No More Anything

Chapter Four: The Mall

Breathing heavily, Lucille held the bloody axe to her side, mouth agape at the horrors before her. She couldn't comprehend what she'd just had to do. Never in a million years did she think that she'd purposely kill anything. Hell, she breaks down in tears every time she hits a bird while she's driving. But she knows that what she just did took tremendous strength. She was trying not to see it as "murder," but more along the lines of "self defense." If she hadn't ... put them down ... they'd have come at her, driven only by what seemed to be an animalistic instinct. Darryl had bitten her dad, and he died; but then he came back and bit her mom, who, in turn, tried to bite Lucille. Finally coming to her senses, she realized the weight of the situation. She had killed her parents and her neighbor, and she wasn't mentally prepared to handle this.

Everything had happened so suddenly for her. Only twenty minutes ago, she had been standing in the living room watching TV with her parents, the only family she had. Now, she had ... no one. She was all alone, and the worst part was, it was all her fault. If she had stopped to try to think of a solution instead of just putting them out of their misery, maybe, just maybe, they'd still be alive. Her dad would still be here to make pancakes and cheesy eggs every Sunday morning. Her mom would still be here to listen to her problems and talk about life. But now, life was her problem, and she was just forced to put an end to the to people she trusted most. 

Feeling sick to her stomach, Lucille forced herself to look away from the splattered remains of her parents. Looking away wasn't enough, however. Being in her house was too much for her. She needed to leave as soon as possible, but where would she go? Who would take her in, especially after hearing what she'd done? They'd never trust her. Nobody would trust her. She had become a monster. Not the kind she'd liked reading about in books. Werewolves, vampires, that sort of thing. No, she'd become a murderer. Whatever her parents had turned into definitely weren't human anymore. After they ... turned ... they weren't her parents anymore. Instead, they were just pawns, being forced to play whatever sick, twisted game this Red Virus wanted them to play, leaving all sense of humanity behind them.

Clutching her dad's axe, she stepped out the front door and glanced around nervously. She didn't see anyone, so she walked farther out, no idea as to where she was trying to go. All she knew is that she just had to leave. She had to get out of this neighborhood, out of this town. She'd always wanted to leave Woodbend behind, but she hated that this is how it had to happen. Randomly choosing a direction, desperate to leave, she turned left and walked down the sidewalk. There were no cars and no people, something that was a very strange occurrence for Woodbend. It may have been a small town, but there were a good number of people, all of which liked to get out and do things. But now, there was nobody. There were cars in the street with their doors open, trash littered randomly everywhere, dancing in the wind. There was a eerie stillness to everything, even with the wind lightly blowing. 

Lucille had been walking for what felt like forever when she saw something large and brown stuck to a telephone pole. As she walked closer, she could that it was a piece of cardboard, and she could read what it said. "SAFEHOUSE. TRANQUILITY MALL, NORTH LASTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. OPEN TO ALL." Being the town directly north of Woodbend and being a bigger, more popular town, North Laston had been the destination for many shopping trips for the Jensen family. The Tranquility mall was always a favorite of Lucille's, as they had all the stores she wanted to go to. Video game, book, and music stores, just to name a few. It wasn't but a ten minute drive from her house, so the walk there shouldn't be that bad. Seeing a green street sign that had "North Laston" printed on it and an arrow pointing the way, Lucille set off, feeling quite nervous about the adventure ahead.

***

The sun was threatening to go down as Lucille was cursing herself for walking so far without taking a break. Her feet and calves felt like they were on fire. A few hours had passed since she left her home in Woodbend, and she had made it to North Laston. The mall, however, was still halfway across town. She knew the exact way to get there from where she was, but with the amount of pain she was in, she definitely needed to find a place to take a rest. Along the way, she had killed a few more of the infected people. Purely out of self defense, of course. She only killed when absolutely necessary. But after getting into North Laston, she didn't have any encounters. She had seen more infected in Woodbend, despite it being less populated.