I get up. The sun is just starting to rise. How long did I sleep? Jake and Alex are awake. We walk up the escalators. Sarah is making oatmeal.
"Jade, do you want some?" She asks.
"No, I'm good," I reply.
She gives the kids some.
Today I want to explore the area around the mall. I'm trying to find somewhere better to stay. I feel...weird here. Everyone stares at me. I also want to find another place just in case the people here kick us out. After the kids eat, I tell them the plan. They agree to come along with me. Clarissa wants to stay here though. We go through the doors.
As I step outside, a grenade lands between my feet. I need to do something fast! I kick the grenade as far as I can before I turn around. I push Jake and Alex inside and try to shield them with my body. The grenade goes off. Glass rains down on us. My ears ring.
"Are you guys okay?" I ask.
"Yeah," Jake says.
We run up the escalators.
"What the hell was that?" Mia yells.
"A grenade," I say.
She grabs an assault rifle and sprints down to the first floor.
"Get up to the third floor and hide in the bookstore," I tell Jake and Alex.
They do what I tell them. Karla hands me a rifle.
I step down the escalator with my gun drawn. People dressed in black shirts with white skulls flood into the mall. They're the kidnappers. They shoot at me, missing. I shoot back, not missing a single shot. I take cover behind a shelf.
A young girl is lying on the ground bleeding. I have to help her. I sprint towards her. She's barely older than Alex. Her hair is matted in blood. Another grenade is tossed inside. It explodes. I help the girl up. Sarah comes over to us.
"I got her," she says.
She carries the girl up to the second floor. More of the kidnappers rush inside the mall. People are dying all around me. I need to get to the second floor, or I will die down here.
I'm scared. If I die who will be there for Jake, Alex, and Clarissa? I finally muster up the courage to run up the escalator. I climb the steps. Shots are fired at me. I reach the top, but I'm not safe yet.
The people fighting us climb up to the second floor. I get inside a shoe store. I duck behind the counter. My rifle is empty. My pistol is empty, too.
I hear someone walk inside. I pull out my knife. The person gets closer and closer. They start to turn to see behind the counter. I attack him with my knife. He grabs my wrists. I struggle to even turn the knife towards him. He knees me right in the stomach before pushing me into a shelf.
The shelf falls. I crawl away as fast as I can. He pulls a gun out. I roll onto my back.
"Don't move," he says.
He gets ready to shoot me. Someone shoots him in the ribs. He collapses. He gasps and pleads for help. Clarissa is standing with her gun drawn.
I get up.
"Where is Jake and Alex?" I ask.
"They're hiding in that bookstore you told them to hide in," she says.
"We need to find them and get out of here. The people here won't last much longer," I say.
We stay in cover as we make our way to the bookstore. Along the way we use the last of the bullets we have. I see the store. I walk inside the doors. The place is in disarray. Shelves are knocked over. Books are all over the floor.
"Jake! Alex!" I call out.
They run to me. We hug.
"We need to leave. Even if Mia's people fight off the others, zombies will or already have been drawn in by all the noise," I say.
I hear the doors open. I turn around to see a woman with a knife. She has a skull on her hoodie. The kids get behind me. I draw my knife.
"Back off!" I warn.
I'm ready to die protecting these kids. They are all I have left, and I'm not letting someone take them from me. The woman charges at me. She raises her knife. I block her hand that's holding the knife.
I stab her in the abdomen. She is completely unfazed by it. I look at her eyes. Her pupils dilate in a matter of seconds. She's a zombie. She grabs me by the neck and starts choking me.
Alex grabs a metal candle holder and hits the zombie over the head with it. The zombie's grasps loosens. It's stunned. I stab it through the eye. It reaches it's hands toward me. Stabbing them in the eye usually works, what happened this time?
I yank out the knife. I can't stab it's heart. I could never get the knife through the chest. How do I kill it? The zombie grabs my shirt.
"Do something!" I yell to the kids.
The zombie tries to bite my neck. I push it's head back. I can't believe I'm losing a fight to a dead person.
A gunshot goes off. The zombie slumps down to the floor. Alex shot it. It finally died.
"Are you bit?" she asks. I check my arms. No bite marks.
"I'm fine," I say.
I look outside. How are we going to get out of here? I look at the zombie. I take off the hoodie that it has on.
I put it on. Maybe with this these people won't shoot at me. People run past us as we move forward. We just need to get to the doors. I can see them. Zombies are running inside. The noise must've drawn them here.
"Your gun has bullets, right?" I ask Clarissa.
"Yeah," she says.
I ask her to give it to me. She hands it over. It has four bullets left.
YOU ARE READING
The Dead Walk Among Us
Science FictionIt's been ten years since the fall of humanity. I was only ten years old when the zombies took over. The military told us to flee underground, explaining that it was safer. The zombies are smart, too smart. They can learn to hide themselves. Some of...
