Before You

Sleep was dreamless. I think I was thankful, despite all that had happened in the last seventy two hours. Too bad It was short lived. We all woke to Ian yelling something and it took me a second to make sense of what he was blathering on about. “The door was wide open! They are coming in by the hundreds, we have to get out of here.”

Aiden was already on his feet gathering Taylor in his arms. Ian and Ande were helping Bree up. Elexus had her guns pulled out and at the ready.

“How did they get in?” Elexus asked, her eyes skeptical.

“Through the exit door’s in the back,” Ian said, already halfway to the door.

I thought for a minute. That was the same exit Taylor had ran through when she came back inside screaming. She had left the door open. She let the horde in by mistake.

“What do we do? There is no way we’ll be able to make it out of here with Bree and Taylor,” Ande sounded panicked. She was right of course. Two injured people were not only slowing them down, but attracting the undead to them. They wouldn’t make it far.

“Lets put them out of their misery now, and get the hell out of here,” Elexus offered, pointing her guns at Bree.

Aiden handed Taylor over to Ande. “Take her, go, we’ll hold them off for as long as we can.”

We watched as the four of them left, Ande reluctantly. Aiden picked up his shotgun and reloaded. Elexus and I walked out to gauge our time. The undead could be heard before they were seen. In large numbers, their moaning and groans sounded like a constant chorus that was getting louder by the minute. I leaned over to peer down the large hall. The entire back of the building was filled with them and more were pouring in. Time really was of the essence.

Aiden followed us out as we started picking them off one by one. They would fall to the ground, a few still writhing. A few were on the ground, licking the floor where we bled the night before while running back to the mattress store. We left a trail, leading them right to us. After a minute of shooting and getting nowhere I said, “I have an idea.”

“Good because I’m out of ammo,” Aiden said, letting his shotgun rest on his shoulder.

“Elexus, B37?” I asked her. It was a sort of code we used. In this case, it was a type of homemade bomb creatively using nails. “Lets make it rain.”

Aiden looked at us confused, “what the hell does that mean?”

“It means you better get out of here,” Elexus said as she took off to the nearest store that would supply the materials needed for making the bombs.

“I’m going for more ammo,” Aiden said, and took off in the opposite direction.

I went towards the other part of the building where the rest of the bomb materials were located, but not before I yelled, “twenty minutes!” letting Aiden know the amount of time he had til this place blew. After collecting the few things I needed, I met Elexus at the top of the second level which took us around thirteen minutes. We dumped the contents onto the floor and started assembling. By the time were were done, two minutes had gone by and we managed to make at least four nail bombs. By then, the horde had already started up the stairs, blocking our path back down. I set the timers for four minutes and handed Elexus two. “I’m going to throw one near the back and leave the other up here. Leave one in the middle and drop one off at the front door. Have you see Aiden yet?”

“No. How will you get out?” Elexus asked sounding almost concerned.

“Doesn’t matter. Go, I’ll clear a path,” I started shooting through the first wave, making just enough space for her to maneuver around them and head out towards the front. By this time, the timer read three minutes and I was running out of time. Quickly I ran to the other side of the second story level, throwing one of the bombs as far back as I could. The last one I dropped right where I stood and set the watch I had for the exact time I had remaining. It just changed to two as I started shooting the undead that had finally made it to the top of the stairs. I took down a few before realizing that it was a meaningless endeavor. My watched beeped and I had fifty nine seconds til the bombs would go off. I was about to accept my fate, when I heard my name.

“Lane!” Elexus yelled, tossing the switchblade to me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do with this, so I quickly looked around. A banner that had been hung on one of the pillars was in reach and before really thinking it through I cut the rope holding it up and swung down. My weight caused it to rip and I landed short, barely missing the snapping teeth of the walking dead.

Five

I got up and ran, Elexus in toe.

Four

A few undead appeared around the corner, blocking our exit and we quickly shot them down, jumping over their dead bodies.

Three

We bust through the doors and keep running as hard as we could, running through the deserted parking lot as far away as possible.

Two

I grab Elexus by the arm and pull her down to the ground, picking up a large piece of metal that had once been a car door and shielded our bodies with it.

One

The explosion was powerful, the bombs went off almost simultaneously, sending a wave of sound and wind, flattening us to the ground even more. It sounded like hail on glass as the nails that were embedded in the bombs sprayed everywhere, piercing the ground beside us. Three went through my hand as I continued to hold up the only thing keeping us from getting impaled, and I let out a growl of pain.

When the sound of raining hardware subsided, I lowered the makeshift shield. The fire was bright, lighting up what was left of the night sky in oranges and reds. The undead were still walking, but they were on fire, slowly burning and turning to ash. A few tried to walk away but didn’t make it far before one of their appendages fell off, rendering them unable to move.

“Aiden didn’t make it out, did he?” I said, saying it more to myself than asking an actual question. Elexus just shook her head.

Although the walking corpses were on fire and slowly burning to death, they still shuffled around. They still tried to quench that insatiable need to feed, and kept to a steady path in our direction. My hand was bleeding, but Elexus took it anyway as I offered to help her up. She had a few cuts herself, but nothing to worry about.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, still holding her hand in mine.

We locked eyes, the fire still blazing, reflecting off her pupils. The only warm thing I've seen in her icy gaze. She parted her lips, like she was going to say something. Something deep. Something buried with in the soul.

“Do you hear that?” she asked. I did hear it. The sound of rustling in the wooded area that was at our backs and surrounded the parking lot of the Mall. It could have been one of the undead, drawn to the sound of the explosion. Could be many of them. I pulled my gun out, pointing it in the general direction of the sound. My finger tightened on the trigger, and it came into the clearing. A shot rang out. Aiden looked at me stunned, shocked and frozen in place. I had aimed it only a few inches away from his face, missing the target on purpose.

He took a deep breath, “The others are already at the hospital. Follow me.”