Firefly

Fifty-Six

YN

I woke up and looked around. It took me a few seconds before I remembered what had happened and where we were. When I did I sat straight and looked towards Joel, who was lying on the floor of an old frozen yogurt store. He was bundled in the sleeping bag that Ellie and I managed to get him into so we could drag him here. “How long was I out?” I asked. I was looking to make sure Joel was okay, pulling the sleeping bag tighter around him to make sure he stayed warm. When I didn't get and answer I turned my head to look over where I saw Ellie last. “Ellie?”

She wasn't there though. “Ellie!” I stood up and walked to the counter, leaning over it to look towards the back of the store. “Ellie!” Still no answer. “Fuck!” I slammed a hand on the counter and went back to Joel. “I'll be right back. I need to go find Ellie,” I whispered and kissed his forehead. The horses were in the store with us so I knew she hadn't gone outside. The lock for the roller door was on the floor where I was so she hasn't locked us in here either.

I grabbed the lock and headed for the door. “I'll be back as soon as I can and Ellie will be with me.” I pulled the door up enough I could duck under it and then closed it behind me. I slipped the key to the padlock in my pocket after locking the door. I didn't want to leave Joel there alone and vulnerable just in case those guys did find us. When I turned my back to the door, I took a deep breath and looked around. “Where are you Ellie?” I walked to The left of the store beside the frozen yogurt shop we were staying in. All the stores were locked up tight.

Being in a mall brought back a lot of memories pre-outbreak. Spending hours walking around with friends just to do something. Half the time we wouldn't even buy anything besides maybe an Auntie Anne's pretzel or maybe have lunch at the food court. The mall was always just the hangout spot and a great place to get away from the Texas heat.  Sometimes we would decide to see a movie if something was playing that we wanted to see.

Looking at this place it was very obvious that it was once used as a refugee center. The shops might have been bored up but the way curtain areas of the mall were blocked off said that people once took a stand here to try and survive. That told me Ellie was somewhere in this mall trying to find first aid supplies to help Joel. I wasn't feeling so great myself. I was feeling weak and fatigued from the blood loss. I had to take a breather after walking up the escalator because I was so drained of any kind of energy.

I turned left since that was the only way I could go and walked down to the end until I saw an American Doll shop. The door was ajar just enough for someone to duck under. I removed my flashlight and gun, cautiously walking over and kneeling down to look under the door. Speaks floated in the air in the beam of light. “Well, I'm not going in there.” I stood up and looked around. Right beside the doll shop was a pharmacy and right before you got to the gate for that shop, which was open enough for someone to crawl under, was a dead clicker.

I walked around the clicker, knelt down and looked under the gate. There were no spores in the air so I crawled under. The pharmacy was a mess, shelves were disheveled and bare of product. Behind the counter was an open door that led to the back so I went that way. An empty first aid box lay on the floor and to my right was a busted out window. “You're really going to make me look for you aren't you?”

Ellie

I went through the snow filled photo store which led into a nail salon. Slumped against a wall was a man and beside him was a first aid kit. It was clear the man had died a while ago so he wouldn't need the supplies. There was some gauze in the kit and that was it but it would work. There had to be one in the military helicopter on the other side, I just needed to get to it.

I shoved the gauze in my pocket and ducked through the hole in the wall. The stairs were blocked so I could go down then. So instead I jumped over the railing of them, landing on the snow covered floor below. I ran over to the gate that blocked off the stairs that led to where the helicopter was. “Thank you, military.” The only problem was that the gate had a button that needed to be pressed to open it. I need electricity for it to work though.

“Anyway to get this on?” I looked down to the floor and saw a thick orange cord. “Follow the cables. Right, Joel?” I looked I'm the direction the cables were going and headed that way. It led me to double doors that have the word maintenance above it. The doors led to the back of the mall where I assumed all the offices, loading docks, and storage was.

I walked down the corridor, flashlight on, and gun in my hand. I jumped over two large crates that blocked the hall. A cat jumped down from one of the crates and ran off, scaring me. “Oh God, fucking cat.” I continued down the hall, trying one door but it was jammed. 

The further I went down the worse it got. Half the hall was flooded. “Oh my God, that's freezing.” I walked through the freezing water until I came to doors that I could open. They led to the loading dock. The whole place was flooded but there was a generator on the platform. I went over and tried it but it wouldn't turn on. “Nothing?” I checked the Gas gauge. “outta juice.” Looking around I found a gas can. “Maybe I can get gas from one of those trucks.”

Yn

I jumped through the broken window and followed the footprints that were left behind in the snow. I had to go through a couple stores that had been snow filled due to the caved in roof. Then jumped over the railing of the stairs. The gate door was locked and couldn't be opened without power. When I looked down to the ground there was an orange cable. “Follow the cables,” I whispered.

I followed the cable into the back area of the mall eventually coming to a Parr that was flooded. “Fuck. This is going to be cold as hell.” I took a deep breath and walked through the water until I came to an open door. There on the platform beside a generator was Ellie. But there was also something else lurking in the dark. I slowly walked up behind her and covered her mouth before she could scream. “Shh. It's just me. We need to be quiet. There are stalkers in here.” She relaxed and nodded her head.