Pandemic *CANCELLED*

Mother?

The next day, William and I decided to head out, and move out of the post office. We weren't so far from the Arndale Shopping Centre, so we decided to head on out in that direction. We gathered a few bits and bobs, like two or three more tins of food, the stove thing (obviously), and some confectionary for that extra boost when we need it. 

"Here, you're going to need this, but use the bullets sparingly. We never know when we'll next get some, so this is for absolute emergencies." William tossed over a handgun, and picked up a slightly bigger pistol for himself. 

"You'll need these too, for close contact, and here's a spare one just in case you lose the first." He passed over two double-bladed knives and an old kunai. I placed the kunai in my boot and attached two knives' pouches in the belt-loops on my jeans and slid the knives in.

I was ready. William was ready. We were going to kick ass. We both simultaneously slung our bags over our backs and left the sullen post office. It wasn't long until we saw the first of the infected, heading straight towards us, stumbling and grabbing at the air infront of it. It was only a couple of feet infront of us, and approaching fast. I reached for my knife, but William stopped me.

"Notice how it's alone? Be. Careful. There will be more, they hunt like a pack, sending the decoys in first, so the rest can go in for the kill when their target has dropped their guard." He warned in a low quiet voice.

I didn't understand how he knew all of this straight away, but I didn't want to pry, so I left it. It was none of my business, and it was best to leave other people's secrets to themselves, until they felt ready they could share.

William gestured for me to follow. We stayed low, and he took us through a padlocked gate, which he somehow had the key to, but whatever. We crouched through the alley that lead to a car park. We slalomed through the cars, this way and that, until we finally came to a halt in front of a large black range rover. William reached for his belt loop, unhooked the keys, which jingled slightly, and opened unlocked the car. The headlights flashed twice before we got in.

The key was placed in the ignition, and the car started up with a gentle hum. We were off! I didn't really know where we were going, but this was the safest I could be at the moment. We drove out of Queens street, and up toward Deansgate A56.

Not even 10 minutes in to the journey, the infected were piling up. Manchester went to shit in one day. You'd think they'd be better prepared but clearly not. I guess the human race got too used to being the top predator around, a little like the dodo. Have you ever heard that saying... "as dumb as a dodo"? Well they'll start saying 'as hopeless as the human race'. We have enslaved our own race, gone to war with our own race, built nuclear weapons, we have firearms at our disposition but we lost against one virus. A virus we could've prevented, or supressed. Now, the world is in shambles because the government were too up themselves to do anything about it. It's easier to let everyone die out, at least they wouldn't have to run an expensive society.

Anyway, the dead were piling up. Their almost breathless groans and growls were getting progressively louder as we approached the more dense areas. They turned their blank expressionless faces towards the sound of the car. I started to tense up a little. I didn't understand how William could just drive so casually through here. My palms started to clam up a little and I began to make nervous hand gestures as we rolled almost silently through the hoarde.

"Stop shaking, you're making me nervous." William said. I stopped my shaking and looked straight ahead to our goal.

After wat seemed like forever and a half, we finally made it without casualty. There were a couple of bloody hand prints on the windows but other than that, we were fine. William took the car round the back, into a fairly tight alley, where I just had enough space to get clamber out of the side. We squeezed past against the wall to get out into the open and we took the back entrance into the shopping centre. 

"It's going to be packed, so follow me. We'll try and take the back corridors, to avoid the worst, but stay on your toes." He explained. I nodded and we silently clicked the back door of Marks and Spencer's open. It took us straight to the clothes storage space. We shuffled along the grey, unchanging corridor, keeping well away from the corners and half-walls where an infected may lurk. So far so good. When we got all the way to the end, we turned and skipped up a flight of stairs to the top floors. 

We turned to face the entrance door. William listened in for any signs of huge hordes. We waited a little longer when we heard some scratchy growls coming from a corner. Infected. William gestured with his hand in that direction. I glided over, and found an infected leaning against the wall, unable to stand as it's legs have been ripped off. It grabbed at me as it turned its head to look. I unhooked the knife and drove it straight into its head. It cracked through the skull fairly cleanly, giving me a strange satisfaction to it... Is that weird? Anyway, William came over.

"I don't think there are a couple of infected behind the door. Maybe if we rub zombie guts on our clothes and throught our hair, they won't smell us?" He proposed.

"It's worth a shot I guess." I replied. He'd already started slicing open the stomach of the infected, pulling out the stomach, and rubbing the contents onto his shirt and trousers, before eventually running his hand through his hair. I stared at him, then he gestured at the corpse. I hesitated at first before diving my hand into the body, pulling out the large intestine and applying it carefully onto my clothes and running my fingers through my hair. When William was satisfied, we slowly opened the fire-doors into the main building, and walked slowly through a medium sized horde. There weren't too many, but enough to rip us to shreds. It seemed that William's theory was right. They didn't really notice us at all because we smelt like them. We were careful to not get close enough so they'd realise that we're not them, so we edged around, and eventually made it to the front doors of the shop. I pushed the door a crack, checked outside before opening the door and letting William through. The shopping centre's "indoor boulevard", as William described it, was fairly clear. If we did get spotted, then we'd be able to take them down no problem, as long as they didn't attract the attention of the other infected.

"We'll make our way to Waitrose at the end, grab a few supplies, then we're out of here." William whispered. I nodded and we slowly made our way to the end of the floor.

Turning the corner, I saw something... or rather, someone. I stopped. The infected had thinned out considerably by this point. Waitrose was right up ahead, when I saw her. I took a couple of steps forward.

"Mother?" I said, a little louder than I would've liked. She turned, slowly, arms stretched out, coming in for me. I reached forward, before I heard the sound of the gun going off behind me, awakening me to my surroundings. I looked down at the grey lifeless corpse on the floor. Mum. She'd turned, just like the others. I remember the last thing I'd said to her. 'I hope you fucking die' I said, and now here she was. I got what I wanted... didn't I?