Artemis of the Apocalypse

Round 1~ Setting up Base

"You know, if the swarm appeared right now, we'd be screwed." Tony said, in a calm sarcastic voice.

"shutup tony! They might hear you!" Chloe yepled back giggling. Of course It wouldn't matter how loud we were at the moment, because we knew there had to be something menacing in the area.

"They can smell your blood" I told Chloe, and huffed as we continued through the empty parkinglot.

We entered through Macy's at the bottom floor, and to our suprise, about 7 people were already there.

Karla, Nanjo, Katie, Meghan, Allison, Jenna, and our old english teacher, Mr. L. I smiled as we entered, panicked expressions turned into faces that were glad to see us, unharmed.

"I see you came prepared" Mr. L commented snarkily.

He didn't have to be here, but chose to. While all of our parents and families were safe in the compounds far from danger, us children were sent home from school, too late for the rescue helicopters. 

"Yeah, well, we didn't plan on risking the trip here without some toys" Tony said smartly, in a joking tone with widened eyes.

"And we thought you guys would appreciate some help" added chloe, examining the pile of backpacks and weapons. Whips, baseball bats, axes, daggers, pistols, a couple of shotguns, and a chainsaw were layed out in a messy circle in the center of a clearing. 

Allison stared at us with a concerned look, "Did you, umm, run into anything on your way here?" she asked.

"Nah," chloe replied. " Although it smelled like something died along some of the roads" I added. 

Karla and Meghan exchanged a worried glance. " They were nearby, I wonder why they didnt attack?" Meghan said while tapping her chin.

"No matter, I'll watch for more people to come," Mr. L said, "some of you go to the basement and bring more weapons up, this store is loaded."

Jenna, Allison and I volunteered for the job. We took the elevator one floor down, and gazed at what layed before us.

The entire room was filled to the brim with weapons. "Whoever was in charge of this place was well prepared." Jenna laughed. "Yeah, I wonder why they left, when they were so well off in here" Allie added. But we all knew why no one stayed.

Whoever put these weapons here wouldn't have gone. Not unless they knew they were going to lose. I blocked that thought out of my mind, theres no turning back.

We hung as many bags and weapons as we could on our arms: assult rifles, shotguns, and LOTS of ammunition. After stuffing the elevator to the brim, we climbed in and went back up to our little "troop."

BOOM. BOOM. BANG. 

That is what we heard outside the elevator door as it came to a stop on the ground floor. "Shit." I muttered, loading a 12 gauge shotgun. "Do you think the others survived?" Allison asked, frantically starting up a chainsaw. 

As soon as the door started opening, Jenna was hit in the face with a wadded up ball of belts.

"WHAT THE-" she stuttered, rubbing her face.

"RRAAWRRR" The others growled jokingly. Obviously amused at our fail attempt of defense. 

"Not the smartest prank to be pulling, guys" Allison remarked, shutting off the chainsaw.

"Yeah, we were ready to slay you back to death!" I laughed, unloading the shotgun.

"We decided, since nothings happened yet, we had to keep entertained" Karla said with a smile. They knew we would think the worst. But with good reason, this is no place to be playing practical jokes.

"Cover your eyes J.R." Mr. L shouted from across the room. Kenny, Sarah, Daniel, and Lorena have arrived. Carrying baseball bats, golf clubs, and tennis rackets.

"Wow. tennis rackets?" Katie chuckled. "That's a sorry weapon to bring when fighting zo-" She added, but knew it wouldn't be good to remind us all what was going on beyond the walls of this building.

" Kenny's idea!" Sarah announced, pointing at him. Daniel took the tennis rackets and smacked them both on the head. "Hey look! they work!" he mumbled, as Sarah and Kenny rubbed their heads and threw the rackets aside, making Lorena jump.

"AYEEE!" she screeched. We all laughed. Theres someone we need to train. 

"Don't worry Lorena, if we get attacked, Daniel can just whack them with tennis rackets!" I joked, climbing onto a shelf.

More people walked in, and Mr. L locked the door behind them. The rest of the troops were here. A head count of 25. 22 students, 3 unlucky teachers. One family, back together. I couldn't possibly be any happier.

Ahh, just like the good old days. Finally back together, laughing when things were going wrong left and right. I almost forgot the reason we were all here.

By the time the sun rose, we had completely set up our base camp. We filled shopping carts with weapons, ammunition, bags, belts, and all the supplies we carried with us, and brought them to the food court in the mall. We chose the food court because it was stocked with months and months worth of food, and running water. 

We pushed all of the tables aside, and cleared the area of chairs, trashcans, and benches. All of which were placed strategically around the rim of the foodcourt, where the open halls connected to the large space. Several we kept to place weapons and supplies on in an organized manner.

When we were all finished readying our base camp, we pulled out all the blankets and pillows of nearby stores, and layed them across the floor. We watched the sun rise, and one by one, we KO'ed.

It was a busy night.