Ill

Once the noise died down, my arms gave out and fell to my sides. Zeke loosened his grip and glanced over at me now sitting in the corner. His brow furrowed slightly once he turned his gaze away from me.

“I'm gonna go check if it's clear now.”

“No, are you fucking serious?” I hissed. “That's how everyone dies in these situations, dammit! It's only been like, twenty minutes!”

“But-”

“Don't you fucking dare.” I shot him the nastiest glare I could muster until he finally nodded and joined me on the floor.

“Well, what the hell are we supposed to do now? Where are the police?” He leaned sideways to grab his phone out of his back pocket and heaved a heavy sigh before calling. I watched intently, dread seeping through me when he shook his head.

“Busy.”

“Do you think...it's happening everywhere?”

Zeke shrugged. “ I don't know, Rei, but it must be. I'll keep trying.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It's fucking freezing,” I hissed. We had been in the cooler for two hours now, as Zeke called, and called, and called. I grabbed one of the juice boxes and opened it, quickly brushing off the feeling of guilt. Things are shit. Being fired for stealing juice is the least of my worries right now. After a final attempt, Zeke tossed his phone on the floor, groaning in frustration and fear.

“What the hell, man. We can't just stay here forever. Someone has to get us; there has to be someone.” I nodded solemnly at him. It's one thing to know that we were alone in a bad situation. But it was worse sitting here waiting for anyone to show up and tell us what exactly is going on. I slid over to him and placed my arms around his torso, shaking.

“We'll figure something out.” Not a moment later, we jumped to our feet as the cooler door slowly slid open. Zeke stood in front of me, arm outstretched as if to keep me back. I remember that pissed me off. Candace stood wearily in front of us.

“Are you okay?” She whispered, stepping aside so that we could get out. Yeah, no thanks to you. I gave her a blank stare and walked past her, peeking through the windows of the swinging doors. Lindsey and Axel were standing by the cabinets, eyes cast down in shame. There's no time for that now.

“Look, we're really sorr-” Zeke shushed her. After three seconds of silence I heard the familiar buzz of my phone in my mailbox. I quickly answered the phone call, not bothering to check the number.

“Hello?” My hands were sweating so tremendously, I nearly dropped my phone when I heard her speak.

“Baby? Baby! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where are you?” She yelled hurriedly.

“MOM!” I gasped, bursting into tears. “Mom, what's happening? I'm here at work and I'm fine, I'm with my coworkers.” I heard her let out a cry of relief, before saying, “She's okay,” to someone. There was a brief rustling on the phone before another familiar voice spoke.

“Look, Rei, things are bad out there. Bad. There's some virus or something; we really have no clue, but people are eating each other. We managed to get your mom from the hospital, but it's too dangerous by you. Those things are everywhere, and cars are blocking off the highway. We'll try to get to you tonight, but I can't guarantee anything.” The line went quiet for a moment. “Cell service is spotty, we've been trying to call you for hours. If you can, try to find your way to my house.”

“Rowan...I,” I slid slowly to the floor. “Thank you. But I don't know how you expect me to do that. I can barely defend myself as it is. We have sandwich knives and ice buckets...not exactly the best weapons.”

“Yeah, but it's something. You need to get out of there, and fast. You're in the worst possible place for something like this to happen.” He sighed heavily. “Look, there must be a security office somewhere in that mall. Find it, get yourself a gun and a car and stay off the main roads. I love-” Call lost. I rubbed my hands over my face, tiredly.

I turned to glance up at Zeke who was staring at me from across the room. “Who has a car?”

“I do,” he nodded.

“Yeah, me too,” Lindsey added. “I picked up Axel today.” I stood up and paced around anxiously, fidgeting around with my phone.

“Okay...okay so that was my mom and Rowan. They said that whatever the hell this is, it's everywhere, and we need to get our shit and leave.” I paused for a moment. “Someone know their way around a gun?”