Contagious (ON HOLD)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Are you guys all right?" I shouted, sprinting in the direction that Crimson, Jade, and Hope took. Kate ran after me, her face a mix between terror, confusion, and worry. As my adrenaline kicked in, I sped up until I got to where the others were. All three of them were being cornered by two hungry looking zombies.

I looked around frantically for a weapon, when I saw a glass-breaking hammer next to a fire alarm. I grabbed it and ran over to the zombies. Okay, these seem to be zombies, so I should probably aim for the head... I gripped the handle hard, and  smashed down on the head of the first zombie. It fell to the ground, limply. The second zombie turned around, and lunged for me, but I leaped away at the last second. I turned around to see Kate running toward the zombie that was after me.

"Throw the hammer to me!" She shouted to me. I did as she told me to do, and threw the hammer to her. I kept running from the zombie and she trailed after it, wielding the hammer. She caught up to it, and hit it's head with the hammer hard, and the zombie fell to the ground.

"Thanks so much, if you hadn't saved us we would've been goners!" Crimson, Jade, and Hope beamed.

"Oh, it was no big deal, you would've done the same for us." I insisted.

"Yeah, but wasn't it scary to hit a zombie in the head with a hammer?" Crimson asked.

"Well.... It was, but-" I started to answer, when suddenly, the zombie that Kate had hit started to groan.

"What's happening?" Jade asked, trembling with fear. The zombie started to rise to it's feet, but before it could, Kate smashed the hammer down on it's head hard, and it fell to the ground again, with a thump.

"I forgot to double-tap." Kate acknowledged, though she shrugged nonchalantly, I could see the fear in her eyes. I walked over to her and gave her a reassuring hug, and the others followed my movement. We stood there like that for a while, just group-hugging. When we all pulled away, we peeled off back to our supply hunting.

Kate and I decided to go to the camping store called Open Season Camping Gear & Supplies. When we got there, we pawed through the endless shelves of camping equipment and supplies. After about 30 minutes of looking, we had 30 packets of just-add-water food, 6 portable ovens, 2 large tents, 5 sleeping bags, 6 hiking backpacks, 20 flash lights, and a lot of other necessities.

"Well... this is a lot to carry..." I said, pointing at the large pile of things.

"Yeah, it is..." Kate started, "Wait, I have an idea! What if we just lived here, in the mall? Then we'd have endless supplies at hand, and a lot of room, so we wouldn't be claustrophobic."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" I praised her. I walked over to a shelf, and picked up 5 walkie-talkies, and handed one to her. "We should each have a walkie-talkie, so we can keep in touch. Let's go find the others and tell them about your idea." I added, summoning her to the door.

"Okay, let's go." She said, following me.

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 We looked around the mall for the others, stopping in a few stores to get supplies, and leaving them at the fountain to collect later. We finally found them in a small organic food shop, pawing through the piles of carbon-based foods.

"Guys, we just had an awesome idea!" I announce, walking towards them.

"Cool, what is it?" Hope asked me.

"Instead of gathering all these supplies and having to carry them off to some far-off secret base, why don't we just live here? There's tons of supplies and it's easy to defend," I state.

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Jade reports, giving Kate and I a pat on the back.

“Okay, well let’s go to the camping store; Kat left the walkie-talkies there.” Kate says, leading the way through the long, wide halls of the mall. I walk up to the door and push it open, walking inside. I walk over to the huge mountain of supplies, and dig through to find the walkie-talkies. I emerge from the pile victoriously, handing a walkie-talkie to each of my friends, and keeping one for myself.

“Thanks, Kat!” Hope smiles, holding the walkie-talkie in her hands. I open my mouth to say ‘You’re welcome,’ when a loud banging noise happens, echoing through the mall.

“What was that?” I demand, my voice filled with shock.

“I don’t know if I wanna find out…” Crimson says, trembling with fear. A few more bangs echo through the mall, and we flinch at each one.

“What if it’s a survivor, wanting to get refuge from the zombies?” Jade says, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

“Hmmm… Maybe it is… We should check it out. But first, we need weapons, just in case it isn’t a survivor.” I say, leading them to the weapon section of the store. We arm ourselves with Pellet guns, BB guns, and hunting rifles.

“Okay, now we have to be super-duper quiet…” Kate whispers, silently opening the door and slipping into the wide hall. The rest of us follow her, being careful to not make a sound. I motion to them, gesturing that I need to tell them something, and we slip into the nearest store, a Hollister store.

Once the door closes and we’re all inside, I speak. “Okay, we can’t just walk there. We need a plan. How about we go to the second floor, where we can see the door from above, but anyone outside won’t be able to see us.”

“That’s a good idea, let’s try it!” Hope starts, “Let’s go back out there.”

We all slip quietly back into the hallway, and make our way over to the escalators that are now motionless. I lead the way as we climb up them like stairs, and move to the place I was talking about.

As soon as we get there, I look down at the front door. I sucked in a surprised breath.

“Oh my gosh, it’s-”

A/N: Okay, so this was a cliffhanger. You’ll find out what was outside next chapter, so stay tuned! If you liked this chapter, show it some love with a vote and a comment; If you didn’t like it, leave me a comment telling me why, I appreciate constructive criticism. ^-^ <3