The Green Flu

Chapter 21 - Alexis

We took everything that we needed from the cars and then we started off towards the mall. The terrible shrieking had continued and we all moved a little faster every time it rang out. Blake didn't seem too happy about leaving his car out on the road like that, but he didn't put up too much of a fuss. He knew there was no way around it.

The mall doors were blocked by a bunch of wooden boards nailed to the wall and we took a couple of minutes using Blake's crowbar to take them off. Once we were inside, we could hear the scream again, but it seemed far away. We hoped it was far away. There was no way we could take another horde of those things again, we just didn't have the ammo. We really need to find some ammunition.

"Okay, we need to go straight through here." Devon told us, his voice loud against the silence. Man, there really was nobody here. "The mall was in the middle of doing renovations when everything...went bad. I'm assuming everyone working on it must've left, but be careful. There could be more infected hiding in here somewhere." We all nodded.

I could admire how well Devon took the role of leader. When it was just me and Micheal, he looked to me for answers. Maybe it was because I had the gun or because I wasn't bit. I don't know, but I'm glad someone else can take over. Playing the leader really was too stressful for me, but Devon seems to be taking it okay.

"Hey, Alexis?" Blake asked off to my left. We all spread out following Devon in case we run across anything dangerous or anything useful. So far, all the stores have been closed up.

"Yeah?" I called to him, moving on from a convenience store. That could've been useful if it wasn't locked up tight.

"Why did you have a gun before this all went down? Micheal told me you had one when you met him." Blake asked, walking up behind me.

"Well, my dad was pretty overprotective of me and insisted that I bring one with me when I moved out." I answered him. We kept moving and we still hadn't run into any infected yet, so I took that as a good sign.

"But Micheal told me they don't allow guns in that apartment building you guys lived in?" Blake was walking next to me now. Devon was in the front and Edward Swindle wasn't far behind him. Then it's us, with Micheal following closely behind.

"Like I said," I repeated. "Dad was insistent. He wanted to make sure I was safe." Blake nodded like he understood. Maybe he had an overprotective father too.

"Shh!" Devon shushed is and raised his gun and listened for a moment. We could all hear footfalls in the distance. The problem was that we had no idea where it was coming from. The mall was so quiet that any sound was amplified and there were too many open stores to guess at where it might be.

We all moved closer to Devon and looked around. We could hear more footsteps now, too many to only belong to one person. And they were random and unstable. Too unstable to be a person. It had to be an Infected.

"We should just keep moving." Devon said quietly. "We don't need to find any more trouble. And if we do run into trouble, try not to use the guns. The gun shots will let every Infected in this whole mall know where we are." We all nodded and started following Devon again. Good thing he knows where to go in this mall.

I don't know what was more unnerving. The silence that deafened this mall or the sound of a bunch of monsters that we didn't know where they were. Poor Micheal wasn't looking too confident in himself. But as long as he can still swing that baseball bat, then he can keep himself safe.

We all followed Devon, hoping that we'd just get to the end of the mall already. I don't think I've ever wanted to find the exit of a mall in my entire life. I've had some painful shopping experiences with my mother and I've wanted to leave a mall pretty badly, but not quite like this. The threat of being killed by an Infected person really puts things into perspective. We turned the corner and saw the cause of those footsteps.

There were a few Infected, not too many to worry about but since we couldn't use our guns then that made killing these all the more tougher. The Infected hadn't spotted us yet, so at least we had the element of surprise on our side. We all turned to Micheal and Blake and they looked nervous and not close to being ready. So Devon walked over to Micheal and took the baseball bat out of his hands. Micheal didn't seem to mind.

Then he motioned at me to take Blake's crowbar. Blake handed it to me quite willingly. Maybe they knew that I could handle it better than they could. They can take care of themselves, don't get me wrong. But I know and everyone else knows that I could do it better. I blame my dad for making me take all those self defence classes and for teaching me how to shoot when I was 16. Either way, I got this. If Blake wants to take a back seat, then I'll let him.

So Devon and I turned towards the three Infected people and raised our weapons. Then Devon whistled and got their attention. They all turned towards us and started running. Devon and I readied our weapons and ran towards them. In no time at all we had taken them out. I guess Devon and I make a pretty good team.