay quiet, get what we need, and head out”, Jason replied back while looking in the direction of the noise.
“Right”, Dave whispered.
Climbing up the escalator grew more and more tense between the two friends. The noises weren’t stopping and the voices were barely audible. All they could make out were hostile noises. It was at this point where they didn’t know if they should be more afraid of the living, rather than the dead.
“Do you think it’s pirates?”, Jason asked.
“Pirates? Like, with swords and parrots?”, Dave replied with a hint of sarcasm.
“Yeah, kind of, you know, without the boat?”
“Yes, Jay, pirates are in the mall. That’s exactly where they’d go. Not to peoples’ houses, not prying open the cars, but yeah, they’d come to the mall to steal your amazing hat. Yes, Jay, those are pirates”, Dave ranted.
“…Ass”, Jason replied back quietly.
“Hey, hey whoa! Check this out!” Jason whispered excitedly. “There are some copies of that book I wanted to check out on display; ‘Deviant’, a story of sex and sexual addiction.” Sounds interesting enough.
“Sounds kind of hot”, Dave replied, uninterested.
Flipping through it, Jason replied, “Sounds kind of boring.” And he soon tossed it aside. “Come on, one more floor to go before we hit the gun shop.”
The friends arrived at the gun shop. The store’s sign was a simple “Tanzili’s” on a dark wood background with a picture of a pistol after the S. Jason tugged at a door, only to find that it was open. The lock was broken. Ironically enough, it was shot off.
“Well, shit”, Jason said as he slowly and effortlessly opened the door.
Dave ventured inside, bat at the ready, but it didn’t matter. The store was all but empty, save for a few old and worn looking weapons. There were bullets scattered all over the floor and glass reflected softly in the light.
“Let’s take what we can and get out of here. We need to get to the army site before they leave without us”, Dave said.
Jason grabbed a 9mm pistol from the floor. “You’re right”, he said as he released the clip and checked for bullets.
“Do you know how to use these things?”, Dave said in a surprised voice. To his knowledge, neither of them had ever played with guns before.
“Well, no, but I’ve played a lot of video games”, Jason replied.
“Oh”, Dave said.
Dave looked at the walls and noticed that almost all of the gun accessories still remained. There were many holsters of different colors and textures. There were even slings left on the walls.
“Jay, look. I think we can totally make use of these”, Dave said excitedly.
“Something is kind of off, man” Jason said. “Why is there such a mess around the guns, but all the tools and accessories are fine? If the people here had ample time to get ready, you know, in a zombie-free place, wouldn’t they have taken a few things and left the store the way it was?”
It was then that both friends looked outside of the store and noticed cracks in the windows that they thought were in great shape. There were traces of blood on the floor, but not enough to be a dead body. There were also torn pieces of clothing scattered around the mall.
“Shit. Sometimes you need to be more afraid of the living than the dead in these kinds of situations”, Dave said.
“Well, I got a C in Philosophy, so I say we just take the guns and get to the army site”, Jason said back.
Dave found a few handguns left in the glass case under the counter. They were under a pile of glass which would explain why no one grabbed them in their haste. He brushed the glass aside and laid 4 of them out on the counter.
“These are all nice and simple 9mm handguns, Jay.”
“Good find!”, Jason said excitedly.
Taking two holsters each, both friends helped each other put on the gear and stored the guns they found into them. They each took a few seconds to admire how each other looked.
“We’re badass, dude”, Dave said.
“You know what would make this MORE badass?” Jason said.
“What? Bigger guns? A flame thrower? Oh! A bazooka!”, Dave said, practically jumping up and down.
“No”, Jason said as he pulled out a gun from his holster. “Bullets. See if you can find any.”